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[ "'03 Bonnie & Clyde", "Toni Braxton feud", "Who is Tony Braxton", "I don't know.", "What was the fraud with tony braxton about", "Toni Braxton and her team released a statement claiming that Jay-Z's song \"'03 Bonnie & Clyde\" had stolen Braxton's idea", "why did they think they stole the idea", "Braxton sampled Shakur's song on the track \"Me & My Boyfriend\", included on Braxton's album, More Than a Woman (2002)." ]	C_f1b8013d09bf479eb738835750c33c05_0	what else can you tell me about the fraud	4	what else can you tell me about Jay-Z's feud with toni braxton aside from toni braxton thought Jay-Z stole her idea for '03 Bonnie and Clyde?	'03 Bonnie & Clyde	On October 8, 2002, Toni Braxton and her team released a statement claiming that Jay-Z's song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" had stolen Braxton's idea to sample the 1996 Tupac Shakur song "Me and My Girlfriend". Braxton sampled Shakur's song on the track "Me & My Boyfriend", included on Braxton's album, More Than a Woman (2002). In a call to a New York radio station, Braxton stated that "Jay-Z and Beyonce are messing with my money. They're trying to steal my mojo". Braxton said her song was recorded over the summer of 2002, and alleged that Jay-Z only decided to do "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" after she played her version of the song for Def Jam Recordings. Kanye West responded to Braxton's claim in an interview for MTV News, "I had no idea about Toni Braxton's [song]. She can't act like ain't nobody ever heard 'Me and My Girlfriend' before. People hear the song all the time. I can [understand her complaint] if it [was] an original song." West defended the song's sample, stating that the idea came to him after listening to a friend's Makaveli album one night. Roc-A-Fella Records' Co-CEO responded to Braxton's claims: Jay is a talented dude. I don't think he would steal anything intentionally. It's an ill coincidence, and things happen for a reason. We'll see what happens behind it... I read it in the paper, and Jay and I were talking about it this morning and it was a little funny. I know he didn't intentionally make the same record she made. I don't think he even heard it. [My] reaction is, 'Sorry, it wasn't intentional.' Jay makes records and puts them out. This [sh--] is music. It's just music. We don't sit around and have a blueprint to [f---] anybody's life up. The music business has been good to us. I'm not getting into any beef or nothing over music. Speaking for MTV News, Jay-Z responded to Braxton's claims: "I wouldn't want to take it from her. I don't even think like that. My first thought would be, 'Maybe I could call her up, maybe I could get on that record.' The most obvious [explanation] is it's neither one of our records. It's not like you made an original idea. She's not in hip-hop, but it happens in hip-hop often. We go to sample the same thing and my record came out first. I'm sorry. What can I do?" He went on saying that if he had known they were both planning to sample the same Tupac song, he would have arranged a duet with her. CANNOTANSWER	). In a call to a New York radio station, Braxton stated that "Jay-Z and Beyonce are messing with my money.	"03 Bonnie & Clyde" is a song recorded by American rapper Jay-Z featuring his then-girlfriend, now wife, American singer Beyoncé Knowles. It was released on October 10, 2002. It was composed by Shawn Carter, Kanye West, Prince Nelson, Tupac Shakur, Darryl Harper, Ricky Rouse and Tyrone Wrice for Jay-Z's seventh studio album The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse (2002). The song was released as the album's lead single on October 10, 2002. A R&B song, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" sampled its beat from American rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 song "Me and My Girlfriend", paraphrasing its chorus, and was inspired by the crime film Bonnie and Clyde. The instrumentation is based on programmed drums, bass instruments, and a flamenco guitar. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was generally received with favorable reviews by music critics, who complimented the combination of Jay-Z's and Beyoncé's musical styles, their collaboration and the song's production. The single reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Jay-Z's second top ten single and Beyoncé's first as a solo artist. It charted at number two in the United Kingdom and peaked in the top twenty in other European territories. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). The accompanying music video was directed by Chris Robinson, and features Jay-Z and Beyoncé playing a modern-day version of the 1920s bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. It was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" spawned a feud with American recording artist Toni Braxton, who had also sampled "Me and My Girlfriend" in her 2002 song "Me & My Boyfriend". She accused West and Jay-Z of stealing the idea of using the song as a sample, which was later denied by both of them. "03 Bonnie & Clyde" was performed by Jay-Z and Beyoncé on several television shows and was later included on the set list of their concert performances and tours, most notably on their co-headlining On the Run and On the Run II tours. Production and release "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" marked the first collaboration between rapper Jay-Z and R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. While listening to Shakur's The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, producer Kanye West suggested that American rapper Tupac Shakur's song "Me and My Girlfriend" would make a good sample to use on Jay-Z's duet with Knowles. West told MTV News that Jay-Z had asked him on the telephone for a duet for him and Knowles: "We got this joint, it has to be the best beat you ever made." He continued: So I went home and called my dog, E Base, who plays a lot of instruments up at Baseline [studio] for me and [producer] Just Blaze. [E] came through. I programmed the drums in 10 minutes, and then he played all the different parts. This version is all live bass, live guitars, [live] chords on it. I brought it to Hov that night, he heard it, he thought of the video treatment before he thought of the rap. He just knew it was gonna be the one. Tensions arose during the conception of "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" over the sampling of "Me and My Girlfriend". Senior Vice President of A&R Tina Davis commented on the issue, "We only had one day to clear the [Tupac Shakur] sample [from 'Me and my Girlfriend'] that was used on '03 Bonnie and Clyde' last year with Jay-Z and Knowles [Beyoncé]. We were back and forth with Afeni Shakur all day until we got the clearance. And then it's a hit." "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was released on October 10, 2002, as the lead single from Jay-Z's album The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse. Knowles later included the song as a bonus track on international editions of her 2003 debut solo album Dangerously in Love. In 2003, Now That's What I Call Music! included "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" as the opening track of the 12th volume of the US release and the fifteenth track of the 54th volume of the UK release. The song's release was the first indication of Jay-Z's and Knowles' romantic status, spawning rumors about a burgeoning relationship. Their relationship was not made public until Jay-Z featured on Knowles' songs "Crazy In Love" (2003) and "Déjà Vu" (2006). The latter's release also marked the debut of the solo career of Knowles, leaving Destiny's Child on hiatus. Composition "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" features drums and live instrumentation such as bass instruments and guitar chords. It also consists of a beat sampled from "Me and My Girlfriend". The song was inspired by the 1967 American crime film Bonnie and Clyde as Jay-Z and Beyoncé proclaim themselves as the current version of the criminal duo. Ethan Brown of New York magazine noted that its patina of flamenco guitar was reminiscent of that in Jay-Z's 2001 collaboration with R. Kelly on "Fiesta." Beyoncé mimics the hook of "Me and My Girlfriend" on the chorus as she sings, "Down to ride to the very end, me and my boyfriend". Some lyrics sung by Beyoncé were sampled from "If I Was Your Girlfriend" by American recording artist Prince. On the second verse, Jay-Z references the relationship between Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, and the American television comedy-drama series Sex and the City as he raps: "She riiides wit' me / The new Bobby and Whitney / Only time we don't speak is during 'Sex and the City' / Put us together, how they gon' stop both of us? / When I'm off track, Mommy is keeping me focused". The verse then continues: "Let's lock this down like it's supposed to be/ The new '03 Bonnie and Clyde, Hov and B". Critical reception "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was received favorably by critics, who commended the use of different samples, and commented on the relationship between Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Chris Ryan of Spin magazine described "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" as a highlight on The Blueprint 2: The Gift & the Curse, stating that it consists of "a house party in a crib as big as the Georgia Dome." John Bush from AllMusic included the song as a highlight on the album, further describing it as "a slick R&B crossover with Beyoncé Knowles". Marc L. Hill of PopMatters viewed it as the "obligatory radio song" of the album. Awarding the song a rating of eight out of ten possible points, Dele Fadele of NME complimented it as "a cool duet" between Jay-Z and Beyoncé. John Robinson of the same publication wrote that as the couple describe their life, it's not all "Lexus and sipping Cris". He added, "A similarly relaxed production makes for a behind-the-diamante-net-curtains classic". Ethan Brown of New York magazine named "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" as a follow-up to the previous "Bonnie & Clyde Part II" by Jay-Z featuring rapper Foxy Brown. Erik Parker, music editor of Vibe magazine, was divided on the song's sample, writing that it was "tasteless but well-executed", and complimented West's production as "impeccable". Margena A. Christian of Jet magazine praised Jay-Z's and Beyoncé's collaboration, favoring the former's "dropping lyrics" and the latter's "cooing silky vocals". Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine wrote that though it was unclear at the time whether the couple were together or not, but they created good music together. Taylor praised the song's ability to showcase what each artist does best: Jay-Z "spitting" verses of praise, and Beyoncé's sweets coos and hooks. Taylor noted that the sampled acoustic guitar "added spice to the track, setting it up for future success". In a more negative review, Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club described the song as "terrible" and different from the other songs on The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse. Rap-Up credited "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" for giving Beyoncé a "little street-credit". The staff members of Vibe magazine placed the song at number two on a list of the best Bonnie and Clyde inspired songs. On a list of the 10 Best Jay-Z Songs, Dean Silfenv of AOL placed "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" at number six. Popjustice listed "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" at number 66 on its list of the best singles of 2003. It was nominated for the Best Collaboration at the 2003 BET Awards, but lost to Snoop Dogg's song "Beautiful". In a 2013 list of Jay-Z's 20 Biggest Billboard Hits, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was ranked at number 6. Elijah Watson and Erika Ramirez of Billboard magazine noted that the song proved the couple was "unstoppable from jump". Chart performance "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" reached the top ten on music charts in six European countries. It peaked at number six on the Norway Singles Chart and on the Danish Singles Chart, number eight on the Italian Singles Chart, and topped the Swiss Singles Charts. In Canada, the song peaked at number four and became Jay-Z's highest charting single until it was surpassed by his 2009 Alicia Keys-assisted song "Empire State of Mind", which peaked at number three. In the United Kingdom, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. At the time, it became his highest charting single in Britain since "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)" achieved the same feat in November 1998. It peaked at number four on the New Zealand Singles Chart, becoming his highest charting single in that territory. The song also became Jay-Z's highest charting single in Australia, where it peaked at number two. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), denoting shipment of 70,000 copies. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" broke into the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 at number four; it became the highest-charting single that references the famous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. The record was previously held by Georgie Fame's 1967 single "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde." Following the performance of "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" on Saturday Night Live (SNL) on November 2, 2002, its radio audience increased by 12%, allowing the song to advance into the top ten of the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, at number seven. This gave Jay-Z his 12th top 10 single, tying him with rapper P. Diddy, who had the same number of top 10 singles on that chart. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was his first top 10 since his 2001 single "Girls, Girls, Girls". It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting sales of 500,000 copies.The song sold over 1 million copies in US. Music video Chris Robinson directed the song's accompanying music video and filmed in Mexico, during October 2002. June Ambrose was hired as the personal stylist, and Johnathon Schaech and Lance Reddick appear in the video as the police officers on their tail. Jay-Z and Beyoncé play a modern-day version of the 1930s bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. The video is loosely based on the American 1993 romance crime film True Romance, which stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette as two lovers on the run from cocaine dealers. The choreography used in the clip suggests a relationship beyond screen, as Jay-Z wraps his arm around Beyoncé while singing his part of the chorus. The video also marked a departure for the "clean-cut Beyoncé" and created a symbiotic relationship between her and Jay-Z, allowing them to exchange audiences. The video was premiered on MTV on November 8, 2002. The music video begins as police officers and Reddick discuss the criminal duo and ways to catch them. As the song begins, Jay-Z is seen driving a gunmetal grey Aston Martin Vanquish while Beyoncé sits in the passenger seat. As they drive through the sepia sands of Mexico, clips of the police from the beginning of the video are cut into the scene. As Jay-Z and Beyoncé pull over to a hotel, they cover the car to avoid notice from the police. As Beyoncé and Jay-Z count money in the bedroom, the police discover their hiding place and go upstairs only to find that the two have fled the scene in their car. Scenes of Beyoncé and Jay-Z at a Mexican bar are inter-cut with scenes of an intimate time in a phone-booth; behind the phone booth, spray-painted onto a wall is a tribute to Tupac Shakur. The duo again elude the police who are following one step behind. After Beyoncé performs her verse in an empty pool, the police form a blockade on the highway in an attempt to catch her and Jay-Z, only to be stumped again as two gas station attendant decoys are found driving the car. The video ends as Beyoncé and Jay-Z light a bonfire on the beach and drive away in a different car. Corey Moss of MTV News noted that the end of the video does not reveal how the "real" Bonnie and Clyde met their end. The story continues in the 2004 video for Jay-Z's song "99 Problems". The music video for "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards. In the official top 20 countdown of Jay-Z music videos, MTV UK listed the clip at number 10. Controversy On October 8, 2002, Toni Braxton and her team released a statement claiming that Jay-Z's song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" had stolen Braxton's idea to sample the 1996 Tupac Shakur song "Me and My Girlfriend". Braxton sampled Shakur's song on the track "Me & My Boyfriend", included on Braxton's album, More Than a Woman (2002). In a call to a New York radio station, hosted by Wendy Williams, Braxton stated that "Jay-Z and Beyoncé are messing with my money. They're trying to steal my mojo". Braxton said her song was recorded over the summer of 2002, and alleged that Jay-Z only decided to do "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" after she played her version of the song for Def Jam Recordings. Kanye West responded to Braxton's claim in an interview for MTV News, "I had no idea about Toni Braxton's [song]. She can't act like ain't nobody ever heard 'Me and My Girlfriend' before. People hear the song all the time. I can [understand her complaint] if it [was] an original song." West defended the song's sample, stating that the idea came to him after listening to a friend's Makaveli album one night. Roc-A-Fella Records' Co-CEO Damon Dash responded to Braxton's claims: Speaking for MTV News, Jay-Z responded to Braxton's claims: "I wouldn't want to take it from her. I don't even think like that. My first thought would be, 'Maybe I could call her up, maybe I could get on that record.' The most obvious [explanation] is it's neither one of our records. It's not like you made an original idea. She's not in hip-hop, but it happens in hip-hop often. We go to sample the same thing and my record came out first. I'm sorry. What can I do?" He went on saying that if he had known they were both planning to sample the same Tupac song, he would have arranged a duet with her. Live performances On November 2, 2002, Jay-Z and Beyoncé performed the song together at Saturday Night Live (SNL). Later, on November 21, 2002 they appeared on MTV's TRL for Spankin' New Music Week where they also performed the song. In 2009, Beyoncé performed an abbreviated version of "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" during her I Am... Yours revue, held at the Encore Las Vegas Theatre in July and August. The song was later included on the 2009 live album I Am... Yours: An Intimate Performance at Wynn Las Vegas which was chronicling the revue. In August 2011, Beyoncé performed "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" again during her revue 4 Intimate Nights with Beyoncé and included the song on the DVD Live at Roseland: Elements of 4 released in November 2011. During the concerts, Beyoncé announced the song by saying, "It's 2002... I started to feel a little lonely till one day...". "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was included on Jay-Z's live album Live in Brooklyn released on October 11, 2012 after he performed the song during eight shows in Brooklyn. In 2013, Jay-Z included the song on the set list of his Legends of the Summer Stadium Tour. "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" was part of the set list of Beyoncé and Jay-Z's co-headlining On the Run Tour (2014) where the shows were opened with the performance of the song. A black-and-white video was shown on the screen accompanied by sirens as the duo appeared onstage surrounded by smoke. They started performing the song with Beyoncé wearing a see-through fishnet mask and Jay-Z wearing black sunglasses, a star-speckled shirt, black jacket and gold chains. The song was in line with the show's overall criminalistic theme. d /54 Formats and track listings Digital EP "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Radio Edit, Hey Arnold!: The Movie Version) – 3:27 "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Explicit) – 3:26 "U Don't Know" (Remix) (Jay-Z & M.O.P.) – 4:28 CD single "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Radio Edit) – 3:28 "U Don't Know" (Remix) – 4:27 "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" (Instrumental) – 3:27 Credits and personnel Adapted from The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse's liner notes. E-Base – bass, guitar, instrumentation, Keyboards Shawn Carter – vocals (rap), composer Jason Goldstein – mixing D. Harper – composer Gimel "Young Guru" Katon – engineer, mixing Beyoncé Knowles – vocals Prince Nelson – additional writing from sample R. Rouse – composer Tupac Shakur – additional writing from sample Kanye West – composer, producer Shane "Bermy" Woodley – engineer Tyrone Wrice – composer Charts and certifications Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications See also "'97 Bonnie & Clyde," 1998 song by Eminem References 2002 singles Beyoncé songs Songs about Bonnie and Clyde Jay-Z songs Kanye West songs Music videos directed by Chris Robinson (director) Number-one singles in Switzerland Roc-A-Fella Records singles Song recordings produced by Kanye West Songs written by Jay-Z Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by Prince (musician)	false	[ "\"Tell Me What You Want\" is the fourth single by English R&B band Loose Ends from their first studio album, A Little Spice, and was released in February 1984 by Virgin Records. The single reached number 74 in the UK Singles Chart.\n\nTrack listing\n7” Single: VS658\n \"Tell Me What You Want) 3.35\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Dub Mix)\" 3.34\n\n12” Single: VS658-12\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Extended Version)\" 6.11\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Extended Dub Mix)\" 5.41\n\nU.S. only release - 12” Single: MCA23596 (released 1985)\n \"Tell Me What You Want (U.S. Extended Remix)\" 6.08 \n \"Tell Me What You Want (U.S. Dub Version)\" 5.18\n\n The U.S. Extended Remix version was released on CD on the U.S. Version of the 'A Little Spice' album (MCAD27141).\n\nThe Extended Version also featured on Side D of the limited gatefold sleeve version of 'Magic Touch'\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Tell Me What You Want at Discogs.\n\n1984 singles\nLoose Ends (band) songs\nSong recordings produced by Nick Martinelli\nSongs written by Carl McIntosh (musician)\nSongs written by Steve Nichol\n1984 songs\nVirgin Records singles", "Forever Young is Kaysha's album released 2009.\n\nTrack list\n\n Anti Bad Music Police\n Be With You\n Digital Sexyness\n Duro\n Fanta & Avocado\n Forever Young Intro\n Funky Makaku\n Glorious Beautiful\n Heaven\n Hey Girl\n I Give You the Music\n I Still Love You\n Joachim\n Kota Na Piste\n Les Belles Histoires D'amour\n Love You Need You\n Loving and Kissing\n Make More Dollars\n Nobody Else\n On Veut Juste Danser\n Once Again\n Outro\n Paradisio / Inferno\n Pour Toujours\n Pure\n Si Tu T'en Vas\n Simple Pleasures\n Tell Me What We Waiting For\n That African Shit\n The Sweetest Thing\n The Way You Move\n Toi Et Moi\n U My Bb\n Yes You Can\n You + Me\n You're My Baby Girl\n\n2009 albums" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991" ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	Where did the band form?	1	Where did The Smashing Pumpkins form?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	Chicago,	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	true	[ "The Israeli Navy Band () was an ensemble of the Israeli Navy, and was one of many in the Israel Defense Force (IDF).\n\nHistory\n\nEarly years\nThe navy band first appeared in October 1948. The band consisted of 13 active duty soldiers. Since their commanders did not oversee their activities, expenses began to pile up and the band was disbanded. In the early 1960s, a officers from the Education and Youth Corps asked a group of reservists to form the Lehakat Kheil Hayam (Naval Corps Entertainment Group). Its early members included Dan Almagor, Rivka Zohar, and Meir Noy. Upon its creation, it immediately began rehearsing for the program Ve BaYom HaShlishi (\"And On The Third Day\"). In 1967, the Navy Band performed the song \"Mah Avarekh\" written by Rachel Shapira in memory of a young man from her Kibbutz fallen in the Six-Day-War. The band performed at internal naval events, especially during the Sea Corps celebrations, and in the mid-1960s active duty soldiers were also incorporated as a part-time life crew. When the decision was made in the Navy to form a representative band, the Six Day War broke out and only afterwards were the resources were allocated to form the band.\n\n1970s\nIn the 1970s, the band continued its momentum of success even after the band's release of previous programs. The band even won the Israel Band of the Year award in 1970 and 1972 as part of the annual Hebrew chanting parade and hits such as Haska, ' Only the Sea Is Silent and On the Road captured the radio.\n\nLike many bands, the Yom Kippur War marked the end of the glamor period. The band's plans were not as successful as its predecessors, and towards the end of 1975 the band was disbanded. Prominent alumni of the band during this period were Haya Arad, Oded Ben-Hur, Yael Levy, Albert Piamente and Uzi Asner.\n\n1980s and present\n\nDespite the establishment of the military bands in the 1980s in most of the commands and arms, the Navy did not re-establish a band. The Variety Ensemble of the Israeli Navy currently serves as the Premier musical unit of the navy. Netta Barzilai, who is an Israeli singer, recording artist, and looping artist, as well as a winner of the fifth season of HaKokhav HaBa'', was a member of the band.\n\nNotable members\nAmong the prominent alumni of the band:\n\nRivka Zohar\nShlomo Artzi\nNetta Barzilai\nRiki Gal\nDov Glickman\n\nReferences\n\nIsraeli Navy\nIsraeli military bands\n1948 establishments in Israel\n1975 disestablishments in Israel\nMilitary units and formations established in 1948", "Where Did You Get That Girl? is a 1941 comedy film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring Leon Errol. The title comes from the popular song of the same name, which dates to 1913 and was written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Puck. The song figures prominently in the film.\n\nThe plot of the film is about the misadventures of a swing band trying to break into the big time. Helen Parrish plays the band's vocalist.\n\nPlot\nPoverty stricken musicians borrow instruments from a pawn shop one night and form a band.\n\nCast\n Leon Errol as MacDevin\n Helen Parrish as Helen Borden\n Charles Lang as Jeff\n Eddie Quillan as Joe\n Franklin Pangborn as Digby \nStanley Fields as Crandall\nTom Dugan as Murphy\nJoe Brown Jr. as Davey\nLeonard Sues as Franky\nKenneth Lundy as Shrimp\nJoe Cobb as Tubby\n\nProduction\nThe film was based on an original story by Jay Dratler. In August 1940 Universal reported that Stanley Rubin and Hal Brock were writing the script. By October Helen Parrish and Charles Lang were set as lead actors. Filming started 30 October.\n\nReception\nThe Los Angeles Times called it \"a diverting little musical seemingly just missing the hilarious note evidently aimed at.\"\n\nDiabolique magazine called it \"a joyous, breezy, silly musical made with predominantly young talent; you can feel Lubin being in complete charge of the material and having a ball.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWhere Did You Get That Girl? at IMDb\nWhere Did You Get That Girl? at TCMDB\n\n1941 films\nAmerican films\nAmerican comedy films\n1941 comedy films\nFilms directed by Arthur Lubin\nAmerican black-and-white films" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991", "Where did the band form?", "Chicago," ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	Did they play at any Chicago clubs?	2	Did The Smashing Pumpkins play at any Chicago clubs?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	Polish bar Chicago 21.	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	true	[ "The Chicago Power were an indoor soccer club based in Chicago, Illinois that competed in the American Indoor Soccer Association and National Professional Soccer League.\n\nAfter the 1995–96 season, the team was sold to Peter Pocklington, moved and became the Edmonton Drillers.\n\nYear-by-year\n\nOutdoor play\nAlthough the Power was primarily known only as an indoor team, in the summer of 1992 they formed a full outdoor squad. Home matches were played at St. Charles High School's Norris Stadium and at Hanson Stadium on the Northwest Side. In addition to several exhibition matches they participated in the 1992 Professional Cup alongside five APSL and two CSL clubs. Chicago also took part in another international series dubbed Copa Chicago '92 which included Liga MX's Tecos F.C. and Tigres UANL and the APSL's Miami Freedom. They finished last in both competitions. In eight outdoor matches that year the Power won only once, lost five times, while drawing twice. In 1993 several other APSL clubs joined them in summer outdoor play.\n\n1992 Outdoor results\n\nNotable players\n Randy Soderman\n Rick Soderman\n Patricio Margetic\n\nMedia coverage\nThe Chicago Power appeared locally, on SportsChannel Chicago. Howard Balson and Kenny Stern were the primary broadcast team in Chicago.\n\nReferences\n\n \nP\nDefunct indoor soccer clubs in the United States\nAmerican Indoor Soccer Association teams\nNational Professional Soccer League (1984–2001) teams\n1988 establishments in Illinois\n1996 disestablishments in Illinois\nSoccer clubs in Illinois\nAssociation football clubs established in 1988\nAssociation football clubs disestablished in 1996", "Amasya Eğitim Spor is a women's association football club based in Amasya, Turkey. After finishing the 2015–16 season in the Turkish Women's Second Football League as the runners-up, they were promoted to play in the Women's First League. The team did not show up at any league match of the 2016–17 season, and so were relegated to the Second League.\n\nStadium\nAmasya Eğitim Spor play their home matches at 12 Haziran Stadium (literally: June 12 Stadium) located in the center of Amasya as the city's only stadium. In 1967 built and fully restored between 2012 and 2014, the venue features a natural grass surface and has a seating capacity of 12,000.\n\nStatistics\n.\n\nReferences\n\nAssociation football clubs established in 2011\n2011 establishments in Turkey\nWomen's football clubs in Turkey\nSport in Amasya" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991", "Where did the band form?", "Chicago,", "Did they play at any Chicago clubs?", "Polish bar Chicago 21." ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	Were they popular in Chicago?	3	Were The Smashing Pumpkins popular in Chicago?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	false	[ "The Building at 2440 N. Lakeview Avenue is a historic apartment building in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Built in 1926–27, the eighteen-story building was one of Chicago's many luxury apartment buildings constructed along Lake Michigan in the early twentieth century. The building used a semi-cooperative ownership model, in which the residents of the largest apartments had an ownership stake in the building while smaller units were rented; the cooperative model and its variations were popular with luxury apartments, as they gave residents control over how the building was run and who could live there. Architects Rissman & Hirschfeld designed the Tudor Revival building; while the Tudor Revival was one of many revival styles that became popular in the early twentieth century, it was relatively uncommon among Chicago's luxury apartments. The building's design features terra cotta arches around the entrances, ornamental terra cotta panels between the windows of the upper and lower floors, a balustrade atop the sixteenth floor, and a two-story penthouse with a broken parapet.\n\nThe building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 22, 2011.\n\nReferences\n\nResidential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago\nApartment buildings in Chicago\nTudor Revival architecture in Illinois\nResidential buildings completed in 1927", "The Fuhrman and Forster Company was a meatpacking and sausage manufacturing company located in Chicago.\n\nIt was founded by three German immigrants from Bavaria. John and Andrew Fuhrman started the Fuhrman Brothers meat market at 408 W. Harrison in Chicago in 1897 and invited brother-in-law George Forster to join them in 1898 creating Fuhrman Bros. and Forster Meat Markets. The name was soon changed to the Fuhrman and Forster Co. By 1902, they operated 5 meat markets in the Pilsen neighborhood area of Chicago. This neighborhood was largely populated by CzechoSlovakian and Bohemian immigrants who were very fond of Fuhrman and Forster products.\n\nTheir lard was very popular with women for baking. The company's horse-drawn delivery wagons were a common sight in the neighborhood as they delivered Fuhrman and Forster Co. products to many of the local butcher shops as well as their own stores. The horses were kept in stables behind one of the stores located at 1748 West 21st Place. By 1919, the wagons and horses were replaced by motor trucks which at one time numbered 75. The company was incorporated in 1920 and closed all retail outlets in 1923 to concentrate on pork packing and sausage manufacturing. By the 1940s the yellow and blue trucks were delivering product to customers on Chicago's west side and suburbs such as Berywn, Cicero and Riverside. Several different types of delivery trucks were used over the years with the most popular being manufactured by International and GMC. The company owned and operated their own fleet except for a few years in the late 1930s when the fleet was owned and operated by Hertz Corp. and leased back by the Fuhrman and Forster Co. The truck fleet was housed in a garage at 1647-1655 Blue Island Avenue, one block north of the main plant. There was a time when Fuhrman and Forster Company products were more popular on Chicago's south and west sides than ones from the Oscar Mayer Co. Like most companies, the Fuhrman and Forster Company fell on hard times during the Great Depression. It was particularly hard hit when the firm had to deal with the deaths of co-founders Andrew Fuhrman in 1930 and John Fuhrman in 1931. But sales were sufficient to keep the business going (everyone still had to eat) and with World War II came a temporary end to hard times. Gross sales approached $4.0 million a year. The company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1947 and was featured in an article in the November 1st issue of the National Provisioner Magazine that year. However, depressed meat prices in the early 1950s proved too much to handle and the Fuhrman and Forster Company was closed in May 1955. An auction was held in September of that year to sell off the remaining assets with the funds distributed to the shareholders. \"Select Brand\" was the name under which many Fuhrman and Forster Co. products were marketed. They also manufactured house brands, the most popular was \"Hilbran\" marketed by the now closed Hillman's Grocery Stores in Chicago. At the time the Fuhrman and Forster Company was closed, Arthur Forster was President and Lawrence Forster was Secretary. Both were sons of co-founder George Forster. Herbert Krueger, son-in-law of co-founder John Fuhrman, was Treasurer.\n\nThe main building at 1839-1855 Blue Island Ave. is gone now but the garage and a cold storage building at 1846 Loomis St. are still standing and in good condition. Part of the main building is still there at 1847 S. Blue Island.\n\nExternal reference\nFor more information and photographs see \n\nCzech-American culture in Chicago\nDefunct companies based in Chicago\nGerman-American culture in Chicago\nFood and drink companies based in Chicago\nManufacturing companies based in Chicago\nSausage companies of the United States" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991", "Where did the band form?", "Chicago,", "Did they play at any Chicago clubs?", "Polish bar Chicago 21.", "Were they popular in Chicago?", "I don't know." ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	What was their big break?	4	What was The Smashing Pumpkins big break?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	false	[ "What a Week Omnibus Books 1-3 is a book, which contains first three parts of What a Week series by Rosie Rushton: What a Week to Fall in Love, What a Week to Make it Big and What a Week to Break Free. It was published by Piccadilly Press Ltd. in 2005.\n\nPlot summary\n\nWhat a Week to Fall in Love\n\nWhat a Week to Make it Big\n\nWhat a Week to Break Free\n\nCharacters \n\nBritish young adult novels\nNovels by Rosie Rushton\n2005 books", "Big Sky Motion Pictures was founded in Los Angeles as a film production company by C.E.O. Mars Callahan and executive producer Rand Chortkoff. \n\nTheir last completed film in 2007, What Love Is, starred major Hollywood actors Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Matthew Lillard. It was released to only 42 cinemas, played for one week, and grossed $18,901.\n\nIn 2008, Big Sky Motion Pictures, Rand Chortkoff and Mars Callahan were ordered to desist-and-refrain from illicit selling of securities in the State of California for the movie Spring Break '83. Apparently out of investor-funds, Big Sky never finished Spring Break '83, and had some trouble paying the vendors and workers, but seem to have settled the lawsuits privately.\n\nOn January 9, 2012, a Judgment of Permanent Injunction, Civil Penalties and Ancillary Relief in the State of California was issued against 'Defendants Big Sky Motion Pictures, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Production, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Distribution, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83, Rand Jay Chortkoff ... permanently enjoined from engaging in, committing, aiding and abetting, or performing directly or indirectly, by any means whatsoever, from (1) violating Corporation Code Section 25401 - offering for sale of securities by means of written or oral communications which includes any untrue statements of material fact or fails to state material facts (2) Corporation Code 25110 – offering to sell offering the sale of securities unless such security or transaction is qualified or exempted qualification (3) violating the Desist and Refrain Order issued by the Commissioner by offering and selling unqualified, non-exempt securities (4) destroying any records for a period of (3) years. Mr. Mars Callahan was the Chief Executive Officer, Director and owner of Big Sky Motion Pictures, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Production, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83 Distribution, L.L.C., Spring Break ’83, during which time this Permanent Injunction to be issued.'\n\nIn February 2014, staff from Big Sky Motion Pictures were exposed by CBS News for lying and attempting to defraud reporters who posed as potential investors. On February 20, 2014, Rand Chortkoff from Big Sky Motion Pictures, and three others, was indicted by the US Justice Department for committing securities fraud to entice investors.\n\nIn May 2014, Mars Callahan was released from the board of Gawk, who had development-rights to the film Poker Junkies, due to not disclosing the above securities fraud injunction and misuse of corporate funds.\n\nProductions\nSpring Break '83\nWhat Love Is (2007)\nPoolhall Junkies (2002)\nDouble Down (2001)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n as archived October 20, 2013\n\nCompanies based in Los Angeles\nFilm production companies of the United States" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991", "Where did the band form?", "Chicago,", "Did they play at any Chicago clubs?", "Polish bar Chicago 21.", "Were they popular in Chicago?", "I don't know.", "What was their big break?", "I don't know." ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	Who was in the band during this period?	5	Who was in The Smashing Pumpkins during their big break?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	guitarist James Iha.	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	true	[ "Bill Durst is a Canadian blues artist. He was one of the founding members of the band Thundermug. Since 1983, he has also released several solo albums.\n\nHistory\nBill Durst, based on London, Ontario, Canada, co-founded the band Thundermug in 1970. The band existed from 1970 to 1976 and again from 1991 to 2001, releasing five albums and two Top 40 Canadian singles. Thundermug went on hiatus in 1976, after releasing three albums. During this hiatus period, Durst joined a ZZ Top tribute band called Tres Hombres. He was later was a member of The Brains, a band that released one album in 1980 through Falcon Records. In 1983, Durst released a solo album, Call Billy, through Passport Records His second solo album, Father Earth, was released exclusively on cassette in 1989 through independent label Cottage Records.\n\nThundermug reunited in 1991, but split up again in 2001. The Thundermug name was formally retired in 2000, and the band continued for a period thereafter as Big on Venus. During the 1991–2001 period, two further albums were released by the band, featuring Durst, which resulted in three charting singles. Both during this period of band reformation and following the final breakup of the band, Durst continued his solo career. In 2005, he released The Wharncliffe Sessions independently through his label Durstwerks. In 2006, as a member of Thundermug, Durst was inducted into the London Music Hall of Fame. In 2009 and 2012, Durst released The Great Willy Mammoth and Bill Durst Live, respectively. In 2012, Durst won the London Music Award for most popular blues/R&B artist. In 2013, Durst was a featured performer at the Montreal International Jazz Festival. In 2014, Durst received the Jack Richardson Music Award for best blues/R&B performer.\n\nDiscography\n\nSolo\n Call Billy (1983)\n Father Earth (1989)\n The Wharncliffe Sessions (2005)\n The Great Willy Mammoth (2009)\n Bill Durst Live (2012)\n Hard And Heavy (2013)\n Good Good Lovin (2015)\n\nWith Thundermug\n Thundermug Strikes (1972)\n Orbit (1973)\n Ta-Daa (1974)\n Who's Running My World (1995)\n Bang The Love Drum (1997)\n\nWith The Brains\nAudio Extremo (1980)\n\nReferences\n\nCanadian blues singers\nCanadian blues guitarists\nCanadian rock musicians\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nMusicians from London, Ontario\nLiving people", "Insolito are a British post-hardcore band formed in Birmingham, England, in 2009. They have toured with the likes of The Devil Wears Prada, Carcer City and Exit Ten.\n\nHistory\n\nEarly years (2009–2012)\nThe band was founded by school friends: Aaron Coton (drummer) and Andy Robinson (guitarist) in Birmingham. Coton was friendly with Dave Stait (bassist) through University and they discovered they had some similar tastes in music. Coton had also previously shared a band with James Wadey (vocals) and it was decided that he was to be the man to front the band.\n\nDuring this period the band's musical style was heavily metal influenced with very little clean vocals in any tracks. After discussions in 2010 it was decided that for the band to progress they would need the services of a vocalist. After a short audition period Alex Gibbs joined the band.\n\nWhy Die Wondering? (2012)\nInsolito released their début EP, Why Die Wondering on 1 October 2012 after a heavy period of touring. Shortly after this Smit Trivedi (bassist) was recruited and Stait moved to play second guitar.\n\nBand members\nAlex Gibbs - clean vocals (2010–present)\nJames Wadey - screamed/growled vocals (2009–present)\nAndy Robinson - guitar (2009–present)\nDave Stait - guitar (2009–present)\nAaron Coton - drums, percussion (2009–present)\nSmit Trivedi- bass guitar, backing vocals (2012–present)\n\nDiscography\n\nEPs\n2012: Why Die Wondering?\n\nSingles\n2011: \"Why Die Wondering\"\n\nReferences \n\nMusical groups established in 2009\nBritish post-hardcore musical groups" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991", "Where did the band form?", "Chicago,", "Did they play at any Chicago clubs?", "Polish bar Chicago 21.", "Were they popular in Chicago?", "I don't know.", "What was their big break?", "I don't know.", "Who was in the band during this period?", "guitarist James Iha." ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	Who else?	6	Who else was part of The Smashing Pumpkins band other than James Iha?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21.	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	true	[ "Else is a feminine given name, appearing in German, Danish and Norwegian. It is a shortened form of Elisabeth.\n\nNotable people with the name include:\n\n Else Alfelt (1910–1974), Danish painter\n Else Ackermann, German physician and pharmacologist\n Else Winther Andersen (born 1941), Danish politician\n Else Berg (1877–1942), Dutch painter\n Else Bugge Fougner (born 1944), Norwegian lawyer and politician\n Else Christensen (1913–2005), Danish neopagan\n Else Feldmann (1884–1942), Austrian writer\n Else Frenkel-Brunswik (1908–1958), Polish-Austrian psychologist\n Else Hench (20th century), Austrian luger\n Else Hirsch (1889–1942/3), German-Jewish teacher\n Else Holmelund Minarik (1920–2012), Danish American author\n Else Jacobsen (1911–1965), Danish swimmer\n Else Krüger (born 1915), German secretary\n Else Lasker-Schüler (1869–1945), Jewish German poet and playwright\n Else Mayer (1891–1962), German nun\n Else Meidner (1901–1987), Jewish German painter\n Else Repål (1930–2015), Norwegian politician\n Else Reppen (1933–2006), Norwegian philanthropist\n Else Sehrig-Vehling (1897–1994), German expressionist\n Else Seifert (1879–1968), German photographer\n Else Ury (1877–1943), German writer\n Else von Richthofen (1874–1973), German social scientist\n\nSee also\nElse-Marie\nElse-Marthe Sørlie Lybekk (born 1978), Norwegian handball player\n\nFeminine given names", "Something Else or Somethin' Else may refer to:\n\nBooks\n Something Else (book), a children's book by Kathryn Cave\n Something Else Press, an American small-press publisher\n Archie's Something Else! by Spire Christian Comics\n\nFilm and television\n Somethin' Else (content agency), a content and talent agency based in London\n Something Else (TV series), a 1978–1982 UK youth TV programme\n Something Else, a 1970–71 American musical variety show hosted by John Byner\n Something Else, a 2001 British children's animated show produced by Studio B Productions\n\nMusic\n\nPerformers\n Somethin' Else!, a rock and roll band featuring Bobby Cochran, nephew of Eddie Cochran\n Something Else (Japanese band), a J-Pop band\n Something Else, a 1970s Scottish band featuring Sheena Easton\n\nAlbums\n Something Else!!!!, a 1958 album by Ornette Coleman\n Somethin' Else (Cannonball Adderley album), or the title song by Miles Davis, 1958\n Somethin' Else (The Kingston Trio album), 1965\n Something Else by The Kinks, a 1967 album\n Something Else from The Move, a 1968 EP\n Something Else (Shirley Bassey album), 1971\n Something Else (Robin Thicke album), 2008\n Something Else, a 2012 album by Elom Adablah\n Something Else (Tech N9ne album), 2013\n Something Else (The Cranberries album), 2017\n Something Else (The Brian Jones Massacre album), 2018\n\nSongs\n \"Somethin' Else\" (song), a 1959 song by Eddie Cochran, covered by several other performers\n \"Something Else\", a song by Diamond Rings from Special Affections\n \"Something Else\", a song by The Doubleclicks from Lasers and Feelings\n \"Something Else\", a song by Gary Jules from Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets\n \"Something Else\", a song by Good Charlotte from Good Morning Revival\n\nSee also\n Something (disambiguation)" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991", "Where did the band form?", "Chicago,", "Did they play at any Chicago clubs?", "Polish bar Chicago 21.", "Were they popular in Chicago?", "I don't know.", "What was their big break?", "I don't know.", "Who was in the band during this period?", "guitarist James Iha.", "Who else?", "The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21." ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	Did any other people join the band later on?	7	Did any other people join the band later on other than James Iha?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	true	[ "Cupid Car Club, also known as Cupid Car Club M.P., was a short-lived American post-hardcore band consisting of Ian Svenonius on vocals, James Canty on drums, Steve Gamboa on guitar (all of which were previously members of Nation of Ulysses and later went on to form The Make-Up), and Kim Thompson (of The Delta 72) on bass and vocals.\n\nThey released one 7\" EP on Kill Rock Stars, called Join our Club. Cupid Car Club also appeared on the Rock Stars Kill and Some Songs compilations, also under the Kill Rock Stars label.\n\nThe band's lyrical content, album art, and promotional material tended to stray towards a morbid playfulness, containing many references to topics such as suicide, child custody, and cults.\n\nJoin our Club\n\nJoin our Club, sometimes known as Werewolves!, was the only EP from the short-lived band Cupid Car Club.\n\nThe track \"Grape Juice Plus\" borrows its name from the term used by Dr. Lewis Dickson to describe wine to Zira in Escape from the Planet of the Apes. Also, the lyrics \"Did you have the dream now about the boy\" and \"Don't you got it good now so I can shoot my little girl\" are direct reference to 1991's The Rapture (film). Svenonius has a penchant for obscure film references and name-dropping (most obvious in David Candy's Play Power).\n\nTrack listing\n\"Edge of the Envelope\" − 2:10\n\"Vapor Rub-Out\"\n\"Child Custody Commandos\"\n\"Grape Juice Plus\" − 3:49\n\nOther appearances on compilations\n{\| class=\"wikitable\"\n!align=\"left\|Year\n!align=\"left\|Title\n!align=\"left\|Track(s)\n!align=\"left\|Label\n!align=\"left\|Other\n\|-\n\|1994\n\|Rock Stars Kill\n\|\n\"M.P. Skulkers\"\n\|Kill Rock Stars\n\|Consists of a CD, LP, and a 7 inch. \"M.P. Skulkers\" appears only on CD and LP pressings. \"M.P. Skulkers\" does not appear on any other release, including Join our Club.\n\|-\n\|1997\n\|Some Songs\n\|\n\"Grape Juice Plus\"\n\|Kill Rock Stars\n\|\n\|}\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nEntry on Southern Records\nCupid Car Club Fan site\n\nAmerican post-hardcore musical groups", "\"Join with Us\" is the fourth and final single taken from The Feeling's second album of the same name and was released on 15 September 2008.\nIt was revealed on Capital Radio that the band's 24-hour challenge on 9 July was to film the video in one day. Part of the video features the band performing at a fairground.\n\nThe song was originally written at the time when the band were performing in the Alps, and was included on a very rare demo disc along with demo versions of other Twelve Stops And Home tracks. It was also added to the set list for the Twelve Stops and Home tour, and subsequently features on the live double CDs that contain audio versions of the tour in different venues, such as Shepherd's Bush Empire and Cambridge Corn Exchange.\n\n\"Join with Us\" was featured on a Toyota Auris advert in Summer 2008.\n\nThe Feeling performed \"Join with Us\" at the London 2012 Party shown on BBC One as well as a cover of David Bowie's \"Heroes\".\n\nFormats and track listing\nCD single (Released 15 September 2008)\n\"Join with Us\" – 4:40\n\"She's Gone\" (Hall & Oates cover) – 5:14\n\"Spitting Feathers\" – 6:23\n\n7\" red vinyl (Released 15 September 2008)\n\"Join with Us\" – 4:40\n\"Spitting Feathers\" – 6:23\n\nDigital EP (Released 15 September 2008)\n\"Join with Us\" – 4:40\n\"She's Gone\" – 5:24\n\"Spitting Feathers\" – 6:22\n\nDigital download (Released 8 September 2008)\n\"Join with Us\" (radio edit) – 3:32\n\nCharts\nIn February 2008, \"Join with Us\" entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 196 on downloads alone. When the single was officially released on 15 September 2008 only in the United Kingdom, despite receiving positive reviews and promotion through a Toyota Auris advert, it received hardly any radio airplay and became the band's first single to fail to dent the UK Top 75, peaking at No. 87. The release of the single did boost the album of the same name back in the UK Top 40 of the UK Albums Chart.\n\nReferences\n\nThe Feeling songs\n2008 singles\n2008 songs\nUniversal Records singles\nSongs written by Dan Gillespie Sells\nSongs written by Richard Jones (The Feeling)\nSongs written by Kevin Jeremiah\nSongs written by Ciaran Jeremiah\nSongs written by Paul Stewart (musician)" ]
[ "The Smashing Pumpkins", "Early years: 1988-1991", "Where did the band form?", "Chicago,", "Did they play at any Chicago clubs?", "Polish bar Chicago 21.", "Were they popular in Chicago?", "I don't know.", "What was their big break?", "I don't know.", "Who was in the band during this period?", "guitarist James Iha.", "Who else?", "The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21.", "Did any other people join the band later on?", "Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky" ]	C_2971655b60fb456e89e21f5fc5953f43_1	What instrument did D'arcy play?	8	What instrument did D'arcy Wretzky play?	The Smashing Pumpkins	After the breakup of his gothic rock band the Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by The Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup and the now-trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989 the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	The Smashing Pumpkins (or Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman Billy Corgan (lead vocals, guitar), D'arcy Wretzky (bass), James Iha (guitar), and Jimmy Chamberlin (drums), the band has undergone many line-up changes. The current lineup features Corgan, Chamberlin, Iha and guitarist Jeff Schroeder. Disavowing the punk rock roots of many of their alt-rock contemporaries, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and, in later recordings, electronica. Corgan is the group's primary songwriter; his musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". The Smashing Pumpkins broke into the musical mainstream with their second album, 1993's Siamese Dream. The group built its audience with extensive touring and their 1995 follow-up, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. However, internal fighting, drug use, and diminishing record sales led to a 2000 break-up. In 2006, Corgan and Chamberlin reconvened to record a new Smashing Pumpkins album, Zeitgeist. After touring throughout 2007 and 2008 with a lineup including new guitarist Jeff Schroeder, Chamberlin left the band in early 2009. Later that year, Corgan began a new recording series with a rotating lineup of musicians entitled Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which encompassed the release of stand-alone singles, compilation EP releases, and two full albums that also fell under the project's scope—Oceania in 2012 and Monuments to an Elegy in 2014. Chamberlin and Iha officially rejoined the band in February 2018. The reunited lineup released the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. in November 2018 and Cyr in November 2020. History Early years: 1988–1991 After the breakup of his gothic rock band The Marked, singer and guitarist Billy Corgan left St. Petersburg, Florida, to return to his native city of Chicago, where he took a job in a record store and formed the idea of a new band to be called the Smashing Pumpkins. While working there, he met guitarist James Iha. Adorning themselves with paisley and other psychedelic trappings, the two began writing songs together (with the aid of a drum machine) that were heavily influenced by the Cure and New Order. The duo performed live for the first time on July 9, 1988 at the Polish bar Chicago 21. This performance included only Corgan on bass and Iha on guitar with a drum machine. Shortly thereafter, Corgan met D'arcy Wretzky after a show by the Dan Reed Network where they argued the merits of the band. After finding out Wretzky played bass guitar, Corgan recruited her into the lineup, and the trio played a show at the Avalon Nightclub. After this show, Cabaret Metro owner Joe Shanahan agreed to book the band on the condition that they replace the drum machine with a live drummer. Jazz drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was recommended by a friend of Corgan's. Chamberlin knew little of alternative music and immediately changed the sound of the nascent band. As Corgan recalled of the period, "We were completely into the sad-rock, Cure kind of thing. It took about two or three practices before I realized that the power in his playing was something that enabled us to rock harder than we could ever have imagined." On October 5, 1988, the complete band took the stage for the first time at the Cabaret Metro. In 1989, the Smashing Pumpkins made their first appearance on record with the compilation album Light Into Dark, which featured several Chicago alternative bands. The group released its first single, "I Am One", in 1990 on local Chicago label Limited Potential. The single sold out and they released a follow-up, "Tristessa", on Sub Pop, after which they signed to Caroline Records. The band recorded their 1991 debut studio album Gish with producer Butch Vig at his Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin for $20,000. In order to gain the consistency he desired, Corgan often played all instruments excluding drums, which created tension in the band. The music fused heavy metal guitars, psychedelia, and dream pop, garnering them comparisons to Jane's Addiction. Gish became a minor success, with the single "Rhinoceros" receiving some airplay on modern rock radio. After releasing the Lull EP in October 1991 on Caroline Records, the band formally signed with Virgin Records, which was affiliated with Caroline. The band supported the album with a tour that included opening for bands such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, and Guns N' Roses. During the tour, Iha and Wretzky went through a messy breakup, Chamberlin became addicted to narcotics and alcohol, and Corgan entered a deep depression, writing some songs for the upcoming album in the parking garage where he lived at the time. Mainstream breakout and Siamese Dream: 1992–1994 With the breakthrough of alternative rock into the American mainstream due to the popularity of grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam, the Smashing Pumpkins were poised for major commercial success. At this time, the Smashing Pumpkins were routinely lumped in with the grunge movement, with Corgan protesting, "We've graduated now from 'the next Jane's Addiction' to 'the next Nirvana', now we're 'the next Pearl Jam'." Amid this environment of intense internal pressure for the band to break through to widespread popularity, the band relocated to Marietta, Georgia in late 1992 to begin work on their second album, with Butch Vig returning as producer. The decision to record so far away from their hometown was motivated partly by the band's desire to avoid friends and distractions during the recording, but largely as a desperate attempt to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. The recording environment for Siamese Dream was quickly marred by discord within the band. As was the case with Gish, Corgan and Vig decided that Corgan should play nearly all of the guitar and bass parts on the album, contributing to an air of resentment. The contemporary music press began to portray Corgan as a tyrant. Corgan's depression, meanwhile, had deepened to the point where he contemplated suicide, and he compensated by practically living in the studio. Meanwhile, Chamberlin quickly managed to find new connections and was often absent without any contact for days at a time. In all, it took over four months to complete the record, with the budget exceeding $250,000. Despite all the problems in its recording, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard 200 chart, and sold over four million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside the band's mounting mainstream recognition, the band's reputation as careerists among their former peers in the independent music community was worsened. Indie rock band Pavement's 1994 song "Range Life" directly mocks the band in its lyrics, although Stephen Malkmus, lead singer of Pavement, has stated, "I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status." Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould called them "the grunge Monkees", and fellow Chicago musician/producer Steve Albini wrote a scathing letter in response to an article praising the band, derisively comparing them to REO Speedwagon ("by, of and for the mainstream") and concluding their ultimate insignificance. The opening track and lead single of Siamese Dream, "Cherub Rock", directly addresses Corgan's feud with the "indie-world". In 1994 Virgin released the B-sides/rarities compilation Pisces Iscariot which charted higher than Siamese Dream by reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Also released was a VHS cassette titled Vieuphoria featuring a mix of live performances and behind-the-scenes footage. Following relentless touring to support the recordings, including headline slots on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour and at Reading Festival in 1995, the band took time off to write the follow-up album. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness: 1995–1997 During 1995, Corgan wrote about 56 songs, following which the band went into the studio with producers Flood and Alan Moulder to work on what Corgan described as "The Wall for Generation X", and which became Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, a double album of twenty-eight songs, lasting over two hours (the vinyl version of the album contained three records, two extra songs, and an alternate track listing). The songs were intended to hang together conceptually as a symbol of the cycle of life and death. Praised by Time as "the group's most ambitious and accomplished work yet", Mellon Collie debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in October 1995. Even more successful than Siamese Dream, it was certified ten times platinum in the United States and became the best-selling double album of the decade. It also garnered seven 1997 Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year. The band won only the Best Hard Rock Performance award, for the album's lead single "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". The album spawned five singles—"Bullet with Butterfly Wings", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" which Corgan stated was inspired by the Cheap Trick song "I'll Be with You Tonight", and "Thirty-Three"—of which the first three were certified gold and all but "Zero" entered the Top 40. Many of the songs that did not make it onto Mellon Collie were released as B-sides to the singles, and were later compiled in The Aeroplane Flies High box set. The set was originally limited to 200,000 copies, but more were produced to meet demand. In 1996 the Pumpkins undertook an extended world tour in support of Mellon Collie. Corgan's look during this period—a shaved head, a long sleeve black shirt with the word "Zero" printed on it, and silver pants—became iconic. That year, the band also made a guest appearance in an episode of The Simpsons, "Homerpalooza". With considerable video rotation on MTV, major industry awards, and "Zero" shirts selling in many malls, the Pumpkins were considered one of the most popular bands of the time. In May, the Smashing Pumpkins played a gig at the Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. Despite the band's repeated requests for moshing to stop, a seventeen-year-old fan named Bernadette O'Brien was crushed to death. The concert ended early and the following night's performance in Belfast was cancelled out of respect for her. However, while Corgan maintained that moshing's "time [had] come and gone", the band would continue to request open-floor concerts throughout the rest of the tour. The band suffered a personal tragedy on the night of July 11, 1996, when touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and Chamberlin overdosed on heroin in a hotel room in New York City. Melvoin died, and Chamberlin was arrested for drug possession. A few days later, the band announced that Chamberlin had been fired as a result of the incident. The Pumpkins chose to finish the tour, and hired drummer Matt Walker and keyboardist Dennis Flemion. Corgan later said the decision to continue touring was the worst decision the band had ever made, damaging both their music and their reputation. Chamberlin admitted in a 1994 Rolling Stone cover story that in the past he'd "gotten high in every city in this country and probably half the cities in Europe." But in recent years, he had reportedly been clean. On July 17, the Pumpkins issued a statement in which they said, "For nine years we have battled with Jimmy's struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for. … We wish [him] the best we have to offer". Meanwhile, the band had given interviews since the release of Mellon Collie stating that it would be the last conventional Pumpkins record, and that rock was becoming stale. James Iha said at the end of 1996, "The future is in electronic music. It really seems boring just to play rock music." Adore, Machina, and breakup: 1998–2000 After the release of Mellon Collie, the Pumpkins contributed many songs to various compilations. Released in early 1997, the song "Eye", which appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch's Lost Highway, relied almost exclusively on electronic instruments and signaled a drastic shift from the Pumpkins' previous musical styles. At the time, Corgan stated his "idea [was] to reconfigure the focus and get away from the classic guitars-bass-drum rock format." Later that year, the group contributed "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" to the soundtrack for the film Batman & Robin. With Matt Walker on drums, the song featured a heavy sound similar to "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" while still having strong electronic influences. The song later won the 1998 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Though Corgan announced that the song represented the sound people could expect from the band in the future, the band's next album would feature few guitar-driven songs. Recorded following the death of Corgan's mother and his divorce, 1998's Adore represented a significant change of style from the Pumpkins' previous guitar-based rock, veering into electronica. The record, cut with assistance from drum machines and studio drummers including Matt Walker, was infused with a darker aesthetic than much of the band's earlier work. The group also modified its public image, shedding its alternative rock look for a more subdued appearance. Although Adore received favorable reviews and was nominated for Best Alternative Performance at the Grammy Awards, the album had only sold about 830,000 copies in the United States by the end of the year. The album nonetheless debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold three times as many copies overseas. The band began a seventeen-date, fifteen-city charity North American tour in support of Adore. At each stop on the tour, the band donated 100 percent of tickets sales to a local charity organization. The tour's expenses were entirely funded out of the band's own pockets. All told, the band donated over $2.8 million to charity as a result of the tour. On October 31, 1998 during Halloween, the band opened for Kiss at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, dressed in costume as The Beatles. In 1999 the band surprised fans by reuniting with a rehabilitated Jimmy Chamberlin for a brief tour dubbed "The Arising", which showcased both new and classic material. The lineup was short-lived, however, as the band announced the departure of Wretzky in September during work on the album Machina/The Machines of God. Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur was recruited for the "Sacred and Profane" tour in support of the album and appeared in the videos accompanying its release. Released in 2000, Machina was initially promoted as the Pumpkins' return to a more traditional rock sound, after the more gothic, electronic-sounding Adore. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard charts, but quickly disappeared and as of 2007 had only been certified gold. Music journalist Jim DeRogatis, who described the album as "one of the strongest of their career", noted that the stalled sales for Machina in comparison to teen pop ascendant at the time "seems like concrete proof that a new wave of young pop fans has turned a deaf ear toward alternative rock." On May 23, 2000, in a live radio interview on KROQ-FM (Los Angeles), Billy Corgan announced the band's decision to break up at the end of that year following additional touring and recording. The group's final album before the break-up, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music, was released in September 2000 in a limited pressing on vinyl with permission and instructions for free redistribution on the Internet by fans. Only twenty-five copies were cut, each of which was hand numbered and given to friends of the band along with band members themselves. The album, released under the Constantinople Records label created by Corgan, consisted of one double LP and three ten-inch EPs. Originally, the band asked Virgin to offer Machina II as a free download to anyone who bought Machina. When the record label declined, Corgan opted to release the material independently. On December 2, 2000, Smashing Pumpkins played a farewell concert at The Metro, the same Chicago club where their career had effectively started twelve years earlier. The four-and-a-half-hour-long show featured 35 songs spanning the group's career, and attendees were given a recording of the band's first concert at The Metro, Live at Cabaret Metro 10-5-88. The single "Untitled" was released commercially to coincide with the farewell show. Post-breakup: 2001–2004 In 2001 the compilation Rotten Apples was released. The double-disc version of the album, released as a limited edition, included a collection of B-sides and rarities called Judas O. The Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD was also released at the same time. This was a compilation of all of the Pumpkins promo videos from Gish to Machina along with unreleased material. Vieuphoria was released on DVD in 2002, as was the soundtrack album Earphoria, previously released solely to radio stations in 1994. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin reunited in 2001 as members of Corgan's next project, the short-lived supergroup Zwan. The group's only album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in 2003. After cancelling a few festival appearances, Corgan announced the demise of the band in 2003. During 2001 Corgan also toured as part of New Order and provided vocals on their comeback album Get Ready. In October 2004 Corgan released his first book, Blinking with Fists, a collection of poetry. In June 2005, he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, which he described as "(picking) up the thread of the as-yet-unfinished work of the Smashing Pumpkins". Despite this, it was greeted with generally mixed reviews and lackluster sales. Only one single, "Walking Shade", was released in support of the album. In addition to drumming with Zwan, Jimmy Chamberlin also formed an alternative rock/jazz fusion project band called Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. The group released an album in 2005 titled Life Begins Again. Corgan provided guest vocals on the track "Lokicat". James Iha served as a guitarist in A Perfect Circle, appearing on their Thirteenth Step club tour and 2004 album, eMOTIVe. He has also been involved with other acts such as Chino Moreno's Team Sleep and Vanessa and the O's. He continues to work with Scratchie Records, his own record label, as well. D'arcy Wretzky has, aside from one radio interview in 2009, not made any public statements or appearances nor given any interviews since leaving the band in 1999. On January 25, 2000, she was arrested after she allegedly purchased three bags of cocaine, but after successfully completing a court-ordered drug education program, the charges were dropped. Corgan insisted during this period that the band would not reform, although when Zwan broke up he announced, "I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins […] I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me." Corgan said in 2005, "I never wanted to leave the Smashing Pumpkins. That was never the plan." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message on his personal blog calling Wretzky a "mean-spirited drug addict" and blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins. On June 3, 2004, he added that "the depth of my hurt [from Iha] is only matched with the depth of my gratitude". Iha responded to Corgan's claims in 2005, saying, "No, I didn't break up the band. The only person who could have done that is Billy." Reformation and Zeitgeist: 2005–2008 On June 21, 2005, the day of the release of his first solo album TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan took out full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times to announce that he planned to reunite the band. "For a year now", Corgan wrote, "I have walked around with a secret, a secret I chose to keep. But now I want you to be among the first to know that I have made plans to renew and revive the Smashing Pumpkins. I want my band back, and my songs, and my dreams". Corgan and Chamberlin were verified as participants in the reunion, but there was question as to whether other former members of the band would participate. In April 2007 Iha and Auf der Maur separately confirmed that they were not taking part in the reunion. Chamberlin would later state that Iha and Wretzky "didn't want to be a part of" the reunion. The Smashing Pumpkins performed live for the first time since 2000 on May 22, 2007, in Paris, France. There, the band unveiled new touring members: guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and keyboardist Lisa Harriton. That same month, "Tarantula" was released as the first single from the band's forthcoming album. On July 7, the band performed at the Live Earth concert in New Jersey. The band's new album, Zeitgeist, was released that same month on Reprise Records, entering the Billboard charts at number two and selling 145,000 copies in its first week. Zeitgeist received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism targeted at the absence of half of the original lineup. The album divided the Pumpkins' fanbase. Corgan would later admit, "I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist. I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don't just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that". Corgan and Chamberlin continued to record as a duo, releasing the four-song EP American Gothic in January 2008 and the singles "Superchrist" and "G.L.O.W." later that year. That November, the group released the DVD If All Goes Wrong, which chronicled the group's 2007 concert residences in Asheville, North Carolina and San Francisco, California. In late 2008, the band commenced on a controversy-riddled 20th Anniversary Tour. Around this time, Corgan said the group will make no more full-length records in order to focus exclusively on singles, explaining, "The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do albums, to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It's done." Teargarden and Oceania: 2009–2013 In March 2009 Corgan announced on the band's website that Chamberlin had left the group and would be replaced. Chamberlin subsequently stated that his departure from the band is "a positive move forward for me. I can no longer commit all of my energy into something that I don't fully possess." Chamberlin stressed that the split was amicable, commenting, "I am glad [Corgan] has chosen to continue under the name. It is his right." Chamberlin soon formed the band Skysaw, which has released an album and toured in support of Minus the Bear. In July 2009 Billy Corgan formed a new group called Spirits in the Sky, initially as a tribute band to Sky Saxon of the Seeds, who had recently died. The following month Corgan confirmed on the band's website that 19-year-old Spirits in the Sky drummer Mike Byrne had replaced Chamberlin and that the pair was working on new Pumpkins recordings. The group announced plans to release a 44-track concept album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free over the Internet one track at a time. The first track, "A Song for a Son", was released in December 2009 to moderate press acclaim. In March 2010 Ginger Reyes officially left the band, prompting an open call for auditions for a new bassist. In May, Nicole Fiorentino announced she had joined the band as bass player, and would be working on Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The new lineup went on a world tour through to the end of 2010. One of the first shows with the new lineup was a concert to benefit Matthew Leone, bassist for the rock band Madina Lake, at the Metro on July 27, 2010. In late 2010 all four members contributed to the sessions for the third volume of Teargarden. On April 26, 2011, Corgan announced that the Smashing Pumpkins would be releasing a new album titled Oceania, which he labeled as "an album within an album" in regards to the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope project, in the fall. As with the previous recording sessions, all four band members contributed to the project. Also, the entire album catalog was to be remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, starting with Gish and Siamese Dream in November 2011. The pre-Gish demos, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness were released in 2012, with The Aeroplane Flies High released the following year. Adore was released in 2014, and Machina/The Machines of God and the yet commercially unreleased Machina II/Friends and Enemies of Modern Music are expected to be combined, remixed, and released in the same year. The band did a thirteen-city US tour in October 2011 followed by a European tour in November and December. Oceania was released on June 19, 2012, and received generally positive reviews. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 and at No. 1 on the Billboard Independent. The album spawned two singles, "The Celestials" and "Panopticon". The band proceeded to tour in support of the album, including a US tour involving playing the album in its entirety. By September 2012, Corgan stated that the band had already begun work on their next album. However, despite this, the band concentrated on touring, playing at Glastonbury Festival, Dour Festival and the Barclays Center, where they recorded Oceania: Live in NYC, which was released on September 24, 2013. Monuments to an Elegy: 2014–2016 On March 25, 2014, Corgan announced he had signed a new record deal with BMG, for two new albums, titled Monuments to an Elegy and Day for Night, respectively. In June, it was revealed that Mike Byrne was no longer in the band, to be replaced by Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on the new album, and Fiorentino would not be recording on the album either. Monuments to an Elegy was released on December 5, 2014, to generally positive reviews. The band toured in support of the album starting on November 26, with Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk filling in on drums and the Killers' Mark Stoermer filling in on bass. The follow-up proposed album Day For Night was cited for delayed late 2015 or early 2016 release. Later in 2015 Corgan announced that the band would embark on a co-headlining tour of North America with Marilyn Manson, "The End Times Tour", across July and August 2015. Prior to the co-headlining dates, the band performed a series of acoustic shows with drum machines and tapes for percussion. When the time came for the co-headlining tour, plans for a drummer fell through and Corgan recruited Chamberlin to reunite for the shows. On February 1, 2016, it was announced that the band would continue their In Plainsong acoustic tour with Jimmy Chamberlin on drums and were planning to head "straight to the studio after the dates to record a brand new album inspired by the sounds explored in the new acoustic setting". On February 25, 2016, Corgan posted a video from a Los Angeles studio on the band's Facebook account, giving an update on the writing process for the new songs for the upcoming album to be released after the In Plainsong tour. The tour began in Portland, Oregon, on March 22, 2016. Iha and Chamberlin's return; Shiny and Oh So Bright and Cyr: 2018–present On his birthday on March 26, 2016, original guitarist James Iha joined Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder on stage unannounced at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. He performed a few songs, including "Mayonaise", "Soma" and "Whir" marking his first appearance with the Smashing Pumpkins in 16 years. Iha also played at the second of the two Smashing Pumpkins shows at the Ace Hotel the following day, which was Easter Sunday. Iha joined the Pumpkins for a third time at their concert of April 14 at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. In July, Corgan began hinting of the possibility of reuniting the band original lineup, of himself, Iha, Wretzky, and Chamberlin, and in August, he stated he had begun reaching out to the original lineup about the feasibility of a reunion, including speaking to Wretzky for the first time in sixteen years. Despite the comments, Corgan would spend much of 2017 working on solo material – recording and releasing the solo album Ogilala and beginning work on another solo album for 2018. In June 2017 Chamberlin also mentioned the possibility of a reunion tour in 2018. In January 2018 Corgan shared a photo of himself, Iha, and Chamberlin together in recording studio. In February 2018 Corgan announced that he was working with music producer Rick Rubin on a future Smashing Pumpkins album, that there were currently 26 songs he was actively working on, and that "the guitar feels once again like the preferred weapon of choice." Soon afterwards, Corgan shared a photo of sound equipment with Iha's name on a label, as well as announcing recording was finished on the album. On February 15, 2018, the band officially announced that founding members Iha and Chamberlin were back in the band. They embarked on the Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour starting in July, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. and sold over 350,000 tickets and sold out arenas including The Forum, United Center, and Madison Square Garden. Original bassist D'arcy Wretzky claimed she had been offered a contract to rejoin the band but Corgan rescinded the offer soon after. Corgan released a statement denying the claims, stating "Ms. Wretzky has repeatedly been invited out to play with the group, participate in demo sessions, or at the very least, meet face-to-face, and in each and every instance she always deferred". Jack Bates (son of Joy Division bassist Peter Hook) played bass on the tour. Bates previously toured with the Smashing Pumpkins in 2015. Multi-instrumentalist Katie Cole rejoined the band for the tour as well, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards and guitar. In March 2018, Corgan mentioned the band planned to release two EPs in 2018, with the first tentatively planned for May. On June 8, 2018, the first single from the set of music, "Solara", was released. On August 2, 2018, the band celebrated their 30th anniversary by performing in Holmdel, New Jersey. with several notable special guests including Courtney Love, Chino Moreno, Davey Havok, Peter Hook, Mark McGrath, and Dave Keuning and Mark Stoermer of The Killers. In September 2018, they announced the album Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., released via Napalm Records on November 16, 2018, which debuted at number 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. After touring through much of 2019, Corgan noted in January 2020 that the band was currently working on 21 songs for a future album release. On August 28, 2020, the band released the single and video for "Cyr", along with a second track titled "The Colour of Love" from their album Cyr, which was released through their new record label Sumerian Records on November 27, 2020. It serves as the second part of the Shiny and Oh So Bright series. On September 25, 2020, the band released another single from Cyr that included the songs "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict" and "Wrath". On October 9, 2020, the band released a third single for Cyr that featured the tracks "Anno Satana" and "Birch Grove". On October 29, the band released "Ramona" and "Wyttch" as the fourth pair of singles. On November 20, 2020, the songs "Purple Blood" and "Dulcet in E" were released as the fifth and final single for Cyr. The following week, on November 27, 2020, the band released Cyr. Despite never getting to properly tour Cyr, the band did play four songs from the album at their headlining shows at Riot Fest and Sea.Hear.Now Festival in September 2021. In late 2020, Corgan announced that the band would begin work on another double album for release in 2021, although the year passed without the album releasing. The double album is to serve as a sequel to the overarching story of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina: The Machines of God. On February 22, the band announced on social media the Rock Invasion 2 Tour, which had previously been set to take place in spring 2020, but had been postponed to fall 2020 and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The newly announced incarnation of the tour had entirely new locations spanning 11 US cities accompanying the band's spring festival appearances and four performances in Mexico, their first since 2013. Musical style, influences, and legacy The direction of the band is dominated by lead guitarist, lead vocalist, keyboardist, bassist and principal songwriter Billy Corgan. Journalist Greg Kot wrote, "The music [of the Smashing Pumpkins] would not be what it is without his ambition and vision, and his famously fractured relationships with his family, friends, and bandmembers." Melissa Auf der Maur commented upon news of the group's reunion, "Everyone knows Billy doesn't need too many people to make a Pumpkins record, other than Jimmy [Chamberlin]—who he has on board." In a 2015 interview Corgan himself referred to the current iteration of the band "as sort of an open source collective" noting that "It's whoever feels right at the time." Many of Corgan's lyrics for the Pumpkins are cathartic expressions of emotion, full of personal musings and strong indictments of himself and those close to him. Music critics were not often fans of Corgan's angst-filled lyrics. Jim DeRogatis wrote in a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times article that Corgan's lyrics "too often sound like sophomoric poetry", although he viewed the lyrics of later albums Adore and Machina as an improvement. The band's songs have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land" by journalist William Shaw. Smashing Pumpkins, unlike many alternative rock bands at the time, disavowed the influence of punk rock on their sound. Overall, they have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, shoegazing, and electronica in later recordings. The Smashing Pumpkins' distinctive sound up until Adore involved layering numerous guitar tracks onto a song during the recording process, a tactic that Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness coproducer Flood called the "Pumpkin guitar overdub army." Although there were a lot of overdubbed parts on Gish, Corgan began to really explore the possibilities of overdubbing with Siamese Dream; Corgan has stated that "Soma" alone contains up to 40 overdubbed guitar parts. While Corgan knew many of the songs would be difficult or impossible to replicate from their recorded versions in concert (in fact, some songs were drastically altered for live performance), he has explained the use of overdubbing by posing the question "When you are faced with making a permanent recorded representation of a song, why not endow it with the grandest possible vision?" This use of multilayered sounds was inspired by Corgan's love of 1970s popular artists & bands such as: David Bowie, Cheap Trick, Queen, Boston, and the Electric Light Orchestra, as well as shoegaze, a British alternative rock style of the late 1980s and early 1990s that relied on swirling layers of guitar noise for effect. Mellon Collie coproducer Alan Moulder was originally hired to mix Siamese Dream because Corgan was a fan of his work producing shoegaze bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Slowdive. Like many contemporary alternative bands, the Smashing Pumpkins utilized shifts in song dynamics, going from quiet to loud and vice versa. Hüsker Dü's seminal album Zen Arcade demonstrated to the band how they could place gentler material against more aggressive fare, and Corgan made such shifts in dynamics central to the pursuit of his grand musical ambitions. Corgan said he liked the idea of creating his own alternative universe through sound that essentially tells the listener, "Welcome to Pumpkin Land, this is what it sounds like on Planet Pumpkin." This emphasis on atmosphere carried through to Adore (described as "arcane night music" in prerelease promotion) and the Machina albums (concept records that tell the story of a fictional rock band). The Pumpkins drew inspiration from a variety of other genres, some unfashionable during the 1990s among music critics. Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist. When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt". Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East. The song "Zero", which reminded Iha of Judas Priest, is an example of what the band dubbed "cybermetal." Post-punk and gothic rock bands like Joy Division/New Order, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Depeche Mode were formative influences on the band, which covered such artists in concert and on record. Corgan also cited Siouxsie and the Banshees saying it was important to point back to bands that influenced them. Psychedelic rock was also referenced often in the band's early recordings; according to Corgan, "In typical Pumpkins fashion, no one at that point really liked loud guitars or psychedelic music so, of course, that's exactly what we had to do." Corgan felt that the band's guitars "are a mixture of heavy metal and 80s alternative rock. I think of Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees". Corgan acknowledged that a chord he jokingly claimed as "the Pumpkin chord" (a G# octave chord at the eleventh fret of a guitar with the low E string played over it), used as the basis for "Cherub Rock", "Drown", and other songs, was in fact previously used by Jimi Hendrix. Other early influences cited by Corgan include Cream, the Stooges, and Blue Cheer. Regarding the band's influence upon other groups, Greg Kot wrote in 2001, "Whereas Nirvana spawned countless mini-Nirvanas, the Pumpkins remain an island unto themselves." Still, some artists and bands have been influenced by the Pumpkins, such as Nelly Furtado, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, Tegan and Sara, Fall Out Boy, Rivers Cuomo, Panic! at the Disco, Silversun Pickups, and My Chemical Romance. My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way has said that they pattern their career upon the Pumpkins', including music videos. The members of fellow Chicago band Kill Hannah are friends with Corgan, and lead singer Mat Devine has compared his group to the Pumpkins. The group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of October 2012, and sales in the United States alone reaching 19.75 million. Music videos The Smashing Pumpkins have been praised as "responsible for some of the most striking and memorable video clips" and for having "approached videos from a completely artistic standpoint rather than mere commercials to sell albums". MTV's 2001 anniversary special Testimony: 20 Years of Rock on MTV credited the Pumpkins, along with Nine Inch Nails, with treating music videos as an art form during the 1990s. Corgan has said, "We generally resisted the idea of what I call the classic MTV rock video, which is like lots of people jumping around and stuff." The band worked with video directors including Kevin Kerslake ("Cherub Rock"), Samuel Bayer ("Bullet with Butterfly Wings"), and, most frequently, the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris ("Rocket", "1979", "Tonight, Tonight", "The End Is the Beginning Is the End", and "Perfect"). Corgan, who was frequently heavily involved in the conception of the videos, said of Dayton and Faris, "I know my [initial] versions are always darker, and they're always talking me into something a little kinder and gentler." Videos like "Today", "Rocket", and "1979" dealt with images taken from middle American culture, albeit exaggerated. The group's videos so often avoid the literal interpretation of the song lyrics that the video for "Thirty-Three", with images closely related to the words of the song, was created as an intentional stylistic departure. The band was nominated for several MTV Video Music Awards during the 1990s. In 1996, the group won eight VMAs total for the "1979" and "Tonight, Tonight" videos, including the top award, Video of the Year, for "Tonight, Tonight". The video was also nominated for a Grammy at the 1997 ceremony. Of the "Tonight, Tonight" video, Corgan remarked, "I don't think we've ever had people react [like this]... it just seemed to touch a nerve." Shortly after the band's 2000 breakup, the Greatest Hits Video Collection was released, collecting the band's music videos from 1991 to 2000 and including commentary from Corgan, Iha, Chamberlin, Wretzky, and various music video directors with outtakes, live performances, and the extended "Try, Try, Try" short film. Band members Current members Billy Corgan – lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass guitar (1988–2000, 2006–present) James Iha – guitars, bass guitar, vocals (1988–2000, 2018–present) Jimmy Chamberlin – drums (1988–1996, 1998–2000, 2006–2009, 2015–present) Jeff Schroeder – guitars, keyboards (2007–present) Live members Jack Bates – bass guitar (2015–present) Katie Cole – keyboards, backing vocals (2015–present) Former members D'arcy Wretzky – bass guitar, backing vocals (1988–1999) Melissa Auf der Maur – bass guitar (1999–2000) Mike Byrne – drums, backing vocals, keyboards (2009–2014) Nicole Fiorentino – bass guitar, backing vocals, keyboards (2010–2014) Awards American Music Awards 1997 – Best Alternative Artist Grammy Awards 1997 – "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" – Best Hard Rock Performance 1998 – "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" – Best Hard Rock Performance MTV Europe Music Awards 1996 – Best Rock MTV Video Music Awards 1996 – "Tonight, Tonight" – Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography 1996 – "1979" – Best Alternative Video Discography Studio albums Gish (1991) Siamese Dream (1993) Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995) Adore (1998) Machina/The Machines of God (2000) Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (2000) Zeitgeist (2007) Oceania (2012)† Monuments to an Elegy (2014)† Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. (2018) Cyr (2020) Notes † Part of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009–2014), an overarching project abandoned before completion. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links 1988 establishments in Illinois Alternative rock groups from Chicago Articles which contain graphical timelines Caroline Records artists Grammy Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners Musical groups established in 1988 Musical groups disestablished in 2000 Musical groups reestablished in 2006 Musical quartets American musical trios Reprise Records artists Sumerian Records artists Virgin Records artists Musical groups from Chicago	false	[ "Thomas D'Arcy is a Canadian singer and songwriter born in Guernsey, Channel Islands. D'Arcy's family immigrated to Toronto, Ontario in 1981. He has been a member of indie rock bands The Carnations, All Systems Go!, Small Sins, Another Blue Door, The I-Spies, BROS., k-os and Major Maker, among others. He is a graduate of philosophy from the University of Toronto.\n\nArtist career\nIn 1995, D'Arcy and three high school friends formed a band called Pseudonym, which would later become The Carnations, with D'Arcy as lead singer and principal songwriter. The band played in nightclubs its members were not old enough to get into (due to the legal drinking age in Ontario being 19) and turned their love of bands like Weezer, Supergrass, Buzzcocks and Television into a power pop sound all their own. The Carnations wrote and performed the theme song for the MuchMusic show So 90's.\n\nIn 2000, John Kastner (ex-Doughboys) saw The Carnations play a show at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern, and invited D'Arcy to join his new band All Systems Go! D'Arcy also continued to play in The Carnations, as well as a band called Another Blue Door. The Carnations called it quits in 2004 with an announcement on their website. In 2005, D'Arcy conceived Small Sins (formerly known as The Ladies and Gentlemen) as a self-contained solo unit. D'Arcy continued to record under the Small Sins moniker until 2011, when he opted to release solo records under his own name. In 2010, D'Arcy founded his own record label, Thomas D'Arcy Music, which released the last Small Sins record in 2010. D'Arcy was the touring bass player for rapper k-os from 2009 to 2014, performing at the closing ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.\n\nD'Arcy created the track \"You Lovely You\" for a 6-month long advertising campaign for Telus in September 2012. The song was also released on iTunes, and as a 7\" vinyl single with B-Side \"When We Get into It\". Throughout the years, D'Arcy has been commissioned to create music for Canadian advertising campaigns, including for The Home Depot, Triscuits, Dodge, Bell Canada, Scotiabank, Coca-Cola, Honda, Quaker, Alesse, Walmart, Tetley, Hyundai, Toyota, Sunchips, McDonald's and EOS. D'Arcy has also placed music in over 100 television shows and films. In 2016, D'Arcy provided the musical score for the CBC web series 'My 90 Year Old Roommate.' D'Arcy also wrote and performed the theme song for the CBC children's show 'Ollie: The Boy Who Became What He Ate.'\n\nIn 2012, D'Arcy recorded a cover record of the entire Bad Habits album by UK band The Monks. Members of Sloan, The Pursuit of Happiness, Limblifter, The New Pornographers, Change of Heart, The Doughboys and Cursed contributed guest performances to the album, as did John Ford, an original member of the Monks.\n\nIn 2021, D'Arcy revived his pet project, Small Sins with a new 8 song album called 'Volume II'. An alternate orchestral version of the album was also released in April. 2021.\n\nProduction career \nIn 2014, D'Arcy opened the studio Taurus Recording along with fellow producer/engineer Jon Drew. D'Arcy produced the song 'Tell Me' by BROS. which is used as the theme for the CBC radio show Q. D'Arcy engineered the Under The Covers album by Ninja Sex Party, which reached No. 9 on the Billboard sales chart in the US. In 2017, D'Arcy received a SOCAN No. 1 song award for his contribution to the July Talk song \"Push + Pull\". D'Arcy engineered parts of July Talk's self-titled debut album, which won a Juno award for alternative album of the year in 2015. In 2016, D'Arcy self-recorded, wrote and produced a six song collaboration with Hawksley Workman under the name Tommy Hawkins called 'Amy.' In 2016, D'Arcy signed a publishing deal with Arts and Crafts records. In 2019, D'Arcy was nominated for a JUNO for Jack Richardson Producer of the Year.\n\nProducer/engineer credits\n\nArtist discography\n\nThe Carnations\n 1997: Superluminal\n 1998: The Carnations / The Persuasion Split single 7\"\n 1999: A Return to Melody\n 2000: The Carnations / Nero Split single 7\"\n 2001: The Carnations\n 2003: In Good Time\n\nSmall Sins\n 2006: Small Sins\n 2007: Mood Swings\n 2007: The Mellow EP\n 2010: Pot Calls Kettle Black\n\nThomas D'Arcy\n 2012: Tribute to the Monks: Bad Habits\n 2013: What We Want (Thomas D'Arcy Music / MapleMusic Recordings)\n 2013: The Price You Pay EP\n 2013: I Wake Up Every Day EP\n 2014: Songs For A Film That Does Not Exist\n 2015: Fooled You Twice\n 2016: Amy (as Tommy Hawkins)\n 2019: Return to Wherever (credited for his vocals on the track \"All Night Together\")\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Small Sins Official Website\n Small Sins on Myspace\n\nDate of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nGuernsey musicians\nCanadian singer-songwriters\nCanadian indie rock musicians\nMusicians from Toronto\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nCanadian record producers", "John Paterson Sinclair (2 December 1945 – 30 May 2015), better known as Jake D'Arcy, was a Scottish actor, best known for playing \"Peter McCormack\" or \"Pete the Jakey\" in the Scottish comedy programme Still Game from 2002 until 2007.\n\nTelevision and Film\nStarting in the early 1970s, D'Arcy had roles in films and television, appearing in such TV dramas and films as Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Minder, Tutti Frutti, Rab C. Nesbitt, Takin' Over the Asylum, Hamish Macbeth, Taggart and Still Game. He appeared in the 2009 Christmas special of British comedy show Outnumbered.\n\nD'Arcy also had a brief guest appearance as Archie Gordon, the Father of the Samantha Womack character Antonia \"Toni\" Gordon in the popular CITV show, Spatz in 1990. (Series 1, Episode 2).\n\nIn 2014, he played Smokey in the film What We Did on Our Holiday.\n\nFilmography\n\nDeath\nD'Arcy died in May 2015 in Glasgow at the age of 69 from undisclosed causes.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1945 births\n2015 deaths\nScottish male film actors\nScottish male television actors" ]
[ "Ken Kesey", "Merry Pranksters" ]	C_fefb00d5264f4ecd82f4ae729ad25659_0	Do you think Gene Hackman would have been a better choice than Jack Nicholason?	1	Do you think Gene Hackman would have been a better choice than Jack Nicholason In Merry Pranksters?	Ken Kesey	When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Further. This trip, described in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Further Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16mm cameras during the trip which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney's Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 following the completion of a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. During this period, Kesey participated in government studies involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD) to supplement his income. Following the publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he moved to nearby La Honda, California and began hosting happenings with former colleagues from Stanford, miscellaneous bohemian and literary figures (most notably Neal Cassady) and other friends collectively known as the Merry Pranksters; these parties, known as Acid Tests, integrated the consumption of LSD with multimedia performances. He mentored the Grateful Dead (the de facto "house band" of the Acid Tests) throughout their incipience and continued to exert a profound influence upon the group throughout their long career. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion—an epic account of the vicissitudes of an Oregon logging family that aspired to the modernist grandeur of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha saga—was a commercial success that polarized critics and readers upon its release in 1964, although Kesey regarded the novel as his magnum opus. In 1965, following an arrest for marijuana possession and subsequently faked suicide, Kesey was imprisoned for five months. Shortly thereafter, he returned home to the Willamette Valley and settled in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, where he maintained a secluded, family-oriented lifestyle for the rest of his life. In addition to teaching at the University of Oregon—an experience that culminated in Caverns (1989), a collaborative novel written by Kesey and his graduate workshop students under the pseudonym of "O.U. Levon"—he continued to regularly contribute fiction and reportage to such publications as Esquire, Rolling Stone, Oui, Running, and The Whole Earth Catalog; various iterations of these pieces were collected in Kesey's Garage Sale (1973) and Demon Box (1986). Between 1974 and 1980, Kesey published six issues of Spit in the Ocean, a literary magazine that featured excerpts from an unfinished novel (Seven Prayers by Grandma Whittier, an account of Kesey's grandmother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease) and contributions from intellectuals including Margo St. James, Kate Millett, Stewart Brand, Saul-Paul Sirag, Jack Sarfatti, Paul Krassner and William S. Burroughs. After a third novel (Sailor Song) was released to lukewarm reviews in 1992, he reunited with the Merry Pranksters and began publishing works on the Internet until ill health (including a stroke) curtailed his activities. Kesey was also a part of the Church of the SubGenius. Biography Early life Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, to dairy farmers Geneva (née Smith) and Frederick A. Kesey. In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. Kesey was a champion wrestler in high school and college in the weight division. He almost qualified to be on the Olympic team, but a serious shoulder injury stopped his wrestling career. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953. An avid reader and filmgoer, the young Kesey took John Wayne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey as his role models (later naming a son Zane) and toyed with magic, ventriloquism and hypnotism. While attending the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in neighboring Eugene in 1956, Kesey eloped with his high-school sweetheart, Oregon State College student Norma "Faye" Haxby, whom he had met in seventh grade. According to Kesey, "Without Faye, I would have been swept overboard by notoriety and weird, dope-fueled ideas and flower-child girls with beamy eyes and bulbous breasts." Married until his death at the age of 66, they had three children: Jed, Zane and Shannon. Additionally, with the approval of Faye Kesey, Ken fathered a daughter, Sunshine Kesey, with fellow Merry Prankster Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams. Born in 1966, Sunshine was raised by Adams and her stepfather, Jerry Garcia. Kesey had a football scholarship for his first year, but switched to the University of Oregon wrestling team as a better fit for his build. After posting a .885 winning percentage in the 1956–57 season, he received the Fred Low Scholarship for outstanding Northwest wrestler. In 1957, Kesey was second in his weight class at the Pacific Coast intercollegiate competition. He remains ranked in the top 10 of Oregon Wrestling's all time winning percentage. A member of Beta Theta Pi throughout his studies, Kesey graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. in speech and communication in 1957. Increasingly disengaged by the playwriting and screenwriting courses that comprised much of his major, he began to take literature classes in the second half of his collegiate career with James B. Hall, a cosmopolitan alumnus of the Iowa Writers' Workshop who had previously taught at Cornell University and later served as provost of College V at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Hall took on Kesey as his protege and cultivated his interest in literary fiction, introducing Kesey (whose reading interests were hitherto confined to science fiction) to the works of Ernest Hemingway and other paragons of literary modernism. After the last of several brief summer sojourns as a struggling actor in Los Angeles, he published his first short story ("First Sunday of September") in the Northwest Review and successfully applied to the highly selective Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship for the 1958–59 academic year. Unbeknownst to Kesey, who applied at Hall's request, the maverick literary critic Leslie Fiedler (then based at the University of Montana) successfully importuned the regional fellowship committee to select the "rough-hewn" Kesey alongside more traditional fellows from Reed College and other elite institutions. Because he lacked the prerequisites to work toward a traditional master's degree in English as a communications major, Kesey elected to enroll in the non-degree program at Stanford University's Creative Writing Center that fall. While studying and working in the Stanford milieu over the next five years, most of them spent as a resident of Perry Lane (a historically bohemian enclave adjacent to the university golf course), he developed intimate lifelong friendships with fellow writers Ken Babbs, Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman and Robert Stone. During his initial fellowship year, Kesey frequently clashed with Center director Wallace Stegner, who regarded the young writer as "a sort of highly talented illiterate" and rejected Kesey's application for a departmental Stegner Fellowship before permitting his attendance as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Reinforcing these perceptions, Stegner's deputy Richard Scowcroft later recalled that "neither Wally nor I thought he had a particularly important talent." According to Stone, Stegner "saw Kesey... as a threat to civilization and intellectualism and sobriety" and continued to reject Kesey's Stegner Fellowship applications for the 1959–60 and 1960–61 terms. Nevertheless, Kesey received the prestigious $2,000 Harper-Saxton Prize for his first novel in progress (the oft-rejected Zoo) and audited the graduate writing seminar—a courtesy nominally accorded to former Stegner Fellows, although Kesey only secured his place by falsely claiming to Scowcroft that his colleague (on sabbatical through 1960) "had said that he could attend classes for free"—through the 1960–61 term. The course was initially taught that year by Viking Press editorial consultant and Lost Generation eminence grise Malcolm Cowley, who was "always glad to see" Kesey and fellow auditor Tillie Olsen. Cowley was succeeded the following quarter by the Irish short-story specialist Frank O'Connor; frequent spats between O'Connor and Kesey ultimately precipitated his departure from the class. While under the tutelage of Cowley, he began to draft and workshop a manuscript that evolved into One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Reflecting upon this period in a 1999 interview with Robert K. Elder, Kesey recalled, "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie." Experimentation with psychedelic drugs At the invitation of Perry Lane neighbor and Stanford psychology graduate student Vic Lovell, Kesey volunteered to take part in what turned out to be a CIA-financed study under the aegis of Project MKULTRA, a highly secret military program, at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital where he worked as a night aide. The project studied the effects of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, aMT, and DMT on people. Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the study and in the years of private drug-use that followed. Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his stint working at the Veterans' Administration hospital, inspired him to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The success of this book, as well as the demolition of the Perry Lane cabins in August 1963, allowed him to move to a log house at 7940 La Honda Road in La Honda, California, a rustic hamlet in the Santa Cruz Mountains fifteen miles to the west of the Stanford University campus. He frequently entertained friends and many others with parties he called "Acid Tests," involving music (including the Stanford-educated Anonymous Artists of America and Kesey's favorite band, the Grateful Dead), black lights, fluorescent paint, strobe lights, LSD, and other psychedelic effects. These parties were described in some of Allen Ginsberg's poems and served as the basis for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, an early exemplar of the nonfiction novel. Other firsthand accounts of the Acid Tests appear in Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson and the 1967 Hells Angels memoir Freewheelin Frank:, Secretary of the Angels (Frank Reynolds; ghostwritten by Michael McClure). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest While still enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1957, Kesey wrote End of Autumn; according to Rick Dogson, the novel "focused on the exploitation of college athletes by telling the tale of a football lineman who was having second thoughts about the game". Although Kesey came to regard the unpublished work as juvenilia, an excerpt served as his Stanford Creative Writing Center application sample. During his Woodrow Wilson Fellowship year, Kesey wrote Zoo, a novel about the beatniks living in the North Beach community of San Francisco, but it was never published. The inspiration for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest came while working on the night shift with Gordon Lish at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. There, Kesey often spent time talking to the patients, sometimes under the influence of the hallucinogenic drugs he had volunteered to experiment with. Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, but rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave. Published under the guidance of Cowley in 1962, the novel was an immediate success; in 1963, it was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Miloš Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). Kesey originally was involved in creating the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Kesey loathed that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson's being cast as Randle McMurphy (he wanted Gene Hackman). Despite this, Faye Kesey has stated that her husband was generally supportive of the film and pleased that it was made. Merry Pranksters When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Furthur. This trip, described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Furthur Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16 mm cameras during the trip, which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney and Alison Elwood's film Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. Death of son On January 23, 1984, Kesey's 20-year-old son Jed, a wrestler for the University of Oregon, suffered severe head injuries on the way to Pullman, Washington, when the team's loaned van crashed after sliding off an icy highway. Two days later at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, he was declared brain dead and his parents gave permission for his organs to be donated. Jed's death deeply affected Kesey, who later called Jed a victim of policies that had starved the team of funding. He wrote to Senator Mark Hatfield: At a Grateful Dead concert soon after the death of promoter Bill Graham, Kesey delivered a eulogy, mentioning that Graham had donated $1,000 toward a memorial to Jed atop Mount Pisgah, near the Kesey home in Pleasant Hill. In 1988, Kesey donated $33,395 towards the purchase of a proper bus for the school's wrestling team. Final years Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992. In 1994, he toured with members of the Merry Pranksters, performing a musical play he wrote about the millennium called Twister: A Ritual Reality. Many old and new friends and family showed up to support the Pranksters on this tour, which took them from Seattle's Bumbershoot all along the West Coast, including a sold-out two-night run at The Fillmore in San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado, where they coaxed the Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg into performing with them. Kesey mainly kept to his home life in Pleasant Hill, preferring to make artistic contributions on the Internet or holding ritualistic revivals in the spirit of the Acid Test. In the official Grateful Dead DVD release The Closing of Winterland (2003) documenting the monumental New Year's 1978/1979 concert at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, Kesey is featured in a between-set interview. On August 14, 1997, Kesey and his Pranksters attended a Phish concert in Darien Lake, New York. Kesey and the Pranksters appeared onstage with the band and performed a dance-trance-jam session involving several characters from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein. In June 2001, Kesey was invited and accepted as the keynote speaker at the annual commencement of The Evergreen State College. His last major work was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Death In 1997, health problems began to weaken Kesey, starting with a stroke that year. On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene on his liver to remove a tumor; he did not recover and died of complications several weeks later on November 10 at age 66. Legacy The film Gerry (2002) is dedicated to Ken Kesey. Kesey Square is located in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Works This is a selected list of Kesey's better-known works. A collection of essays A collection of essays and short stories "O.U. Levon" spelled backwards produces "novel U.O" This book was jointly written by a creative writing class taught by Kesey at the University of Oregon (U.O.). A play / photographic record A children's book A novel A Western genre novel A play An expansion of the 1967 journals that Kesey kept while incarcerated See also Summer of Love Wavy Gravy Footnotes Further reading Ronald Gregg Billingsley, The Artistry of Ken Kesey. PhD dissertation. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon, 1971. Dedria Bryfonski, Mental illness in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Rick Dodgson, It's All Kind of Magic: The Young Ken Kesey. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. Robert Faggen, "Ken Kesey, The Art of Fiction No. 136," The Paris Review, Spring 1994. Barry H. Leeds, Ken Kesey. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Co., 1981. Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead. Broadway Books, 2002. Tim Owen, "Remembering Ken Kesey," Cosmik Debris Magazine, November 10, 2001. M. Gilbert Porter, The Art of Grit: Ken Kesey's Fiction. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1982. Elaine B Safer, The contemporary American Comic Epic: The Novels of Barth, Pynchon, Gaddis, and Kesey. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1988. Peter Swirski, "You're Not in Canada until You Can Hear the Loons Crying; or, Voting, People's Power and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," in Swirski, American Utopia and Social Engineering in Literature, Social Thought, and Political History. New York: Routledge, 2011. Stephen L. Tanner, Ken Kesey. Boston, MA: Twayne, 1983. External links Bruce Carnes, Ken Kesey, Western Writers Series Digital Editions at Boise State University Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters Article on Ken Kesey lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University, Feb. 20, 1990 Ken Kesey Documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting Chip Brown, "Ken Kesey Kisses No Ass" Esquire Magazine; September 1992 Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture, NPR's Fresh Air; August 12, 2011 Ken Kesey papers at the University of Oregon 1935 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers Activists from California American male essayists American male novelists American male short story writers American psychological fiction writers American SubGenii Beat Generation writers Counterculture festivals activists Deaths from cancer in Oregon Deaths from liver cancer Drug policy reform activists Novelists from Oregon Oregon Ducks wrestlers People from La Junta, Colorado People from Pleasant Hill, Oregon People from Springfield, Oregon People who faked their own death Postmodern writers Pranksters Psychedelic drug advocates University of Oregon alumni Wrestlers from Oregon Writers from California 20th-century American male writers	false	[ "Electric Chair is a compilation album by Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus. It was originally released as a 2-CD set with Armchair Gurus in October 1997. The album features seventeen Hoodoo Gurus' rock/party tracks whilst Armchair Gurus contains seventeen ballads and slower songs. The album peaked at number 33 on the ARIA charts and was certified gold.\n\nTrack listing\n\n \"The Real Deal\" - 4:44\n \"God-Fearing Family Man\" - 4:54\n \"Quicksand\" - 3:32\n \"Down on Me\" - 3:24\n \"Be My Guru\" - 2:38\n \"Death Ship\" - 2:35\n \"Hypocrite Blues\" - 3:00\n \"Glamourpuss\" - 2:35\n \"Where's the Action\" - 3:40\n \"Brainscan\" - 3:19\n \"I Think You Know\" - 3:32\n \"I Was a Kamikaze Pilot\" - 3:09\n \"Axegrinder\" - 3:24\n \"Gene Hackman\" - 2:26\n \"A Hard Day's Night\" - 2:31\n \"The Right Time\" - 3:53\n \"Form a Circle\" / \"She\" - 7:48\n\nPersonnel \nCredited to:\n Alan Thorne - engineer (tracks: \"Be My Guru\", \"Death Ship\", \"Glamourpuss\", \"I Think You Know\", \"I Was A Kamikaze Pilot\", \"Axegrinder\")\n John Bee - engineer (tracks: \"Form A Circle\")\n Paul Hamingson - engineer (tracks: \"Hypocrite Blues\", \"Brainscan\", \"The Right Time\")\n Paul McKercher - engineer (tracks: \"The Real Deal\", \"God-Fearing Family Man\", \"Quicksand\", \"Down On Me\")\n Howie Weinberg - mastering\n David Thoener - mixer (tracks: \"Glamourpuss\", \"Axegrinder\")\n Kevin Shirley - mixer (tracks: \"The Real Deal\", \"God-Fearing Family Man\", \"Quicksand\", \"Down On Me\")\n Dave Collins (tracks: \"Hypocrite Blues\", \"The Right Time\", \"Form A Circle\")\n Adrienne Overall - photography\n Alan Thorne - producer (tracks: \"Be My Guru\", \"Death Ship\", \"I Was A Kamikaze Pilot\")\n Charles Fisher - producer (tracks: \"Quicksand\", \"Down On Me\", \"Form A Circle\")\n Ed Stasium - producer (tracks: \"Hypocrite Blues\", \"The Right Time\")\n Hoodoo Gurus (tracks: \"The Real Deal\", \"God-Fearing Family Man\", \"Quicksand\", \"Down On Me\", \"Glamourpuss\", \"Where's The Action\", \"Brainscan\", \"I Think You Know\", \"Axegrinder\", Gene Hackman\")\n\nCharts\n\nCertifications\n\nReferences\n\nHoodoo Gurus albums\nCompilation albums by Australian artists\n1997 compilation albums", "Hackman is an English surname. Notable people of the name include the following:\n\n Alfred Hackman (1811–1874), English librarian\n Barbara Franklin (née Hackman; b. 1940), U.S. Secretary of Commerce\n Gene Hackman (b. 1930), American actor\n James Hackman (1752–1779), English murderer\n Joseph \"Buddy\" Hackman (1906–1987), American multi-sport player and coach\n Kevin Hackman, ring name of professional wrestler Andy Leavine\n Luther Hackman (b. 1974), American baseball player\n Marika Hackman (b. 1992), English musician\n Paul Hackman (1952–1992), Canadian guitarist\n Robert Hackman (b. 1941), Ghanaian steeplechase runner \n\nEnglish-language surnames" ]
[ "Ken Kesey", "Merry Pranksters", "Do you think Gene Hackman would have been a better choice than Jack Nicholason?", "I don't know." ]	C_fefb00d5264f4ecd82f4ae729ad25659_0	Did you ever see the movie or read the book?	2	Did you ever see Merry Pranksters or read the book?	Ken Kesey	When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Further. This trip, described in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Further Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16mm cameras during the trip which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney's Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 following the completion of a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. During this period, Kesey participated in government studies involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD) to supplement his income. Following the publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he moved to nearby La Honda, California and began hosting happenings with former colleagues from Stanford, miscellaneous bohemian and literary figures (most notably Neal Cassady) and other friends collectively known as the Merry Pranksters; these parties, known as Acid Tests, integrated the consumption of LSD with multimedia performances. He mentored the Grateful Dead (the de facto "house band" of the Acid Tests) throughout their incipience and continued to exert a profound influence upon the group throughout their long career. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion—an epic account of the vicissitudes of an Oregon logging family that aspired to the modernist grandeur of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha saga—was a commercial success that polarized critics and readers upon its release in 1964, although Kesey regarded the novel as his magnum opus. In 1965, following an arrest for marijuana possession and subsequently faked suicide, Kesey was imprisoned for five months. Shortly thereafter, he returned home to the Willamette Valley and settled in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, where he maintained a secluded, family-oriented lifestyle for the rest of his life. In addition to teaching at the University of Oregon—an experience that culminated in Caverns (1989), a collaborative novel written by Kesey and his graduate workshop students under the pseudonym of "O.U. Levon"—he continued to regularly contribute fiction and reportage to such publications as Esquire, Rolling Stone, Oui, Running, and The Whole Earth Catalog; various iterations of these pieces were collected in Kesey's Garage Sale (1973) and Demon Box (1986). Between 1974 and 1980, Kesey published six issues of Spit in the Ocean, a literary magazine that featured excerpts from an unfinished novel (Seven Prayers by Grandma Whittier, an account of Kesey's grandmother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease) and contributions from intellectuals including Margo St. James, Kate Millett, Stewart Brand, Saul-Paul Sirag, Jack Sarfatti, Paul Krassner and William S. Burroughs. After a third novel (Sailor Song) was released to lukewarm reviews in 1992, he reunited with the Merry Pranksters and began publishing works on the Internet until ill health (including a stroke) curtailed his activities. Kesey was also a part of the Church of the SubGenius. Biography Early life Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, to dairy farmers Geneva (née Smith) and Frederick A. Kesey. In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. Kesey was a champion wrestler in high school and college in the weight division. He almost qualified to be on the Olympic team, but a serious shoulder injury stopped his wrestling career. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953. An avid reader and filmgoer, the young Kesey took John Wayne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey as his role models (later naming a son Zane) and toyed with magic, ventriloquism and hypnotism. While attending the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in neighboring Eugene in 1956, Kesey eloped with his high-school sweetheart, Oregon State College student Norma "Faye" Haxby, whom he had met in seventh grade. According to Kesey, "Without Faye, I would have been swept overboard by notoriety and weird, dope-fueled ideas and flower-child girls with beamy eyes and bulbous breasts." Married until his death at the age of 66, they had three children: Jed, Zane and Shannon. Additionally, with the approval of Faye Kesey, Ken fathered a daughter, Sunshine Kesey, with fellow Merry Prankster Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams. Born in 1966, Sunshine was raised by Adams and her stepfather, Jerry Garcia. Kesey had a football scholarship for his first year, but switched to the University of Oregon wrestling team as a better fit for his build. After posting a .885 winning percentage in the 1956–57 season, he received the Fred Low Scholarship for outstanding Northwest wrestler. In 1957, Kesey was second in his weight class at the Pacific Coast intercollegiate competition. He remains ranked in the top 10 of Oregon Wrestling's all time winning percentage. A member of Beta Theta Pi throughout his studies, Kesey graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. in speech and communication in 1957. Increasingly disengaged by the playwriting and screenwriting courses that comprised much of his major, he began to take literature classes in the second half of his collegiate career with James B. Hall, a cosmopolitan alumnus of the Iowa Writers' Workshop who had previously taught at Cornell University and later served as provost of College V at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Hall took on Kesey as his protege and cultivated his interest in literary fiction, introducing Kesey (whose reading interests were hitherto confined to science fiction) to the works of Ernest Hemingway and other paragons of literary modernism. After the last of several brief summer sojourns as a struggling actor in Los Angeles, he published his first short story ("First Sunday of September") in the Northwest Review and successfully applied to the highly selective Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship for the 1958–59 academic year. Unbeknownst to Kesey, who applied at Hall's request, the maverick literary critic Leslie Fiedler (then based at the University of Montana) successfully importuned the regional fellowship committee to select the "rough-hewn" Kesey alongside more traditional fellows from Reed College and other elite institutions. Because he lacked the prerequisites to work toward a traditional master's degree in English as a communications major, Kesey elected to enroll in the non-degree program at Stanford University's Creative Writing Center that fall. While studying and working in the Stanford milieu over the next five years, most of them spent as a resident of Perry Lane (a historically bohemian enclave adjacent to the university golf course), he developed intimate lifelong friendships with fellow writers Ken Babbs, Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman and Robert Stone. During his initial fellowship year, Kesey frequently clashed with Center director Wallace Stegner, who regarded the young writer as "a sort of highly talented illiterate" and rejected Kesey's application for a departmental Stegner Fellowship before permitting his attendance as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Reinforcing these perceptions, Stegner's deputy Richard Scowcroft later recalled that "neither Wally nor I thought he had a particularly important talent." According to Stone, Stegner "saw Kesey... as a threat to civilization and intellectualism and sobriety" and continued to reject Kesey's Stegner Fellowship applications for the 1959–60 and 1960–61 terms. Nevertheless, Kesey received the prestigious $2,000 Harper-Saxton Prize for his first novel in progress (the oft-rejected Zoo) and audited the graduate writing seminar—a courtesy nominally accorded to former Stegner Fellows, although Kesey only secured his place by falsely claiming to Scowcroft that his colleague (on sabbatical through 1960) "had said that he could attend classes for free"—through the 1960–61 term. The course was initially taught that year by Viking Press editorial consultant and Lost Generation eminence grise Malcolm Cowley, who was "always glad to see" Kesey and fellow auditor Tillie Olsen. Cowley was succeeded the following quarter by the Irish short-story specialist Frank O'Connor; frequent spats between O'Connor and Kesey ultimately precipitated his departure from the class. While under the tutelage of Cowley, he began to draft and workshop a manuscript that evolved into One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Reflecting upon this period in a 1999 interview with Robert K. Elder, Kesey recalled, "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie." Experimentation with psychedelic drugs At the invitation of Perry Lane neighbor and Stanford psychology graduate student Vic Lovell, Kesey volunteered to take part in what turned out to be a CIA-financed study under the aegis of Project MKULTRA, a highly secret military program, at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital where he worked as a night aide. The project studied the effects of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, aMT, and DMT on people. Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the study and in the years of private drug-use that followed. Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his stint working at the Veterans' Administration hospital, inspired him to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The success of this book, as well as the demolition of the Perry Lane cabins in August 1963, allowed him to move to a log house at 7940 La Honda Road in La Honda, California, a rustic hamlet in the Santa Cruz Mountains fifteen miles to the west of the Stanford University campus. He frequently entertained friends and many others with parties he called "Acid Tests," involving music (including the Stanford-educated Anonymous Artists of America and Kesey's favorite band, the Grateful Dead), black lights, fluorescent paint, strobe lights, LSD, and other psychedelic effects. These parties were described in some of Allen Ginsberg's poems and served as the basis for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, an early exemplar of the nonfiction novel. Other firsthand accounts of the Acid Tests appear in Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson and the 1967 Hells Angels memoir Freewheelin Frank:, Secretary of the Angels (Frank Reynolds; ghostwritten by Michael McClure). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest While still enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1957, Kesey wrote End of Autumn; according to Rick Dogson, the novel "focused on the exploitation of college athletes by telling the tale of a football lineman who was having second thoughts about the game". Although Kesey came to regard the unpublished work as juvenilia, an excerpt served as his Stanford Creative Writing Center application sample. During his Woodrow Wilson Fellowship year, Kesey wrote Zoo, a novel about the beatniks living in the North Beach community of San Francisco, but it was never published. The inspiration for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest came while working on the night shift with Gordon Lish at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. There, Kesey often spent time talking to the patients, sometimes under the influence of the hallucinogenic drugs he had volunteered to experiment with. Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, but rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave. Published under the guidance of Cowley in 1962, the novel was an immediate success; in 1963, it was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Miloš Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). Kesey originally was involved in creating the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Kesey loathed that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson's being cast as Randle McMurphy (he wanted Gene Hackman). Despite this, Faye Kesey has stated that her husband was generally supportive of the film and pleased that it was made. Merry Pranksters When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Furthur. This trip, described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Furthur Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16 mm cameras during the trip, which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney and Alison Elwood's film Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. Death of son On January 23, 1984, Kesey's 20-year-old son Jed, a wrestler for the University of Oregon, suffered severe head injuries on the way to Pullman, Washington, when the team's loaned van crashed after sliding off an icy highway. Two days later at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, he was declared brain dead and his parents gave permission for his organs to be donated. Jed's death deeply affected Kesey, who later called Jed a victim of policies that had starved the team of funding. He wrote to Senator Mark Hatfield: At a Grateful Dead concert soon after the death of promoter Bill Graham, Kesey delivered a eulogy, mentioning that Graham had donated $1,000 toward a memorial to Jed atop Mount Pisgah, near the Kesey home in Pleasant Hill. In 1988, Kesey donated $33,395 towards the purchase of a proper bus for the school's wrestling team. Final years Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992. In 1994, he toured with members of the Merry Pranksters, performing a musical play he wrote about the millennium called Twister: A Ritual Reality. Many old and new friends and family showed up to support the Pranksters on this tour, which took them from Seattle's Bumbershoot all along the West Coast, including a sold-out two-night run at The Fillmore in San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado, where they coaxed the Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg into performing with them. Kesey mainly kept to his home life in Pleasant Hill, preferring to make artistic contributions on the Internet or holding ritualistic revivals in the spirit of the Acid Test. In the official Grateful Dead DVD release The Closing of Winterland (2003) documenting the monumental New Year's 1978/1979 concert at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, Kesey is featured in a between-set interview. On August 14, 1997, Kesey and his Pranksters attended a Phish concert in Darien Lake, New York. Kesey and the Pranksters appeared onstage with the band and performed a dance-trance-jam session involving several characters from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein. In June 2001, Kesey was invited and accepted as the keynote speaker at the annual commencement of The Evergreen State College. His last major work was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Death In 1997, health problems began to weaken Kesey, starting with a stroke that year. On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene on his liver to remove a tumor; he did not recover and died of complications several weeks later on November 10 at age 66. Legacy The film Gerry (2002) is dedicated to Ken Kesey. Kesey Square is located in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Works This is a selected list of Kesey's better-known works. A collection of essays A collection of essays and short stories "O.U. Levon" spelled backwards produces "novel U.O" This book was jointly written by a creative writing class taught by Kesey at the University of Oregon (U.O.). A play / photographic record A children's book A novel A Western genre novel A play An expansion of the 1967 journals that Kesey kept while incarcerated See also Summer of Love Wavy Gravy Footnotes Further reading Ronald Gregg Billingsley, The Artistry of Ken Kesey. PhD dissertation. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon, 1971. Dedria Bryfonski, Mental illness in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Rick Dodgson, It's All Kind of Magic: The Young Ken Kesey. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. Robert Faggen, "Ken Kesey, The Art of Fiction No. 136," The Paris Review, Spring 1994. Barry H. Leeds, Ken Kesey. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Co., 1981. Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead. Broadway Books, 2002. Tim Owen, "Remembering Ken Kesey," Cosmik Debris Magazine, November 10, 2001. M. Gilbert Porter, The Art of Grit: Ken Kesey's Fiction. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1982. Elaine B Safer, The contemporary American Comic Epic: The Novels of Barth, Pynchon, Gaddis, and Kesey. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1988. Peter Swirski, "You're Not in Canada until You Can Hear the Loons Crying; or, Voting, People's Power and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," in Swirski, American Utopia and Social Engineering in Literature, Social Thought, and Political History. New York: Routledge, 2011. Stephen L. Tanner, Ken Kesey. Boston, MA: Twayne, 1983. External links Bruce Carnes, Ken Kesey, Western Writers Series Digital Editions at Boise State University Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters Article on Ken Kesey lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University, Feb. 20, 1990 Ken Kesey Documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting Chip Brown, "Ken Kesey Kisses No Ass" Esquire Magazine; September 1992 Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture, NPR's Fresh Air; August 12, 2011 Ken Kesey papers at the University of Oregon 1935 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers Activists from California American male essayists American male novelists American male short story writers American psychological fiction writers American SubGenii Beat Generation writers Counterculture festivals activists Deaths from cancer in Oregon Deaths from liver cancer Drug policy reform activists Novelists from Oregon Oregon Ducks wrestlers People from La Junta, Colorado People from Pleasant Hill, Oregon People from Springfield, Oregon People who faked their own death Postmodern writers Pranksters Psychedelic drug advocates University of Oregon alumni Wrestlers from Oregon Writers from California 20th-century American male writers	false	[ "Disney's Children's Favorite Songs Volume 3 is a collection of 23 best-loved songs for kids. The songs are performed by Larry Groce and The Disneyland Children's Sing-Along Chorus. The Choral Director is Betty Joyce. The CD is produced by Pat Patrick and Ron Kid, and engineered by Kent Madison and George Charouhas.\n\nTrack listing\nAll songs are public domain except where listed.\n \"If You're Happy and You Know It\"1:09\n \"Shoo, Fly, Don't Bother Me\"1:00\n \"Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?\"1:59\n Activity Medley: \"Itsy Bitsy Spider\", \"Ring Around the Rosy\", \"One, Two, Buckle My Shoe\"1:35\n \"Hush, Little Baby\"1:39\n \"Did You Ever See a Lassie?\"1:24\n \"Grandfather's Clock\"3:22\n \"Clementine1:49 \n \"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore\"2:29\n \"Alouette\"2:02\n \"With Apologies to Mother Goose\" (Will Ryan)2:15\n \"Sweet Betsy from Pike\"1:21\n \"Over the River and Through the Wood\"1:15\n \"Billy Boy\"1:38\n Nursery Rhyme Medley: \"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep\", \"Sing a Song of Sixpence\", \"Old King Cole\"1:57\n \"Alphabet Song\"1:26\n \"Why Do They Make Things Like They Do? (from the Disneyland/Golden Book Read-Along Just For You)\" (Larry Groce)2:04\n \"Loch Lomond\"2:04\n \"A-Hunting We Will Go\"0:54 \n \"Down in the Valley\"2:05\n \"Waltzing Matilda\" (Banjo Paterson)2:25\n \"Just for You (from the Disneyland/Golden Book Read-Along Just For You)\" (Larry Groce)2:18\n \"Good Night, Ladies\"1:05\n\nReferences \n\n1986 compilation albums\nDisneyland Records compilation albums\nChildren's music albums", "\"Did You Ever See a Lassie?\" is a folk song, nursery rhyme, and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 5040.\n\nLyrics\nModern versions of the lyrics include:\n\nDid you ever see a lassie,\nA lassie, a lassie?\nDid you ever see a lassie,\nGo this way and that?\nGo this way and that way,\nGo this way and that way.\nDid you ever see a lassie,\nGo this way and that?\n\nDid you ever see a laddie,\nA laddie, a laddie?\nDid you ever see a laddie,\nGo this way and that?\nGo this way and that way,\nGo this way and that way.\nDid you ever see a laddie,\nGo this way and that?\n\nOrigins\nThe use of the terms \"lassie\" and \"laddie\" mean that this song is often attributed to possible origins in Scotland (by various forms of media; see \"references\" section), but it was first collected in the United States in the last decade of the nineteenth century and was not found in Great Britain until the mid-twentieth century. However, it can be surmised that the words to the song may have come from Scottish immigrants or Scottish-Americans because of the aforementioned terms.\n\nAlong with \"The More We Get Together\", it is generally sung to the same tune as \"Oh du lieber Augustin\", a song written in Germany or Vienna in the late seventeenth century.\n\nIt was first published in 1909, in Games for the Playground, Home, School and Gymnasium by Jessie Hubbell Bancroft.\n\nAs a game\nThe song is often accompanied by a circle singing game. Players form a circle and dance around one player. When they reach the end of the verse they stop, the single in the middle performs an action (such as Highland dancing), which everyone then imitates, before starting the verse again, often changing the single player to a boy, or a boy can join the center player - thus creating an extra verse in the song (\"Did you ever see some children...\").\n\nReferences in popular culture and children's media\nThe song is featured in the 1963 motion picture Ladybug, Ladybug. In the movie, children sing the song as part of a game while walking home from school during a nuclear bomb attack drill.\n\nThe song, as sung by children, was used in a 1990 commercial for Maidenform, and played over a succession of pictures of women in uncomfortable-looking clothing, was followed by the tag-line, \"Isn't it nice to live in a time when women aren't being pushed around so much anymore?\"\n\nThe song is featured in an episode of The Simpsons, \"The Otto Show\", and was titled \"Hail to the Bus Driver\".\n\nReferences\n\nScottish folk songs\nEnglish children's songs\nTraditional children's songs\nAmerican nursery rhymes\nEnglish nursery rhymes\nSinging games\nNursery rhymes of uncertain origin\nYear of song unknown\nSongwriter unknown" ]
[ "Ken Kesey", "Merry Pranksters", "Do you think Gene Hackman would have been a better choice than Jack Nicholason?", "I don't know.", "Did you ever see the movie or read the book?", "I don't know." ]	C_fefb00d5264f4ecd82f4ae729ad25659_0	What is Merry Pranksters about?	3	What is Merry Pranksters about?	Ken Kesey	When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Further. This trip, described in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Further Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16mm cameras during the trip which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney's Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. CANNOTANSWER	Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Further.	Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 following the completion of a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. During this period, Kesey participated in government studies involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD) to supplement his income. Following the publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he moved to nearby La Honda, California and began hosting happenings with former colleagues from Stanford, miscellaneous bohemian and literary figures (most notably Neal Cassady) and other friends collectively known as the Merry Pranksters; these parties, known as Acid Tests, integrated the consumption of LSD with multimedia performances. He mentored the Grateful Dead (the de facto "house band" of the Acid Tests) throughout their incipience and continued to exert a profound influence upon the group throughout their long career. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion—an epic account of the vicissitudes of an Oregon logging family that aspired to the modernist grandeur of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha saga—was a commercial success that polarized critics and readers upon its release in 1964, although Kesey regarded the novel as his magnum opus. In 1965, following an arrest for marijuana possession and subsequently faked suicide, Kesey was imprisoned for five months. Shortly thereafter, he returned home to the Willamette Valley and settled in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, where he maintained a secluded, family-oriented lifestyle for the rest of his life. In addition to teaching at the University of Oregon—an experience that culminated in Caverns (1989), a collaborative novel written by Kesey and his graduate workshop students under the pseudonym of "O.U. Levon"—he continued to regularly contribute fiction and reportage to such publications as Esquire, Rolling Stone, Oui, Running, and The Whole Earth Catalog; various iterations of these pieces were collected in Kesey's Garage Sale (1973) and Demon Box (1986). Between 1974 and 1980, Kesey published six issues of Spit in the Ocean, a literary magazine that featured excerpts from an unfinished novel (Seven Prayers by Grandma Whittier, an account of Kesey's grandmother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease) and contributions from intellectuals including Margo St. James, Kate Millett, Stewart Brand, Saul-Paul Sirag, Jack Sarfatti, Paul Krassner and William S. Burroughs. After a third novel (Sailor Song) was released to lukewarm reviews in 1992, he reunited with the Merry Pranksters and began publishing works on the Internet until ill health (including a stroke) curtailed his activities. Kesey was also a part of the Church of the SubGenius. Biography Early life Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, to dairy farmers Geneva (née Smith) and Frederick A. Kesey. In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. Kesey was a champion wrestler in high school and college in the weight division. He almost qualified to be on the Olympic team, but a serious shoulder injury stopped his wrestling career. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953. An avid reader and filmgoer, the young Kesey took John Wayne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey as his role models (later naming a son Zane) and toyed with magic, ventriloquism and hypnotism. While attending the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in neighboring Eugene in 1956, Kesey eloped with his high-school sweetheart, Oregon State College student Norma "Faye" Haxby, whom he had met in seventh grade. According to Kesey, "Without Faye, I would have been swept overboard by notoriety and weird, dope-fueled ideas and flower-child girls with beamy eyes and bulbous breasts." Married until his death at the age of 66, they had three children: Jed, Zane and Shannon. Additionally, with the approval of Faye Kesey, Ken fathered a daughter, Sunshine Kesey, with fellow Merry Prankster Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams. Born in 1966, Sunshine was raised by Adams and her stepfather, Jerry Garcia. Kesey had a football scholarship for his first year, but switched to the University of Oregon wrestling team as a better fit for his build. After posting a .885 winning percentage in the 1956–57 season, he received the Fred Low Scholarship for outstanding Northwest wrestler. In 1957, Kesey was second in his weight class at the Pacific Coast intercollegiate competition. He remains ranked in the top 10 of Oregon Wrestling's all time winning percentage. A member of Beta Theta Pi throughout his studies, Kesey graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. in speech and communication in 1957. Increasingly disengaged by the playwriting and screenwriting courses that comprised much of his major, he began to take literature classes in the second half of his collegiate career with James B. Hall, a cosmopolitan alumnus of the Iowa Writers' Workshop who had previously taught at Cornell University and later served as provost of College V at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Hall took on Kesey as his protege and cultivated his interest in literary fiction, introducing Kesey (whose reading interests were hitherto confined to science fiction) to the works of Ernest Hemingway and other paragons of literary modernism. After the last of several brief summer sojourns as a struggling actor in Los Angeles, he published his first short story ("First Sunday of September") in the Northwest Review and successfully applied to the highly selective Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship for the 1958–59 academic year. Unbeknownst to Kesey, who applied at Hall's request, the maverick literary critic Leslie Fiedler (then based at the University of Montana) successfully importuned the regional fellowship committee to select the "rough-hewn" Kesey alongside more traditional fellows from Reed College and other elite institutions. Because he lacked the prerequisites to work toward a traditional master's degree in English as a communications major, Kesey elected to enroll in the non-degree program at Stanford University's Creative Writing Center that fall. While studying and working in the Stanford milieu over the next five years, most of them spent as a resident of Perry Lane (a historically bohemian enclave adjacent to the university golf course), he developed intimate lifelong friendships with fellow writers Ken Babbs, Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman and Robert Stone. During his initial fellowship year, Kesey frequently clashed with Center director Wallace Stegner, who regarded the young writer as "a sort of highly talented illiterate" and rejected Kesey's application for a departmental Stegner Fellowship before permitting his attendance as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Reinforcing these perceptions, Stegner's deputy Richard Scowcroft later recalled that "neither Wally nor I thought he had a particularly important talent." According to Stone, Stegner "saw Kesey... as a threat to civilization and intellectualism and sobriety" and continued to reject Kesey's Stegner Fellowship applications for the 1959–60 and 1960–61 terms. Nevertheless, Kesey received the prestigious $2,000 Harper-Saxton Prize for his first novel in progress (the oft-rejected Zoo) and audited the graduate writing seminar—a courtesy nominally accorded to former Stegner Fellows, although Kesey only secured his place by falsely claiming to Scowcroft that his colleague (on sabbatical through 1960) "had said that he could attend classes for free"—through the 1960–61 term. The course was initially taught that year by Viking Press editorial consultant and Lost Generation eminence grise Malcolm Cowley, who was "always glad to see" Kesey and fellow auditor Tillie Olsen. Cowley was succeeded the following quarter by the Irish short-story specialist Frank O'Connor; frequent spats between O'Connor and Kesey ultimately precipitated his departure from the class. While under the tutelage of Cowley, he began to draft and workshop a manuscript that evolved into One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Reflecting upon this period in a 1999 interview with Robert K. Elder, Kesey recalled, "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie." Experimentation with psychedelic drugs At the invitation of Perry Lane neighbor and Stanford psychology graduate student Vic Lovell, Kesey volunteered to take part in what turned out to be a CIA-financed study under the aegis of Project MKULTRA, a highly secret military program, at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital where he worked as a night aide. The project studied the effects of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, aMT, and DMT on people. Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the study and in the years of private drug-use that followed. Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his stint working at the Veterans' Administration hospital, inspired him to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The success of this book, as well as the demolition of the Perry Lane cabins in August 1963, allowed him to move to a log house at 7940 La Honda Road in La Honda, California, a rustic hamlet in the Santa Cruz Mountains fifteen miles to the west of the Stanford University campus. He frequently entertained friends and many others with parties he called "Acid Tests," involving music (including the Stanford-educated Anonymous Artists of America and Kesey's favorite band, the Grateful Dead), black lights, fluorescent paint, strobe lights, LSD, and other psychedelic effects. These parties were described in some of Allen Ginsberg's poems and served as the basis for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, an early exemplar of the nonfiction novel. Other firsthand accounts of the Acid Tests appear in Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson and the 1967 Hells Angels memoir Freewheelin Frank:, Secretary of the Angels (Frank Reynolds; ghostwritten by Michael McClure). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest While still enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1957, Kesey wrote End of Autumn; according to Rick Dogson, the novel "focused on the exploitation of college athletes by telling the tale of a football lineman who was having second thoughts about the game". Although Kesey came to regard the unpublished work as juvenilia, an excerpt served as his Stanford Creative Writing Center application sample. During his Woodrow Wilson Fellowship year, Kesey wrote Zoo, a novel about the beatniks living in the North Beach community of San Francisco, but it was never published. The inspiration for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest came while working on the night shift with Gordon Lish at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. There, Kesey often spent time talking to the patients, sometimes under the influence of the hallucinogenic drugs he had volunteered to experiment with. Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, but rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave. Published under the guidance of Cowley in 1962, the novel was an immediate success; in 1963, it was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Miloš Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). Kesey originally was involved in creating the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Kesey loathed that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson's being cast as Randle McMurphy (he wanted Gene Hackman). Despite this, Faye Kesey has stated that her husband was generally supportive of the film and pleased that it was made. Merry Pranksters When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Furthur. This trip, described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Furthur Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16 mm cameras during the trip, which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney and Alison Elwood's film Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. Death of son On January 23, 1984, Kesey's 20-year-old son Jed, a wrestler for the University of Oregon, suffered severe head injuries on the way to Pullman, Washington, when the team's loaned van crashed after sliding off an icy highway. Two days later at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, he was declared brain dead and his parents gave permission for his organs to be donated. Jed's death deeply affected Kesey, who later called Jed a victim of policies that had starved the team of funding. He wrote to Senator Mark Hatfield: At a Grateful Dead concert soon after the death of promoter Bill Graham, Kesey delivered a eulogy, mentioning that Graham had donated $1,000 toward a memorial to Jed atop Mount Pisgah, near the Kesey home in Pleasant Hill. In 1988, Kesey donated $33,395 towards the purchase of a proper bus for the school's wrestling team. Final years Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992. In 1994, he toured with members of the Merry Pranksters, performing a musical play he wrote about the millennium called Twister: A Ritual Reality. Many old and new friends and family showed up to support the Pranksters on this tour, which took them from Seattle's Bumbershoot all along the West Coast, including a sold-out two-night run at The Fillmore in San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado, where they coaxed the Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg into performing with them. Kesey mainly kept to his home life in Pleasant Hill, preferring to make artistic contributions on the Internet or holding ritualistic revivals in the spirit of the Acid Test. In the official Grateful Dead DVD release The Closing of Winterland (2003) documenting the monumental New Year's 1978/1979 concert at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, Kesey is featured in a between-set interview. On August 14, 1997, Kesey and his Pranksters attended a Phish concert in Darien Lake, New York. Kesey and the Pranksters appeared onstage with the band and performed a dance-trance-jam session involving several characters from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein. In June 2001, Kesey was invited and accepted as the keynote speaker at the annual commencement of The Evergreen State College. His last major work was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Death In 1997, health problems began to weaken Kesey, starting with a stroke that year. On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene on his liver to remove a tumor; he did not recover and died of complications several weeks later on November 10 at age 66. Legacy The film Gerry (2002) is dedicated to Ken Kesey. Kesey Square is located in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Works This is a selected list of Kesey's better-known works. A collection of essays A collection of essays and short stories "O.U. Levon" spelled backwards produces "novel U.O" This book was jointly written by a creative writing class taught by Kesey at the University of Oregon (U.O.). A play / photographic record A children's book A novel A Western genre novel A play An expansion of the 1967 journals that Kesey kept while incarcerated See also Summer of Love Wavy Gravy Footnotes Further reading Ronald Gregg Billingsley, The Artistry of Ken Kesey. PhD dissertation. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon, 1971. Dedria Bryfonski, Mental illness in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Rick Dodgson, It's All Kind of Magic: The Young Ken Kesey. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. Robert Faggen, "Ken Kesey, The Art of Fiction No. 136," The Paris Review, Spring 1994. Barry H. Leeds, Ken Kesey. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Co., 1981. Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead. Broadway Books, 2002. Tim Owen, "Remembering Ken Kesey," Cosmik Debris Magazine, November 10, 2001. M. Gilbert Porter, The Art of Grit: Ken Kesey's Fiction. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1982. Elaine B Safer, The contemporary American Comic Epic: The Novels of Barth, Pynchon, Gaddis, and Kesey. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1988. Peter Swirski, "You're Not in Canada until You Can Hear the Loons Crying; or, Voting, People's Power and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," in Swirski, American Utopia and Social Engineering in Literature, Social Thought, and Political History. New York: Routledge, 2011. Stephen L. Tanner, Ken Kesey. Boston, MA: Twayne, 1983. External links Bruce Carnes, Ken Kesey, Western Writers Series Digital Editions at Boise State University Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters Article on Ken Kesey lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University, Feb. 20, 1990 Ken Kesey Documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting Chip Brown, "Ken Kesey Kisses No Ass" Esquire Magazine; September 1992 Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture, NPR's Fresh Air; August 12, 2011 Ken Kesey papers at the University of Oregon 1935 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers Activists from California American male essayists American male novelists American male short story writers American psychological fiction writers American SubGenii Beat Generation writers Counterculture festivals activists Deaths from cancer in Oregon Deaths from liver cancer Drug policy reform activists Novelists from Oregon Oregon Ducks wrestlers People from La Junta, Colorado People from Pleasant Hill, Oregon People from Springfield, Oregon People who faked their own death Postmodern writers Pranksters Psychedelic drug advocates University of Oregon alumni Wrestlers from Oregon Writers from California 20th-century American male writers	false	[ "Magic Trip is a 2011 documentary film directed by Alison Ellwood and Alex Gibney, about Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and the Merry Pranksters.\n\nThe documentary uses the 16 mm color footage shot by Kesey and the Merry Pranksters during their 1964 cross-country bus trip in the Furthur bus. The hyperkinetic Cassady is frequently seen driving the bus, jabbering, and sitting next to a sign that boasts, \"Neal gets things done\".\n\nThe film was released in the US on August 5, 2011 by Magnolia Pictures.\n\nThe movie soundtrack includes excerpts from several songs by the Grateful Dead.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2011 films\nDocumentary films about United States history\nHippie films\nFilms directed by Alex Gibney\nDocumentary films about drugs", "The Merry Pranksters were comrades and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964.\n\nKen Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy road trip they took in the summer of 1964, traveling across the United States in a psychedelic painted school bus called Furthur, organizing parties and giving out LSD. During this time they met many of the guiding lights of the mid-1960s cultural movement and presaged what are commonly thought of as hippies with odd behavior, tie-dyed and red, white and blue clothing, and renunciation of normal society, which they dubbed The Establishment. Tom Wolfe chronicled their early escapades in his 1968 book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and documents a notorious 1966 trip on Furthur from Mexico through Houston, stopping to visit Kesey's friend, novelist Larry McMurtry. Kesey was in flight from a drug charge at the time.\n\nNotable members of the group include Kesey's best friend Ken Babbs, Carolyn \"Mountain Girl\" Garcia, Lee Quarnstrom, and Neal Cassady. Stewart Brand, Dorothy Fadiman, Paul Foster, George Walker, the Warlocks (now known as the Grateful Dead), Del Close (then a lighting designer for the Grateful Dead), Wavy Gravy, Paul Krassner, and Kentucky Fab Five writers Ed McClanahan and Gurney Norman (who overlapped with Kesey and Babbs as creative writing graduate students at Stanford University) were associated with the group to varying degrees.\n\nThese events are also documented by one of the original pranksters, Lee Quarnstrom, in his memoir, When I Was a Dynamiter.\n\nOrigin of name\nIn an interview on BBC World Service in August 2014, Ken Babbs suggested that the name \"The Merry Pranksters\" was his idea:\n\nMembership\n\nOn the bus\nAlthough a great many friends and associates spent time with Kesey at his La Honda, California ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, the core group of 14 people who became the 'Merry Band of Pranksters' that drove across the country in 1964 were:\n Ken Kesey (The Chief, Captain Flag, or Swashbuckler), author (1935-2001)\n Neal Cassady (Sir Speed Limit), driver (eastbound), author (1926-1968)\n Cathy Casamo (Stark Naked), actress, girlfriend of Larry Hankin\n Ron Bevirt (Hassler), photographer (1939-)\n Ken Babbs (Intrepid Traveler), author, boyfriend of Paula Sundsten (1939-)\n John Babbs (Sometimes Missing), Ken Babbs' older brother (1937-2012)\n Jane Burton (Generally Famished), Stanford philosophy professor, pregnant at the time\n Sandy Lehmann-Haupt (Dis-Mount), sound engineer (1942-2001)\n Paula Sundsten (Gretchen Fetchin or Slime Queen), girlfriend of Ken Babbs\n Mike Hagen (Mal Function), cameraman\n George Walker (Hardly Visible)\n Steve Lambrecht (Zonker), businessman (1942-1998)\n Chuck Kesey (Brother Charlie), Ken's brother\n Dale Kesey (Highly Charged), Ken's cousin, \"bus chaplain\"\n Linda Breen (Anonymous), a 14 year old runaway who hopped on in Canada during the original trip\n\nOff the bus\nOther on-again, off-again Pranksters (all of whom did not participate in the first cross-country journey, but may have the later trips) include, but are not limited to, the following:\n Roy Sebern, artist (painted the name \"Furthur\" [sic] on the bus)\n Carolyn Adams Garcia (Mountain Girl), wife of Jerry Garcia and George Walker, mother of Ken Kesey's daughter Sunshine (1946-)\n Chloe Scott, dancer (1925-2019)\n John Page Browning (Zea-Lot or Cadaverous Cowboy), light show operator (1938-1984)\n Gordon \"Dass\" Adams, Mountain Girl's brother (1940-)\n Anthony Dean Wells (The Hermit)\n Denise Kaufman (Mary Microgram), musician with The Ace of Cups\n Ron Boise, sculptor (1931-1966)\n Paul Foster, cartoonist (1934-2003)\n Peter Demma, co-owner of Hip Pocket Bookstore with Kesey\n Norman Hartweg, columnist (1947-)\n Dorothy Fadiman, filmmaker (1939-)\n Kathy (Zonker's girlfriend) (aka Sensuous X)\n June (aka June the Goon)\n Stephanie Kesey (Lips)\n Zane Kesey (Chicken Leopard)\n Simon Babbs (Lightning)\n Randy Turley (Captain Randy)\n Margie Piaggio (Marge the Barge)\n John Swan (Swan)\n Euphoria Foster Paul's Daughter, artist (Marie)\n Elaya Cassady artist (Firefly)\n Matt Wade bus mechanic, artist (Little Jack)\n Stewart Brand, author and futurist (1938-)\n Del Close, comedian and performance coach (1934-1999)\n Wavy Gravy, entertainer and activist (1936-)\n Paul Krassner, author (1932-2019)\n Lee Quarnstrom, author (1939-2021)\n Ed McClanahan (Captain Kentucky), author (1932-2021)\n Gurney Norman, author (1937-)\n Robert Stone, author; met the bus in New York City (1937-2015)\n Emilia Hazelip, organic gardener (1937-2003)\n\nEastward bus journey\n\nOn June 17, 1964, Kesey and 13 Merry Pranksters boarded Furthur at Kesey's ranch in La Honda, California, and set off eastward. Kesey wanted to see what would happen when hallucinogenic-inspired spontaneity confronted what he saw as the banality and conformity of American society. Ken Babbs has suggested that the bus trip reversed the historic American westward movement.\n\nThe trip's original purpose was to celebrate the publication of Kesey's novel Sometimes a Great Notion (1964) and to visit the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. The Pranksters were enthusiastic users of marijuana, amphetamines, and LSD, and in the process of their journey are said to have \"turned on\" many people by introducing them to these drugs.\n\nThe psychedelically painted bus's stated destination — \"further\" — was the Merry Pranksters' goal: a destination that could be reached only through the expansion of one's own perception of reality.\n\nNovelist Robert Stone, who met the bus on its arrival in New York, wrote in his memoir Prime Green: Remembering the Sixties (2007) that those accompanying Kesey on the trip were Neal Cassady (described by Stone as \"the world's greatest driver, who could roll a joint while backing a 1937 Packard onto the lip of the Grand Canyon\"), Ken Babbs (\"fresh from the Nam, full of radio nomenclature, and with a command voice that put cops to flight\"), Jane Burton (\"a pregnant young philosophy professor who declined no challenges\"), George Walker, Sandy Lehmann-Haupt (dis-MOUNT), Mike Hagen (Mal Function), Ron Bevirt (Hassler), Chuck Kesey, Dale Kesey, John Babbs, Steve Lambrecht and Paula Sundstren (aka Gretchin Fetchin, Slime Queen).\n\nZane Kesey and Simon Babbs edited the video and audio clips made by the Pranksters on the trip to produce a DVD (1999) called simply The Acid Test, which is distributed by Key-z Productions.\n\nHells Angels\nKesey and the Pranksters also had a relationship with the outlaw motorcycle gang the Hells Angels, whom Kesey introduced to LSD. The details of their relationship are documented in Wolfe's above-mentioned book, in Hunter S. Thompson's book, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (1966), and in Allen Ginsberg's poem about the Kesey/Angels relationship, titled \"First Party at Ken Kesey's with Hell's Angels\" (December 1965).\n\nLater events\nIn 1969, Further and the Pranksters (minus Kesey) attended the Woodstock rock festival. In the same year, they attended the Texas Pop Festival at Lewisville, Texas.\n\nKesey's Demon Box (1986), a collection of short pieces, several about the Merry Pranksters, was a critical success. A subsequent novel, Sailor Song (1992), was not, with critics complaining it was too spacey for comprehension. In 1994, Kesey toured with the Pranksters, performing Twister: A Ritual Reality in Three Quarters Plus Overtime if Necessary, a play he wrote in 1989 about the millennium, influenced by L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz works.\n\nThe Merry Pranksters filmed and audiotaped much of what they did on their bus trips. Some of this material has surfaced in documentaries, including the BBC's Dancing In the Street. Some Pranksters have released footage on their own, and a version of the film edited by Kesey is available through his son Zane's website. On August 14, 1997, Kesey appeared with the Merry Pranksters at a Phish concert during a performance of the song \"Colonel Forbin's Ascent\" from the album The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday (1987).\nKesey and the Pranksters also helped stage The Enit Festival, held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on November 22, 1997, with Jane's Addiction, Funky Tekno Tribe, Goldie, and Res Fest rounding out the bill.\n\nThe original Prankster bus is at Kesey's farm in Oregon. In November 2005, it was pulled out of the swamp by Zane Kesey and family and a group of the original Merry Pranksters with the intent of restoring it. The Smithsonian Institution sought to acquire the bus, which is no longer operable, but Kesey refused, and attempted, unsuccessfully, to prank the Smithsonian by passing off a phony bus.\n\nKesey died of complications due to liver cancer in November 2001.\n\nOn December 10, 2003, Ken Babbs hosted a memorial to Kesey with String Cheese Incident and various other old and new Pranksters. It was held at the McDonald Theatre in Eugene, Oregon. The proceeds helped to raise money for the Ken Kesey Memorial sculpture designed by Peter Helzer. The bronze sculpture depicted a life-size Kesey reading to three children while seated on a curved granite bench covered with quotations from Kesey's novels One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) and Sometimes a Great Notion (1964). (Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker supplied the image.) Other benefactors for the project include Bob Weir, Paul Newman (who starred in the 1971 film adaptation of Sometimes a Great Notion) and Michael Douglas (who produced the 1975 film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest).\n\n2011 documentary\nAlex Gibney and Alison Ellwood directed a documentary film Magic Trip (2011) about the Merry Pranksters, which was released on August 5, 2011.\n\n50th Anniversary Trip\nIn April 2014, Zane, along with friend Derek Stevens, announced a Kickstarter to fund a 50th anniversary Furthur Bus Trip, offering donors a chance to ride Furthur. The fundraiser was successful, and the trip took place between June and September 2014. Over 100 participants were invited to ride on legs of the trip as a new batch of Merry Pranksters. The 2014 journey was over 15,000 miles, 53 different events, took place in 29 different states and was 75 days of Merry Prankster mayhem and fun on the road. A group of filmmakers documented the journey, releasing a film titled Going Furthur.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nKen Kesey & the Merry Pranksters website\nPsychedelic 60s: Ken Kesey & the Merry Pranksters at University of Virginia library\n\n \n\n1964 establishments in Oregon\nCounterculture festivals activists\nOregon culture\nPranksters" ]
[ "Ken Kesey", "Merry Pranksters", "Do you think Gene Hackman would have been a better choice than Jack Nicholason?", "I don't know.", "Did you ever see the movie or read the book?", "I don't know.", "What is Merry Pranksters about?", "Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Further." ]	C_fefb00d5264f4ecd82f4ae729ad25659_0	Why was the school bus given a name?	4	Why was the school bus in Merry Pranksters given the name Further?	Ken Kesey	When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Further. This trip, described in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Further Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16mm cameras during the trip which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney's Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 following the completion of a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. During this period, Kesey participated in government studies involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD) to supplement his income. Following the publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he moved to nearby La Honda, California and began hosting happenings with former colleagues from Stanford, miscellaneous bohemian and literary figures (most notably Neal Cassady) and other friends collectively known as the Merry Pranksters; these parties, known as Acid Tests, integrated the consumption of LSD with multimedia performances. He mentored the Grateful Dead (the de facto "house band" of the Acid Tests) throughout their incipience and continued to exert a profound influence upon the group throughout their long career. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion—an epic account of the vicissitudes of an Oregon logging family that aspired to the modernist grandeur of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha saga—was a commercial success that polarized critics and readers upon its release in 1964, although Kesey regarded the novel as his magnum opus. In 1965, following an arrest for marijuana possession and subsequently faked suicide, Kesey was imprisoned for five months. Shortly thereafter, he returned home to the Willamette Valley and settled in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, where he maintained a secluded, family-oriented lifestyle for the rest of his life. In addition to teaching at the University of Oregon—an experience that culminated in Caverns (1989), a collaborative novel written by Kesey and his graduate workshop students under the pseudonym of "O.U. Levon"—he continued to regularly contribute fiction and reportage to such publications as Esquire, Rolling Stone, Oui, Running, and The Whole Earth Catalog; various iterations of these pieces were collected in Kesey's Garage Sale (1973) and Demon Box (1986). Between 1974 and 1980, Kesey published six issues of Spit in the Ocean, a literary magazine that featured excerpts from an unfinished novel (Seven Prayers by Grandma Whittier, an account of Kesey's grandmother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease) and contributions from intellectuals including Margo St. James, Kate Millett, Stewart Brand, Saul-Paul Sirag, Jack Sarfatti, Paul Krassner and William S. Burroughs. After a third novel (Sailor Song) was released to lukewarm reviews in 1992, he reunited with the Merry Pranksters and began publishing works on the Internet until ill health (including a stroke) curtailed his activities. Kesey was also a part of the Church of the SubGenius. Biography Early life Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, to dairy farmers Geneva (née Smith) and Frederick A. Kesey. In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. Kesey was a champion wrestler in high school and college in the weight division. He almost qualified to be on the Olympic team, but a serious shoulder injury stopped his wrestling career. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953. An avid reader and filmgoer, the young Kesey took John Wayne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Zane Grey as his role models (later naming a son Zane) and toyed with magic, ventriloquism and hypnotism. While attending the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in neighboring Eugene in 1956, Kesey eloped with his high-school sweetheart, Oregon State College student Norma "Faye" Haxby, whom he had met in seventh grade. According to Kesey, "Without Faye, I would have been swept overboard by notoriety and weird, dope-fueled ideas and flower-child girls with beamy eyes and bulbous breasts." Married until his death at the age of 66, they had three children: Jed, Zane and Shannon. Additionally, with the approval of Faye Kesey, Ken fathered a daughter, Sunshine Kesey, with fellow Merry Prankster Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams. Born in 1966, Sunshine was raised by Adams and her stepfather, Jerry Garcia. Kesey had a football scholarship for his first year, but switched to the University of Oregon wrestling team as a better fit for his build. After posting a .885 winning percentage in the 1956–57 season, he received the Fred Low Scholarship for outstanding Northwest wrestler. In 1957, Kesey was second in his weight class at the Pacific Coast intercollegiate competition. He remains ranked in the top 10 of Oregon Wrestling's all time winning percentage. A member of Beta Theta Pi throughout his studies, Kesey graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. in speech and communication in 1957. Increasingly disengaged by the playwriting and screenwriting courses that comprised much of his major, he began to take literature classes in the second half of his collegiate career with James B. Hall, a cosmopolitan alumnus of the Iowa Writers' Workshop who had previously taught at Cornell University and later served as provost of College V at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Hall took on Kesey as his protege and cultivated his interest in literary fiction, introducing Kesey (whose reading interests were hitherto confined to science fiction) to the works of Ernest Hemingway and other paragons of literary modernism. After the last of several brief summer sojourns as a struggling actor in Los Angeles, he published his first short story ("First Sunday of September") in the Northwest Review and successfully applied to the highly selective Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship for the 1958–59 academic year. Unbeknownst to Kesey, who applied at Hall's request, the maverick literary critic Leslie Fiedler (then based at the University of Montana) successfully importuned the regional fellowship committee to select the "rough-hewn" Kesey alongside more traditional fellows from Reed College and other elite institutions. Because he lacked the prerequisites to work toward a traditional master's degree in English as a communications major, Kesey elected to enroll in the non-degree program at Stanford University's Creative Writing Center that fall. While studying and working in the Stanford milieu over the next five years, most of them spent as a resident of Perry Lane (a historically bohemian enclave adjacent to the university golf course), he developed intimate lifelong friendships with fellow writers Ken Babbs, Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman and Robert Stone. During his initial fellowship year, Kesey frequently clashed with Center director Wallace Stegner, who regarded the young writer as "a sort of highly talented illiterate" and rejected Kesey's application for a departmental Stegner Fellowship before permitting his attendance as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Reinforcing these perceptions, Stegner's deputy Richard Scowcroft later recalled that "neither Wally nor I thought he had a particularly important talent." According to Stone, Stegner "saw Kesey... as a threat to civilization and intellectualism and sobriety" and continued to reject Kesey's Stegner Fellowship applications for the 1959–60 and 1960–61 terms. Nevertheless, Kesey received the prestigious $2,000 Harper-Saxton Prize for his first novel in progress (the oft-rejected Zoo) and audited the graduate writing seminar—a courtesy nominally accorded to former Stegner Fellows, although Kesey only secured his place by falsely claiming to Scowcroft that his colleague (on sabbatical through 1960) "had said that he could attend classes for free"—through the 1960–61 term. The course was initially taught that year by Viking Press editorial consultant and Lost Generation eminence grise Malcolm Cowley, who was "always glad to see" Kesey and fellow auditor Tillie Olsen. Cowley was succeeded the following quarter by the Irish short-story specialist Frank O'Connor; frequent spats between O'Connor and Kesey ultimately precipitated his departure from the class. While under the tutelage of Cowley, he began to draft and workshop a manuscript that evolved into One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Reflecting upon this period in a 1999 interview with Robert K. Elder, Kesey recalled, "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie." Experimentation with psychedelic drugs At the invitation of Perry Lane neighbor and Stanford psychology graduate student Vic Lovell, Kesey volunteered to take part in what turned out to be a CIA-financed study under the aegis of Project MKULTRA, a highly secret military program, at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital where he worked as a night aide. The project studied the effects of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, aMT, and DMT on people. Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the study and in the years of private drug-use that followed. Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his stint working at the Veterans' Administration hospital, inspired him to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The success of this book, as well as the demolition of the Perry Lane cabins in August 1963, allowed him to move to a log house at 7940 La Honda Road in La Honda, California, a rustic hamlet in the Santa Cruz Mountains fifteen miles to the west of the Stanford University campus. He frequently entertained friends and many others with parties he called "Acid Tests," involving music (including the Stanford-educated Anonymous Artists of America and Kesey's favorite band, the Grateful Dead), black lights, fluorescent paint, strobe lights, LSD, and other psychedelic effects. These parties were described in some of Allen Ginsberg's poems and served as the basis for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, an early exemplar of the nonfiction novel. Other firsthand accounts of the Acid Tests appear in Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson and the 1967 Hells Angels memoir Freewheelin Frank:, Secretary of the Angels (Frank Reynolds; ghostwritten by Michael McClure). One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest While still enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1957, Kesey wrote End of Autumn; according to Rick Dogson, the novel "focused on the exploitation of college athletes by telling the tale of a football lineman who was having second thoughts about the game". Although Kesey came to regard the unpublished work as juvenilia, an excerpt served as his Stanford Creative Writing Center application sample. During his Woodrow Wilson Fellowship year, Kesey wrote Zoo, a novel about the beatniks living in the North Beach community of San Francisco, but it was never published. The inspiration for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest came while working on the night shift with Gordon Lish at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. There, Kesey often spent time talking to the patients, sometimes under the influence of the hallucinogenic drugs he had volunteered to experiment with. Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, but rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave. Published under the guidance of Cowley in 1962, the novel was an immediate success; in 1963, it was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Miloš Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). Kesey originally was involved in creating the film, but left two weeks into production. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Kesey loathed that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson's being cast as Randle McMurphy (he wanted Gene Hackman). Despite this, Faye Kesey has stated that her husband was generally supportive of the film and pleased that it was made. Merry Pranksters When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Furthur. This trip, described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Furthur Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat." A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16 mm cameras during the trip, which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney and Alison Elwood's film Magic Trip in 2011. After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Kesey was arrested in La Honda, California, for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. He returned to the United States eight months later. On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. Two nights later, he was arrested again, this time with Carolyn Adams, while smoking marijuana on the rooftop of Stewart Brand's Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco. On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. Death of son On January 23, 1984, Kesey's 20-year-old son Jed, a wrestler for the University of Oregon, suffered severe head injuries on the way to Pullman, Washington, when the team's loaned van crashed after sliding off an icy highway. Two days later at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, he was declared brain dead and his parents gave permission for his organs to be donated. Jed's death deeply affected Kesey, who later called Jed a victim of policies that had starved the team of funding. He wrote to Senator Mark Hatfield: At a Grateful Dead concert soon after the death of promoter Bill Graham, Kesey delivered a eulogy, mentioning that Graham had donated $1,000 toward a memorial to Jed atop Mount Pisgah, near the Kesey home in Pleasant Hill. In 1988, Kesey donated $33,395 towards the purchase of a proper bus for the school's wrestling team. Final years Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992. In 1994, he toured with members of the Merry Pranksters, performing a musical play he wrote about the millennium called Twister: A Ritual Reality. Many old and new friends and family showed up to support the Pranksters on this tour, which took them from Seattle's Bumbershoot all along the West Coast, including a sold-out two-night run at The Fillmore in San Francisco to Boulder, Colorado, where they coaxed the Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg into performing with them. Kesey mainly kept to his home life in Pleasant Hill, preferring to make artistic contributions on the Internet or holding ritualistic revivals in the spirit of the Acid Test. In the official Grateful Dead DVD release The Closing of Winterland (2003) documenting the monumental New Year's 1978/1979 concert at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, Kesey is featured in a between-set interview. On August 14, 1997, Kesey and his Pranksters attended a Phish concert in Darien Lake, New York. Kesey and the Pranksters appeared onstage with the band and performed a dance-trance-jam session involving several characters from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein. In June 2001, Kesey was invited and accepted as the keynote speaker at the annual commencement of The Evergreen State College. His last major work was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Death In 1997, health problems began to weaken Kesey, starting with a stroke that year. On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene on his liver to remove a tumor; he did not recover and died of complications several weeks later on November 10 at age 66. Legacy The film Gerry (2002) is dedicated to Ken Kesey. Kesey Square is located in downtown Eugene, Oregon. Works This is a selected list of Kesey's better-known works. A collection of essays A collection of essays and short stories "O.U. Levon" spelled backwards produces "novel U.O" This book was jointly written by a creative writing class taught by Kesey at the University of Oregon (U.O.). A play / photographic record A children's book A novel A Western genre novel A play An expansion of the 1967 journals that Kesey kept while incarcerated See also Summer of Love Wavy Gravy Footnotes Further reading Ronald Gregg Billingsley, The Artistry of Ken Kesey. PhD dissertation. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon, 1971. Dedria Bryfonski, Mental illness in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Rick Dodgson, It's All Kind of Magic: The Young Ken Kesey. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. Robert Faggen, "Ken Kesey, The Art of Fiction No. 136," The Paris Review, Spring 1994. Barry H. Leeds, Ken Kesey. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Co., 1981. Dennis McNally, A Long Strange Trip: the Inside History of the Grateful Dead. Broadway Books, 2002. Tim Owen, "Remembering Ken Kesey," Cosmik Debris Magazine, November 10, 2001. M. Gilbert Porter, The Art of Grit: Ken Kesey's Fiction. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1982. Elaine B Safer, The contemporary American Comic Epic: The Novels of Barth, Pynchon, Gaddis, and Kesey. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1988. Peter Swirski, "You're Not in Canada until You Can Hear the Loons Crying; or, Voting, People's Power and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," in Swirski, American Utopia and Social Engineering in Literature, Social Thought, and Political History. New York: Routledge, 2011. Stephen L. Tanner, Ken Kesey. Boston, MA: Twayne, 1983. External links Bruce Carnes, Ken Kesey, Western Writers Series Digital Editions at Boise State University Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters Article on Ken Kesey lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University, Feb. 20, 1990 Ken Kesey Documentary produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting Chip Brown, "Ken Kesey Kisses No Ass" Esquire Magazine; September 1992 Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture, NPR's Fresh Air; August 12, 2011 Ken Kesey papers at the University of Oregon 1935 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers Activists from California American male essayists American male novelists American male short story writers American psychological fiction writers American SubGenii Beat Generation writers Counterculture festivals activists Deaths from cancer in Oregon Deaths from liver cancer Drug policy reform activists Novelists from Oregon Oregon Ducks wrestlers People from La Junta, Colorado People from Pleasant Hill, Oregon People from Springfield, Oregon People who faked their own death Postmodern writers Pranksters Psychedelic drug advocates University of Oregon alumni Wrestlers from Oregon Writers from California 20th-century American male writers	false	[ "The Taichung Municipal Taichung Industrial High School () is a vocational school in South District, Taichung, Taiwan, also the one of the top vocational high school in Taiwan, near National Chung Hsing University, Daqing Station, THSR Taichung Station, National Library of Public Information\n\nHistory \n\n Built in 1938，the name was 「Taichung County Taichung Industrial School」\n In 1945，the name was changed to 「Taiwan Provincial Taichung Industrial School」\n In August, 1951，the name was changed to 「Taiwan Provincial Taichung Industrial High School」\n In 1953，It has been a demonstration school\n In 2000，the name was changed to 「National Taichung Industrial High School」。\n In 2017, the name was changed to 「Taichung Municipal Taichung Industrial High School」\n\nTransportation \nBuses in Taichung\n Ubus：3、53、73、79\n Taichung Bus：33、35、82、101、102\n Chuan Hang Tourism：58、65\n Ren-Yeou Bus：105\n CTbus : 125\n G-Bus：166\n\nExternal links \n\n Taichung Municipal Taichung Industrial High School\n\n1938 establishments in Taiwan\nEducational institutions established in 1938\nSchools in Taichung", "Ward Body Works (also known as Ward Industries and Ward School Bus Manufacturing, Inc.) was an American bus manufacturer. Headquartered in Conway, Arkansas, Ward specialized in yellow school buses, alongside buses for other uses. Founded in 1933 by D.H. \"Dave\" Ward, the company was family-owned for nearly its entire existence.\n\nAmong several innovations, Ward was the first manufacturer to perform a rollover test on a school bus, leading to changes in school bus body design. Ward would also become the first school bus manufacturer to assemble buses on an assembly line.\n\nIn 1980, Ward filed for bankruptcy and was reorganized as American Transportation Corporation (AmTran) keeping the Ward brand name in use on school buses. In 1991, AmTran was acquired by Navistar International, with the Ward name phased out during 1992. Today, International produces school buses using its IC Bus subsidiary (the successor to AmTran).\n\nHistory\nD. H. \"Dave\" Ward founded Ward Body Works in Conway, Arkansas, in 1933 when he \"lowered the roof of a wooden bus for Mr. Carl Brady of the Southside Schools\". Southside Schools were located about 15 miles north of Conway. A blacksmith by trade, Ward grew his business primarily on body repair of bus bodies in the area. In 1936, he built his first complete school bus body. One of the first manufacturers of the time to use all-metal construction, the first school bus made by Ward Body Works featured removable safety-glass windows and perimeter and center-mounted seating.\n\nIn 1939, the company opened a 10,000 square-foot factory in Conway, Arkansas. During World War II, along with supplying buses for the military, Ward built over 1000 different bodies of various types for the GMC CCKW cargo truck. Following the war, the company became one of the first bus manufacturers to expand outside of the United States, opening a facility in Mexico City in 1947; bus bodies from Conway would be shipped to Mexico to be placed on chassis for use internationally. To expand capacity inside the United States, a second facility was opened in Austin, Texas in 1951.\n\nDespite expanding to 100,000 square feet, the original Ward factory in Conway was too small to keep up with demand; the company built an even larger factory outside of the city in 1954; at any given time, 45 bus bodies could be on the 1,500-foot-long assembly line, producing up to 100 complete buses weekly. Later in the 1950s, the company moved beyond its school bus roots, adding mass-transit and sightseeing buses to its product lineup. Due to importation issues, the Ward factory in Mexico was closed in 1954.\n\nIn 1956, Ward became both a body manufacturer and an industry supplier, as the company created a subsidiary, C.S. Sash Company, which became a major aluminum window frame manufacturer for school buses.\n\nIn the 1960s, Ward School Bus Manufacturing, Inc. began a series of updates that would modernize manufacturing and production. To catalog the various state and local regulations affecting school bus specifications, in 1964, company owner Charles Ward set up a computer mainframe (using IBM 360s). In the same year, Ward performed the first independent rollover test on a school bus, discovering issues related to structural integrity. During 1967, the assembly line in the Conway facility was upgraded to a moving assembly line, a first in the bus industry. In 1969, the recommendations from the crash test were published, finding that an inconsistent number of fasteners among manufacturers could lead to poor joint strength. The findings would be used in part to government recommendations for school bus joint strength. Following the 1968 retirement of Dave Ward, Ward Body Works remained a family-owned company, with son Charles Ward handling operations.\n\nDuring the 1970s, Ward would become one of the largest school bus body manufacturers in the United States, with the company holding a 25% market share in 1973. In 1970, the Austin plant was replaced by an all-new facility in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. To expand into small buses, Ward purchased Texas-based manufacturer Coachette in 1973, moving their production into a separate facility in Conway. Additionally, the assembly line at the main Conway facility was upgraded and connected to an IBM 370 mainframe, as the company explored computer-based manufacturing. Coinciding with the new assembly line was the redesigned full-size conventional bus body, dubbed the Ward Volunteer. Aside from a redesigned windshield and the change in chassis suppliers, the Ward Volunteer shares many components with that of the IC Bus CE-Series produced today.\n\nAlong with other school bus manufacturers, the late 1970s would prove to be a rough time for Ward, which had been renamed Ward School Bus Manufacturing, Inc. In 1975, the Pennsylvania plant was forced to close. A year later, Ward would produce a prototype for the first front-wheel drive full-size school bus, but the company was forced to abandon the project before it reached production. As Ward faced declining demand for school buses, the company was over $20 million in debt; in July 1980, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.\n\nIn August 1980, an investment group assisted by the then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton purchased the assets of Ward Industries. While the school buses would still bear the Ward name, the only interests that the Ward family would keep in the new company would be in vehicle distribution. By 1981, Ward was officially known as AmTran (American Transportation Corporation).\n\nProducts\n\nSee also\n\nAmTran - direct successor\nIC Bus - successor to AmTran\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nArticle with information about Ward Body Works foundation \nArticle with facts related to Ward bankruptcy filing\n\nNavistar International\nSchool bus manufacturers\n1933 establishments in Arkansas\nBus manufacturers of the United States" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career" ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	when did he begin his solo career?	1	when did Glenn Frey begin his solo career?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s,	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	true	[ "Llane (born Juan David Castaño Montoya on January 20, 1990 in Sabaneta, Colombia) is a Colombian singer, formerly a member of the group Piso 21 and now a solo artist.\n\nCareer \n\nLlane spent 12 years with the group Piso 21, enjoying success in several countries. In February 2019 he announced via YouTube that he was leaving the group to begin a solo career. On October 18, 2019, he released his first solo single, \"Más de ti\"., and on January 31, 2020, he released the second one, \"Amor bailando\". Llane also made his live debut as a solo artist at the Megaland 2019 outdoor music concert in Bogota on November 30, 2019.\n\nHe will be releasing his debut album titled “Fino” later this year.\n\nDiscography\n\nSingles\n\nReferences \n\n1990 births\nLiving people\n21st-century Colombian male singers", "Carlos Alberto Sánchez (born in Girardot, Colombia, 1974), better known in the entertainment world as Charlie Zaa, is a Colombian singer. Zaa is the son of singer Luis Humberto Sánchez.\n\nEarly and personal life\nZaa was a singer in two Colombian salsa orchestras: \"Grupo Niche\" and \"Guayacán\". When he launched his career as a solo artist, he decided to switch to the bolero rhythm. This career decision was made in the mid 90s.\n\nOn July 23, 2004, Zaa suffered a severe abdominal pain as he was about to begin a concert in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He couldn't perform that day, having to be taken to a local hospital. Zaa was then flown to Miami, Florida, where he remained hospitalized until he was diagnosed with a kidney condition. Soon after, his personal doctor corrected the problem in a surgery performed in his native Colombia.\n\nZaa's daughter Lauren Mia Sanchez was a survivor of the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in which 17 people lost their lives, including one of her teachers.\n\nMusic career\nCharlie Zaa has recorded over 10 albums since launching his career as a solo artist. His record Sentimientos, in which he sings some past hit songs, sold over three million copies throughout Latin America and the United States. His albums Sentimientos and Un Segundo Sentimiento led to him winning the 1998 Artist of the Year award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards. For his fourth album, Zaa returned to the Sonolux studios in Bogotá, where he made his first album Sentimiento, and to his original producer, Milton Salcedo, and recorded old romantic standards, boleros and waltzes, in an attempt to replicate the success of Sentimiento. Zaa's album De Un Solo Sentimiento was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award in 2002. In 2011, Zaa's album De Bohemia reached the top of the Billboard Latin Albums chart. Some of Charlie Zaa's music was inspired by notable Ecuadorian singer and recording artistJulio Jaramillo.\n\nDiscography\n Sentimientos (1996)\n Un Segundo Sentimiento (1998)\n Ciego de Amor (2000)\n De Un Solo Sentimiento (2001)\n Puro Sentimiento (2004)\n De Bohemia (2009)\n Mi Mejor Regalo (2015)\n Celebración (2017)\n\nReferences\n\n1974 births\nLiving people\n21st-century Colombian male singers\nConverts to Christianity\nColombian Christians\nSony Music Latin artists\nBolero singers\nPeople from Cundinamarca Department\n20th-century Colombian male singers" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career", "when did he begin his solo career?", "After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s," ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	did he collaborate with anyone?	2	Did Glenn Frey collaborate with anyone, after the Eagles disbanded?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	false	[ "Paulo Mendonça is a Swedish funk guitarist of Portuguese origin. He has made five studio albums and one live album, the first three in the 1990s He toured with Tina Turner among others. In 2008, he collaborated on Jeff Scott Soto's album, Beautiful mess. In 2013, he released Does anyone wanna funk? which featured the song Birds and the bees, a moderate success in Sweden and Germany \n\nHe was one of the first musicians ever to collaborate with the Swatch Group to provide tunes for its Melody line of wristwatches. His latest collaboration with Swatch is the PAULO MENDONCA-11 PM model, from the Winter 2013 collection.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nSingles\n\nDiscography and certifications as songwriter \nA discography of songs written and/or produced by Paulo Mendonca.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official site\n YouTube page\n Facebook page\n Instagram page\n Twitter account\n Last.fm artist page\n Spotify artist page\n Apple Music artist page\n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nBrazilian guitarists\nBrazilian bass guitarists\nMale bass guitarists", "Walter Bullock (May 6, 1907 in Shelburn, Indiana –1953 in Los Angeles, California) was an American song lyricist and screenwriter. He recorded with his brother, James Russell Lowell Bullock. On April 22, 1930, they released a record on the Champion label (16004). Side A was I’m Satisfied With My Girl and side B was He Man Chew Tobacco.\n\nAfter graduating from DePauw University, Bullock started writing for Hollywood in 1936 and was to collaborate with many film composers. In 1936, he had two successes with Magnolias in the Moonlight with music by Victor Schertzinger, and When Did You Leave Heaven? with Richard A. Whiting.\n\nHe was nominated for two Academy Awards.\n\nSelected filmography\n The Gang's All Here (1943)\n Repeat Performance (1947)\n Out of the Blue (1947)\n Adventures of Casanova (1948)\n Golden Girl (1951)\n The Farmer Takes a Wife (1953)\n The I Don't Care Girl (1953)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1907 births\n1953 deaths\nAmerican male screenwriters\nPeople from Sullivan County, Indiana\nDePauw University alumni\nWriters from Indiana\n20th-century American composers\n20th-century American male writers\n20th-century American screenwriters" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career", "when did he begin his solo career?", "After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s,", "did he collaborate with anyone?", "In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer" ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	what was the song?	3	What was the song that Glenn Frey recorded with Harold Faltermeyer?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On",	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	false	[ "\"(What Is) Love?\" is a song recorded by American entertainer Jennifer Lopez. Originally entitled \"What Is Love?\", the song appeared on the soundtrack to The Back-up Plan (2010), a film in which Lopez stars, version presented in Italy at the Sanremo Music Festival 2010. The song was later included on Lopez's seventh studio album Love? (2011), as the album's title track. \"(What Is) Love?\" is a midtempo electropop song written by Diana \"Wynter\" Gordon, with the song's producer Emile \"D'Mile\" Dernst II. The song is about \"not knowing what love is,\" according to Gordon. A remix of \"(What Is) Love?\", entitled \"What Is Love? Part II\", was produced by Jean-Baptiste. It was considered for inclusion on Love? and was leaked onto the internet in April 2013.\n\nThe song was due to be released as a promotional single from Love? on April 26, 2011, but was \"unlocked\" and released on April 22, 2011 by Island Records through a campaign on Lopez's Facebook page. Upon its promotional release, the song debuted at number 97 on the South Korea Gaon International Chart and at 33 on the Productores de Música de España.\n\nWriting and production \n\"(What Is) Love?\" written by Diana \"Wynter\" Gordon and Emile \"D'Mile\" Dernst; the latter who also produced the song. Lopez's vocals for the song were recorded and produced by Kuk Harrell, with recording assistance from Jim Annunziato and Josh Gudwin at Conway Studios in Hollywood, California. Annunziato and Eric Eylands handled audio engineering of \"(What Is) Love?\", while the song was later mixed by Mike \"Handz\" Donaldson at Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California.\n\n\"(What Is) Love?\" deals with the topic of \"not knowing what love is\". The song's co-writer Gordon stated that: \"I felt like so many woman have that same story. No fathers, families, abusive boyfriends and husbands..no parental support, they feel alone .. I've had my few relationships and have yet to feel love .\"\n\nLeak and release \n\n\"What Is Love?\" was leaked onto the internet in May 2009. Wynter Gordon, the co-writer of \"What Is Love?\", expressed her dismay at the \"unfinished and unmastered\" song's leak in a post on her official MySpace blog. She stated: \"I wrote this song from a deep place in my heart. If the world was gonna hear it, I wanted them to hear it right... It's as good as gone to me now... The story was given a Lifetime TV special instead of a movie... sad.\" Gordon did note that she was dissatisfied with the circumstances, but was in \"no way dissing Lopez.\"\n\nA mastered version of \"What Is Love?\" was included on the soundtrack to The Back-up Plan (2010), a film in which Lopez stars. \"What Is Love?\" was re-titled as \"(What Is) Love?\" and appeared on Love? (2011). \"(What Is) Love?\" was due to be released as a promotional single from Love? on April 26, 2011, but was \"unlocked\" and released four days earlier, on April 22, 2011 by through a campaign on Lopez's Facebook page. It was released in many European countries on April 25.\n\nCritical response \nThe song received a positive review from Digital Spy's Robert Copsey, who although stating that it isn't any \"we haven't heard before,\" Lopez carries \"it off with her unrivalled glamour and effortless sophistication.\" He concluded by stating that the song was worthy of a standalone release. Monica Herrera from Billboard commented that on the song, Lopez channels \"J.Lo circa 2003.\" Herrera added the song would have been \"slayed if the gender had been flipped\", and it had been sung by Justin Bieber. Joey Guerra from the Houston Chronicle said that Lopez uses \"(What Is) Love?\" (and the album cut \"Starting Over\") to play the jilted lover. Us Weekly noted the song's lyrics to be pointing \"a few fingers\" at Lopez's previous relationships, seen in the line dissing \"blind dates\" and the declaration of: \"Musicians are the worst.\"\n\n\"What Is Love? (Part II)\" \nDuring the first album listening party for Love? in 2009, Rap-Up magazine revealed that Jean-Baptiste had produced a second version of the song called \"What Is Love? (Part II)\". It was considered for included on the album but ultimately did not make the final track listing. It samples the \"club-friendly\" riff of Edwin Starr's 1970 single \"War\". \"What Is Love? Part II\" was leaked onto the internet on April 22, 2013.\n\nCredits and personnel \nCredits adapted from the liner notes of Love?.\n\nJim Annunziato – audio engineer, vocal recording engineer\nAnesha Birchett – background vocals\nMike \"Handz\" Donaldson – mixing engineer\nEmile Dernst II (D'Mile) – songwriter, producer\nEric Eylands – assistant audio engineer\nKuk Harrell – vocal producer, vocal recording engineer\nShani Gonzales – additional A&R\nDianna \"Wynter\" Gordon – songwriter, background vocals\nJosh Gudwin – vocal recording engineer\nJohn \"J-Banga\" Kercy – Pro Tools engineer\nJennifer Lopez – lead vocals\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2011 songs\nJennifer Lopez songs\nIsland Records singles\nElectropop songs\nSong recordings produced by Kuk Harrell\nSongs written by D'Mile\nSongs written by Wynter Gordon", "\"What R U Waiting 4\" is a song originally performed by American actress and singer Lindsay Lohan, which was included on the Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen soundtrack in 2004; Australian singer-songwriter Tiffani Wood covered the song for her debut single, also released in 2004. The song was written by Matthew Gerrard, Bridget Benenate, and Steve Booker, whilst production was helmed by Tony Cvetkovski. \"What R U Waiting 4\" was Wood's first release following the disbandment of Australian girl group Bardot.\n\nProduction and recording\n \n\"What R U Waiting 4\" was written by Matthew Gerrard, Bridget Benenate, Steve Booker; it was produced by Tony Cvetkovski. Lindsay Lohan originally performed the song, which was included on the movie soundtrack Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, released in February 2004. In the same year, Tiffani Wood covered the song for her debut single, utilizing a relaxed version of the instrumental in Lohan's version. Wood's version was recorded by Cvetkovski, with Cvetkovski and Wood both responsible for additional vocal arrangements on the song.\n\nCvetkovski and David Hemming mixed the song in Australia, while David Macquarie handled the mastering of the song.\n\nComposition\nAccording to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing, the song is written in the key of C major and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 92 beats per minute. Wood's vocal range spans two octaves, from G3 to E5.\n\nCover versions\n\"What R U Waiting 4\" was used in the film Bratz: Rock Angelz (2005), and featured on its respective soundtrack under the name \"Change the World\". American singer-songwriter Natalie Grant released a cover of the song on her fourth studio album Awaken (2005).\n\nTrack listings and formats\nCD single\n\"What R U Waiting 4\" – 3:28\n\"The Mirror\" – 3:49\n\"U & 1\" – 3:45\n\"What R U Waiting 4\" (Instrumental) – 3:24\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2004 singles\nLindsay Lohan songs\nSongs written by Matthew Gerrard\nSongs written by Bridget Benenate\nSongs written by Steve Booker (producer)\n2004 songs\nWarner Music Group singles" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career", "when did he begin his solo career?", "After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s,", "did he collaborate with anyone?", "In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer", "what was the song?", "worldwide hit, \"The Heat Is On\"," ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	what other songs did he do during his solo career?	4	In addition to "The Heat Is On", what other songs did Glenn Frey do during his solo career?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	"You Belong to the City" (	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	true	[ "\"Do What You Do\" is a song by American R&B singer Jermaine Jackson, sibling of singers Michael and Janet Jackson and former member of The Jackson 5. It was released as the second single from his 1984 album, entitled Jermaine Jackson in the United States but marketed as Dynamite in the United Kingdom and other countries.\n\nThis was one of Jermaine's first releases with Arista Records after a long recording career with Motown Records, first as a member of The Jackson 5, then later as a solo artist. Although Jermaine Jackson never achieved the same level of solo success as sister Janet or brother Michael, \"Do What You Do\" was one of six top 20 solo hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the singer. The song peaked at No. 13 on the Hot 100, No. 14 on the Billboard R&B chart, and spent three weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart. In Canada it peaked on the RPM Top Singles chart at No. 29. The song was one of Jackson's biggest hits in the UK, where it reached No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart.\n\nIn the ballad, Jackson is requesting that his lover continue with certain enjoyable events they have both experienced in the past: Why don't you do what you do / when you did what you did to me?\n\nSamples and covers\nThe song was sampled by Lil Wayne for \"How Could Something\" and by Chamillionaire for \"Void In My Life\".\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was an imitation of The Godfather and supermodel Iman played Jackson's love interest who eventually betrays him by trying to shoot him. After his henchmen take her away, it is not revealed what happened to her.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nSee also\n List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1984 (U.S.)\n\nReferences\n\n1984 singles\nJermaine Jackson songs\nMusic videos directed by Bob Giraldi\nContemporary R&B ballads\n1984 songs\n1980s ballads", "\"Stranglehold\" is a song by American hard rock singer-songwriter and guitarist Ted Nugent, as well as the debut single and the first track from his self-titled debut 1975 album. The vocals are by Derek St. Holmes. However, the \"Sometimes you wanna get higher\" verse is sung by Nugent. Nugent admits that the song was co-written by Rob Grange, who received no share.\n\n\"Stranglehold\" is a guitar-driven track, over eight minutes long, and set the stage for Nugent's career. The guitar solo was recorded in a single take. “I used delays to create this really wild guitar duet with Ted,\" said producer Tom Werman. \"It was like two guys were playing. I sent it off to Ted for his approval. He called me up and said, ‘I love what you did with Stranglehold, but don’t ever do that again without asking me.’”\n\nIt became an entrance theme to the NHL team, the Chicago Blackhawks. It was also the entrance theme used by Kevin Von Erich in his professional wrestling career.\n\nReception\n\"Stranglehold\" has been ranked 31st greatest guitar solo of all time by Guitar World.\n\nSee also\n\nTed Nugent discography\n\nReferences\n\nTed Nugent songs\nSongs written by Ted Nugent\n1975 songs\n1975 singles\nSong recordings produced by Tom Werman\nEpic Records singles" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career", "when did he begin his solo career?", "After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s,", "did he collaborate with anyone?", "In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer", "what was the song?", "worldwide hit, \"The Heat Is On\",", "what other songs did he do during his solo career?", "\"You Belong to the City\" (" ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	was that a popular song?	5	Was "You Belong to the City" a popular song?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	true	[ "\"May There Always Be Sunshine\" ( or ) is a popular Soviet children's song created in 1962. The music was composed by Arkady Ostrovsky and the lyrics written by Lev Oshanin. Korney Chukovsky, a writer and immensely popular children's poet, later wrote that the inspiration for the song had been the four lines of the refrain, which were composed in 1928 by the four-year-old boy Kostya Barannikov.\n\nThe song was first performed in the Good Morning! () radio show in July 1962 by Maya Kristalinskaya. Performed in 1963 at the Sopot International Song Festival by Tamara Miansarova, the song earned her first prize there and immediately became popular throughout the USSR and in other countries too. It was frequently sung by Young Pioneers at their camps and school meetings, as well as by Little Octobrists in primary schools, and even by pre-school children. The song was widely regarded in the Soviet Union as expressing the people's desire for peace.\n\nLyrics \nThe song expresses the yearning for lasting peace by millions of people, young and old. In war, the lyrics say, there are no winners. For our sake, and especially for our children's sake, we must achieve peace and remove the dark clouds that now cover the sun.\n\nInternational versions \nThe song was translated into English by Tom Botting. The song (or at least its chorus) has been sung in English by Pete Seeger, and is featured on the live album Together in Concert recorded in 1975 with Arlo Guthrie.\n\nThe song was translated into German by Ilse and Hans Naumilkat and Manfred Streubel (as \"Immer lebe die Sonne\") and was popular among Ernst Thälmann Pioneers.\n\nThe song was also very popular among Finnish Pioneers as \"Paistaa aurinko aina\".\n\nIt was also used by the Estonian Pioneers, the Estonian translation being \"Olgu jääv meile päike\" by Heljo Mänd. The most popular recording of it, is by the popular singer Georg Ots.\n\nHebrew lyrics were written for the song by composer Gidi Koren. It was recorded (Hebrew title: אלוהים שמור על אמא) and made popular by his Israeli folk group, The Brothers and the Sisters.\n\nIn popular culture \nThe tune was used in the song \"Gabrielle\" by the Hootenanny Singers, led by Björn Ulvaeus. When this version became a hit in 1964, the lyrics were translated and performed by the group in Swedish, German, Finnish, Italian, Dutch, and English.\n\nCharlotte Diamond, the Canadian children's musician included the song in her 1985 album 10 Carrot Diamond. The chorus is sung in English, Russian, French, Spanish, German, and Cantonese with the instrumental accompaniment changing musical styles for each culture.\n\nRaffi sang the original chorus and translations into English, Spanish and French on his album Let's Play. There is also an instrumental outro of the other song's title after this song.\n\nThis song was included in a medley during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.\n\nIn 2021, a rock version of this song was created for the cinematic trailer for the mobile WW2 game \"Warpath\"\n\nSee also\n List of anti-war songs\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n \n \n Eintrag im Songlexikon \n\nRussian children's songs\n1962 songs\n1962 in the Soviet Union\nVladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization\nPioneer movement\nSoviet songs\nAnti-war songs", "Clap Hands! Here Comes Charley! is a popular song that was written by Billy Rose, Ballard MacDonald and Joseph Meyer and was first published in 1925. The song was recorded by several popular singers of the era, including a version by Billy Murray in 1925, but the most popular version at that time was by Johnny Marvin. In the 1930s the song became the theme tune of British dance band pianist Charlie Kunz. In the 1960s, the song was used to promote Hormel chili, as in, \"Clap hands, here comes chili...\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\"Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie\" list of recordings at Allmusic.com\nBilly Murray with Jack Shilkret's Orchestra (Victor)1925\n\nSee also\n1925 in music\n\n1925 songs\nAmerican songs\nBilly Murray (singer) songs\nJazz standards\nSongs with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald\nSongs with lyrics by Billy Rose\nSongs written by Joseph Meyer (songwriter)" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career", "when did he begin his solo career?", "After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s,", "did he collaborate with anyone?", "In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer", "what was the song?", "worldwide hit, \"The Heat Is On\",", "what other songs did he do during his solo career?", "\"You Belong to the City\" (", "was that a popular song?", "top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985" ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	what else notable happened during his solo career?	6	Aside from making the US album charts, what else notable happened during Glenn Frey's solo career?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	false	[ "An Englishman in Auschwitz is a 2001 book written by Leon Greenman, a Holocaust survivor. The book details his experiences in the Auschwitz concentration camp.\n\nThe book is a result of the commitment of English-born Greenman to God \"that if he lived, he would let the world know what happened during the war\". In short, the book describes the reminiscences of his days of imprisonment in six concentration camps of the Nazis. Greenman describes the arrival of his family (consisting of himself, his wife, Esther, a Dutchwoman, and their three-year-old son, Barney) at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in these words: The women were separated from the men: Else and Barny were marched about 20 yards away to a queue of women...I tried to watch Else. I could see her clearly against the blue lights. She could see me too for she threw me a kiss and held up our child for me to see. What was going through her mind I will never know. Perhaps she was pleased that the journey had come to an end.\n\nReferences\n\n2001 non-fiction books\nPersonal accounts of the Holocaust", "\"What's Happened to Blue Eyes\" is a country music song recorded by American country artist Jessi Colter. The song was released as her second single under Capitol Records August 4, 1975, peaking as a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Country Chart and a minor hit on the Pop chart.\n\nContent\n\"What's Happened to Blue Eyes\" was written entirely by Jessi Colter. The narrator discusses how she is looking for her male lover who goes by the name \"blue eyes.\" She is curious to wondering if anyone else has seen him, while also hoping he has not decided to end their relationship. \n\nThe song was produced by Ken Mansfield and Waylon Jennings, both of whom produced Colter's previous single, \"I'm Not Lisa\" and her 1975 Capitol album. Since its release, the song has been covered by Colter's husband, Waylon Jennings as duet with Colter for their 1981 collaboration, Leather and Lace.\n\nA later version, recorded the following year for the album Wanted! The Outlaws, had the first line of the chorus changed from \"What's happened to blue eyes?\" to \"I'm looking for blue eyes\", and it appeared on the track listing by the alternative name \"I'm Looking For Blue Eyes\". The second version is more blues-oriented, versus the mid-tempo, pop-country style of the Capitol single release.\n\nChart performance\n\"What's Happened to Blue Eyes\" was released as Colter's second single on Capitol Records and was issued August 4, 1975. The song made its chart debut on the country list shortly afterwards on August 23. The song became Colter's second major hit as a solo recording artist, reaching a peak of #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, as well as becoming a minor hit on the Pop chart, peaking at #57 around the same time. It would be released on her debut Capitol album, I'm Jessi Colter. The song was the follow-up single to Colter's major country pop crossover hit, \"I'm Not Lisa\", which was released earlier in the year.\n\nCritical reception\nBillboard magazine reviewed the song favorably, saying that \"when she writes, she turns out masterpieces, and then when she does the interpretation herself, it is superb. This is a case in point.\"\n\nCharts\n\nCover Versions\nIn 1981, Lisa Colter's husband, Waylon Jennings recorded the song on their 1981 duet album, Leather and Lace.\n\nReferences\n\n1975 singles\nJessi Colter songs\nSongs written by Jessi Colter\n1974 songs\nCapitol Records singles" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career", "when did he begin his solo career?", "After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s,", "did he collaborate with anyone?", "In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer", "what was the song?", "worldwide hit, \"The Heat Is On\",", "what other songs did he do during his solo career?", "\"You Belong to the City\" (", "was that a popular song?", "top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985", "what else notable happened during his solo career?", "His other contribution to the soundtrack, \"Smuggler's Blues\", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100." ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	what was his last solo hit?	7	What was Glenn Frey's last solo hit?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	"Drivin' Wheel".	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	true	[ "\"Stay the Night\" is a synth-pop-oriented pop song by the Cars vocalist and bassist Benjamin Orr. It was included on his 1986 solo debut album The Lace, and released as a single in the end of 1986. \"Stay the Night\" reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the beginning of 1987, becoming Orr's only Top 40 hit as a solo artist.\n\nBackground \nPrior to recording his solo album, Orr had been a founding member, along with singer and songwriter Ric Ocasek of the Cars. The Cars' first Top 40 hit, \"Just What I Needed\", featured Orr on lead vocals, as did their biggest hit, \"Drive\", from 1984's Heartbeat City.\n\nFollowing The Cars' 1985 Greatest Hits release, the band split up to pursue solo projects, with both Orr and Ocasek releasing solo albums in 1986, lead guitarist Elliot Easton having released one in 1985. Weeks before \"Stay the Night\" entered the US Top 40, Ocasek himself was in the Top 40 with his own solo hit \"Emotion in Motion\". In both cases, those would become the only US Top 40 solo hits for both Cars members respectively.\n\nThe band reunited to record 1987's Door to Door, which produced \"You Are the Girl\", their last Top 40 single.\n\nTrack listings\n\n7\": Elektra (US)/ 7-69506 \n\"Stay The Night\" – 4:26\n\"That's The Way\" – 4:07\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences \n\n1986 singles\nThe Cars songs", "Samuelle Prater, known simply as Samuelle, is an American R&B singer who is a former member of the R&B group Club Nouveau. He was the lead singer on Club Nouveau's #1 Pop and Dance and #2 R&B hit remake of the Bill Withers classic, \"Lean on Me\".\n\nHe released his first and only solo album entitled, Living in Black Paradise on October 30, 1990 on Atlantic Records, which reached number 37 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart. This album featured his biggest solo hit, \"So You Like What You See\", which was accompanied by a music video featuring Tyra Banks. In October 2004, \"So You Like What You See\" appeared on the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on new jack swing radio station CSR 103.9.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nAmerican contemporary R&B singers\nYear of birth missing (living people)" ]
[ "Glenn Frey", "Solo career", "when did he begin his solo career?", "After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s,", "did he collaborate with anyone?", "In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer", "what was the song?", "worldwide hit, \"The Heat Is On\",", "what other songs did he do during his solo career?", "\"You Belong to the City\" (", "was that a popular song?", "top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985", "what else notable happened during his solo career?", "His other contribution to the soundtrack, \"Smuggler's Blues\", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.", "what was his last solo hit?", "\"Drivin' Wheel\"." ]	C_191f92ba623c40e7b707183a363a4319_0	what year was his last solo hit?	8	What year Glenn Frey's last solo hit?	Glenn Frey	After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984, he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit, "The Heat Is On", the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin who also wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey also contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005, he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label and the company has since disbanded. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. CANNOTANSWER	2005,	Glenn Lewis Frey (; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, actor and founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for the Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of the Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight". During the hiatus of the Eagles from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of the Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Early life Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in nearby Royal Oak, Frey studied piano at age five, later switched to guitar, and became part of the mid-1960s Detroit rock scene. One of his earliest bands was called the Subterraneans, named after Jack Kerouac's novel, and included fellow Dondero High School classmates Doug Edwards (later replaced by Lenny Mintz) on drums, Doug Gunsch and Bill Barnes on guitar, with Jeff Hodge on bass. Immediately after graduating from Dondero in 1966, Frey was invited to join The Four of Us, a local band led by Gary Burrows, who had seen him performing with the Subterraneans. Frey also attended Oakland Community College while in the band, and he learned to sing harmonies performing with The Four of Us. In 1967, he formed the Mushrooms with Gary Burrows' brother Jeff, Bill Barnes, Doug Gunsch, Ken Bash, and Lenny Mintz. That year Frey also met Bob Seger, who helped Frey get a management and recording contract with a label formed by Seger's management team, Hideout Records. Seger also wrote and produced the band's first single, "Such a Lovely Child", and the band made television appearances to promote it. Frey had intended to join Seger's group but his mother blocked that course of action for smoking cannabis with Seger. In the later part of 1967, Frey also pulled together another band called Heavy Metal Kids with Jeff Burrows (piano), Jeff Alborell (bass), Paul Kelcourse (lead guitar), and Lance Dickerson (drums). At age 19 in 1968, Frey played the acoustic guitar and performed background vocals on Seger's single, "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man". Frey has said that Seger strongly encouraged and influenced him to focus on writing original songs. They remained good friends and occasional songwriting partners in later years, and Frey would also sing on Seger's songs such as "Fire Lake" and "Against the Wind". In Detroit, Frey also met and dated Joan Sliwin of the local female group The Mama Cats, which became Honey Ltd. after the group moved to California in 1968. Frey went to Los Angeles hoping to reconnect with his girlfriend, and he was introduced to J. D. Souther by her sister, Alexandra Sliwin, who was with Souther at the time. Frey returned to Detroit after three weeks, but then went back again to Los Angeles to form a duo with Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle. They were signed to Amos Records and released an eponymous album in 1969, which contains songs he wrote such as "Run, Boy, Run" and "Rebecca", and "Bring Back Funky Women" he co-wrote with Souther. Frey also met Jackson Browne during this period. The three musicians lived in the same apartment building for a short time, and Frey later said that he learned a lot about songwriting from hearing Browne work on songs in the apartment below. The Eagles Frey met drummer Don Henley in 1970. They were signed to the same label, Amos Records, at that time and spent time at the Troubadour. When Linda Ronstadt needed a backup band for an upcoming tour, her manager John Boylan hired Frey because Boylan needed someone who could play rhythm guitar and sing. Frey approached Don Henley to join Ronstadt. Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were also hired, although because the backing band personnel changed during the tour, the four played together only once, at a gig at Disneyland. Frey and Henley decided to form a band together while on the tour, and they were joined by Meisner on bass and Leadon on guitar, banjo, steel guitar, mandolin and dobro, forming the Eagles, with Frey playing guitar and keyboards and Henley playing drums. The band went on to become one of the world's best-selling groups of all time. Frey wrote or co-wrote (often with Henley) many of the group's songs, and sang the lead vocals on a number of Eagles hits including "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Already Gone", "Tequila Sunrise", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight" and "How Long". The Eagles broke up around 1980 and reunited in 1994, when they released a new album, Hell Freezes Over. The album had live tracks and four new songs. The Hell Freezes Over Tour followed. In 2012 on The Tavis Smiley Show, Frey told Smiley, "When the Eagles broke up, people used to ask me and Don, 'When are the Eagles getting back together?' We used to answer, 'When Hell freezes over.' We thought it was a pretty good joke. People have the misconception that we were fighting a lot. It is not true. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot more fun than I think people realize." At their first live concert of 1994, Frey told the crowd, "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation." The Eagles released the album Long Road Out of Eden in 2007, and Frey participated in the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden Tour (2008–2011). In May 2012, Frey was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music along with Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. In 2013, the two-part documentary History of the Eagles, directed by Alison Ellwood and co-produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, was aired on Showtime. The documentary won an Emmy Award in 2013 for Outstanding Sound Mixing For Nonfiction Programming. An accompanying two-year History of the Eagles world tour ended on July 29, 2015 at Bossier City, Louisiana, a concert which would be Frey's final public appearance with the band. Solo career After the Eagles disbanded, Frey achieved solo success in the 1980s, especially with two No. 2 hits. In 1984 he recorded in collaboration with Harold Faltermeyer the worldwide hit "The Heat Is On," the main theme from the Eddie Murphy action comedy film Beverly Hills Cop; then, Frey performed "You Belong to the City" (from the television series Miami Vice, the soundtrack of which stayed on top of the U.S. album charts for 11 weeks in 1985). His other contribution to the soundtrack, "Smuggler's Blues", hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. During his solo career, Frey had 12 charting songs in the U.S. Top 100. Eleven of those were written with Jack Tempchin, who wrote "Peaceful Easy Feeling". Frey was the first choice to record "Shakedown", the theme for the film Beverly Hills Cop II. Frey did not like the lyrics and then came down with laryngitis, so the song was given to Bob Seger. After the song went to number one, Frey called to congratulate Seger, saying "At least we kept the money in Michigan!" Frey contributed the song "Flip City" to the Ghostbusters II soundtrack and "Part of Me, Part of You" to the soundtrack for Thelma & Louise. In 2005 he appeared on B.B. King & Friends: 80 on the track "Drivin' Wheel". In the late 1990s, Frey founded a record company, Mission Records, with attorney Peter Lopez. Frey never released any of his own work on the label, and the company has since disbanded. In 2009 Glenn Frey was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. On May 8, 2012, he released his first solo album in 20 years, After Hours, featuring covers of pop standards from the 1940s to the 1960s. Acting career As a television actor, Frey guest starred on Miami Vice in the first-season episode "Smuggler's Blues", inspired by his hit song of the same name, and had a starring role in the "Dead Dog Arc" of Wiseguy. He was also the star of South of Sunset, which was canceled after one episode. In the late 1990s, he guest-starred on Nash Bridges as a policeman whose teenage daughter had run amok and gone on a crime spree with her sociopathic boyfriend. In 2002, he appeared on HBO's Arliss, playing a political candidate who double-crosses Arliss and must pay a high price for it. Frey's first foray into film was his starring role in Let's Get Harry, a 1986 film about a group of plumbers who travel to Colombia to rescue a friend from a drug lord. Frey also did seven episodes of Wiseguy co-starring with Ken Wahl in 1989. Frey's next film appearance was a smaller role in Cameron Crowe's third film, Jerry Maguire (1996). Frey played the frugal general manager of the Arizona Cardinals football team who, in the film's climax, finally agrees to award Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character, wide receiver Rod Tidwell, a large professional contract. Personal life Frey was married twice. From 1983 to 1988, he was married to artist Janie Beggs. He married dancer and choreographer Cindy Millican in 1990. They had three children: a daughter, Taylor, in 1991, and two sons, Deacon in 1993 and Otis in 2002, and remained together until his death. Deacon Frey, since his father's death, has toured with the surviving Eagles. Illness and death From about 2000, Frey had suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, which affected his joints. The medication that he was prescribed to control the disease eventually led to colitis and pneumonia, and in November 2015, the Eagles announced that they were postponing their appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors because Frey required surgery for intestinal problems and needed a lengthy recovery period. Because of complications from pneumonia, he never had the surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma at Columbia University Medical Center. Frey died there on January 18, 2016, at the age of 67 from complications of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis, and pneumonia. Medications for rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis can compromise the immune system's ability to fight off pneumonia. In January 2018, Frey's widow filed a suit against Mount Sinai Hospital and gastroenterologist Steven Itzkowitz for the wrongful death of Frey. Frey was publicly mourned by his friends, fellow musicians and bandmates including Don Henley, Randy Meisner, J. D. Souther, Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Linda Ronstadt, Don Felder, and Bob Seger. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, the remaining members of the Eagles and Jackson Browne performed "Take It Easy" in his honor. A life-sized statue of Frey was unveiled at the Standin' on the Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona, on September 24, 2016, to honor his songwriting contributions to "Take It Easy", made famous by the Eagles as their first single in 1972. The road that runs next to the middle school he attended in Royal Oak, Michigan, now bears his name. Discography Studio albums Live albums Compilation albums Singles The song reached No. 12 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. Music videos Equipment Takamine Guitars manufactures a Glenn Frey signature acoustic-electric guitar, the EF360GF. It is designed to replicate the Takamine Frey used for his live and studio applications. In the 1970s, Frey used Martin acoustic guitars in both six- and 12-string versions. Frey played assorted electric guitars over the years, namely Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, Gibson ES-330, Epiphone Casino and Rickenbacker 230, but the electric guitar that is most associated with him was his black Gibson Les Paul Junior, nicknamed Old Black. References External links 1948 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American keyboardists 21st-century American male actors American country rock musicians American country guitarists American male guitarists American country singer-songwriters American male film actors American male singer-songwriters American male television actors American pop guitarists American rock guitarists American rock keyboardists American rock pianists American male pianists American tenors Asylum Records artists Deaths from arthritis Eagles (band) members Grammy Award winners Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state) MCA Records artists People from Royal Oak, Michigan Kennedy Center honorees Rhythm guitarists Slide guitarists Oakland Community College alumni Guitarists from Detroit 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from Michigan	false	[ "\"Stay the Night\" is a synth-pop-oriented pop song by the Cars vocalist and bassist Benjamin Orr. It was included on his 1986 solo debut album The Lace, and released as a single in the end of 1986. \"Stay the Night\" reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the beginning of 1987, becoming Orr's only Top 40 hit as a solo artist.\n\nBackground \nPrior to recording his solo album, Orr had been a founding member, along with singer and songwriter Ric Ocasek of the Cars. The Cars' first Top 40 hit, \"Just What I Needed\", featured Orr on lead vocals, as did their biggest hit, \"Drive\", from 1984's Heartbeat City.\n\nFollowing The Cars' 1985 Greatest Hits release, the band split up to pursue solo projects, with both Orr and Ocasek releasing solo albums in 1986, lead guitarist Elliot Easton having released one in 1985. Weeks before \"Stay the Night\" entered the US Top 40, Ocasek himself was in the Top 40 with his own solo hit \"Emotion in Motion\". In both cases, those would become the only US Top 40 solo hits for both Cars members respectively.\n\nThe band reunited to record 1987's Door to Door, which produced \"You Are the Girl\", their last Top 40 single.\n\nTrack listings\n\n7\": Elektra (US)/ 7-69506 \n\"Stay The Night\" – 4:26\n\"That's The Way\" – 4:07\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences \n\n1986 singles\nThe Cars songs", "Samuelle Prater, known simply as Samuelle, is an American R&B singer who is a former member of the R&B group Club Nouveau. He was the lead singer on Club Nouveau's #1 Pop and Dance and #2 R&B hit remake of the Bill Withers classic, \"Lean on Me\".\n\nHe released his first and only solo album entitled, Living in Black Paradise on October 30, 1990 on Atlantic Records, which reached number 37 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart. This album featured his biggest solo hit, \"So You Like What You See\", which was accompanied by a music video featuring Tyra Banks. In October 2004, \"So You Like What You See\" appeared on the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on new jack swing radio station CSR 103.9.\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nAmerican contemporary R&B singers\nYear of birth missing (living people)" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline" ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	What was his addiction	1	What was Lou Reed's addiction?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	false	[ "TV Junkie is a documentary that chronicles Rick Kirkham's drug addiction. Its filmmakers, Michael Cain and Matt Radecki, sifted through the video-diary footage to piece together the story of Kirkham's life, focusing on the seven years in which he and his family struggled with his addiction to crack cocaine. It was shown at Sundance in 2006. The film was the subject of a lawsuit by his ex-wife Tammie.\n\nVariety gave the film a middling review, finding the central figure unpleasant and unsympathetic and the production values inevitably low. Film Threat found it \"an unbelievably candid glimpse into the contradictions of cocaine addiction\", and praised Kirkham's articulate and authentic self-portrait. OutNow.CH found it had a certain fascination beyond what would be expected.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n2006 films\nAmerican films\nEnglish-language films\nAmerican documentary films\nDocumentary films about drug addiction\n2006 documentary films\nDocumentary films about journalists", "Patrick Carnes (born 1944) is an American proponent of the viewpoint that some sexual behavior is an addiction. According to CBS News, he popularized the term sex addiction. He created the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals (IITAP), as well as numerous addiction treatment facilities, and created the CSAT certification.\n\nEducation and career\nCarnes received a Ph.D. in counselor education and organizational development from the University of Minnesota in 1980. He was awarded the distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society for the Advancement of Sexual Health (SASH), formerly known as National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity (NCSAC). Each year, SASH bestows a Carnes Award to deserving researchers and clinicians who have made outstanding contributions to the field of sexual medicine.\n\nHe has worked in the field of sexual addiction in a number of other capacities, including as clinical director for sexual disorder services at The Meadows in Wickenburg, Arizona, editor-in-chief of Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention (official journal of the National Council of Sexual Addiction/Compulsivity), board member of the National Council of Sexual Addiction/Compulsivity organization, advisor on the national advisory board of the American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders. Carnes is the Founder and Senior Consultant of the Gentle Path at The Meadows program located in Wickenburg, Arizona.\n\nCarnes is the founder of the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals\n\nTheories and criticism\nCarnes attributes the source of the addictions to the addict's belief system. He believes that a fundamental momentum for the addiction is provided by \"certain core beliefs\" that are wrong or incorrect. \"Generally, addicts do not perceive themselves as worthwhile persons. Nor do they believe that other people would care for them or meet their needs if everything was known about them, including the addiction. Finally, they believe that sex is their most important need. Sex is what makes isolation bearable. If you do not trust people, one thing that is true about sex – and alcohol, food, gambling, and risk – is that it always does what it promises--for the moment. Thus, as in our definition of addiction, the relationship is with sex – and not people.\"\n\nCarnes' idea of sexual addiction is controversial. Carnes acknowledges that \"[t]he term sexual addiction does not appear in DSM-IV. In fact, the word addiction itself does not appear.\" He continues, saying that \"Each edition of this book represents a consensus at the time of publication about what constitutes mental disorders. Each subsequent edition has reflected changes in understanding. The DSM's system is, therefore, best viewed as a 'work in progress rather than the 'bible'.\" The DSM-5, published in 2013, did not include sexual addiction \"as the research on these behaviors was considered to be insufficient.\"\n\nBooks\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nSexual addiction\nPeople from Wickenburg, Arizona\n1944 births" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol." ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	When did he get over it	2	When did Lou Reed get over with?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	true	[ "\"Can't Get Over\" is a pop song performed by Swedish singer September. The song was written by Anoo Bhagavan, Jonas von der Burg and Niklas von der Burg for September's third album Dancing Shoes (2007). It was released as the album's first single on 20 June 2007 in Sweden and as the second single in The Netherlands during 2008.\n\nThe song was the third single in the UK, following \"Cry for You\" and \"Satellites\", and was released in a new remix; on 9 March 2009. It was released in the United States as a CD Maxi-single, in addition to the original version which had been released in December 2007; the new remixes were released on 3 March 2009.\n\nThe song was released to Australian radio in late 2008 on the back of the success of \"Cry For You\", but after record label Central Station went into administration, all releases were cancelled. In February 2009, it was announced that Central Station was back in business, and \"Can't Get Over\" was among the first confirmed releases. The single edit in Australia was the same as the new UK remix, and a CD single was released on 24 April 2009.\n\"Can't Get Over\" peaked at number 14 in the UK chart.\n\nMusic video\n\nPromotional video\nTwo official music videos were released for the single. The first video was a promotional video which did not release officially through airplay and other charts. The video features September in a trouble relationship, the video also features promotional small snippets of her for the photoshoot of the covers.\n\nNew release video\nThe second video was released by Happy Music on their official YouTube page. The video was a second video and the track was edited as the UK Radio edit. The video featured September in a futuristic styled theme where she's driving a flying car, then she is in a white room, singing and dancing to the single. Then it features her walking to a room where it shows her boyfriend, as he is trapped in a laser-fence. The video ends where she and her boyfriend drive away, and the police force follow them after it cuts black. That version was released worldwide as the official video for the single.\n\nChart performance\n\n\"Can't Get Over\" received some success throughout the globe. The song debuted at number fourteen on the UK Singles Chart, and fell to ninety-four after six weeks. The song debuted at number fourteen in the Swedish Singles Chart on 28 June 2007. The song peaked at number five after five weeks in the charts. The song peaked at number twelve on the US Billboard Hot Dance Airplay.\n\nThe song received more limited success throughout Oceania. The song had debuted and peaked at number forty-one on the Australian Singles Chart. The song however did not chart in New Zealand's RIANZ charts, it did chart on New Zealand Official Airplay. The song peaked at number thirty-three on the charts.\n\nThe single was successful elsewhere. It peaked at number thirty-five in The Netherlands, number ten in Finland and number forty-one in Belgium.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Released in Sweden, United States, Holland)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Radio) (3:02)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Extended) (4:35)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Short Disco 2007) (3:54)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Long Disco 2007) (6:54)\n\n\"Can't Get Over\" (United States Re-release [UK Edit Remixes])\n\"Can't Get Over\" (UK Radio Edit) (3:12)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Edit) (3:00)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Edit) (3:12)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Jens Kindervater Edit) (3:26)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Figoboy Remix) (5:34)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Remix) (6:16)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Remix) (6:30)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Jens Kindervater Remix) (4:48)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Buzz Junkies Remix) (5:58)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Dub) (6:30)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Buzz Junkies Dub) (5:58)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Instrumental Edit) (3:17)\n\n\"Can't Get Over\" (UK CD Single)\nPink version:\n \"Can’t Get Over\" (UK Radio Edit)\n \"Can’t Get Over\" (Wideboys Edit)\nBlue version:\n \"Can’t Get Over\" (UK Radio Edit)\n \"Can’t Get Over\" (Figoboy Remix)\n \"Can’t Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Edit)\n \"Can’t Get Over\" (Original Edit)\n \"Cry For You\" (Warren Clarke Mix)\n Bonus material (music video, photos, etc.)\n\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Australian CD Single)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (UK Radio Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Original Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Buzz Junkies Club Mix)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Jens Kindervater Mix)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Figoboy Mix)\n\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Australian digital download)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Original) (3:00)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Edit) (3:08)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Edit) (2:58)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Original Mix) (4:33)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Buzz Junkies Club Mix) (5:54)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Jens Kindervater Remix) (4:46)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Figoboy Remix) (5:34)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Remix) (6:14)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Buzz Junkies Dub Mix) (5:52)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Dub) (6:28)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Remix) (6:28)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (UK Radio Edit) (3:10)\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Instrumental) (3:17)\n\n\"Can't Get Over\" (Holland Re-release)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (UK Radio Edit)\n \"Can’t Get Over\" (Original Edit)\n\n\"Can't Get Over\" (French digital download)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (UK Radio Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Original Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Edit)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Dave Ramone Remix)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Figoboy Remix)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Kindervater Remix)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Dub)\n \"Can't Get Over\" (Wideboys Remix)\n\nRelease history\n\nCharts\n\nPersonnel\nThe following people contributed to \"Can't Get Over\":\nSeptember – lead vocals, backing vocals\nAnoo Bhagavan – backing vocals\nJonas von der Burg – production, mixing, keyboards, programming\nJoe Yannece – engineering\nBjörn Axelsson, Niklas von der Burg – keyboards\nBjörn Engelmann Cutting Room Studios – mastering\n\nNotes\n\n2007 singles\n2009 singles\nPetra Marklund songs\nDance-pop songs\nSongs written by Jonas von der Burg\nSongs written by Niklas von der Burg\nSongs written by Anoo Bhagavan\n2007 songs", "Get Back Loretta is a funk-rock ensemble from San Diego, California. The band consists of Steven Bradford (vocals, bass); Kevin Martin (vocals, piano); Isaac Cass (drums); Josh Cass (guitar); and Sonny Romeri (guitar). They have received San Diego Music Awards including \"Best New Artist\" in 2005, \"Best Pop\" in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and \"Best Pop Album\" in 2007 for \"Over The Wall\".\n\nThe band's name is derived from a line of The Beatles' song \"Get Back\".\n\nIt was said that the original members of get Get Back Loretta formed under the old band name Beast Weasley and the Whistling Weasels. Then front man Aaron Lewis got too drunk at a Vista House Party to perform. Steven Bradford, being a longtime fan, saw this as an opportunity to be in B.W.W.W. That is when Steven Bradford Joined and immediately changed the band name to Get Back Loretta.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n Over The Wall (2006)\n Where Did You Go? (2009)\n\nEPs and singles\n \"Follow The Leader\" (1998)\n \"My Own Prison\" (2001)\n Get Back Loretta EP (2005)\n \"Winter Bloo: An Aural Companion to Side A\" (2007) * Vinyl Release by Poseur Ink.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nGet Back Loretta's official website\nPacific Records official website\n\nAlternative rock groups from California" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs." ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	What happen next	3	What happened to Lou Reed next after weaning himself off drugs.	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	false	[ "Anything Can Happen is a 1952 comedy-drama film.\n\nAnything Can Happen may also refer to:\n\n Anything Can Happen (album), by Leon Russell, 1994\n \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2019 song by Saint Jhn \n Edhuvum Nadakkum ('Anything Can Happen'), a season of the Tamil TV series Marmadesam\n \"Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour\", or \"Anything Can Happen\", a 2007 song by Enter Shikari\n Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour (EP), 2004\n\nSee also\n \"Anything Could Happen\", a 2012 song by Ellie Goulding \n Anything Might Happen, 1934 British crime film\n Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, a 1996 American documentary film\n \"Anything Can Happen on Halloween\", a song from the 1986 film The Worst Witch \n Anything Can Happen in the Theatre, a musical revue of works by Maury Yeston\n \"The Anything Can Happen Recurrence\", an episode of The Big Bang Theory (season 7)\n The Anupam Kher Show - Kucch Bhi Ho Sakta Hai ('The Anupam Kher Show — Anything Can Happen') an Indian TV show", "\"Accidents Will Happen\" is a song by Elvis Costello.\n\nAccidents Will Happen may also refer to:\n\nAccidents Will Happen (film), 1938 film\n\"Accidents Will Happen\", song by Bing Crosby from film Mr. Music 1950\n\"Accidents Will Happen\" (Degrassi: The Next Generation)\n \"Accidents Will Happen\" (SpongeBob SquarePants), an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony." ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?	4	Besides Reed appearing in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony, are there any other interesting aspects about the article?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt,	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	false	[ "Přírodní park Třebíčsko (before Oblast klidu Třebíčsko) is a natural park near Třebíč in the Czech Republic. There are many interesting plants. The park was founded in 1983.\n\nKobylinec and Ptáčovský kopeček\n\nKobylinec is a natural monument situated ca 0,5 km from the village of Trnava.\nThe area of this monument is 0,44 ha. Pulsatilla grandis can be found here and in the Ptáčovský kopeček park near Ptáčov near Třebíč. Both monuments are very popular for tourists.\n\nPonds\n\nIn the natural park there are some interesting ponds such as Velký Bor, Malý Bor, Buršík near Přeckov and a brook Březinka. Dams on the brook are examples of European beaver activity.\n\nSyenitové skály near Pocoucov\n\nSyenitové skály (rocks of syenit) near Pocoucov is one of famed locations. There are interesting granite boulders. The area of the reservation is 0,77 ha.\n\nExternal links\nParts of this article or all article was translated from Czech. The original article is :cs:Přírodní park Třebíčsko.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNature near the village Trnava which is there\n\nTřebíč\nParks in the Czech Republic\nTourist attractions in the Vysočina Region", "Damn Interesting is an independent website founded by Alan Bellows in 2005. The website presents true stories from science, history, and psychology, primarily as long-form articles, often illustrated with original artwork. Works are written by various authors, and published at irregular intervals. The website openly rejects advertising, relying on reader and listener donations to cover operating costs.\n\nAs of October 2012, each article is also published as a podcast under the same name. In November 2019, a second podcast was launched under the title Damn Interesting Week, featuring unscripted commentary on an assortment of news articles featured on the website's \"Curated Links\" section that week. In mid-2020, a third podcast called Damn Interesting Curio Cabinet began highlighting the website's periodic short-form articles in the same radioplay format as the original podcast.\n\nIn July 2009, Damn Interesting published the print book Alien Hand Syndrome through Workman Publishing. It contains some favorites from the site and some exclusive content.\n\nAwards and recognition \nIn August 2007, PC Magazine named Damn Interesting one of the \"Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites\".\nThe article \"The Zero-Armed Bandit\" by Alan Bellows won a 2015 Sidney Award from David Brooks in The New York Times.\nThe article \"Ghoulish Acts and Dastardly Deeds\" by Alan Bellows was cited as \"nonfiction journalism from 2017 that will stand the test of time\" by Conor Friedersdorf in The Atlantic.\nThe article \"Dupes and Duplicity\" by Jennifer Lee Noonan won a 2020 Sidney Award from David Brooks in the New York Times.\n\nAccusing The Dollop of plagiarism \n\nOn July 9, 2015, Bellows posted an open letter accusing The Dollop, a comedy podcast about history, of plagiarism due to their repeated use of verbatim text from Damn Interesting articles without permission or attribution. Dave Anthony, the writer of The Dollop, responded on reddit, admitting to using Damn Interesting content, but claiming that the use was protected by fair use, and that \"historical facts are not copyrightable.\" In an article about the controversy on Plagiarism Today, Jonathan Bailey concluded, \"Any way one looks at it, The Dollop failed its ethical obligations to all of the people, not just those writing for Damn Interesting, who put in the time, energy and expertise into writing the original content upon which their show is based.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official website\n\n2005 podcast debuts" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.", "Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?", "Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt," ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	What was the commercial decline	5	What was Lou Reed's commercial decline?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort,	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	false	[ "The Lancaster Block in Lincoln, Nebraska was built in Romanesque Revival style in 1891 or before. It is also known as Jack & Jill Grocery Store.\n\nIt is historically associated with the rise of the town of Havelock, Nebraska and with its decline. For the rise, it was built by the Landcaster Land Company which founded the city and was built even before the city's incorporation. For the decline, it was site of meeting for local Great Northern railway shop workers and their vote to strike in the Great Railroad Strike of 1922. The strike's failure contributed to the decline of Havelock and its being absorbed into Lincoln in 1930.\n\nIt was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.\n\nReferences\n\nCommercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Nebraska\nBuildings and structures in Lincoln, Nebraska\nNational Register of Historic Places in Lincoln, Nebraska", "Patrick Hutber (18 May 1928 – 3 January 1980) was a British journalist.\n\nHe was educated at Ealing Grammar School for Boys and New College, Oxford, where he was librarian and secretary of the Union in 1951. After working for J. Lyons and Co. and the Institute of Bankers, in 1957 he was employed by the Financial Times. He became its commercial editor in 1959 and in 1964 he started the Questor column of The Daily Telegraph. Hutber was appointed City Editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 1966 and afterwards became associate editor and economic commentator of Now! He was awarded the Financial Journalist of the Year Award in 1972.\n\nHis maxim Hutber's Law ('Improvement means deterioration') is still regularly cited.\n\nWorks\nThe Decline and Fall of the Middle Class and How It Can Fight Back (1976).\n(editor) What is Wrong with Britain? (1978).\n\nNotes\n\n1928 births\n1980 deaths\nAlumni of New College, Oxford\nThe Daily Telegraph people\nFinancial Times people\n20th-century English businesspeople" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.", "Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?", "Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt,", "What was the commercial decline", "an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort," ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	How did that go	6	How did Lou Reed's commercial decline go?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks.	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	false	[ "Mind how you go may refer to:\nMind How You Go (The Advisory Circle album), 2005\nMind How You Go (Skye Edwards album), 2006\n\"Mind How You Go\", a 1965 single by Barry St. John (Elizabeth Thompson)\n\"Mind How You Go\", a 1967 single by Allan Smethurst\n\"Mind How You Go\", a 1966 single by Mr. Lee Grant (Bogdan Kominowski)\n\"Mind how you go\", a phrase for good-bye", "Where Did They Go is a 1971 album by Peggy Lee. It was arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky and Al Capps.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Where Did They Go\" (Harry Lloyd, Gloria Sklerov) - 3:53\n\"My Rock and Foundation\" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) - 2:37\n\"Help Me Make It Through the Night\" (Kris Kristofferson) - 2:45\n\"All I Want\" (Steve Clayton [aka P. Tedesco], Gladys Shelley) - 2:40\n\"I Don't Know How to Love Him\" (Tim Rice, Andrew Lloyd Webber) - 3:24\n\"Goodbye Again\" (Donald J. Addrissi, Richard P. Addrissi) - 2:33\n\"Sing\" (Joe Raposo) - 2:25\n\"I Was Born in Love with You\" (Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand) - 4:01\n\"Losing My Mind\" (Stephen Sondheim) - 2:43\n\"My Sweet Lord\" (George Harrison) - 2:55\n\nNotes\nThe recording sessions for this album took place at the Capitol Tower in Hollywood, California.\n\nWhere Did They Go was Peggy Lee's first album not to make the Billboard 200 chart since her Grammy-winning hit \"Is That All There Is?\" in 1969.\n\nBurt Bacharach and Hal David wrote the song \"My Rock And Foundation\" specifically for Lee.\n\nCapitol Records released \"Where Did They Go\" (backed by \"All I Want\") as a 45\" single in 1971. The single did not make the charts.\n\nLee performed songs from this album, including \"Where Did They Go\" and \"My Sweet Lord,\" during her June 1971 engagement at The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.\n\nAfter completing work on Where Did They Go, Peggy Lee did not return to the recording studio again until nearly a year later, when she began recording Norma Deloris Egstrom from Jamestown, North Dakota in April 1972.\n\nThis album was released on 8-track, along with LP.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Peggy Lee Discography\n\n1971 albums\nCapitol Records albums\nPeggy Lee albums\nAlbums arranged by Don Sebesky\nAlbums produced by Snuff Garrett" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.", "Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?", "Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt,", "What was the commercial decline", "an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort,", "How did that go", "Lester Bangs declared it \"genius\", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks." ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	What else stood out	7	Besides Lou Reed's commercial decline what else stood out?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby"	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	false	[ "AbdulWahab al-Awdi عبد الوهاب العودي (born 10 August 1978) is a poet, and economist from Yemen.\n\nMember of the Yemeni Writers Union, his poems and writings have appeared in different local and international literary newspapers and Reviews. He has published two poetic works: «Maqamat I» (Ministry of Culture, Yemen, 2004), and «Maqamat II» (Ministry of Youth, Yemen, 2005) a State Incentive award-winning work. He also has compiled and edited the Anthology of the Contemporary Antiwar Arabic Poetry], in four volumes set.\n\nHe is one of the most active Yemeni writers who stood against war in Sa’da, and human rights violations in southern Yemen, as well as all over the country. He believes in real democracy and a modern civil state for a better Yemen.\n\nHe holds Master of Economics, Major Public Finance, from the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), at Tokyo, Japan 2011, and B.A. degree in English Language and Literature from Sana'a University (2002).\n\nExternal links\n Yemeni Anti-war researcher and poet reaches out\n Ares.. What else?\n News about the Anthology of Antiwar Arabic Poetry\n Selected poems from AbdulWahab's State Award-winning poetry book\n Maqamaat, selected poems\n Odes to Joy and Hope\n\nPoems published in the prominent London-based al-Quds al-Arabi Newspaper\n\n Ode to Loneliness\n Confessions\n Seductions of Clay and other Poems\n Poem to my Sweetheart\n Music of the Dreary Flute\n Passion of Flame and other poems \n Chant of Silence\n Ares.. What else? (in al-Quds al-Aqabi)\n Selected Poems\n\nReferences\n\nYemeni poets\n1978 births\nLiving people\nSanaa University alumni", "\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.", "Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?", "Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt,", "What was the commercial decline", "an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort,", "How did that go", "Lester Bangs declared it \"genius\", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks.", "What else stood out", "At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of \"Coney Island Baby\"" ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	What else was known about him	8	Besides Lou Reed's lover, Rachel, what was known about Reed?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978)	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	true	[ "Frederick M. Adamson (born 1816, died 1860, age 44) was an early settler in Victoria, Australia. He was the first settler to make botanical collections in the Melbourne area; between 1840 and 1856, he sent to the Kew herbarium a series of what William Hooker described as \"extensive and excellent collections\". Several of his specimens became syntypes for Eucalyptus macrorhyncha. Not much else is known about him, except that he was a member of the Philosophical Society of Victoria.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n \n\nBotanical collectors active in Australia\nSettlers of Melbourne\n19th-century Australian people\n1816 births\n1860 deaths", "\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.", "Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?", "Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt,", "What was the commercial decline", "an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort,", "How did that go", "Lester Bangs declared it \"genius\", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks.", "What else stood out", "At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of \"Coney Island Baby\"", "What else was known about him", "The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978)" ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	What was the name of his album	9	What was the name of Reed's album in 1976?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978)	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	true	[ "White Witch is the title of the second studio album by the group Andrea True Connection. It was released in 1977. The album had two singles: and \"N.Y., You Got Me Dancing\" and \"What's Your Name, What's Your Number\". This was the last album released by the group and the vocalist Andrea True would release a new album as a solo release only in 1980.\n\nBackground and production\nAfter the success of her first album and the gold-certified single More, More, More, the band begun to prepeare for their second release. The album production included studio musicians with a new band assembled for the tour, the second line-up, which included future Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick, it was also produce by the disco pioneers Michael Zager and Jerry Love.\n\nSingles\nThe first single of the album was \"N.Y., You Got Me Dancing\", it was released in 1977 and became True's second biggest hit, reaching No. 27 on Billboard's pop chart, and #4 on the U.S. club chart, it also peaked #89 in the Canadian RPM's chart. \"What's Your Name, What's Your Number\" was released as the second and last single of the album (and also of the group) in 1978 and reached #9 on the U.S. club chart, #34 in the UK and #56 on the Billboard Hot 100\n\nCritical reception\n\nThe album received mixed reviews from music critics. Alex Henderson from the Allmusic website gave the album two and a half stars out of five in a mixed review which he wrote that \"while White Witch isn't a bad album, it falls short of the excellence her first album, More, More, More.\" He also stated that there are a few gems in the album \"including the Michael Zager-produced \"What's Your Name, What's Your Number\" and the exuberant, Gregg Diamond-produced \"N.Y., You Got Me Dancing\"\" according to him they're both \"exercises in unapologetically campy fun.\" He concluded that the album \"LP is strictly for diehard disco collectors.\"\n\nTrack listing\nsource:\n\nReferences\n\n1977 albums\nAndrea True albums\nBuddah Records albums", "\"John Wesley Harding\" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan that appears as the opening track on his 1967 album of the same name.\n\nWriting and recording\nDylan told Jann Wenner in a 1969 Rolling Stone interview that the song \"started out to be a long ballad. I was gonna write a ballad on ... like maybe one of those old cowboy ... you know, a real long ballad. But in the middle of the second verse, I got tired. I had a tune, and I didn't want to waste the tune; it was a nice little melody, so I just wrote a quick third verse, and I recorded that.\" Biographer Clinton Heylin states that Dylan has had a well-documented interest in outlaw cowboys, including Jesse James and Billy the Kid, and in the past Dylan has said that his favorite folk song was \"John Hardy\", whose real-life title character in 1893 murdered another man over a game of craps. John Wesley Hardin was another late-19th century outlaw. Dylan has stated that he chose John Wesley Hardin for his protagonist over other badmen because his name \"[fit] in the tempo\" of the song. Dylan added the g to the end of Hardin's name by mistake.\n\nThe song was recorded in two takes on November 6, 1967, in Studio A of Columbia Music Row Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Both of these were considered for the album, but the second take was ultimately chosen.\n\nThemes\nDylan has said that he did not have a clear notion of what the song was about. He told Cameron Crowe in 1985 that after recording the John Wesley Harding album, he \"didn't know what to make of it. ... So I figured the best thing to do would be to put out the album as quickly as possible, call it John Wesley Harding because that was the one song that I had no idea what it was about, why it was even on the album. So I figured I'd call the album that, call attention to it, make it something special...\" It was the only title that he considered for the album. He told a Newsweek interviewer in 1969 that the songs on his country Nashville Skyline album: \"These are the type of songs that I always felt like writing. The songs reflect more of the inner me than the songs of the past. They're more to my base than, say, 'John Wesley Harding'. There I felt like everyone expected me to be a poet so that's what I tried to be.\"\n\nCover versions\n\"John Wesley Harding\" has been covered by McKendree Spring on their 1969 eponymous album, as well as Tom Russell and Wesley Willis.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \"John Wesley Harding\" lyrics on official website\n\n1967 songs\nSongs written by Bob Dylan\nBob Dylan songs\nSong recordings produced by Bob Johnston" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.", "Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?", "Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt,", "What was the commercial decline", "an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort,", "How did that go", "Lester Bangs declared it \"genius\", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks.", "What else stood out", "At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of \"Coney Island Baby\"", "What else was known about him", "The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978)", "What was the name of his album", "Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978)" ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	What else was important in this article	10	Besides Lou Reed's album in 1976, what was important in the article?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands,	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	true	[ "\"What Else Is There?\" is the third single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. It features the vocals of Karin Dreijer from the Swedish electronica duo The Knife. The album was released in the UK with the help of Astralwerks.\n\nThe single was used in an O2 television advertisement in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia during 2008. It was also used in the 2006 film Cashback and the 2007 film, Meet Bill. Trentemøller's remix of \"What Else is There?\" was featured in an episode of the HBO show Entourage.\n\nThe song was covered by extreme metal band Enslaved as a bonus track for their album E.\n\nThe song was listed as the 375th best song of the 2000s by Pitchfork Media.\n\nOfficial versions\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Album Version) – 5:17\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Radio Edit) – 3:38\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Jacques Lu Cont Radio Mix) – 3:46\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Vocal Version) – 8:03\n\"What Else Is There?\" (The Emperor Machine Dub Version) – 7:51\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Mix) – 8:25\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Edit) – 4:50\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Thin White Duke Remix) (Radio Edit) – 3:06\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Trentemøller Remix) – 7:42\n\"What Else Is There?\" (Vitalic Remix) – 5:14\n\nResponse\nThe single was officially released on 5 December 2005 in the UK. The single had a limited release on 21 November 2005 to promote the upcoming album. On the UK Singles Chart, it peaked at number 32, while on the UK Dance Chart, it reached number one.\n\nMusic video\nThe music video was directed by Martin de Thurah. It features Norwegian model Marianne Schröder who is shown lip-syncing Dreijer's voice. Schröder is depicted as a floating woman traveling across stormy landscapes and within empty houses. Dreijer makes a cameo appearance as a woman wearing an Elizabethan ruff while dining alone at a festive table.\n\nMovie spots\n\nThe song is also featured in the movie Meet Bill as characters played by Jessica Alba and Aaron Eckhart smoke marijuana while listening to it. It is also part of the end credits music of the film Cashback.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2005 singles\nRöyksopp songs\nAstralwerks singles\nSongs written by Svein Berge\nSongs written by Torbjørn Brundtland\n2004 songs\nSongs written by Roger Greenaway\nSongs written by Olof Dreijer\nSongs written by Karin Dreijer", "Else Alfelt (16 September 1910 – 9 August 1974) was a Danish artist who specialized in abstract paintings. She was one of two female members of the CoBrA movement. She was married to Carl-Henning Pedersen, another prominent CoBrA member.\n\nEarly life and education\nAlfelt was born in Copenhagen to the parents Carl Valdemar Ahlefeldt (1882–1954) and Edith Alexandra Regine Julie Thomsen (1893–1938). She began to paint in an early age and remained self-taught as an artist. When her parents divorced while Else was very young, she was sent away to an orphanage by her father’s new wife. Alfelt learned to paint around age 12 by trying to capture staff and other children at the orphanage.\n\nAt age 15, Alfelt attended the Technical School in Copenhagen for two years. Her training worked to prepare her to apply to the Art Academy in Copenhagen where she was ultimately turned down. According to her museum website, “the rejection was made on the grounds that she already possessed the necessary painting skills.”\nIn 1933, when Alfelt was 23 years old, she attended the International Folk High School in Elsinore. There, she met her future husband Carl-Henning Pederson. They married very quickly, and their daughter Vibeke Alfelt was born in 1934. From about 1934 to 1937, the couple struggled financially but felt inspired still, so they would paint over used canvases in order to continue their craft. This was how Pederson allegedly began painting, by being given a used canvas from his wife and instructed to make it his own.\n\nCareer\n\nAhlefeldt submitted her work to the annual Autumn Salon of Danish artists (Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling) from 1929, but her work was not accepted until 1936, when she exhibited two naturalistic portraits. Soon after this, Alfelt's painting style shifted to a completely abstract idiom of meditative and colorful prismatic compositions.\n\nAlfelt was involved with the major avant-garde art movements in Denmark from the 1930s through the 1950s. She took part in Linien (The Line, 1934-1939), the artists' collective and art journal that was the first conduit of French Surrealism to Denmark. Under the German occupation of Denmark during World War Two, Alfelt was an integral component of Helhesten (The Hell-Horse, 1941-1944), the artists' group and art journal co-founded by Asger Jorn as a harbinger of experimental art and implicit cultural-political resistance. She was also an important member of CoBrA (1948-1951) after the war.\n\nAlfelt's work explored motifs such as spirals, mountains, and spheres, which she linked to expressions of \"inner space\". Alfelt was directly inspired by nature, specifically mountains, which she sought out on her many travels, such as her trip to Lapland 1945 and Japan in 1967. In addition to paintings she also produced several mosaics.\n\nShe was awarded the Tagea Brandt Rejselegat in 1961.\n\nNotable artworks\n\nPosthumous Exhibitions \n“Else Alfelt- The Flower of the Universe” – Carl Henning Pederson og Else Alfelts Museum; 2018.\n\nAlfelt was inspired by travels to Japan to incorporate Zen Buddhism into her artistic style, resulting in 100 meditative paintings all named “Flower of the Universe.” These paintings were all made from Since she created them while traveling to Japan, each piece was composed on paper since it was lightweight and easy to transport.\n\n“Abstract Women- Else Alfelt and Marianne Grønnow” – Carl Henning Pederson og Else Alfelts museum; March 2015-August 2015.\nAbstract women documents two Danish abstract female painters who have gone overlooked by history, and overshadowed by their husbands’ works. While the two artists vary greatly in style and technique, the CHPEA museum brings them together for this exhibition to bring attention to the ways their art challenges established societal norms.\n\nLegacy\n'Carl Henning Pedersen og Else Alfelts Museum' outside Herning. Else Alfelts Vej in the Ørestad district of Copenhagen is named after her. In September 2010, the museum displayed a large-scale exhibition called “Else Alfelt – The Aesthetics of Emptiness.” The exhibition was shown for five months to celebrate what would have been Alfelt’s 100th birthday. The museum page description of the event calls her “one of the most significant women artists in Danish modernism.”\n\nSee also\nList of Danish painters\nList of Danish women artists\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n'Carl Henning Pedersen og Else Alfelts Museum' - Else Alfelt \nElse Alfelt in Kunstindeks Danmark \n\n1910 births\n1974 deaths\n20th-century Danish painters\n20th-century Danish women artists\nAbstract painters\nArtists from Copenhagen\nDanish watercolourists\nDanish women painters\nRecipients of the Thorvaldsen Medal\nWomen watercolorists" ]
[ "Lou Reed", "1975-79: Addiction and commercial decline", "What was his addiction", "Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol.", "When did he get over it", "From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs.", "What happen next", "The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony.", "Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?", "Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt,", "What was the commercial decline", "an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort,", "How did that go", "Lester Bangs declared it \"genius\", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks.", "What else stood out", "At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of \"Coney Island Baby\"", "What else was known about him", "The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978)", "What was the name of his album", "Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978)", "What else was important in this article", "Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands," ]	C_0745bb9e493f4dcb82cd0453d1dde571_1	Did he tour	11	Did Lou Reed tour?	Lou Reed	Throughout the 1970s Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1976's Coney Island Baby still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil. In 1978 Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, which some critics thought was his "bravest work yet," while others considered it his "silliest." Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. Around this period Reed also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. CANNOTANSWER	numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk by Legs McNeil.	Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. The Velvet Underground was not a commercial success during its existence, but became regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of underground and alternative rock music. Reed's distinctive deadpan voice, poetic and transgressive lyrics, and experimental guitar playing were trademarks throughout his long career. After leaving the band in 1970, Reed released twenty solo studio albums. His second, Transformer (1972), was produced by David Bowie and arranged by Mick Ronson, and brought him mainstream recognition. The album is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre, anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side". After Transformer, the less commercial but critically acclaimed Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Rock 'n' Roll Animal (a live album released in 1974) sold strongly, and Sally Can't Dance (1974) peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; but for a long period after, Reed's work did not translate into sales, leading him deeper into drug addiction and alcoholism. Reed cleaned up in the early 1980s, and gradually returned to prominence with The Blue Mask and New Sensations (1984), reaching a critical and commercial career peak with his 1989 album New York. Reed participated in the re-formation of the Velvet Underground in the 1990s, and made several more albums, including a collaboration album with John Cale titled Songs for Drella which was a tribute to their former mentor Andy Warhol. Magic and Loss (1992) would become Reed's highest-charting album on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at No. 6. He contributed music to two theatrical interpretations of 19th century writers, one of which he developed into an album titled The Raven. He married his third wife Laurie Anderson in 2008, and recorded the collaboration album Lulu with Metallica. He died in 2013 of liver disease. Reed has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; as a member of the Velvet Underground in 1996 and as a solo act in 2015. Biography 1942–57: Early life Lewis Allan Reed was born on March 2, 1942, at Beth-El Hospital (later Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) (1920–2013) and Sidney Joseph Reed (1913–2005), an accountant. His family was Jewish and his grandparents were Russian Jews who had fled antisemitism; his father had changed his name from Rabinowitz to Reed. Reed said that although he was Jewish, his “real god was rock 'n' roll“. Reed attended Atkinson Elementary School in Freeport and went on to Freeport Junior High School. His sister Merrill, born Margaret Reed, said that as an adolescent, he suffered panic attacks, became socially awkward and "possessed a fragile temperament" but was highly focused on things that he liked, mainly music. Having learned to play the guitar from the radio, he developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in several bands. He began experimenting with drugs at the age of 16. Reed was dyslexic. 1958–64: Early recordings and education Reed's first recording was as a member of a doo-wop three-piece group called the Jades, with Reed providing guitar accompaniment and singing backing vocals. After participating at a talent show at Freeport Junior High School in early 1958, and receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience, the group was given the chance to record an original single "So Blue" with the B-side "Leave Her for Me" later that year. While the single didn't chart, notable saxophonist King Curtis was brought in as a session musician by the producer Bob Shad to play on both songs, and the single was played by a substitute DJ during the Murray the K radio show, which gave Reed his first-ever airplay. Reed's love for playing music and his desire to play gigs brought him into confrontation with his anxious and unaccommodating parents. His sister recalled that during his first year in college he was brought home one day, having had a mental breakdown, after which he remained "depressed, anxious, and socially unresponsive" for a time, and that his parents were having difficulty coping. Visiting a psychologist, Reed's parents were made to feel guilty as inadequate parents, and they consented to giving Lou electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Reed appeared to blame his father for the treatment to which he had been subjected. He wrote about the experience in his song, "Kill Your Sons" from the album Sally Can't Dance (1974). Reed later recalled the experience as having been traumatic and leading to memory loss. He believed that he was treated to dispel his feelings of homosexuality. After Reed's death, his sister denied the ECT treatments were intended to suppress his "homosexual urges", asserting that their parents were not homophobic but had been told by his doctors that ECT was necessary to treat Reed's mental and behavioral issues. Upon his recovery from his illness and associated treatment, Reed resumed his education at Syracuse University in 1960, studying journalism, film directing, and creative writing. He was a platoon leader in ROTC; he said he was later expelled from the program for holding an unloaded gun to his superior's head. In 1961, he began hosting a late-night radio program on WAER called Excursions on a Wobbly Rail. Named after a song by pianist Cecil Taylor, the program typically featured doo wop, rhythm and blues, and jazz, particularly the free jazz developed in the mid-1950s. Reed said that when he started out he was inspired by such musicians as Ornette Coleman, who had "always been a great influence" on him; he said that his guitar on "European Son" was his way of trying to imitate the jazz saxophonist. Reed's sister said that during her brother's time at Syracuse, the university authorities had tried unsuccessfully to expel him because they did not approve of his extracurricular activities. At Syracuse University, he studied under poet Delmore Schwartz, who he said was "the first great person I ever met", and they became friends. He credited Schwartz with showing him how "with the simplest language imaginable, and very short, you can accomplish the most astonishing heights." One of Reed's fellow students at Syracuse in the early 1960s (who also studied under Schwartz) was the musician Garland Jeffreys; they remained close friends until the end of Reed's life. Jeffreys recalled Reed's time at Syracuse: "At four in the afternoon we'd all meet at [the bar] The Orange Grove. Me, Delmore and Lou. That would often be the center of the crew. And Delmore was the leader - our quiet leader." While at Syracuse, Reed was also introduced to intravenous drug use for the first time, and quickly contracted hepatitis. Reed later dedicated the song "European Son", from the first Velvet Underground album, to Schwartz. In 1982, Reed recorded "My House" from his album The Blue Mask as a tribute to his late mentor. He later said that his goals as a writer were "to bring the sensitivities of the novel to rock music" or to write the Great American Novel in a record album. Reed met Sterling Morrison, a student at City University of New York, while the latter was visiting mutual friend, and fellow Syracuse student, Jim Tucker. Reed graduated from Syracuse University's College of Arts and Sciences with a B.A. cum laude in English in June 1964. 1964–70: Pickwick and the Velvet Underground In 1964, Reed moved to New York City to work as an in-house songwriter for Pickwick Records. He can be heard singing lead on two cuts on The Surfsiders Sing The Beach Boys Songbook. For Pickwick, Reed also wrote and recorded the single "The Ostrich", a parody of popular dance songs of the time, which included lines such as "put your head on the floor and have somebody step on it". His employers felt that the song had hit potential, and assembled a supporting band to help promote the recording. The ad hoc band, called the Primitives: Reed, Welsh musician John Cale, who had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing viola in composer La Monte Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, Tony Conrad and sculptor Walter De Maria. Cale and Conrad were surprised to find that for "The Ostrich", Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note, which they began to call his "ostrich guitar" tuning. This technique created a drone effect similar to their experimentation in Young's avant-garde ensemble. Disappointed with Reed's performance, Cale was nevertheless impressed by Reed's early repertoire (including "Heroin"), and a partnership began to evolve. Reed and Cale (who played viola, keyboards and bass guitar) lived together on the Lower East Side, and invited Reed's college acquaintance guitarist Sterling Morrison and Cale's neighbor drummer Angus MacLise to join the band, thus forming the Velvet Underground. When the opportunity came to play their first paying gig at Summit High School in Summit, New Jersey, MacLise quit because he believed that accepting money for art was a sellout and did not want to participate in a structured gig. He was replaced on drums by Moe Tucker, the sister of Reed and Morrison's mutual friend Jim Tucker. Initially a fill in for that one show she soon became a full-time member with her drumming an integral part of the band's sound, despite Cale's initial objections. Though it had little commercial success, the band is considered one of the most influential in rock history. Reed was the main singer and songwriter in the band. The band soon came to the attention of Andy Warhol. One of Warhol's first contributions was to integrate them into the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Warhol's associates inspired many of Reed's songs as he fell into a thriving, multifaceted artistic scene. Reed rarely gave an interview without paying homage to Warhol as a mentor. Warhol pushed the band to take on a chanteuse, the German former model and singer Nico. Despite his initial resistance, Reed wrote several songs for Nico to sing, and the two were briefly lovers. The Velvet Underground & Nico was released in March 1967 and peaked at No. 171 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Much later, Rolling Stone listed it as the 13th greatest album of all time; Brian Eno once stated that although few people bought the album, most of them were inspired to form their own bands. Václav Havel credited the album, which he bought while visiting the U.S., with inspiring him to become president of Czechoslovakia. By the time the band recorded White Light/White Heat, Nico had quit the band and Warhol had been fired, both against Cale's wishes. Warhol's replacement as manager was Steve Sesnick. In September 1968, Cale left the band at Reed's behest. Morrison and Tucker were discomfited by Reed's tactics but continued with the band. Cale's replacement was Boston-based musician Doug Yule, who played bass guitar, keyboards and who would soon share lead vocal duties in the band with Reed. The band now took on a more pop-oriented sound and acted more as a vehicle for Reed to develop his songwriting craft. They released two studio albums with this line-up: 1969's The Velvet Underground and 1970's Loaded. Reed left the Velvet Underground in August 1970. The band disintegrated after Morrison and Tucker departed in 1971. 1970–75: Glam rock and commercial breakthrough After leaving the Velvet Underground, Reed moved to his parents' home on Long Island, and took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week ($ in dollars). In 1971, he signed a recording contract with RCA Records and recorded his first solo album at Morgan Studios in Willesden, London with session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman from the band Yes. The album, Lou Reed, contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which had originally been recorded for Loaded but shelved. This album was overlooked by most pop music critics and did not sell well, although music critic Stephen Holden, in Rolling Stone, called it an "almost perfect album. ... which embodied the spirit of the Velvets." Holden went on to compare Reed's voice with those of Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan and to praise the poetic quality of his lyrics. Reed's commercial breakthrough album, Transformer, was released in November 1972. Transformer was co-produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, and it introduced Reed to a wider audience, especially in the UK. The single "Walk on the Wild Side" was a salute to the misfits and hustlers who once surrounded Andy Warhol in the late '60s and appeared in his films. Each of the song's five verses describes a person who had been a fixture at The Factory during the mid-to-late 1960s: (1) Holly Woodlawn, (2) Candy Darling, (3) "Little Joe" Dallesandro, (4) "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and (5) Jackie Curtis. The song's transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though the jazzy arrangement (courtesy of bassist Herbie Flowers and saxophonist Ronnie Ross) was musically atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. It came about as a result of a commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name; the play failed to materialize. "Walk on the Wild Side" was Reed's only entry in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, at No. 16. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs. "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Bowie and Reed fell out during a late-night meeting which led to Reed hitting Bowie. Bowie had told Reed that he would have to "clean up his act" if they were to work together again. Reed hired a local New York bar-band, the Tots, to tour in support of Transformer and spent much of 1972 and early 1973 on the road with them. Though they improved over the months, Reed (with producer Bob Ezrin's encouragement) decided to recruit a new backing band in anticipation of the upcoming Berlin album. He chose keyboardist Moogy Klingman to come up with a new five-member band on barely a week's notice. Reed married Bettye Kronstad in 1973. She later said he had been a violent drunk when on tour. Berlin (July 1973) was a concept album about two speed-freaks in love in the city. The songs variously concern domestic violence ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). Reed's late 1973 European tour, featuring lead guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, mixed his Berlin material with older numbers. Response to Berlin at the time of its release was negative, with Rolling Stone pronouncing it "a disaster". Reed found the poor reviews it received very frustrating. Since then the album has been critically reevaluated, and in 2003 Rolling Stone included it in their list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Berlin peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart. Following the commercial disappointment of Berlin, Reed befriended Steve Katz of Blood, Sweat & Tears (who was the brother of his then-manager Dennis Katz), who suggested Reed put together a "great live band" and release a live album of Velvet Underground songs. Katz would come on board as producer, and the album Rock 'n' Roll Animal (February 1974) contained live performances of the Velvet Underground songs "Sweet Jane", "Heroin", "White Light/White Heat", and "Rock and Roll". Wagner's live arrangements, and Hunter's intro to "Sweet Jane" which opened the album, gave Reed's songs the live rock sound he was looking for, and the album peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200 for 28 weeks and soon became Reed's biggest selling album. It went gold in 1978, with 500,000 certified sales. Sally Can't Dance which was released later that year (in August 1974), became Reed's highest-charting album in the United States, peaking at No. 10 during a 14-week stay on the Billboard 200 album chart in October 1974. In October 2019, an audio tape of publicly unknown music by Reed, based on Warhol's 1975 book, "The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again", was reported to have been discovered in an archive at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 1975–79: Addiction and creative work Throughout the 1970s, Reed was a heavy user of methamphetamine and alcohol. In the summer of 1975, he was booked to headline Startruckin' 75 in Europe, a touring rock festival organized by Miles Copeland. However, Reed's drug addiction made him undependable and he never performed on the tour, causing Copeland to replace him with Ike & Tina Turner. Reed's album Metal Machine Music (1975) was an hour of modulated feedback and guitar effects. Described by Rolling Stone as the "tubular groaning of a galactic refrigerator", many critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort inspired by the drone music of La Monte Young, and suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback, but he also said, "Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also psychologically disturbing. The album, now regarded as a visionary textural guitar masterpiece by some music critics, was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands and was withdrawn after a few weeks. 1975's Coney Island Baby was dedicated to Reed's then-partner Rachel Humphreys, a transgender woman Reed dated and lived with for three years. Humphreys also appears in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. Rock and Roll Heart was his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, and Street Hassle (1978) was released in the midst of the punk rock scene he had helped to inspire. Reed took on a watchful, competitive and sometimes dismissive attitude towards punk. Aware that he had inspired them, he regularly attended shows at CBGB to track the artistic and commercial development of numerous punk bands, and a cover illustration and interview of Reed appeared in the first issue of Punk magazine by Legs McNeil. Reed released his third live album, Live: Take No Prisoners, in 1978; some critics thought it was his "bravest work yet", while others considered it his "silliest". Rolling Stone described it as "one of the funniest live albums ever recorded" and compared Reed's monologues with those of Lenny Bruce. Reed felt it was his best album to date. The Bells (1979) featured jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. During 1979 Reed toured extensively in Europe and throughout the United States performing a wide range of songs, including a suite of core songs from his Berlin album and the title track from The Bells featuring Chuck Hammer on guitar-synth. Around this time Reed also appeared as a record producer in Paul Simon's film One-Trick Pony. From around 1979 Reed began to wean himself off drugs. 1980–89: Marriage and mid-period Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales in 1980. Morales inspired Reed to write several songs, particularly "Think It Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. The latter album was enthusiastically received by critics such as Rolling Stone writer Tom Carson, whose review began, "Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask is a great record, and its genius is at once so simple and unusual that the only appropriate reaction is wonder. Who expected anything like this from Reed at this late stage of the game?" In the Village Voice, Robert Christgau called The Blue Mask "his most controlled, plainspoken, deeply felt, and uninhibited album." After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984), Reed was sufficiently reestablished as a public figure to become a spokesman for Honda scooters. In the early 1980s, Reed worked with guitarists including Chuck Hammer on Growing Up in Public, and Robert Quine on The Blue Mask and Legendary Hearts. Reed's 1984 album New Sensations marked the first time that Reed had charted within the US Top 100 since 1978's Street Hassle, and the first time that Reed had charted in the UK altogether since 1976's Coney Island Baby. Although its lead single "I Love You, Suzanne" only charted at No. 78 on the UK Singles Chart it did receive light rotation on MTV. Two more singles were released from the album: "My Red Joystick" and the Dutch-only release "High in the City" but they both failed to chart. In 1998, The New York Times observed that in the 1970s, Reed had a distinctive persona: "Back then he was publicly gay, pretended to shoot heroin onstage, and cultivated a 'Dachau panda' look, with cropped peroxide hair and black circles painted under his eyes." The newspaper wrote that in 1980, "Reed renounced druggy theatrics, even swore off intoxicants themselves, and became openly heterosexual, openly married." On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. He performed "Doin' the Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", "New Sensations" and "Walk on the Wild Side" as his solo set, later playing bass for Roy Orbison during his set. In June 1986, Reed released Mistrial (co-produced with bassist Fernando Saunders). To support the album, he released two music videos: "No Money Down" and "The Original Wrapper". In the same year, he joined Amnesty International's A Conspiracy of Hope short tour and was outspoken about New York City's political issues and personalities. He also appeared on Steven Van Zandt's 1985 anti-Apartheid song "Sun City", pledging not to play at that resort. The 1989 album New York, which commented on crime, AIDS, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, then-President of Austria Kurt Waldheim and Pope John Paul II, became his second gold-certified work when it passed 500,000 sales in 1997. Reed was nominated for a Grammy Award for best male rock vocal performance for the album. 1990–99: Velvet Underground reunion and various projects Reed met John Cale for the first time in several years at Warhol's funeral in 1987. They worked together on the album Songs for Drella (April 1990), a song cycle about Warhol. On the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, and criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, the first Velvet Underground lineup reformed for a Fondation Cartier benefit show in France. In June and July 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured Europe, including an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival; plans for a North American tour were cancelled following a dispute between Reed and Cale. Reed had released his sixteenth solo album, Magic and Loss, in January 1992. The album is focused on mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1994, he appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who. In the same year, he and Morales were divorced. In 1995, Reed made a cameo appearance in the unreleased video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors. If the player selects the "impossible" difficulty setting, Reed appears shortly after the game begins as an unbeatable boss who murders the player with his laser beam eyes. Reed then pops up on the screen and says to the player, "This is the impossible level, boys. Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun." In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Reed, Cale and Tucker performed a song titled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend", dedicated to Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. In February 1996 Reed released Set the Twilight Reeling, and later that year, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, a theatrical interpretation of H. G. Wells' The Time Machine by experimental director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater, Hamburg, and was later also shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. From 1992, Reed was romantically linked to avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and the two worked together on several recordings. They married on April 12, 2008. 2000–12: Rock and ambient experimentation In February 2000, Reed worked with Robert Wilson at the Thalia Theater again, on POEtry, another production inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer, this time Edgar Allan Poe. In April 2000, Reed released Ecstasy. In January 2003, Reed released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on POEtry. The album consists of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. It features Willem Dafoe, David Bowie, Steve Buscemi, and Ornette Coleman. A single disc CD version of the album, focusing on the music, was also released. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001, the New York Times published a Reed poem called "Laurie Sadly Listening" in which he reflects on the September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11). Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In April 2003, Reed began a world tour featuring the cellist Jane Scarpantoni and singer Anohni. In 2003, Reed released a book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This comprised an A4-sized book called Emotions and a smaller one called Actions laid into its hard cover. In January 2006, he released a second book of photographs, Lou Reed's New York. A third volume, Romanticism, was released in 2009. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song "Satellite of Love", called "Satellite of Love '04", was released. It peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2006, Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far for Beauty" in Dublin, along with Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Anohni, Jarvis Cocker, and Beth Orton. He played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". In December that year, Reed played a series of shows at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on Berlin. Reed played with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album and Rock 'n' Roll Animal, and was joined by singers Anohni and Sharon Jones. The show was produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The show played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and in Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, and a live film recording of these concerts were both released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, an album of ambient meditational music. It was released on the Sounds True record label. In June 2007, he performed at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the city. In the same month "Pale Blue Eyes" was included in the soundtrack of the French-language film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. In August 2007, Reed recorded "Tranquilize" with the Killers in New York City, a duet with Brandon Flowers for the B-side/rarities album Sawdust. On October 2 and 3, 2008, he introduced his new group, which was later named Metal Machine Trio, at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Complex in Los Angeles. The trio featured Ulrich Krieger (saxophone) and Sarth Calhoun (electronics), and played improvised instrumental music inspired by Metal Machine Music. Recordings of the concerts were released under the title The Creation of the Universe. The trio played at New York's Gramercy Theatre in April 2009, and appeared as part of Reed's band at the 2009 Lollapalooza. Reed provided the voice of Maltazard, the villain in the 2009 Luc Besson animated/live-action feature film Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard and appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' 2008 film Palermo Shooting. Reed played "Sweet Jane" and "White Light/White Heat" with Metallica at Madison Square Garden during the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2009. In 2010, Reed featured on the song "Some Kind of Nature" with virtual band Gorillaz, from their third studio album Plastic Beach. In October 2011, Metallica and Reed released the collaboration album Lulu. It was based on the "Lulu" plays by the German playwright Frank Wedekind (1864–1918). The album received mixed and mainly negative reviews from music critics. Reed joked that he had no fans left. The album debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 13,000 copies. In 2012, Reed collaborated with indie rock band Metric on "The Wanderlust", the tenth track on their fifth studio album Synthetica. This was to be the last original composition he worked on. Death, legacy, and honors Reed had suffered from hepatitis and diabetes for several years. He practiced tai chi during the last part of his life. He was treated with interferon but developed liver cancer. In May 2013, he underwent a liver transplant at the Cleveland Clinic. Afterward, on his website, he wrote of feeling "bigger and stronger" than ever, but on October 27, 2013, he died from liver disease at his home in East Hampton, New York, at the age of 71. He was cremated and the ashes were given to his family. His widow Laurie Anderson said his last days were peaceful, and described him as a "prince and a fighter". David Byrne, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Morrissey, Iggy Pop, Courtney Love, Lenny Kravitz, and many others also paid tribute to Reed. Former Velvet Underground members Moe Tucker and John Cale made statements on Reed's death, and those from outside the music industry paid their respects such as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi. On October 27, 2013, the day of Reed's death, Pearl Jam dedicated their song "Man of the Hour" to him at their show in Baltimore and then played "I'm Waiting for the Man". On the day of his death, the Killers dedicated their rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes" to Reed at the Life Is Beautiful festival in Las Vegas. My Morning Jacket performed a cover of "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" in California while Arctic Monkeys performed "Walk on the Wild Side" in Liverpool. That same night, Phish opened their show in Hartford, Connecticut with the Velvet Underground's "Rock & Roll". On November 14, 2013, a three-hour public memorial was held near Lincoln Center's Paul Milstein Pool and Terrace. Billed as "New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center", the ceremony featured favorite Reed recordings selected by family and friends. On March 14, 2014, Richard Barone and Alejandro Escovedo produced and hosted the first full-scale tribute to Lou Reed at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, with over twenty international acts performing Reed's music. Reed's estate was valued at $30 million, $20 million of which accrued after his death. He left everything to his wife and his sister. Reed's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist was announced on December 16, 2014. He was inducted by Patti Smith at a ceremony in Cleveland on April 18, 2015. In 2017, Lou Reed: A Life was published by the Rolling Stone critic Anthony DeCurtis. Asteroid 270553 Loureed, discovered by Maik Meyer at Palomar Observatory in 2002, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on June 2, 2015 (). Spiders with furry bodies are known as velvet spiders and one which was recently discovered in Spain is named Loureedia, because it has a velvet body and lives underground. An archive of his letters and other personal effects was donated to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, where it can be viewed by members of the public. Since his death, allegations have been made about Reed, including of misogyny, and racism. Equipment Guitars Lou Reed's main guitar during the Velvet Underground era was a 1964 Gretsch Country Gentleman, which he modified extensively, to the extent that it became unplayable. He played various stock Fender Telecasters, later favoring models that were built specifically for him, such as the Rick Kelly 'Lou Reed's T' Custom Telecaster and the Fender Custom Shop Danny Gatton Telecaster. He has played various other electric guitars throughout his career: Carl Thompson Steve Klein Epiphone Riviera Steinberger Synapse Transcale ST-2FPA Custom Gibson ES-335TD Fender Electric XII twelve-string Gibson SG Amplifiers Jim Kelley Amplifiers Fender 'wide panel tweed' Deluxe Amp 5C3 Soldano SLO 100 100-Watt Tube guitar amplifier Tone King Imperial 1x12 Combo guitar amplifier Sears Silvertone 1484 Twin-Twelve Discography The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground & Nico (1967) White Light/White Heat (1968) The Velvet Underground (1969) Loaded (1970) Solo Lou Reed (1972) Transformer (1972) Berlin (1973) Rock 'n' Roll Animal (1974) Sally Can't Dance (1974) Metal Machine Music (1975) Coney Island Baby (1975) Rock and Roll Heart (1976) Street Hassle (1978) The Bells (1979) Growing Up in Public (1980) The Blue Mask (1982) Legendary Hearts (1983) New Sensations (1984) Mistrial (1986) New York (1989) Magic and Loss (1992) Set the Twilight Reeling (1996) Ecstasy (2000) The Raven (2003) Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) Collaborations Songs for Drella (1990) (with John Cale) Lulu'' (2011) (with Metallica) Filmography References Notes Citations Bibliography External links Lou Reed papers, 1958-2015, held by the Music Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American guitarists American baritones American street performers American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American male singer-songwriters American people of Russian-Jewish descent American poets American rock guitarists American rock singers American rock songwriters Art rock musicians Bisexual men Bisexual musicians Deaths from liver disease Glam rock musicians Guitarists from New York City Ivor Novello Award winners Jewish American songwriters Jewish American musicians Jewish rock musicians Jewish singers Jews in punk rock Rhythm guitarists Lead guitarists LGBT Jews LGBT people from New York (state) LGBT singers from the United States LGBT songwriters Liver transplant recipients Matador Records artists MGM Records artists Musicians from Brooklyn American noise musicians People from Freeport, New York People from Hardwick Township, New Jersey Photographers from New York (state) Protopunk musicians RCA Records artists Reprise Records artists Singers from New York City Sire Records artists Syracuse University alumni The Velvet Underground members Warner Records artists People from East Hampton (town), New York People associated with The Factory Singer-songwriters from New York (state)	false	[ "Augustin Ringeval was a French cyclist of the early 1900s. He was born in Aubigny-aux-Kaisnes in 1882.\n\nAmong other competitions, he participated in his first Tour de France in 1905. He went on to participate in many other Tours until 1913,\n\nHe died in 1967.\n\nMajor competitions\n 1905 Tour de France – 6th place\n 1906 Tour de France – did not finish\n 1907 Tour de France – 8th place\n 1908 Tour de France – did not finish\n 1909 Tour de France – did not finish\n 1910 Tour de France – 19th place\n 1912 Tour de France – 30th place\n 1913 Tour de France – did not finish\n\nReferences\n :fr:Augustin Ringeval\n https://web.archive.org/web/20080726123007/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/veloarchive/races/tour/1905.htm 1905 Tour de France\n\n1882 births\n1967 deaths\nPeople from Aisne\nFrench male cyclists", "Ferdinand Payan was a French bicyclist of the early 20th century. He was born in Arles in 1870.\n\nHe participated in the 1903 Tour de France, the first Tour, and came in 12th place. He was 19 hours, 9 minutes and 2 seconds behind the winner Maurice Garin.\n\nHe died in 1961 in Nice.\n\nMajor competitions\n 1903 Tour de France - 12th place\n 1904 Tour de France - did not finish\n 1906 Tour de France - 12th place\n 1907 Tour de France - 10th place\n 1908 Tour de France - 24th place\n 1909 Tour de France - did not finish\n 1911 Tour de France - did not finish\n 1912 Tour de France - did not finish\n\nReferences\n \n Official Tour de France results for Ferdinand Payan\n\nFrench male cyclists\n1870 births\n1961 deaths\nPeople from Arles\nSportspeople from Bouches-du-Rhône" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition" ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	what was he trying to accomplish?	1	What was Horace Plunkett trying to achieve?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	true	[ "Forget it! is a 2001 Donald Duck comic by Don Rosa. The story was first published in the Danish Anders And & Co. #2002-11; the first American publication was in Uncle Scrooge #328, in April 2004.\n\nPlot\nMagica De Spell once again attempts to steal Scrooge McDuck's Number One Dime. This time she is armed with a spell with an interesting effect on its victim. Whenever the victim hears his/her name spoken in conjunction with another thing, he/she immediately forgets the thing in question ever existed, and cannot even comprehend the idea. Magica uses the spell on both Scrooge and Donald, and traps them in Scrooge's office by closing the door and causing them to forget doors exist.\n\nMiss Emily Quackfaster frees Scrooge and Donald simply by opening the door, and they chase Magica to the airport, where she is trying to return to Mount Vesuvius. In the progress, Scrooge and Donald forget various things, such as how to drive a car, how to walk, or even how to speak. Scrooge comes face to face with Magica, but unfortunately forgets who she is, so he lets her go. Donald reminds him that she is an enemy, so Scrooge resumes chase and they end up in a fight, during which Magica accidentally casts the spell on herself.\n\nMagica shakes Scrooge off and flees in a helicopter, but unfortunately, the pilot calls her by name and asks what her destination is. This causes Magica to forget all about what she is trying to accomplish. She then returns to Duckburg to ask Scrooge what it was. However, the effects of the spell on the Ducks have worn off, and thus Scrooge is lucid enough to trick Magica into giving him the dime back.\n\nExternal links\n\nDisney comics stories\nDonald Duck comics by Don Rosa\n2001 in comics", "Misty Dawn: Portrait of a Muse is a 2008 photography book by Jock Sturges. It comprises 100 duotone images of model Misty Dawn taken over a period of 25 years. Photos are arranged in chronological order starting from when she was 4 years old. Many images feature other models posing with Dawn, and images range from fully clothed to full nudity. Most photographs were taken in Northern California; some were taken in Montalivet, France. Many of the images appear in Sturges' earlier books, including Radiant Identities (1994), though many others were previously unpublished.\n\nReception\nWhilst praising Sturges' talent and images, Christian Perring questioned what the book was trying to accomplish, stating: \"The subtitle of the book is 'Portrait of a Muse,' but as a portrait, it is extremely one dimensional (...) If [Sturges' goal] is just presenting us with striking pictures of attractive nude young women set against a backdrop of nature, he is very successful. However, if he is trying to do more, and tell us something about life, and people, then his work is far more limited in its success.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2008 non-fiction books\nBooks of nude photography" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition", "what was he trying to accomplish?", "Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting." ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	what did he do to help the movement?	2	what did Horace Plunkett do to help the dairy movement?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development,	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	false	[ "Human Emergency is the third album from the popular Christian hip hop group the Cross Movement, released on October 31, 2000. It included The Ambassador, EarthQuake, Enock, Phanatik and Tonic.\n\nMusic video\nA music video was made for the song \"Know Me\".\n\nTrack listing\nIntro - Dispatch (We Called You) \nThe Light (The Blazin' One) [feat. Da’ T.R.U.T.H.]\nHold it Down\nC to the R \nOn the Move\nKnow Me (Huh, What?)\nIn Route (Interlude) \nWhat Do You See? \nLove Life\nCome in London (Interlude)\nLord? [feat. M.O.D.]\nCreature Double Feature\nSomebody Help! (Interlude)\nOn Right Now\nAll Day\nRemember\nLive Agua \nTo My Peoples\nBack Up\nCypha’ 911\n\nExternal links\n \"Know Me\" Music Video\n\n2000 albums\nThe Cross Movement albums\nCross Movement Records albums", "\"What Are You Going to Do to Help the Boys?\" is a World War I era song released in 1918. Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics. Egbert Van Alstyne composed the music. It was published by Jerome H. Remick & Co. of Detroit, Michigan. Artist E.E. Walton designed the sheet music cover. It features Uncle Sam inside a red, white, and blue question mark. He is holding his beard and looking down at liberty bonds. To the left of this image it reads, \"Buy a Liberty Bond!\" on some editions. The song was written for both piano and voice.\n\nThe song is a call to action. It encourages listeners to buy liberty bonds, especially if they are staying home while soldiers fight overseas. The voice states that it doesn't matter one's age, where he is from, or who he is. Uncle Sam expects everyone to help in the war effort. The chorus is as follows: \nWhat are you going to do for Uncle Sammy?\nWhat are you going to do to help the boys?\nIf you mean to stay at home\nWhile they're fighting o'er the foam\nThe least you can do is buy a Liberty bond or two\nIf you're going to be a sympathetic miser\nThe kind that only lends noise\nYou're no better than the one who loves the Kaiser\nSo what are you going to do to help the boys?\n\nThe sheet music can be found at Pritzker Military Museum & Library.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Sheet music and song MP3 found at the Illinois Digital Archive\n\nSongs about soldiers\n1918 songs\nSongs of World War I\nSongs with lyrics by Gus Kahn\nSongs with music by Egbert Van Alstyne" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition", "what was he trying to accomplish?", "Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.", "what did he do to help the movement?", "Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development," ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	what project was he involved in?	3	what project was Horace Plunkett involved in?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS),	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	true	[ "Harris Mann (born April 1938) is a British car designer. He took over from Roy Haynes as chief stylist at British Leyland in 1970.\n\nBiography\nMann was born in London in 1938, and attended engineering school in Westminster. His automotive design career started with the bus and coach building firm Duple, followed by a short time working in the U.S. with Loewy Consultancy. After a brief spell of National Service back in the UK, Mann worked for Commer, and then for Ford.\n\nCars on which Mann was involved at Ford included the first Escort and the Capri. His boss at Ford, Roy Haynes, persuaded Mann to go with him when, in 1967, he moved to BMC to lead the design studio at Cowley.\n\nMann worked alongside Haynes on the BMC Marina project and, when the design department they were working in was relocated to Longbridge, Haynes left the company, leaving Mann to lead the design team for, what was by then, British Leyland (BL).\n\nMann took over the Allegro project, and then worked on the Diablo project, which became the Princess. That was followed by the work for which he is most famous, the Triumph TR7. His final project with BL was the Metro, after which he left and went freelance. In that capacity he worked for MG Rover on the MG \"Z\" series (the ZR, ZS, and the ZT). He was also a design consultant for BMW in the mid 1980s, for which he was required to submit plans for a new corporate style and, in particular, to work on bonnet and boot shut lines and lights. According to Mann, \"BMW shut lines were all over the place at that time\". He proposed several designs to the BMW board, including the double headlight design, very reminiscent of the Princess, which is still seen on BMW cars today.\n\nLater, Mann was involved in independent design consultancy in the automotive sector, and lectured in design at Coventry University.\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\n1938 births\nLiving people\nBritish automobile designers", "Hoesrt Baeseler (10 March 1930 – 20 September 2004) was a German architect. He was part of the school of garden and landscape architects.\n\nLife\nHorst Baeseler was born in Dresden in the southern part of what was then central Germany. His father was a pharmacist. He attended school at the city's prestigious King George Gymnasium, but his school days were prematurely terminated in February 1945 when the school was destroyed. The war ended in May 1945 and Dresden found itself in the Soviet occupation zone of what remained of Germany, controlled by the Soviet military. Four years later the entire \"zone\" was subsequently relaunched as a stand-alone East German state under Soviet sponsorship, the German Democratic Republic formally founded in October 1949. Baeseler trained between 1945 and 1948 as a gardener at the Paul Hauber Tree School in Dresden-Tolkewitz. He then started work as a gardener, focusing on herbaceous shrubs and trees. He also continued to train, now with Johann Greiner at the Horticultural Academy in Pillnitz. In 1951 he took a part in a machinery training course for gardeners in Quedlinburg.\n\nBetween 1951 and 1991, at the behest of Johann Greiner, Horst Baeseler was an employee of the National Building Academy. Here, until 1955, he was working with Reinhold Lingner, the country's leading garden and landscape architect. The two of them worked on the landscaping for the Wilhelm Pieck Pioneers' Republic in Altenhof, north of Berlin: this was to become the principal recreational and training/indoctrination camp for selected Young Pioneers. Greiner and Baseler later worked together on the Stalinstadt Arts and Sports centre in Eisenhüttenstadt. Between 1952 and 1955 Baeseler studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin, emerging with an engineering degree in Landscape planning. For the next three decades he was involved in a series of high-profile East German construction projects.\n\nIn 1981 Baeseler was involved in an East German Development Support project in Mozambique. His contribution involved garden and landscape construction projects. Between 1991 and 1996 he worked at the Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning.\n\nHorst Baeseler died in Berlin in 2004. He left behind him numerous texts, reports. working papers, letters, books, plans and sketches.\n\nReferences\n\nEast German architects\nGerman landscape architects\n1930 births\n2004 deaths\nArchitects from Dresden" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition", "what was he trying to accomplish?", "Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.", "what did he do to help the movement?", "Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development,", "what project was he involved in?", "As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS)," ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	what did this society do?	4	what did the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS) do?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks,	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	false	[ "\"What Did I Do to You?\" is a song recorded by British singer Lisa Stansfield for her 1989 album, Affection. It was written by Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, and produced by Devaney and Morris. The song was released as the fourth European single on 30 April 1990. It included three previously unreleased songs written by Stansfield, Devaney and Morris: \"My Apple Heart,\" \"Lay Me Down\" and \"Something's Happenin'.\" \"What Did I Do to You?\" was remixed by Mark Saunders and by the Grammy Award-winning American house music DJ and producer, David Morales. The single became a top forty hit in the European countries reaching number eighteen in Finland, number twenty in Ireland and number twenty-five in the United Kingdom. \"What Did I Do to You?\" was also released in Japan.\n\nIn 2014, the remixes of \"What Did I Do to You?\" were included on the deluxe 2CD + DVD re-release of Affection and on People Hold On ... The Remix Anthology. They were also featured on The Collection 1989–2003 box set (2014), including previously unreleased Red Zone Mix by David Morales.\n\nCritical reception\nThe song received positive reviews from music critics. Matthew Hocter from Albumism viewed it as a \"upbeat offering\". David Giles from Music Week said it is \"beautifully performed\" by Stansfield. A reviewer from Reading Eagle wrote that \"What Did I Do to You?\" \"would be right at home on the \"Saturday Night Fever\" soundtrack.\"\n\nMusic video\nA music video was produced to promote the single, directed by Philip Richardson, who had previously directed the videos for \"All Around the World\" and \"Live Together\". It features Stansfield with her kiss curls, dressed in a white outfit and performing with her band on a stage in front of a jumping audience. The video was later published on Stansfield's official YouTube channel in November 2009. It has amassed more than 1,6 million views as of October 2021.\n\nTrack listings\n\n European/UK 7\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK/Japanese CD single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix Edit) – 4:20\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n UK 10\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Mark Saunders Remix) – 5:52\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 5:19\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 4:17\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:59\n\n European/UK 12\" single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"My Apple Heart\" – 4:22\n\"Lay Me Down\" – 3:19\n\"Something's Happenin'\" – 3:15\n\n UK 12\" promotional single\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Morales Mix) – 7:59\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Anti Poll Tax Dub) – 6:31\n\n Other remixes\n\"What Did I Do to You?\" (Red Zone Mix) – 7:45\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nLisa Stansfield songs\n1990 singles\nSongs written by Lisa Stansfield\n1989 songs\nArista Records singles\nSongs written by Ian Devaney\nSongs written by Andy Morris (musician)", "What Did I Do To Deserve This My Lord!? 2 (formerly known as Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! 2: Time To Tighten Up Security!, known as Yūsha no Kuse ni Namaiki da or2, 勇者のくせになまいきだor2, literally \"For a hero, [you are] quite impudent/cheeky/bold] 2)\" in Japan) is a real-time strategy/god game for the PlayStation Portable, sequel to What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord?.\n\nThe game was released in Japan in 2008, and was announced for a North American release during Tokyo Game Show 2009. This release was delayed until May 4, 2010, due to NIS America changing the game's name from Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! 2: Time to Tighten Up Security! to What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 to avoid conflict with the Batman license.. The UMD release includes the first game.\n\nGameplay \nThe gameplay is almost identical to the first game, with a few different additions and changes. These include 'Mutation' (monsters can mutate in three forms: by deformity, by obesity and by gigantism) and 'The Overlord's Chamber', where you can grow monsters and observe their evolution.\nWhat Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord!? 2 contains \"4 times more stages, 3.3 times more monsters and 2.3 times more heroes\" than the first game.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n\n2008 video games\nGod games\nPlayStation Portable games\nPlayStation Portable-only games\nReal-time strategy video games\nSony Interactive Entertainment games\nVideo game sequels\nVideo games developed in Japan" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition", "what was he trying to accomplish?", "Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.", "what did he do to help the movement?", "Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development,", "what project was he involved in?", "As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS),", "what did this society do?", "Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks," ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	how was this beneficial?	5	how was the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS) beneficial?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management.	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	true	[ "Beneficial Corporation was one of the largest consumer finance companies in the United States, prior to its acquisition by Household International, Inc. in 1998. Beneficial began as the Beneficial Loan Society in 1914 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, founded by “Colonel” Clarence Hodson (1868-1928). Norwegian immigrant Olaus Westby Caspersen (1896–1971) joined Beneficial in 1920. In 1929, the company was reorganized as Beneficial Finance Corporation by Olaus Caspersen who would spend 18 years as president of the company.\n\nIn 1960, the company entered the British market. In 1961, the company purchased Western Auto Supply Co., and in 1965 purchased Spiegel, Inc (later sold in 1981). In 1970, the company changed its name to Beneficial Corporation. In 1976, Beneficial began offering credit cards through its People's Bank & Trust Co. subsidiary in Delaware. In the same year, Finn M. W. Caspersen, the son of Olaus Caspersen, became chairman and chief executive. The company bought Parliament Leasing in 1977, and First Texas Financial Corp., a savings and loan, in 1978. In 1977, Beneficial entered the reinsurance business through its insurance subsidiaries, but this business caused significant financial losses in the 1980s. Beneficial downsized this business and emphasized its second mortgage business.\n\nIn 1998, the company was purchased by Household International, Inc., for about $8.25 billion in stock. \n\nHousehold International was in turn acquired by HSBC Group in 2003, and made a part of the HSBC Finance Company.\n\nReferences \n\nCompanies based in New Jersey\nHSBC acquisitions\nDefunct financial services companies of the United States", "Beneficial Mutual Bancorp, Inc. operated Beneficial Bank, a full-service bank whose assets totaled approximately $5 billion upon its acquisition by WSFS in 2019. Founded in 1853, Beneficial was the oldest and largest bank headquartered in Philadelphia, with more than 58 locations throughout Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. The bank provided financial services including personal and business banking, mortgages and loans, wealth management, business and insurance services.\n\nHistory\nBeneficial Bank's foundation was built on Saint John Neumann's vision of providing a safe, secure place for Philadelphia's immigrants to deposit their savings. Members of the Board of Managers of St. Joseph's Hospital met in 1853 to discuss starting a saving fund society. That same year, the Beneficial Saving Fund Society was incorporated. In 1854, Beneficial Bank began operations.\n\nThe bank celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2013. In 2005, Beneficial completed its acquisition of the insurance firm Paul Hertel & Co., through a subsidiary of the bank, Beneficial Insurances, LLC.\n\nBeneficial had made other major acquisitions in recent years, including the FMS Financial Corporation (the parent company of Farmers & Mechanics Bank) and St. Edmond's Federal Savings Bank. The bank's most recent acquisition was the 2015 purchase of Conestoga Bank of Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.\n\nBeneficial completed its conversion to a publicly traded company in early 2015, and was advised by Sandler O'Neill and Partners.\n\nIn 2014, Beneficial moved its headquarters to 1818 Market Street in Philadelphia, at which point the building was renamed 1818 Beneficial Bank Place.\n\nWSFS and Beneficial announced that WSFS would acquire Beneficial, with the deal expected to close in early 2019. The deal ultimately closed March 1, 2019. Beneficial offices as well as some WSFS offices were consolidated and/or rebranded under the WSFS name on August 26.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nTheBeneficial.com, Official website\n\nBanks based in Philadelphia\nAmerican companies established in 1853\nBanks established in 1853\nBanks disestablished in 2019\nDefunct banks of the United States\n2019 disestablishments in Pennsylvania" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition", "what was he trying to accomplish?", "Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.", "what did he do to help the movement?", "Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development,", "what project was he involved in?", "As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS),", "what did this society do?", "Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks,", "how was this beneficial?", "introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management." ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	did it create more positive changes?	6	Did the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS) create other positive changes?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	true	[ "Phobotaxis is a random behavioral response to all forms of aversive stimuli. A positive phobic response is one in which either activity is increased or the organism moves toward the stimulus, while a negative phobic response is when activity is decreased or the organism moves away from the stimulus. On the bacterial level, phobotaxis is regularly seen in accordance with phototaxis, random movement in response to light. In the protobacteria Rhodospirillum rubrum, the presence of ferric ion does not create a favorable wavelength of light for physiological activity. This elicits a positive photophobotactic response where the protobacteria moves towards blue and near-UV light. While the phobic response is classified as a photophobotactic response, the photochemical product of ferric complex in medium acts as a chemical stimulus, making this an example of chemotaxis as well. In the eukaryote Euglena, positive phototaxis and positive phobotaxis exhibit nearly the same action spectra, providing more evidence for their association. There also exists evidence to support photophobotaxis being coupled with electron transport needed in photosynthesis for two specific algaes: Phormidium uncinatum and Ph. autumnale. While there does not exist much evidence of phobotaxis in response to tactile stimuli, there is evidence to suggest species will respond in ways that will maximize necessary resources such as food. An experiment that simulated trail movements of trace fossils in the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition showed that those who engaged in phobotaxis, as in avoiding trails which indicate already exploited areas, gained more resources and had higher search efficiency. This foraging for resources involves changes in patchiness, which combines gravitaxis, movement in response to changes in gravity, and chemoreception to identify the spatial pattern of odors and move in response to chemical gradients.\n\nReferences\n\nEthology", "Demand sensing is a forecasting method that leverages new techniques such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and real-time data capture to create an accurate forecast of demand based on the current realities of the supply chain. Traditionally, forecasting accuracy was based on time series techniques which create a forecast based on prior sales history and draws on several years of data to provide insights into predictable seasonal patterns. However, past sales are frequently a poor predictor of future sales. Demand sensing is fundamentally different in that it uses a broader range of demand signals (including current data from the supply chain) and different mathematics to create a more accurate forecast that responds to real-world events such as market shifts, weather changes, natural disasters and changes in consumer buying behavior. Demand sensing software has been developed by several different companies such as Gartner, Netstock, GEP, among many others.\n\nReferences \n\nDemand\nSupply chain analytics" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition", "what was he trying to accomplish?", "Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.", "what did he do to help the movement?", "Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development,", "what project was he involved in?", "As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS),", "what did this society do?", "Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks,", "how was this beneficial?", "introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management.", "did it create more positive changes?", "Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling" ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	what is an interesting fact regarding his success?	7	what is an interesting fact regarding Horace Plunkett's success?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers,	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	true	[ "Interesting Times is a 1994 novel by Terry Pratchett.\n\nInteresting Times may also refer to:\n\nInteresting Times (album), a 1989 album by High Tide\nInteresting Times: The Secret of My Success, a 2002 Chinese documentary film\n\nSee also\n\"May you live in interesting times\", an English expression, purportedly a translation of a Chinese curse", "The Tamil Panar (or , ) were an ancient musical community of the Tamil area in India, attested from the classical Sangam texts onwards through medieval inscriptions. They sang their songs to the accompaniment of the yāl harp.\n\nIn fact medieval inscriptions present evidence for their performing Sanskrit drama and for singing and training temple dancers in hindu temples. As Palaniappan states therein: \"What is interesting about the traditional views regarding the social status of the Pāṇars is that they were not informed by any real data on the Pāṇars actually living in Tamil Nadu during medieval times. Such real data are indeed available to us from Tamil inscriptions, which present a drastically different picture of the social status of the Pāṇars\".\n\nNotable personages \n Tiru Nilakanta Yazhpanar (7th century CE)\n Thiruppaan Alvar (8–9th century CE)\n\nSee also \n Panar (Kundapura), a modern-day community of Karnataka\n\nReferences\n\nTamil history\nTamil" ]
[ "Horace Plunkett", "Success and opposition", "what was he trying to accomplish?", "Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting.", "what did he do to help the movement?", "Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development,", "what project was he involved in?", "As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS),", "what did this society do?", "Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks,", "how was this beneficial?", "introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management.", "did it create more positive changes?", "Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling", "what is an interesting fact regarding his success?", "He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers," ]	C_409551a5c41447aa84d3ff561fbb9702_0	what did this concept change?	8	what did the concept of systematic rural development change?	Horace Plunkett	Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell (AE) made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A Anderson acted as secretary, with AE and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. CANNOTANSWER	He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced.	Sir Horace Curzon Plunkett (24 October 1854 – 26 March 1932), was an Anglo-Irish agricultural reformer, pioneer of agricultural cooperatives, Unionist MP, supporter of Home Rule, Irish Senator and author. Plunkett, a younger brother of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany, was a member of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland for over 27 years, founder of the Recess Committee and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), Vice-President (operational head) of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland (predecessor to the Department of Agriculture) from October 1899 to May 1907, Unionist MP for South Dublin in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1892 to 1900, and Chairman of the Irish Convention of 1917–18. An adherent of Home Rule, in 1919 he founded the Irish Dominion League, still aiming to keep Ireland united, and in 1922 he became a member of the first formation of Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber in the Parliament of the new Irish Free State. He has been described as a Christian socialist. Family and background Plunkett was the third son of Admiral Edward Plunkett, the 16th Baron of Dunsany, of Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath, and the Honourable Anne Constance Dutton (d. 1858) (daughter of John Dutton, 2nd Baron Sherborne). He was Anglo-Irish, being of Anglican Irish unionist background, educated at Eton College and University College, Oxford, of which he became an honorary fellow in 1909. His older brother was John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his distant cousin was George Noble Plunkett, a Papal Count and father of Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and a leader of the Easter Rising of 1916. Threatened by lung trouble in 1879, Horace Plunkett sought health in ranching for ten years (1879–89) in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming, where, together with a substantial fortune, he acquired experience that proved invaluable in the work of agricultural education, improvement and development. On visits back to Ireland, and for much of time when he returned, he devoted himself to these topics. Never marrying, he poured his tremendous energy into agricultural and rural development, politics and diplomacy, public administration and economics. As visible testimony to his endeavours, he left as his main legacies the Irish cooperative movement, which grew to encompass vast creamery and food ingredient businesses such as Avonmore and Kerry Group, and what is now the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Pioneering co-operation Although a Unionist, Plunkett resolved to bring together people of all political views for the promotion of the material prosperity of the Irish people. In 1891 he was appointed to the newly established Congested Districts Board and learned at first hand about the wretched conditions of the rural population, especially west of the River Shannon. The experience hardened his conviction that the one remedy for social and economic ills was cooperative self-help. The Congested Districts Board were a major plank of the Conservative policy of Constructive Unionism or 'killing Home Rule with kindness'. Around him he saw a troubled economy, racked with dissension, denuded by emigration, impoverished in its countryside and economically stagnant in its towns. Before going to America he had become an enthusiast for the Rochdale principles of Consumer cooperatives and in 1878 had set a store up on the family estate. He took a leading part in developing agricultural co-operation in Ireland, of which he had learned from isolated American farmers, taking account of Scandinavian models of co-operation and the invention of the steam-powered cream separator. Working with a few colleagues, including two members of the clergy, and advocating self-reliance, he set his ideas into practice first among dairy farmers in the south of Ireland, who established Ireland's first cooperative at Doneraile, County Cork. He also opened the first creamery in Dromcollogher, County Limerick, now the site of the National Dairy Cooperative Museum. In the setting up of creameries the cooperative movement experienced its greatest success. Plunkett got farmers to join together to establish units to process and market their own butter, milk and cheese to standards suitable for the profitable British market, rather than producing unhygienic, poor-quality output in their homes for local traders. This enabled farmers to deal directly with companies established by themselves, which guaranteed fair prices without middlemen absorbing the profits. Work with Roosevelt Plunkett believed that the Industrial Revolution needed to be redressed by an agricultural revolution through co-operation, and proclaimed his ideals under the slogan "Better farming, better business, better living" (US president Theodore Roosevelt adopted the slogan for his conservation and country life policy). Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt's head of the Bureau of Forestry introduced Plunkett to Roosevelt in 1906. Roosevelt had recently set up the National Conservation Commission and was also interested in Irish cooperatives. Arguing that it was not enough to conserve natural resources without tackling the problems of rural life, Plunkett and Pinchot helped draft Roosevelt's letter recommending the Commission on Country Life's report to congress. The Dictionary of Irish Biography credits Plunket with persuading Roosevelt to establish the Commission as a complement to the conservation work. Success and opposition Public opinion, initially lukewarm, grew hostile in some sectors as the cooperative movement developed, and shopkeepers, butter-buyers and sections of the press led a campaign of virulent opposition. Cooperatives and Plunkett were denounced for supposedly ruining the dairy industry but the movement caught hold, with the mass of farmers benefitting. Plunkett and his colleagues including the poet and painter George William Russell ("Æ") made a good working team, writing widely on economic and cultural development, and on the role of labour. As early as 1894, when his campaign reached a size too big to be directed by a few individuals, Plunkett founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society (IAOS), with Lord Monteagle, Thomas A. Finlay and others. Robert A. Anderson acted as secretary, with Æ and PJ Hannon his assistants. IAOS soon became the powerhouse of co-operation, with 33 affiliated dairy cooperative societies and cooperative banks, introducing co-operation among Irish farmers by proving the benefits obtainable through more economical and efficient management. The following year he and Russell began publishing its journal The Irish Homestead to spread information on farming. Four years later there were 243 affiliated societies. Within a decade 800 societies were in existence, with a trade turnover of three million pounds sterling (over 300 million sterling in today's money, and the turnover of the resulting companies is in excess of a billion euro). Plunkett's task was frustrating. He was a pioneer of the concept of systematic rural development, who, in spite of his role in Irish affairs being often overlooked, influenced many international reformers, and can be credited as one of the few who had a long-term vision for the development of rural Ireland. He was apt to remind audiences that, even if full peasant proprietorship was achieved and Home Rule was implemented, rural underdevelopment would still have to be faced. But class conflict between farmers and shopkeepers intervened to frustrate much of what he aimed to do. Unionism Before entering Parliament Plunkett had been involved in the Unionist reaction to the Liberal leader William Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule, predicting in a speech to an 1886 Unionist demonstration that Home rule would lead to "'squalid poverty and violent social disorder, which before long is almost certain to end in civil war". At the general election in July 1892 he was elected as the Irish Unionist Alliance Member of Parliament (MP) for South County Dublin, gaining it from the Anti-Parnellite incumbent Sir Thomas Esmonde against a split nationalist vote. He successfully held the seat against a sole nationalist (Parnellite Nationalist) challenger Edmund Haviland-Burke in 1895. Early in his career Plunkett opposed home rule because of the danger of partition. In 1893 he asserted that one of the leading objections to any measure of home rule was that if it were possible to enforce it on Ulster . . . "it would intensify and perpetuate a state of things in which the Boyne seemed to be broader, deeper and stormier than the Irish Sea". He lost his seat in 1900 to John Mooney of the Irish Parliamentary Party, after his conciliatory approach to nationalists led to hardline unionists standing Francis Elrington Ball as an independent unionist candidate, splitting the unionist vote. Expanding co-operation Continuing his policy of conciliation, Plunkett suggested in a letter to the Irish press in August 1895 that a few prominent persons of various political opinions, both nationalist and unionist, should meet to discuss and frame a scheme of practical legislation for pursuing national development, and to make recommendations on the Agriculture and Industries (Ireland) Bill of 1897. The outcome of this proposal was the formation of the Recess Committee, with Plunkett as chairman and members of divergent views, such as the Earl of Mayo, John Redmond, The O'Conor Don, Thomas Sinclair, Thomas Spring Rice, Rev Dr Kane (Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen), Father Thomas A. Finlay, Mr John Ross, MP, Timothy Harrington MP, Sir John Arnott, Sir William Ewart, Sir Daniel Dixon (after Lord Mayor of Belfast), Sir James Musgrave (Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Board), Thomas Andrews (Chairman of the Belfast and County Down Railway). T. P. Gill acted as Honorary Secretary to the Committee. In July 1896 the Recess Committee issued a report, of which Plunkett was the author, containing accounts of the systems of state aid to agriculture and technical instruction in foreign countries. This report, and the growing influence of Plunkett, who became a member of the Irish Privy Council in 1897, led to the passing in 1899 of an Act establishing the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction (DATI) for Ireland, of which the Chief Secretary for Ireland was to be President ex officio. Plunkett was appointed Vice-President, a position of de facto leadership. He guided the policy and administration of the DATI in its first seven critical years. The DATI worked: to improve the quality of crops and livestock to deal with animal and plant disease to encourage fishing and planting of forests to collect statistics on many aspects of Irish life. By 1914 the DATI had 138 instructors travelling the country, informing farmers about new methods in agriculture, horticulture and poultry-keeping. The start of the 20th century saw the high water mark in Plunket's achievements. The IAOS was flourishing and vigorous. In 1903 there were 370 dairy societies, 201 cooperative banks and 146 agricultural societies under the auspices of the IAOS, and by 1914 there were over 1,000 societies and nearly 90,000 members. However, most unionists considered Plunkett too conciliatory and their hostility cost him his seat at the general election in October 1900, when they put up a candidate to split the unionist vote. It had been intended that the Vice-President should be responsible for the DATI in the House of Commons, but an extensively signed memorial, supported by the Agricultural Council, prayed that Plunkett might not be removed from office, and at the government's request he continued to direct the policy of the DATI without a seat in Parliament. He was created Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1903 at Cobh, on the personal initiative of the King. On the accession of the Liberal Party to power in 1906 James Bryce, the new Chief Secretary, asked Plunkett to remain at the head of the department he had created. Efforts obstructed Having sat in the House of Commons as a Unionist, attitudes among the nationalist party were exacerbated by the opinions in his book, Ireland in the New Century (1904). Here he described the economic condition and needs of the country, and the nature of the agricultural improvement schemes he had promoted. Plunkett put forth the view that economics were more important than politics for the future of Ireland, classed the huge sums invested in the building of Catholic churches as "uneconomic" and remarked negatively on the power of the Catholic hierarchy. John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, turned against Plunkett for suggesting that anything but Home Rule might be the answer to Ireland's problems, and other mainstream nationalists, led by John Dillon, rejected economic development, whether through Plunkett's agricultural cooperatives, William O'Brien's tenant land purchase or D. D. Sheehan's housing of rural labourers, in advance of "national development". Ultimately the DATI ceased to work harmoniously with the IAOS, wrecking Plunkett's hopes, and the Irish Parliamentary Party made a determined effort to drive him from office, moving a resolution to that effect in the House of Commons in 1907. The government gave way, and although Plunkett was re-elected president of the IAOS in the summer of 1907, he retired from office in the DATI. From the year 1900 the DATI had made an annual grant of about £4,000 to the IAOS, but in 1907 the new vice-president of the DATI, TW Russell, who had previously been a member of the Unionist administration, withdrew it. Nonetheless, many continued to be inspired by Plunkett's vision and to establish creamery cooperatives around the country. Political reorientation In 1908 public appreciation of Plunkett's service was marked by the purchase and gift to him of 84 Merrion Square, Dublin, which became the headquarters of the IAOS, under the name The Plunkett House. The Irish Homestead had frequently drawn attention to the status of women in rural Ireland (its assistant editor was Susan L. Mitchell), and in 1910 Plunkett helped to found the United Irishwomen to improve their domestic economy, welfare and education, with Ellice Pilkington and Anita Lett. This would develop in the 1930s into the powerful Irish Countrywomen's Association. Having previously focused his attention pragmatically on economic factors, Plunkett now began to reorient to political and social issues. The failure of the Irish Council Bill in 1907 made him realise the critical importance of self-government and by 1912 he was a convinced Home Ruler. He spent the first half of 1914 in negotiations intended to prevent partition and the exclusion of Ulster, to no avail. During the First World War the cooperatives were severely hit as farmers avoided their high standards, supplying inferior produce directly to Britain, where food shortages led to a boom period for Irish agriculture. Much of Plunkett's time was spent as an unofficial envoy between Britain and the United States. After the Easter Rising of 1916, when he heard of executions, he sought clemency for its remaining leaders, including Constance Markievicz, except for anyone involved in regular crime. From July 1917 to May 1918 Plunkett chaired the Irish Convention, which sought to find agreement on the implementation of the suspended Third Home Rule Act 1914. He may have lost what would have been an historic deal in January 1918 by diverting the debate to the issue of land purchase. Until 1922 Plunkett worked to keep Ireland united within the British Commonwealth, founding the Irish Dominion League and a weekly journal, the Irish Statesman, to advance that aim, for which he was rejected by those working for an Irish Republic. Marginalisation and departure from Ireland In the troubled years between 1918 and 1922 the cooperative movement was targeted by the Black and Tans and other British government forces, as the creameries were alleged to be centres of sedition. Factories were wrecked and burned, stock was destroyed, and trade was interrupted. Plunkett's protests were unheeded and demands for compensation were rejected. In 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty was implemented, Plunkett was nominated to the first Seanad Éireann, the upper chamber of the parliament of the new Irish state. In recognition of his contributions and ideas, he was one of those appointed for a term of 12-years. As a senator he met Michael Collins, whom he described as "simple yet cunning". His work on co-operation took him abroad frequently, and when he was in the United States during the Irish Civil War in 1923 his grand house, Kilteragh in Foxrock, County Dublin, was one of at least 285 country houses targeted by the IRA and burned down, the fire taking with it many of the records of the Plunkett family, which he had gathered to prepare a work on the subject. Plunkett wrote that "the healthiest house in the world, and the meeting place of a splendid body of Irishmen and friends of Ireland" had been destroyed. He resigned from the Seanad in November 1923. Plunkett moved to Weybridge in England, where on 21 December 1918 he set up the Plunkett Foundation, launched in 1919 with £5,000 to support work with the co-operative movement. The foundation continues its work today. Plunkett continued to promote and spread his ideas for agricultural cooperatives. In 1924 he presided over a conference in London on agricultural co-operation in the British Commonwealth, in 1925 he visited South Africa to help the movement there, while as late in 1930, he was consulting with the Prime Minister of Great Britain on agricultural policy. During Plunkett's last years, Gerald Heard was his personal secretary. Naomi Mitchison, who admired Plunkett and was a friend of Heard, wrote: "H.P., as we all called him, was getting past his prime and often ill but struggling to go on with the work to which he was devoted. Gerald [Heard] who was shepherding him about fairly continually, apologized once for leaving a dinner party abruptly when H.P. was suddenly overwhelmed by exhaustion". Plunkett died at Weybridge on 26 March 1932 and was buried in St Mary's Churchyard in nearby Byfleet where his gravestone survives today. Personal life Horace was close to his nephews, Edward and Reginald Dunsany, helping manage their, and their father's, affairs. He also worked to reconcile the 17th Lord Dunsany and his wife over several years. He was very involved in the affairs of the 18th Lord Dunsany until some failures of investments in the 1920s, after which their contact was more occasional but continued to near the end. His dealings with Reginald were more limited in earlier years but he continued to visit him at Charborough and elsewhere, right up to the month of his death. He was also close friends with Elizabeth "Daisy" Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall, the wife of his remote cousin. Horace became interested in aviation late in life and was still flying – presumably from Brooklands – at least as late as 1930. References Writings Ireland in the New Century (1904), Sir Horace Plunkett Noblesse Oblige: An Irish Rendering (1908), Sir Horace Plunkett The Rural Life Problem of the United States, (1910), Sir Horace Plunkett as well as numerous pamphlets Related bibliography Seventy Years Young, Memoires of Elizabeth, Countess of Fingall, by Elizabeth Burke Plunkett, Lady Fingall. First published by Collins of London in 1937; 1991 edition published by The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, Ireland . This Elizabeth, was a Burke from Moycullen in County Galway, who married the 11th Earl of Fingall, and should not be confused with Elizabeth O'Donnell, 1st Countess of Fingall. Notes The Plunkett Foundation External links Diaries of Sir Horace Plunkett, 1881–1932 at the National Library of Ireland; includes digitized manuscripts, annotated transcriptions, and index Irish Co-operative Organisation Society 1854 births 1932 deaths Irish Anglicans Irish knights 19th-century Anglo-Irish people 20th-century Anglo-Irish people Protestant Irish nationalists Irish Dominion League Irish Unionist Party MPs UK MPs 1892–1895 UK MPs 1895–1900 Cooperative organizers Horace Plunkett Irish non-fiction writers Irish male non-fiction writers Knights Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Members of the 1922 Seanad Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for County Dublin constituencies (1801–1922) People educated at Eton College Politicians from County Meath Younger sons of barons Fellows of the Royal Society Independent members of Seanad Éireann People from Foxrock	true	[ "Aurora is the second studio album released by South Korean singer Bada in September 2004. Although her image concept did not change from her first album, which was successful, Aurora failed to sell well. Lead single \"Aurora\", which was a love ballad, also fared poorly, leading Bada to switch singles quickly. The second single was \"Eyes\", which in contrast was a R&B-dance track. Sales of the album were around 23,000, about 100,000 less copies than what A Day of Renew sold.\n\nTrack listing \n Happy Face\n Aurora\n Eyes\n Interlude\n Go By\n Good Luck\n Into You (feat. Hi-D)\n Thank You\n Sweet Potato\n Dreaming\n Higher\n Blue Juice\n Little Boy\n\nExternal links\n Bada's Official Site\n JIIN Entertainment's Official Site\n\n2004 albums\nBada (singer) albums", "Price adjustment may refer to:\n\n Quantity adjustment, a concept in economics related to changes in price and quantity\n Price adjustment (retail), a retail policy also called price protection\n Pricing, the process of determining what a company will receive in exchange for its product or service\n Purchase price adjustment, the change in value of an asset between negotiation and closing" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)" ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	Why did Clarke leave the band?	1	Why did Clarke leave the Depeche Mode band?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything.	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	false	[ "Eat Dog Eat is the seventh and final studio album by British hard rock band, Fastway. Released 21 years after their previous album, Bad Bad Girls, Eat Dog Eat features a new band line-up including vocalist Toby Jepson, previously of Little Angels and Gun. Leave The Light On was released as a single on 19 March 2012. This turned out to be the band's final studio album as frontman and guitarist \"Fast\" Eddie Clarke died six years later, aged just 67 from Pneumonia, on 10 January 2018.\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks composed by Fast Eddie Clarke and Toby Jepson\n\n\"Deliver Me\" – 4:41\n\"Fade Out\" – 4:06\n\"Leave the Light On\" – 3:55\n\"Lovin' Fool\" – 4:30\n\"Dead and Gone\" – 5:49\n\"Sick as a Dog\" – 3:44\n\"Freedom Song\" – 3:52\n\"Who Do You Believe?\" – 4:04\n\"Love I Need\" – 4:37\n\"On and On\" – 3:53\n \"Only If You Want It\" – 4:06\n\nPersonnel\nFast Eddie Clarke – Lead guitars\nToby Jepson – Lead vocals, Bass guitar, Acoustic guitar\nMatt Eldridge. – Drums, percussion\n\n2011 albums\nFastway (band) albums", "\"Llangollen Market\" is a song from early 19th century Wales. It is known to have been performed at an eisteddfod at Llangollen in 1858.\n\nThe text of the song survives in a manuscript held by the National Museum of Wales, which came into the possession of singer Mary Davies, a co-founder of the Welsh Folk-Song Society.\n\nThe song tells the tale of a young man from the Llangollen area going off to war and leaving behind his broken-hearted girlfriend. Originally written in English, the song has been translated into Welsh and recorded by several artists such as Siân James, Siobhan Owen, Calennig and Siwsann George.\n\nLyrics\nIt’s far beyond the mountains that look so distant here,\nTo fight his country’s battles, last Mayday went my dear;\nAh, well shall I remember with bitter sighs the day,\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nAh, cruel was my father that did my flight restrain,\nAnd I was cruel-hearted that did at home remain,\nWith you, my love, contented, I’d journey far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nWhile thinking of my Owen, my eyes with tears do fill,\nAnd then my mother chides me because my wheel stands still,\nBut how can I think of spinning when my Owen’s far away;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me? At home why did I stay?\n\nTo market at Llangollen each morning do I go,\nBut how to strike a bargain no longer do I know;\nMy father chides at evening, my mother all the day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did I stay?\n\nOh, would it please kind heaven to shield my love from harm,\nTo clasp him to my bosom would every care disarm,\nBut alas, I fear, 'tis distant - that happy, happy day;\nWhy, Owen, did you leave me, at home why did stay?\n\nReferences\n\nWelsh folk songs" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything." ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	Did he have other negative comments?	2	Aside from saying "there was never enough time to do anything", did Clarke have other negative comments towards the band?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest".	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	false	[ "The social influence bias is an asymmetric herding effect on online social media platforms which makes users overcompensate for negative ratings but amplify positive ones. Positive social influence can accumulate and result in a rating bubble, while negative social influence is neutralized by crowd correction. This phenomenon was first described in a paper written by Lev Muchnik, Sinan Aral and Sean J. Taylor in 2014, then the question was revisited by Cicognani et al., who's experiment reinforced Munchnik's and his co-authors' results.\n\nRelevance \n\nOnline customer reviews are trusted sources of information in various contexts such as online marketplaces, dining, accommodation, movies, or digital products. However, these online ratings are not immune to herd behavior, which means that subsequent reviews are not independent from each other. As on many such sites, preceding opinions are visible to a new reviewer, he or she can be heavily influenced by the antecedent evaluations in his or her decision about the certain product, service or online content. This form of herding behavior inspired Muchnik, Aral and Taylor to conduct their experiment on influence in social contexts.\n\nExperimental Design \n\nMuchnik, Aral, and Taylor designed a large-scale randomized experiment to measure social influence on user reviews. The experiment was conducted on social news aggregation website like Reddit. The study lasted for 5 months, the authors randomly assigned 101 281 comments to one of the following treatment groups: up-treated (4049), down-treated (1942), or control (the proportions reflect the observed ratio of up-and down-votes. Comments which fell to the first group were given an up-vote upon the creation of the comment, the second group got a down-vote upon creation, the comments in the control group remained untouched. A vote is equivalent to a single rating (+1 or -1). As other users are unable to trace a user’s votes, they were unaware of the experiment. Due to randomization, comments in the control and the treatment group were not different in terms of expected rating. The treated comments were viewed more than 10 million times and rated 308 515 times by successive users.\n\nResults \n\nThe up-vote treatment increased the probability of up-voting by the first viewer by 32% over the control group (Figure 1A), while the probability of down-voting did not change compared to the control group, which means that users did not correct the random positive rating. The upward bias remained inplace for the observed 5-month period. The accumulating herding effect increased the comment’s mean rating by 25% compared to the control group comments (Figure 1C). Positively manipulated comments did receive higher ratings at all parts of the distribution, which means that they were also more likely to collect extremely high scores. The negative manipulation created an asymmetric herd effect: although the probability of subsequent down-votes was increased by the negative treatment, the probability of up-voting also grew for these comments. The community performed a correction which neutralized the negative treatment and resulted non-different final mean ratings from the control group. The authors also compared the final mean scores of comments across the most active topic categories on the website. The observed positive herding effect was present in the “politics,” “culture and society,” and “business” subreddits, but was not applicable for “economics,” “IT,” “fun,” and “general news”.\n\nImplications \n\nThe skewed nature of online ratings makes review outcomes different to what it would be without the social influence bias. In a 2009 experiment by Hu, Zhang and Pavlou showed that the distribution of reviews of a certain product made by unconnected individuals is approximately normal, however, the rating of the same product on Amazon followed a J-Shaped distribution with twice as much five-star ratings than others. Cicognani, Figini and Magnani came to similar conclusions after their experiment conducted on a tourism services website: positive preceding ratings influenced raters' behavior more than mediocre ones. Positive crowd correction makes community-based opinions upward-biased.\n\nReferences \n\nCrowd psychology\nCognitive biases\nSocial media", "Haley Morris-Cafiero (born 1976) is an American photographer, Associate Professor of Photography and Acting Vice President of Academic Affairs at the Memphis College of Art. Her series \"Wait Watchers\", in which she photographs the reactions of passers-by to her presence, went viral in 2013. She has since become a commentator on issues of anti-fat bias and obesity in the United States; as well as a Body Positivity and Anti-Bullying Workshop volunteer with Girls, Inc.\n\nEarly life and education \nAlthough muscular from her involvement in sports, Morris-Cafiero was anorexic as a teenager. As health concerns from her eating disorder caused her to realize the dangers of her lifestyle, she became less active. Due to hypothyroidism, she quickly gained weight in college, where she experienced discrimination due to her weight. Morris-Cafiero said people would anonymously leave low-calorie food and passive-aggressive notes about her weight. Though she tried dieting, her hypothyroidism kept her from easily losing weight. Born in Atlanta, she is a graduate of the University of North Florida, where she earned a BA in Photography and a BFA in Ceramics in 1999. Morris-Cafiero also holds a MFA from the University of Arizona in Art.\n\nCareer\n\n\"Wait Watchers\" \nMorris-Cafiero was working on another project when she was inspired to begin the \"Wait Watchers\" series. A chance picture captured the amused expression of a passer-by as he looked at her. When she noticed that she had again accidentally captured the expression of a random passer-by who was observing her, she worked to capture more reactions. She started this project in 2010 when she began travelling to places such as Paris, Barcelona, and even Times Square. Although she had heard critical comments about her weight, she is not disheartened and instead feels empowered because she has the courage to face these situations. Morris-Cafiero sets up the camera first, then enters the shot as the camera takes continuous pictures. She is not aware of the reactions of the people around her at the time of the picture. People respond more naturally when she seems distracted, so she attempts to perform actions that would give that impression; otherwise, she acts normally and does not draw attention to herself.\n\nPeople magazine called the series \"powerful\", and Life & Style called the pictures \"heartbreaking\". New York magazine wrote, \"The frequency with which Morris-Cafiero succeeds at documenting passersby's visible disdain for her body seems pretty depressing\". The Commercial Appeal called the reactions \"alternately humorous and disturbing\". Morris-Cafiero was not aware of the existence of the fat acceptance movement at the time she took the pictures, but she received a positive reception from those blogs. After several high-profile blogs highlighted her work, The Huffington Post in the US and The Daily Mail in the UK ran stories, which caused the series to go viral; it eventually became a worldwide phenomenon. Online trolling resulted in many negative comments. In The Daily Mail comment section, most of the 4000 comments were negative. Morris-Cafiero said that while the negative comments initially bothered her, as the series went viral and the negative comments became more personal, she found them amusing and a source of creative inspiration. Following the viral popularity of her work, she was asked to appear on television news programs and provide commentary on fat shaming and other obesity-related topics. This series of photos enabled her to explore the modern issues surrounding body image and the ideal standard that people in society are often held to.\n\nHaley uses her own body allowing he to explore subjects that to others may be distressing. In her photography series, she was able to objectively consider the responses she received to herself, which to others may have made them feel vulnerable. This piece wanted to explore body image and the standard which society has placed upon people to look a certain way. Given her previous relationship with her body she wanted to be able to discuss the issues of body image and the importance of increasing acceptance.\n\nMorris-Cafiero does not interpret the photographs herself and prefers to leave that to the viewer; she says that, as an artist, she is more interested in starting a conversation. She says the theme is \"identity being determined based upon an image\". Many negative online comments have speculated on the onlookers' reactions, including criticism of Morris-Cafiero's attractiveness and her fashion sense. Other comments suggest that taking self-portraits in public places have drawn the ire of onlookers. Whilst the negative comments highlighted the judgment that people are faced with over their appearance, Haley noted that these comments were short-lived and that her work would last forever.\n\n\"Self Improvement\" \nIn the series \"Self Improvement\", Morris-Cafiero responded to both positive and negative commentary about \"Wait Watchers\". In the negative comments, people complained that she would have a more positive reaction from onlookers if she exercised or got a makeover. The new series shows her in situations like this. She said that she was still met with \"criticism and mockery\". Whislt she was distressed by some of these comments she was also aware that whilst these comments were short lived her work had a much longer life span. The photographs were set in what she called \"the most-vain cities in America\", such as Venice Beach, Canifornia. She also targeted areas that her research told her had a high degree of eating disorders. The project continued through April 2015.\n\nOther work \nMorris-Cafiero solicited donations on Kickstarter to publish her work in a book. The book, which includes both positive and negative online commentary interspersed with the pictures, was published in December 2015. She said the book is \"about how we look at one another and judgments\". Other projects include a series where she dresses up as her critics to demonstrate the false personas used online. She has stated that her influencers includes Jenny Saville, Sophie Calle and Adrian Piper.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\nExternal links \n \n\nLiving people\nPhotographers from Tennessee\nAmerican women photographers\nAmerican portrait photographers\nPeople from Memphis, Tennessee\n1976 births\n21st-century American women" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything.", "Did he have other negative comments?", "Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was \"bullshit to be quite honest\"." ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	Who did they get to replace him?	3	Who did the Depeche Mode band get to replace Clarke?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982,	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	true	[ "\"Why did the chicken cross the road?\" is a common riddle joke, with the answer being \"To get to the other side\". It is commonly seen as an example of anti-humor, in that the curious setup of the joke leads the listener to expect a traditional punchline, but they are instead given a simple statement of fact. Some also see the phrase \"other side\" as the afterlife, suggesting that it is not anti-humor. \"Why did the chicken cross the road?\" has become iconic as an exemplary generic joke to which most people know the answer, and has been repeated and changed numerous times over the course of history.\n\nHistory \n\nThe riddle appeared in an 1847 edition of The Knickerbocker, a New York City monthly magazine:\n\nThere are 'quips and quillets' which seem actual conundrums, but yet are none. Of such is this: 'Why does a chicken cross the street?['] Are you 'out of town?' Do you 'give it up?' Well, then: 'Because it wants to get on the other side!'\n\nAccording to music critic Gary Giddins in the Ken Burns documentary Jazz, the joke was spread through the United States, to large cities and small towns, by minstrel shows beginning in the 1840s as one of the first national jokes, which endures as a part of American culture to this day. \n\nIn the 1890s, a pun variant version appeared in the magazine Potter's American Monthly:\nWhy should not a chicken cross the road?\nIt would be a fowl proceeding.\n\nVariations \n\nThere are many riddles that assume a familiarity with this well-known riddle and its answer. For example, an alternate punchline can be used for the riddle, such as \"it was too far to walk around\". One class of variations enlists a creature other than the chicken to cross the road, in order to refer back to the original riddle. For example, a duck (or turkey) crosses \"because it was the chicken's day off,\" and a dinosaur crosses \"because chickens didn't exist yet.\" Some variants are both puns and references to the original, such as \"Why did the duck cross the road?\" \"To prove he's no chicken\".\n\nOther variations replace side with another word often to form a pun. Some examples are:\n 'Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the idiot's house'. Knock knock',\n\n 'Who's there?' \n\n 'The chicken'\n\n\"Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide\"\n\n\"Why did the chewing gum cross the road? It was stuck to the chicken's foot\"\n\n\"Why did the whale cross the ocean? To get to the other tide.\"\n\nA mathematical version asks, \"Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?\" \"To get to the same side.\"\n\nAs with the lightbulb joke, variants on these themes are widespread.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: \n\nJoke cycles\nChickens\n1840s neologisms\nQuotations from literature\nRiddles\nWorks originally published in The Knickerbocker", "Ma Guanghui (馬光惠) was a member of the Ma ruling house of Chu, one of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period states of China. During Chu's final days, he was declared the military governor (Jiedushi) of one of Chu's main circuits, Wuping (武平, headquartered in modern Changde, Hunan) by officers disaffected with his uncle Ma Xi'e, but was soon removed by the same officers.\n\nBackground \nMa Guanghui was a son of Ma Xizhen (), the oldest son of Ma Yin (King Wumu), the founder of Chu. Not only was Ma Xizhen the oldest, but he was born of Ma Yin's wife, which should have made him the heir under Confucian succession principles, but Ma Yin favored his second son Ma Xisheng, who was born of his favorite concubine Consort Yuan. Not willing to engage in a succession struggle with Ma Xisheng, Ma Xizhen resigned and became a Taoist priest, dying during the Qingtai era (934-936). Nothing is known about Ma Guanghui's mother or whether he had siblings.\n\nBrief tenure as military governor \nIn 951, during the reign of Ma Guanghui's uncle (Ma Yin's 30th son) Ma Xi'e (Prince Gongxiao), the officers Wang Kui and Zhou Xingfeng became disaffected with Ma Xi'e, and they took their troops and fled the capital Changsha, back to their prefecture of origin, Lang Prefecture (朗州, in modern Changde, Hunan). They took over control of Lang and deposed Ma Xi'e's son Ma Guangzan (), who was serving as the acting military governor of Wuping Circuit, headquartered at Lang. They declared Ma Guanghui as the acting prefect, and then as military governor of Wuping, but effectively, Wang and Zhou, along with officers He Jingzhen () and Zhang Fang (), controlled the headquarters. When Ma Xi'e reported this to his nominal sovereign Li Jing, the emperor of Southern Tang, Li Jing sent emissaries to Lang with material rewards, hoping to get these officers to submit. However, they kept the rewards, returned the emissaries, and did not respond to Li Jing's edict, and Li Jing did not dare to react at that point.\n\nHowever, Ma Guanghui was said to be unintelligent, cowardly, and alcoholic, and he could not get the officers to respect him. As a result of this, Wang, Zhou, and He Jingzhen decided to replace him with Liu Yan the prefect of Chen Prefecture (辰州, in modern Huaihua, Hunan). After they summoned Liu from Chen, they deposed Ma Guanghui and delivered him to Southern Tang. That was the last reference in history to Ma Guanghui, and it is not known when he died.\n\nNotes and references \n\n Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms, vol. 71.\n Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 290.\n\nMa Chu generals\nMa Chu politicians\nLater Jin (Five Dynasties) people\nLiao dynasty people\nLater Han (Five Dynasties) people\nSouthern Tang jiedushi of Wuping Circuit\nGenerals from Hunan\nPoliticians from Hunan\n10th-century births\nYear of death unknown" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything.", "Did he have other negative comments?", "Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was \"bullshit to be quite honest\".", "Who did they get to replace him?", "Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982," ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	How did they find Wilder?	4	How did the Depeche Mode band find Wilder?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one."	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	true	[ "De Smet Cemetery is a cemetery located southwest of the town of De Smet in Kingsbury County, South Dakota, United States. Numerous family members from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books are buried there.\n\nPeople buried in De Smet Cemetery \n Robert Boast, appeared in a number of the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder\n Reverend Edward Brown, appeared in two of the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder\n Florence Garland Dawley, teacher in De Smet during the Hard Winter of 1880–81\n Caroline Ingalls, \"Ma\" from the \"Little House\" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder\n Charles Ingalls, \"Pa\" from the \"Little House\" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder\n Mary Ingalls, sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder\n Carrie Ingalls, sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder\n Grace Ingalls, sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder\n Genevieve Masters, \"Nellie Oleson\"\n Baby Son Wilder, son of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder\n\nIngalls family plot image gallery\n\nExternal links\n De Smet, SD Cemetery: Frontier Girl Trail\n Includes links to obituaries of Little House characters\n \n Little House on the Prairie at Find a Grave\n Little House on the Prairie television show at Find a Grave\n Little House on the Prairie books at Find a Grave\n Early 1940s WPA burial listings for De Smet Cemetery at South Dakota GenWeb\n – \n\nCemeteries in South Dakota\nProtected areas of Kingsbury County, South Dakota\nDe Smet, South Dakota", "Almanzo James Wilder (; February 13, 1857 – October 23, 1949) was the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the father of Rose Wilder Lane, both noted authors.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life \nAlmanzo Wilder was born the fifth of six children to farmers James (1813–1899) and Angeline Day Wilder (1821–1905) on their farm outside Malone in Burke, New York. His siblings include Laura Ann (1844–1899), Royal Gould (1847–1925), Eliza Jane (1850–1930), Alice M. (1853–1892), and Perley Day (1869–1934). As part of her Little House series of autobiographical novels, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote a book titled Farmer Boy about Wilder's childhood in upstate New York.\n\nWilder is a well-known character in the Little House books where his wife wrote about their courtship and subsequent marriage in The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years. He also appeared briefly in chapter 28 ('Moving Day') of By the Shores of Silver Lake. Almanzo was characterized as a quietly courageous, hardworking man who loved horses and farming. He was also an accomplished carpenter and woodworker. \n\nFarmer Boy recounts events of Wilder's childhood starting when he was eight years old, in 1866. Among other things, he goes to school (when not needed at home for the farm work), learns to drive a team of oxen, attends a county fair, and enjoys a mid-19th century Fourth of July celebration in town. He also learns how to deal with being bossed around by his older siblings, particularly his strong-willed sister Eliza Jane, who would later become a teacher of his future wife.\n\nFarmer Boy, by publication date, was the second book written in the Little House series. Published in 1933, it was followed by Little House on the Prairie in 1935. The original order of publication was changed by the publisher Harper with the release of the newly illustrated 1953 edition.\n\nMoving to The West \nThe Wilder family left Burke in 1870 due to crop failures. Moving west, they settled in Spring Valley, Minnesota, where they established a farm. In 1879, Wilder and his older brother Royal along with sister Eliza Jane moved to the Dakota Territory, taking claims near what would later become the town of De Smet, South Dakota. Wilder settled on his homestead with the intent of planting acres of seed wheat which he had cultivated on rented shares in Marshall, Minnesota, the previous summer. It was in De Smet that he first met Laura Ingalls. The Ingalls family had been among the first settlers in the area, before the town was formally organized. They moved to the Dakota Territory from Walnut Grove, Minnesota, when Charles Ingalls took a brief job with the railroad.\n\nIngalls wrote of Wilder's character in The Long Winter. Along with his future wife's fellow school chum, Ed \"Cap\" Garland, Wilder risked his life to save the pioneers of De Smet from starvation during the hard winter of 1881, among them the Ingalls family. Wilder was 23 and Garland 16 when, in between one of the horrific blizzards that shook the region during the 1880–1881 winter, they went in search of wheat a farmer had supposedly harvested to the southwest of De Smet in the summer of 1880. They managed to find the farmer and purchase. After a difficult negotiation, they hauled 60 bushels of wheat on sleds that continually broke through the snow into slough grass, barely making it back to De Smet before a four-day blizzard hit the area.\n\nMarriage to Laura Ingalls \nWhen Wilder was 25 years old and Ingalls was age 15, the two began courting. Wilder would drive Ingalls back and forth between De Smet and a new settlement outside town where she was teaching school and boarding. Then, when spring came, they would go for long buggy rides. Three years later, on August 25, 1885, Wilder and Ingalls were married in De Smet by the Reverend Edward Brown. They settled on Wilder's claim and began their own small farming operations. The Wilders' daughter, Rose, was born December 5, 1886. Rose Wilder later became known as the author Rose Wilder Lane, a noted political writer and philosopher.\n\nDuring their first years of marriage, described in The First Four Years, the Wilders were plagued by bad weather, illness, and large debts. In the spring of 1888, Wilder and his wife were both stricken with diphtheria. Although they both survived, Wilder suffered from one of the less common, late complications of the illness, neuritis. Areas of his legs were temporarily paralyzed, and even after the paralysis had resolved, he needed a cane to walk. His inability to perform the hard physical labor associated with wheat farming in South Dakota, combined with a lengthy drought in the late 1880s and early 1890s, further contributed to the Wilders' downward spiral into debt and poverty.\n\nThe year 1889 proved the breaking point for the Wilders. In early August, the couple had a son. The child remained unnamed when, two weeks later, he suddenly died of \"convulsions.\" Laura Wilder never spoke of his death and the couple did not have any \nmore children. In the same month, the family lost their home to a fire and their crops to drought. In the words of Wilder's daughter, \"It took seven successive years of complete crop failure, with work, weather and sickness that wrecked his health permanently, and interest rates of 36 per cent on money borrowed to buy food, to dislodge us from that land.\"\n\nIn 1890, the Wilder family moved to Spring Valley, Minnesota, to stay with his parents on their farm. It was a time of rest and recovery for the weary family. Between 1891 and 1892, the family again moved, this time to Westville, Florida. They hoped a warmer climate would help Wilder regain his strength. Ultimately, while the warmer temperatures did help him recover, his wife did not like the humid climate or the customs of the backwoods locals. They returned to De Smet in 1892, and rented a small house in town. Between 1892 and 1894, the Wilders lived in De Smet, with the Ingalls family nearby. While his wife worked as a seamstress in a dressmaker's shop, Wilder found work as a carpenter and day laborer. Together, they practiced frugality and carefully saved money.\n\nSettling in Missouri and later years \nOn July 17, 1894, the Wilders left De Smet for the Ozarks of Missouri by covered wagon, attracted by brochures of \"The Land of the Big Red Apple\" and stories of a local man who had traveled to Missouri to see the area for himself. On August 31, they arrived near Mansfield, Missouri, and Wilder placed a $100 down payment on 40 acres (16.2 ha) of hilly, rocky undeveloped land that his wife aptly named \"Rocky Ridge Farm.\" The farm would be the couple's final home. Over the span of 20 years, Wilder built his wife what she later referred to as her dream house: a unique 10-room home in which he custom-built kitchen cabinets to accommodate her small, five-foot (1.52 m) frame.\n\nRocky Ridge Farm was eventually expanded to about 200 acres (80.9 ha) and was a productive poultry, dairy, and fruit farm. Wilder's lifetime love of Morgan horses was indulged, and he also kept a large herd of cows and goats. Having learned a hard lesson by focusing on wheat farming in South Dakota, the Wilders chose a more diversified approach to farming suited to the climate of the Ozarks. Almanzo Wilder lived out the rest of his life on his farm, and both he and his wife were active in various community and church pursuits during their time in Missouri.\n\nAlthough royalties from the Little House books helped provide for the Wilders, their daughter helped support them until the mid-1930s. Eventually their efforts at Rocky Ridge during the 1930s and 1940s, along with the book royalties finally provided a secure enough income to allow them to attain a financial stability they had not known earlier in their marriage. When they were first married, Wilder's wife had helped contribute to their income by taking in occasional boarders, writing columns for a rural newspaper, and serving as Treasurer/Loan Officer for a Farm Loan Association. Their daughter lived with the Wilders on the farm for long periods of time, seeing that electricity and other modern updates were brought to the place, even having an English-style stone cottage built for them, and then taking over the farm house for about ten years.\n\nWilder learned to drive an automobile, which greatly improved their ability to leave the farm. They eventually took several long auto trips, including to destinations such as California and the Pacific Northwest, and went several times to visit the remaining Ingalls family in South Dakota. When their daughter moved permanently to Connecticut around 1937, her parents quickly returned to their beloved farm house, later selling off the eastern land with the stone cottage.\n\nWilder spent his last years happily tending small vegetable and flower gardens, indulging his lifetime love of woodworking and carpentry and tending his goats. He aided his wife in greeting the carloads of Little House fans who regularly found their way to Rocky Ridge Farm.\n\nWilder died at the age of 92 on October 23, 1949, after suffering two heart attacks. Laura Ingalls Wilder died eight years later, on February 10, 1957. Their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane lived until 1968. All three of them are buried in Mansfield, and many of Wilder's possessions and handiwork can be seen today at Rocky Ridge Farm, as well as the Malone, New York, and Spring Valley, Minnesota, sites. The Rocky Ridge Farm is known today as the Laura Ingalls Wilder/Rose Wilder Lane Museum.\n\nFrom the accounts written by his wife and daughter, Almanzo Wilder appears to have been a quiet, stoic man, representative of the time and culture in which he lived. His love of farming, horses, and rural living are well documented among his family and friends' written recollections.\n\nFamily tree\n\nName origin \nIn one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, Little Town on the Prairie, the attribution of her husband's unusual first name reads thus:\nIt was wished on me. My folks have got a notion there always has to be an Almanzo in the family, because 'way back in the time of the Crusades there was a Wilder went to them, and an Arab or somebody saved his life. El Manzoor, the name was. They changed it after a while in England. (Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Little House Books Vol.2: Little Town on the Prairie, Literary Classics of the United States, New York 2012, p.482)\n\nIn the media\n\nBooks\nLaura Ingalls Wilder published in 1933 the novel Farmer Boy, a mostly fictional account based on one year from Almanzo's childhood. Heather Williams wrote and published, in 2012, Farmer Boy Goes West, another (and even more) fictional book based on Almanzo's childhood.\n\nTelevision\nWilder was portrayed in the television adaptations of Little House on the Prairie by :\n Dean Butler, in the television series Little House on the Prairie and its movie sequels,\n Walton Goggins, in Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder films.\n\nLegacy\nThe Boyhood Home of Almanzo Wilder near Malone, New York, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. Operated and sustained by the Almanzo & Laura Ingalls Wilder Association, the homestead is an interactive educational center, museum and working farm.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nAlmanzo Wilder Farm — Almanzo's boyhood home\nInformation on Malone, New York — from the website \"Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frontier Girl.\" \nLittle House in Limbo: Article on Almanzo Wilder\nAlmanzo's claim documentation discussed\nMinnesota Historical Society: Minnesota State Census Index 1875\nAbout the Ingalls Family (Sarah S. Uthoff)\n\n1857 births\n1949 deaths\nPeople from Wright County, Missouri\nPeople from Malone, New York\nPeople from De Smet, South Dakota\nWilder family\nPeople from Spring Valley, Minnesota" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything.", "Did he have other negative comments?", "Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was \"bullshit to be quite honest\".", "Who did they get to replace him?", "Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982,", "How did they find Wilder?", "In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: \"Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.\"" ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	Did they audition others besides Wilder?	5	Did the Depeche Mode band audition other musicians besides Wilder?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	false	[ "Harold Fremont \"Hal\" Wilder (February 8, 1893 – February 5, 1989) was an American football guard who played one season for the St. Louis All-Stars of the National Football League. He lived to be 95, and was believed to be the last living player from the All-Stars' franchise at the time of his death, as the only other player who could have been living at the time was the Dolly Gray impostor, whose birth and death dates were unknown.\n\nEarly life and education\nHarold \"Hal\" Wilder was born on February 8, 1893 in Merrick, Nebraska. He went to Central City High School in Nebraska. Wilder went to two colleges, Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska. While many players from Nebraska University played in the NFL, Wilder was one of only 4 Nebraska Wesleyan attendees to ever play professionally. He also served in the U.S. Army during World War I.\n\nProfessional career\nWilder played in one game for the St. Louis All-Stars in 1923. He played the guard position. He was reported to be 5 feet, 10 inches tall, and weighed between 175 and 190 pounds in his only season. The next season, the St. Louis All-Stars folded, and Wilder did not play another game. No statistics were recorded besides that he appeared in and started the game.\n\nDeath\nHe died on February 5, 1989 at the age of 95 in Lincoln, Nebraska. His death was only 3 days before his 96th birthday. He was believed to be the longest-living All-Stars player, as well as the last living player. The only former All-Stars player who could have been still living at the time of his death was the Dolly Gray impostor, whose birth and death dates are unknown.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nNFL.com profile\n\n1893 births\n1989 deaths\nSt. Louis All-Stars players", "Wilder is an English surname, sometimes used as a given name, meaning \"untamed\" or \"wild\". A wild, free, or natural state or existence, also passionately eager or enthusiastic.\n\nPeople with the given name\n Wilder D. Baker (1890–1975), United States Navy admiral\n Wilder Dwight Bancroft (1867–1953), American chemist\n Wilder Calderón, Peruvian politician\n Wilder Cartagena (born 1994), Peruvian footballer\n Wilder W. Crane Jr. (1928–1985), American politician\n Wilder D. Foster (1819–1873), American politician\n Wilder Guisao (born 1991), Colombian footballer\n Wilder W. Hartley (1901–1970), American politician\n Wilder Hobson (1906–1964), American writer and musician\n Wilder Medina (born 1981), Colombian footballer\n Wilder Metcalf (1855–1935), United States Army general and politician\n Wilder Penfield (1891–1976), American-Canadian neurosurgeon\n Wilder Smith (1835–1891), American minister and writer\n Wilder Weir (born 1983), Canadian television host\n Wilder Zabala (born 1982), Bolivian footballer\n\nPeople with the surname\n\nThe arts\n\nActing and filmmaking\n Billy Wilder (1906–2002), Austrian-born American film director\n Gene Wilder (1933–2016), American actor\n James Wilder (actor) (born 1968), American film and television actor\n W. Lee Wilder (1904–1982), Austrian-born American screenwriter, film producer and director\n\nLiterature\n Charlotte Frances Wilder (1839–1916), American writer\n Cherry Wilder, pseudonym of New Zealand writer Cherry Barbara Grimm (1930–2002)\n Effie Wilder (1909–2007), American writer\n Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957), American writer\n Louise Beebe Wilder (1878–1938), American gardening writer\n Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968), American writer\n Thornton Wilder (1897–1975), American writer\n\nMusic\n Ace Wilder (born 1982), Swedish singer\n Alan Wilder (born 1959), British electronic musician\n Alec Wilder (1907–1980), American composer and songwriter\n Matthew Wilder (born 1953), American musician\n Webb Wilder (born 1954), American singer-songwriter\n\nMilitary and politics\n Abel Carter Wilder (1828–1875), American businessman and politician\n Douglas Wilder (born 1931), Governor of Virginia\n John Shelton Wilder (1921–2010), Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee\n John T. Wilder (1830–1917), American Civil War general\n Wilber Elliott Wilder (1857–1952), American brigadier general\n\nSports\n Bobby Wilder (born 1964), head coach of the Old Dominion Monarchs football team\n Chris Wilder (born 1967), English football player and manager\n Dash Wilder (born 1987), American professional wrestler\n Deontay Wilder (born 1985), American heavyweight boxer\n George Wilder (cricketer) (1876–1948), English cricketer\n James Wilder Sr. (born 1958), American football running back\n James Wilder Jr. (born 1992), American football running back\n Michael Wilder (born 1962), American chess champion\n\nOthers\n Burt Green Wilder (1841–1925), American comparative anatomist\n Christopher Wilder (1944–1984), American serial rapist and murderer\n Frances Farmer Wilder, American radio executive\n George Wilder (criminal) (born 1962), prison escaper and New Zealand folk hero\n Gertrude B. Wilder (1874–1955), American clubwoman\n Harris Hawthorne Wilder (1864–1928), American zoologist\n Inez Whipple Wilder (1871–1929), American zoologist\n J. Welles Wilder, Jr. (1935-2021), American mechanical engineer, best known for his work in technical analysis\n Lynn Wilder (born 1952), American author and professor\n Nicholas Wilder (1937–1989), American art dealer and gallery owner\n Raymond Louis Wilder (1896–1982), American mathematician\n Robert Wilder (born 1960), American businessman, creator of WilderHill Clean Energy Index\n Russell Morse Wilder (1885–1959), American physician and medical researcher\n\nSee also\n Wild (surname)\n Wilde\n Wilder (disambiguation)\n\nReferences\n\nEnglish-language masculine given names\nSurnames of English origin" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything.", "Did he have other negative comments?", "Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was \"bullshit to be quite honest\".", "Who did they get to replace him?", "Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982,", "How did they find Wilder?", "In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: \"Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.\"", "Did they audition others besides Wilder?", "I don't know." ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	How did the adjustment with Wilder go?	6	How did the Depeche Mode band's adjustment with Wilder go?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995.	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	true	[ "Deontay Leshun Wilder (; born October 22, 1985) is an American professional boxer. He held the WBC heavyweight title from 2015 to 2020, making 10 successful defenses. By winning the title, Wilder became the first American world heavyweight champion since 2007, which was the longest period of time in boxing history without an American heavyweight champion. As of November 2021, he is ranked as the world's third-best active heavyweight by ESPN, fourth by The Ring magazine, and fifth by BoxRec and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.\n\nWilder had a late start to boxing, taking up the sport at 20 years of age. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal in the heavyweight division at the 2008 Olympics. This led to his nickname of \"The Bronze Bomber\", which Wilder coined after Joe Louis, who was known by the nickname of \"The Brown Bomber\".\n\nWilder is known for his exceptional punching power, having knocked out every opponent he has defeated. His knockout-to-win percentage stands at 97.61% (69.23% in world heavyweight title fights, the fifth-highest in heavyweight history), with 20 knockouts in the first round. He is a three-time winner of the Premier Boxing Champions Knockout of the Year award (2016, 2017, 2019) and a winner of the Ring magazine Knockout of the Year award (2019).\n\nAmateur career\nWilder started boxing in October 2005, when he entered Skyy Boxing Gym in Northport, Alabama, and began training under Jay Deas. Wilder was 20 at that time.\n\nBy 2007, he upset the favorites to win both the National Golden Gloves and the US championships at 201 lb (91 kg).\n\nAt the Golden Gloves, he defeated highly touted cadet world champion Isiah Thomas, a southpaw from Detroit, and David Thompson, of Brooklyn, in the finals. At the U.S. championship he defeated Quantis Graves and won the final 31–15 over southpaw James Zimmerman of San Jose, California.\n\nAt the Olympic trials, he beat Graves twice more and won the Olympic trials in only 21 bouts. Early in 2008 he scored a career-best win by edging out world championship silver medalist and future Olympic champion Rakhim Chakhiyev in Russia. He qualified for the Olympics by beating Deivis Julio 6:5 Jorge Quinones from Ecuador on double countback and Brazilian Rafael Lima 6:5 at the qualifier.\n\nIn a Russia-USA dual match on February 29, 2008, in Novosibirsk, Wilder was knocked out by Evgenyi Romanov.\n\nWilder then competed at heavyweight in the 2008 Olympics, defeating Abdelaziz Touilbini of Algeria and Mohamed Arjaoui of Morocco before losing to Clemente Russo of Italy in the semi-final to earn a bronze medal.\n\nWilder had an approximate amateur record of 30–5.\n\nOlympic results\nBoxing at the 2008 Summer Olympics:\nDefeated Abdelaziz Toulbini (Algeria) 10:4\nDefeated Mohamed Arjaoui (Morocco) 10+:10 (tiebreaker criteria)\nLost to Clemente Russo (Italy) 1:7\n\nWorld Championship results\n2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships:\nLost to Krzysztof Zimnoch (Poland) 20–23 (10/24/2007)\n\nProfessional career\n\nEarly career\nWilder made his professional debut at the age of 23 on November 15, 2008, at the Vanderbilt University Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, Tennessee. He faced Ethan Cox (2-2-1), winning by second-round technical knockout (TKO) after knocking Cox down three times. Wilder fought seven times in 2009, winning all the fights in round one. By October 2012, Wilder racked up a 25-fight win streak, winning all by knockout and all within four rounds. Some notable stoppages included former WBA heavyweight title challenger Owen Beck (27-10, 20 KOs), former WBO light heavyweight title challenger DeAndrey Abron (15-6, 10 KOs) and former WBO heavyweight challenger Damon Reed (46-15, 32 KOs).\n\nWilder won his first title in professional boxing when he knocked out 37-year-old Kelvin Price (13-0, 6 KOs) at the Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, on December 15, 2012. The fight was originally slated to take place in August 2012. Wilder fought patiently through the first two rounds and mostly measured Price. The fight ended when a right hand from Wilder caught Price on the jaw and sent him back into the ropes and down. He attempted to get to his feet, but struggled which led referee Ray Corona to wave an end to the bout. Wilder claimed the vacant WBC Continental Americas heavyweight title, which he went on to successfully defend twice.\n\nRise up the ranks \nOn April 3, 2013, Golden Boy Promotions announced that Wilder would fight former European heavyweight champion and 2000 Olympic gold medalist Audley Harrison (31-6, 23 KOs) at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield, his UK debut, on April 27. Harrison was coming into this fight looking to rebuild after winning the prizefighter heavyweight tournament two months earlier. The card, which was being shown live on Showtime in USA, was headlined by Amir Khan's return in the UK against Julio Díaz. Harrison stated that he would retire if he lost. Wilder knocked out Harrison in round one. Wilder found an opening 49 seconds into the opening round and caught Harrison with a big right hand that rocked him back into the ropes. A follow-up barrage from Wilder sent Harrison into the corner, crumpling onto the floor. Harrison used the ropes to get to his feet at the count of eight, but referee Terry O'Connor called off the bout. The official time of stoppage was 1:22 of the first round. Four days after the fight, Harrison announced his retirement at the age of 41 years.\n\nOn May 9, Frank Warren announced a card that would take place at the Wembley Arena in London on June 15, 2013, which would feature Wilder and British boxer Derek Chisora as the main event. Prior to the announcement, Golden Boy and Wilder's camp stated there was no deal in place. The fight fell through after Wilder was arrested in May following a domestic assault in Las Vegas, Nevada. Days later, Wilder signed Al Haymon as his new advisor.\n\nIn June, Golden Boy announced Wilder would main event a triple header of a Showtime card at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California against former WBO heavyweight champion Siarhei Liakhovich (25-5, 16 KOs) on August 9, 2013 in a ten-round bout. Liakhovich would fight for the first time in nearly a year and half. Wilder knocked Liakhovich out in the first round. Wilder caught Liakhovich with a big right hand; while Liakhovich was backed against the ropes, he went down heavily and began twitching. The referee waved an end to the bout without beginning a count. Liakhovich was kept down for some time in the ring, before being helped to a stool. Days after the fight, Liakhovich filed a protest to change the outcome as 'no contest' citing that Wilder hit him with illegal punches. Liakhovich claimed he was punched behind the ear and neck area.\n\nTwo months later in October, Wilder knocked out Nicolai Firtha (21-10-1, 8 KOs) in four rounds to maintain his knockout streak. Prior to the stoppage, Firtha was dropped twice in the opening round. In February 2014 it was announced that Wilder would fight 33 year old Malik Scott (36-1-1, 13 KOs) in an eliminator for the WBC heavyweight title. The fight took place on the undercard of Garcia-Herrera at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Puerto Rico on March 15. When the fight was first announced, Wilder was #3 in the WBC ratings while Scott was #26. Wilder knocked out Scott at 1:36 of the first round. Wilder started off with slow jabs and the knockout blow appeared to be a straight right hand, which many believe did not connect clearly. There was an instant reaction from the crowd and on social media regarding how the fight ended. Scott was said to be unhappy about reports that he took a dive and congratulated Wilder. This set Wilder up as mandatory challenger for the WBC heavyweight title held by new champion Bermane Stiverne, who had defeated Chris Arreola for the title vacated by the retiring Vitali Klitschko.\n\nIn August 2014, Wilder fought journeyman and former Prizefighter finalist Jason Gavern (25-16-4, 11 KOs) in a 10-round bout. The fight took place at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on the undercard of the IBF welterweight fight between Shawn Porter and Kell Brook fight. Gavern was knocked down in rounds three and four. His corner threw in the towel after round four giving Wilder another stoppage victory.\n\nWBC heavyweight champion\n\nWilder vs. Stiverne \n\nOn January 17, 2015, billed as \"Return to Glory\", Wilder fought Stiverne at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada for the WBC heavyweight title. Wilder became the first American heavyweight world champion since Hasim Rahman by defeating Stiverne by a unanimous decision after twelve rounds. The judges scored it 118–109, 119–108, and 120–107. Stiverne landed 110 of 327 punches (34%) with Wilder landing 227 of 621 punches (37%). Wilder had some big rounds, particularly rounds two and seven, where he threw a barrage of power shots. Wilder showed that he could go twelve rounds and utilized his jab throughout. This was the first real proof to critics that Wilder could go the distance and could box, as up to that point he had finished all opponents inside the distance. After the fight, Wilder dedicated his win to his disabled daughter, and to his boxing hero Muhammad Ali, who had turned 73 years old that same day. The fight averaged 1.24 million viewers, peaking at 1.34 million on Showtime. According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), Wilder earned $1 million and Stiverne received $910,000. Shortly after the fight, Wilder cut his relationship with Golden Boy Promotions and Al Haymon became his new manager.\n\nWilder vs. Molina \nOn May 8, 2015, Wilder announced that he would make his first defense in his home state of Alabama, which would be the first heavyweight title fight held in the state. Wilder last fought in Alabama in 2012. Showtime confirmed they would televise the bout live on June 13 at Bartow Arena, Birmingham, Alabama. Shortly after, WBC #14 Eric Molina (23-2, 17 KOs) was announced as Wilder's opponent. After receiving some backlash for choosing Molina as his first defense, Wilder claimed there were other options, but their asking prices were too high. Molina was aiming to become the first Mexican-American world heavyweight champion in history. A sold-out crowd of 9,347 was announced. Wilder dominated, knocking down Molina near the end of round four, twice in the fifth, and knocking him out onto his back in the ninth round. Wilder showed respect for Molina after the bout, stating \"I was really surprised he kept coming and hanging in there. A lot of people said he wouldn't even be around, he wouldn't last. There were a lot of doubters, but he showed a lot of heart, and I needed that kind of guy to fight here in Alabama.\" Wilder was ahead on all three judges' scorecards at the time of stoppage 90–77, 89–78, and 89–78. According to CompuBox Punch stats, Wilder landed 141 of 303 thrown (47%) whilst Molina landed just 49 of 188 (26%). The fight aired on Showtime and averaged 678,000 viewers. Wilder earned $1.4 million for the fight compared to Molina, who received a $250,000 purse.\n\nWilder vs. Duhaupas \n\nIn August 2015, it was announced that Wilder would make his second defense against WBC #12 Johann Duhaupas (32-2, 20 KOs) on September 26 at the Legacy Arena, Alabama. In front of a hometown crowd of 8,471 in attendance, Wilder beat Duhaupas by TKO in the eleventh round. Duhaupas, who was battered and bloodied, claimed he still had plenty of fight left when referee Jack Reiss waved off his brave challenge. Duhaupas had never been stopped before in his career inside the distance. It was a very one sided fight ⁠— ⁠after taking punishment in round seven, referee Jack Reiss went over to Duhaupas' corner telling him he would need to do more or he would stop the fight. Wilder was ahead 100–90, 99–90, and 99–91 on judges' scorecards at the time of stoppage, having landed 326 of 587 punches thrown (56%) whilst Duhaupas landed 98 of 332 (30%). In the post fight, Wilder praised Duhaupas' toughness, saying \"We knew he was tough. We knew he was mentally tough. We knew he was going to come. That's why you can't criticize nobody you don't know. The most scariest people are the ones you don't know.\" For the fight, Wilder made $1.4 million and Duhaupas earned a $140,000 purse. The fight was the main event of Premier Boxing Champions on NBC and averaged 2.2 million viewers, peaking at 3 million viewers.\n\nWilder vs. Szpilka \nIn December 2015, Showtime confirmed that terms had been agreed for Wilder to defend his WBC title against Polish boxer Artur Szpilka (20-1, 15 KOs) on January 16, 2016, at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, where the winner would be scheduled to fight WBC mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin. A crowd of 12,668 mostly pro-Polish fans was announced. Szpilka looked very strong as the bout began, and won the first three rounds with his awkward southpaw stance, rapid foot movement, and talent for slipping punches. Szpilka made Wilder appear wild with his punches, as Wilder missed 175 punches thrown at Szpilka, mostly head punches. Entering round nine, Szpilka, aware from the ring commentators he could no longer win the fight on the cards, changed strategy and took a gamble. Going to the inside, Szpilka swung for the rafters, but Wilder read Szpilka and connected first with a powerful right hand to the face. Szpilka fell to the canvas, and his head jerked backwards in a reflex motion, abruptly ending the competitive contest and sending the ringside physicians and emergency medical personnel immediately into the ring. At the time of the stoppage, Wilder was winning the bout with the scores of 78–74 (twice) and 77–75. Wilder reportedly earned a career-high $1.5 million compared to Szpilka who had a $250,000 purse. The fight averaged 500,000 viewers and peaked at 623,000 viewers.\n\nAfter the fight, newly crowned heavyweight champion Tyson Fury entered the ring going face-to-face in a heated verbal exchange with Wilder, calling him out. In the post fight press conference, Wilder rated his performance at 5/10. Wilder was not in a celebratory mood and said his concerns for Szpilka meant he was not in the mood for the confrontation with Fury. Wilder explained \"We risk our lives in there for your entertainment. I want to knock my opponents out, but not hurt them. I want them to be able to go home to their family.\" Szpilka regained consciousness before leaving the ring on a stretcher, and recovered. The knockout was voted \"Knockout of The Year\" by Premier Boxing Champions.\n\nWilder vs. Povetkin cancelled fight\nWilder was due to make the fourth defense of his WBC heavyweight title against former WBA (Regular) champion and mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (30-1, 22 KOs) on May 21, 2016 at the Megasport Arena in Moscow, Russia. Povetkin was considered by many to be Wilder's toughest opponent to date, and was on a four-fight knockout streak since suffering his only defeat to Wladimir Klitschko in late 2013. Wilder did not seem to be worried by the defense and saw this as a big name in the heavyweight division that he could add to his legacy, saying \"Going to Russia is going to be nothing for me, I'm going to treat it like it's the U.S. because at the end of the day, it's one man, one ring. When I knock him out and come back, it's going to bring my legacy even bigger than it is now.\" He also added, \"I think this is going to be an easier fight than Stiverne, I really believe that. To be proven wrong, we're going to find out.\" World of Boxing promoter Andrey Ryabinsky won the rights for the fight with a winning purse bid of $7.15 million, higher than the $5,1 million bid from Lou DiBella. Due to the 70–30 split, Wilder was looking at a minimum $4,504,500, a career-high payday.\n\nHowever, a week before the fight on May 14, it was reported that Povetkin had tested positive for the banned substance meldonium. Promoter Andrei Ryabinsky added that Povetkin did take meldonium in 2015, but stopped before it was banned, and only \"leftover traces of meldonium at a very low concentration (70 nanograms)\" were found in a blood sample given by the 36-year-old last month. Hours after, Wilder and his team skipped their flight to Moscow; the WBC, having little choice what with the titleholder preparing to return home, postponed the fight. Jay Deas, Wilder's manager and trainer, said the fight is off as did promoter Lou DiBella. Andrey Ryabinskiy, promoter for Povetkin, claimed the fight would take place at a later date. Wilder claimed he is still interested in fighting and beating Povetkin in the future, as this was a fight he had trained hard for and was hoping to make a statement against an elite heavyweight. On February 14, 2017, Wilder won $7 million plus legal fees after taxes, in court, over the cancellation of the fight.\n\nWilder vs. Arreola \nFollowing Wilder's return to the US, on May 26, former two-time world title challenger Chris Arreola (36-4-1-2, 31 KOs) became the frontrunner to challenge Wilder. At the time, Arreola was not ranked by the WBC because he had tested positive for marijuana after his fight against Travis Kauffman. His 90-day suspension ended in March 2016 and was likely to re-enter the WBC rankings. By June 13, the fight was confirmed and would take place on July 16, 2016 at the Legacy Arena, Birmingham, Alabama. For the fight, Wilder wore white trunks with black trim, featuring a portrait of his personal idol and the late heavyweight boxing legend Muhammad Ali who had died recently. The attendance at the arena was announced as being 11,974. Wilder dominated the entire fight with his sharp jab, which caused severe swelling to Arreola's left eye. In the fourth round, Wilder connected with a heavy right cross that knocked Arreola down. After eight rounds, Arreola's cornermen informed the referee to stop the contest. After the fight, Wilder stated he had broken his right hand and torn his biceps during the fight. Wilder was ahead 80–71, 80–71, and 79–72 on the scorecards at the time of stoppage. According to CompuBox statistics, Wilder landed 152 of 346 punches (44 percent), and Arreola landed 52 of 188 (28 percent). For the fight, Wilder earned $1.4 million to $150,000 which was received by Arreola. The fight averaged 1.8 million viewers on FOX and peaked at 2.54 million viewers, with the whole telecast averaging 1.45 million viewers.\n\nAccording to promoter Lou DiBella, Wilder spent most of the night at UAB Hospital. He would be back at the hospital soon, likely for two surgeries, one to repair each injury. This ruled him out for the remainder of 2016. \"Deontay is definitely out for the remainder of the year, but we will know more in the next few days,\" DiBella said.\n\nWilder vs. Washington \nWilder announced in November that he had fully recovered and was back in training following surgery. His return fight was scheduled to be in early 2017. In December, Peter Fury announced there were active talks to get Hughie Fury a world title fight against Wilder for the first quarter of 2017. Fury would not be considered as a voluntary due to being ranked at number 26 by the WBC, but Peter hoped Fury would be bumped into the top 15 after the WBC convention in December.\n\nOn December 21, 2016, according to Wilder's manager Jay Deas, there were advance talks for a fight to take place on February 25, 2017, at the Legacy Arena in Alabama against 29-year-old two-time Polish heavyweight champion and former world title challenger Andrzej Wawrzyk (33-1, 19 KOs). Wawrzyk was on a six-fight knockout streak, with a win in his most recent fight over veteran Albert Sosnowski, since his only loss to Alexander Povetkin, inside the distance in May 2013. Terms were agreed to a day later as the date and venue were confirmed on December 29. After announcing Wawrzyk as his opponent, Wilder received criticism from fellow boxers, boxing experts and fans for choosing \"an easy fight\", having yet another voluntary defense and not fighting a top-level heavyweight. On December 29, Wilder spoke about the criticism, not believing Wawrzyk should be written off, stating, \"I don't believe 'You're going to suck because I don't know you', that's just the ignorance of your average boxing fan ... I wish fans would stop criticizing fighters because it takes a lot to get in the ring.\" Wilder used Manny Pacquiao as an example for when he was little known.\n\nOn January 25, 2017, it was reported that Wawrzyk had failed a drug test, ruling him out of the fight. With a month to go until the fight, Wilder was determined that he would find a replacement to fight him on short notice and not postpone the fight card. Luis Ortiz put himself forward for the fight only to be shot down due to him failing drug tests in the past. Tyson Fury also put himself forward. A day later it was reported that 35-year-old Gerald Washington (18-0-1, 12 KOs) was in the lead of landing the world title fight. It was announced on January 30, 2017, that Washington would face Wilder on February 25.\n\nIn front of a hometown crowd of 12,346, Wilder won by TKO in round five. Washington started off strong with power punches as Wilder moved around with jabs. Midway through the fifth, Wilder got Washington against the ropes and landed a combination of power shots, the last shot being a left to the head of Washington, dropping him backwards against the ropes. Washington recovered quickly on unsteady legs. The fight resumed, and Wilder unloaded heavy blows to Washington's head, eventually leading referee Michael Griffin to halt the fight at 1 minute and 45 seconds of the round. Wilder credited his patience in the post-fight interview, \"I knew he was going to come in excited to fight for a world title. I just kept calm and found my rhythm. I knew he was going to tire out, and when he did, I took advantage. It was all about timing. I'm very smart in the ring when it comes to using different tactics.\" At the time of stoppage, one judge had the fight 39–37 for Wilder, whilst the remaining two judges had the fight 38–38 after four rounds. Washington earned $250,000 from the fight while Wilder earned $900,000. CompuBox Stats showed that Wilder landed 33 of 113 punches thrown (29%) and Washington connected with 30 of his 98 thrown (31%). The fight was televised on Fox in the US and was watched by an average audience of 1.76 million viewers, peaking at 1.86 million. The bout was the most watched boxing match in the United States for 2017, until the Thurman-Garcia unification fight drew 3.74 million on March 4.\n\nFollowing the fight, there was an altercation between Wilder and Dominic Breazeale, who had knocked out Izuagbe Ugonoh on the undercard. Breazeale claimed that Wilder and his entourage attacked him in front of his wife at the Westin Birmingham hotel. This came after Breazeale supposedly had a fracas with Wilder's younger brother, Marsellos, at ringside during Wilder's fight.\n\nWilder vs. Stiverne II \nOn February 27, 2017, the WBC ordered Wilder to fight mandatory challenger Bermane Stiverne, with negotiations to begin immediately. On July 18, 2017, it was reported that a deal was being negotiated for Wilder to make his sixth defense of his WBC title against heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz (27-0, 23 KOs, 2 NC). Wilder's promoter Lou DiBella, had put the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on hold for October 14 and November 4, 2017. According to sources, Don King, promoter of Bermane Stiverne, mandatory challenger for Wilder, had reported to be working out a step-a-side fee from Wilder and Ortiz's advisor Al Haymon. Stiverne told Boxing Scene that Don King had not been given any permission to negotiate a step-a-side fee and he would work with his management team to ensure he challenges for the WBC title in his next fight. It was reported by VADA, who oversees the WBC Clean Boxing Programme, that Stiverne missed a drug test. The WBC treated this as failing a drug test. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman worked on a deal to finalise Wilder vs. Ortiz for November 4, 2017. According to TheRing.tv, Stiverne agreed a mid six-figure payday to allow the fight to take place. On September 12, it was reported by Showtime that the fight was a done deal, awaiting official announcement for the fight to take place on November 4 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Showtime revealed the card would include Daniel Jacobs as chief support. On September 18, the fight was made official pending the official press conference, which would take place the next day. ESPN was advised that Stiverne would fight Breazeale on the undercard in a title eliminator. It was reported on September 29, Ortiz had failed a drugs test. It was believed that the drugs in question were diuretics chlorothaizide and hydrochlorothiazide, which are used to treat high blood pressure but also can be used as masking agents for performance-enhancing drug use. A urine sample was taken on September 22 in Miami. Ortiz never informed VADA that he had been on medication.\n\nOn October 4, the WBC withdrew its sanction on the Wilder vs. Ortiz fight and ordered Wilder to fight mandatory Stiverne (25-2-1, 21 KOs). The next day, Showtime announced the fight. At the press conference, Wilder claimed that he was happy to be getting Stiverne out of the way. Stiverne officially signed the contract on October 17, his managers Josh Dubin and James Prince confirmed. Stiverne weighed 254¾ pounds on the scales, 13 pounds more than he weighed in the first fight and 34 pounds more than Wilder, who came in at 220¾ pounds. It was revealed that Wilder would earn a purse of $1.4 million and Stiverne would take home $506,250 as mandatory.\n\nOn fight night, in front of 10,924, Wilder retained his WBC title with a commanding first-round knockout. Wilder knocked Stiverne down three times before referee Arthur Mercante stopped the fight at 2:59 of the round. Wilder started the fight using his jab to keep Stiverne at distance. A right hand put Stiverne down for the first knockdown. As soon as the fight resumed, Wilder landed another right hand, putting Stiverne down a second time. The final knockdown saw Stiverne against the ropes, when Wilder connected with another right, followed by a left hook to the head. At this point, with Stiverne defenseless, the fight was stopped. In the post fight interview, Wilder said, \"You have to give props to Stiverne for getting in the ring. It takes a lot of courage and it takes a lot of pride to step in the ring with someone like me. We do what we have to do in the ring and at least he stepped up. He was a clean fighter.\" When asked about a future fight with Anthony Joshua, he said, \"I've been waiting on that fight for a long time now. I declare war upon you. Do you accept my challenge? I've been waiting for a long time. I know I'm the champion. I know I'm the best. Are you up for the test?\" With the win, Wilder had now knocked out every opponent he had fought. CompuBox Stats showed that Stiverne threw only 2 jabs and 2 power shots, not landing any. Wilder landed 15 of his 39 punches thrown (38%). The fight drew an average of 824,000 viewers and peaked at 887,000 viewers on Showtime. This was slightly less than the first fight, which took place in January 2015.\n\nWilder vs. Ortiz \n\nLuis Ortiz made his return to the ring after the failed drugs test by knocking out journeyman Daniel Martz on December 8. Wilder was sat ringside on commentary for the fight. After the fight, Ortiz called out Wilder, who then stepped into the ring and said to Ortiz, \"I guarantee you, you'll have the fight.\" On December 19, negotiations resumed between Wilder and Ortiz, with a potential fight for Wilder's WBC heavyweight title to take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on March 3, 2018. According to RingTV on December 30, an agreement had been reached. Terms were agreed on January 12 and the fight was officially announced on January 23. Wilder weighed his lowest since turning professional in 2006, at 214 pounds. Ortiz came in at 241¼ pounds.\n\nWilder overcame difficulty and knocked Ortiz out in round ten to retain his WBC title in front of a crowd of 14,069. Both boxers started the fight cautious with Wilder throwing the jab, however Ortiz seemed to do more in the opening four rounds throwing combinations. Wilder took control in round five, knocking Ortiz down once. Wilder was hurt badly in round seven by a left hand from Ortiz. Wilder was then trapped on the ropes taking head and body shots from Ortiz. Referee David Fields kept a close eye on Wilder and appeared to be close to stopping the fight, but Wilder survived the round. Despite Ortiz not managing to drop Wilder in round seven, all three judges scored the round 10–8 for Ortiz. Wilder used rounds eight and nine to rest up and managed to avoid any punishment. Wilder hurt Ortiz with a right hand at the end of round nine. Wilder then unloaded on Ortiz, who at this point looked tired, in round ten in dropping him twice before the match was halted by David Fields. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:05 of round ten.\n\nAt the time of stoppage, all three judges had their scorecards 85–84 in favor of Wilder. After the fight, Wilder spoke about his win and praised Ortiz, King Kong' ain't got nothing on me. A true champion always finds a way to come back, and that's what I did tonight. Luis Ortiz is definitely a crafty guy. He put up a great fight. We knew we had to wear him down. I showed everyone I can take a punch. When Ortiz leaves tonight, he can hold his head high. He gave the fans a hell of a fight.\" Ortiz also gave his thoughts on the fight. Speaking through a translator, he said, \"I feel fine. I did receive a right hand, but I'm OK. I was listening to the directions that my corner was giving me. In this sport, any punch can end a fight. It was a great fight and I performed well.\" According to CompuBox Stats, Wilder landed 98 of 346 punches thrown (28%) and Ortiz landed 87 of his 363 thrown (24%). For the fight, Wilder earned a career-high $2.1million and Ortiz received a $500,000 purse. The event was Barclays Center's second-biggest boxing crowd after Thurman vs. Garcia, which was attended by 16,533 in March 2017. The fight averaged 1.1million viewers and peaked at 1.2million on Showtime. The last time Showtime registered over 1million viewers was in 2015 when Wilder defeated Stiverne for the WBC title.\n\nWilder vs. Fury \n\nFrom April until the end of June 2018, both camps of Joshua and Wilder were in talks around a heavyweight unification fight. The main hurdles were purse split, date and venue. At one point Wilder had agreed to fight Joshua in the UK, however there were confusions in the contracts that were being sent back and forth. At the same time, Eddie Hearn was working a deal out for Joshua to fight WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin (34-1, 24 KOs). Negotiations took a turn on June 26 when the WBA gave Joshua's camp 24 hours to finalize a deal with Povetkin. With Joshua closer to fighting Povetkin in September 2018, Hearn stated the Joshua-Wilder fight would still take place in April 2019 at Wembley Stadium. Hearn later explained that the WBA would have granted an exemption, had Wilder signed a deal to fight Joshua. On July 16, Joshua vs. Povetkin was announced for September 2018.\n\nOn July 30, it was reported that there were ongoing negotiations for a fight to take place in either November or December 2018 between former unified heavyweight world champion Tyson Fury (27-0, 19 KOs) and Wilder. On July 31, Fury stated the fight against Wilder was 99% a done deal, with only a location and date to be confirmed. Fury also had to come through in his bout against Francesco Pianeta on August 18. Wilder was scheduled to be in Belfast to further promote the fight. Fury won the bout via a points decision. During the post-fight interviews, promoter Warren confirmed the Fury vs. Wilder fight was on. The fight would take place in either Las Vegas or New York in November 2018. The fight would be aired on PPV in the United States on Showtime and in the UK on BT Sports Box Office. Talking about how the fight came together, Fury said, \"We have two men who will fight anyone. This man has been trying to make a fight with another chump. They called, I answered. I said: 'Send me the contract.' They sent it. I said 'yes'.\" Warren later told BBC Radio 5 live, \"[It's a] 50–50 [purse split], quick and smooth negotiations. He was the world heavyweight champion. He's undefeated. [Wilder and his team] understand that. All of the terms are agreed.\"\n\nBy the end of August, contracts for the fight to take place had been signed. On September 22, both fighters confirmed they had signed the contract and the fight would take place on December 1, 2018. According to the California State Athletic Commission, Wilder would earn a guaranteed base purse of $4 million and Fury would take home a guaranteed purse of $3 million. Despite Frank Warren's original claim that the revenue would be split 50-50, it was revealed that Wilder could make $14 million (£10.94 million) and Fury would earn around $10.25 million (£8 million). Both boxers would see this increase to their base purses after receiving their percentages from pay-per-view revenue.\n\nThe weigh-in took place on November 30, on a made platform outside the Los Angeles Convention Center. Fury stepped on the scale first and weighed in at 256½ pounds, his lightest since his comeback following his lay off. The weight was only 2 pounds less than he weighed in August 2018 against Francisco Pianeta, however, he looked more slim and lean. Wilder was next to step on and came in at 212½ pounds, his lowest since his debut in 2008 when he weighed 207¼ pounds. For his last bout, Wilder weighed 214 pounds, however, it was cited that Wilder suffered from an illness during his training camp.\n\nIn front of a crowd of 17,698 at the Staples Center, Wilder and Fury fought a twelve-round split decision draw, meaning Wilder retained his WBC title. Mexican judge Alejandro Rochin scored the fight 115–111 for Wilder, Canadian judge Robert Tapper had it 114–112 for Fury and British judge Phil Edwards scored it a 113–113 draw. The crowd booed at the decision with many believing Fury did enough to dethrone Wilder. Fury, using his unorthodox stance, spent much of the fight using upper and lower-body movement to avoid Wilder's big shots and stay out of range.\n\nThere was not much action in round one as both boxers used the round to feel each other out. Wilder tried to trap Fury into the corner, but Fury made Wilder miss most of his big swings. In round four, Wilder bloodied Fury's nose with his stiff jabs, but was unable to follow up on the attacks. In round six, Fury switched to southpaw stance and had success backing Wilder against the ropes and at the same time stayed cautious of Wilder's power. In round seven, after trading jabs, which saw Fury come out on top, Fury landed a counter right hand, then quickly tied Wilder up before he could throw anything back. Round eight saw back and forth action with both trying to land. Wilder threw a lot of power shots which Fury mostly evaded. In round nine, Wilder dropped Fury with a short left hook followed by an overhand right. Fury beat referee Jack Reiss' count and survived the round. Having expended a lot of energy trying to finish Fury in round nine, Wilder looked fatigued in round ten. This came to as an advantage for Fury as he landed two right hands. Fury also took advantage in round eleven, landing enough shots and avoided anything Wilder could throw. In round twelve, Wilder landed a right-left combination which put Fury down hard on his back. The crowd, commentary team and Wilder believed the fight was over. Reiss looked at Fury on the canvas and began giving him a count. To everyone's surprise, Fury beat the count. Reiss made Fury walk towards him and called for the action to continue. Wilder, fatigued again, was unable to land another power shot and Fury landed some right hands to finish the round and the fight on his feet. Both boxers embraced in a hug after the final bell sounded.\n\nAccording to CompuBox statistics, Wilder landed 71 punches of 430 thrown (17%), and Fury landed 84 of his 327 thrown (26%). Wilder was much less accurate in this fight than he usually had been in previous fights. Fury out-landed Wilder in nine out of the twelve rounds. Both Wilder and Fury only landed double digits in four separate rounds.\n\nAfter the fight, both men gave in-ring interviews. Wilder stated, \"I think with the two knockdowns, I definitely won the fight. We poured our hearts out tonight. We're both warriors. I rushed my punches. I didn't sit still. I was too hesitant. I started overthrowing the right hand, and I just couldn't adjust. I was rushing my punches. That's something I usually don't do.\" Fury said, \"We're on away soil. I got knocked down twice, but I still believe I won that fight. I'm being a total professional here. God bless America. The 'Gypsy King' has returned. That man is a fearsome puncher, and I was able to avoid that. The world knows I won the fight. I hope I did you all proud after nearly three years out of the ring. I showed good heart to get up. I came here tonight, and I fought my heart out.\"\n\nWilder and Fury both claimed to be the best heavyweights in the world and both called out unified world champion Anthony Joshua. Fury shouted, \"Chicken! Chicken! Joshua, where are you?\" Wilder then agreed to state the two best heavyweights got into the ring and fought.\n\nThe event was both a critical and a commercial success. The fight reportedly sold approximately 350,000 pay-per-view buys on Showtime in the United States, grossing around $30 million, making it the most lucrative heavyweight fight in the country since John Ruiz vs. Roy Jones Jr. in 2003. Showtime's delayed broadcast a week later drew an average 488,000 viewers and peaked at 590,000 viewers.\n\nWilder vs. Breazeale \nOn the evening of May 18, 2019, Wilder defended his WBC heavyweight title against mandatory challenger Dominic Breazeale, who was ranked #4 by the WBC, via knockout with 43 seconds left in the first round. Wilder caught him with a powerful right which sent Breazeale flat on his back and unable to continue with the referee waving off the contest after reaching the ten count.\n\nPrior to the fight, Wilder had again made controversial comments about wanting to kill an opponent in the ring, saying he was \"trying to get a body on my record\", and that \"[boxing] is the only sport where you can kill a man and get paid for it at the same time.\" This was not the first time Wilder had alluded to killing an opponent, having made similar remarks previously in 2017 about Bermane Stiverne. However, despite the pre-fight animosity, the two men reconciled after the fight's conclusion, with Wilder saying \"I've told him [Breazeale] I love him and I want to see him go home to his family\".\n\nWilder vs. Ortiz II \n\nIn a rematch of their 2018 fight, Wilder faced Luis Ortiz again on November 23, 2019, winning by seventh-round knockout to retain his WBC heavyweight title after being behind on all three of the judges' scorecards 58–56 and 59–55 (twice). After the fight, Wilder was full of praise for his opponent, calling Ortiz \"the most dangerous heavyweight in the division\" and \"an amazing fighter\". Ortiz was ranked #3 by the WBC at the time. Wilder's knockout of Ortiz was selected as the winner of The Ring Magazine Knockout of The Year award for 2019.\n\nHis rematch with Ortiz had been the sixth time Wilder had fought a boxer who was ranked in the global heavyweight top ten by BoxRec within a year of the bout. The others were Malik Scott (KO 1), Bermane Stiverne (UD 12), Luis Ortiz in their first match (TKO 10), Tyson Fury (SD 12), and Dominic Breazeale (KO 1).\n\nThe win marked Wilder's tenth successful consecutive defense of his heavyweight title, tying Muhammad Ali's 10 consecutive defenses. Wilder was happy to accomplish the feat: \"It feels amazing. Muhammad Ali is one of my idols\". Wilder and Ali's feat is only bettered by Joe Louis, Larry Holmes, Wladimir Klitschko and Tommy Burns. Wilder failed to surpass Ali's total, as he went on to lose his next fight.\n\nWilder vs. Fury II \n\nOn November 27, 2019, it was announced that Wilder would face Tyson Fury on February 22, 2020, in a rematch of their 2018 bout which resulted in a draw. Wilder weighed in at a career-heaviest 231 lbs, while Fury at 273 lbs also weighed in heavier for the rematch than he did for the first bout. Despite the former entering the fight as the slight betting favorite, he was dropped by Fury with a left hook, overhand right combination in the third round. In the fifth round, Fury knocked Wilder down again, this time with a body shot. Wilder ultimately lost the fight via seventh-round technical knockout when his trainer Mark Breland threw in the towel, losing his WBC heavyweight title in the process. At the time of the stoppage, Wilder was behind on the scorecards 59–52 (twice) and 58–53. According to CompuBox, Fury landed 82 of his 267 total punches (31%), including 58 out of 160 power punches (36%). Wilder landed 34 of his 141 total punches (24%), including 18 out of 55 power punches (33%).\n\nIn the post-fight interview, Wilder's head trainer Jay Deas stated that he disagreed with his co-trainer's decision to stop the fight, saying “Mark [Breland] threw in the towel, I didn’t think he should’ve. Deontay’s the kind of guy that’s a go out on his shield kind of guy and he will tell you straight up ‘Don’t throw the towel in'.\" At a cost of $79.99, the bout generated between 800,000 and 850,000 pay-per-view buys in the United States via traditional television providers, up from approximately 325,000 buys for the first fight. Bob Arum estimated that there were \"well over\" 300,000 buys via digital platforms (placing the estimated total closer to 1.2 million).\n\nWilder attributed his defeat to factors including his water \"being spiked as if I took a muscle relaxer\", his ring-walk costume being \"way too heavy for me... it weighed 40lb with the helmet and all the batteries\", and that Fury had \"scratched flesh out of my ears which caused them to bleed\". Wilder's attempts at justifying his loss were widely criticized and labeled by many as \"excuses\", including by Tyson Fury himself, former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, and British heavyweight rivals Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte. Despite the widespread criticism of Wilder's allegations, for which he provided no credible evidence to support, he did not back down; on October 31, 2020 he issued a series of statements on social media continuing to accuse Fury of cheating, as well as asking for a trilogy bout. In one tweet directed at Fury, Wilder stated, \"I was offered more money to fight [Anthony] Joshua than I was getting to fight you [Fury].\" Both Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn reacted by confirming the veracity of the statement, happy at its implication that it was Wilder who had previously avoided a proposed undisputed fight with Joshua, and not the other way around.\n\nPost-title career\n\nWilder vs. Fury III \n\nOn May 17, 2021, arbitration judge Daniel Weinstein ruled that WBC and The Ring champion Tyson Fury will have to honor a contractual clause which calls for a third fight with Wilder. Subsequently, Fury's promoter Bob Arum claimed that the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas had been reserved for July 24, 2021 in anticipation of Wilder's trilogy fight with Fury. On June 3, Wilder stated that his \"mind is very violent\", and that he had \"built a whole facility to commit a legal homicide\" against Fury. Fury is the third opponent that Wilder has alluded to having intentions of killing, having previously made similar death threats in the past to Bermane Stiverne and Dominic Breazeale.\n\nThat same month, it was announced that Wilder had appointed his former rival turned friend Malik Scott as his new head trainer, calling Scott a \"genius\". Ahead of the pre-fight press conference on June 15, the venue was officially confirmed as T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The bout was postponed from the original date of July 24 until October 9 after Fury's camp suffered an outbreak of COVID-19. At the pre-fight weigh-in on October 8, both men weighed in at their respective career-heaviest weights, with the champion Fury weighing in at 277 lbs, and the challenger Wilder at 238 lbs.\n\nOn the night of the fight, both men exchanged a total of five knockdowns as Fury won the bout via eleventh-round knockout. Wilder had started the first round well, jabbing the champion to the body and landing several clean right hands to his chest and stomach, doing enough to win the first round on all three judges' scorecards. In the second, Fury landed some good shots in the clinch. Midway through the third, Fury sent Wilder to the canvas with a series of hard right hands, and continued to pummel him as Wilder was effectively saved by the bell. Wilder came back in the fourth with a vicious short right hand that put Fury down on the canvas. Wilder continued coming forwards, and sent the champion down again towards the end of the round. In the middle rounds, Fury recovered and started landing with more regularity, racking up a commanding lead on the cards and marking up Wilder's face badly, with the latter now visibly exhausted as a result of all of the punishment he had taken. In the tenth, Wilder was decked by a huge right hook, but came back yet again with a huge series of wild swings that caught Fury at the bell. With Wilder badly hurt and bleeding, Fury managed to finish his opponent in the eleventh round with a clean right hook thrown from the clinch. Referee Robert Mora waved the contest off with Wilder face-down on the canvas. After the fight, Fury praised his opponent, calling Wilder a \"top fighter\", but criticized him for being a \"sore loser\" and refusing to \"show any sportsmanship or respect\". Before being taken to hospital for precautionary post-fight checks, Wilder provided his assessment of the fight: “I did my best, but it wasn’t good enough tonight. I’m not sure what happened.\"\n\nAt the time of the stoppage, Wilder was behind on all three judges' scorecards with 95–91, 94–92, and 95–92. According to CompuBox, Fury landed 150 of 385 punches (39%), while Wilder connected with 72 of 355 punches (20%). The 150 punches landed on Wilder is the most ever landed by an opponent. Despite the back and forth nature of the bout, CompuBox calculated Fury as having outlanded Wilder in every single round of the fight, including the fourth round in which Fury was knocked down twice. The fight was widely acclaimed by observers and pundits for its action and high-level intensity: hall-of-fame promoter Bob Arum said, “I’ve been in this business 57 years promoting fights and I have to say I’ve truly never seen a heavyweight fight as magnificent as this\", while the Ring magazine described it as \"the obvious fight of the year so far\" and \"a rare and historic heavyweight championship trilogy\".\n\nSix days after the conclusion of the fight, on October 15, Wilder released a statement on social media paying tribute to God, his team, his fans and Fury: \"I would like to first and foremost thank God for allowing me to give the world another part of me that’s driven with passion and determination. I would like to thank my team and my fans for sticking by my side through this long process... Last but not least I would like to congratulate Tyson Fury for his victory and thank you for the great historical memories that will last forever.”\n\nPersonal life\nWilder has 8 children. Wilder's first child, a daughter with ex-girlfriend Helen Duncan, was born in 2005 with spina bifida. Wilder also has two other daughters and one son with Jessica Scales-Wilder, whom he married in 2009 and later divorced. Wilder is currently engaged to and has a child with Telli Swift and has been featured on the reality television show, WAGS Atlanta.\n\nWilder comes from a family of Alabama preachers, namely his father and grandmother. He has three sisters and one younger brother. His brother Marsellos Wilder, is also a professional boxer; Marsellos currently fights in the cruiserweight division and has a 5–2 record. As a youngster, Wilder attended church every week. He has referred to his belief in Christianity, saying that \"God is very important in my life.\"\n\nWilder graduated from Tuscaloosa Central High School in 2004 and dreamed of playing football (wide receiver) or basketball (forward) for his hometown Alabama Crimson Tide, but the birth of his oldest daughter and poor grades caused him to attend nearby Shelton State Community College and to focus on a boxing career. Wilder later revealed that during this time, he struggled with depression and had briefly contemplated suicide via gunshot. When reflecting on the incident, he stated \"You don't think about what effect it would cause for your family, your daughter, your kids and so forth and so on... In that state of mind, you just become selfish. You think of the inner pain and the outer pain that you're feeling right at that very moment in time.\"\n\nOn May 4, 2013, Las Vegas police were called at around 7:30 a.m. for a reported battery at a hotel in the 3700 block of South Las Vegas Boulevard, where Wilder and another woman were taken into custody. He was held at Clark County Detention Center on charges of domestic battery by strangulation, and was released on a $15,000 bond. According to the police, \"the woman had swollen eyebrows, a possibly broken nose, a cut lip, and red marks on her neck\". She was taken to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada and treated for her injuries. Wilder's attorney Paul Patterson claimed Wilder had \"instinctively acted under the false impression that someone was stealing from him,” and that he \"regrets his actions\". He had apparently been in Las Vegas to watch the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Robert Guerrero fight.\n\nProfessional boxing record\n\nPay-per-view bouts\n\nSee also \n\n List of world heavyweight boxing champions\n List of WBC world champions\n List of Olympic medalists in boxing\n Boxing at the 2008 Summer Olympics\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nDeontay Wilder wins national Golden Gloves championship at The Tuscaloosa News, May 6, 2007\nDeontay Wilder profile at Premier Boxing Champions\n\nAfrican-American boxers\nAmerican male boxers\nNational Golden Gloves champions\n1985 births\nWinners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers\nLiving people\nBoxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics\nOlympic bronze medalists for the United States in boxing\nMedalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics\nSportspeople from Tuscaloosa, Alabama\nBoxers from Alabama\nWorld heavyweight boxing champions\nWorld Boxing Council champions\n21st-century African-American sportspeople\n20th-century African-American people", "James Curtis Wilder Sr. (born May 12, 1958) is a former professional American football running back in the National Football League for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins, and the Detroit Lions.\n\nHigh school career\nWilder played high school football at Sikeston High School where he set school records in career rushing yards and single season rushing yards. He led the Bulldogs to an undefeated season in 1976, his senior year with the team.\n\nCollege career\nWilder played at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, Oklahoma, then attended and played college football at the University of Missouri where he led the Tigers to three bowl games and became known as the \"Sikeston Train\" and one of the most popular players for the program.\n\nProfessional career\nWilder was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft. After he shared the backfield as a rookie with Jerry Eckwood in 1981, the Buccaneers released Eckwood in favor of Wilder prior to the 1982 season. He played for most of his career with Tampa Bay, and was a Pro Bowl selection in 1984. Wilder almost set an NFL record that season for combined rushing and receiving yards in a season finishing 16 yards short with 2,229. In an attempt to give Wilder one more chance to break the record in the final minute of the final game of the 1984 season against the New York Jets, head coach John McKay (in what would be his final game as the Buccaneers head coach) ordered his defense to let the Jets score, so that the Bucs could go back on offense. This resulted in one of the strangest plays in NFL history where the Tampa Bay defense simply stood still as the Jets ran the ball into the end zone; McKay was given a large fine from the league for that stunt.\n\nHe ranks first in Buccaneer history in rushing yards, rushing attempts and receptions (later broken by Mike Evans) and even set an NFL record with 43 carries in a single game in 1984 (since broken). Also in 1984, he set NFL records for carries (407) (later broken by Jamal Anderson then Larry Johnson) and touches (492) in a single season.\n\nLawrence Taylor has stated that Wilder was one of the toughest running backs that he played against during his career.\n\nPersonal life\nWilder's son, James Wilder Jr., is a professional football player who is currently signed with the Edmonton Elks of the CFL. He played football for Florida State and was a part of their 2013 National Championship winning team, and the 2017 Grey Cup winning team. Coincidentally, Marc Trestman, who was a Buccaneers assistant coach during the senior Wilder's career, was the junior Wilder's head coach.\nWilder's daughter, Courtney Wilder, played running back on the Tampa Breeze during the 2011–12 LFL season.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Bucpower page (James Wilder)\n Bucpower page (Jerry Eckwood)\n\n1958 births\nLiving people\nAmerican football fullbacks\nDetroit Lions players\nMissouri Tigers football players\nNational Conference Pro Bowl players\nPeople from Sikeston, Missouri\nTampa Bay Buccaneers players\nWashington Redskins players" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything.", "Did he have other negative comments?", "Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was \"bullshit to be quite honest\".", "Who did they get to replace him?", "Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982,", "How did they find Wilder?", "In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: \"Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.\"", "Did they audition others besides Wilder?", "I don't know.", "How did the adjustment with Wilder go?", "initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the \"Musical Director\" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995." ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	What was unique about his sound?	7	What was unique about Alan Wilder's sound for the Depeche Mode band?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	false	[ "Glenn Snoddy (May 4, 1922 – May 21, 2018) was an engineer and studio owner in Nashville, Tennessee. He recorded major Country and Folk artists such as Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. \n\nHe is credited with inadvertently producing the first Fuzz tone in 1961.\n\nCareer \nGlenn Snoddy, a World War II veteran, learned about radio and recording while in the Army. After the war, he began his career as a radio engineer and worked his way up to the famed Nashville clear-channel station WSM (AM). Glenn Snoddy also worked at Castle Studios and The Quonset Hut Studio.\n\nIn 1961, While engineering Marty Robbins' song, Don't Worry at The Quonset Hut, a technical malfunction unexpectedly transformed session musician Grady Martin's Danelectro six-string baritone guitar tone into an unusual distorted sound. Some accounts report that the transformer of Martin's amplifier was damaged. However, it appears that a defect in the mixing console had produced this unique sound. \"I'm pretty sure what happened was the primary transformer opened up, causing session player Grady Martin's guitar sound to go from clean to bludgeoning\", Snoddy told The Tennessean in 2013.\n\nAs Don't Worry topped the country charts and crossed over to the pop charts, the mixing console's faulty channel's unique sound rapidly became sought after in Nashville studios. But Snoddy was unable to replicate the sound, as the mixing board's transformer had unfortunately stopped working shortly after. \"Nancy Sinatra came to town and wanted to use that sound, and I had to tell her people that we didn't have it anymore because the amplifier completely quit. So I had to get busy and conjure some other way to make it happen,\" Snoddy recalled in a 2013 Vintage Guitar magazine interview.\n\nSnoddy decided to team-up with fellow WSM radio engineer Revis Virgil Hobbs to build a stand-alone device entirely based around three 1n270 germanium transistors that would intentionally recreate the novel fuzzy effect. The Fuzz-Tone was born. The two engineers sold their circuit to Gibson, who commercialized the device in 1962 under the name Maestro Fuzz-Tone. While the initial run of 5000 units was a commercial failure, sales soared after The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards used an FZ1 to record (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction's main riff. \n\nIn 1967, Snoddy opened Woodland Sound, a studio that recorded artists such as Neil Young, Tammy Wynette, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band among many others. Kansas' Dust in the Wind was recorded at Woodland in 1977.\n\nReferences \n\n1922 births\n2018 deaths\nAmerican audio engineers\nUnited States Army personnel of World War II\nPeople from Tennessee", "Sound Kapital is the third studio album by Canadian indie rock duo Handsome Furs. It was released through Sub Pop Records on June 28, 2011. According to a press release, Sound Kapital is inspired by the electronic and industrial music of 1980s Eastern Europe and it is the first album that Dan Boeckner wrote entirely on keyboards, although most songs do include guitars.\n\nThe album was named as a shortlisted nominee for the 2012 Polaris Music Prize on July 17, 2012.\n\nProduction\nSound Kapital was recorded at the Handsome Furs' studio in Montreal, Canada, before being produced by Howard Bilerman and Arlen Thompson at Hotel2Tango.\n\nRelease\nOn April 12, 2011, Handsome Furs announced they were releasing their third studio album Sound Kapital.\n\nSingles\nThe first single from Sound Kapital was \"What About Us\", and released on April 12, 2011, the same day as the album release announcement. Musician Diamond Rings remixed the track for his remix series Remix Rainbows.\n\nOn May 20, 2011, the second track \"Repatriated\" was released.\n\nMusic videos\nThe music video for \"What About Us\" was released on July 8, 2011, and was directed by Scott Coffey.\n\nTour\nIn support of the album, Handsome Furs went on a tour of North American and Europe, starting on April 14, 2011 at The Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, and finished on May 22, 2011 at the Konsertforeningen Betong venue in Oslo, Norway. The duo announced more tours on May 20, 2011 for Canada and midwest United States, making appearances at North by Northeast, 80/35 Music Festival and Capitol Hill Block Party.\n\nCritical reception\n\nSound Kapital was met with \"generally favorable\" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 75 based on 19 reviews. Aggregate website AnyDecentMusic? gave the release a 7.2 out of 10 based on a critical consensus of 12 reviews.\n\nIn a review for AllMusic, critic reviewer Jason Lymangrover wrote: \"Sound Kapital was inspired by the last two years of traveling Asia. Aspects of J-pop and K-pop seem to have permeated their mindset, since, as an electronic duo, everything is light, peppy, straight-ahead, and modern-sounding, often to the point of sounding inhuman.\" At The A.V Club, Steven Hyden explained: \"Sound Kapital consists mainly of catchy, mid-tempo rock songs where majestic guitar solos and atmospheric keyboard swishes swoop in from mid-'80s U2 and Tears For Fears records.\" Harley Brown of Consequence of Sound reviewed the album: \"Sound Kapital exemplifies form mirroring content and vice versa. The electro-industrial synthesizers and drum machines convey the Handsome Furs' lyrical convictions better than the band's earlier, less bombastic combinations of synths and guitar. Boeckner's tenuous voice sounds at home bouncing off Perry's grungy beats, and the two unleash their potential behind the keyboards.\" At Drowned in Sound, Neil Ashman described the album as \"a successful, if slightly creatively stifling refinement of a fruitful and unique musical partnership.\"\n\nWriting for Rolling Stone, writer Doree Shafrir wrote: \"Boeckner and his wife Alexei Perry's danceable electronic-pop sound belies the album's often melancholy themes of love, self-discovery and rebirth. Sweaty and urgent, Sound Kapital is a snapshot of a dark world with hard-fought glimmers of euphoria.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\n\nMusicians\n Dan Boeckner – vocals\n Alexei Perry – keyboard\n Radwan Ghazi Moumneh – vocals\n\nProduction\n Howard Bilerman – producer, engineer\n Arlen Thompson – producer, engineer\n Harris Newman – mastering\n Antti Joas – mixing\n Jonas Verwijnen – mixing\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFree Listen at Spin\n Sound Kapital at Sub Pop Records\n \n \n\n2011 albums\nHandsome Furs albums\nSub Pop albums" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything.", "Did he have other negative comments?", "Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was \"bullshit to be quite honest\".", "Who did they get to replace him?", "Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982,", "How did they find Wilder?", "In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: \"Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.\"", "Did they audition others besides Wilder?", "I don't know.", "How did the adjustment with Wilder go?", "initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the \"Musical Director\" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995.", "What was unique about his sound?", "I don't know." ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	When Wilder joined, did anything about the band change?	8	When Alan Wilder joined the Depeche Mode band, did anything about the band change?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke,	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	true	[ "Sounds of Sunshine were an American sunshine pop group from Los Angeles, California consisting of three brothers. The group released one album on Ranwood Records in 1971, which peaked on the Billboard 200 at #187. Its title track, \"Love Means (You Never Have to Say You're Sorry)\", was a minor U.S. hit, peaking at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. \nThe song found a much wider audience among adults, reaching #5 on Billboard's Easy Listening survey. In Canada, the song reached #45 on the Pop chart and #33 Adult Contemporary. The title of the song was taken from a line from the 1970 film Love Story. \n\nOn the back cover of Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables album, a press shot of the group found by bassist Klaus Flouride at a garage sale (without anything identifying the people in the photo as the members of the group) was used without their permission; the group subsequently sued band member Jello Biafra's label Alternative Tentacles, and received a $3000 payment and alterations to be made to the album art.\n\nMembers\nWalt Wilder\nWarner Wilder\nGeorge Wilder\n\nReferences\n\nMusical groups from Los Angeles\nSunshine pop", "Heatwave is a Dayton, Ohio based funk/disco band formed in 1975. Its most popular line-up featured Americans Johnnie Wilder Jr. and Keith Wilder (vocals) of Dayton, Ohio; Englishman Rod Temperton (keyboards); Swiss Mario Mantese (bass); Czechoslovak Ernest \"Bilbo\" Berger (drums); Jamaican Eric Johns (guitar); and Briton Roy Carter (guitar).\n\nThey are known for their singles \"Boogie Nights\", \"The Groove Line\", and \"Always and Forever\".\n\nBiography\n\nHeatwave's mainstream years 1976-1982\nFounding member Johnnie Wilder was an American serviceman based in West Germany when he first began performing; upon his discharge from the US Army, he stayed in Germany. He sang in nightclubs and taverns with an assortment of bands while still enlisted. By mid-year, he decided to relocate to the United Kingdom and through an ad placed in a local paper he linked up with songwriter/keyboardist Rod Temperton.\n\nTouring the London nightclub circuit billed as Chicago's Heatwave during the mid-1970s allowed them to refine their sound, adding a funk groove to disco beats. In search of a fuller sound vocally, Johnnie Wilder called upon his brother Keith Wilder (who was performing in a local band in Dayton, Ohio) to join the band on vocals. The group signed to GTO Records in 1976 (Epic Records would handle GTO's releases in the states). They were paired in the studio with GTO house producer/session guitarist Barry Blue and rhythm guitarist Jesse Whitten. Rhythm guitarist Roy Carter replaced Whitten after Whitten was killed in a stabbing incident. They began creating their first album Too Hot to Handle in the fall of 1976.\n\nTheir third single, \"Boogie Nights\" from their debut album, in 1977 reached No. 2 on the British popular music charts in January and in America in November. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA. The group's debut album, Too Hot to Handle, was released in the spring of 1977, giving Heatwave a No. 11 on the Hot 200 and No. 5 on the R&B charts, while the next single, the soul ballad \"Always and Forever\", reached No. 18 on the Hot 100 in April 1978 and No. 2 on the R&B charts. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA.\n\nContinuing to use Barry Blue's production skills, Heatwave released their second album Central Heating in April 1978. Lead single \"The Groove Line,\" reached No. 7 on the Hot 100 in July 1978. The single was certified platinum by the RIAA.\n\nDuring the late 1970s, the band changed. At first Eric Johns quit the band and Billy Jones was his replacement as guitarist. Then Rod Temperton quit the band. Although Temperton would continue writing new songs for Heatwave, he soon became better-known for his songwriting for other artists, penning award-winning songs for some of funk's biggest names, including Rufus, The Brothers Johnson and George Benson. He also wrote for Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones, but his most famous partnership remains the one forged with Michael Jackson, writing three songs for his 1979 Epic debut Off the Wall – \"Rock With You,\" \"Off the Wall\" and \"Burn This Disco Out\", and three songs for the 1982 Thriller LP, including the title track.\n\nDespite these changes, Heatwave were about to return to the studio when Mantese attended a party at Elton John's house in London. He was with his girlfriend, who decided to go home early from the party, reason unknown. When Mantese arrived home, she was furious with him, perhaps from an incident that happened at the party and stabbed him. The knife hit him in the heart and for several minutes, he was clinically dead. When, after several months, he awoke from coma, he was blind, mute and paralysed in his entire body. To date, he has no memory of this tragic event. He decided not to press charges against his girlfriend, and moved in with her after leaving the hospital. Mantese was replaced by bassist Derek Bramble. Adding keyboardist Calvin Duke to the group, and now working with new producer Phil Ramone, Heatwave cut Hot Property, released in May 1979.\n\nAround this time Heatwave performed \"Keep Tomorrow for Me\" used over the end credits of the action comedy \"Escape to Athena\". Composed by Barry Blue and written by Rod Temperton with some orchestrations by Christodoulous, the song is considered by some to be one of the group's best but never got a wide release due to the rights being locked up with Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. The film performed poorly at the box office and the proposed soundtrack (with a score composed by Lalo Schifrin) was cancelled except in Japan where the song was released on the soundtrack to the film under its Japanese title \"Offsides 7\" and only on vinyl in that country.\n\nDuring the spring of 1979, Johnnie Wilder, Jr., suffered injuries in an auto accident while visiting family and friends in Dayton, Ohio. Although he survived, the accident left him paralysed from the neck down and unable to continue performing live with the group, though he did continue to perform vocals in the studio. After the accident, Johnnie remained a co-producer of the group, along with Blue.\n \nDuring 1980, Heatwave recorded the Candles album, with Temperton again providing the songs, except stand out track \"All I Am\", written by Blue's former writing partner Lynsey de Paul. The group recruited James Dean \"J.D.\" Nicholas, who later became a member of the Commodores, to sing additional lead vocals in studio and perform live with them.\n\nHeatwave's November single \"Gangsters of the Groove\" was a popular music success, scoring number twenty-one on the US R&B chart (failing to make the Hot 100 because of the anti-disco backlash), and number 20 in the United Kingdom early in the New Year. But the album peaked at number 71 in the United States in December 1980.\n\nHeatwave's 1982 LP, Current, marked yet another new era for the band, as they returned to producer Blue. The album managed number 156 on the US Billboard 200, although it scored the band a number 21 success on the R&B charts, where Heatwave continued to be a strong presence. A Rod Temperton penned single, \"Lettin' It Loose,\" proved a minor success during August.\n\nDerek Bramble quit the band at the end of 1982, like Roy Carter, for a career in production (he would go on to work with David Bowie on 1984s Tonight LP, and later masterminded Jaki Graham's breakthrough). J.D. Nicholas left to replace Lionel Richie as the lead singer of the Commodores.\n\nBreak-up period\nIn approximately 1986, Keith Wilder and Roy Carter sought the services of Central Line guitarists/songwriters Henri Defoe and Michael Finbarr Murphy (the latter having also recently produced Unknown Quantity, consisting of the 3 backing vocalists and dancers in the \"Chain Reaction\" hit music video by Diana Ross, which also featured Michael on guitar). Keith and Roy wanted to enlist them for a tour of The British US Air Force Bases. Michael's distant cousin, Alan Murphy, the now-deceased one-time guitarist for Kate Bush, Go West, and Level 42 also expressed interest in working with Heatwave as a band, though it would never materialize.\n\nPost-1988 Heatwave\nSilent as a band since early 1983, Heatwave reconvened in a new line-up to record and release the album The Fire in 1988. However, Keith Wilder was the only original member of the band present in this incarnation (although Billy Jones, who had joined the band in the late 1970s returned as well). Meanwhile, that same year, Johnnie Wilder released a solo spiritual album My Goals on Light. The Wilder brothers once again teamed up the following year for the gospel album, Sound of Soul. None of these late 1980s albums sold well, but Heatwave's recognition was revitalised in 1991, when a remix version of their \"Mind Blowing Decisions\" charted in the UK. By the mid to late 1980s, Keith Wilder was joined by bassist Dave Williamson and vocalist Donovan Blackwood and in the 1990s had again reformed the band. Joined by keyboardists Kevin Sutherland and Byron Byrd, guitarist Bill Jones, and original drummer Ernest Berger, the reborn Heatwave launched an American tour with a live album recorded at the Greek Theater in Hollywood, arriving in 1997.\n\nDeaths\nJohnnie Wilder died in his sleep at his home in Dayton, Ohio on 13 May 2006.\n\nOn 5 October 2016, Temperton's death was announced after what was described by his music publisher as \"a brief aggressive battle with cancer\". Temperton had died at the age of 66 in London the previous week and his funeral had already taken place. The exact date of his death was not announced.\n\nKeith Wilder (born Keith Edward Wilder on December 20, 1951 in Dayton, Ohio) died on October 29, 2017, at the age of 65.\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nSingles\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nHeatwave at Richard de la Font Agency\nHeatwave at SoulTracks\n Keith Wilder at Find a Grave\n\nMusical groups established in 1975\nMusical groups from London\nBritish disco groups\nEnglish dance music groups\nMusical groups from Dayton, Ohio\nEnglish funk musical groups\nEpic Records artists\nTelstar Records artists" ]
[ "Depeche Mode", "Clarke departs, Wilder joins (1981-1982)", "Why did Clarke leave the band?", "Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying \"there was never enough time to do anything.", "Did he have other negative comments?", "Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was \"bullshit to be quite honest\".", "Who did they get to replace him?", "Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982,", "How did they find Wilder?", "In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: \"Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one.\"", "Did they audition others besides Wilder?", "I don't know.", "How did the adjustment with Wilder go?", "initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the \"Musical Director\" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995.", "What was unique about his sound?", "I don't know.", "When Wilder joined, did anything about the band change?", "January 1982, the band released \"See You\", their first single without Clarke," ]	C_570b2071a99f4f0f933074b46b6bcb9f_1	Did they release other singles?	9	Besides "See You", their first single without Clarke, did Depeche Mode band release other singles?	Depeche Mode	During the touring and promotion for Speak & Spell, Clarke privately began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking. He later expressed his dissatisfaction, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. It was also claimed that Clarke was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest". Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore". Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!," was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. CANNOTANSWER	Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence," were released	Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon in 1980. The group consists of a trio of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting) and Andy Fletcher (keyboards). Depeche Mode released their debut album, Speak & Spell, in 1981, bringing the band onto the British new wave scene. Founding member Vince Clarke left after the release of the album; they recorded A Broken Frame as a trio. Gore took over as main songwriter and later, in 1982, Alan Wilder replaced Clarke, establishing a lineup that continued for 13 years. The band's last albums of the 1980s, Black Celebration and Music for the Masses, established them as a dominant force within the electronic music scene. A highlight of this era was the band's June 1988 concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl, where they drew a crowd in excess of 60,000 people. In early 1990, they released Violator, an international mainstream success. The following album Songs of Faith and Devotion, released in 1993, was also a success, though the band's internal struggles during recording and touring resulted in Wilder's departure in 1995. Depeche Mode have had 54 songs in the UK Singles Chart and 17 Top 10 albums in the UK chart; they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide. Q included the band in its list of the "50 Bands That Changed the World!" Depeche Mode also rank No. 98 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". In December 2016, Billboard named Depeche Mode the 10th Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists. They were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 and 2018, and were inducted as part of the Class of 2020. History Formation and debut album (1977–1981) Depeche Mode's origins date to 1977, when schoolmates Vince Clarke and Andy Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, later influenced by the Cure, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. Fletcher would later recall, "Why am I in the band? It was accidental right from the beginning. I was actually forced to be in the band. I played the guitar and I had a bass; it was a question of them roping me in." In 1979, Clarke played guitar in an "Ultravox rip-off band", The Plan, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith. In 1978–79, Martin Gore played guitar in an acoustic duo, Norman and the Worms, with school friend Phil Burdett on vocals. In March 1980, Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke heard Wirral band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), whose output inspired him to make electronic music. Clarke and Fletcher then converted to an electronic act, working odd jobs in order to buy synthesizers, or borrowing them from friends; they were soon joined by Martin Gore as a third instrumentalist. Fletcher has listed OMD, the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kraftwerk, the Human League, and punk rock as influences on the three men. Dave Gahan joined the band later in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local Scout hut jam session, singing a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes", and Depeche Mode was born. Gahan's and Gore's favourite artists included Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sparks, Cabaret Voltaire, Talking Heads and Iggy Pop. Gahan's persona onstage was influenced by Dave Vanian, frontman of The Damned. Gahan has also credited David Bowie, James Brown, Elvis Presley and Prince as influences. When explaining the choice for the new name, taken from French fashion magazine Dépêche Mode, Gore said, "It means hurried fashion or fashion dispatch. I like the sound of that." However, the right translation of the magazine's name (and hence the band's) is "Fashion News" or "Fashion Update" (dépêche, "dispatch" or "news report", from Old French despesche/despeche, and mode or "fashion"). Gore recalled that the first time the band played as Depeche Mode was a school gig in May 1980. There is a plaque commemorating the gig at the James Hornsby School in Basildon, where Gore and Fletcher were pupils. The band made their recording debut in 1980 on the Some Bizzare Album with the song "Photographic", later re-recorded for their debut album Speak & Spell. The band made a demo tape but, instead of mailing the tape to record companies, they would go in and personally deliver it. They would demand the companies play it; according to Dave Gahan, "most of them would tell us to fuck off. They'd say 'leave the tape with us' and we'd say 'it's our only one'. Then we'd say goodbye and go somewhere else." According to Gahan, prior to securing their record contract, they were receiving offers from all the major labels. Phonogram offered them "money you could never have imagined and all sorts of crazy things like clothes allowances". While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, the band was approached by Daniel Miller, an electronic musician and founder of Mute Records, who was interested in their recording a single for his burgeoning label. The result of this verbal contract was their first single, "Dreaming of Me", recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981. It reached number 57 in the UK charts. Encouraged by this, the band recorded their second single, "New Life", which climbed to number 11 in the UK charts and got them an appearance on Top of the Pops. The band went to London by train, carrying their synthesisers all the way to the BBC studios. The band's next single was "Just Can't Get Enough". The synth-pop single became the band's first UK top ten hit. The video is the only one of the band's videos to feature Vince Clarke. Depeche Mode's debut album, Speak & Spell, was released in October 1981 and peaked at number ten on the UK album charts. Critical reviews were mixed; Melody Maker described it as a "great album … one they had to make to conquer fresh audiences and please the fans who just can't get enough", while Rolling Stone was more critical, calling the album "PG-rated fluff." Clarke departs and Wilder joins (1981–1982) Clarke began to voice his discomfort at the direction the band was taking, saying "there was never enough time to do anything. Not with all the interviews and photo sessions". Clarke also said he was sick of touring, which Gahan said years later was "bullshit to be quite honest." Gahan went on to say he "suddenly lost interest in it and he started getting letters from fans asking what kind of socks he wore." In November 1981, Clarke publicly announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode. Soon afterwards, Clarke joined up with blues singer Alison Moyet to form Yazoo (or Yaz in the United States). Initial talk of Clarke's continuing to write material for Depeche Mode ultimately amounted to nothing. According to third-party sources, Clarke offered the remaining members of Depeche Mode the track "Only You", but they declined. Clarke, however, denied in an interview that such an offer ever took place saying, "I don't know where that came from. That's not true." The song went on to become a UK Top 3 hit for Yazoo. Gore, who had written "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and the instrumental "Big Muff" for Speak & Spell, became the band's main lyricist. In late 1981, the band placed an anonymous ad in Melody Maker looking for another musician: "Name band, synthesise, must be under twenty-one." Alan Wilder, a classically trained keyboardist from West London, responded and, after two auditions and despite being 22 years old, was hired in early 1982, initially on a trial basis as a touring member. Wilder would later be called the "Musical Director" of the band, responsible for the band's sound until his departure in 1995. As producer Flood would say, "[Alan] is sort of the craftsman, Martin's the idea man and [Dave] is the attitude." In January 1982, the band released "See You", their first single without Clarke, which managed to beat all three Clarke-penned singles in the UK charts, reaching number six. The following tour saw the band playing their first shows in North America. Two more singles, "The Meaning of Love" and "Leave in Silence", were released ahead of the band's second studio album, on which they began work in July 1982. Daniel Miller informed Wilder that he was not needed for the recording of the album, as the core trio wanted to prove they could succeed without Vince Clarke. A Broken Frame was released that September, and the following month the band began their 1982 tour. A non-album single, "Get the Balance Right!", was released in January 1983, the first Depeche Mode track to be recorded with Wilder. Construction Time Again (1983) For its third album, Construction Time Again, Depeche Mode worked with producer Gareth Jones, at John Foxx's Garden Studios and at Hansa Studios in West Berlin (where much of David Bowie's trilogy of seminal electronic albums featuring Brian Eno had been produced). The album saw a dramatic shift in the group's sound, due in part to Wilder's introduction of the Synclavier and E-mu Emulator samplers. By sampling the noises of everyday objects, the band created an eclectic, industrial-influenced sound, with similarities to groups such as the Art of Noise and Einstürzende Neubauten (the latter becoming Mute labelmates in 1983). "Everything Counts" rose to number six in the UK, also reaching the top 30 in Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, Sweden and West Germany. Wilder contributed two songs to the album, "The Landscape Is Changing" and "Two Minute Warning". In September 1983, to promote Construction Time Again, the band launched a European concert tour. Some Great Reward and growing international success (1984–1985) In their early years, Depeche Mode had only really attained success in Europe and Australia. This changed in March 1984, when they released the single "People Are People". The song became a hit, reaching No. 2 in Ireland and Poland, No. 4 in the UK and Switzerland, and No. 1 in West Germany – the first time a DM single topped a country's singles chart – where it was used as the theme to West German TV's coverage of the 1984 Olympics. Beyond this European success, the song also reached No. 13 on the US charts in mid-1985, the first appearance of a DM single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 20 hit in Canada. "People Are People" became an anthem for the LGBT community, regularly played at gay establishments and gay pride festivals in the late 1980s. Sire, the band's North American record label, released a compilation of the same name which included tracks from A Broken Frame and Construction Time Again as well as several B-sides. On the American tour, the band was, according to Gore, "shocked by the way the fans were turning up in droves at the concerts". He said that although the concerts were selling well, Depeche Mode struggled to sell records. In September 1984, Some Great Reward was released. Melody Maker claimed that the album made one "sit up and take notice of what is happening here, right under your nose." In contrast to the political and environmental subjects addressed on the previous album, the songs on Some Great Reward were mostly concerned with more personal themes such as sexual politics ("Master and Servant"), adulterous relationships ("Lie to Me"), and arbitrary divine justice ("Blasphemous Rumours"). Also included was the first Martin Gore ballad, "Somebody" — such songs would become a feature of all following albums. "Somebody" was released as a double A-side with "Blasphemous Rumours", and was the first single with Gore on lead vocal. Some Great Reward became the first Depeche Mode album to enter the US album charts, and made the Top 10 in several European countries. The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg was the band's first video release, almost an entire concert from their 1984 Some Great Reward Tour. In July 1985, the band played their first-ever concerts behind the Iron Curtain, in Budapest and Warsaw. In October 1985, Mute released a compilation, The Singles 81→85 (Catching Up with Depeche Mode in the US), which included the two non-album hit singles "Shake the Disease" and "It's Called a Heart" along with their B-sides. In the United States, the band's music first gained prominence on college radio and modern rock stations such as KROQ in Los Angeles, KQAK ("The Quake") in San Francisco, WFNX in Boston and WLIR on Long Island, New York, and hence they appealed primarily to an alternative audience who were disenfranchised with the predominance of "soft rock and 'disco hell'" on the radio. This view of the band was in sharp contrast to how the band was perceived in Europe, despite the increasingly dark and serious tone in their songs. In Germany, France, and other European countries, Depeche Mode were considered teen idols and regularly featured in European teen magazines, becoming one of the most famous synth-pop bands in the mid-'80s. Black Celebration (1986) Depeche Mode's musical style shifted slightly again in 1986 with the release of their fifteenth single, "Stripped", and its accompanying album Black Celebration. Retaining their often imaginative sampling and beginning to move away from the "industrial pop" sound that had characterised their previous two LPs, the band introduced an ominous, highly atmospheric and textured sound. Gore's lyrics also took on a darker tone and became more pessimistic. The music video for "A Question of Time" was the first to be directed by Anton Corbijn, beginning a working relationship that continues to the present. Corbijn has directed 20 of the band's videos (the latest being 2017's "Where's the Revolution"). He has also filmed some of their live performances and designed stage sets, as well as most covers for albums and singles starting from Violator. Music for the Masses and 101 (1987–1988) For 1987's Music for the Masses, the band's sound and working methods continued to develop. It was the first time they worked with a producer not related to Mute Records. Dave Bascombe was called to assist with the recording sessions; although, according to Alan Wilder, Bascombe's role ended up being more that of engineer. In making the album, the band largely eschewed sampling in favour of synthesizer experimentation. While chart performance of the singles "Strangelove", "Never Let Me Down Again" and "Behind the Wheel" proved to be disappointing in the UK, they performed well in countries such as Canada, Brazil, West Germany, South Africa, Sweden and Switzerland, often reaching the top 10. Record Mirror described Music for the Masses as "the most accomplished and sexy Mode album to date". The album also reached No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The Music for the Masses Tour began 22 October 1987. On 7 March 1988, with no previous announcement that they would be the headlining act, Depeche Mode played in the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle, East Berlin, becoming one of the few Western groups to perform in the Communist East Germany. They also performed concerts in Budapest and Prague in 1988, both Communist also at the time. The world tour ended 18 June 1988 with a concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. Paid attendance of 60,453 was the highest in eight years for the venue. Its massive success marked a breakthrough for the band in the United States.. The event was documented in 101, a concert film by D. A. Pennebaker and its accompanying soundtrack album. The film is notable for its portrayal of fan interaction. Alan Wilder came up with the title, noting that it was the 101st and final performance of the tour. On 7 September 1988, Depeche Mode performed "Strangelove" at the 1988 MTV Video Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Violator and worldwide fame (1989–1991) In mid-1989, the band began recording in Milan with producer Flood and engineer François Kevorkian. The initial result of this session was the single "Personal Jesus." Prior to its release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertisements placed in the personals columns of UK regional newspapers with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song. The resulting furor helped propel the single to number 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of their biggest sellers to date. In the United States, it was their first gold single and their first Top 40 hit since "People Are People", eventually becoming the biggest-selling 12-inch single in Warner Records' history up to that point. Released in January 1990, "Enjoy the Silence" reached number six in the UK (the first Top 10 hit in that country since "Master And Servant"). A few months later it reached number eight in the U.S. and earned the band a second gold record, and it won Best British Single at the 1991 Brit Awards. To promote their new album, Violator, the band held an in-store autograph signing at Wherehouse Entertainment in Los Angeles. The event attracted approximately 20,000 fans and turned into a near riot. Some attendees were injured while being pressed against the store's glass by the crowd. As an apology to those injured, the band released a limited edition cassette tape to fans in Los Angeles, distributed through radio station KROQ (the sponsor of the Wherehouse event). Violator was the first Depeche Mode album to enter the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, reaching Number 7 and staying 74 weeks in the chart. It was certified triple platinum in America. Two more singles from the album — "Policy of Truth" and "World in My Eyes" — were hits in the UK, with the former also charting in the US. The World Violation Tour saw the band play several stadium shows in the US. 42,000 tickets were sold within four hours for a show at Giants Stadium, and 48,000 tickets were sold within half-an-hour of going on sale for a show at Dodger Stadium. An estimated 1.2 million fans saw this tour worldwide. In 1991, Depeche Mode contribution "Death's Door" was released on the soundtrack album for the film Until the End of the World. Film director Wim Wenders had challenged musical artists to write music the way they imagined they would in the year 2000, the setting of the movie. Songs of Faith and Devotion and Wilder's departure (1992–1995) The members of Depeche Mode regrouped in Madrid in January 1992, Dave Gahan had become interested in the new grunge scene sweeping the U.S. and was influenced by the likes of Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden and Nirvana. In 1993, Songs of Faith and Devotion, again with Flood producing, saw them experimenting with arrangements based as much on heavily distorted electric guitars and live drums (played by Alan Wilder, whose debut as a studio drummer had come on the Violator track "Clean") as on synthesizers. Live strings, uilleann pipes and female gospel vocals were other new additions to the band's sound. The album debuted at number one in both the UK and the US, only the sixth British act to achieve such a distinction to date. The first single from the album was the grunge-influenced "I Feel You." The gospel influences are most noticeable on the album's third single, "Condemnation." Interviews given by the band during this period tended to be conducted separately, unlike earlier albums, where the band was interviewed as a group. The Devotional world tour followed, documented by a concert film of the same name. The film was directed by Anton Corbijn, and in 1995 earned the band their first Grammy nomination. The band's second live album, Songs of Faith and Devotion Live, was released in December 1993. The tour continued into 1994 with the Exotic Tour, which began in February 1994 in South Africa, and ended in April in Mexico. The final leg of the tour, consisting of more North American dates, followed shortly thereafter and ran until July. As a whole, the Devotional Tour is to date the longest and most geographically diverse Depeche Mode tour, spanning fourteen months and 159 individual performances. Q magazine described the 1993 Devotional Tour as "The Most Debauched Rock'n'Roll Tour Ever." According to The Independent, the "smack-blasted" Gahan "required cortisone shots just to perform, borderline alcoholic Gore suffered two stress-induced seizures, and Andrew Fletcher's deepening depression resulted, in the summer of 1994, in a full nervous breakdown." Fletcher declined to participate in the second half of the Exotic Tour due to mental instability; he was replaced on stage by Daryl Bamonte, who had worked with the band as a personal assistant since the beginning of their career in 1980. In June 1995, Alan Wilder announced that he was leaving Depeche Mode, explaining: He continued to work on his personal project Recoil, releasing a fourth album (Unsound Methods) in 1997. Ultra (1996–2000) Despite Gahan's increasingly severe personal problems, Gore tried repeatedly during 1995 and 1996 to get the band recording again. However, Gahan would rarely turn up to scheduled sessions, and when he did, it would take weeks to get any vocals recorded; one six-week session at Electric Lady in New York produced just one usable vocal (for "Sister of Night"), and even that was pieced together from multiple takes. Gore was forced to contemplate breaking the band up and considered releasing the songs he had written as a solo album. In mid-1996, after his near-fatal overdose, Gahan entered a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program to battle his addiction to cocaine and heroin. With Gahan out of rehab in 1996, Depeche Mode held recording sessions with producer Tim Simenon. Preceded by two singles, "Barrel of a Gun" and "It's No Good", the album Ultra was released in April 1997. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK (as well as Germany), and No. 5 in the US. The band did not tour in support of the album, with Fletcher quoted as saying: "We're not fit enough. Dave's only eight months into his sobriety, and our bodies are telling us to spend time with our families." As part of the promotion for the release of the album, they did perform two short concerts in London and Los Angeles, called "Ultra Parties". Ultra spawned two further singles, "Home" and "Useless". A second singles compilation, The Singles 86–98, was released in 1998, preceded by the new single "Only When I Lose Myself", which had been recorded during the Ultra sessions. In April 1998, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Hyatt Hotel in Cologne to announce The Singles Tour. The tour was the first to feature two backing musicians in place of Alan Wilder—Austrian drummer Christian Eigner and British keyboardist Peter Gordeno. Exciter (2001–2004) In 2001, Depeche Mode released Exciter, produced by Mark Bell (of techno group LFO). Bell introduced a minimalist, digital sound to much of the album, influenced by IDM and glitch. "Dream On", "I Feel Loved", "Freelove" and "Goodnight Lovers" were released as singles in 2001 and 2002. Critical response to the album was mixed, with reasonably positive reviews from some magazines (NME, Rolling Stone and LA Weekly), while others (including Q magazine, PopMatters, and Pitchfork) derided it as sounding underproduced, dull and lacklustre. In March 2001, Depeche Mode held a press conference at the Valentino Hotel in Hamburg to announce the Exciter Tour. The tour featured 84 performances for over 1.5 million fans in 24 countries. The concerts held in Paris at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy were filmed and later released in May 2002 as a live DVD entitled One Night in Paris. In October 2002 the band won the first-ever Q magazine "Innovation Award". In 2003, Gahan released his first solo album, Paper Monsters, and toured to promote the record. Also released in 2003 was Gore's second solo album Counterfeit². Fletcher founded his own record label, Toast Hawaii, specialising in promoting electronic music. A new remix compilation album, Remixes 81–04, was released in 2004, featuring new and unreleased promo mixes of the band's singles from 1981 to 2004. A new version of "Enjoy the Silence", remixed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, "Enjoy the Silence 04", was released as a single and reached No. 7 on the UK charts. Playing the Angel (2005–2007) In October 2005, the band released their 11th studio album Playing the Angel. Produced by Ben Hillier, the album peaked at No. 1 in 18 countries and featured the hit single "Precious". This is the first Depeche Mode album to feature lyrics written by Gahan and, consequently, the first album since 1984's Some Great Reward featuring songs not written by Gore. "Suffer Well" was the first ever post-Clarke Depeche Mode single not to be written by Gore (lyrics by Gahan, music by Philpott/Eigner). The final single from the album was "John the Revelator", an uptempo electronic track with a running religious theme, accompanied by "Lilian", a lush track that was a hit in many clubs all over the world. To promote Playing the Angel, the band launched Touring the Angel, a concert tour of Europe and North America that began in November 2005 and ran for nine months. During the last two legs of the tour Depeche Mode headlined a number of festivals including the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and the O2 Wireless Festival. In total, the band played to more than 2.8 million people across 31 countries and the tour was one of the highest grossing and critically acclaimed tours of 2005/06. Speaking about the tour, Gahan praised it as "probably the most enjoyable, rewarding live shows we've ever done. The new material was just waiting to be played live. It took on a life of its own. With the energy of the crowds, it just came to life." Two shows at Milan's Fila Forum were filmed and edited into a concert film, released on DVD as Touring the Angel: Live in Milan. A "best-of" compilation was released in November 2006, entitled The Best Of, Volume 1 featuring a new single "Martyr", an outtake from the Playing the Angel sessions. Later that month Depeche Mode received the MTV Europe Music Award in the Best Group category. In December 2006, iTunes released The Complete Depeche Mode as its fourth ever digital box-set. In August 2007, during promotion for Dave Gahan's second solo album, Hourglass, it was announced that Depeche Mode were heading back in studio in early 2008 to work on a new album. Sounds of the Universe (2008–2011) In May 2008, the band returned to the studio with producer Ben Hillier to work on some songs that Martin Gore had demoed at his home studio in Santa Barbara, California. Later that year it was announced that Depeche Mode were splitting from their long-term US label, Warner Music, and signing with EMI Music worldwide. The album was created in four sessions, two in New York and two in Santa Barbara. A total of 22 songs were recorded, with the standard album being 13 songs in length while many of the others were released in subsequent deluxe editions. In 2009, Depeche Mode allowed their likeness to be used in Valve's Left 4 Dead 2. On 15 January 2009, the official Depeche Mode website announced that the band's 12th studio album would be called Sounds of the Universe. The album was released in April 2009, also made available through an iTunes Pass, where the buyer received individual tracks in the weeks leading up to official release date. Andy Fletcher says the idea for their iTunes Pass was a combination of the band's and iTunes': "I think the digital and record companies are starting to get their act together. They were very lazy in the first 10 years when downloads came in. Now they're collaborating more and coming up with interesting ideas for fans to buy products." The album went to number one in 21 countries. Critical response was generally positive and it was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. "Wrong" was the first single from the album, released digitally in February 2009. Subsequent singles were "Peace" and the double A-side "Fragile Tension / Hole to Feed". In addition, "Perfect" was released as a promotional-only (non-commercial) single in the United States. On 23 April 2009, Depeche Mode performed for the television program Jimmy Kimmel Live! at the famed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, drawing more than 12,000 fans, which was the largest audience the program had seen since its 2003 premiere, with a performance by Coldplay. In May 2009, the band embarked on a concert tour in support of the album – called Tour of the Universe; it had been announced at a press conference in October 2008 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. There was a warm up show in Luxembourg and it officially started on 10 May 2009 in Tel Aviv. The first leg of the tour was disrupted when Dave Gahan was struck down with gastroenteritis. During treatment, doctors found and removed a low grade tumour from the singer's bladder. Gahan's illness caused 16 concerts to be cancelled, but several of the shows were rescheduled for 2010. The band headlined the Lollapalooza festival during the North American leg of the tour. The tour also took the band back to South America for the first time since 1994's Exotic Tour. During the final European leg, the band played a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, where former member Alan Wilder joined Martin Gore on stage for a performance of "Somebody". In total the band played to more than 2.7 million people across 32 countries and the tour was one of the most profitable in America in 2009. The concerts held at Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona, Spain were filmed and later released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc release entitled Tour of the Universe: Barcelona 20/21.11.09. In March 2010, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. On 6 June 2011, as the final commitment to their contract with EMI, the band released a remix compilation album, entitled Remixes 2: 81–11 that features remixes by former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder. Other remixers involved with the project were Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, Röyksopp, Karlsson & Winnberg of Miike Snow, Eric Prydz, Clark and more. A new remix of "Personal Jesus" by Stargate, entitled "Personal Jesus 2011", was released as a single on 30 May 2011, in support of the compilation. Depeche Mode contributed their cover of the U2 song "So Cruel" to the tribute album AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered honouring the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby, a 1991 album by U2. The compilation CD was released with the December 2011 issue of Q. Delta Machine (2012–2015) In October 2012 during a press conference in Paris, Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher announced plans for a new album and a 2013 worldwide tour starting from Tel Aviv and continuing in Europe and North America. Martin Gore revealed that Flood mixed the album, marking the producer's first studio collaboration with the band since 1993's Songs of Faith and Devotion. In December 2012, the band officially announced signing a worldwide deal with Columbia Records and releasing a new album in March 2013. On 24 January 2013, it was confirmed that the album was titled Delta Machine. "Heaven", the debut single from Delta Machine was released commercially on Friday 1 February 2013 (although not in the UK). The release date in the UK was pushed back to 18 March 2013 (17 March 2013 on iTunes). The physical release still bore the Mute Records logo, even though the band have now severed ties with their long standing label. Andy Fletcher mentioned in an interview this was due to their "devotion" to the label and with the band's insistence. In March, the band announced North American dates to its Delta Machine summer tour, starting 22 August from Detroit and ending 8 October in Phoenix. In June, other European dates were confirmed for early 2014. The final gig of Delta Machine Tour took place in Moscow (Russia) on 7 March 2014, at Olimpiski venue. That month, Depeche Mode won the award for "Best International Group – Rock / Pop" at the ECHO Awards in Germany. Also they were nominated at the category "Album des Jahres (national oder international)" for Delta Machine, but lost against Helene Fischer's Farbenspiel. On 8 October 2014, the band announced Live in Berlin, the new video and audio release filmed and recorded at the O2 World in Berlin, Germany in November 2013 during the Delta Machine Tour. It was released on 17 November 2014 worldwide. In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Violator, Martin Gore stated that Johnny Cash's cover of "Personal Jesus" is his favorite cover version of a Depeche Mode song. Spirit (2016–present) On 25 January 2016, Martin Gore announced a projected return to the recording studio in April, with both Gore and Gahan having already written and demoed new songs. In September, the official Depeche Mode Facebook page hinted at a new release, later confirmed by the band to be a music video compilation, Video Singles Collection, scheduled for release in November by Sony. In October 2016, the band announced that their fourteenth album, titled Spirit and produced by James Ford, would be released in spring 2017. "Where's the Revolution", the lead single from Spirit, was released 3 February 2017, along with its lyric video. The official video was published a week later, on 9 February. The Global Spirit Tour officially kicked off on 5 May 2017 with a performance in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Friends Arena. The first leg of the tour covered European countries only, ending with a final stadium show in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, at the Cluj Arena. The second leg of the tour covered North America and returned to Europe. The North America leg of the tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 23 August, at the USANA Amphitheatre. The band remained in North America until 15 November when they left for Dublin to resume the European leg. The band ended the tour in Europe with two sold-out shows on 23 and 25 July 2018 in Berlin, Germany, at the Waldbühne. In September 2019, the band announced that Spirits in the Forest, a documentary that was partially filmed during these shows, would be released in theatres for one night only, 21 November 2019. On 7 November 2020, the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Style and influences Original bandleader Clarke was responsible for transforming the fledgling Depeche Mode from a conventional rock outfit into an electronic music act. Clarke attributes his shift in musical ambitions to Wirral group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were also influential on Fletcher and Gore. Gore has named the electronic quartet Kraftwerk as a primary influence on the band, stating, "My dream was to combine the emotion of Neil Young or John Lennon transmitted by Kraftwerk's synthesizers. Soul music played by electronic instruments." Band members have also cited David Bowie, The Clash, Roxy Music and Brian Eno, Elvis Presley, the Velvet Underground, Fad Gadget, Suicide, and the blues. Depeche Mode were considered a teen pop band during their early period in the UK, and interviewed in teen pop magazines such as Smash Hits. Following the departure of Clarke, their music began to take on a darker tone, establishing a darker sound in the band's music, as Gore assumed lead songwriting duties. Gore's lyrics include themes such as sex, religion, and politics. Gore has stated he feels lyrical themes which tackle issues related to solitude and loneliness are a better representation of reality, whereas he finds "happy songs" fake and unrealistic. At the same time, he asserts that the band's music contains "an element of hope." Depeche Mode's music has mainly been described as synth-pop, new wave, electronic rock, dance-rock, alternative rock and pop rock. The band also experimented with various other genres throughout its career, including avant-garde, electronica, pop, soul, techno, industrial rock and heavy metal. Legacy Depeche Mode have released a total of 14 studio albums, 10 compilation albums, six live albums, eight box sets, 13 video albums, 71 music videos, and 54 singles. They have sold over 100 million records and played live to more than 30 million fans worldwide. The band has had 50 songs in the UK Singles Chart, and one US and two UK number-one albums. In addition, all of their studio albums have reached the UK Top 10 and their albums have spent over 210 weeks on the UK Charts. In 2006 music critic Sasha Frere-Jones claimed that "the last serious English influence was Depeche Mode, who seem more and more significant as time passes." Depeche Mode's releases have been nominated for five Grammy Awards: Devotional for Best Long Form Music Video; "I Feel Loved" and "Suffer Well", both for Best Dance Recording; Sounds of the Universe for Best Alternative Album; and "Wrong" for Best Short Form Music Video. In addition, Depeche Mode have been honoured with a Brit Award for "Enjoy the Silence" in the Best British Single category, the first-ever Q Innovation Award, and an Ivor Novello Award for Martin Gore in the category of International Achievement. Depeche Mode were called "the most popular electronic band the world has ever known" by Q, "one of the greatest British pop groups of all time" by The Sunday Telegraph, and "the quintessential eighties techno-pop band" by Rolling Stone and AllMusic. They were ranked No. 2 on Electronic Music Realm's list of The 100 Greatest Artists of Electronic Music, ranked No. 158 on Acclaimed Music's list of Top 1000 Artists of All Time and Q included them on their list of "50 bands that changed the world". In an interview in 2009, Simple Minds lead singer Jim Kerr argued that Depeche Mode and U2 were the only contemporaries of his band which could be said to have "stayed constantly relevant". Muse's Matt Bellamy said, "I can understand the association [with Muse], because they're a band that never really fitted in exactly with the music of their time. They had their own thing, their own style, own sound. I respect them very much." During Depeche Mode's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Coldplay's Chris Martin remarked, "sonically, they were and are about throwing away all the rulebooks." Arcade Fire's Win Butler added, "I feel like their music still sounds like it could come out 20 years from now. Depeche were able to take that spirit and spread it, which is really kind of a sacred responsibility." Influence Several major artists have cited the band as an influence, including: Arcade Fire, The Killers, Nine Inch Nails, Chvrches, The Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay, Muse, No Doubt, A Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Linkin Park, The Crystal Method, Fear Factory, La Roux, Gotye, Rammstein, a-ha, Tegan and Sara (on Sainthood) and Paul van Dyk. Depeche Mode contemporaries Pet Shop Boys and Gary Numan have also cited the band as an influence. Colombian singer Shakira described Enjoy The Silence as the song that first sparked her passion for pop music. The dark themes and moods of Depeche Mode's lyrics and music have been enjoyed by several heavy metal artists, and the band influenced acts such as Marilyn Manson and Deftones. They have also been named as an influence on Detroit techno and indie rock. Philanthropy Early in their career, Depeche Mode was dismissive of benefit concerts such as Live Aid. Gore himself stated, "If these bands really care so much, they should just donate the money and let that be it. Why can't they do it without all the surrounding hype?". Since 2010 the band has applied their celebrity and cultural longevity to help promote and raise funds for several notable charity endeavours. They lent their support to high-profile charities such as MusiCares, Cancer Research UK and the Teenage Cancer Trust. The band has also supported the Small Steps Project, a humanitarian organization based in the United Kingdom, aiming to assist economically disadvantaged children into education. They have partnered with Swiss watchmaker Hublot to support Charity: Water, aimed at the provision of clean drinking water in developing countries. Such collaboration led to the release of two different limited edition watches, the Hublot Big Bang Depeche Mode in 2017 and The Singles Limited Edition series based from the Big Bang model in 2018. The proceeds helped raise $1.7 million for Charity:Water. In 2014, the partnership hosted a gala and fundraiser at the TsUM building in Moscow, raising $1.4 million for the charity. Band members Current members Andy Fletcher– keyboards, backing vocals, bass guitar (1980–present) Martin Gore– keyboards, backing and lead vocals, guitars (1980–present) Dave Gahan– lead vocals (1980–present) Touring musicians Christian Eigner– drums, keyboards (1997–present) Peter Gordeno– keyboards, bass guitar, piano, backing vocals (1998–present) Former members Vince Clarke– keyboards, lead and backing vocals, guitars (1980–1981) Alan Wilder– keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1982–1995; one-off show in 2010) Timeline Discography Speak & Spell (1981) A Broken Frame (1982) Construction Time Again (1983) Some Great Reward (1984) Black Celebration (1986) Music for the Masses (1987) Violator (1990) Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993) Ultra (1997) Exciter (2001) Playing the Angel (2005) Sounds of the Universe (2009) Delta Machine (2013) Spirit (2017) Awards and nominations Tours 1980: Composition of Sound Tour 1981: New Life Tour 1981–82: Speak and Spell Tour 1982: See You Tour 1982–83: Broken Frame Tour 1983–84: Construction Time Again Tour 1984–85: Some Great Reward Tour 1986: Black Celebration Tour 1987–88: Music for the Masses Tour 1990: World Violation Tour 1993: Devotional Tour 1994: Exotic Tour/Summer Tour '94 1997: Ultra 1998: The Singles Tour 86>98 2001: Exciter Tour 2005–06: Touring the Angel 2009–10: Tour of the Universe 2013–14: The Delta Machine Tour 2017–18: Global Spirit Tour See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. alternative rock chart References Bibliography Further reading External links 1980 establishments in England Brit Award winners MTV Europe Music Award winners British musical trios British synth-pop new wave groups Columbia Records artists Dance-rock musical groups Electronic rock musical groups English alternative rock groups English new wave musical groups English synth-pop groups Musical groups established in 1980 Musical groups from Essex Mute Records artists Sire Records artists Reprise Records artists Virgin Records artists Hansa Records artists Sonet Records artists	false	[ "The discography of the American country music duo The Bellamy Brothers consists of 30 studio albums and 72 singles. The duo charted for the first time in 1976 with \"Let Your Love Flow\", a #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although they only charted one other Top 40 pop hit, they charted 26 Top Ten country hits.\n\nStudio albums\n\n1970s albums\n\n1980s albums\n\n1990s albums\n{\| class=\"wikitable plainrowheaders\" style=\"text-align:center;\"\n\|-\n! rowspan=\"2\" style=\"width:16em;\"\| Title\n! rowspan=\"2\" style=\"width:20em;\"\| Details\n! colspan=\"1\"\| Peak positions\n\|- style=\"font-size:smaller;\"\n! width=\"65\"\| US Country\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Reality Check\n\| \n Release date: 1990\n Label: MCA Records/Curb\n\| 71\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Rollin' Thunder\n\| \n Release date: 1991\n Label: Atlantic Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Neon Cowboy\n\| \n Release date: 1991\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Beggars and Heroes\n\| \n Release date: 1992\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Nobody's Perfect\n\| \n Release date: 1994\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Rip Off the Knob\n\| \n Release date: 1994\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Take Me Home\n\| \n Release date: 1994\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Sons of Beaches[B]\n\| \n Release date: 1995\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Tropical Christmas\n\| \n Release date: 1996\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Dancin\| \n Release date: 1996\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Over the Line\n\| \n Release date: 1997\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Reggae Cowboys\n\| \n Release date: 1998\n Label: Bellamy Brothers Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Live at Gilley's\n\| \n Release date: 1999\n Label: Atlantic Records\n\| —\n\|-\n! scope=\"row\"\| Lonely Planet\n\| \n Release date: 1999\n Label: Blue Hat Records\n\| —\n\|-\n\| colspan=\"3\" style=\"font-size:8pt\"\| \"—\" denotes releases that did not chart\n\|-\n\|}\n\n2000s albums\n\n2010s albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nSingles\n\n1970s singles\n\n1980s singles\n\n1990s singles\n\n2000s singles\n\n2010s singles\n\nOther singles\n\nGuest singles\n\nOther charted songs\n\nMusic videos\n\nNotes\n\nA ^ Let Your Love Flow was released in UK and Scandinavia in 1976, titled Bellamy Brothers featuring \"Let Your Love Flow\" (and Others), on the Warner Bros. Records/Curb/GS label.\nB ^''' Sons of Beaches was also released under the title Native American'' on the Jupiter label in 1995.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n[ The Bellamy Brothers chart history] at Allmusic\n\nDiscographies of American artists\nCountry music discographies", "The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. Their discography from 1961 to 1984 was originally released on the vinyl format, with the 1985 album The Beach Boys being the group's first CD release. The Beach Boys' catalogue has been released on reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, CD, MiniDisc, digital downloads, and various streaming services.\n\nThe group has released 29 studio albums, eight live albums, 55 compilation albums, 1 remix album, and 71 singles. The release dates and sequence of the Beach Boys' albums in the UK up to Pet Sounds differ significantly from the original US releases.\n\nStudio albums\n\nLive albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nRemix albums\n\nSingles\nListed below are Beach Boys A and B sides issued in the US. For Beach Boys singles not issued under the group name, EP tracks, featured tracks, and non-American A-sides, see other songs.\n\n1960s\n\n1970s\n\n1980–present\n\nBillboard Year-End performances\n\nOther songs associated with members of the group\n\nExtended plays\n Surfin' Safari (1963, SWE)\n Surfin' U.S.A. (1963, UK, FR, NZ)\n Shut Down Volume 2 (1963, US)\n Louie Louie (1964, FR)\n Beach Boys Concert (1964, UK)\n Fun, Fun, Fun (1964, UK, AUS) — #19 UK EPs\n Dance, Dance, Dance (1964, FR, ESP)\n 4-By The Beach Boys (1964, US, UK, POR) — #11 UK EPs\n Help Me, Rhonda (1965, POR, FR, ESP)\n Barbara Ann (1965, POR)\n Hits (1966, UK) — #1 UK EPs\n Then I Kissed Her (1966, POR)\n Sloop John B (1966, FR, ESP, POR)\n California Girls (1966, ESP)\n Wouldn't It Be Nice (1966, FR)\n God Only Knows (1966, UK) — #3 UK EPs\n Good Vibrations (1966, POR, SWE)\n Mountain Of Love (1967, ESP)\n White Christmas (1967, ESP)\n Wild Honey (1967, AUS) \n I Can Hear Music (1967, NZ)\n Cotton Fields (1970, BR)\n Sail On Sailor (1977, UK)\n 1969: I'm Going Your Way (2019)\n\nOther album appearances\n\nMusic videos\n\nSee also\nList of songs recorded by the Beach Boys\n\nNotes\n\nA Chart positions sourced from the 1972 re-release backed with Carl and the Passions — So Tough.\nB Chart positions are for the 1974 re-release of Wild Honey paired with 20/20.\nC Initially paired with a Pet Sounds re-release.\nD Chart position for the 1976 US release.\nE Canada's \"Surfin' U.S.A.\" peak position is taken from the 1974 re-release.\nF \"Marcella\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at No. 110 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nG American and Canadian chart positions are for the 1975 re-release.\n\nH \"Little Saint Nick\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Christmas Singles chart.\nI \"Why Do Fools Fall in Love\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at No. 120 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nJ \"She Knows Me too Well\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at No. 101 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.\nK \"The Man With All the Toys\" did not enter the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Christmas Singles chart.\nL \"Little Deuce Coupe\" (with James House) chart position No. 31 refers to the CAN Country chart.. The song did not chart on the main singles chart.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nExtended Beach Boys Discography\nThe Ones That Got Away – a guide to the Beach Boys' lost albums\nComprehensive American discography\nComprehensive British discography\n\nDiscography\nDiscographies of American artists\nPop music group discographies\nRock music group discographies" ]
[ "Steve Corino", "Retirement tour (2007)" ]	C_ca0853be1d2f4ee5a90537d2ae6c8d94_0	when did his retirement tour start?	1	When did Steve Corino's retirement tour start?	Steve Corino	After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. CANNOTANSWER	After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour	Steven Eugene Corino (born May 29, 1973) is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a trainer and producer for their developmental territory NXT. He is best known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring name Steve Corino. He is overall a three-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. Corino has held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, and the 1PW World Heavyweight Championship once each, and the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship and the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship twice each. In addition to these titles, he has also held the ROH World Tag Team Championship once, as well as numerous titles on the independent circuit. Professional wrestling career Early career (1994–1998) Corino began wrestling in 1994 and spent four years working on the independent circuit. During this time, he was a part of the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, a promotion run by Matt and Jeff Hardy. Corino began an anti-hardcore gimmick on the independent circuit, because he felt he would have more chance of getting work if he did not work hardcore matches. He gained experience, working in Puerto Rico for the WWC, working under the ring name Lightning Kid (which had been a gimmick previously used by Sean Waltman) and also made some appearances for the WWF as a jobber. Extreme Championship Wrestling (1998–2001) In 1998, Corino debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling as a heel manager. He stood out in ECW as a result of his "King of Old School" gimmick, where he would deride hardcore wrestlers, at one point invading a Limp Bizkit concert and protesting the immoral conduct. In late 1999, Corino took Jack Victory on as a manager, and became an advisor for Tajiri and Rhino. He then began feuding with Dusty Rhodes, who defeated him in a gory Bullrope match at Living Dangerously. At Heat Wave 2000, he lost to Jerry Lynn. Corino went on to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on November 5, 2000 at November to Remember by defeating Justin Credible, Sandman and Champion Jerry Lynn in a Double Jeopardy match; then to successfully defend it in December at Massacre on 34th Street (against Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible in a three way dance) and at Holiday Hell 2000 (against Justin Credible and The Sandman in a three way dance). Due to repeated failures of ECW paying Corino his salary, he left the company on January 7, 2001, the night he lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman at Guilty as Charged 2001. His friend Dustin Rhodes got him a contract in World Championship Wrestling, but he never got to make an appearance despite being due to debut at the company's third to last PPV Sin. When World Wrestling Entertainment took over WCW in March 2001, they released Corino from his contract. He went on to wrestle for many of the National Wrestling Alliance regional promotions. On April 24, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Independent circuit (2001–2006) Corino continued his feud with Rhodes in his Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion as well as Southern Championship Wrestling and was part of the Extreme Horsemen with C.W. Anderson and Barry Windham. He was also part of the Extreme Horsemen in Major League Wrestling with C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible and Simon Diamond. They were briefly managed by the legendary James J. Dillon before MLW folded. Also, Corino went on to win the MLW World Heavyweight Championship before the promotion was folded. In 2004 Corino made a number of appearances for Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, where he entered a short rivalry with Alex Shane. The feud culminated in the main event match of Hotwired, where Corino defeated Shane with the assistance of then FWA Heavyweight Champion, Doug Williams. As Steve Corino was a major part of ECW towards the end of its run, rumors swirled surrounding Corino possibly signing with World Wrestling Entertainment and returning to his ECW roots as a part of the new version of ECW, but he squashed those rumors in a posting on his LiveJournal. Instead of signing with WWE, Corino worked in various independent promotions, including Zero-One, Hustle in Japan, Ring of Honor in the United States and both One Pro Wrestling and Celtic Wrestling in the United Kingdom. He was also president of World-1 Fighting Arts, which runs shows in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002, 2003) Corino also worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during its early days. Corino had matches with Low Ki and many other stars before leaving the promotion some time later. Ring of Honor (2002–2006) Responding to a challenge from The Backseat Boyz, Homicide invited anyone in the locker room to be his partner. Steve Corino made his ROH debut and responded to his offer, resulting in the two facing the Backseat Boys later that night. In the course of the match, Corino turned on Homicide after Homicide accidentally hit him, Old School Kicking his partner and leaving the ring, enabling the Backseat Boyz to easily defeat Homicide. Homicide and Corino would then begin a four-year rivalry, with Corino criticizing Homicide's lifestyle and somewhat checkered past. The feud culminated in a match at the One Year Anniversary Show on February 8, 2003 in Queens, New York, New York. Homicide was the hometown favorite, but lost to Corino following interference from The Group (Samoa Joe, Michael Shane, C.W. Anderson and Simply Luscious), Corino's entourage. After the match, Corino applied a cobra clutch to Homicide, while the rest of The Group mocked New York City, instigating a worked riot. Corino and Homicide had a rematch August 16, 2003, at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies which saw Corino defeated. After twenty minutes of fighting which saw both men bleeding and carrying injuries, Homicide trapped Corino in a modified STF, prompting Corino's corner man, Guillotine LeGrande, to throw in the towel, awarding the match to Homicide. In the course of the match, Corino suffered a legitimate ruptured eardrum, and permanently lost most of the hearing in his left ear following a stiff slap to the side of the head from Homicide. Homicide has since stated in a shoot interview that he is not sorry for costing Corino his hearing, claiming Corino had been stiff with him the whole match. Homicide faced Corino for a third time on November 29, 2003, at War of the Wire in a barbed wire match. This time however, Julius Smokes threw in the towel for Homicide after Corino throttled him with a length of barbed wire. Corino offered Homicide a handshake after the match, indicating that he finally respected Homicide, but Homicide refused to shake his hand. On October 14, 2005, at Enter the Dragon, Corino returned to ROH in a tag team match that saw him team with Colt Cabana to defeat Low Ki and Homicide. On December 3 in New York City at Steel Cage Warfare, Homicide lost to Corino in a rematch from their feud of 2003 after Colt Cabana, under a mask, interfered in the match. During the match, Homicide separated his shoulder, but opted not to have surgery. As a result of his injury, Homicide was unable to compete at the following show, Final Battle 2005. He did show up, however, but with the intent on killing Steve Corino. Following Corino's match, Homicide ran down to the ring and attacked him. Colt Cabana ran down to the ring to save Corino, only to have Homicide pour Drano down his throat. He returned to ROH in August 2006 after a long absence, reigniting his feud with Homicide. The feud culminated on November 4 in Philadelphia, at The Bitter End when Homicide beat Corino in a Fight Without Honor. Although the two still hated each other, they shook hands after the match and Corino allowed Homicide to shave his head. Retirement tour (2007) After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. Return to the independent circuit (2008–2016) On the January 4, 2008, Corino won his third Zero1-Max United States Openweight Championship as Mr. Wrestling 3 (named after Mr. Wrestling I and II) by beating Ricky Landell in Valdosta, Georgia. He then lost the U.S. Title to SJK on March 8, 2008 at the Devil Bhudakahn Memorial Show in Munhall, Pennsylvania. He now wrestles as "Mr. Wrestling 3" Steve Corino without the mask, and sometimes as just Mr. Wrestling 3 with the mask. On July 24, 2008, Corino announced he would begin wrestling full-time again in his online blog. Corino plans to return to Japan where he has been the most successful. On July 19, 2008 Corino participated in the event WWC Anniversary but only to lose to Eugene. Later on September 20, 2008 he participated in the event Septiembre Negro where he defeated Sabu. Recently he is one of the members of a group called "La Familia", and is in a feud with BJ for the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. In this feud thanks to the beatings that lead disqualification by the members of "La Familia", Ray Gonzalez saved BJ and after that Steve Corino attacked Ray Gonzalez in the locker rooms and this began a feud for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship. On February 7, Steve Corino beat Ray Gonzalez to become WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion. On July 11 at Aniversario 2009 he lost the title to BJ. On June 26, 2010- Corino was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling "Hall of Fame" by Jack Blaze in Wheeling, West Virginia at their annual "LPW Rumble in the Valley" event. Since August 2010, Corino has made appearances in Germany for German Stampede Wrestling. On April 23, 2011, Corino returned to WWC and defeated Carlito, Gilbert and Shane the Glamour Boy in a gauntlet match to win the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He would lose the title to Carlito on June 4, 2011. On January 28, 2012, Steve Corino, billed as the "King of Old School", defeated Vordell Walker with assistance by Jillian Hall and the "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas in Orlando, Florida to become the PWX (Pro Wrestling Extreme) Heavyweight Champion. Corino, although bloodied, successfully defended his title against Tommy "Wildfire" Rich on April 28, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. On December 28, 2012, Steve Corino made his appearance for an ECW "revival" company as he appeared for Extreme Rising as the "mystery challenger" for Stevie Richards' Extreme Rising World Championship, where he was defeated by submission. In September 2014, Steve Corino defeated Doug Williams for the WAW World Heavyweight Championship in England which he would then defend in the USA in 2014 and 2015 against Curt Robinson and Joe Black. On May 9, 2015, Steve Corino made an appearance at TWE in Red Bank, Chattanooga against Ray Fury, where he was defeated. On May 22, 2015, Steve Corino became the PWF World-1 Heavyweight Champion defeating Jagger, Emmanuel Ortega and former teammate CW Anderson in a Fatal Four-Way. On March 6, 2016, Corino, along with CW Anderson, returned to Zero1 to take part in the promotion's 15th anniversary event. Return to ROH (2009–2016) On the December 7 edition of Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet, a video was shown hyping Corino's return to the company. During early 2010, Corino formed a partnership with Kevin Steen and together the two of them started a feud with Steen's former tag team partner El Generico and Colt Cabana. On April 3, 2010, Corino made his ROH pay-per-view debut at The Big Bang!, where he and Steen were defeated by El Generico and Cabana via disqualification, when Steen used a chair on his former partner. On September 11 at Glory By Honor IX Generico and Cabana defeated Steen and Corino in a Double Chain match, when Cabana forced Corino to tap out. On October 16, 2010, Cabana defeated Corino in an "I Quit" match to end their feud. Following Steen's departure from Ring of Honor after December's Final Battle 2010, Corino proclaimed himself a changed man and turned babyface. Corino began feuding with Mike Bennett, and the two faced each other at Manhattan Mayhem IV on March 19, with Bennett picking up the victory. On May 21 at Supercard of Honor VI, Corino revealed the returning Jimmy Jacobs as the sponsor, who had helped him change his ways. Kevin Steen returned to ROH on June 26 at Best in the World 2011, seemingly wanting redemption as well. However, after saving Corino from the House of Truth, Steen turned on him and Jacobs, before being dragged out of the arena. On December 23 at Final Battle 2011, with Jimmy Jacobs as the special guest referee in a No Disqualification match, Kevin Steen defeated his former mentor, Corino, to be reinstated in ROH. Corino later returned to ROH on May 12, 2012, when he formed the S.C.U.M. (Suffering, Chaos, Ugliness, and Mayhem) stable with Steen and Jacobs. On September 15 at Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency, Corino and Jacobs defeated Charlie Haas and Rhett Titus in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) on December 16 at Final Battle 2012: Doomsday in a three-way match, which also included the team of Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander. On April 6, 2013, Corino became the new leader of S.C.U.M., when the stable turned on Kevin Steen, after he had lost the ROH World Championship. On June 23, S.C.U.M. was forced to disband, after being defeated by Team ROH in a Steel Cage Warfare match. Since the dissolution of S.C.U.M., Corino has been working with ROH as their regular color commentator alongside play-by-play commentator Kevin Kelly and occasionally Nigel McGuinness while simultaneously having a running feud with B.J. Whitmer and The Decade. The rivalry has included Whitmer goading Corino to join The Decade, with Corino refusing, but Whitmer wasn't talking about Steve but his real-life son Colby and successfully recruiting him into The Decade. During his feud, McGuinness warned Corino that he can't attack any ROH employee or he will be suspended. After attacking Whitmer with a roll of quarters, McGuinness suspended and banned him from commentary, but then, he was reinstated as a wrestler and was scheduled to fight Whitmer in a Fight without Honor at Final Battle, but Corino announced that he was gonna have neck surgery and that his career may end. He continued to commentary with a mask under the name of Mr. Wrestling 3. Even he was taking that gimmick, Whitmer was saying that Mr. Wrestling 3 was indeed Steve Corino and was convincing Colby, that Corino replaced him for Corino's new wife and son, and Whitmer continued torturing Colby in front of Corino's eyes. At War of the Worlds, Corino returned as the Steve Corino character, admitting that he didn't want to be the "Evil Man" anymore, but after Whitmer's deeds, he promised that at the newly reinstated match that will happen at Best in the World 2016, he will do things that he will never apologize for. At Best in the World, Corino faced Whitmer in a Non-Sanctioned Fight without Honor, but he lost after the interference of Kevin Sullivan. After Best in the World, Corino returned to commentating, but during Whitmer's matches, he was continuously berated by Sullivan. At the Final Battle event, Cody, who defeated Jay Lethal, proceeded to cause chaos in the ring and then he pushed Corino. The night at the event, Whitmer said that a "brother" has to be sacrificed, which was revealed that Corino was about to fight Cody, who berated Corino's actions with Dusty Rhodes. In their match, Corino lost to Cody, which was Corino's last match in ROH. Corino's ROH contract expired on December 31, 2016. WWE (2016–present) In November 2016, Corino worked as a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that he had signed to become a full-time trainer for WWE, starting January 2017. On January 12, 2017, it was confirmed that Corino was now working for WWE. According to Pro Wrestling Torch in September 2017, Corino teaches the advanced class at the WWE Performance Center, the third of four levels of classes. In November 2018, it was revealed through a leaked script of NXT Takeover WarGames that same month that Corino is currently working with NXT as a producer as he was credited for the NXT Championship match between champion Tommaso Ciampa and The Velveteen Dream for a role as a producer for that particular match. Personal life Corino is the older brother of retired independent wrestler Allison Danger, and has a half-brother whose first name is also Steven. Corino married Nicole Holmstock on June 14, 1997. Together they have a son, named Colby (born August 28, 1996), and is a professional wrestler. Corino and Nicole divorced in 2003. On November 12, 2005, Steve Corino got engaged to his Finnish girlfriend Saana-Maria Huhtimo. They were married on May 12, 2006 in North Carolina. However, the couple separated in mid-2008, divorcing the following year. Corino married Jordan Pennypacker in 2013, and had their first child together, a son named Beckham, or "Becks" for short. Corino has repeatedly stated that his favorite old school wrestlers are Tommy Rich and Tully Blanchard. Corino has said that his favorite match while in ECW was the infamous Texas Bullrope Match against Dusty Rhodes at Living Dangerously 2000. Corino hosts the Extreme Odd Couple podcast with Rob Dimension, where they talk about professional wrestling and their personal lives. Championships and accomplishments Absolute Intense Wrestling AIW Absolute Championship (1 time) ACE Pro Wrestling ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) All Action Wrestling AAW Australian Championship (1 time) American Championship Entertainment ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) American Wrestling Council AWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time, final) AWA Superstars of Wrestling AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ricky Landell Appalachia Pro Wrestling APW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Blue Water Championship Wrestling BWCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brew City Wrestling BCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brookwood 4 Wrestling B4W North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times) B4W Hardcore Championship (1 time) B4W Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Shocker of the Year Award (2007) Carolina Wrestling Association CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) East Coast Wrestling Association ECWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Lance Diamond Eastern Shores Wrestling ESW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Extreme Championship Wrestling ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Funking Conservatory FC !BANG! Television Championship (1 time) FC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Windsor German Stampede Wrestling GSW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times) Four Nations Cup (2005) Hawai'i Championship Wrestling HCW Kekaulike Heritage Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mr. Wrestling II High Volume Pro Wrestling HVPW Hall of Fame (2016) High Risk Pro Wrestling HRPW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IWA Championship Wrestling IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Independent Wrestling Federation IWF American Championship (2 times) Independent Pro Wrestling Alliance IPWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IPWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash IPWA Light Heavyweight Title Tournament (1997) Intercontinental Wrestling Association IWA-PA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) International High Powered Wrestling IHPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Wrestling KYDA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) Legends Pro Wrestling LPW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Major League Wrestling MLW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Maryland Championship Wrestling MCW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship (3 times) MEWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Jimmy Cicero Most Hated Wrestler Achievement Award (1996) NWA 2000 NWA American Heritage Championship (1 time) NWA 2000 Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA American Heritage Title Tournament (1997) NWA Florida NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time) NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Heartland States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Florida Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA New Jersey NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA United States Tag Team Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) – with Lance Diamond NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) NWA New Jersey / New York NWA New Jersey / New York Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Midwest NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship / Zero1 Pro Wrestling USA Midwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southwest NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time) One Pro Wrestling 1PW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts OMEGA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling PCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Wrestling Alliance PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Platinum Pro Wrestling PPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Championship Wrestling PCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Knight PCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Wrestling Federation PWF Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with C.W. Anderson (3) and Kid America (1) PWF Universal Six Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler PWF Universal Heavyweight Championship (6 times) PWF Mid-Atlantic Masters Championship (1 time) PWF Universal Six Man Title Tournament (2016) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler Match of the Year (2002, 2005, 2014, 2021) PWF MVP (2003) Tag Team of the Year (2005) - with C.W. Anderson Pro-Wrestling SUN WBD Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Toshie Uematsu PWF Northeast PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Extreme PWX Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #35 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2001 PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2000) Pro Wrestling World-1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) PWF World-1 Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World-1 North American Champion (1 time) World-1 Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with C.W. Anderson (1) and Colby Corino (1) Pro Wrestling Zero1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Mike Rapada (1), C.W. Anderson (1), Y2P-160kg (1), and Charles Evans (1) Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship (4 times) Pure Wrestling Association PWA Pure Wrestling Championship (1 time) Carrot Cup (2008) - with Reggie Marley Ring of Honor ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Jacobs ROH World Tag Team Championship Tournament (2012) – with Jimmy Jacobs Southern Championship Wrestling SCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Tri-State Wrestling Alliance TWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers UIPW Union Heavyweight Championship (1 time) UNION Heavyweight Title Tournament (2007) United States Championship Wrestling USCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash USA Xtreme Wrestling UXW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World Association of Wrestling WAW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Wrestling Council WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Américas Wrestling Federation AWF Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (1 time) References External links World of Corino (Official Website) 1973 births American male professional wrestlers American men podcasters American podcasters Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian male professional wrestlers Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian men podcasters Canadian podcasters ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions Living people Masked wrestlers NWA World Heavyweight Champions People from Sea Isle City, New Jersey Professional wrestlers from Manitoba Professional wrestling managers and valets Professional wrestling promoters Professional wrestling trainers Sportspeople from Philadelphia Sportspeople from Winnipeg People from Emerald Isle, North Carolina	true	[ "For the 1973 Tour de France, the winner of the previous four editions, Eddy Merckx had changed sponsors to the Italian Molteni. His contract said that he had to start in the 1973 Vuelta a España and the 1973 Giro d'Italia, and Merckx thought it was impossible to start in three grand tours in one year, so he stayed away from the Tour. Ocana, who was in great shape, was now the main favourite, with Fuente, Poulidor and Thevenet as his biggest threats. However, Ocana was not the clear favorite; he had already crashed out of the Tour three times, and he was seen as fragile. Zoetemelk had changed teams, because he did not have the full support of his team leader.\n\nThe Italian teams did not join the 1973 Tour de France, because no top French cyclist joined the 1973 Giro d'Italia. This meant that world champion Marino Basso and former Tour winner Felice Gimondi were absent.\nThe Tour started with the following 12 teams, each with 11 cyclists:\n\nStart list\n\nBy team\n\nBy rider\n\nBy nationality\n\nReferences\n\n1973 Tour de France\n1973", "The 1974 Tour de France had 13 teams, with 10 cyclists each:\n\nMerckx, who had been absent in 1973 after winning four Tours in a row, was present again. Merckx had not been as dominant in the spring as in other years; it was his first year as a professional cyclist in which he did not win a spring classic. He did win the 1974 Giro d'Italia and the Tour de Suisse, but after winning the latter he required surgery on the perineum, five days before the 1974 Tour started.\n\nNotable absents were Ocana and Zoetemelk. Zoetemelk was injured during the Midi Libre and was in hospital with life-threatening meningitis. Ocana had crashed in the Tour de l'Aude, gone home and was fired by his team for not communicating. Bernard Thevenet, who was considered a potential winner, had crashed several times in the 1974 Vuelta a España. He did start in the Tour, but was not yet back at his former level.\n\nStart list\n\nBy team\n\nBy rider\n\nBy nationality\n\nReferences\n\n1974 Tour de France\n1974" ]
[ "Steve Corino", "Retirement tour (2007)", "when did his retirement tour start?", "After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour" ]	C_ca0853be1d2f4ee5a90537d2ae6c8d94_0	what did his tour consists of	2	What did Steve Corino's tour consists of?	Steve Corino	After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. CANNOTANSWER	traveled to various federations as a part of the tour.	Steven Eugene Corino (born May 29, 1973) is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a trainer and producer for their developmental territory NXT. He is best known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring name Steve Corino. He is overall a three-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. Corino has held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, and the 1PW World Heavyweight Championship once each, and the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship and the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship twice each. In addition to these titles, he has also held the ROH World Tag Team Championship once, as well as numerous titles on the independent circuit. Professional wrestling career Early career (1994–1998) Corino began wrestling in 1994 and spent four years working on the independent circuit. During this time, he was a part of the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, a promotion run by Matt and Jeff Hardy. Corino began an anti-hardcore gimmick on the independent circuit, because he felt he would have more chance of getting work if he did not work hardcore matches. He gained experience, working in Puerto Rico for the WWC, working under the ring name Lightning Kid (which had been a gimmick previously used by Sean Waltman) and also made some appearances for the WWF as a jobber. Extreme Championship Wrestling (1998–2001) In 1998, Corino debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling as a heel manager. He stood out in ECW as a result of his "King of Old School" gimmick, where he would deride hardcore wrestlers, at one point invading a Limp Bizkit concert and protesting the immoral conduct. In late 1999, Corino took Jack Victory on as a manager, and became an advisor for Tajiri and Rhino. He then began feuding with Dusty Rhodes, who defeated him in a gory Bullrope match at Living Dangerously. At Heat Wave 2000, he lost to Jerry Lynn. Corino went on to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on November 5, 2000 at November to Remember by defeating Justin Credible, Sandman and Champion Jerry Lynn in a Double Jeopardy match; then to successfully defend it in December at Massacre on 34th Street (against Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible in a three way dance) and at Holiday Hell 2000 (against Justin Credible and The Sandman in a three way dance). Due to repeated failures of ECW paying Corino his salary, he left the company on January 7, 2001, the night he lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman at Guilty as Charged 2001. His friend Dustin Rhodes got him a contract in World Championship Wrestling, but he never got to make an appearance despite being due to debut at the company's third to last PPV Sin. When World Wrestling Entertainment took over WCW in March 2001, they released Corino from his contract. He went on to wrestle for many of the National Wrestling Alliance regional promotions. On April 24, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Independent circuit (2001–2006) Corino continued his feud with Rhodes in his Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion as well as Southern Championship Wrestling and was part of the Extreme Horsemen with C.W. Anderson and Barry Windham. He was also part of the Extreme Horsemen in Major League Wrestling with C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible and Simon Diamond. They were briefly managed by the legendary James J. Dillon before MLW folded. Also, Corino went on to win the MLW World Heavyweight Championship before the promotion was folded. In 2004 Corino made a number of appearances for Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, where he entered a short rivalry with Alex Shane. The feud culminated in the main event match of Hotwired, where Corino defeated Shane with the assistance of then FWA Heavyweight Champion, Doug Williams. As Steve Corino was a major part of ECW towards the end of its run, rumors swirled surrounding Corino possibly signing with World Wrestling Entertainment and returning to his ECW roots as a part of the new version of ECW, but he squashed those rumors in a posting on his LiveJournal. Instead of signing with WWE, Corino worked in various independent promotions, including Zero-One, Hustle in Japan, Ring of Honor in the United States and both One Pro Wrestling and Celtic Wrestling in the United Kingdom. He was also president of World-1 Fighting Arts, which runs shows in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002, 2003) Corino also worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during its early days. Corino had matches with Low Ki and many other stars before leaving the promotion some time later. Ring of Honor (2002–2006) Responding to a challenge from The Backseat Boyz, Homicide invited anyone in the locker room to be his partner. Steve Corino made his ROH debut and responded to his offer, resulting in the two facing the Backseat Boys later that night. In the course of the match, Corino turned on Homicide after Homicide accidentally hit him, Old School Kicking his partner and leaving the ring, enabling the Backseat Boyz to easily defeat Homicide. Homicide and Corino would then begin a four-year rivalry, with Corino criticizing Homicide's lifestyle and somewhat checkered past. The feud culminated in a match at the One Year Anniversary Show on February 8, 2003 in Queens, New York, New York. Homicide was the hometown favorite, but lost to Corino following interference from The Group (Samoa Joe, Michael Shane, C.W. Anderson and Simply Luscious), Corino's entourage. After the match, Corino applied a cobra clutch to Homicide, while the rest of The Group mocked New York City, instigating a worked riot. Corino and Homicide had a rematch August 16, 2003, at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies which saw Corino defeated. After twenty minutes of fighting which saw both men bleeding and carrying injuries, Homicide trapped Corino in a modified STF, prompting Corino's corner man, Guillotine LeGrande, to throw in the towel, awarding the match to Homicide. In the course of the match, Corino suffered a legitimate ruptured eardrum, and permanently lost most of the hearing in his left ear following a stiff slap to the side of the head from Homicide. Homicide has since stated in a shoot interview that he is not sorry for costing Corino his hearing, claiming Corino had been stiff with him the whole match. Homicide faced Corino for a third time on November 29, 2003, at War of the Wire in a barbed wire match. This time however, Julius Smokes threw in the towel for Homicide after Corino throttled him with a length of barbed wire. Corino offered Homicide a handshake after the match, indicating that he finally respected Homicide, but Homicide refused to shake his hand. On October 14, 2005, at Enter the Dragon, Corino returned to ROH in a tag team match that saw him team with Colt Cabana to defeat Low Ki and Homicide. On December 3 in New York City at Steel Cage Warfare, Homicide lost to Corino in a rematch from their feud of 2003 after Colt Cabana, under a mask, interfered in the match. During the match, Homicide separated his shoulder, but opted not to have surgery. As a result of his injury, Homicide was unable to compete at the following show, Final Battle 2005. He did show up, however, but with the intent on killing Steve Corino. Following Corino's match, Homicide ran down to the ring and attacked him. Colt Cabana ran down to the ring to save Corino, only to have Homicide pour Drano down his throat. He returned to ROH in August 2006 after a long absence, reigniting his feud with Homicide. The feud culminated on November 4 in Philadelphia, at The Bitter End when Homicide beat Corino in a Fight Without Honor. Although the two still hated each other, they shook hands after the match and Corino allowed Homicide to shave his head. Retirement tour (2007) After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. Return to the independent circuit (2008–2016) On the January 4, 2008, Corino won his third Zero1-Max United States Openweight Championship as Mr. Wrestling 3 (named after Mr. Wrestling I and II) by beating Ricky Landell in Valdosta, Georgia. He then lost the U.S. Title to SJK on March 8, 2008 at the Devil Bhudakahn Memorial Show in Munhall, Pennsylvania. He now wrestles as "Mr. Wrestling 3" Steve Corino without the mask, and sometimes as just Mr. Wrestling 3 with the mask. On July 24, 2008, Corino announced he would begin wrestling full-time again in his online blog. Corino plans to return to Japan where he has been the most successful. On July 19, 2008 Corino participated in the event WWC Anniversary but only to lose to Eugene. Later on September 20, 2008 he participated in the event Septiembre Negro where he defeated Sabu. Recently he is one of the members of a group called "La Familia", and is in a feud with BJ for the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. In this feud thanks to the beatings that lead disqualification by the members of "La Familia", Ray Gonzalez saved BJ and after that Steve Corino attacked Ray Gonzalez in the locker rooms and this began a feud for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship. On February 7, Steve Corino beat Ray Gonzalez to become WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion. On July 11 at Aniversario 2009 he lost the title to BJ. On June 26, 2010- Corino was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling "Hall of Fame" by Jack Blaze in Wheeling, West Virginia at their annual "LPW Rumble in the Valley" event. Since August 2010, Corino has made appearances in Germany for German Stampede Wrestling. On April 23, 2011, Corino returned to WWC and defeated Carlito, Gilbert and Shane the Glamour Boy in a gauntlet match to win the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He would lose the title to Carlito on June 4, 2011. On January 28, 2012, Steve Corino, billed as the "King of Old School", defeated Vordell Walker with assistance by Jillian Hall and the "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas in Orlando, Florida to become the PWX (Pro Wrestling Extreme) Heavyweight Champion. Corino, although bloodied, successfully defended his title against Tommy "Wildfire" Rich on April 28, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. On December 28, 2012, Steve Corino made his appearance for an ECW "revival" company as he appeared for Extreme Rising as the "mystery challenger" for Stevie Richards' Extreme Rising World Championship, where he was defeated by submission. In September 2014, Steve Corino defeated Doug Williams for the WAW World Heavyweight Championship in England which he would then defend in the USA in 2014 and 2015 against Curt Robinson and Joe Black. On May 9, 2015, Steve Corino made an appearance at TWE in Red Bank, Chattanooga against Ray Fury, where he was defeated. On May 22, 2015, Steve Corino became the PWF World-1 Heavyweight Champion defeating Jagger, Emmanuel Ortega and former teammate CW Anderson in a Fatal Four-Way. On March 6, 2016, Corino, along with CW Anderson, returned to Zero1 to take part in the promotion's 15th anniversary event. Return to ROH (2009–2016) On the December 7 edition of Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet, a video was shown hyping Corino's return to the company. During early 2010, Corino formed a partnership with Kevin Steen and together the two of them started a feud with Steen's former tag team partner El Generico and Colt Cabana. On April 3, 2010, Corino made his ROH pay-per-view debut at The Big Bang!, where he and Steen were defeated by El Generico and Cabana via disqualification, when Steen used a chair on his former partner. On September 11 at Glory By Honor IX Generico and Cabana defeated Steen and Corino in a Double Chain match, when Cabana forced Corino to tap out. On October 16, 2010, Cabana defeated Corino in an "I Quit" match to end their feud. Following Steen's departure from Ring of Honor after December's Final Battle 2010, Corino proclaimed himself a changed man and turned babyface. Corino began feuding with Mike Bennett, and the two faced each other at Manhattan Mayhem IV on March 19, with Bennett picking up the victory. On May 21 at Supercard of Honor VI, Corino revealed the returning Jimmy Jacobs as the sponsor, who had helped him change his ways. Kevin Steen returned to ROH on June 26 at Best in the World 2011, seemingly wanting redemption as well. However, after saving Corino from the House of Truth, Steen turned on him and Jacobs, before being dragged out of the arena. On December 23 at Final Battle 2011, with Jimmy Jacobs as the special guest referee in a No Disqualification match, Kevin Steen defeated his former mentor, Corino, to be reinstated in ROH. Corino later returned to ROH on May 12, 2012, when he formed the S.C.U.M. (Suffering, Chaos, Ugliness, and Mayhem) stable with Steen and Jacobs. On September 15 at Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency, Corino and Jacobs defeated Charlie Haas and Rhett Titus in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) on December 16 at Final Battle 2012: Doomsday in a three-way match, which also included the team of Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander. On April 6, 2013, Corino became the new leader of S.C.U.M., when the stable turned on Kevin Steen, after he had lost the ROH World Championship. On June 23, S.C.U.M. was forced to disband, after being defeated by Team ROH in a Steel Cage Warfare match. Since the dissolution of S.C.U.M., Corino has been working with ROH as their regular color commentator alongside play-by-play commentator Kevin Kelly and occasionally Nigel McGuinness while simultaneously having a running feud with B.J. Whitmer and The Decade. The rivalry has included Whitmer goading Corino to join The Decade, with Corino refusing, but Whitmer wasn't talking about Steve but his real-life son Colby and successfully recruiting him into The Decade. During his feud, McGuinness warned Corino that he can't attack any ROH employee or he will be suspended. After attacking Whitmer with a roll of quarters, McGuinness suspended and banned him from commentary, but then, he was reinstated as a wrestler and was scheduled to fight Whitmer in a Fight without Honor at Final Battle, but Corino announced that he was gonna have neck surgery and that his career may end. He continued to commentary with a mask under the name of Mr. Wrestling 3. Even he was taking that gimmick, Whitmer was saying that Mr. Wrestling 3 was indeed Steve Corino and was convincing Colby, that Corino replaced him for Corino's new wife and son, and Whitmer continued torturing Colby in front of Corino's eyes. At War of the Worlds, Corino returned as the Steve Corino character, admitting that he didn't want to be the "Evil Man" anymore, but after Whitmer's deeds, he promised that at the newly reinstated match that will happen at Best in the World 2016, he will do things that he will never apologize for. At Best in the World, Corino faced Whitmer in a Non-Sanctioned Fight without Honor, but he lost after the interference of Kevin Sullivan. After Best in the World, Corino returned to commentating, but during Whitmer's matches, he was continuously berated by Sullivan. At the Final Battle event, Cody, who defeated Jay Lethal, proceeded to cause chaos in the ring and then he pushed Corino. The night at the event, Whitmer said that a "brother" has to be sacrificed, which was revealed that Corino was about to fight Cody, who berated Corino's actions with Dusty Rhodes. In their match, Corino lost to Cody, which was Corino's last match in ROH. Corino's ROH contract expired on December 31, 2016. WWE (2016–present) In November 2016, Corino worked as a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that he had signed to become a full-time trainer for WWE, starting January 2017. On January 12, 2017, it was confirmed that Corino was now working for WWE. According to Pro Wrestling Torch in September 2017, Corino teaches the advanced class at the WWE Performance Center, the third of four levels of classes. In November 2018, it was revealed through a leaked script of NXT Takeover WarGames that same month that Corino is currently working with NXT as a producer as he was credited for the NXT Championship match between champion Tommaso Ciampa and The Velveteen Dream for a role as a producer for that particular match. Personal life Corino is the older brother of retired independent wrestler Allison Danger, and has a half-brother whose first name is also Steven. Corino married Nicole Holmstock on June 14, 1997. Together they have a son, named Colby (born August 28, 1996), and is a professional wrestler. Corino and Nicole divorced in 2003. On November 12, 2005, Steve Corino got engaged to his Finnish girlfriend Saana-Maria Huhtimo. They were married on May 12, 2006 in North Carolina. However, the couple separated in mid-2008, divorcing the following year. Corino married Jordan Pennypacker in 2013, and had their first child together, a son named Beckham, or "Becks" for short. Corino has repeatedly stated that his favorite old school wrestlers are Tommy Rich and Tully Blanchard. Corino has said that his favorite match while in ECW was the infamous Texas Bullrope Match against Dusty Rhodes at Living Dangerously 2000. Corino hosts the Extreme Odd Couple podcast with Rob Dimension, where they talk about professional wrestling and their personal lives. Championships and accomplishments Absolute Intense Wrestling AIW Absolute Championship (1 time) ACE Pro Wrestling ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) All Action Wrestling AAW Australian Championship (1 time) American Championship Entertainment ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) American Wrestling Council AWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time, final) AWA Superstars of Wrestling AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ricky Landell Appalachia Pro Wrestling APW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Blue Water Championship Wrestling BWCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brew City Wrestling BCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brookwood 4 Wrestling B4W North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times) B4W Hardcore Championship (1 time) B4W Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Shocker of the Year Award (2007) Carolina Wrestling Association CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) East Coast Wrestling Association ECWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Lance Diamond Eastern Shores Wrestling ESW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Extreme Championship Wrestling ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Funking Conservatory FC !BANG! Television Championship (1 time) FC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Windsor German Stampede Wrestling GSW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times) Four Nations Cup (2005) Hawai'i Championship Wrestling HCW Kekaulike Heritage Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mr. Wrestling II High Volume Pro Wrestling HVPW Hall of Fame (2016) High Risk Pro Wrestling HRPW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IWA Championship Wrestling IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Independent Wrestling Federation IWF American Championship (2 times) Independent Pro Wrestling Alliance IPWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IPWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash IPWA Light Heavyweight Title Tournament (1997) Intercontinental Wrestling Association IWA-PA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) International High Powered Wrestling IHPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Wrestling KYDA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) Legends Pro Wrestling LPW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Major League Wrestling MLW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Maryland Championship Wrestling MCW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship (3 times) MEWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Jimmy Cicero Most Hated Wrestler Achievement Award (1996) NWA 2000 NWA American Heritage Championship (1 time) NWA 2000 Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA American Heritage Title Tournament (1997) NWA Florida NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time) NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Heartland States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Florida Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA New Jersey NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA United States Tag Team Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) – with Lance Diamond NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) NWA New Jersey / New York NWA New Jersey / New York Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Midwest NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship / Zero1 Pro Wrestling USA Midwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southwest NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time) One Pro Wrestling 1PW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts OMEGA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling PCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Wrestling Alliance PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Platinum Pro Wrestling PPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Championship Wrestling PCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Knight PCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Wrestling Federation PWF Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with C.W. Anderson (3) and Kid America (1) PWF Universal Six Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler PWF Universal Heavyweight Championship (6 times) PWF Mid-Atlantic Masters Championship (1 time) PWF Universal Six Man Title Tournament (2016) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler Match of the Year (2002, 2005, 2014, 2021) PWF MVP (2003) Tag Team of the Year (2005) - with C.W. Anderson Pro-Wrestling SUN WBD Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Toshie Uematsu PWF Northeast PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Extreme PWX Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #35 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2001 PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2000) Pro Wrestling World-1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) PWF World-1 Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World-1 North American Champion (1 time) World-1 Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with C.W. Anderson (1) and Colby Corino (1) Pro Wrestling Zero1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Mike Rapada (1), C.W. Anderson (1), Y2P-160kg (1), and Charles Evans (1) Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship (4 times) Pure Wrestling Association PWA Pure Wrestling Championship (1 time) Carrot Cup (2008) - with Reggie Marley Ring of Honor ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Jacobs ROH World Tag Team Championship Tournament (2012) – with Jimmy Jacobs Southern Championship Wrestling SCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Tri-State Wrestling Alliance TWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers UIPW Union Heavyweight Championship (1 time) UNION Heavyweight Title Tournament (2007) United States Championship Wrestling USCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash USA Xtreme Wrestling UXW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World Association of Wrestling WAW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Wrestling Council WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Américas Wrestling Federation AWF Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (1 time) References External links World of Corino (Official Website) 1973 births American male professional wrestlers American men podcasters American podcasters Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian male professional wrestlers Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian men podcasters Canadian podcasters ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions Living people Masked wrestlers NWA World Heavyweight Champions People from Sea Isle City, New Jersey Professional wrestlers from Manitoba Professional wrestling managers and valets Professional wrestling promoters Professional wrestling trainers Sportspeople from Philadelphia Sportspeople from Winnipeg People from Emerald Isle, North Carolina	true	[ "The Image: Volume 1 is a book commemorating the 10th year of Bae Yong-joon's career as an actor. On his tour of Japan between November 25 and November 29, 2004, Bae officially launched his book.\n\nThe book is a collection of photographs, divided into two booklets. Secret Hysteria consists of images of his body, built by months of weight-training and strict diet. The Traveller consists of his travel photos: swimming and cooking at the resort, walking in the streets of Phuket and Ipoh. The collection also includes an exclusive 62-minute DVD about the making of the photo-book and an interview of the actor about the project and his tour to the Southeast Asian countries.\n\nReferences \n Bae's interview on The Image in Japan\n YesAsia.com\n\nBiographies about actors", "Dylan & the Dead is a collaborative live album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, released on February 6, 1989, by Columbia Records. The album consists of seven songs written and sung by Dylan, with the Grateful Dead providing accompaniment. The album was produced by Jerry Garcia and John Cutler.\n\nDylan & the Dead was recorded in 1987, during a successful stadium tour of the same name, that featured the two artists performing separately and together. Songs from two of the Grateful Dead's performances from the tour are documented on the album and video View from the Vault IV, and one of the tour-rehearsal songs is on the album Postcards of the Hanging.\n\nThough ultimately poorly received, the album initially sold well, reaching on the Billboard charts in the U.S., in the UK, and earning a Gold certification in the U.S.\n\nIn 1992, a bootleg of the first concert of the tour was released under the title \"Orbiting Uvula\". It includes the first-ever live performance of \"Queen Jane Approximately\", the first live performance of \"John Brown\" since 1963, and the first live performance of \"Chimes of Freedom\" since 1964.\n\nReception\n{{Album ratings\n\|rev1 = AllMusic\n\|rev1score = \n\|rev5 = Rolling Stone\n\|rev5score = \n\|rev2 = Robert Christgau\n\|rev2Score = C–\n\| rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music\| rev3Score = \n\| rev4 = MusicHound\n\| rev4Score = \n}}\nDespite strong initial sales, the album was poorly received by critics. Rolling Stone stated that the record \"makes you wonder what the fuss [over the tour] was about\", although they did have some kind words for several of the tracks. Writing for The Village Voice'', music critic Robert Christgau said that what Dylan \"makes of his catalogue here is exactly what he's been making of it for years—money\". Stephen Thomas Erlewine's review for AllMusic was particularly harsh, giving it one star out of a possible five, and calling it \"quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead\" and \"a sad, disheartening document\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\n\nMusicians\nBob Dylan – guitar, vocals\n\nGrateful Dead\nJerry Garcia – guitar, vocals, production\nMickey Hart – drums\nBill Kreutzmann – drums\nPhil Lesh – bass guitar\nBrent Mydland – keyboards, vocals\nBob Weir – guitar, vocals\n\nProduction\nGuy Charbonneau – engineering\nJohn Cutler – production, engineering\nJoe Gastwirt – mastering\nHerb Greene – photography\nRick Griffin – art direction\nGary Hedden – engineering\nPeter Miller – engineering\nDavid Roberts – engineering\nBilly Rothschild – engineering\nChris Wiskes – engineering\n\nSee also\nList of Grateful Dead covers\n\nReferences\n\n1989 live albums\nCollaborative albums\nColumbia Records live albums\nBob Dylan live albums\nGrateful Dead live albums\nAlbums produced by Jerry Garcia\nAlbums with cover art by Rick Griffin" ]
[ "Steve Corino", "Retirement tour (2007)", "when did his retirement tour start?", "After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour", "what did his tour consists of", "traveled to various federations as a part of the tour." ]	C_ca0853be1d2f4ee5a90537d2ae6c8d94_0	where did he tour	3	Where did Steve Corino tour?	Steve Corino	After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. CANNOTANSWER	On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada	Steven Eugene Corino (born May 29, 1973) is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a trainer and producer for their developmental territory NXT. He is best known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring name Steve Corino. He is overall a three-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. Corino has held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, and the 1PW World Heavyweight Championship once each, and the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship and the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship twice each. In addition to these titles, he has also held the ROH World Tag Team Championship once, as well as numerous titles on the independent circuit. Professional wrestling career Early career (1994–1998) Corino began wrestling in 1994 and spent four years working on the independent circuit. During this time, he was a part of the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, a promotion run by Matt and Jeff Hardy. Corino began an anti-hardcore gimmick on the independent circuit, because he felt he would have more chance of getting work if he did not work hardcore matches. He gained experience, working in Puerto Rico for the WWC, working under the ring name Lightning Kid (which had been a gimmick previously used by Sean Waltman) and also made some appearances for the WWF as a jobber. Extreme Championship Wrestling (1998–2001) In 1998, Corino debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling as a heel manager. He stood out in ECW as a result of his "King of Old School" gimmick, where he would deride hardcore wrestlers, at one point invading a Limp Bizkit concert and protesting the immoral conduct. In late 1999, Corino took Jack Victory on as a manager, and became an advisor for Tajiri and Rhino. He then began feuding with Dusty Rhodes, who defeated him in a gory Bullrope match at Living Dangerously. At Heat Wave 2000, he lost to Jerry Lynn. Corino went on to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on November 5, 2000 at November to Remember by defeating Justin Credible, Sandman and Champion Jerry Lynn in a Double Jeopardy match; then to successfully defend it in December at Massacre on 34th Street (against Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible in a three way dance) and at Holiday Hell 2000 (against Justin Credible and The Sandman in a three way dance). Due to repeated failures of ECW paying Corino his salary, he left the company on January 7, 2001, the night he lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman at Guilty as Charged 2001. His friend Dustin Rhodes got him a contract in World Championship Wrestling, but he never got to make an appearance despite being due to debut at the company's third to last PPV Sin. When World Wrestling Entertainment took over WCW in March 2001, they released Corino from his contract. He went on to wrestle for many of the National Wrestling Alliance regional promotions. On April 24, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Independent circuit (2001–2006) Corino continued his feud with Rhodes in his Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion as well as Southern Championship Wrestling and was part of the Extreme Horsemen with C.W. Anderson and Barry Windham. He was also part of the Extreme Horsemen in Major League Wrestling with C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible and Simon Diamond. They were briefly managed by the legendary James J. Dillon before MLW folded. Also, Corino went on to win the MLW World Heavyweight Championship before the promotion was folded. In 2004 Corino made a number of appearances for Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, where he entered a short rivalry with Alex Shane. The feud culminated in the main event match of Hotwired, where Corino defeated Shane with the assistance of then FWA Heavyweight Champion, Doug Williams. As Steve Corino was a major part of ECW towards the end of its run, rumors swirled surrounding Corino possibly signing with World Wrestling Entertainment and returning to his ECW roots as a part of the new version of ECW, but he squashed those rumors in a posting on his LiveJournal. Instead of signing with WWE, Corino worked in various independent promotions, including Zero-One, Hustle in Japan, Ring of Honor in the United States and both One Pro Wrestling and Celtic Wrestling in the United Kingdom. He was also president of World-1 Fighting Arts, which runs shows in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002, 2003) Corino also worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during its early days. Corino had matches with Low Ki and many other stars before leaving the promotion some time later. Ring of Honor (2002–2006) Responding to a challenge from The Backseat Boyz, Homicide invited anyone in the locker room to be his partner. Steve Corino made his ROH debut and responded to his offer, resulting in the two facing the Backseat Boys later that night. In the course of the match, Corino turned on Homicide after Homicide accidentally hit him, Old School Kicking his partner and leaving the ring, enabling the Backseat Boyz to easily defeat Homicide. Homicide and Corino would then begin a four-year rivalry, with Corino criticizing Homicide's lifestyle and somewhat checkered past. The feud culminated in a match at the One Year Anniversary Show on February 8, 2003 in Queens, New York, New York. Homicide was the hometown favorite, but lost to Corino following interference from The Group (Samoa Joe, Michael Shane, C.W. Anderson and Simply Luscious), Corino's entourage. After the match, Corino applied a cobra clutch to Homicide, while the rest of The Group mocked New York City, instigating a worked riot. Corino and Homicide had a rematch August 16, 2003, at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies which saw Corino defeated. After twenty minutes of fighting which saw both men bleeding and carrying injuries, Homicide trapped Corino in a modified STF, prompting Corino's corner man, Guillotine LeGrande, to throw in the towel, awarding the match to Homicide. In the course of the match, Corino suffered a legitimate ruptured eardrum, and permanently lost most of the hearing in his left ear following a stiff slap to the side of the head from Homicide. Homicide has since stated in a shoot interview that he is not sorry for costing Corino his hearing, claiming Corino had been stiff with him the whole match. Homicide faced Corino for a third time on November 29, 2003, at War of the Wire in a barbed wire match. This time however, Julius Smokes threw in the towel for Homicide after Corino throttled him with a length of barbed wire. Corino offered Homicide a handshake after the match, indicating that he finally respected Homicide, but Homicide refused to shake his hand. On October 14, 2005, at Enter the Dragon, Corino returned to ROH in a tag team match that saw him team with Colt Cabana to defeat Low Ki and Homicide. On December 3 in New York City at Steel Cage Warfare, Homicide lost to Corino in a rematch from their feud of 2003 after Colt Cabana, under a mask, interfered in the match. During the match, Homicide separated his shoulder, but opted not to have surgery. As a result of his injury, Homicide was unable to compete at the following show, Final Battle 2005. He did show up, however, but with the intent on killing Steve Corino. Following Corino's match, Homicide ran down to the ring and attacked him. Colt Cabana ran down to the ring to save Corino, only to have Homicide pour Drano down his throat. He returned to ROH in August 2006 after a long absence, reigniting his feud with Homicide. The feud culminated on November 4 in Philadelphia, at The Bitter End when Homicide beat Corino in a Fight Without Honor. Although the two still hated each other, they shook hands after the match and Corino allowed Homicide to shave his head. Retirement tour (2007) After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. Return to the independent circuit (2008–2016) On the January 4, 2008, Corino won his third Zero1-Max United States Openweight Championship as Mr. Wrestling 3 (named after Mr. Wrestling I and II) by beating Ricky Landell in Valdosta, Georgia. He then lost the U.S. Title to SJK on March 8, 2008 at the Devil Bhudakahn Memorial Show in Munhall, Pennsylvania. He now wrestles as "Mr. Wrestling 3" Steve Corino without the mask, and sometimes as just Mr. Wrestling 3 with the mask. On July 24, 2008, Corino announced he would begin wrestling full-time again in his online blog. Corino plans to return to Japan where he has been the most successful. On July 19, 2008 Corino participated in the event WWC Anniversary but only to lose to Eugene. Later on September 20, 2008 he participated in the event Septiembre Negro where he defeated Sabu. Recently he is one of the members of a group called "La Familia", and is in a feud with BJ for the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. In this feud thanks to the beatings that lead disqualification by the members of "La Familia", Ray Gonzalez saved BJ and after that Steve Corino attacked Ray Gonzalez in the locker rooms and this began a feud for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship. On February 7, Steve Corino beat Ray Gonzalez to become WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion. On July 11 at Aniversario 2009 he lost the title to BJ. On June 26, 2010- Corino was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling "Hall of Fame" by Jack Blaze in Wheeling, West Virginia at their annual "LPW Rumble in the Valley" event. Since August 2010, Corino has made appearances in Germany for German Stampede Wrestling. On April 23, 2011, Corino returned to WWC and defeated Carlito, Gilbert and Shane the Glamour Boy in a gauntlet match to win the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He would lose the title to Carlito on June 4, 2011. On January 28, 2012, Steve Corino, billed as the "King of Old School", defeated Vordell Walker with assistance by Jillian Hall and the "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas in Orlando, Florida to become the PWX (Pro Wrestling Extreme) Heavyweight Champion. Corino, although bloodied, successfully defended his title against Tommy "Wildfire" Rich on April 28, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. On December 28, 2012, Steve Corino made his appearance for an ECW "revival" company as he appeared for Extreme Rising as the "mystery challenger" for Stevie Richards' Extreme Rising World Championship, where he was defeated by submission. In September 2014, Steve Corino defeated Doug Williams for the WAW World Heavyweight Championship in England which he would then defend in the USA in 2014 and 2015 against Curt Robinson and Joe Black. On May 9, 2015, Steve Corino made an appearance at TWE in Red Bank, Chattanooga against Ray Fury, where he was defeated. On May 22, 2015, Steve Corino became the PWF World-1 Heavyweight Champion defeating Jagger, Emmanuel Ortega and former teammate CW Anderson in a Fatal Four-Way. On March 6, 2016, Corino, along with CW Anderson, returned to Zero1 to take part in the promotion's 15th anniversary event. Return to ROH (2009–2016) On the December 7 edition of Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet, a video was shown hyping Corino's return to the company. During early 2010, Corino formed a partnership with Kevin Steen and together the two of them started a feud with Steen's former tag team partner El Generico and Colt Cabana. On April 3, 2010, Corino made his ROH pay-per-view debut at The Big Bang!, where he and Steen were defeated by El Generico and Cabana via disqualification, when Steen used a chair on his former partner. On September 11 at Glory By Honor IX Generico and Cabana defeated Steen and Corino in a Double Chain match, when Cabana forced Corino to tap out. On October 16, 2010, Cabana defeated Corino in an "I Quit" match to end their feud. Following Steen's departure from Ring of Honor after December's Final Battle 2010, Corino proclaimed himself a changed man and turned babyface. Corino began feuding with Mike Bennett, and the two faced each other at Manhattan Mayhem IV on March 19, with Bennett picking up the victory. On May 21 at Supercard of Honor VI, Corino revealed the returning Jimmy Jacobs as the sponsor, who had helped him change his ways. Kevin Steen returned to ROH on June 26 at Best in the World 2011, seemingly wanting redemption as well. However, after saving Corino from the House of Truth, Steen turned on him and Jacobs, before being dragged out of the arena. On December 23 at Final Battle 2011, with Jimmy Jacobs as the special guest referee in a No Disqualification match, Kevin Steen defeated his former mentor, Corino, to be reinstated in ROH. Corino later returned to ROH on May 12, 2012, when he formed the S.C.U.M. (Suffering, Chaos, Ugliness, and Mayhem) stable with Steen and Jacobs. On September 15 at Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency, Corino and Jacobs defeated Charlie Haas and Rhett Titus in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) on December 16 at Final Battle 2012: Doomsday in a three-way match, which also included the team of Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander. On April 6, 2013, Corino became the new leader of S.C.U.M., when the stable turned on Kevin Steen, after he had lost the ROH World Championship. On June 23, S.C.U.M. was forced to disband, after being defeated by Team ROH in a Steel Cage Warfare match. Since the dissolution of S.C.U.M., Corino has been working with ROH as their regular color commentator alongside play-by-play commentator Kevin Kelly and occasionally Nigel McGuinness while simultaneously having a running feud with B.J. Whitmer and The Decade. The rivalry has included Whitmer goading Corino to join The Decade, with Corino refusing, but Whitmer wasn't talking about Steve but his real-life son Colby and successfully recruiting him into The Decade. During his feud, McGuinness warned Corino that he can't attack any ROH employee or he will be suspended. After attacking Whitmer with a roll of quarters, McGuinness suspended and banned him from commentary, but then, he was reinstated as a wrestler and was scheduled to fight Whitmer in a Fight without Honor at Final Battle, but Corino announced that he was gonna have neck surgery and that his career may end. He continued to commentary with a mask under the name of Mr. Wrestling 3. Even he was taking that gimmick, Whitmer was saying that Mr. Wrestling 3 was indeed Steve Corino and was convincing Colby, that Corino replaced him for Corino's new wife and son, and Whitmer continued torturing Colby in front of Corino's eyes. At War of the Worlds, Corino returned as the Steve Corino character, admitting that he didn't want to be the "Evil Man" anymore, but after Whitmer's deeds, he promised that at the newly reinstated match that will happen at Best in the World 2016, he will do things that he will never apologize for. At Best in the World, Corino faced Whitmer in a Non-Sanctioned Fight without Honor, but he lost after the interference of Kevin Sullivan. After Best in the World, Corino returned to commentating, but during Whitmer's matches, he was continuously berated by Sullivan. At the Final Battle event, Cody, who defeated Jay Lethal, proceeded to cause chaos in the ring and then he pushed Corino. The night at the event, Whitmer said that a "brother" has to be sacrificed, which was revealed that Corino was about to fight Cody, who berated Corino's actions with Dusty Rhodes. In their match, Corino lost to Cody, which was Corino's last match in ROH. Corino's ROH contract expired on December 31, 2016. WWE (2016–present) In November 2016, Corino worked as a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that he had signed to become a full-time trainer for WWE, starting January 2017. On January 12, 2017, it was confirmed that Corino was now working for WWE. According to Pro Wrestling Torch in September 2017, Corino teaches the advanced class at the WWE Performance Center, the third of four levels of classes. In November 2018, it was revealed through a leaked script of NXT Takeover WarGames that same month that Corino is currently working with NXT as a producer as he was credited for the NXT Championship match between champion Tommaso Ciampa and The Velveteen Dream for a role as a producer for that particular match. Personal life Corino is the older brother of retired independent wrestler Allison Danger, and has a half-brother whose first name is also Steven. Corino married Nicole Holmstock on June 14, 1997. Together they have a son, named Colby (born August 28, 1996), and is a professional wrestler. Corino and Nicole divorced in 2003. On November 12, 2005, Steve Corino got engaged to his Finnish girlfriend Saana-Maria Huhtimo. They were married on May 12, 2006 in North Carolina. However, the couple separated in mid-2008, divorcing the following year. Corino married Jordan Pennypacker in 2013, and had their first child together, a son named Beckham, or "Becks" for short. Corino has repeatedly stated that his favorite old school wrestlers are Tommy Rich and Tully Blanchard. Corino has said that his favorite match while in ECW was the infamous Texas Bullrope Match against Dusty Rhodes at Living Dangerously 2000. Corino hosts the Extreme Odd Couple podcast with Rob Dimension, where they talk about professional wrestling and their personal lives. Championships and accomplishments Absolute Intense Wrestling AIW Absolute Championship (1 time) ACE Pro Wrestling ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) All Action Wrestling AAW Australian Championship (1 time) American Championship Entertainment ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) American Wrestling Council AWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time, final) AWA Superstars of Wrestling AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ricky Landell Appalachia Pro Wrestling APW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Blue Water Championship Wrestling BWCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brew City Wrestling BCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brookwood 4 Wrestling B4W North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times) B4W Hardcore Championship (1 time) B4W Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Shocker of the Year Award (2007) Carolina Wrestling Association CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) East Coast Wrestling Association ECWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Lance Diamond Eastern Shores Wrestling ESW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Extreme Championship Wrestling ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Funking Conservatory FC !BANG! Television Championship (1 time) FC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Windsor German Stampede Wrestling GSW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times) Four Nations Cup (2005) Hawai'i Championship Wrestling HCW Kekaulike Heritage Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mr. Wrestling II High Volume Pro Wrestling HVPW Hall of Fame (2016) High Risk Pro Wrestling HRPW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IWA Championship Wrestling IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Independent Wrestling Federation IWF American Championship (2 times) Independent Pro Wrestling Alliance IPWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IPWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash IPWA Light Heavyweight Title Tournament (1997) Intercontinental Wrestling Association IWA-PA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) International High Powered Wrestling IHPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Wrestling KYDA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) Legends Pro Wrestling LPW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Major League Wrestling MLW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Maryland Championship Wrestling MCW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship (3 times) MEWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Jimmy Cicero Most Hated Wrestler Achievement Award (1996) NWA 2000 NWA American Heritage Championship (1 time) NWA 2000 Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA American Heritage Title Tournament (1997) NWA Florida NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time) NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Heartland States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Florida Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA New Jersey NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA United States Tag Team Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) – with Lance Diamond NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) NWA New Jersey / New York NWA New Jersey / New York Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Midwest NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship / Zero1 Pro Wrestling USA Midwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southwest NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time) One Pro Wrestling 1PW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts OMEGA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling PCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Wrestling Alliance PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Platinum Pro Wrestling PPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Championship Wrestling PCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Knight PCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Wrestling Federation PWF Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with C.W. Anderson (3) and Kid America (1) PWF Universal Six Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler PWF Universal Heavyweight Championship (6 times) PWF Mid-Atlantic Masters Championship (1 time) PWF Universal Six Man Title Tournament (2016) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler Match of the Year (2002, 2005, 2014, 2021) PWF MVP (2003) Tag Team of the Year (2005) - with C.W. Anderson Pro-Wrestling SUN WBD Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Toshie Uematsu PWF Northeast PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Extreme PWX Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #35 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2001 PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2000) Pro Wrestling World-1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) PWF World-1 Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World-1 North American Champion (1 time) World-1 Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with C.W. Anderson (1) and Colby Corino (1) Pro Wrestling Zero1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Mike Rapada (1), C.W. Anderson (1), Y2P-160kg (1), and Charles Evans (1) Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship (4 times) Pure Wrestling Association PWA Pure Wrestling Championship (1 time) Carrot Cup (2008) - with Reggie Marley Ring of Honor ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Jacobs ROH World Tag Team Championship Tournament (2012) – with Jimmy Jacobs Southern Championship Wrestling SCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Tri-State Wrestling Alliance TWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers UIPW Union Heavyweight Championship (1 time) UNION Heavyweight Title Tournament (2007) United States Championship Wrestling USCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash USA Xtreme Wrestling UXW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World Association of Wrestling WAW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Wrestling Council WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Américas Wrestling Federation AWF Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (1 time) References External links World of Corino (Official Website) 1973 births American male professional wrestlers American men podcasters American podcasters Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian male professional wrestlers Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian men podcasters Canadian podcasters ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions Living people Masked wrestlers NWA World Heavyweight Champions People from Sea Isle City, New Jersey Professional wrestlers from Manitoba Professional wrestling managers and valets Professional wrestling promoters Professional wrestling trainers Sportspeople from Philadelphia Sportspeople from Winnipeg People from Emerald Isle, North Carolina	true	[ "Tim Conley (born December 8, 1958) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour and most recently the Champions Tour.\n\nConley joined the PGA Tour in 1993, earning his card through qualifying school. He did not perform well on Tour in his rookie year but he did win the Nike Knoxville Open on the Nationwide Tour. In 1994 he played on the Nationwide Tour full-time and recorded a runner up finish but only made 7 of 21 cuts. He continued to play on the Nationwide Tour and won the Nike Gateway Classic in 1996 in a playoff. He returned to the PGA Tour in 1998, earning his card through qualifying school. He had another poor year on Tour but did finish 5th at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, his best finish on the PGA Tour of his career. He returned to the Nationwide Tour in 1999 where he would play until 2000. He played in a limited number of events until 2007 when he joined the Champions Tour. He finished 83rd on the money list in his rookie year on Tour, missing only one cut in 13 events. He played in fewer events in 2008 and 2009 and has not played on the Tour since.\n\nProfessional wins (9)\n\nNike Tour wins (2)\n\nNike Tour playoff record (1–0)\n\nOther wins (7)\nthis list may be incomplete\n1989 Bermuda Open\n1992 Kansas Open\n2004 Caribbean Open\n2005 Georgia Open\n2006 Bermuda Open\n2007 Bermuda Open\n1 win on the NGA Hooters Tour\n\nResults in major championships\n\nCUT = missed the halfway cut\nNote: Conley only played in the U.S. Open.\n\nSee also\n1992 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n1997 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican male golfers\nPGA Tour golfers\nPGA Tour Champions golfers\nAkron Zips men's golfers\nGolfers from Cleveland\n1958 births\nLiving people", "Dicky Thompson (born June 13, 1957) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.\n\nThompson joined the Nationwide Tour in 1990. He won the Ben Hogan Baton Rouge Open and the Ben Hogan Elizabethtown Open en route to an 8th-place finish on the money list which earned him his PGA Tour card for 1991. He did not perform well enough on his rookie year on Tour to retain his card but got his Tour card for 1992 through qualifying school. After another poor year on the PGA Tour, he took a hiatus until earning his PGA Tour card for 1995 through qualifying school. He did not do well enough to retain his card but did record his best finish on the PGA Tour of his career, finishing in a tie for fourth at the Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic. He took another hiatus from Tour and rejoined the Nationwide Tour in 1999 where he recorded five top-10 finishes. He played on the Nationwide Tour again in 2000, his last season on Tour.\n\nThompson played on the NGA Hooters Tour in 1989, 1994 and from 1996 to 1999. He won six tournaments during that time.\n\nProfessional wins (10)\n\nBen Hogan Tour wins (2)\n\nBen Hogan Tour playoff record (1–0)\n\nOther wins (8)\n1998 Georgia Open\n1999 Georgia Open\n6 wins on the NGA Hooters Tour\n\nResults in major championships\n\nCUT = missed the half-way cut\nNote: Thompson never played in the Masters Tournament or the PGA Championship.\n\nSee also\n1990 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n1991 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n1994 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican male golfers\nGeorgia Bulldogs men's golfers\nPGA Tour golfers\nGolfers from Atlanta\n1957 births\nLiving people" ]
[ "Steve Corino", "Retirement tour (2007)", "when did his retirement tour start?", "After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour", "what did his tour consists of", "traveled to various federations as a part of the tour.", "where did he tour", "On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada" ]	C_ca0853be1d2f4ee5a90537d2ae6c8d94_0	was it successful	4	Was Steve Corino's tour in Canada successful?	Steve Corino	After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. CANNOTANSWER	Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey	Steven Eugene Corino (born May 29, 1973) is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a trainer and producer for their developmental territory NXT. He is best known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring name Steve Corino. He is overall a three-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. Corino has held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, and the 1PW World Heavyweight Championship once each, and the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship and the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship twice each. In addition to these titles, he has also held the ROH World Tag Team Championship once, as well as numerous titles on the independent circuit. Professional wrestling career Early career (1994–1998) Corino began wrestling in 1994 and spent four years working on the independent circuit. During this time, he was a part of the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, a promotion run by Matt and Jeff Hardy. Corino began an anti-hardcore gimmick on the independent circuit, because he felt he would have more chance of getting work if he did not work hardcore matches. He gained experience, working in Puerto Rico for the WWC, working under the ring name Lightning Kid (which had been a gimmick previously used by Sean Waltman) and also made some appearances for the WWF as a jobber. Extreme Championship Wrestling (1998–2001) In 1998, Corino debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling as a heel manager. He stood out in ECW as a result of his "King of Old School" gimmick, where he would deride hardcore wrestlers, at one point invading a Limp Bizkit concert and protesting the immoral conduct. In late 1999, Corino took Jack Victory on as a manager, and became an advisor for Tajiri and Rhino. He then began feuding with Dusty Rhodes, who defeated him in a gory Bullrope match at Living Dangerously. At Heat Wave 2000, he lost to Jerry Lynn. Corino went on to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on November 5, 2000 at November to Remember by defeating Justin Credible, Sandman and Champion Jerry Lynn in a Double Jeopardy match; then to successfully defend it in December at Massacre on 34th Street (against Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible in a three way dance) and at Holiday Hell 2000 (against Justin Credible and The Sandman in a three way dance). Due to repeated failures of ECW paying Corino his salary, he left the company on January 7, 2001, the night he lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman at Guilty as Charged 2001. His friend Dustin Rhodes got him a contract in World Championship Wrestling, but he never got to make an appearance despite being due to debut at the company's third to last PPV Sin. When World Wrestling Entertainment took over WCW in March 2001, they released Corino from his contract. He went on to wrestle for many of the National Wrestling Alliance regional promotions. On April 24, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Independent circuit (2001–2006) Corino continued his feud with Rhodes in his Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion as well as Southern Championship Wrestling and was part of the Extreme Horsemen with C.W. Anderson and Barry Windham. He was also part of the Extreme Horsemen in Major League Wrestling with C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible and Simon Diamond. They were briefly managed by the legendary James J. Dillon before MLW folded. Also, Corino went on to win the MLW World Heavyweight Championship before the promotion was folded. In 2004 Corino made a number of appearances for Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, where he entered a short rivalry with Alex Shane. The feud culminated in the main event match of Hotwired, where Corino defeated Shane with the assistance of then FWA Heavyweight Champion, Doug Williams. As Steve Corino was a major part of ECW towards the end of its run, rumors swirled surrounding Corino possibly signing with World Wrestling Entertainment and returning to his ECW roots as a part of the new version of ECW, but he squashed those rumors in a posting on his LiveJournal. Instead of signing with WWE, Corino worked in various independent promotions, including Zero-One, Hustle in Japan, Ring of Honor in the United States and both One Pro Wrestling and Celtic Wrestling in the United Kingdom. He was also president of World-1 Fighting Arts, which runs shows in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002, 2003) Corino also worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during its early days. Corino had matches with Low Ki and many other stars before leaving the promotion some time later. Ring of Honor (2002–2006) Responding to a challenge from The Backseat Boyz, Homicide invited anyone in the locker room to be his partner. Steve Corino made his ROH debut and responded to his offer, resulting in the two facing the Backseat Boys later that night. In the course of the match, Corino turned on Homicide after Homicide accidentally hit him, Old School Kicking his partner and leaving the ring, enabling the Backseat Boyz to easily defeat Homicide. Homicide and Corino would then begin a four-year rivalry, with Corino criticizing Homicide's lifestyle and somewhat checkered past. The feud culminated in a match at the One Year Anniversary Show on February 8, 2003 in Queens, New York, New York. Homicide was the hometown favorite, but lost to Corino following interference from The Group (Samoa Joe, Michael Shane, C.W. Anderson and Simply Luscious), Corino's entourage. After the match, Corino applied a cobra clutch to Homicide, while the rest of The Group mocked New York City, instigating a worked riot. Corino and Homicide had a rematch August 16, 2003, at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies which saw Corino defeated. After twenty minutes of fighting which saw both men bleeding and carrying injuries, Homicide trapped Corino in a modified STF, prompting Corino's corner man, Guillotine LeGrande, to throw in the towel, awarding the match to Homicide. In the course of the match, Corino suffered a legitimate ruptured eardrum, and permanently lost most of the hearing in his left ear following a stiff slap to the side of the head from Homicide. Homicide has since stated in a shoot interview that he is not sorry for costing Corino his hearing, claiming Corino had been stiff with him the whole match. Homicide faced Corino for a third time on November 29, 2003, at War of the Wire in a barbed wire match. This time however, Julius Smokes threw in the towel for Homicide after Corino throttled him with a length of barbed wire. Corino offered Homicide a handshake after the match, indicating that he finally respected Homicide, but Homicide refused to shake his hand. On October 14, 2005, at Enter the Dragon, Corino returned to ROH in a tag team match that saw him team with Colt Cabana to defeat Low Ki and Homicide. On December 3 in New York City at Steel Cage Warfare, Homicide lost to Corino in a rematch from their feud of 2003 after Colt Cabana, under a mask, interfered in the match. During the match, Homicide separated his shoulder, but opted not to have surgery. As a result of his injury, Homicide was unable to compete at the following show, Final Battle 2005. He did show up, however, but with the intent on killing Steve Corino. Following Corino's match, Homicide ran down to the ring and attacked him. Colt Cabana ran down to the ring to save Corino, only to have Homicide pour Drano down his throat. He returned to ROH in August 2006 after a long absence, reigniting his feud with Homicide. The feud culminated on November 4 in Philadelphia, at The Bitter End when Homicide beat Corino in a Fight Without Honor. Although the two still hated each other, they shook hands after the match and Corino allowed Homicide to shave his head. Retirement tour (2007) After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. Return to the independent circuit (2008–2016) On the January 4, 2008, Corino won his third Zero1-Max United States Openweight Championship as Mr. Wrestling 3 (named after Mr. Wrestling I and II) by beating Ricky Landell in Valdosta, Georgia. He then lost the U.S. Title to SJK on March 8, 2008 at the Devil Bhudakahn Memorial Show in Munhall, Pennsylvania. He now wrestles as "Mr. Wrestling 3" Steve Corino without the mask, and sometimes as just Mr. Wrestling 3 with the mask. On July 24, 2008, Corino announced he would begin wrestling full-time again in his online blog. Corino plans to return to Japan where he has been the most successful. On July 19, 2008 Corino participated in the event WWC Anniversary but only to lose to Eugene. Later on September 20, 2008 he participated in the event Septiembre Negro where he defeated Sabu. Recently he is one of the members of a group called "La Familia", and is in a feud with BJ for the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. In this feud thanks to the beatings that lead disqualification by the members of "La Familia", Ray Gonzalez saved BJ and after that Steve Corino attacked Ray Gonzalez in the locker rooms and this began a feud for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship. On February 7, Steve Corino beat Ray Gonzalez to become WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion. On July 11 at Aniversario 2009 he lost the title to BJ. On June 26, 2010- Corino was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling "Hall of Fame" by Jack Blaze in Wheeling, West Virginia at their annual "LPW Rumble in the Valley" event. Since August 2010, Corino has made appearances in Germany for German Stampede Wrestling. On April 23, 2011, Corino returned to WWC and defeated Carlito, Gilbert and Shane the Glamour Boy in a gauntlet match to win the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He would lose the title to Carlito on June 4, 2011. On January 28, 2012, Steve Corino, billed as the "King of Old School", defeated Vordell Walker with assistance by Jillian Hall and the "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas in Orlando, Florida to become the PWX (Pro Wrestling Extreme) Heavyweight Champion. Corino, although bloodied, successfully defended his title against Tommy "Wildfire" Rich on April 28, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. On December 28, 2012, Steve Corino made his appearance for an ECW "revival" company as he appeared for Extreme Rising as the "mystery challenger" for Stevie Richards' Extreme Rising World Championship, where he was defeated by submission. In September 2014, Steve Corino defeated Doug Williams for the WAW World Heavyweight Championship in England which he would then defend in the USA in 2014 and 2015 against Curt Robinson and Joe Black. On May 9, 2015, Steve Corino made an appearance at TWE in Red Bank, Chattanooga against Ray Fury, where he was defeated. On May 22, 2015, Steve Corino became the PWF World-1 Heavyweight Champion defeating Jagger, Emmanuel Ortega and former teammate CW Anderson in a Fatal Four-Way. On March 6, 2016, Corino, along with CW Anderson, returned to Zero1 to take part in the promotion's 15th anniversary event. Return to ROH (2009–2016) On the December 7 edition of Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet, a video was shown hyping Corino's return to the company. During early 2010, Corino formed a partnership with Kevin Steen and together the two of them started a feud with Steen's former tag team partner El Generico and Colt Cabana. On April 3, 2010, Corino made his ROH pay-per-view debut at The Big Bang!, where he and Steen were defeated by El Generico and Cabana via disqualification, when Steen used a chair on his former partner. On September 11 at Glory By Honor IX Generico and Cabana defeated Steen and Corino in a Double Chain match, when Cabana forced Corino to tap out. On October 16, 2010, Cabana defeated Corino in an "I Quit" match to end their feud. Following Steen's departure from Ring of Honor after December's Final Battle 2010, Corino proclaimed himself a changed man and turned babyface. Corino began feuding with Mike Bennett, and the two faced each other at Manhattan Mayhem IV on March 19, with Bennett picking up the victory. On May 21 at Supercard of Honor VI, Corino revealed the returning Jimmy Jacobs as the sponsor, who had helped him change his ways. Kevin Steen returned to ROH on June 26 at Best in the World 2011, seemingly wanting redemption as well. However, after saving Corino from the House of Truth, Steen turned on him and Jacobs, before being dragged out of the arena. On December 23 at Final Battle 2011, with Jimmy Jacobs as the special guest referee in a No Disqualification match, Kevin Steen defeated his former mentor, Corino, to be reinstated in ROH. Corino later returned to ROH on May 12, 2012, when he formed the S.C.U.M. (Suffering, Chaos, Ugliness, and Mayhem) stable with Steen and Jacobs. On September 15 at Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency, Corino and Jacobs defeated Charlie Haas and Rhett Titus in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) on December 16 at Final Battle 2012: Doomsday in a three-way match, which also included the team of Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander. On April 6, 2013, Corino became the new leader of S.C.U.M., when the stable turned on Kevin Steen, after he had lost the ROH World Championship. On June 23, S.C.U.M. was forced to disband, after being defeated by Team ROH in a Steel Cage Warfare match. Since the dissolution of S.C.U.M., Corino has been working with ROH as their regular color commentator alongside play-by-play commentator Kevin Kelly and occasionally Nigel McGuinness while simultaneously having a running feud with B.J. Whitmer and The Decade. The rivalry has included Whitmer goading Corino to join The Decade, with Corino refusing, but Whitmer wasn't talking about Steve but his real-life son Colby and successfully recruiting him into The Decade. During his feud, McGuinness warned Corino that he can't attack any ROH employee or he will be suspended. After attacking Whitmer with a roll of quarters, McGuinness suspended and banned him from commentary, but then, he was reinstated as a wrestler and was scheduled to fight Whitmer in a Fight without Honor at Final Battle, but Corino announced that he was gonna have neck surgery and that his career may end. He continued to commentary with a mask under the name of Mr. Wrestling 3. Even he was taking that gimmick, Whitmer was saying that Mr. Wrestling 3 was indeed Steve Corino and was convincing Colby, that Corino replaced him for Corino's new wife and son, and Whitmer continued torturing Colby in front of Corino's eyes. At War of the Worlds, Corino returned as the Steve Corino character, admitting that he didn't want to be the "Evil Man" anymore, but after Whitmer's deeds, he promised that at the newly reinstated match that will happen at Best in the World 2016, he will do things that he will never apologize for. At Best in the World, Corino faced Whitmer in a Non-Sanctioned Fight without Honor, but he lost after the interference of Kevin Sullivan. After Best in the World, Corino returned to commentating, but during Whitmer's matches, he was continuously berated by Sullivan. At the Final Battle event, Cody, who defeated Jay Lethal, proceeded to cause chaos in the ring and then he pushed Corino. The night at the event, Whitmer said that a "brother" has to be sacrificed, which was revealed that Corino was about to fight Cody, who berated Corino's actions with Dusty Rhodes. In their match, Corino lost to Cody, which was Corino's last match in ROH. Corino's ROH contract expired on December 31, 2016. WWE (2016–present) In November 2016, Corino worked as a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that he had signed to become a full-time trainer for WWE, starting January 2017. On January 12, 2017, it was confirmed that Corino was now working for WWE. According to Pro Wrestling Torch in September 2017, Corino teaches the advanced class at the WWE Performance Center, the third of four levels of classes. In November 2018, it was revealed through a leaked script of NXT Takeover WarGames that same month that Corino is currently working with NXT as a producer as he was credited for the NXT Championship match between champion Tommaso Ciampa and The Velveteen Dream for a role as a producer for that particular match. Personal life Corino is the older brother of retired independent wrestler Allison Danger, and has a half-brother whose first name is also Steven. Corino married Nicole Holmstock on June 14, 1997. Together they have a son, named Colby (born August 28, 1996), and is a professional wrestler. Corino and Nicole divorced in 2003. On November 12, 2005, Steve Corino got engaged to his Finnish girlfriend Saana-Maria Huhtimo. They were married on May 12, 2006 in North Carolina. However, the couple separated in mid-2008, divorcing the following year. Corino married Jordan Pennypacker in 2013, and had their first child together, a son named Beckham, or "Becks" for short. Corino has repeatedly stated that his favorite old school wrestlers are Tommy Rich and Tully Blanchard. Corino has said that his favorite match while in ECW was the infamous Texas Bullrope Match against Dusty Rhodes at Living Dangerously 2000. Corino hosts the Extreme Odd Couple podcast with Rob Dimension, where they talk about professional wrestling and their personal lives. Championships and accomplishments Absolute Intense Wrestling AIW Absolute Championship (1 time) ACE Pro Wrestling ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) All Action Wrestling AAW Australian Championship (1 time) American Championship Entertainment ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) American Wrestling Council AWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time, final) AWA Superstars of Wrestling AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ricky Landell Appalachia Pro Wrestling APW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Blue Water Championship Wrestling BWCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brew City Wrestling BCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brookwood 4 Wrestling B4W North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times) B4W Hardcore Championship (1 time) B4W Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Shocker of the Year Award (2007) Carolina Wrestling Association CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) East Coast Wrestling Association ECWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Lance Diamond Eastern Shores Wrestling ESW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Extreme Championship Wrestling ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Funking Conservatory FC !BANG! Television Championship (1 time) FC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Windsor German Stampede Wrestling GSW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times) Four Nations Cup (2005) Hawai'i Championship Wrestling HCW Kekaulike Heritage Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mr. Wrestling II High Volume Pro Wrestling HVPW Hall of Fame (2016) High Risk Pro Wrestling HRPW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IWA Championship Wrestling IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Independent Wrestling Federation IWF American Championship (2 times) Independent Pro Wrestling Alliance IPWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IPWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash IPWA Light Heavyweight Title Tournament (1997) Intercontinental Wrestling Association IWA-PA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) International High Powered Wrestling IHPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Wrestling KYDA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) Legends Pro Wrestling LPW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Major League Wrestling MLW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Maryland Championship Wrestling MCW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship (3 times) MEWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Jimmy Cicero Most Hated Wrestler Achievement Award (1996) NWA 2000 NWA American Heritage Championship (1 time) NWA 2000 Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA American Heritage Title Tournament (1997) NWA Florida NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time) NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Heartland States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Florida Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA New Jersey NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA United States Tag Team Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) – with Lance Diamond NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) NWA New Jersey / New York NWA New Jersey / New York Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Midwest NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship / Zero1 Pro Wrestling USA Midwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southwest NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time) One Pro Wrestling 1PW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts OMEGA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling PCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Wrestling Alliance PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Platinum Pro Wrestling PPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Championship Wrestling PCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Knight PCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Wrestling Federation PWF Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with C.W. Anderson (3) and Kid America (1) PWF Universal Six Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler PWF Universal Heavyweight Championship (6 times) PWF Mid-Atlantic Masters Championship (1 time) PWF Universal Six Man Title Tournament (2016) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler Match of the Year (2002, 2005, 2014, 2021) PWF MVP (2003) Tag Team of the Year (2005) - with C.W. Anderson Pro-Wrestling SUN WBD Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Toshie Uematsu PWF Northeast PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Extreme PWX Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #35 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2001 PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2000) Pro Wrestling World-1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) PWF World-1 Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World-1 North American Champion (1 time) World-1 Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with C.W. Anderson (1) and Colby Corino (1) Pro Wrestling Zero1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Mike Rapada (1), C.W. Anderson (1), Y2P-160kg (1), and Charles Evans (1) Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship (4 times) Pure Wrestling Association PWA Pure Wrestling Championship (1 time) Carrot Cup (2008) - with Reggie Marley Ring of Honor ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Jacobs ROH World Tag Team Championship Tournament (2012) – with Jimmy Jacobs Southern Championship Wrestling SCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Tri-State Wrestling Alliance TWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers UIPW Union Heavyweight Championship (1 time) UNION Heavyweight Title Tournament (2007) United States Championship Wrestling USCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash USA Xtreme Wrestling UXW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World Association of Wrestling WAW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Wrestling Council WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Américas Wrestling Federation AWF Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (1 time) References External links World of Corino (Official Website) 1973 births American male professional wrestlers American men podcasters American podcasters Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian male professional wrestlers Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian men podcasters Canadian podcasters ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions Living people Masked wrestlers NWA World Heavyweight Champions People from Sea Isle City, New Jersey Professional wrestlers from Manitoba Professional wrestling managers and valets Professional wrestling promoters Professional wrestling trainers Sportspeople from Philadelphia Sportspeople from Winnipeg People from Emerald Isle, North Carolina	true	[ "Merry Legs (1911-1932) was a Tennessee Walking Horse mare who was given foundation registration for her influence as a broodmare. She was also a successful show horse.\n\nLife\nMerry Legs was foaled in April 1911. She was a bay with sabino markings. She was sired by the foundation stallion Black Allan F-1, out of the American Saddlebred mare Nell Dement, registration number F-3, and bred by the early breeder Albert Dement. She was a large mare at maturity, standing high and weighing . Merry Legs was a successful show horse; as a three-year-old, she won the stake class at the Tennessee State Fair. She was also successful as a broodmare, giving birth to 13 foals, among them the well-known Bud Allen, Last Chance, Major Allen, and Merry Boy. For her influence on the breed, she was given the foundation number F-4 when the TWHBEA was formed in 1935. She died in 1932.\n\nReferences\n\nIndividual Tennessee Walking Horses\n1911 animal births\n1932 animal deaths", "The UCI Road World Championships – Men's team time trial was a world championship for road bicycle racing in the discipline of team time trial (TTT). It is organized by the world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).\n\nNational teams (1962–1994)\nA championship for national teams was introduced in 1962 and held until 1994. It was held annually, except that from 1972 onward, the TTT was not held in Olympic years. There were 4 riders per team on a route around 100 kilometres long. Italy is the most successful nation with seven victories.\n\nMedal winners\n\nMedals by nation\n\nMost successful riders\n\nUCI teams (2012–2018)\nThere was a long break until a championship for trade teams was introduced in 2012. There were 6 riders per team. The championship was held up to 2018.\n\nMedal winners\n\nMost successful teams\n\nMost successful riders\n\nReferences \n \n \n\n \nMen's Team Time Trial\nRecurring sporting events established in 1962\nUCI World Tour races\nMen's road bicycle races\nLists of UCI Road World Championships medalists\nRecurring sporting events disestablished in 2018" ]
[ "Steve Corino", "Retirement tour (2007)", "when did his retirement tour start?", "After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour", "what did his tour consists of", "traveled to various federations as a part of the tour.", "where did he tour", "On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada", "was it successful", "Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey" ]	C_ca0853be1d2f4ee5a90537d2ae6c8d94_0	what year was that	5	What year was the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey that Cprionn captured?	Steve Corino	After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. CANNOTANSWER	On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey	Steven Eugene Corino (born May 29, 1973) is a Canadian semi-retired professional wrestler currently signed with WWE as a trainer and producer for their developmental territory NXT. He is best known for his time in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and Ring of Honor (ROH) under the ring name Steve Corino. He is overall a three-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. Corino has held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship, the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, and the 1PW World Heavyweight Championship once each, and the AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship and the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship twice each. In addition to these titles, he has also held the ROH World Tag Team Championship once, as well as numerous titles on the independent circuit. Professional wrestling career Early career (1994–1998) Corino began wrestling in 1994 and spent four years working on the independent circuit. During this time, he was a part of the Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts, a promotion run by Matt and Jeff Hardy. Corino began an anti-hardcore gimmick on the independent circuit, because he felt he would have more chance of getting work if he did not work hardcore matches. He gained experience, working in Puerto Rico for the WWC, working under the ring name Lightning Kid (which had been a gimmick previously used by Sean Waltman) and also made some appearances for the WWF as a jobber. Extreme Championship Wrestling (1998–2001) In 1998, Corino debuted in Extreme Championship Wrestling as a heel manager. He stood out in ECW as a result of his "King of Old School" gimmick, where he would deride hardcore wrestlers, at one point invading a Limp Bizkit concert and protesting the immoral conduct. In late 1999, Corino took Jack Victory on as a manager, and became an advisor for Tajiri and Rhino. He then began feuding with Dusty Rhodes, who defeated him in a gory Bullrope match at Living Dangerously. At Heat Wave 2000, he lost to Jerry Lynn. Corino went on to win the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on November 5, 2000 at November to Remember by defeating Justin Credible, Sandman and Champion Jerry Lynn in a Double Jeopardy match; then to successfully defend it in December at Massacre on 34th Street (against Jerry Lynn and Justin Credible in a three way dance) and at Holiday Hell 2000 (against Justin Credible and The Sandman in a three way dance). Due to repeated failures of ECW paying Corino his salary, he left the company on January 7, 2001, the night he lost the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to The Sandman at Guilty as Charged 2001. His friend Dustin Rhodes got him a contract in World Championship Wrestling, but he never got to make an appearance despite being due to debut at the company's third to last PPV Sin. When World Wrestling Entertainment took over WCW in March 2001, they released Corino from his contract. He went on to wrestle for many of the National Wrestling Alliance regional promotions. On April 24, he won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Independent circuit (2001–2006) Corino continued his feud with Rhodes in his Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion as well as Southern Championship Wrestling and was part of the Extreme Horsemen with C.W. Anderson and Barry Windham. He was also part of the Extreme Horsemen in Major League Wrestling with C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible and Simon Diamond. They were briefly managed by the legendary James J. Dillon before MLW folded. Also, Corino went on to win the MLW World Heavyweight Championship before the promotion was folded. In 2004 Corino made a number of appearances for Frontier Wrestling Alliance in the United Kingdom, where he entered a short rivalry with Alex Shane. The feud culminated in the main event match of Hotwired, where Corino defeated Shane with the assistance of then FWA Heavyweight Champion, Doug Williams. As Steve Corino was a major part of ECW towards the end of its run, rumors swirled surrounding Corino possibly signing with World Wrestling Entertainment and returning to his ECW roots as a part of the new version of ECW, but he squashed those rumors in a posting on his LiveJournal. Instead of signing with WWE, Corino worked in various independent promotions, including Zero-One, Hustle in Japan, Ring of Honor in the United States and both One Pro Wrestling and Celtic Wrestling in the United Kingdom. He was also president of World-1 Fighting Arts, which runs shows in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2002, 2003) Corino also worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling during its early days. Corino had matches with Low Ki and many other stars before leaving the promotion some time later. Ring of Honor (2002–2006) Responding to a challenge from The Backseat Boyz, Homicide invited anyone in the locker room to be his partner. Steve Corino made his ROH debut and responded to his offer, resulting in the two facing the Backseat Boys later that night. In the course of the match, Corino turned on Homicide after Homicide accidentally hit him, Old School Kicking his partner and leaving the ring, enabling the Backseat Boyz to easily defeat Homicide. Homicide and Corino would then begin a four-year rivalry, with Corino criticizing Homicide's lifestyle and somewhat checkered past. The feud culminated in a match at the One Year Anniversary Show on February 8, 2003 in Queens, New York, New York. Homicide was the hometown favorite, but lost to Corino following interference from The Group (Samoa Joe, Michael Shane, C.W. Anderson and Simply Luscious), Corino's entourage. After the match, Corino applied a cobra clutch to Homicide, while the rest of The Group mocked New York City, instigating a worked riot. Corino and Homicide had a rematch August 16, 2003, at Bitter Friends, Stiffer Enemies which saw Corino defeated. After twenty minutes of fighting which saw both men bleeding and carrying injuries, Homicide trapped Corino in a modified STF, prompting Corino's corner man, Guillotine LeGrande, to throw in the towel, awarding the match to Homicide. In the course of the match, Corino suffered a legitimate ruptured eardrum, and permanently lost most of the hearing in his left ear following a stiff slap to the side of the head from Homicide. Homicide has since stated in a shoot interview that he is not sorry for costing Corino his hearing, claiming Corino had been stiff with him the whole match. Homicide faced Corino for a third time on November 29, 2003, at War of the Wire in a barbed wire match. This time however, Julius Smokes threw in the towel for Homicide after Corino throttled him with a length of barbed wire. Corino offered Homicide a handshake after the match, indicating that he finally respected Homicide, but Homicide refused to shake his hand. On October 14, 2005, at Enter the Dragon, Corino returned to ROH in a tag team match that saw him team with Colt Cabana to defeat Low Ki and Homicide. On December 3 in New York City at Steel Cage Warfare, Homicide lost to Corino in a rematch from their feud of 2003 after Colt Cabana, under a mask, interfered in the match. During the match, Homicide separated his shoulder, but opted not to have surgery. As a result of his injury, Homicide was unable to compete at the following show, Final Battle 2005. He did show up, however, but with the intent on killing Steve Corino. Following Corino's match, Homicide ran down to the ring and attacked him. Colt Cabana ran down to the ring to save Corino, only to have Homicide pour Drano down his throat. He returned to ROH in August 2006 after a long absence, reigniting his feud with Homicide. The feud culminated on November 4 in Philadelphia, at The Bitter End when Homicide beat Corino in a Fight Without Honor. Although the two still hated each other, they shook hands after the match and Corino allowed Homicide to shave his head. Retirement tour (2007) After announcing that his retirement would come at the end of 2007, Corino began a retirement tour and traveled to various federations as a part of the tour. On October 6, 2007, Corino captured the B4W North American title in Morganville, New Jersey from then-champion Tommy Thunda. On November 3, 2007, Corino survived three rounds of an 8-man, single-night tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada to become the Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Eddie Osbourne in the first round by pinfall, Pepper Parks in the second round by referee stoppage and "Fabulous" John McChesney in the finals by pinfall following a pair of lariat clotheslines. On November 10, 2007, Corino successfully defended the B4W North American title against Jihad. On November 24 he beat Absolute Andy for the GSW Heavyweight Championship in Oberhausen, Germany which was his very last appearance in Europe. On December 8, 2007, Corino made his final Northeast appearance for B4W. He lost the North American title to Jihad in a submission match after his protege Ricky Landell had to throw in the towel. Corino won the Platinum Pro Wrestling Heavyweight Title on December 14, 2007 after defeating "The Indy Wrestling Superstar" Erico in front of a sold out crowd in Michigan City, Indiana. Corino's retirement tour came to an end December 28, 2007, when he wrestled his final match for the Showcase Wrestling Revolution in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that night he faced off with "The Prophet" Jeremy Barnoff, "The Seasoned Veteran" Brick Crawford and "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen for the SWR International Championship in a fatal four way elimination match. Corino wrestled a few try-out matches for WWE over a span of two days. Dusty Rhodes, Corino's former rival, was hopeful that WWE would sign him, but he was not offered a contract. Corino stated on his MySpace he enjoyed his time with WWE but felt he was too old school for the company. Return to the independent circuit (2008–2016) On the January 4, 2008, Corino won his third Zero1-Max United States Openweight Championship as Mr. Wrestling 3 (named after Mr. Wrestling I and II) by beating Ricky Landell in Valdosta, Georgia. He then lost the U.S. Title to SJK on March 8, 2008 at the Devil Bhudakahn Memorial Show in Munhall, Pennsylvania. He now wrestles as "Mr. Wrestling 3" Steve Corino without the mask, and sometimes as just Mr. Wrestling 3 with the mask. On July 24, 2008, Corino announced he would begin wrestling full-time again in his online blog. Corino plans to return to Japan where he has been the most successful. On July 19, 2008 Corino participated in the event WWC Anniversary but only to lose to Eugene. Later on September 20, 2008 he participated in the event Septiembre Negro where he defeated Sabu. Recently he is one of the members of a group called "La Familia", and is in a feud with BJ for the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship. In this feud thanks to the beatings that lead disqualification by the members of "La Familia", Ray Gonzalez saved BJ and after that Steve Corino attacked Ray Gonzalez in the locker rooms and this began a feud for the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship. On February 7, Steve Corino beat Ray Gonzalez to become WWC Universal Heavyweight Champion. On July 11 at Aniversario 2009 he lost the title to BJ. On June 26, 2010- Corino was inducted into the Legends Pro Wrestling "Hall of Fame" by Jack Blaze in Wheeling, West Virginia at their annual "LPW Rumble in the Valley" event. Since August 2010, Corino has made appearances in Germany for German Stampede Wrestling. On April 23, 2011, Corino returned to WWC and defeated Carlito, Gilbert and Shane the Glamour Boy in a gauntlet match to win the vacant WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He would lose the title to Carlito on June 4, 2011. On January 28, 2012, Steve Corino, billed as the "King of Old School", defeated Vordell Walker with assistance by Jillian Hall and the "Tokyo Monster" Kahagas in Orlando, Florida to become the PWX (Pro Wrestling Extreme) Heavyweight Champion. Corino, although bloodied, successfully defended his title against Tommy "Wildfire" Rich on April 28, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. On December 28, 2012, Steve Corino made his appearance for an ECW "revival" company as he appeared for Extreme Rising as the "mystery challenger" for Stevie Richards' Extreme Rising World Championship, where he was defeated by submission. In September 2014, Steve Corino defeated Doug Williams for the WAW World Heavyweight Championship in England which he would then defend in the USA in 2014 and 2015 against Curt Robinson and Joe Black. On May 9, 2015, Steve Corino made an appearance at TWE in Red Bank, Chattanooga against Ray Fury, where he was defeated. On May 22, 2015, Steve Corino became the PWF World-1 Heavyweight Champion defeating Jagger, Emmanuel Ortega and former teammate CW Anderson in a Fatal Four-Way. On March 6, 2016, Corino, along with CW Anderson, returned to Zero1 to take part in the promotion's 15th anniversary event. Return to ROH (2009–2016) On the December 7 edition of Ring of Honor Wrestling on HDNet, a video was shown hyping Corino's return to the company. During early 2010, Corino formed a partnership with Kevin Steen and together the two of them started a feud with Steen's former tag team partner El Generico and Colt Cabana. On April 3, 2010, Corino made his ROH pay-per-view debut at The Big Bang!, where he and Steen were defeated by El Generico and Cabana via disqualification, when Steen used a chair on his former partner. On September 11 at Glory By Honor IX Generico and Cabana defeated Steen and Corino in a Double Chain match, when Cabana forced Corino to tap out. On October 16, 2010, Cabana defeated Corino in an "I Quit" match to end their feud. Following Steen's departure from Ring of Honor after December's Final Battle 2010, Corino proclaimed himself a changed man and turned babyface. Corino began feuding with Mike Bennett, and the two faced each other at Manhattan Mayhem IV on March 19, with Bennett picking up the victory. On May 21 at Supercard of Honor VI, Corino revealed the returning Jimmy Jacobs as the sponsor, who had helped him change his ways. Kevin Steen returned to ROH on June 26 at Best in the World 2011, seemingly wanting redemption as well. However, after saving Corino from the House of Truth, Steen turned on him and Jacobs, before being dragged out of the arena. On December 23 at Final Battle 2011, with Jimmy Jacobs as the special guest referee in a No Disqualification match, Kevin Steen defeated his former mentor, Corino, to be reinstated in ROH. Corino later returned to ROH on May 12, 2012, when he formed the S.C.U.M. (Suffering, Chaos, Ugliness, and Mayhem) stable with Steen and Jacobs. On September 15 at Death Before Dishonor X: State of Emergency, Corino and Jacobs defeated Charlie Haas and Rhett Titus in the finals of a tournament to win the vacant ROH World Tag Team Championship. They lost the title to the Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark) on December 16 at Final Battle 2012: Doomsday in a three-way match, which also included the team of Caprice Coleman and Cedric Alexander. On April 6, 2013, Corino became the new leader of S.C.U.M., when the stable turned on Kevin Steen, after he had lost the ROH World Championship. On June 23, S.C.U.M. was forced to disband, after being defeated by Team ROH in a Steel Cage Warfare match. Since the dissolution of S.C.U.M., Corino has been working with ROH as their regular color commentator alongside play-by-play commentator Kevin Kelly and occasionally Nigel McGuinness while simultaneously having a running feud with B.J. Whitmer and The Decade. The rivalry has included Whitmer goading Corino to join The Decade, with Corino refusing, but Whitmer wasn't talking about Steve but his real-life son Colby and successfully recruiting him into The Decade. During his feud, McGuinness warned Corino that he can't attack any ROH employee or he will be suspended. After attacking Whitmer with a roll of quarters, McGuinness suspended and banned him from commentary, but then, he was reinstated as a wrestler and was scheduled to fight Whitmer in a Fight without Honor at Final Battle, but Corino announced that he was gonna have neck surgery and that his career may end. He continued to commentary with a mask under the name of Mr. Wrestling 3. Even he was taking that gimmick, Whitmer was saying that Mr. Wrestling 3 was indeed Steve Corino and was convincing Colby, that Corino replaced him for Corino's new wife and son, and Whitmer continued torturing Colby in front of Corino's eyes. At War of the Worlds, Corino returned as the Steve Corino character, admitting that he didn't want to be the "Evil Man" anymore, but after Whitmer's deeds, he promised that at the newly reinstated match that will happen at Best in the World 2016, he will do things that he will never apologize for. At Best in the World, Corino faced Whitmer in a Non-Sanctioned Fight without Honor, but he lost after the interference of Kevin Sullivan. After Best in the World, Corino returned to commentating, but during Whitmer's matches, he was continuously berated by Sullivan. At the Final Battle event, Cody, who defeated Jay Lethal, proceeded to cause chaos in the ring and then he pushed Corino. The night at the event, Whitmer said that a "brother" has to be sacrificed, which was revealed that Corino was about to fight Cody, who berated Corino's actions with Dusty Rhodes. In their match, Corino lost to Cody, which was Corino's last match in ROH. Corino's ROH contract expired on December 31, 2016. WWE (2016–present) In November 2016, Corino worked as a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center. Shortly afterwards, it was reported that he had signed to become a full-time trainer for WWE, starting January 2017. On January 12, 2017, it was confirmed that Corino was now working for WWE. According to Pro Wrestling Torch in September 2017, Corino teaches the advanced class at the WWE Performance Center, the third of four levels of classes. In November 2018, it was revealed through a leaked script of NXT Takeover WarGames that same month that Corino is currently working with NXT as a producer as he was credited for the NXT Championship match between champion Tommaso Ciampa and The Velveteen Dream for a role as a producer for that particular match. Personal life Corino is the older brother of retired independent wrestler Allison Danger, and has a half-brother whose first name is also Steven. Corino married Nicole Holmstock on June 14, 1997. Together they have a son, named Colby (born August 28, 1996), and is a professional wrestler. Corino and Nicole divorced in 2003. On November 12, 2005, Steve Corino got engaged to his Finnish girlfriend Saana-Maria Huhtimo. They were married on May 12, 2006 in North Carolina. However, the couple separated in mid-2008, divorcing the following year. Corino married Jordan Pennypacker in 2013, and had their first child together, a son named Beckham, or "Becks" for short. Corino has repeatedly stated that his favorite old school wrestlers are Tommy Rich and Tully Blanchard. Corino has said that his favorite match while in ECW was the infamous Texas Bullrope Match against Dusty Rhodes at Living Dangerously 2000. Corino hosts the Extreme Odd Couple podcast with Rob Dimension, where they talk about professional wrestling and their personal lives. Championships and accomplishments Absolute Intense Wrestling AIW Absolute Championship (1 time) ACE Pro Wrestling ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) All Action Wrestling AAW Australian Championship (1 time) American Championship Entertainment ACE Heavyweight Championship (1 time) American Wrestling Council AWC Heavyweight Championship (1 time, final) AWA Superstars of Wrestling AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) AWA Superstars of Wrestling World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ricky Landell Appalachia Pro Wrestling APW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Blue Water Championship Wrestling BWCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brew City Wrestling BCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Brookwood 4 Wrestling B4W North American Heavyweight Championship (2 times) B4W Hardcore Championship (1 time) B4W Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Shocker of the Year Award (2007) Carolina Wrestling Association CWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) East Coast Wrestling Association ECWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Lance Diamond Eastern Shores Wrestling ESW Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Extreme Championship Wrestling ECW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Funking Conservatory FC !BANG! Television Championship (1 time) FC Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Windsor German Stampede Wrestling GSW World Heavyweight Championship (3 times) Four Nations Cup (2005) Hawai'i Championship Wrestling HCW Kekaulike Heritage Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mr. Wrestling II High Volume Pro Wrestling HVPW Hall of Fame (2016) High Risk Pro Wrestling HRPW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IWA Championship Wrestling IWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Independent Wrestling Federation IWF American Championship (2 times) Independent Pro Wrestling Alliance IPWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) IPWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash IPWA Light Heavyweight Title Tournament (1997) Intercontinental Wrestling Association IWA-PA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) International High Powered Wrestling IHPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Wrestling KYDA Pro Heavyweight Championship (1 time) KYDA Pro Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) Legends Pro Wrestling LPW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Major League Wrestling MLW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Maryland Championship Wrestling MCW Hall of Fame (Class of 2010) Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation MEWF Mid-Atlantic Championship (1 time) MEWF Light Heavyweight Championship (3 times) MEWF Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Jimmy Cicero Most Hated Wrestler Achievement Award (1996) NWA 2000 NWA American Heritage Championship (1 time) NWA 2000 Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA American Heritage Title Tournament (1997) NWA Florida NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Florida version) (1 time) NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Heartland States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Florida Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA New Jersey NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Title Tournament (2002) NWA United States Tag Team Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) – with Lance Diamond NWA World Light Heavyweight Championship (New Jersey version) (1 time) NWA New Jersey / New York NWA New Jersey / New York Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Midwest NWA Midwest Heavyweight Championship / Zero1 Pro Wrestling USA Midwest Heavyweight Championship (1 time) NWA Southwest NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time) One Pro Wrestling 1PW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts OMEGA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling PCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pennsylvania Wrestling Alliance PWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Platinum Pro Wrestling PPW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Championship Wrestling PCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Knight PCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Premier Wrestling Federation PWF Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with C.W. Anderson (3) and Kid America (1) PWF Universal Six Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler PWF Universal Heavyweight Championship (6 times) PWF Mid-Atlantic Masters Championship (1 time) PWF Universal Six Man Title Tournament (2016) – with C.W. Anderson and John Skyler Match of the Year (2002, 2005, 2014, 2021) PWF MVP (2003) Tag Team of the Year (2005) - with C.W. Anderson Pro-Wrestling SUN WBD Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Toshie Uematsu PWF Northeast PWF Northeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Extreme PWX Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #35 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2001 PWI Most Improved Wrestler of the Year (2000) Pro Wrestling World-1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) PWF World-1 Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World-1 North American Champion (1 time) World-1 Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with C.W. Anderson (1) and Colby Corino (1) Pro Wrestling Zero1 AWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times) NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Mike Rapada (1), C.W. Anderson (1), Y2P-160kg (1), and Charles Evans (1) Zero-One United States Heavyweight Championship (4 times) Pure Wrestling Association PWA Pure Wrestling Championship (1 time) Carrot Cup (2008) - with Reggie Marley Ring of Honor ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Jimmy Jacobs ROH World Tag Team Championship Tournament (2012) – with Jimmy Jacobs Southern Championship Wrestling SCW Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Tri-State Wrestling Alliance TWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time) Union of Independent Professional Wrestlers UIPW Union Heavyweight Championship (1 time) UNION Heavyweight Title Tournament (2007) United States Championship Wrestling USCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Adam Flash USA Xtreme Wrestling UXW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) World Association of Wrestling WAW World Heavyweight Championship (1 time) World Wrestling Council WWC World Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time) WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (2 times) Américas Wrestling Federation AWF Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (1 time) References External links World of Corino (Official Website) 1973 births American male professional wrestlers American men podcasters American podcasters Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian male professional wrestlers Canadian people of Italian descent Canadian men podcasters Canadian podcasters ECW Heavyweight Champions/ECW World Heavyweight Champions Living people Masked wrestlers NWA World Heavyweight Champions People from Sea Isle City, New Jersey Professional wrestlers from Manitoba Professional wrestling managers and valets Professional wrestling promoters Professional wrestling trainers Sportspeople from Philadelphia Sportspeople from Winnipeg People from Emerald Isle, North Carolina	true	[ "What A Summer (foal in 1973) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse who defeated both male and female competitors. She was bred in Maryland by Milton Polinger. She was a gray out of the mare Summer Classic who was sired by Summer Tan. Her sire was What Luck, a multiple stakes winning son of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Bold Ruler. What A Summer is probably best remembered for her win in the Grade II $65,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes over stakes winners Dearly Precious and Artfully on May 14, 1976.\n\nTwo-year-old season \n\nWhat A Summer was trained very early in her career by Hall of Fame conditioner Bud Delp while racing for her breeder, Milton Polinger. She was bought by Mrs. Bertram Firestone following Polinger's death in the early fall of 1976. That death delayed her the first start of her career until late in the year. Mrs. Firestone turned the mare over to trainer LeRoy Jolley. What A Summer did not start racing until near the end of her two-year-old season, when she broke her maiden at Philadelphia Park. Near the end of the year, she won an allowance race. She ended the year with two wins in four starts.\n\nThree-year-old season \nIn January, What A Summer placed second in her first stakes race, the $25,000 Heirloom Stakes at the old Liberty Bell Race Track in Philadelphia. Two months later, she won her second allowance race over winners and convinced her connections that she was ready to step up in class and take on stakes winners in the Grade II $65,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. In that race, she withstood a fast closing challenge down the stretch to hold off a late charge by 4:5 favorite Dearly Precious in a final time of 1:42.40 for the mile and one sixteenth on the dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Her jockey, Chris McCarron, was credited with a solid ride by conserving energy with moderate fractions in the middle portion of the race. Stakes winner Artfully held on for third in the field of ten three-year-old fillies. In December 1976, What A Summer won the $50,000 Anne Arundel Stakes at Laurel Park Racecourse, beating Turn the Guns and Avum in 1:38.20 for the mile under McCarron.\n\nFour-year-old season \n\nIn 1977, What A Summer won the $75,000 Fall Highweight Handicap twice, carrying the high weight of 134 pounds under jockey Jacinto Vásquez. The Fall Highweight is run in November of each year at Aqueduct Racetrack. In the 1977 race, she finished in a time of 1:09.4 and she broke the stakes record for six furlongs. That year, she also won the $40,000 Silver Spoon Handicap, the $50,000 Maskette Handicap and the $35,000 Distaff Handicap. She placed second in the grade one Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park and showed in both the $40,000 Grey Flight Handicap and the $25,000 Regret Stakes.\n\nFive-year-old season \n\nIn 1978 as a five-year-old, What A Summer repeated two of her victories from the year before in both the Fall Highweight Handicap, under Hall of Fame jockey Ángel Cordero Jr., and the $40,000 Silver Spoon Handicap. She also won the $40,000 First Flight Handicap. She placed second in the grade two Vosburgh Stakes, the grade three Vagrancy Handicap, the Sport Page Handicap, the Suwanee River Handicap and the Egret Handicap.\n\nHonors \n\nWhat A Summer was named Maryland-bred horse of the year in 1977 and twice was named champion older mare for the state of Maryland in both 1977 and 1978. She was retired in 1978 and as a broodmare she produced several graded stakes winners. After her retirement, Laurel Park Racecourse named a race in honor, the What A Summer Stakes. She was an Eclipse Award winner and was named American Champion Sprint Horse in 1977.\n\nWhat A Summer ended her career with a record of 18 wins out of 31 starts in her career. Her most memorable race was perhaps her dominating performance in the de facto second leg of the filly Triple Crown, the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. In addition to her 18 wins, she placed nine times with earnings of $479,161. That record of 27 first or second finishes in 31 starts at 87% is among the best in history.\n\nReferences\n What A Summer's pedigree and partial racing stats\n\n1973 racehorse births\nRacehorses bred in Maryland\nRacehorses trained in the United States\nEclipse Award winners\nThoroughbred family 17-b", "Now What (foaled 1937, in Kentucky) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse. Her dam was That's That, and her sire was the 1927 American Horse of the Year and two-time Leading sire in North America, Chance Play.\n\nBred by Guy and E. Paul Waggoner's Three D's Stock Farm of Fort Worth, Texas, Now What was raced by Alfred G. Vanderbilt II. Trained by Bud Stotler, she earned National Champion honors at age two after winning four important stakes races and running second in the Pimlico Nursery Stakes, and Juvenile Stakes. As a three-year-old, her best result in a top-level race was a second place finish in the Molly Brant Handicap at Saratoga Race Course. \n\nNow What served as a broodmare for Vanderbilt. Her most successful foal to race was Next Move, the 1950 American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly and the 1952 American Co-Champion Older Female Horse.\n\nPedigree\n\nReferences\n\n1937 racehorse births\nRacehorses bred in Kentucky\nRacehorses trained in the United States\nAmerican Champion racehorses\nVanderbilt family\nThoroughbred family 20\nGodolphin Arabian sire line" ]
[ "Alan White (Oasis drummer)", "Departure" ]	C_067037b0e4614ff19684cf8a26779b6e_0	What years was he a drummer for oasis?	1	What years was Alan White a drummer for oasis?	Alan White (Oasis drummer)	In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a ***** great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is *** chaos. In the end he ** *, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). CANNOTANSWER	In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album.	Alan Victor "Whitey" White (born 26 May 1972) is an English rock drummer, best known as being the drummer of the English rock band Oasis from 1995 to 2004. Before Oasis, he was the drummer of Starclub from 1991 to 1994. He is the longest-serving drummer in Oasis's history, performing on four studio albums and one song on Don't Believe The Truth, two compilation albums, and one live album during his tenure. He joined the band in April 1995 after the band's original drummer Tony McCarroll was removed. He was recommended to Noel Gallagher by Gallagher's friend Paul Weller. Notably, Alan's brother, Steve, had been a longtime drummer for Weller. White left Oasis in early 2004 and was replaced by Zak Starkey, drummer of The Who and son of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr. Biography Before Oasis (1987–1995) In 1988, White auditioned to join future Oasis member Gem Archer's band Whirlpool. "He came down and just blew us all away," remembers Archer. "I thought he was mega but the others were worried what a 15-years-old kid on the road and on the lager would be like. I rang his dad and told him: 'Sorry. But don't worry he's fantastic. He'll go all the way.' And he did. It was the weirdest day when he welcomed me to Oasis. And he hasn't let me forget it." White also played drums on Andy Bell's wife Idha's solo album, forming a connection with another future Oasis member. It was at this session that Noel Gallagher first heard him playing, though he was recommended to Noel by Paul Weller. Prior to joining Oasis, White drummed with London-based band Starclub and also for Dr Robert, lead singer of The Blow Monkeys. White's brother, Steve White, had played with Weller's The Style Council and various other famous musicians, including The Who. Because of this connection, Alan mentioned that Steve impacted greatly his development as a drummer. His other influences include Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Chad Smith, Mick Avory, and John Bonham. Oasis career (1995–2004) White replaced original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll in April 1995 and was immediately "thrown in the deep end", joining the band the very next day to perform a playback of "Some Might Say" in front of a national TV audience on BBC1's long running music programme Top of the Pops. One of White's first live shows with Oasis was in front of a massive crowd at the Glastonbury Festival in June 1995. Until the arrival of Andy Bell in the Autumn of 1999, White was the token southerner in the otherwise Mancunian Oasis. Initially known as 'Whitey', he was later re-christened 'Dave' by the band because he once served himself a drink from an unattended bar, therefore resembling the character Dave from "The Winchester" in the '70s TV series Minder. White commented on the "North/South divide" saying it was not that bad, but "for ages I was the 'Cockney cunt' and they were the 'Manc fuckers'". In his book What's the Story? Ian Robertson (who served as Oasis' tour manager from 1994 to 1995) stated that White was also known by the phrase "Alan White – He's alright". White was also entrusted with the job of being Liam Gallagher's 'official' drinking partner and was also said to be his best friend in the band. Together the pair were known as 'Bert and Ernie', named after the Sesame Street-characters. In December 2002 Liam and White were involved in a high-profile brawl in a German bar. Consequently, Liam lost some of his front teeth, and White needed a brain scan after suffering minor head injuries. Both were arrested by the authorities and were released only after the band's management paid for their bail. Noel Gallagher has stated that White had a far greater significance to the band than a mere session and touring drummer, claiming that he helped immensely in the recording process. Noel also said that when he wrote a song he would play it to White who would often adapt the rhythm of the song or advise Gallagher on possible changes in the tempo. On the other hand, Oasis producer Owen Morris described White as "essentially a jazz drummer" who "was always shuffling away on his snare [...] and never hitting the basic back beats in a big dumb rock and roll way", feeling that he did not understand Oasis' sound as well as McCarroll. At the time of his departure White was the longest-serving member in Oasis beside the Gallaghers (he was later passed by Gem Archer and Andy Bell) and passed through thick and thin with the brothers despite being struck down several times with bouts of alleged tendinitis during his later years with the band. White performed on four of Oasis' studio albums: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), Be Here Now (1997), Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) and Heathen Chemistry (2002) and Lyla on Dont Believe The Truth (2005) . He also played on the majority of band's B-sides, some of which were released on the record The Masterplan (1998). White married model Liz Carey on 13 August 1997 at Studley Priory Hotel, Oxfordshire. They had met on the set of the "Don't Look Back in Anger" music video in 1995. The couple divorced in 2004. Departure In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a fucking great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is fucking chaos. In the end he fucked off, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). After Oasis (2004–present) Since his departure, White has remained out of the spotlight. On 15 June 2008, at the Jazz Cafe, Camden, London, White took to the stage for the first known time since leaving Oasis, with Trio Valore, whose drummer was White's brother, Steve. White sold his London home in 2013 and moved to the country with his family. His brother Steve explained on his website that Alan "is just having a nice time, he has pursued other interests in business." White joined Instagram in 2020, and began sharing videos drumming to Oasis songs. Discography Dr Robert Bethesda (1995) Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) Be Here Now (1997) The Masterplan (1998) Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) Familiar to Millions (2000) Heathen Chemistry (2002) Lyla on Don't Believe the Truth'' (2005) References External links 1972 births Living people English rock drummers People from Eltham Oasis (band) members Britpop musicians Musicians from London 21st-century drummers	true	[ "Anthony \"Tony\" McCarroll (born 4 June 1971) is an English drummer and one of the founding members of the English rock band Oasis, as their drummer from 1991 to April 1995. He played the drums on their debut album, Definitely Maybe, and on \"Some Might Say\", Oasis' first number-one single, from the album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, before he was dismissed from the band in 1995.\n\nEarly life\nAnthony McCarroll was born to Irish parents on 4 June 1971 in Levenshulme, Manchester, where he grew up. He has family in Ireland and spent a couple of years living there when he was younger due to his father's work. McCarroll got his first drum kit when he was six years old.\n\nCareer\n\nOasis\nMcCarroll had met Paul McGuigan while playing for the local football team at a young age. Together with McGuigan's friend Bonehead, they formed a band called The Rain and hired Chris Hutton as their singer, but he was sacked and replaced by Liam Gallagher not so long after, whom McCarroll had also known through childhood. Liam decided to change the name to Oasis, inspired by a poster for Inspiral Carpets that was hanging in his room.\n\nSoon after Liam's brother Noel joined. McCarroll has stated in his book that he was closely involved in the creation of several of Oasis's songs, including \"Supersonic\", despite Noel being given sole credit as songwriter.\n\nNoel and McCarroll got on during childhood, but as Oasis gradually became famous, the relationship between the two faltered. Noel had repeatedly publicly slammed McCarroll's drumming ability, saying it was not good enough for a number one single.\n\nOn the last day of April 1995, McCarroll's departure was announced and he was replaced by Alan White, who remained until 2004.\n\nOasis producer Owen Morris said of McCarroll, \"Tony was quiet and always polite to me, but seemed out of his depth…so I think Tony did well to survive as long as he did in Oasis\". Morris described McCarroll's drumming style as \"extremely basic\", but with timing and tempo that were \"almost autistically perfect\".\n\nLawsuit against the band\nIn 1999 McCarroll hired a solicitor Jens Hills – who had won Pete Best £2 million from The Beatles in 1995 – to sue Oasis for £18 million. Arguing McCarroll was owed his part of the band's five-album deal with Creation, the case hoped to set a legal precedent, as McCarroll would have claimed compensation for two LPs on which he had not played. Eventually, he accepted an out-of-court settlement of £550,000 in March 1999 and agreed to give up future royalties, which effectively severed all links to the band, with McCarroll's legal fees reported at £250,000.\n\nLife after Oasis\nIn an article building up to Oasis' seventh studio album Dig Out Your Soul in Q magazine in 2008, it was revealed that McCaroll was last seen in 2000 performing with the band Raika.\n\nMcCarroll's biography about his time in Oasis, entitled Oasis: The Truth, was released in October 2010.\n\nMcCarroll was also interviewed for the documentary entitled Oasis: Supersonic in 2016 and the audio was included in the film.\n\nOn 30 August 2021, McCarroll revealed via Twitter that he had been admitted to hospital five days prior after suffering from a heart attack, but stated that while he was \"not out of the woods yet\", his recovery was progressing well and thanked the NHS staff for their services. The following day, McCarroll tweeted that he was \"all good\" and had left hospital after having been fitted with a coronary stent to regulate his blood flow.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial Oasis website\n\nLiving people\nEnglish rock drummers\nEnglish people of Irish descent\nMusicians from Manchester\nOasis (band) members\nPeople from Levenshulme\n1971 births\nBritpop musicians\nEnglish expatriates in Ireland\n21st-century drummers", "Oasis were an English rock band from Manchester. Formed in 1991, the group originally included vocalist Liam Gallagher, guitarist Paul \"Bonehead\" Arthurs, bassist Paul \"Guigsy\" McGuigan and drummer Tony McCarroll, although the quartet were soon joined by guitarist and second vocalist Noel Gallagher, older brother of Liam. They released their debut album Definitely Maybe in 1994, the material for which was entirely written by Noel Gallagher. Standalone single \"Whatever\" was issued later in the year, which was later co-credited to Neil Innes due to plagiarism. The band's second album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, their first with new drummer Alan White, followed in 1995. All songs were again credited to Noel Gallagher, although opening track \"Hello\" was co-credited to Gary Glitter and Mike Leander due to its use of lyrics from Glitter's single \"Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again\". Oasis released their third album Be Here Now in 1997, which was their last to be written entirely by Noel Gallagher.\n\nBonehead and Guigsy both left Oasis in 1999, leaving the Gallagher brothers and White to record the band's next album alone. Standing on the Shoulder of Giants was released in 2000, featuring the first song written by Liam Gallagher for the band, \"Little James\". After adding new band members Gem Archer on guitar and Andy Bell on bass, the group released Heathen Chemistry in 2002, which featured songwriting contributions from all band members except White, including the first single not written by Noel Gallagher (Liam's \"Songbird\"). White left in 2004, with The Who touring drummer Zak Starkey taking his place as an unofficial member. Don't Believe the Truth was released in 2005, with both Gallaghers, Archer and Bell all writing songs for the album again. Noel Gallagher's \"Who Put the Weight of the World on My Shoulders?\" was contributed to the soundtrack for the film Goal! in 2006, and the following year \"Lord Don't Slow Me Down\" was released as a single from the film of the same name.\n\nOasis released their latest album Dig Out Your Soul in 2008, which featured six songs written by Noel Gallagher, three by Liam Gallagher, and one each by Archer and Bell. Starkey was replaced by Chris Sharrock after the album was recorded. After a confrontation with Liam backstage, Noel Gallagher announced his departure from Oasis in August 2009, with the remaining members forming Beady Eye together the following year.\n\nSongs\n\nSee also\nOasis discography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOasis official website\nList of Oasis songs at AllMusic\n\nOasis" ]
[ "Alan White (Oasis drummer)", "Departure", "What years was he a drummer for oasis?", "In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album." ]	C_067037b0e4614ff19684cf8a26779b6e_0	What did he do after leaving Oasis?	2	What did Alan White do after leaving Oasis?	Alan White (Oasis drummer)	In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a ***** great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is *** chaos. In the end he ** *, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). CANNOTANSWER	White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo	Alan Victor "Whitey" White (born 26 May 1972) is an English rock drummer, best known as being the drummer of the English rock band Oasis from 1995 to 2004. Before Oasis, he was the drummer of Starclub from 1991 to 1994. He is the longest-serving drummer in Oasis's history, performing on four studio albums and one song on Don't Believe The Truth, two compilation albums, and one live album during his tenure. He joined the band in April 1995 after the band's original drummer Tony McCarroll was removed. He was recommended to Noel Gallagher by Gallagher's friend Paul Weller. Notably, Alan's brother, Steve, had been a longtime drummer for Weller. White left Oasis in early 2004 and was replaced by Zak Starkey, drummer of The Who and son of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr. Biography Before Oasis (1987–1995) In 1988, White auditioned to join future Oasis member Gem Archer's band Whirlpool. "He came down and just blew us all away," remembers Archer. "I thought he was mega but the others were worried what a 15-years-old kid on the road and on the lager would be like. I rang his dad and told him: 'Sorry. But don't worry he's fantastic. He'll go all the way.' And he did. It was the weirdest day when he welcomed me to Oasis. And he hasn't let me forget it." White also played drums on Andy Bell's wife Idha's solo album, forming a connection with another future Oasis member. It was at this session that Noel Gallagher first heard him playing, though he was recommended to Noel by Paul Weller. Prior to joining Oasis, White drummed with London-based band Starclub and also for Dr Robert, lead singer of The Blow Monkeys. White's brother, Steve White, had played with Weller's The Style Council and various other famous musicians, including The Who. Because of this connection, Alan mentioned that Steve impacted greatly his development as a drummer. His other influences include Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Chad Smith, Mick Avory, and John Bonham. Oasis career (1995–2004) White replaced original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll in April 1995 and was immediately "thrown in the deep end", joining the band the very next day to perform a playback of "Some Might Say" in front of a national TV audience on BBC1's long running music programme Top of the Pops. One of White's first live shows with Oasis was in front of a massive crowd at the Glastonbury Festival in June 1995. Until the arrival of Andy Bell in the Autumn of 1999, White was the token southerner in the otherwise Mancunian Oasis. Initially known as 'Whitey', he was later re-christened 'Dave' by the band because he once served himself a drink from an unattended bar, therefore resembling the character Dave from "The Winchester" in the '70s TV series Minder. White commented on the "North/South divide" saying it was not that bad, but "for ages I was the 'Cockney cunt' and they were the 'Manc fuckers'". In his book What's the Story? Ian Robertson (who served as Oasis' tour manager from 1994 to 1995) stated that White was also known by the phrase "Alan White – He's alright". White was also entrusted with the job of being Liam Gallagher's 'official' drinking partner and was also said to be his best friend in the band. Together the pair were known as 'Bert and Ernie', named after the Sesame Street-characters. In December 2002 Liam and White were involved in a high-profile brawl in a German bar. Consequently, Liam lost some of his front teeth, and White needed a brain scan after suffering minor head injuries. Both were arrested by the authorities and were released only after the band's management paid for their bail. Noel Gallagher has stated that White had a far greater significance to the band than a mere session and touring drummer, claiming that he helped immensely in the recording process. Noel also said that when he wrote a song he would play it to White who would often adapt the rhythm of the song or advise Gallagher on possible changes in the tempo. On the other hand, Oasis producer Owen Morris described White as "essentially a jazz drummer" who "was always shuffling away on his snare [...] and never hitting the basic back beats in a big dumb rock and roll way", feeling that he did not understand Oasis' sound as well as McCarroll. At the time of his departure White was the longest-serving member in Oasis beside the Gallaghers (he was later passed by Gem Archer and Andy Bell) and passed through thick and thin with the brothers despite being struck down several times with bouts of alleged tendinitis during his later years with the band. White performed on four of Oasis' studio albums: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), Be Here Now (1997), Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) and Heathen Chemistry (2002) and Lyla on Dont Believe The Truth (2005) . He also played on the majority of band's B-sides, some of which were released on the record The Masterplan (1998). White married model Liz Carey on 13 August 1997 at Studley Priory Hotel, Oxfordshire. They had met on the set of the "Don't Look Back in Anger" music video in 1995. The couple divorced in 2004. Departure In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a fucking great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is fucking chaos. In the end he fucked off, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). After Oasis (2004–present) Since his departure, White has remained out of the spotlight. On 15 June 2008, at the Jazz Cafe, Camden, London, White took to the stage for the first known time since leaving Oasis, with Trio Valore, whose drummer was White's brother, Steve. White sold his London home in 2013 and moved to the country with his family. His brother Steve explained on his website that Alan "is just having a nice time, he has pursued other interests in business." White joined Instagram in 2020, and began sharing videos drumming to Oasis songs. Discography Dr Robert Bethesda (1995) Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) Be Here Now (1997) The Masterplan (1998) Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) Familiar to Millions (2000) Heathen Chemistry (2002) Lyla on Don't Believe the Truth'' (2005) References External links 1972 births Living people English rock drummers People from Eltham Oasis (band) members Britpop musicians Musicians from London 21st-century drummers	true	[ "\"Oasis\" is Do As Infinity's third single, released in 2000.\n\nThis song was included in the band's compilation albums Do the Best and Do the A-side.\n\nTrack listing\n\"Oasis\"\n\"Sell...\"\n\"Oasis\" (Instrumental)\n\"Sell...\" (Instrumental)\n\"Wings\" (Free Live 100 at Shibuya Public Hall)\n\"Heart\" (3SV Remix)\n\"Heart\" (Chromatic Mix)\n\nChart positions\n\nExternal links\n \"Oasis\" at Avex Network\n \"Oasis\" at Oricon\n\n2000 singles\nDo As Infinity songs\nSongs written by Dai Nagao\n2000 songs\nSong recordings produced by Seiji Kameda", "Anthony \"Tony\" McCarroll (born 4 June 1971) is an English drummer and one of the founding members of the English rock band Oasis, as their drummer from 1991 to April 1995. He played the drums on their debut album, Definitely Maybe, and on \"Some Might Say\", Oasis' first number-one single, from the album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, before he was dismissed from the band in 1995.\n\nEarly life\nAnthony McCarroll was born to Irish parents on 4 June 1971 in Levenshulme, Manchester, where he grew up. He has family in Ireland and spent a couple of years living there when he was younger due to his father's work. McCarroll got his first drum kit when he was six years old.\n\nCareer\n\nOasis\nMcCarroll had met Paul McGuigan while playing for the local football team at a young age. Together with McGuigan's friend Bonehead, they formed a band called The Rain and hired Chris Hutton as their singer, but he was sacked and replaced by Liam Gallagher not so long after, whom McCarroll had also known through childhood. Liam decided to change the name to Oasis, inspired by a poster for Inspiral Carpets that was hanging in his room.\n\nSoon after Liam's brother Noel joined. McCarroll has stated in his book that he was closely involved in the creation of several of Oasis's songs, including \"Supersonic\", despite Noel being given sole credit as songwriter.\n\nNoel and McCarroll got on during childhood, but as Oasis gradually became famous, the relationship between the two faltered. Noel had repeatedly publicly slammed McCarroll's drumming ability, saying it was not good enough for a number one single.\n\nOn the last day of April 1995, McCarroll's departure was announced and he was replaced by Alan White, who remained until 2004.\n\nOasis producer Owen Morris said of McCarroll, \"Tony was quiet and always polite to me, but seemed out of his depth…so I think Tony did well to survive as long as he did in Oasis\". Morris described McCarroll's drumming style as \"extremely basic\", but with timing and tempo that were \"almost autistically perfect\".\n\nLawsuit against the band\nIn 1999 McCarroll hired a solicitor Jens Hills – who had won Pete Best £2 million from The Beatles in 1995 – to sue Oasis for £18 million. Arguing McCarroll was owed his part of the band's five-album deal with Creation, the case hoped to set a legal precedent, as McCarroll would have claimed compensation for two LPs on which he had not played. Eventually, he accepted an out-of-court settlement of £550,000 in March 1999 and agreed to give up future royalties, which effectively severed all links to the band, with McCarroll's legal fees reported at £250,000.\n\nLife after Oasis\nIn an article building up to Oasis' seventh studio album Dig Out Your Soul in Q magazine in 2008, it was revealed that McCaroll was last seen in 2000 performing with the band Raika.\n\nMcCarroll's biography about his time in Oasis, entitled Oasis: The Truth, was released in October 2010.\n\nMcCarroll was also interviewed for the documentary entitled Oasis: Supersonic in 2016 and the audio was included in the film.\n\nOn 30 August 2021, McCarroll revealed via Twitter that he had been admitted to hospital five days prior after suffering from a heart attack, but stated that while he was \"not out of the woods yet\", his recovery was progressing well and thanked the NHS staff for their services. The following day, McCarroll tweeted that he was \"all good\" and had left hospital after having been fitted with a coronary stent to regulate his blood flow.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nOfficial Oasis website\n\nLiving people\nEnglish rock drummers\nEnglish people of Irish descent\nMusicians from Manchester\nOasis (band) members\nPeople from Levenshulme\n1971 births\nBritpop musicians\nEnglish expatriates in Ireland\n21st-century drummers" ]
[ "Alan White (Oasis drummer)", "Departure", "What years was he a drummer for oasis?", "In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album.", "What did he do after leaving Oasis?", "White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo" ]	C_067037b0e4614ff19684cf8a26779b6e_0	What happened after he was replaces by Ringo Star?	3	What happened after Alan White was replaced by Ringo Star?	Alan White (Oasis drummer)	In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a ***** great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is *** chaos. In the end he ** *, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). CANNOTANSWER	Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording	Alan Victor "Whitey" White (born 26 May 1972) is an English rock drummer, best known as being the drummer of the English rock band Oasis from 1995 to 2004. Before Oasis, he was the drummer of Starclub from 1991 to 1994. He is the longest-serving drummer in Oasis's history, performing on four studio albums and one song on Don't Believe The Truth, two compilation albums, and one live album during his tenure. He joined the band in April 1995 after the band's original drummer Tony McCarroll was removed. He was recommended to Noel Gallagher by Gallagher's friend Paul Weller. Notably, Alan's brother, Steve, had been a longtime drummer for Weller. White left Oasis in early 2004 and was replaced by Zak Starkey, drummer of The Who and son of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr. Biography Before Oasis (1987–1995) In 1988, White auditioned to join future Oasis member Gem Archer's band Whirlpool. "He came down and just blew us all away," remembers Archer. "I thought he was mega but the others were worried what a 15-years-old kid on the road and on the lager would be like. I rang his dad and told him: 'Sorry. But don't worry he's fantastic. He'll go all the way.' And he did. It was the weirdest day when he welcomed me to Oasis. And he hasn't let me forget it." White also played drums on Andy Bell's wife Idha's solo album, forming a connection with another future Oasis member. It was at this session that Noel Gallagher first heard him playing, though he was recommended to Noel by Paul Weller. Prior to joining Oasis, White drummed with London-based band Starclub and also for Dr Robert, lead singer of The Blow Monkeys. White's brother, Steve White, had played with Weller's The Style Council and various other famous musicians, including The Who. Because of this connection, Alan mentioned that Steve impacted greatly his development as a drummer. His other influences include Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Chad Smith, Mick Avory, and John Bonham. Oasis career (1995–2004) White replaced original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll in April 1995 and was immediately "thrown in the deep end", joining the band the very next day to perform a playback of "Some Might Say" in front of a national TV audience on BBC1's long running music programme Top of the Pops. One of White's first live shows with Oasis was in front of a massive crowd at the Glastonbury Festival in June 1995. Until the arrival of Andy Bell in the Autumn of 1999, White was the token southerner in the otherwise Mancunian Oasis. Initially known as 'Whitey', he was later re-christened 'Dave' by the band because he once served himself a drink from an unattended bar, therefore resembling the character Dave from "The Winchester" in the '70s TV series Minder. White commented on the "North/South divide" saying it was not that bad, but "for ages I was the 'Cockney cunt' and they were the 'Manc fuckers'". In his book What's the Story? Ian Robertson (who served as Oasis' tour manager from 1994 to 1995) stated that White was also known by the phrase "Alan White – He's alright". White was also entrusted with the job of being Liam Gallagher's 'official' drinking partner and was also said to be his best friend in the band. Together the pair were known as 'Bert and Ernie', named after the Sesame Street-characters. In December 2002 Liam and White were involved in a high-profile brawl in a German bar. Consequently, Liam lost some of his front teeth, and White needed a brain scan after suffering minor head injuries. Both were arrested by the authorities and were released only after the band's management paid for their bail. Noel Gallagher has stated that White had a far greater significance to the band than a mere session and touring drummer, claiming that he helped immensely in the recording process. Noel also said that when he wrote a song he would play it to White who would often adapt the rhythm of the song or advise Gallagher on possible changes in the tempo. On the other hand, Oasis producer Owen Morris described White as "essentially a jazz drummer" who "was always shuffling away on his snare [...] and never hitting the basic back beats in a big dumb rock and roll way", feeling that he did not understand Oasis' sound as well as McCarroll. At the time of his departure White was the longest-serving member in Oasis beside the Gallaghers (he was later passed by Gem Archer and Andy Bell) and passed through thick and thin with the brothers despite being struck down several times with bouts of alleged tendinitis during his later years with the band. White performed on four of Oasis' studio albums: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), Be Here Now (1997), Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) and Heathen Chemistry (2002) and Lyla on Dont Believe The Truth (2005) . He also played on the majority of band's B-sides, some of which were released on the record The Masterplan (1998). White married model Liz Carey on 13 August 1997 at Studley Priory Hotel, Oxfordshire. They had met on the set of the "Don't Look Back in Anger" music video in 1995. The couple divorced in 2004. Departure In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a fucking great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is fucking chaos. In the end he fucked off, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). After Oasis (2004–present) Since his departure, White has remained out of the spotlight. On 15 June 2008, at the Jazz Cafe, Camden, London, White took to the stage for the first known time since leaving Oasis, with Trio Valore, whose drummer was White's brother, Steve. White sold his London home in 2013 and moved to the country with his family. His brother Steve explained on his website that Alan "is just having a nice time, he has pursued other interests in business." White joined Instagram in 2020, and began sharing videos drumming to Oasis songs. Discography Dr Robert Bethesda (1995) Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) Be Here Now (1997) The Masterplan (1998) Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) Familiar to Millions (2000) Heathen Chemistry (2002) Lyla on Don't Believe the Truth'' (2005) References External links 1972 births Living people English rock drummers People from Eltham Oasis (band) members Britpop musicians Musicians from London 21st-century drummers	true	[ "Christian Jacques Rashad Ringo (born March 10, 1992) is an American football defensive tackle for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Louisiana and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft.\n\nProfessional career\n\nGreen Bay Packers\n\n2015 season\nRingo was selected in the sixth round (210th overall) by the Green Bay Packers in the 2015 NFL Draft. On May 8, 2015, he signed a contract with the Packers. Ringo was released by the Packers during final team cuts on September 5, 2015. On September 7, 2015, he was signed to the Packers' practice squad. Packers' linebacker Jayrone Elliott commented on Ringo in mid-November, saying he had become \"the captain of the scout team\". Halfway through the season, Ringo had at least one team wanting to sign him to their active roster. However, he decided to accept an offer with the Packers to increase his salary while continuing to play on the practice squad. Ringo was re-signed by the Packers after the season ended on January 18, 2016.\n\n2016 season\nRingo recorded four tackles and two sacks in the preseason, earning him a spot on the Packers' 53-man roster. He made his NFL debut against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the season opener, finishing the game with one tackle.\n\n2017 season\nOn April 13, 2017, Ringo signed his exclusive rights tender to remain with the Packers. He was waived by the Packers on September 5, 2017.\n\nCincinnati Bengals\nOn September 6, 2017, Ringo was claimed off waivers by the Cincinnati Bengals. He was waived by the team on September 12, 2017.\n\nDetroit Lions\nOn September 14, 2017, Ringo was signed to the Detroit Lions' practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on November 22, 2017.\n\nOn August 31, 2018, Ringo was waived by the Lions.\n\nDallas Cowboys\nOn September 26, 2018, Ringo was signed to the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad. He was promoted to the active roster on November 17, 2018, but was waived two days later and re-signed to the practice squad.\n\nCincinnati Bengals (second stint)\nOn November 23, 2018, Ringo was signed by the Cincinnati Bengals off the Cowboys practice squad.\n\nHe was waived with an injury settlement during final roster cuts on August 30, 2019.\n\nWinnipeg Blue Bombers\nRingo signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League (CFL) on July 1, 2020. After the CFL canceled the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ringo chose to opt-out of his contract with the Argonauts on August 28, 2020.\n\nNew Orleans Saints\nOn November 11, 2020, Ringo was signed to the New Orleans Saints' practice squad. He was released on January 11, 2021. On January 18, 2021, Ringo signed a reserve/futures contract with the Saints.\n\nNFL career statistics\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nGreen Bay Packers bio\nLouisiana–Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns bio\n\n1992 births\nLiving people\nPlayers of American football from Jackson, Mississippi\nAmerican football defensive tackles\nAmerican football defensive ends\nLouisiana Ragin' Cajuns football players\nGreen Bay Packers players\nCincinnati Bengals players\nDetroit Lions players\nDallas Cowboys players\nWinnipeg Blue Bombers players\nNew Orleans Saints players", "Liverpool 8 is the 15th studio album by Ringo Starr, released worldwide on 14 January 2008. Received with mixed reviews, it marked Starr's return to EMI for the first time since leaving the label in 1975, following the end of the Beatles' recording contract with the company.\n\nBackground\nLiverpool 8 was originally planned for release in June 2007, and began as another production by the collaborative team of Mark Hudson and Starr (the two had previously co-produced Vertical Man, I Wanna Be Santa Claus, VH1 Storytellers, Ringo Rama, and Choose Love). However, the release date was pushed back to the beginning of 2008 when Hudson was replaced by Dave Stewart after a falling out with Starr. The album's production credits read, \"Produced by Ringo Starr and Mark Hudson; Re-Produced by Ringo Starr and David Stewart.\"\n\nAll of the songs but one were written with the Roundheads, although Stewart also has several co-writing credits. Starr's attorney Bruce Grakal told journalist Peter Palmiere that the partnership between Hudson and Starr was over and they would never work together again. This happened after Hudson dropped out of Starr's 2006 tour as musical director to do the television special The One: Making a Music Star. According to Palmiere, Hudson claimed that the split was over Starr's insistence on using synthesized sounds, for which Stewart is known, whereas Hudson wanted real guitars, pianos, strings etc. However, concerning the parting of ways with Hudson, Starr commented, \"The separation between Mark Hudson and myself was a question of trust and friendship and had nothing to do with synthesizers.\"\n\nRelease\nLiverpool 8 was released worldwide by Capitol Records. The title refers to the postal district of the Toxteth area of Liverpool in which Starr was born. The album was released on CD, MP3, and USB Wristband. It was available as a free audio stream at www.vh1classic.com before its release date. The title track was released on CD and digital download as the first single from the album on 7 January 2008. Liverpool 8 entered the UK Album Chart at number 91, and reached a peak of number 94 in the US. The album sold 7,000 copies within the first week of release and as of January 2010, 31,000 copies have been sold.\n\nA few weeks later after the album release, readers of the New York Daily News were offered a non-album track called \"It's Love\", which was recorded during the sessions for Liverpool 8.\n\nReception\n\nLiverpool 8 has a 59 percent \"mixed or average\" rating from Metacritic. Billboard gave the album a positive review, calling it \"full of nostalgia for the good ol' days\". Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes that \"it's nothing too flashy and it has not one tune that calls attention to itself\". In a particularly unfavourable review for The Times, Pete Paphides wrote that \"it’s hard not to boggle at Liverpool's susceptibility to flattery\", and \"Just because [the album] was fun to make, it doesn’t follow that you might enjoy listening to it.\"\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks written by Ringo Starr, Mark Hudson, Gary Burr and Steve Dudas except where noted.\n\nPersonnel\nPersonnel per booklet.\n\nMusicians\n Ringo Starr – drums, vocals, percussion, background vocals, claps, organ\n Sean Hurley – bass\n David A. Stewart – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, orchestra arrangement, backwards fabulousness, slide Guitar\n Gary Burr – background vocals, claps, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, whistle, keyboards, mandolin\n Steve Dudas – background vocals, claps, electric guitar, classical guitar\n Brent Carpenter – background vocals, claps\n Mark Hudson – background vocals, claps, bass, electric guitar, piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar, bongos, harmonica, mellotron\n Bruce Sugar – background vocals, claps\n Keith Allison – background vocals, claps\n Suzie Katayama – orchestra arrangement, conductor\n Zac Rae – keyboards\n Dave Way – bass\n Jesse Davey – electric guitar\n\nProduction\n Ringo Starr, Mark Hudson – producers, except on \"Liverpool 8\"\n Ringo Starr, David A. Stewart – producers on \"Liverpool 8\"\n Mark Hudson – additional production\n Ringo Starr, David A. Stewart – re-producers\n Bruce Sugar – engineer\n Steve Dudas, Gary Burr, Ned Douglas – additional engineers\n Bill Malina – mixing\n Ted Jensen – mastering\n Tom Recchion – art direction\n Paul Moore – design\n Brian Griffin – photography\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n The Official Ringo Starr Site\n\n2008 albums\nRingo Starr albums\nAlbums produced by David A. Stewart\nAlbums produced by Ringo Starr\nAlbums produced by Mark Hudson (musician)\nCapitol Records albums" ]
[ "Alan White (Oasis drummer)", "Departure", "What years was he a drummer for oasis?", "In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album.", "What did he do after leaving Oasis?", "White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo", "What happened after he was replaces by Ringo Star?", "Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording" ]	C_067037b0e4614ff19684cf8a26779b6e_0	Did they continue to have problems?	4	Did Oasis continue to have problems after Alan White's departure?	Alan White (Oasis drummer)	In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a ***** great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is *** chaos. In the end he ** *, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Alan Victor "Whitey" White (born 26 May 1972) is an English rock drummer, best known as being the drummer of the English rock band Oasis from 1995 to 2004. Before Oasis, he was the drummer of Starclub from 1991 to 1994. He is the longest-serving drummer in Oasis's history, performing on four studio albums and one song on Don't Believe The Truth, two compilation albums, and one live album during his tenure. He joined the band in April 1995 after the band's original drummer Tony McCarroll was removed. He was recommended to Noel Gallagher by Gallagher's friend Paul Weller. Notably, Alan's brother, Steve, had been a longtime drummer for Weller. White left Oasis in early 2004 and was replaced by Zak Starkey, drummer of The Who and son of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr. Biography Before Oasis (1987–1995) In 1988, White auditioned to join future Oasis member Gem Archer's band Whirlpool. "He came down and just blew us all away," remembers Archer. "I thought he was mega but the others were worried what a 15-years-old kid on the road and on the lager would be like. I rang his dad and told him: 'Sorry. But don't worry he's fantastic. He'll go all the way.' And he did. It was the weirdest day when he welcomed me to Oasis. And he hasn't let me forget it." White also played drums on Andy Bell's wife Idha's solo album, forming a connection with another future Oasis member. It was at this session that Noel Gallagher first heard him playing, though he was recommended to Noel by Paul Weller. Prior to joining Oasis, White drummed with London-based band Starclub and also for Dr Robert, lead singer of The Blow Monkeys. White's brother, Steve White, had played with Weller's The Style Council and various other famous musicians, including The Who. Because of this connection, Alan mentioned that Steve impacted greatly his development as a drummer. His other influences include Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Chad Smith, Mick Avory, and John Bonham. Oasis career (1995–2004) White replaced original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll in April 1995 and was immediately "thrown in the deep end", joining the band the very next day to perform a playback of "Some Might Say" in front of a national TV audience on BBC1's long running music programme Top of the Pops. One of White's first live shows with Oasis was in front of a massive crowd at the Glastonbury Festival in June 1995. Until the arrival of Andy Bell in the Autumn of 1999, White was the token southerner in the otherwise Mancunian Oasis. Initially known as 'Whitey', he was later re-christened 'Dave' by the band because he once served himself a drink from an unattended bar, therefore resembling the character Dave from "The Winchester" in the '70s TV series Minder. White commented on the "North/South divide" saying it was not that bad, but "for ages I was the 'Cockney cunt' and they were the 'Manc fuckers'". In his book What's the Story? Ian Robertson (who served as Oasis' tour manager from 1994 to 1995) stated that White was also known by the phrase "Alan White – He's alright". White was also entrusted with the job of being Liam Gallagher's 'official' drinking partner and was also said to be his best friend in the band. Together the pair were known as 'Bert and Ernie', named after the Sesame Street-characters. In December 2002 Liam and White were involved in a high-profile brawl in a German bar. Consequently, Liam lost some of his front teeth, and White needed a brain scan after suffering minor head injuries. Both were arrested by the authorities and were released only after the band's management paid for their bail. Noel Gallagher has stated that White had a far greater significance to the band than a mere session and touring drummer, claiming that he helped immensely in the recording process. Noel also said that when he wrote a song he would play it to White who would often adapt the rhythm of the song or advise Gallagher on possible changes in the tempo. On the other hand, Oasis producer Owen Morris described White as "essentially a jazz drummer" who "was always shuffling away on his snare [...] and never hitting the basic back beats in a big dumb rock and roll way", feeling that he did not understand Oasis' sound as well as McCarroll. At the time of his departure White was the longest-serving member in Oasis beside the Gallaghers (he was later passed by Gem Archer and Andy Bell) and passed through thick and thin with the brothers despite being struck down several times with bouts of alleged tendinitis during his later years with the band. White performed on four of Oasis' studio albums: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), Be Here Now (1997), Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) and Heathen Chemistry (2002) and Lyla on Dont Believe The Truth (2005) . He also played on the majority of band's B-sides, some of which were released on the record The Masterplan (1998). White married model Liz Carey on 13 August 1997 at Studley Priory Hotel, Oxfordshire. They had met on the set of the "Don't Look Back in Anger" music video in 1995. The couple divorced in 2004. Departure In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a fucking great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is fucking chaos. In the end he fucked off, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). After Oasis (2004–present) Since his departure, White has remained out of the spotlight. On 15 June 2008, at the Jazz Cafe, Camden, London, White took to the stage for the first known time since leaving Oasis, with Trio Valore, whose drummer was White's brother, Steve. White sold his London home in 2013 and moved to the country with his family. His brother Steve explained on his website that Alan "is just having a nice time, he has pursued other interests in business." White joined Instagram in 2020, and began sharing videos drumming to Oasis songs. Discography Dr Robert Bethesda (1995) Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) Be Here Now (1997) The Masterplan (1998) Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) Familiar to Millions (2000) Heathen Chemistry (2002) Lyla on Don't Believe the Truth'' (2005) References External links 1972 births Living people English rock drummers People from Eltham Oasis (band) members Britpop musicians Musicians from London 21st-century drummers	false	[ "The 2006–07 season was Feyenoord's 51st consecutive season playing in the Eredivisie, the top division of Dutch football.\nFeyenoord finished 7th in the 2006–07 Eredivisie and did not qualify for the 2007–08 UEFA Cup. In the 2006–07 KNVB Cup they lost in the 3rd round to RKC Waalwijk. But the absolute worst date in the season was 19 January 2007. On this date the UEFA decided to resign Feyenoord from the 2006–07 UEFA Cup after the supporters misbehaved in the game in and versus Nancy. The game versus Tottenham Hotspur F.C. did not continue. On 3 may head coach Erwin Koeman handed in his resignation due to motivational problems after a troublesome season.\n\nCompetitions\n\nOverall\n\nEredivisie\n\nLeague table\n\nResults summary\n\nMatches\n\nEredivisie Play-offs UEFA Cup\n\nKNVB Cup\n\nUEFA Cup\n\nFriendlies\n\nPlayer details\n\nTransfers\n\nIn:\n\nOut:\n\nClub\n\nCoaching staff\n\nKit\n\n\|\n\|\n\|\n\nReferences\n\nFeyenoord seasons\nDutch football clubs 2006–07 season", "The Three Pinnacles are a formation of steep rocks along the northeast ridge on Mount Everest. They were one of the longest unsolved challenges in high-level mountaineering, but have now been successfully climbed.\n\nThe rocks are located at around 7,800, 8,100 and 8,200 metres above sea level (height of base of pinnacle) and are therefore already in the death zone, in which people cannot usually recover, even at rest.\n\nThe normal routes on Everest avoid this area; the normal northern route leaves it to the left. \n\nDuring the various attempts to conquer the pinnacles and open a new route along the entire northeast ridge, there were frequently serious problems and fatalities. In 1982 Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died in the first serious attempt to climb in groups at grade 5 within the death zone. \n\nIn 1988, Russell Brice and Harry Taylor successfully climbed the Three Pinnacles, but they were so exhausted after climbing the third pinnacle that they abandoned their original plan to continue along the normal route to the summit. Instead, they crossed the normal route along the north ridge and descended to the North Col.\n\nIn 1992 a joint Japanese-Kazakh expedition crossed the Pinnacles but were unable to continue to the summit. They found a body beyond the second pinnacle at approximately 8,200m on the Rongbuk side of the ridge. Photographs taken by Vladimir Suviga and sent to Chris Bonington confirmed that the body was that of Peter Boardman. Joe Tasker's body has never been found.\n\nNot until 1995 did a team from a Japanese university, supported by a group of about 35 Sherpa porters, climb the entire northeast ridge route, including the Three Pinnacles in both directions. In order to facilitate the expedition, the Sherpas had covered virtually the entire route with fixed ropes. Only after the ropes were in place did a group of Japanese go to the top.\n\nEven today this part of the vast mountain is almost always avoided, too great are its difficulties that range from the Pinnacles themselves to the weather, the extreme cold, the winds and the altitude as well as the arduous terrain.\n\nAlmost all the mountaineering challenges on Mount Everest have now been overcome, but there remain two routes with extraordinary difficulties: a direttissima climb up the avalanche-prone East Face – the only yet unclimbed direct route on Everest, and ascent of the north pillar on the East Face over the (according to George Mallory) so-called \"Fantasy Ridge\". This ridge ends at the centre of the northeast ridge – below the Three Pinnacles. A climber wishing to climb up the Fantasy Ridge on his way to the summit would have to negotiate the east ridge and then climb the Three Pinnacles on the northeast ridge.\n\nSources \n Stephen Venables: Everest, Kangshung Face. Pan, 1991, \n Roberto Mantovani und Kurt Diemberger: Mount Everest - Kampf in eisigen Höhen. Moewig, 1997, \n Stephen Venables: Everest - Die Geschichte seiner Erkundung. Geo, Frederking und Thaler, 2003, \n\nMount Everest" ]
[ "Alan White (Oasis drummer)", "Departure", "What years was he a drummer for oasis?", "In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album.", "What did he do after leaving Oasis?", "White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo", "What happened after he was replaces by Ringo Star?", "Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording", "Did they continue to have problems?", "I don't know." ]	C_067037b0e4614ff19684cf8a26779b6e_0	What happened after the recording troubles?	5	What happened after Oasis's recording troubles?	Alan White (Oasis drummer)	In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a ***** great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is *** chaos. In the end he ** *, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Alan Victor "Whitey" White (born 26 May 1972) is an English rock drummer, best known as being the drummer of the English rock band Oasis from 1995 to 2004. Before Oasis, he was the drummer of Starclub from 1991 to 1994. He is the longest-serving drummer in Oasis's history, performing on four studio albums and one song on Don't Believe The Truth, two compilation albums, and one live album during his tenure. He joined the band in April 1995 after the band's original drummer Tony McCarroll was removed. He was recommended to Noel Gallagher by Gallagher's friend Paul Weller. Notably, Alan's brother, Steve, had been a longtime drummer for Weller. White left Oasis in early 2004 and was replaced by Zak Starkey, drummer of The Who and son of The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr. Biography Before Oasis (1987–1995) In 1988, White auditioned to join future Oasis member Gem Archer's band Whirlpool. "He came down and just blew us all away," remembers Archer. "I thought he was mega but the others were worried what a 15-years-old kid on the road and on the lager would be like. I rang his dad and told him: 'Sorry. But don't worry he's fantastic. He'll go all the way.' And he did. It was the weirdest day when he welcomed me to Oasis. And he hasn't let me forget it." White also played drums on Andy Bell's wife Idha's solo album, forming a connection with another future Oasis member. It was at this session that Noel Gallagher first heard him playing, though he was recommended to Noel by Paul Weller. Prior to joining Oasis, White drummed with London-based band Starclub and also for Dr Robert, lead singer of The Blow Monkeys. White's brother, Steve White, had played with Weller's The Style Council and various other famous musicians, including The Who. Because of this connection, Alan mentioned that Steve impacted greatly his development as a drummer. His other influences include Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Chad Smith, Mick Avory, and John Bonham. Oasis career (1995–2004) White replaced original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll in April 1995 and was immediately "thrown in the deep end", joining the band the very next day to perform a playback of "Some Might Say" in front of a national TV audience on BBC1's long running music programme Top of the Pops. One of White's first live shows with Oasis was in front of a massive crowd at the Glastonbury Festival in June 1995. Until the arrival of Andy Bell in the Autumn of 1999, White was the token southerner in the otherwise Mancunian Oasis. Initially known as 'Whitey', he was later re-christened 'Dave' by the band because he once served himself a drink from an unattended bar, therefore resembling the character Dave from "The Winchester" in the '70s TV series Minder. White commented on the "North/South divide" saying it was not that bad, but "for ages I was the 'Cockney cunt' and they were the 'Manc fuckers'". In his book What's the Story? Ian Robertson (who served as Oasis' tour manager from 1994 to 1995) stated that White was also known by the phrase "Alan White – He's alright". White was also entrusted with the job of being Liam Gallagher's 'official' drinking partner and was also said to be his best friend in the band. Together the pair were known as 'Bert and Ernie', named after the Sesame Street-characters. In December 2002 Liam and White were involved in a high-profile brawl in a German bar. Consequently, Liam lost some of his front teeth, and White needed a brain scan after suffering minor head injuries. Both were arrested by the authorities and were released only after the band's management paid for their bail. Noel Gallagher has stated that White had a far greater significance to the band than a mere session and touring drummer, claiming that he helped immensely in the recording process. Noel also said that when he wrote a song he would play it to White who would often adapt the rhythm of the song or advise Gallagher on possible changes in the tempo. On the other hand, Oasis producer Owen Morris described White as "essentially a jazz drummer" who "was always shuffling away on his snare [...] and never hitting the basic back beats in a big dumb rock and roll way", feeling that he did not understand Oasis' sound as well as McCarroll. At the time of his departure White was the longest-serving member in Oasis beside the Gallaghers (he was later passed by Gem Archer and Andy Bell) and passed through thick and thin with the brothers despite being struck down several times with bouts of alleged tendinitis during his later years with the band. White performed on four of Oasis' studio albums: (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995), Be Here Now (1997), Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) and Heathen Chemistry (2002) and Lyla on Dont Believe The Truth (2005) . He also played on the majority of band's B-sides, some of which were released on the record The Masterplan (1998). White married model Liz Carey on 13 August 1997 at Studley Priory Hotel, Oxfordshire. They had met on the set of the "Don't Look Back in Anger" music video in 1995. The couple divorced in 2004. Departure In early 2004, White surprisingly left Oasis during the early recording sessions for the band's sixth album. According to Oasis' spokesperson, there were some new tracks and demos with White's performances, which were made at the end of 2003 and early 2004 as the very first demos for their upcoming album, before his departure. In an interview, Noel Gallagher alluded to White's personal problems: "He's a fucking great guy, and he's one of the best drummers I've ever met in my life, but his personal life is fucking chaos. In the end he fucked off, and we haven't seen him since." In an interview on Radio 1 with Chris Moyles (15 August 2008), Noel Gallagher stated that White was "kicked out" of the band. There is also evidence to suggest that White was upset that his drums were going down so low in the mix on top of the prevalence of drum loops ("Go Let It Out", "Gas Panic!", "The Hindu Times", "Better Man", "Force of Nature"). On one Q&A with Freddie Gee, he had said: "Well, I don't like that my drums get turned down with each successive mix we do of an album, but one mustn't grumble in this band." White was replaced with Zak Starkey, The Who drummer and the son of The Beatles' Ringo Starr. Ringo particularly was cited as one of White's biggest drumming influences. Due to his departure, the band scrapped the first midway sessions and later suffered some prolonged and difficult recording for Don't Believe the Truth (2005). After Oasis (2004–present) Since his departure, White has remained out of the spotlight. On 15 June 2008, at the Jazz Cafe, Camden, London, White took to the stage for the first known time since leaving Oasis, with Trio Valore, whose drummer was White's brother, Steve. White sold his London home in 2013 and moved to the country with his family. His brother Steve explained on his website that Alan "is just having a nice time, he has pursued other interests in business." White joined Instagram in 2020, and began sharing videos drumming to Oasis songs. Discography Dr Robert Bethesda (1995) Oasis (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) Be Here Now (1997) The Masterplan (1998) Standing on the Shoulder of Giants (2000) Familiar to Millions (2000) Heathen Chemistry (2002) Lyla on Don't Believe the Truth'' (2005) References External links 1972 births Living people English rock drummers People from Eltham Oasis (band) members Britpop musicians Musicians from London 21st-century drummers	false	[ "This is a list of incidents that happened on the island of Ireland (encompassing what exists today as the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) and are commonly called massacres. All those that took place during the late 20th century were part of the Troubles.\n\nReferences\n\nIreland\nIreland history-related lists\n \nLists of disasters in Ireland", "\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist" ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?	1	What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia,	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	false	[ "Fighting Season is Thalia Zedek's seventh solo album, released two years after Eve.\n\nBackground\n\nReleased by Thrill Jockey on September 21, 2018, two years after her previous solo album Eve, Fighting Season was recorded in late 2017 to early 2018 at Kimchee Studios, in Cambridge, MA. Zedek's fourth solo album to be credited to the Thalia Zedek Band, Fighting Season was engineered and mixed by producer Andy Hong, who co-owns Kimchee Studios, and mastered by Sarah Register.\n\nThe material in Fighting Season \"was written leading up to and following the 2016 U.S. elections,\" which contributed to the political themes of many of its songs. The writing process was vastly different from that of Zedek's previous solo albums, as she \"took a more isolated approach […] writing the material on her own and only presenting the songs to the full ensemble shortly before recording.\" Furthermore, Zedek made the conscious decision to \"make sure that not everybody in the band is playing on every song,\" so as to allow the record to \"have some space.\" \n \nThe line-up of the Thalia Zedek Band remained unchanged from Eve to Fighting Season. \n \nTwo longtime friends of Zedek's are featured as \"Special Guests\" on the record. Chris Brokaw—Zedek's frequent collaborator and former Come guitarist and bandmate— contributed guitar to the first two tracks on the record, specifically, \"Bend Again\" and \"What I Wanted.\" Dinosaur Jr.’s vocalist and guitarist J Mascis, meanwhile, contributed the guitar solo for \"Bend Again,\" the album's opening song. This marks the second time Mascis and Zedek have collaborated on a studio record, and the first since Zedek provided vocals to three songs in Dinosaur Jr.’s 1994 album Without a Sound, namely, \"Yeah Right,\" “Grab It,\" and \"Get Out of This.\" “Bend Again\" “had been written with Mascis’s solo in mind.\" As Zedek herself put it, \"[w]hen I wrote the song, I could hear J’s guitar playing in it. […] In the studio, I tried to do my best rough, inept version of a J Mascis solo. But it didn’t work, so I decided to just ask him.\" As it turned out, Mascis was recording Elastic Days at his home studio in Amherst, Massachusetts. \"He just said, ‘Send me the track. I’ll do it.’ It was what the song needed.\" Meanwhile, Brokaw's contributions were the result of coincidence, as Brokaw had also booked recording time at Kinchee Studios for his 2019 album End of the Night, soon after his return to Boston. Thalia Zedek Band members Jonah Sacks and David Michael Curry both ended up contributing cello and viola, respectively, to End of the Night. \n \nThe title of the album comes from \"a term originally coined for the period of time in Afghanistan when winter comes to an end and fighting in the region would resume.\" Zedek's reinterprets it as connecting it to the theme of \"resistance, on a time to fight for oneself or to protest the deteriorating political landscape.\" The title is meant to contain a dual reference to the public and the private, as it is \"also a reference to personal relationships.\"\n\nTrack listing \n\nAll songs and lyrics by Thalia Zedek.\n\nPersonnel \n\nThalia Zedek Band\n\n Thalia Zedek – guitar, vocals\n Winston Braman – bass\n David Michael Curry – viola, back-up vocals \n Mel Lederman – piano\n Jonathan Ulman – drums\n\nAdditional musicians\n\n Chris Brokaw – guitar on \"Bend Again\" and \"What I Wanted\" \n J. Mascis – guitar solo on \"Bend Again\" \n Jonah Sacks – cello on \"Fighting Season,\" “We Will Roll,\" and \"Tower”\n\nAdditional personnel\n\n Andy Hong –Engineering and mixing \n Sarah Register – Mastering\n Carmine Marrano – Cover photo\n Dmitry Samarov – Drawing \n Dan Zedek – Design\n\nCritical reception\n\nOn Metacritic, the album has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating \"universal acclaim.\" Mojo magazine's review of Fighting Season declared that \"[i]t never feels as though [Zedek’s] best work is behind her.\" Bekki Bemrose's four-star review for musicOMH praised the album's production, claiming its \"beautifully warm and naturalistic [aesthetic] brings these inherently intimate songs closer still.\" Furthermore, Bemrose saw similarities between the political nature of the album and the work of Woody Guthrie, going on to draw a parallel between Guthrie's famous This machine kills fascists guitar label and Zedek's FCK NZS guitar sticker on the cover of Fighting Season. Allmusic’s review of the record, written by Mark Deming, characterised Fighting Season as \"an album that always reflects the era that informed it, and while Thalia Zedek never pretends to have all the answers, her musings are brave, literate, and full of heart, and this is an important statement from an important artist.\" Justin Cober-Lake, writing for Spectrum Culture, praised the album, stating that \"guitar fills much of the disc with open, controlled lines that remain shadowy despite the spaces.\" In her review for Dusted Magazine, Jennifer Kelly, asserts that \"[t]here’s something grand and strong and provocative about the march of her songs, yet also a nod to entropy and futility in the way they fall apart.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Allmusic Review\n Metacritic Critic Reviews\n\nThalia Zedek albums\nBlues rock albums by American artists\n2018 albums", "Liars and Prayers is Thalia Zedek's fourth solo album, released four years after Trust Not Those in Whom Without Some Touch of Madness.\n\nBackground\n\nRecorded between December 2007 and January 2008 at Mad Oak Studios, in Allston, MA, and Translator Audio, in Brooklyn, NY, and released on April 22, 2008, by Thrill Jockey) Records, Liars and Prayers is Thalia Zedek’s fourth solo album. The first one to be released under the name Thalia Zedek Band, Liars and Prayers was co-produced by the members of the band and record producer Andrew Schneider (Cave In, Unsane, Daughters). Further recording was undertaken by Jane Pipiki at WGBH Studios and the album was ultimately mastered by Roger Seibel.\nThe Brooklyn Paper reported that, after the release of Trust Not Those in Whom Without Some Touch of Madness and the touring of Europe and Australia that ensued, Zedek believed she and her band \"had taken the viola, drums, guitar thing as fas as [they] could.\" Upon her return to Boston, then, she invited bassist Winston Braman (Shepherdess) and pianist Mel Lederman (Victory at Sea) to join her as she prepared material for her following album. Both Braman and Coughlin had played bass and drums, respectively, in Zedek's previous band Come’s final record Gently, Down the Stream, after the departure of the original rhythm section consisting of Sean O’Brien and Arthur Johnson. Meanwhile, Lederman had already contributed piano to several tracks in Zedek's first and third solo records, namely, Been Here and Gone and Trust Not Those in Whom Without Some Touch of Madness.\n\n“Body Memory\" was written in remembrance of Lisa King, a \"pioneering punk spoken-work artist/activist [who] died in February 2006.\"\n\nIn Australia, the album was released by Low Transit Industries.\n\nTrack listing \n\nAll songs by Thalia Zedek. All arrangements by Zedek, Winston Braman, Daniel Coughlin, David Michael Curry, and Mel Lederman.\n\nPersonnel \n\nThalia Zedek Band\n\n Thalia Zedek – guitars; vocals \n David Michael Curry – viola, trumpet, vocals\n Mel Lederman – piano\n Winston Braman – bass\n Daniel Coughlin – drums, percussion\n\nAdditional personnel\n\n Dan Zedek – Cover design \n Rosa Zedek – Assistant art director \n Jacob Zedek – Assistant art director \n David Michael Curry – Front cover photo \n Heather Kapplow – Back cover photo \n Thalia Zedek Band – Production\n Andrew Schneider – Production, Engineering, Mixing \n Jane Pipiki – Recorded the grand piano on tracks 1, 3, 6, 9–10\n Roger Seibel – Mastering\n\nCritical reception\n\nOn Metacritic, the album has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating \"universal acclaim\". Reviewing Liars and Prayers for PopMatters, Jennifer Kelly characterised the album as Zedek's \"most cathartic, powerful solo album yet,\" going as far as labelling it \"one of the year's most intense and fiercely passionate albums.\" In his review of the album for The Phill(er), novelist Doug Cowie describes it as \"an hour of melodic, rocking, aching music that wears its country, blues and punk hats in a surprisingly complicated and layered way […] and it's played by a terrific band.\" Meanwhile, in her review for AllMusic, Heather Phares remarks that \"Liars and Prayers’ only flaw may be that its unflagging intensity is almost overwhelming, given that the album is nearly an hour long, but it's still some of Zedek's most thoughtful and full-bodied work.\" Vish Khanna, writing for Exclaim!, praised the album as \"a ruminative response to living in America under the Bush Administration,\" going on to describe the Thalia Zedek Band as Zedek's \"own latter-day Patti Smith Group,\" before drawing the distinction that, \"while reserved rage is employed instead of a frenetic punk zeal, there’s a similar belief in the revolutionary power of language.\" In Joe Gross’ positive review of the album for Spin, he asserts that \"[m]elodrama is Zedek’s natural state, and augmenting her touring crew of drums and viola with bass and piano fills out the lyrical paranoia — guitar rushes and soaring riffs speak louder than words.\" The Brooklyn Paper claims \"the whole record is a bit of a perfect storm\".\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Allmusic Review\n\nThalia Zedek albums\nBlues rock albums by American artists\n2008 albums" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist", "What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?", "Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia," ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	When did she released this album?	2	When did Thalia release the self-titled studio album Thalia?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	1990,	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	true	[ "On Your Every Word is the second studio album released by Amy Holland in 1983. This was her last studio album, before she spent the rest of the 1980s recording songs for film soundtracks such as Scarface, Teen Wolf, Night of the Comet, St. Elmo's Fire, K-9, and much more. In one of the songs on the album, she sings a duet with David Pack on the song \"I Still Run to You\". There is a cover version of The Four Tops' song \"Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)\" sung by Holland. Steve Lukather collaborates on the album and does a guitar solo during an instrumental break on the last song of the album, Rollin' By. In addition to the album's release, 1983 was the year when Holland and Michael McDonald got married. Holland did not release another studio album until 2008, when she released The Journey to Miracle River.\n\nTrack listing\n\n1983 albums\nAmy Holland albums\nCapitol Records albums", "Sabrina Porshi () is a Bangladeshi singer. Sabrina Porshi's career began when she became 2nd runner-up in a Music talent hunt show, Channel i \"Khude gaan raj\", in 2008. Porshi's first song recording was for a movie in 2009 arranged by \"Khude Gaan Raj\" team.\n\nEarly life and music background\n\nPorshi was born on 30 July to a Muslim family in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her home district is Brahmanbaria. Porshi lived at Uttara for 14 years. She moved to Cambrian College to study commerce.\n\nIn 2007, Porshi took part in a singing competition named \"Komol kuri\" organized by the government, and became winner in \"country song\" category. In 2008, Porshi participated in Channel i \"Khude gaan raj\" Singing Competition, her first on-screen appearance. She became the second runner up.\n\n2008–2010\nPorshi started her music career professional when she was in \"khude gaan raj\" competition in 2008. She did her first playback in 2009. That was also her first studio recording. In 2009 she started the work of her solo album Porshi. She made the album with 5 music director. The album was finished in April 2010. The label \"Laser Vision\" released the album in Eid-ul-Fitr 2010.\n\n2011–2012\nAfter the first album, Porshi started to work as a playback singer from 2011. Her first recorded song in 2011 was \"Kothao chile na tumi\" with Arfin Rumey. On 14 February 2012 Porshi released her second solo album, Porshi 2. She also did playback songs in 2012. In 2012 Porshi announced her band named \"Bornomala\".\n\n2013–present\nIn Eid-ul-Fitr she released her third solo album Porshi 3.\n\nMusic videos\nHer first music video was \"Tomari porosh\" with Arfin Rumey, from her first album Porshi. This video was directed by Rommo Khan. Then Porshi made another three music videos from her second solo album in 2012. \"Khuje khuje\", Shudhu tore and Boro Eka \"Khuje khuje ft Arfin Rumey\" and \"Shudhu Tore ft ZooEL Morshed\" and \"Boro Eka\".\n\nIn 2013 Porshi made her 5th music video from her album Porshi 3. Porshi and the composer and co-singer of this song Imran acted in this music video.\n\nSolo albums\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nMusic\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n21st-century Bangladeshi women singers\nBangladeshi female models\n1996 births\nLiving people" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist", "What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?", "Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia,", "When did she released this album?", "1990," ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	Did the album contain any hits?	3	Did the album Thalia contain any hits?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva".	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	false	[ "Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits album, and second compilation album, released by Scottish-Northern Irish alternative rock band Snow Patrol, through Polydor Records on 14 May 2013. Unlike previous compilation album Up to Now, the album does not contain any tracks from before the 2003 release of Final Straw.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2013 greatest hits albums\nAlbums produced by Jacknife Lee\nPolydor Records compilation albums\nSnow Patrol compilation albums", "Hits 55 is a compilation album released in the UK released in March 2003. It contains 40 tracks spread over two CDs, including five number one singles from Christina Aguilera, Gareth Gates, Darius Danesh, DJ Sammy, and Elvis Presley vs. JXL\nThe album was the first in the Hits series to contain the subtitle 40 Massive Chart Hits, although was not the first Hits album to contain 40 tracks.\n\nTrack listing\nDisc one\n\nDisc two\n\nSee also\nNow 54 (rival album)\n\nReferences\n\n2003 compilation albums\nHits (compilation series) albums" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist", "What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?", "Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia,", "When did she released this album?", "1990,", "Did the album contain any hits?", "From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : \"Amarillo Azul\", \"Pienso en Ti\", \"Un Pacto Entre Los Dos\" and \"Saliva\"." ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	Did she record any albums after that one?	4	Did Thalia record any albums after Thalia?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	1991,	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	true	[ "The discography of Mallu Magalhães, a Brazilian Folk singer, consists of two studio albums, one live albums, five singles as a lead artist, one collaborations with Marcelo Camelo and one video albums.\n\nIn 2008 she released her first eponymous album and in 2009 she released her second album, also self-titled.\n\nShe already has five singles released, and the most famous is Tchubaruba.\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nCompilations\n\nVideo albums\n\nNotes\n These albums did not reach any of the charts in Brazil.\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nOther appearances\n\nNotes\n These albums did not reach any of the charts in Brazil.\n\nMusic videos \n J1 (2008)\n Tchubaruba (2008)\n O Preço da Flor (2009)\n Vanguart (2009)\n Shine Yellow (2009)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nMallu Magalhães's official website\nMallu Magalhães's official MySpace\n\nFolk music discographies\nDiscography\nDiscographies of Brazilian artists\nLatin music discographies", "Don't She Look Good is a studio album by American country singer-songwriter Bill Anderson. It was released in November 1972 on Decca Records and was produced by Owen Bradley. The album was Anderson's twentieth studio recording to be issued. It was also his fourth studio album released in 1972. Two additional projects were collaborations with Jan Howard earlier in the year. The album's only single was the title track, which became a major hit on the country charts.\n\nBackground and content\nDon't She Look Good was recorded between 1971 and 1972 in Mount Juliet, Tennessee by Owen Bradley. Sessions were held at his venue, Bradley's Barn, a studio where Anderson recorded many of his previous albums. Like many of his previous albums, the project consisted of 11 tracks. Unlike any of his previous releases, Don't She Look Good did not include any songs composed entirely by Anderson himself. One song was a co-write with Michael Taylor. \"Some of Nashville's best writers gave me such great material that I didn't need any of mine!\" he recalled in the liner notes. Among some of the writers Anderson recorded songs by was Jerry Chesnut, who wrote the record's title track. Also included are songs by Ray Griff and Ben Peters. Peters wrote the track, \"I Can't Believe That It's All Over\", a song that became a major hit for Skeeter Davis.\n\nRelease and reception\nDon't She Look Good was released in November 1972 on Decca Records. It was one of four album releases by Anderson on the Decca label that year. Among his others was two studio efforts with country artist Jan Howard. A previous album release was a solo effort in May 1972. It would also be Anderson's final album to be released on the Decca label before the company switched to the MCA name. It was originally released as a vinyl LP record, with six songs on side one and five songs on side two. In February 1973, the album peaked at number ten on the Billboard country albums chart after spending 15 weeks on there. Its only single release was the title track, which was issued in August 1972. By November, the song reached number two on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart after spending 16 weeks there. It ultimately became of Anderson's biggest hits as a recording artist.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nAll credits are adapted from the liner notes of Don't She Look Good.\n\n Bill Anderson – lead vocals\n Hal Bauksbaum – photography\n Owen Bradley – record producer\n\nChart performance\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n1972 albums\nAlbums produced by Owen Bradley\nBill Anderson (singer) albums\nDecca Records albums" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist", "What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?", "Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia,", "When did she released this album?", "1990,", "Did the album contain any hits?", "From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : \"Amarillo Azul\", \"Pienso en Ti\", \"Un Pacto Entre Los Dos\" and \"Saliva\".", "Did she record any albums after that one?", "1991," ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	What album did she record in 1991?	5	What album Thalia record in 1991?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	Mundo de cristal,	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	true	[ "The Covers Record is the fifth album by Cat Power, the stage name and eponymous band of American singer-songwriter Chan Marshall. It was released in 2000 on Matador Records.\n\nThe album consists entirely of cover songs, with the exception of a new version of Marshall's song \"In this Hole,\" which initially appeared on Cat Power's 1996 album What Would the Community Think.\n\nBackground \nThe success of Cat Power's fourth album, Moon Pix (1998), led to high expectations for her follow-up, and made it difficult for her to live what she called “a normal life.” She elected to release an album of covers in part because she felt more comfortable playing covers than her own material. Between Moon Pix and what became The Covers Record, she scheduled a number of solo shows during which she played only covers. In order to take attention away from herself, she projected the 1928 French silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc behind her onstage.\n\nMarshall's decision to release a covers album was reportedly disappointing to Matador, who considered her a “genius songwriter” and wanted to capitalize on the success of Moon Pix. According to Gerard Cosloy, the promotional campaign for The Covers Record, which he calls “a great album,” was intentionally “muted,” in order to allow it to “find its audience.” However, Marshall saw The Covers Record as a personal and important release, and interpreted this as lack of faith on the record company's behalf in the record's ability to connect with her audience.\n\nMarshall's contract for The Covers Record was allegedly drafted on the spot on a Post-it note.\n\nRecording \nThe Covers Record features sparse instrumentation, with only Marshall on vocals and guitar or piano. The song “Salty Dog” features guitar by American musician Matt Sweeney.\n\nThe album was recorded at Night Owl Studios, Kampo Studios and Rare Book Room Studios, in New York City, in 1998 and 1999. According to Marshall, “I ended up in the studio recording with this young man at this place called Night Owl Studios across from Penn Station. I did most of the songs there just very, very, very, very quickly, and there’s like four songs that are from different recording sessions.”\n\nReception and legacy \n\nRob Sheffield of Rolling Stone called the album \"a stopgap\" until the release of her next album of original material, but described her stripped-down version of the Rolling Stones' \"Satisfaction\" as \"powerful.\" Spin called the album \"essential,\" and wrote, \"With only a guitar or piano, and a voice that is developing into one of the most expressive in rock, Marshall crafts deeply textured explorations of heartache, terror, longing, dismay, and emotions I'm pretty sure I've not found yet.... Rock will see few finer releases this year.\" Rhapsody (online music service) praised the album, calling it one of their favorite cover albums.\n\nDave Grohl, vocalist and guitarist of the Foo Fighters and former drummer of Nirvana, cited the album in a 2000 issue of NME, saying, \"'Satisfaction' is the hit off that record, or so everybody thinks. But for me, it's that Velvet Underground song, \"I Found a Reason\". It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. My favourite.\" Grohl would work with Marshall on Cat Power's subsequent release, You Are Free (2003).\n\nIn 2005 the album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series.\n\nSeveral songs on the album have been used in films, including \"I Found a Reason\" (Saving Face, Dandelion andV for Vendetta), \"Sea of Love\" (Juno), and \"Wild Is the Wind\" (Into the Forest).\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \nChan Marshall – vocals, guitar, piano\nMatt Sweeney – guitar (\"Salty Dog\")\n\nCharts \nAlbum – Billboard\n\nAs of March 2003 it has sold 52,000 units in United States. Combined sales of The Covers Record and Moon Pix is 200,000 copies as of 2001.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Notes on Cat Power's The Covers Record @ Lauriston.com\n\nCat Power albums\n2000 albums\nCovers albums\nMatador Records albums", "The discography of American country music artist Holly Dunn contains nine studio albums, one compilation album, 26 singles and 12 music videos. Originally a songwriter for MTM Records, she signed with the same label as a recording artist in 1985. Her debut single was 1985's \"Praying for Keeps\", which became a minor hit. In the same year she issued her self-titled debut album, her single \"Daddy's Hands\" became a major hit. The single peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. In 1987, her second album Cornerstone was issued. The record spawned three top ten country hits: \"Love Someone Like Me\", \"Only When I Love\" and \"Strangers Again\". \n\nHer third studio album, Across the Rio Grande (1988), reached number 26 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Among its singles was \"That's What Your Love Does to Me\", which became a top ten hit. In 1989, Dunn switched to Warner Bros. Records where she issued The Blue Rose of Texas. The album spawned the number one hit \"Are You Ever Gonna Love Me\". In 1990, she released her fifth studio record entitled Heart Full of Love. It spawned her second number one single, \"You Really Had Me Going\".\n\nIn 1991, her first compilation album was released entitled Milestones: Greatest Hits, which peaked at number 25 on the Billboard country albums chart. The album spawned two minor hits, including \"Maybe I Mean Yes\". Her final album with Warner Bros. appeared in 1992, Getting It Dunn, which did not reach any Billboard chart positions. In 1995, she returned with her seventh studio release, Life and Love and All the Stages. Its lead single, \"I Am Who I Am\", was her final chart appearance, reaching number 56 on the country singles chart. Her final studio album issued was a gospel record entitled Full Circle (2003).\n\nAlbums\n\nStudio albums\n\nCompilation albums\n\nSingles\n\nAs lead artist\n\nAs a featured artist\n\nVideography\n\nVideo albums\n\nMusic videos\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Holly Dunn discography at Discogs\n\nDiscographies of American artists\nCountry music discographies" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist", "What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?", "Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia,", "When did she released this album?", "1990,", "Did the album contain any hits?", "From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : \"Amarillo Azul\", \"Pienso en Ti\", \"Un Pacto Entre Los Dos\" and \"Saliva\".", "Did she record any albums after that one?", "1991,", "What album did she record in 1991?", "Mundo de cristal," ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	Was this album successful?	6	Was Thalia's album Mundo de Cristal successful?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico.	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	false	[ "Rough and Ready Volume 2 is a studio album released by Shabba Ranks. This album was not as successful as Volume 1 and it was going to be difficult to create an album as successful as its predecessor, X-tra Naked, which won a Grammy. Volume 2 was criticised for lacking variety.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\n1993 albums\nShabba Ranks albums\nEpic Records albums", "Aniksi (Greek: Άνοιξη; English: Springtime) is a successful studio album by Greek artist Glykeria. It was released in mid-2004 by Sony Music Greece. The album was certified Gold by IFPI Greece.\n\nThe album also includes several well-known collaborations including Kitrina Podilata, Antonis Vardis and Dimirtis Zervoudakis.\n\nTrack listing\n\nChart performance\nAniksi was a successful album in Cyprus and Greece, however the album was only certified Gold in Greece over 2 years after its release.\n\n2004 albums\nGlykeria albums\nGreek-language albums\nSony Music Greece albums" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist", "What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?", "Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia,", "When did she released this album?", "1990,", "Did the album contain any hits?", "From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : \"Amarillo Azul\", \"Pienso en Ti\", \"Un Pacto Entre Los Dos\" and \"Saliva\".", "Did she record any albums after that one?", "1991,", "What album did she record in 1991?", "Mundo de cristal,", "Was this album successful?", "the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico." ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	Did she make any songs after that album?	7	Did Thalia make any songs after Mundo de Cristal?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	In October 1992, she released her third studio album	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	true	[ "Nothin' But Trouble is the debut studio album by American singer and actress Nia Peeples. It was released on August 30, 1988 by Mercury Records. Peeples decided to venture into the music industry after she came to recognition as a regular cast in the musical television series Fame. She worked with Steve Harvey, Howard Hewett, Doc Powell and Tony Prendatt on the album. Musically, Nothin' But Trouble is a dance-pop and R&B album with influence of other popular genres at the time, such as freestyle and new jack swing.\n\nNothin' But Trouble did not receive positive reviews from music critics who compared Peeples' style to Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. The album spawned one hit single with a track originally recorded by Latoya Jackson. It was not a commercial success as it didn't receive any certifications. It peaked at number ninety-seven on the Billboard 200.\n\nThree singles were released from the album. The lead single \"Trouble\" peaked at number thirty-five on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. The album's following singles \"High Time\" and \"I Know How (to Make You Love Me)\" were less successful but managed to peak into the Hot Dance Club Songs chart at number ten and twenty-eight respectively.\n\nBackground\nAnother singer and Peeples' labelmate Vanessa Williams was also working on her debut album The Right Stuff (1988) at that time. She later commented that the label's focus was on Peeples because of her high-profile role on the television series Fame, so they invested their sales and marketing efforts in her album.\n\nCritical reception\n\nRon Wynn from AllMusic mistakenly gave the album four and a half out of five stars and wrote: “Nia Peeples did a creditable job as an actress on the Fame television show, and later hosted a couple of short-lived music programs, including one produced by Arsenio Hall's company. But she never demonstrated on any project that she was a good singer, and her faults were glaring on this late-'80s work. Operating on the premise that they could make Peeples a second-level Paula Abdul, the producers gave her the same type of dance-pop bubblegum fodder, but didn't make it as hook-laden or catchy as Abdul's songs. The results were predictable.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n [ Nothin' But Trouble] at AllMusic\n \n\nNia Peeples albums\n1988 debut albums\nMercury Records albums", "Sustuysam (If I Kept Quiet) is the first studio album by Turkish singer Ayşe Hatun Önal. It was released on 17 April 2008 by Sony BMG Music Turkey and Epic Records. After setting aside her modelling career, Önal started her music career in 2003 with the release of her first EP Sonunda, after which she spent several years to prepare her first studio album. After preparing her first album, she refused to release it as she was not satisfied with the result and started working on a new project, but following Universal Müzik's bankruptcy she spent a period searching for a new recording label. She also became depressed and went through a financial crisis. For these reasons, the release of her first studio album took more than what she expected.\n\nSustuysam is an electro house album, consisting of songs written by Ayşe Hatun Önal, some of which were composed by Önal alone while others were composed together Erdem Kınay. In some of her songs she criticized the society, and in some others she made fun of herself. Ege Çubukçu and Fresh B. were featured on the songs \"Bomba\" and \"Aç Kapıyı\" respectively. The name of the album Sustuysam, was chosen as a result of Önal's preference to not respond to the criticisms of other people and to remain silent.\n\nThe album received generally positive reviews from music critics, and ranked ninth on D&R's list of Most Listened Albums and received the Best Electronic Music Album award at the Radio Boğaziçi Music Awards. Its lead single \"Kalbe Ben\", ranked ninth on Billboard Türkiyes Türkçe Top 20 and an alien with a head made of disco ball appeared alongside Önal on its music video. There was a disagreement between Sony and Önal about making the second music video. The company wanted to make a second music video, yet Önal refused to cooperate and suddenly disappeared and did not release any new works until 2014, when she returned to the market with the new single \"Çak Bir Selam\".\n\nBackground and release \n\nIn the early 2000s, Ayşe Hatun Önal set her modelling career aside and in December 2003 she started her music career with the release of her first EP Sonunda and its lead single \"Çeksene Elini\". After releasing the EP, Önal immediately began preparations for her first studio album, but she did not like many of the initial pieces, so she set them aside and started writing and composing new songs. In August 2005, she appeared on Ege Çubukçu's album 1 Gün and was featured on the song \"Hey DJ\"; in the same month it was reported that she had begun writing new songs for her upcoming album and she later said that they would fall in the electronic category. In November, Hürriyets Onur Baştürk announced that he had listened to the new album and said \"Ayşe Hatun is coming with a full album this time, just to make everyone dance\" and shared the lyrics for the songs \"Bomba\". In February 2006, Önal announced that the album would be released in April. After this date, although the release of the album was again occasionally discussed, none of the songs were released. By May, the album's preparations had been finished five months prior, but the recording company Universal Müzik announced bankruptcy forcing Önal to look for a new production company, and at the time it was reported that she had meetings with İstanbul Plak. In December, at the end of a tour Önal said that \"Hayal would be the name of my album, consisting of eight songs. All of the compositions belong to me. In 2007, everyone will listen to my songs.\" In January 2007, Sabah announced that the album would be released in March yet the album was not released again and in November Önal stated: \"Actually all of the songs are ready. We are doing the final preparations at the studio. If we don't encounter a problem, it will be released in the early months of the next year. Just like my previous albums, the songs are similar to [my previous single] 'Çeksene elini kırıcan mı belimi?' in terms of style.\" The next month it was announced that she had reached an agreement with Sony BMG to release the album.\n\nIn February 2008, she announced that the album would contain ten new songs. In March, its lead single \"Kalbe Ben\" was broadcast on radios and Ayşe Hatun Önal's first studio album Sustuysam was released by Sony BMG Music Turkey and Epic Records on 17 April 2008. As to why the album was named Sustuysam, she said: \"I faced heavy criticism for the late release of this album. They said that I couldn't find a production company, that I was looking for a sponsor, that I couldn't make an album because I had no voice, that I couldn't memorize the lyrics, or that no one would give me their compositions... I've always stayed quiet when facing of all these claims. I finally did a nice job. That is why the album is named Sustuysam. Now it is time to talk about my songs.\" Önal stated that she had been depressed because of the various injustices that she faced during the development process and that she went through a financial crisis. As a result, she focused on improving herself and overcame her shortcomings to release this album. Sustuysam, ranked ninth on D&R's list of Most Listened Albums. It won the Best Electronic Music Album award at the Radio Boğaziçi Music Awards. To promote the album, Ayşe Hatun Önal performed the songs \"Kalbe Ben\" and \"Bomba\" on 25 April 2008 on Beyaz Show, and was accompanied by Ege Çubukçu while singing \"Bomba\" on the stage.\n\nLyrics and composition \nSustuysam is an electro house album. The style was described by Önal with these words: \"We made the first album progressive-trance. Now more minimal house infrastructures are included, and an instrument from classical music, cello... It's a blend.\" The album contains ten songs and one remixed song, all of which were written by Ayşe Hatun Önal, while some of them were composed by Önal herself and some together with Erdem Kınay. The lead single \"Kalbe Ben\", which features violin sounds, discusses the disagreements between brain and heart. The next song is \"Yok Yok\", which also has a remixed version, followed by \"Aç Kapıyı\" which featured rap vocals by Fresh B.. With the lyrics \"I'm a two-toed big-footed girl\" Önal makes fun of her big feet. The fourth song \"Bırakma Beni\" was composed by Önal and Kınay, followed by \"Hayalimdeki\", which was praised by Gerçek Pop's editor Fatih Melek who said: \"It's not like other pop/electronic songs. It's a beautiful song and its pair cannot be found in this country [Turkey].\" The sixth song \"Doğru Kanaldan Bağlan\" was a dance song. Ege Çubukçu is the rapper featured on \"Bomba\", and in radioman Michael Kuyucu's opinion the song's lyrics resemble to those of Önal's first single \"Çeksene Elini\". There are criticisms of the society in the eight and ninth songs \"İnat\" and \"Marslı\". The album's only slow song was \"Aslında\", performed in the form of a tribute by Ayşe Hatun Önal. The lyrics were inspired by a man's words, whom Önal had encountered in a bar.\n\nCritical reception \nSustuysam received generally positive reviews from a number of music critics. Some critics praised the lyrics of the singer by drawing attention to the quality of the album. Billboard Türkiyes Atilla Aydoğdu, discussed Önal's songwriting, about which he said: \"She also has a natural innate ability to express herself.\" and compared the album to Hande Yener's Hipnoz which was released in the same year, and said: \"While Yener's album consumes the audience's breath, Önal makes them listen by every breath they have left.\" Naim Dilmener also made a similar comparison, saying \"It's boring, but there's more contemporary electronic sound in it than Hande Yener's album.\" DJ Suat Ateşdağlı described the album as a \"beautiful combination of dance and electronic music\". Hürriyets Savaş Özbey also commented on the album, saying: \"It's an album totally made for car driving. There's a song called 'Bırakma Beni'. After the emergence of Anatolian rock, I don't know whether we should call her genre Anatolian electro or not, but this album seizes me by the neck.\" Hikmet Demirkol from the same newspaper, found the album as a \"bold step\" in Turkey's music market.\n\nMilliyets Murat Beşer compared the lyrics to those of \"Çeksene Elini\" and found the album more likable, saying: \"Sustuysam, is a product with good quality, in contrast to 'Çeksene Elini'. Although it may sound funny to some, the songs are generally listenable.\" Gerçek Pop's editor Fatih Melek found the album successful, giving it 3.5 out of 5, and wrote in his review: \"On these days, when local music is becoming more and more intimate with electronics, this is an album that should be listened to\". Radioman Michael Kuyucu stated that album was of good quality but could not be commercially successful, commenting: \"There is not much to say for songs, because this type of music sounds like free vocals on a loop, and unfortunately most of the songs are soulless and emotionally weak, as in Hande Yener's album. Together with this aspect, we can also call this music genre a bit neoliberal.\" The music website Her Yerde Müzik also shared a review on the album: \"The album is really an outstanding work on the average. However, it's not as if Ayşe Hatun Önal's occasional comments did not spoil its content. Önal is not a good commentator, but I think she closed the gap with her labor and showed a good work.\"\n\nPromotion \nSustuysams first and only music video was \"Kalbe Ben\". It was directed by Murad Küçük, and Danny Miague served as its cinematographer. In the video theater actor Umut Keskin, could be seen as an alien with a head made out of disco ball, and this appearance was meant to represent human's heart. Önal herself portrayed a tall woman exploring the world with the disco ball-headed alien and during the shooting danced in wet clay for 12 hours. On its first week of release, the song ranked 33rd on Billboard Türkiyes Türkçe Top 20 out of 404 songs and in the following weeks rose up to number nine.\n\nSony BMG insisted on making a second music video for the album, but the idea was rejected by Ayşe Hatun Önal. From 2008 until 2014, she did not release any new songs for six years, and eventually returned to the market with the single \"Çak Bir Selam\". She later explained the reason in an interview in 2014: \"The album had made me very tired. I did not want to do anything at that moment. I said that the songs would find their way anyway, and just disappeared.\"\n\nTrack listing \nAll of the songs were composed by Ayşe Hatun Önal, unless mentioned otherwise.\n\nPersonnel \n Ayşe Hatun Önal – main vocals (all of the songs); songwriter (all of the songs); composer (all of the songs)\n Erdem Kınay – composer (1, 4, 6, 7, 10); arranger (1, 4, 6, 7, 10); recording (1, 4, 6, 7, 10); mixing (1, 4, 6, 7, 10)\n Mehmet Can Erdoğan – arranger (2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11); bass guitar (3, 8); recording (2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11); mixing (2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11)\n Ege Çubukçu – rap vocals (7)\n Fresh B. – rap vocals (3)\n DJ Led – arranger (11)\n Yakup Trana – guitar (2, 3, 8, 9)\n Barış Büyük (Metropolis London) – mastering (all of the songs)\n Beth Trollan – vocals (2, 3, 8)\n Cennet Erdoğan – vocals (2, 3)\n Bahadır Tanrıöver – photographer\n Serdar Beyaz – graphic designer\n Yasemin Kağa – manager\n\nCredits adapted from Sustuysams album booklet.\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Sustuysam – Discogs\n\n2008 albums\nEpic Records albums\nSony Music albums" ]
[ "Thalía", "1990-1993: First albums as a solo artist", "What is the name of Thalia's first album as a solo artist?", "Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia,", "When did she released this album?", "1990,", "Did the album contain any hits?", "From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : \"Amarillo Azul\", \"Pienso en Ti\", \"Un Pacto Entre Los Dos\" and \"Saliva\".", "Did she record any albums after that one?", "1991,", "What album did she record in 1991?", "Mundo de cristal,", "Was this album successful?", "the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico.", "Did she make any songs after that album?", "In October 1992, she released her third studio album" ]	C_963c5d6c73044648a24858946d8e6313_0	Was this album also successful?	8	Was Thalia's third studio album also successful?	Thalía	In 1990, Thalia returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalia, which was produced by Alfredo Diaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became huge radio hits : "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Diaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalia released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalia's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Diaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalia's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalia was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragon, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and it was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "No Trates de Enganarme", "Flor de Juventud", "Maria Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalia wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Diaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalia, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. CANNOTANSWER	In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification,	Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda Mottola (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. She is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists and is referred to as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media. Having sold around 25 million records worldwide, she is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all-time. Aside from her native Spanish, Thalía has also sung in English, French, Portuguese and Tagalog. She has received numerous accolades, including five Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight Lo Nuestro Awards, as well as seven Latin Grammy Award nominations and their special "President's Merit Award" in 2019. She has collaborated with multiple artists, such as Tony Bennett, Michael Bublé, Robbie Williams, Marc Anthony, Laura Pausini, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Fat Joe, and Carlos Vives. As an actress, Thalía starred in a variety of successful telenovelas that aired in over 180 countries with an estimated audiece of 2 billion people according to UNICEF, which led to her being referred to as the "Queen of telenovelas" by the mass media. The global impact of her novelas helped her to popularize her music in non-Spanish speaking territories and markets in Europe and Asia. The Mexican media company Televisa has named her the best-paid telenovela actress in history, while Billboard names her the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world. Considered a Latin pop icon, Ocean Drive called Thalía as "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". She was included in Billboards Greatest Latin Artists of All Time in 2020 and in People En Españols The 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time in 2008. On 5 December 2013, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition for her achievements in the music industry. As a businesswoman, Thalía enjoyed success with a fashion brand (having signed a deal with Macy's), as well she had her own nationally syndicated radio show and is the author of four books, including her memoir. During her career, Thalía has been involved in humanitarian causes and is an UNICEF Mexico Ambassador since 2016. Early life Thalía was born on 26 August 1971 in Mexico City. She is the youngest of five daughters of Yolanda Miranda Mange (d. 2011), a painter who was Thalía's manager from 1980 to 1999 and Ernesto Sodi Pallares (d. 1977), a scientist, doctor of pathology, criminologist and writer. Her four sisters are Laura Zapata (daughter of Guillermo Zapata Pérez de Utrera), Federica, Gabriela and Ernestina Sodi. When she turned one, Thalía appeared in her first TV commercial in Mexico. At the age of four, she began taking ballet and piano classes at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico). Her father suffered from diabetes and died in 1977 when Thalía was six years old. Years later, Thalía admitted publicly that her father's death had traumatized her drastically, since she had lost her voice for a whole year. This led to her being diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDH), which belongs to a series of developmental disorders related to autism spectrum. She has said that she had psychological therapy for a few years. She has reportedly mentioned that she was a victim of bullying as a child because of the loss of her father. Thalía attended Lycée Franco-Mexicain elementary school, where she learned to speak French fluently at a very young age. In 1976, a year before her father's death, she had a guest appearance in the Mexican film La guerra de los pasteles ("War of Cakes"), although her name doesn't appear in the film credits. Music career 1981–1989: Career beginnings and the Timbiriche era In 1981, when Thalía was nine years old, she was incorporated as a vocalist in a children's group named Pac Man, which was formed to participate in a popular music festival known as Juguemos a cantar ("Let's play like we're singing"), a TV program by Televisa. Later, Pac Man changed their band name to "Din-Din". Thalía performed various times along with Din-Din in occasional events and parties, touring all over Mexico. The band recorded a total of 4 studio albums between 1982 and 1983 (En acción, Recordando el Rock and Roll, Somos alguien muy especial and Pitubailando), and later it was disbanded. After Din-Din broke up in 1984, Thalía participated as a solo artist in two annual music festivals of Juguemos a cantar. In 1984, she placed second there with her interpretation of "Moderna niña del rock" ("Modern rock girl"); this brought her the opportunity to participate in the chorus of the popular musical Vaselina, a child version of the successful musical Grease, in which the band Timbiriche was acting and singing. The line-up of the band consisted of Sasha Sökol, Benny Ibarra, Erik Rubín, Diego Schoening, Mariana Garza and Paulina Rubio. Timbiriche was highly promoted at the time by Televisa, one of the most massive media enterprises globally and the most important in the Spanish-speaking world. Some time later, Thalía obtained the protagonist role of Sandy Dee in the musical, and she performed in 500 theater presentations of Vaselina along with Timbiriche. In 1986, after the departure of Sasha Sökol from Timbiriche, Thalía became a member of the band. By that time, Timbiriche had already recorded five albums. In the following year, Thalía was invited to participate in the telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour; this production was actually Thalía's debut as a TV actress. However, she appeared in only one episode. In the same year, she recorded with Timbiriche the principal theme of the juvenile telenovela Quinceañera ("Fifteen-year-old"), in which Thalía was the co-protagonist with the role of Beatriz. The TV series was awarded as the "Best telenovela" by "Premios TVyNovelas" in 1988 and Thalía was awarded as "the best new actress of 1988". With Timbiriche, Thalía recorded four studio albums: Timbiriche VII (1987), the double album Timbiriche VIII & IX (1988) and Los clásicos de Timbiriche (1989). The last one is a compilation of the band's greatest hits, recorded originally in 1987, with new symphonic arrangements as it included the participation of Mexico's philharmonic orchestra. In 1989, Thalía departed from Timbiriche. In that year, she also starred in another TV series, Luz y sombra ("Light and shadow"), which was her first protagonist role. Some time later she visited Los Angeles to take English courses in the University of California. She also attended music, singing, acting and dancing classes before beginning her career as a solo artist. 1990–1993: First albums as a solo artist In 1990, Thalía returned to Mexico and released her first studio album as a solo artist, self-titled Thalía, which was produced by Alfredo Díaz Ordaz, and published by Fonovisa, Televisa's record label. From that album, she released a total of four singles that became radio hits: "Amarillo Azul", "Pienso en Ti", "Un Pacto Entre los Dos" and "Saliva". The last two tracks were co-written by her and Díaz Ordaz and they were considered as provocative at the time ("Un Pacto Entre Los Dos" was even labeled as a song with occult Satan-worship lyrics by various far-right parties). In September 1991, Thalía released her second studio album, Mundo de cristal, which marks Thalía's last project in collaboration with Alfredo Díaz Ordaz. Four songs became radio singles from the album, and all of them had big radio impact in Mexico. Due to the success of the singles, the album was certified as double gold in Thalía's native country, Mexico. In the same year, Thalía was co-presenter of the late Spanish show VIP Noche, along with Spanish presenter Emilio Aragón, produced by Telecinco. In October 1992, she released her third studio album and her last under the same label, entitled Love, which was recorded in Spain and was produced by Luis Carlos Esteban. The album spread six singles, that had huge radio impact: "Sangre", "Love", "María Mercedes" (official theme of the TV series), "No Trates de Engañarme", "Flor de Juventud", and "La Vida en Rosa" (La vie en rose), the last one being a Spanish-French cover of the classic French song originally performed by Edith Piaf. Thalía wrote the song "Sangre" inspired in Díaz Ordaz, with whom she had broken up her sentimental relation. The album was praised by the critics, as it was an artistic evolution for Thalía, who experimented for the first time in different music genres, especially electronic music. The album reached number 15 on Billboard's Latin Pop Albums in 1993. In Mexico, it sold over 200,000 copies in the first month upon its release and very soon it reached the platinum and gold certification, while it was a commercial success all over Latin America. 1994–1999: International breakout In 1994, during the successful transmission of Marimar, Thalía signed a contract with the record label EMI to prepare her fourth studio album that was entitled En éxtasis. The album was released in October 1995. En éxtasis was produced with the aid of celebrated producers such as Emilio Estefan, Jr. (husband of the famous Cuban singer Gloria Estefan) and Óscar López. The album spawned a total of seven singles including "Piel morena", "Amándote", "María la del barrio", "Quiero hacerte el amor", "Gracias a Dios, "Me Faltas Tú" and "Lágrimas". Piel morena became a huge international hit apart from being voted as the best Spanish song ever in the United States from a poll released by mass media company Univision. It must also be added that Thalía was more oriented to the latin pop music genre in that album, even though it was influenced by various music genres. Amandote became a number 1 hit in various radio stations in the Philippines in 1996, along with her phenomenal superstardom accompanied by her historic Manila tour. It was described by Philippine media as tantamount to that of Pope John Paul II's 1995 Manila visit. The broadcast of the telenovelas María Mercedes, Marimar and María la del barrio had already converted Thalía to a global television phenomenon by the end of 1996. In January 1997, she released her first compilation album entitled Nandito Ako, which contains four songs recorded in Filipino, five English versions from various tracks from the album En éxtasis and a Spanish remix of the song Amándote. The only single that was released from this album was Nandito Ako. The album became a commercial success in the Philippines as a result of Thalía's growing popularity, reaching platinum status set by the Philippine Association of the Record Industry. En éxtasis was her first album that was released worldwide, reaching gold, platinum or multi-platinum status in more than 20 countries. In July 1997, Thalía's fifth studio album was released, under the title Amor a la mexicana, produced again by Emilio Estefan, and including songs that became classic over the years like "Mujer Latina", "De dónde soy", "Por amor", "Noches sin luna" and "Amor a la mexicana". The album became a pure commercial success, while the first single of the album ("Amor a la mexicana") became a number one hit in 14 countries. With Amor a la mexicana, Thalía was able to bring her music and establish her projects in difficult markets like those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, Poland, Portugal, Italy and all the Spanish-speaking countries. After the success of Amor a la mexicana, Thalía recorded the Spanish and Portuguese versions of the song "Journey to the Past", produced by Atlantic Records, as a part of the soundtrack of the Fox Animation Studios movie Anastasia (1997). In the following year, she starred for the first time in a movie in English, named "Mambo Café", written and directed by Reuben González. Mambo Café premiered in January 2000 in Mexico, Greece and Russia, distributed by Kushner Locke Entertainment. In 1999, after Mambo Café, Thalía returned in television with telenovela Rosalinda. "Rosalinda" was considered to be Televisa's most expensive production ever by that time, as well as the most exported in foreign countries, as it was sold in over 180 countries. In an interview of that period Thalía had commented: "The telenovelas are the ones that opened the doors of the world for me, because the audience of telenovelas is much more passionate than the audience of cinema. What's more, television is free". 2000–2005: Crossover and first tour in the United States Emilio Estefan also produced Thalía's sixth studio album, Arrasando, released on 25 April 2000, which was successful. It spawned the singles "Entre el mar y una estrella", "Regresa a mí", "Arrasando" and "Reencarnación". Thalía was nominated in the Latin Grammy category as the "Best Female Pop Vocal Album". The album received one Latin Grammy nomination and it won in its category as the "Best Sound Engineered Album of the year". The singles of this album were huge hits. In 2001 she was nominated for her record Arrasando and won a Lo Nuestro award in the category of People's Prize, and was the first artist to whom an innovative award from Billboard Awards for Latin Music was given, the "Star Award". On 4 May 2001, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, invited her to a party celebrating Cinco de mayo organized at the White House, where she interpreted a medley of popular Mexican songs with a Mexican mariachi band. On 28 August 2001, expressing her love for her country of birth, Mexico, she released her album Con Banda: Grandes Éxitos: a "greatest hits" album, but recorded with the typical Mexican "banda" sound. "Amor a la Mexicana" banda version was released as a single. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy for "Best Banda Album" at the 3rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2002. Her seventh studio album, self-titled Thalía, was released on 21 May 2002. It was largely written and produced by Estéfano. Buoyed by a pair of chart-topping singles ("Tú y Yo" and "No me enseñaste") and a top-ten hit ("¿A quién le importa?") (cover of Alaska y Dinarama), this album hit number one for 6 consecutive weeks on the Top Latin Albums chart, reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart and 2x Multi-Platinum status with sales in the U.S. of 200,000 copies. It was nominated in one Latin Grammy category – "Female Pop Vocal Album", and in four Latin Billboard categories – "Pop Track Female" and "Tropical Track Female" for "No Me Enseñaste", "Your World Award", and "Female Pop Album", for Thalía, winning the last two awards. "No Me Enseñaste" reached at No. 1 in Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. On 25 February 2003, she released her first remix album, Thalía's Hits Remixed. This album contains some remixes of her EMI era hits, such as "Amor a la Mexicana", "Piel Morena", "No Me Enseñaste" and "Tú y Yo." It also contains the English version of "Arrasando", called "It's My Party". Furthermore, it includes the previously unreleased medley that Thalía had recorded especially for her 2001 Latin Grammy Awards performance, but was later cancelled, due to the September 11 attacks. On 8 July 2003, Thalía released her eighth studio album and the first one in English, the self-titled Thalía, featuring the rapper Fat Joe in "I Want You/Me Pones Sexy". "Baby, I'm in Love/Alguien Real", "Don't Look Back" and "Cerca De Ti" were singles too. The album landed at No. 11 in The Billboard 200. The song "I Want You" entered the American Top 40 with Casey Kasem and even reached the top 10 during that year. The song also entered the American Billboard Top 100 Singles Charts that year. She won an International Dance Music Award for her club-hit "Dance Dance (The Mexican)". On 10 February 2004, Thalía released her first official Greatest Hits album, and "Cerca de ti" and "Acción y Reacción" were the singles from this album. In April and May, she toured USA and Mexico with her "High Voltage Tour". Her ninth studio album, El Sexto Sentido, was released on 19 July 2005, and recorded mostly in Spanish, but with a few of the songs sung in English as well. It was reported to be the most expensive music album produced in Latin America in 2005. It had mild success, although the sound and the overall result make it one of her most integrated projects. "Amar sin ser amada" was the first single of the album and is considered as an infectious rock-edged tango-based song. "Un alma sentenciada", the second single of the album, is a feverish and, at points, hyperdramatic ballad. The explosive "Seducción" ("Seduction") and "Olvidame" were also releases as singles, gaining considerable success. The album was also certified gold in Argentina, Greece and Mexico and double platinum in the United States. 2006–2008: The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, Lyme disease and Lunada In 2006, the album received a reloaded version, El Sexto Sentido: Re+Loaded. Thalía was the 'godmother' of Cantando Por Un Sueño, a Mexican TV reality show. It was rumored she got paid 1 million dollars to perform. Thalía recorded the title song of the show, and it was included in the album. It was released in Mexico on 13 February 2006 (U.S. 6 June, Spain 29 May) and features four new songs, including a duet with the group Aventura, "No, No, No" which become a massive hit. "El Sexto Sentido" was nominated for one Latin Grammy as "Best Female Pop Vocal Album", it was also nominated in one Latin Billboard category – "Pop Female Album" and in eight Premios Juventud categories. In 2006, Thalía became a U.S. citizen at a swearing-in ceremony in New York, where she resides with her husband. Under Mexican law she is allowed to retain her Mexican citizenship. She also received an award by her then record company EMI, for sales of more than 10 million copies with all her discography with the company. In March 2007, Thalía also joined ABC Radio to start The Conexión Thalía Radio Show, where she talks about music, fashion, news and political issues. Afterwards, she was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in People en Español 2008 for a record-breaking seventh time where they called her their "Queen". She was once again featured in the 2010 edition for an eighth time. In May 2008, Thalía's single "Ten Paciencia", was premiered on the internet. Although, the single received a lukewarm response and did not perform well in the U.S. charts and Top 20 hits in Mexico, it was No. 1 in several countries of Latin America. Furthermore, her tenth studio album Lunada, was released on 24 June 2008, and debuted at number eight in Mexico and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums (U.S). It was the last Thalía's studio album released by EMI. Thalía later appeared on El Show De Cristina, aired in late July by Univision's Spanish network to promote the album. According to Univision network, her appearance on the show received huge ratings, reaching No. 1 in both the Chicago and Miami markets. The show was said to have been viewed by over 87 million people in the US alone. "Será porque te amo", the second single, received no promotion and became another failed single. It is a Spanish language cover version of the Italian hit "Sarà perché ti amo", originally performed by the group Ricchi e Poveri. On 23 October, it was announced that Thalía was suffering from Lyme disease, which is transmitted by ticks. Fortunately, it was discovered quickly, and the singer, as well as her mother, Yolanda Miranda, were able to receive antibiotics in time. On 18 November, Thalía announced the end of her collaboration with EMI Music. Despite Lunada being a commercial disappointment, it was named as the "Best Album of the Year" by ¡Hola! readers. The latest work of the Mexican singer achieved 8,750 votes beating artists, such as Luis Miguel, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Madonna. 2009–2011: Success of Primera Fila and Growing Stronger On 30 July 2009, Thalía recorded her acoustic album, Primera fila, her first album after she signed with Sony Music Entertainment. In October, Thalía performed at the White House, along with other Latin singers, in an event organized by President Barack Obama that celebrated Hispanic heritage. Thalía's performance was iconic and historic, as she was the first celebrity to publicly invite a United States President to dance. In October of the same year, she released the first single from Primera fila, a song named Equivocada. In December Thalía released her album, which contained duets with Joan Sebastian and Pedro Capó and various other songs, that became huge radio hits in the following months. The production received critical accept and very positive reviews, while Jason Birchmeier stated that "Primera Fila" was one of the best albums Thalía has released in her whole career, and definitely the one with the most surprises. As for Thalía, she considered Primera Fila as "the most personal album" in her career. Regarding to the album's commercial performance, Primera fila received diamond and triple platinum sales certifications in Mexico, where it was announced by the end of 2011 that the album had sold over 500,000 copies according to AMPROFON. Primera fila was the best selling album in Mexico in 2010, where it topped the charts for 55 non-consecutive weeks, the most weeks ever in Mexico's recorded music chart history. In Greece and Spain, the album reached the positions No. 6 and No. 32, respectively, while it reached No. 4 in Billboard's top Latin Albums and No. 2 in Billboard's Latin Pop Albums charts. Initially, Primera Fila had reached No. 1 on both aforementioned charts, but sales of the standard edition and the Walmart edition were later divided, leading to a retraction and update to Billboard's official peak positions for Primera Fila. After these changes, Primera fila went from a peak position of No. 167 to a peak position of No. 198 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. Until the month of October 2012, Primera fila had sold over 1.5 million copies worldwide. In September 2010, Thalía released a special anniversary edition of the album under the title Primera fila... Un año después, which included 8 songs from the original album, as well as 2 never-released before songs, 2 remixes and a DVD with a documentary of the recording process of the album. In October 2010, Michael Bublé invited her to record a song with him in his holiday album Christmas. Together they recorded the bilingual song "Mis Deseos/Feliz Navidad" and their collaboration received very positive reviews. 2012–2013: Habitame Siempre and VIVA! Tour Thalía had a collaboration with US music veteran Tony Bennett for his "Viva:Duets" album, which was released on 22 October 2012. Together they performed live the classic song "The way you look tonight" in Today's show and the Katie Couric's show. During the past months, she had announced that she was recording her eleventh studio album, Habítame siempre. On 21 September 2012, Thalía gave a private concert in New York City at Hammerstein Ballroom as a preview of the upcoming album. The album's lead single, "Manías", was released on 8 October 2012. Habítame siempre was released on 19 November 2012, in the United States and Latin America under the label of Sony Music Latin, while in Europe it is set to be released in 2013 by BMG Music. The album contains collaborations with Robbie Williams, Michael Bublé, Prince Royce and Gilberto Santa Rosa, among others and immensely after its release, it received mostly positive reviews. Habitame Siempre was certified triple platinum plus gold in Mexico for sales of more than 210,000 copies, gold in the United States for shipments exceeding 50,000 copies and platinum in Venezuela for over 10,000 copies shipped. In the meantime the second single of the album, "Te Perdiste Mi Amor", was certified platinum in Mexico for digital sales of over 60,000 copies. On 24 March 2013, Thalía launched her VIVA! Tour in support of Habítame Siempre. The VIVA! Tour marks Thalía's first tour in a decade and consists of a series of intimate concerts in the United States and Mexico. Thalía stated in an interview that she also plans to expand the tour to Latin America, Europe and Asia if it meets positive commercial reception. In October 2013, Thalía released in the United States and Latin America her fourth book Chupie (The Binky That Returned Home), and on 12 November, Thalía released in Mexico her second live album VIVA! Tour. This album was recorded on 27 April 2013, during her concert in Mexico City. In United States and Latin America, the album was released on 1 December 2013. It was certified gold in Mexico on its second week on the market for sales exceeding 30,000 copies. On 5 December 2013, she received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame as a recognition of her success. 2014–2015: Viva Kids and Amore Mio On 25 March 2014, Thalía released her first children album Viva Kids Vol. 1 in Mexico. The album contains 11 songs and received one nomination to Latin Grammy Awards 2014. Vamos A Jugar was the first single of the album and was released on 18 March 2014. Viva Kids Vol. 1 was released in US, on 5 June 2014. On 22 July 2014, Italian singer Laura Pausini confirmed that by September that same year she would release a special version of her greatest hits album to the Hispanophone market, in an edition containing new duet with Thalía in Sino a ti. On 9 September 2014, Thalía released the lead single of Amore Mio, "Por Lo Que Reste De Vida". The song debuted No. 50 in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The video music was released on 14 October 2014. Thalía released her 12th studio album on 17 November 2014. Amore Mio was Thalía's second album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. The album debuted at No. 173 on the Billboard 200 with 3,000 copies sold in first week in the US. In Mexico, the album debuted at No. 1. In December 2014, to celebrate Thalía's 25th anniversary as a solo artist, her first three albums were released as a digital download from iTunes and Spotify. In January 2015, Thalía released her first fashion collection in United States with Macy's. 2016–2017: Latina, world tour, and directorial debut On 26 February 2016, she revealed through her social media accounts the album cover for her then-upcoming studio album, Latina, which was released on 21 April 2016. The album's first single, "Desde Esa Noche" featuring Maluma, peaked at number 16 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number 4 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart. The second single of the album, Vuélveme a Querer was released on 29 April 2016. The third single of album was Todavía Te Quiero featuring De La Ghetto was released on 2 December 2016. Thalía has announced she will embark on a new tour, her third overall, called Latina Love Tour. In 2017 she made her directorial debut when she co-directed "15: A Quinceañera Story", a four-part series of documentary shorts that follows five latina quinceañeras. For this she received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children's Programs at the 70th Directors Guild of America Awards That same year she collaborated with Colombian singer Carlos Vives in the song "Todo Me Gusta" from his album "Vives". The song was not released as a single but still managed to peak at number 12 in Bolivia and also peaked at number 14 the U.S. Tropical Digital Songs Chart. 2018–2019: Donna Summer Musical, Eyelure, Valiente, and Adria In 2018 she produced Summer: The Donna Summer Musical on Broadway. The musical is based on the life of Donna Summer. In August 2018 she released her false eyelash and eyebrow collection called Eyelure which is available at Walmart. Thalía released her fourteenth studio album, Valiente, on 9 November 2018. The lead single No Me Acuerdo was certified quadruple platinum in both Mexico and the United States as well as double platimun in Spain. The album also spawned the hits Me Oyen, Me Escuchan, Lento, and Lindo Pero Bruto with the latter being certified gold in the United States. The album had a total of 8 songs released as singles. In January 2019 she released her line of hair care products called Adria by Thalía. The 7 piece collection in available in stores at Walmart and Target as well as online. 2020–present: New collaborations, Viva Kids 2, and DesAMORfosis In January 2020 Thalía released the single "Ya Tú Me Conoces" with Venezuelan brother duo Mau y Ricky. The song served as the lead single from her 17th studio album. A month after that she collaborated with Mexican duo Rio Roma on their song "Lo Siento Mucho", which entered the top 10 on the Mexican charts. A month later she collaborated again, this time with Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar on the song "Tímida", which served as the fifth single for his album 111. In May 2020, the magazine People en Español named her the number-one most influential Mexican star of all time for her success as a singer, actress, and entrepreneur. Later that month, she released her second children's album titled Viva Kids Vol. 2. In June 2020 she collaborated with Peruvian singer Leslie Shaw on her single "Estoy Soltera", which also features Colombian singer Farina and served as the third single from Shaw's EP Yo Soy Leslie Shaw. She released the second single of her upcoming studio album titled "La Luz" on 28 August 2020, on which she collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Myke Towers. A month later she started on a Facebook watch series called Latin Music Queens alongside Sofía Reyes and Farina. The series would lead up to the release of two more singles with the first one being Ten Cuidao with Farina which premiered on episode three and the second single being Tick Tock which featured all three singers and premiered after the sixth and final episode. The latter also served as the third single from Thalía's upcoming album. On 7 May 2021 she released Mojito which served as the fourth single from her album DesAMORfosis which she released on 14 May 2021. Acting career Thalia was cast in a supporting role in the 1986 telenovela Pobre señorita Limantour with which she began her collaboration with Televisa, the largest mass media company in the Spanish-speaking world. In 1987, she went on to star in her first major role for Televisa in the 1987 teenage drama series Quinceañera, along with Mexican actress Adela Noriega. Quinceañera won the TV y Novelas award for Best Telenovela of the Year 1988. In 1989, she got her first lead role in Luz y Sombra, which was less successful. However, Thalía's explosion in popularity came in 1992, when she starred in María Mercedes for which she won a TV Y Novelas award as Best Young Actress in 1993. This series was the first of three telenovelas, named by the Mexican press as Las Tres Marias ("The Three Marías"), because the name of the heroine in all of these telenovelas was María. The second telenovela of the trilogy was Marimar in 1994, and the third and final was Maria la del Barrio in 1995. Among the trilogy, the third was the most successful of Thalía's career and it remains her most iconic role, while Marimar is considered the best Telenovela of all time. In 1999, Thalía starred in her last telenovela, "Rosalinda". All four telenovelas were basically based on the same rags to riches character. With these telenovelas, Thalía became famous worldwide and was consolidated as a television phenomenon, because of the extremely high ratings her TV series achieved in more than 180 countries (especially the Philippines). Although Thalía's presence in television is legendary, her presence in cinema is less important. She appeared for the first time in a movie when she was still a child in the 1979 film "La Guerra De los Pasteles" ("The War of the Cakes"). Furthermore, in 1999, she starred in "Mambo Café", a modest indie film production that had a poor reception from critics. Cultural impact of telenovelas Thalía has been labeled by various mass media companies as the "queen of soap operas", because her presence in television during the decade of the '90s was phenomenal. She became one of the world's foremost and most enduring television personalities as she starred in Mexico's highest-rated telenovelas ever that were exported in over 180 countries and viewed by about 2 billion people. It is stated by international media experts that at some point at the midst of the telenovela craze, Thalía's name even became synonymous with her native country, Mexico. According to the newspaper Ivoir'Soir: "At 7.30 sharp in the evening, when Marimar comes on, everything stops in Côte d'Ivoire". It is also mentioned that "Marimar" could attract more local fans than the 1998 World Cup, and that the program arrived in Africa after being a phenomenal rating hit in Indonesia and the Philippines, where in 1997 she was received in Manila like a foreign head of state. Thalía stated in her autobiography regarding to the impact of her telenovelas: "Soap operas made a lot of history; just look at the report by UNESCO, where it was noted that "in the Ivory Coast in Africa and in Paris (France), people stopped the daily course of their lives just to watch a soap opera. I never expected that kind of success [...] Whenever I arrived anywhere, I was treated like royalty; even the press in some of these countries referred to me as the Aztec Queen, the Mexican Queen, or the ambassador of Mexico, and like a proud peacock, I always brought my country's flag with me wherever I went to represent my motherland. I was in the clouds at the pinnacle of my career [...] During my visit at the Philippines, the organizers informed me that the last time so many people gathered in the streets for a person was when Pope John Paul the Second came to visit on January fourteenth, 1995 [...] In the Philippines, the country that probably felt the greatest impact from Marimar, the show was more widely promoted than the 1998 World Cup and more highly rated than the Super Bowl or the Grammys. In fact while I was visiting the country, the people and the media were so enthralled to see Marimar in the flesh that a historic peace treaty between the government and the querillas and the centennial celebrations of the Philippine Revolutions that were happening at the same time were pushed aside in the midst of Marimar fever. As a result, the archipelago was temporarily dubbed "República de MariMar." The phenomenon of Thalía's telenovelas also became visible in countries like Brazil, Bulgaria, Libya, Egypt, France, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Lebanon, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Syria, Turkey and the majority of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Business endeavours In 2002, Thalía signed a deal with Kmart to release her own clothing collection for women, as well as accessories and home products. In the middle of 2003, the "Thalía Sodi" collection was officially available in the US market in over 2,000 stores. Thalía commented: "My collection is a dream come true. I'm so happy to have created a clothing line inspired by my culture, trying to show the colors and the passion of our culture, that captures also a big part of my personal style". Thalía became the first Mexican woman to launch a clothing brand in the US. Simultaneously, Thalía debuted her eyewear collection under the brand name "Thalía Eyewear Collection" in association with Kenmark Optical. In 2005, the line also became available in Mexico's market as Thalía signed a deal with "Devlyn" company. Up to 2007, Thalía had generated US$100 million from the sales of "Thalía Eyewear", with more than 1 million products sold. Precisely in 2007 Thalía presented a new eyewear collection in New York, and the brand was exported to over eighty countries around the world. In April 2004, she entered the editorial market by releasing her own magazine Thalía in US, produced by American Media and oriented to the female Latin youth. The magazine included consultation and reports about issues like health, fashion and beauty. Some months later, in September, Thalía became the face of jewels' company Jacob & Co. In 2004, she signed a contract with Hershey's with which she released her own chocolate and candy brand. In 2005, she designed a summer clothing line, and in the following year, she was converted into the face of "Carol's Daughter" company, specialized in beauty products, while in 2007 she launched her perfume, produced by "Fuller Cosmetics" company. In 2007, she joined ABC Radio and started her own radio show known as "The Conexión Thalía Radio Show", in which she discusses music, fashion, news and political issues, and invites various people to talk with her on different issues. The program, that is weekly and lasts two hours, premiered on 17 March 2007, and still goes on, while it has expanded to over 70 radio stations through the US. In September 2007, she released the beauty advice book "Thalía: ¡Belleza!-Lessons in Lipgloss and Happiness" and in June 2009, she released her second book entitled "Thalia: ¡Radiante!-Your Guide to a Fit and a Fabulous Pregnancy". In May 2010, she revealed new accessories and jewels available via her website, apart from a new clothing line in association with multinational company C&A. In February 2011, she became the new face of Head & Shoulders and in November, she released her third book, which is her autobiography and named "Growing Stronger". Thalía has also been the public face of various advertisements, like Dr Pepper in 2001 or Victoria's Secret in 2005. According to Mira! magazine, in 2008 it was estimated that Thalía was one of the most wealthy Mexican businesswomen with a net worth of over US$100 million. In April 2012, she inaugurated her own yoga center in New York. In 2015, she signed a contract with "ePura", a Mexican water company and she also signed an exclusive deal with Macy's to launch her apparel, shoes and jewelry collections. Jeffrey Gennette, Macy's president stated that "the Thalia Sodi collection is the biggest private-brand launch in the history of the company by a long shot." Philanthrophy and activism Thalía has participated in various humanitarian campaigns. Since 2004, she has been an official celebrity ambassador and volunteer of March of Dimes, to support national fundraising and awareness campaigns. March of Dimes is a United States nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies. Also, since 2016 she is a UNICEF Mexico Ambassador. Thalía is also became a member of "ALAS Foundation", which is a non-profit organization that strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America. Through various public service campaigns and through her own media channels, Thalia has been a strong voice for March of Dimes Prematurity Campaign. She also is featured in March of Dimes Education and Health Promotion materials in English and Spanish, while she has helped to raise awareness and critical funds for the March of Dimes year-round. Furthermore, she supports March for Babies and works to find ongoing opportunities for March of Dimes strategic alliances and media promotions. In 2006, Thalía along with her husband attended the event A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Cure Parkinson's with the aim to economically support the foundation The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research of Michael J. Fox. In May 2009, Thalía and Tommy Mottola were recognized from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Miami for their support in children in need. In 2010, she reunited with other recording artists, performers and actors like Sharon Stone, Michael Douglas, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony between others, to raise funds for the "Foundation of the New York's police department", which works for better urban security. In 2011, she attended a beneficial event in New York, organized by the Robin Hood Foundation with the aim to raise money for homeless youth. In the same year, she closed the Mexican Teleton by offering a live concert. In November 2012, Thalía took humanitarian aid and comfort to compatriots of her in New York that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. She stated : "When I started seeing the destruction of Sandy I thought it was incredible, but, when I saw my Mexican brothers and sisters I felt the need to try and do something for them" in front of a group of families gathered at the Staten Island Immigrant Information Center in one of the most devastated by the storm areas. She went on to say that in times like this an artist should use the reach of the media to collect aid for the victims, and at the same time she called on the public to deposit money in the account opened by the Mexican Consulate for that purpose. In April 2013, Thalía was awarded with the "Your Voice Inspires Many" award by the Lyme Research Alliance. Personal life Thalía was in a relationship with actor Fernando Colunga from 1995 to 1996 while they appeared on the series María la del Barrio. Thalía married music executive Tommy Mottola on 2 December 2000. The couple have two children, daughter Sabrina Sakaë, born on 8 October 2007, and son Matthew Alejandro, born on 24 June 2011. Thalía has stated in her autobiography and elsewhere that she is religious and believes profoundly in God. She began studying Kabbalah in 2002, using many of its symbols in the artwork of her album El Sexto Sentido. In 2015 she accidentally revealed during an interview that she had multiple miscarriages which caused her depression and were some of the hardest times in her life. In September 2002, Thalía's sisters, Laura Zapata and Ernestina Sodi, were kidnapped in Mexico City. Zapata was released 18 days after her kidnapping, and her sister Ernestina was released on the 36th day. Thalía has had a series of familial conflicts, especially with her sister Laura Zapata. She has opted to keep her point of view regarding to her familial issues private, despite the attacks she has received from her older sister. In a press interview, Thalía stated that her familial problems with her sister are "just a dark cloud in a shiny sky". In 2008, Thalía was affected by Lyme disease, a disease commonly transmitted by ticks. The illness prevented her from promoting her album Lunada, while it functioned as a motivation for her to have a totally different perspective towards life. In reference to her illness, Thalía stated in her autobiography : "I would sweat profusely, soaking my pajamas, the sheets and even the mattress; everything hurt, even my hair, which, by the way, started to fall out. At times it felt as if my head were going to burst, as if there were lead inside of it; my eyes ached in their sockets....the hypersensitivity of my skin was so severe that sometimes I couldn't even handle the bed sheets." Influences According to Thalia herself, her major personal influence was her mother, who was a motivating manager for Thalia from the very beginning of her career until 2000. As for her artistic influences, Thalia's work is mostly influenced by Gloria Estefan, Celine Dion, Sade, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, The Doors, and Kylie Minogue, while she has stated that she always admired Marilyn Monroe and Madonna. Thalia's first idol, according to her, was athlete Nadia Comaneci. She has even stated that her record-breaking performance was a huge motivation for her to follow a career in entertainment. Cultural impact She is referred as the "Queen of Latin Pop" by international media at least since the early-2000s, and was named by Billboard during the late-1990s as "Latin American's Reigning Music Queen". Thalía's success and impact in Latin music has been noted and praised by many critics. According to Billboard, she has achieved critical acclaim and commercial success as both a singer and songwriter, and has remained as one of the leading female artists in Latin music. Before her crossover attempt to the English market with a homonymous album in 2003, she gained success with her Spanish recordings in Europe, Asia and all over the Americas, even before the crossover of contemporaries artists such as Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shakira and Paulina Rubio. She also stated: "My internationalization has come for several years ago and in Spanish, which is very significant". Thalía was included in Billboard list the "Greatest Latin Artists of All Time" in 2020. According to the American magazine Ocean Drive, Thalía is "the biggest star Mexico has exported in the last decades". Similarly, Tammy Gagne in We Visit Mexico (2010) described her as "the most popular singer, actress, and dancer in Mexico", while Rough Guides discussed the Latin pop music stage in Latin America saying that in Mexico, "since the 1990s the biggest name has been Thalía". Univision placed Thalía at number 8 in their list of "25 most influential Mexican musicians", the highest peak by a female artist within the list. Thalía has been also described as an influential Latin woman, and has been part of diverse listicles. For instance, People en Español included her in their book Legends: the 100 most iconic Hispanic entertainers of all time (2008). The same magazine, include her at their "The 25 Most Influential Latin Women" and Terra Networks named her one of the most "powerful and iconic women in music" in 2011. Leila Cobo from Billboard wrote she "has carved out one of the most successful global Latin careers in memory". Producer Emilio Estefan called her "Mexico's diva of divas" and stated "Thalía is one of the few female artists in the Latino market who has legions of fans throughout Latin America, including Brazil". In 1998, French company Louis Vuitton invited her to appear in Rebonds publication, being at the time the first Latin celebrity to appear in that book. In 1997, 25 April was declared by the government of Los Angeles, as "Thalia's National Day", because of her growing popularity among the Latino community in the United States. Thalia's rise to international prominence coincided with the worldwide broadcast of the soap operas she starred in. Her soap operas were viewed in more than 180 countries by almost 2 billion viewers according to UNICEF, and many of her telenovelas became one of the most watched television broadcasts around the world. She is known as the "Queen of Telenovelas" ("Queen of Soap Operas") and Billboard once named her "the most widely recognized Spanish-speaking soap star in the world". She also gained success as a businesswoman, with commercial and critical recognition for her business ventures by launching several products under her brand name, and dominated the editorial business by writing and releasing three books, that became bestsellers. According to Felipe Escudero from El Mundo in 2006, Thalía was described as the "Latin Madonna of the Hispanic market" and a "Queen Midas" due her success as a businesswoman. Thalía is considered a gay icon and according to Infobae, many of her fans recognized her as the "Latin queen of gay community". The same publication also stated Thalía is one of the most "emulated pop singers by transvestite shows in gay nightclubs". Andrés del Real from La Tercera felt she is an icon for the sexual minority, and professor Ramón García in Chicano Representation and the Strategies of Modernism (1997) wrote Thalía is "the dream identity of many drag queens". Ed Grant from Time also commented that many of them called themselves "Thalíos". Thalia has been an influential artist for almost every younger Latin pop singer, including Anahí, Belinda, and urban Latin artists Becky G, Natti Natasha and Karol G among others, while Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett, Juan Luis Guerra, Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Laura Pausini, Tiziano Ferro, Michael Bublé, Espinoza Paz, Gloria Trevi, Inna, Erik Rubin, Pedro Capó, Maluma, Robbie Williams and many other artists have expressed their admiration towards her talent and charisma. Awards and achievements Thalía has achieved multiple milestones during her career with her music, acting career and business ventures. Luis Magaña from El Universal commented that those record figures in her career are "impressive" and found that she has been the first in place of different situations in life. Thalía has sold over 25 million records worldwide, and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists. She has numerous albums amongst the best-selling in Spanish-language that include En éxtasis, Amor a la Mexicana and Arrasando with sales of over 2 million copies worldwide and have at least one album amongst the best selling of all-time in Mexico, Chile and the Philippines. "No Me Acuerdo" is also one of the best-selling Latin singles in the United States. According to El Universal, Thalía is the first Latina to have a Top 10 in all continents, and Arrasando led her to be the first Latin woman selling a Spanish album in Japan. Thalía con banda is the first album of banda music with a certification in Spain. Thalía's versatility signing in other languages made her the first and only Latin artist with an album recorded primarily in Tagalog when she released Nandito Ako in 1997. María la del Barrio is the first telenovela translated into the Tagalog language. Thalía became the first actress to make a trilogy of telenovelas and Quinceañera is considered to be the first telenovela for a teen audience. Moreover, Thalía is the highest paid actress in the history of Televisa. With El Sexto Sentido, Thalía set a record for the largest number of interviews granted to an electronic medium, Televisa. The album also became the first Spanish-language release in the United States to have a preorder campaign through iTunes and was the most expensive Spanish album up that time. She is also the first woman to have a HBO Latino concert special. "Amor a la Mexicana" is the first Mexican song to be played in European dive bars. Thalía is also the first Mexican female artist to have a certification in Brazil, and remains the best-selling Mexican female soloist in that country. She is also the first Mexican woman with a line of clothing in the United States, as well the first Mexican woman closing bells at Nasdaq. Thalía became the first Mexican artist to hit one billion views on YouTube with "No Me Acuerdo". She also became in the first Mexican artist to have complete control over all the videos in her catalog. Thalía is the most followed Mexican female artist in Spotify, and with most views on YouTube. She also held the record in Instagram until being surpassed by Danna Paola. She is the first recipient of the Star Award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards when she was honored in 2001. She received her own star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013 as a recognition to her versatile trajectory and her impact in the world of music and entertainment. In doing so, Thalía became the first female singer born in Mexico with that achievement. She holds a record for appearing the most times in People en Españols annual list of the most beautiful Latin celebrities (Los más bellos). She became the first face of Jacob & Co, and the first Latina to make a deal with The Hershey Company. Filmography Discography Thalía (1990) Mundo de Cristal (1991) Love (1992) En éxtasis (1995) Nandito Ako (1997) Amor a la Mexicana (1997) Arrasando (2000) Thalía (2002) Thalía (2003) El Sexto Sentido (2005) Lunada (2008) Habítame Siempre (2012) Viva Kids Vol. 1 (2014) Amore Mío (2014) Latina (2016) Valiente (2018) Viva Kids Vol. 2 (2020) Desamorfosis (2021) Concert tours High Voltage Tour (2004) Viva! Tour (2013) Latina Love Tour (2016) Written works See also Sodi family List of most watched television broadcasts List of most expensive celebrity photographs List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors References Bibliography Scott Robert Olson (1999). Hollywood Planet: Global Media and the Competitive Advantage of Narrative Transparency, Routledge publications, pages 134, 153–161. . Quiñones, Sam (2001). True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino, and the Bronx. University of New Mexico Press. . Cl. Fernandez, Andrew Paxman (2001). El tigre: Emilio Azcárraga y su imperio Televisa. . Ruth Lorand (2002). Television: Aesthetic Reflections, P. Lang, Michigan University, digitized in 2008. Maria Immacolata, Vassallo de Lopes, Uribe Bertha (2004). Telenovela: internacionalização e interculturalidade, Edições Loyola. , 9788515028887, πορτογαλικά. Cobo, Leila (2005). Billboard : "Thalía's Sixth Sense", Nielsen Business Media, Inc – Prometheus Global Media, pages 59–60. . Lisa Shaw, Stephanie Dennison (2005). Pop Culture Latin America!: Media, Arts, and Lifestyle, ABC-CLIO, pages 51, 233–239, 398. Stavans Ilan, Augenbraum Harold (2005). Encyclopedia Latina: History, culture, and society in the United States. Volumen 1, Grolier Academic Reference. . Antoine van Agtmael (2007). The Emerging Markets Century: How a New Breed of World-Class Companies Is Overtaking the World, Simon and Schuster, p. 255. Stavans, Ilan (2010). Telenovelas (The Ilan Stavans Library of Latino Civilization), ABC-CLIO. , 9780313364938. External links Thalia.com — Official website 1971 births Living people EMI Latin artists Fonovisa Records artists LGBT rights activists from Mexico Latin music musicians Mexican women in business Mexican women singers English-language singers from Mexico Portuguese-language singers of Mexico Mexican child actresses Mexican dance musicians Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican record producers Mexican telenovela actresses Mexican women writers Actresses from Mexico City Singers from Mexico City 20th-century Mexican actresses Timbiriche members Latin pop singers Singers from New York City Sony Music Latin artists Mexican women pop singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican singers Mexican women record producers Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of French descent Women in Latin music	true	[ "Singh Better Than King is the tenth studio album, and his first religious album, by the Punjabi singer Babbu Maan, released on 16 November 2009. The album was also released in the USA, Canada and the UK.\n\nThe album was preceded by the lead single, \"Ik Baba Nanak Si\". The song was Mann's first religious single. Following the success of the single, \"Marno Mool Na Darde\" was released and was also successful. The album received good reviews.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\n2009 albums\nBabbu Maan albums", "Luna is the eighth studio album by the German medieval folk band Faun. It was released on 5 September 2014 and has become Faun's most successful release.\n\nReception\nThe Sonic Seducer wrote that Faun appeared to be unsure of their direction on this album. The reviewer remarked an original songwriting and the reduction of singer Katja Moslehner's \"all too changeable voice\", but also criticized influences of mainstream pop music.\n\nTrack listing\nLuna includes the following tracks.\n\nCharts\nLuna peaked at position 4 in the German album charts making it Faun's most successful album in Germany so far. It was also Faun's first album to enter the Dutch album charts.\n\nReferences\n\n2014 albums\nFaun (band) albums" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career" ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	When did he enter Parliament?	1	When did P. W. Botha enter Parliament?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	true	[ "John Merrill (died 1734), of Lainston, Hampshire, was a British government official and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1721 and 1734.\n \nMerrill was probably the clerk in the pay office who became deputy to John Grubham Howe, the Paymaster-General, by 1710. He was chief clerk to William Pulteney when he was secretary at war from 1715 to 1717. Pulteney said of Merrill ‘He understood the ... revenues ... as well, perhaps better than any man in it … he was the truest friend’.\n \nPulteney was probably instrumental in Merrill's unopposed return as Member of Parliament for Tregony at a by-election on 7 November 1721 in succession to Daniel Pulteney. Merrill was returned unopposed again at the 1722 general election. He was deputy to Pulteney who was Cofferer of the Household from 1723 to 1725 and became a director of the South Sea Company in 1724. By 1725 Pulteney had gone into opposition. Merrill was not put forward for Tregony at the 1727 general election. He did not re-enter Parliament until a by-election on 23 January 1733, when he was returned as MP for St Albans by the Duchess of Marlborough on Pulteney's recommendation. He did not stand in 1734.\n\nMerrill married Susanna Chudleigh, daughter of Hugh Chudleigh of Westminster He died of gout on 19 December 1734, leaving one son.\n\nReferences\n\n1734 deaths\nMembers of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies\nBritish MPs 1715–1722\nBritish MPs 1722–1727\nBritish MPs 1727–1734", "The Ak Jol People's Party (, sometimes romanized as Ak Zhol (, ), is a Kyrgyz political party founded by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on 15 October 2007 to contest the parliamentary election to be held in December 2007.\n\nIt gained 71 of the 90 seats in the 2007 elections and was one of the three parties to enter into the parliament, obtaining most of its support from the south of the country. However, following the Kyrgyz Revolution of 2010, snap elections were called, and the party lost all of its seats. It did not re-enter parliament thereafter, and it is defunct.\n\nElection results\n\nJogorku Kenesh\n\nPresidential\n\nReferences\n\nPolitical parties established in 2007\nPolitical parties in Kyrgyzstan" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946," ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	What happened to him after that?	2	What happened to P. W. Botha after being elected the head of the National Party Youth?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	false	[ "Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books", "What Happened to Jones may refer to:\n What Happened to Jones (1897 play), a play by George Broadhurst\n What Happened to Jones (1915 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1920 film), a lost silent film\n What Happened to Jones (1926 film), a silent film comedy" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly" ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	When did he win that election?	3	When did P. W. Botha win the race for the House of Assembly election?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	1946, and two years later won	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	false	[ "The National Action Party () is a political party in El Salvador. It first contested national elections in 1956. However, Roberto Edmundo Cannessa, its candidate in the presidential election was disqualified, whilst in the legislative elections it failed to win a seat, despite being the only party to run against the Revolutionary Party of Democratic Unification. It did not contest the 1958 elections, but returned in 1960, again failing to win a seat against the PRUN. It also failed to win a seat in the Constitutional Assembly elections in 1961.\n\nThe party did not contest another election until 2000, when it won two seats in the legislative elections that year. However, it lost them both in the 2003 elections.\n\nReferences\n\nPolitical parties in El Salvador", "The United Party (sometimes referred to as the BVI United Party) (or UP) is a now defunct political party of the British Virgin Islands.\n\nIt was originally formed by Conrad Maduro, H. Lavity Stoutt, Terrance B. Lettsome and Ivan Dawson during the first session of the Legislative Council of the British Virgin Islands under the new constitution in 1967 subsequent to the general election on 14 April 1967. Although Conrad Maduro was the President of the party, he did not win his seat at the 1967 general election, and so it was agreed that Lavity Stoutt would be appointed Chief Minister. Leading up to the 1971 general election Lavity Stoutt and Terrance Lettsome left the party to form the Virgin Islands Party, presumably for the ostensible reason of Stoutt seeking to remain as Chief Minister if Maduro should win his seat at the next election. Although Maduro did win his seat, the election was won by the rival VI Democratic Party.\n\nThe United Party held power three times in the Territory. Firstly, from its formation in 1967 until 1971. In 1975 it regained power as part of a coalition with Willard Wheatley until 1979. It regained power for the final time in November 1983 as part of a coalition with Cyril Romney. However, when Cyril Romney stepped down as Chief Minister and left the party, the party lost its overall majority and was replaced by the Virgin Islands Party, and never again emerged subsequently as a major political force.\n\nThe last election in which the United Party won a seat was the 1995 general election when Conrad Maduro and Andre Penn were the only candidates to win a seat. Although various candidates ran under the United Party banner in the 1999 general election, none were elected. In the 2003 general election only Conrad Maduro ran for the party (unsuccessfully). Maduro ran again in the 2005 by-election following the death of Paul Wattley (also unsuccessfully), and thereafter the United Party had ceased to function as a political party.\n\nPossible revival\n\nIn June 2014 Conrad Maduro announced his desire to return the United Party to political prominence, and confirmed that if selected as a candidate he would run in the next general election. It is unclear who the prospective candidates might be, but Maduro referred to the people expressing an interest as being \"young people\". In the end the party did not put any candidates forward at the 2015 election.\n\nAnother potential revival was also suggested in July 2018.\n\nElectoral results\n\nFootnotes\n\nPolitical parties in the British Virgin Islands\nPolitical parties established in 1963\n1963 establishments in the British Virgin Islands" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly", "When did he win that election?", "1946, and two years later won" ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	Who was his opponent in that election?	4	Who was P. W. Botha's opponent in the House of Assembly election?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	false	[ "The Manukau by-election was a by-election in the New Zealand electorate of Manukau, a seat in the north of the North Island.\n\nBackground\nThe by-election was held on 6 December 1906, and was precipitated by the death of sitting MP Matthew Kirkbride who had held the seat since the election. The election was won by Frederic Lang who stood as an independent conservative. His sole opponent was George Ballard of the Liberal Party, who contested in the Government's interests.\n\nResult\nThe following table gives the election results:\n\nReferences\n\nManakau, 1906\n1906 elections in New Zealand\nPolitics of the Auckland Region", "The Middleton by-election, 1911 was a parliamentary by-election held on 2 August 1911 for the Middleton division of Lancashire, a constituency of the British House of Commons.\n\nVacancy\nRyland Adkins had been Liberal MP for Middleton since 1906 when he gained the seat from the Conservatives. Upon his appointment as Recorder of Nottingham on 17 July 1911, Adkins was obliged by the electoral law of the day to resign his seat and re-contest it at a by-election.\n\nElectoral history\n\nCandidates\nAdkins Unionist opponent was William Hewins who was his opponent at the December 1910 general election.\n\nCampaign\nThe by-election was fought mainly on the issue of National Insurance which Hewins took up vigorously, if by some accounts rather cynically. In the course of the campaign Lloyd George had to send Adkins a letter for public consumption refuting in detail Hewins’ claims.\n\nResult\nAdkins held on, although Hewins reduced his majority again, this time to 411 votes.\n\nAftermath\nHewins was elected in a by-election at Hereford in 1912.\nA General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. \n\nDue to the outbreak of war, the election never took place. In 1918, following boundary changes, the Middleton constituency was combined with Prestwich.\n\nAdkins was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government.\n\nReferences\n\n1911 elections in the United Kingdom\n1911 in England\n1910s in Lancashire\nElections in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale\nBy-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Lancashire constituencies\nBy-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Greater Manchester constituencies" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly", "When did he win that election?", "1946, and two years later won", "Who was his opponent in that election?", "I don't know." ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	What happened to him after the 1948 election?	5	What happened to P. W. Botha after the 1948 election?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	true	[ "Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books", "What Happened is a 2017 memoir by Hillary Clinton about her experiences as the Democratic Party's nominee and general election candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Published on September 1, 2017, it is her seventh book with her publisher, Simon & Schuster.\n\nA paperback edition featuring a new afterword was released in September 2018, as was a Spanish translation entitled Lo que pasó.\n\nInception and advance publicity \n\nExistence of a new Clinton work was first revealed in February 2017, but at the time it was billed as a volume of essays centered around the author's favorite sayings, with only some allusions to the campaign. Financial terms of that work, which had no announced title, were not publicly disclosed but industry observers expected her monetary compensation to be large. The new purposing of the work and its thematic substance were revealed in July 2017. After the title was announced, it was parodied with memes on Twitter.\n\nThe New York Times wrote that the stated aim of the book was to offer an intimate view of what it was like for Clinton to run as the first female presidential candidate from a major party in United States history, in an often vicious and turbulent campaign. This is her third memoir, following Living History in 2003 and Hard Choices in 2014; advance publicity for the work said it would be her \"most personal\" yet and quoted from her words in the book's Introduction: \"In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I've often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net. Now I'm letting my guard down.\" Clinton promised a new level of candor as a major theme of the initial publicity surrounding the book. The work was also said to include some self-help ideas about how to get past highly unpleasant experiences.\n\nContents \n\nWhat Happened is a first-person account dedicated to \"the team that stood with me in 2016,\" and one of its chapters is largely a list of everyone who worked on her campaign. It is organized into six main parts, entitled: Perseverance, Competition, Sisterhood, Idealism and Realism, Frustration, and Resilience. Each part has from two to five chapters within it.\n\nAfter the introduction, the book opens with a scene from the United States presidential inauguration of 2017, attended by Clinton and her husband, where she watched President Donald Trump take office. She begins:\n\nIn the next chapter, \"Get Caught Trying,\" she starts with her reasoning for running: \n\nFurther in, she elaborates: \n\nIn the book, she defends her campaign, saying they were economical with travel expenses, snacks, and office supplies. \"Our national campaign staff [were] living and working on a tight budget...\" She revealed that the average donation was $100 and that the majority were from women.\n\nShe also describes campaigning in hostile areas of the country, like Mingo County, West Virginia, \"Ground Zero for the coal crisis.\" She describes being taken aback by the level of anger she was met there with. She wrote, \"This wasn't just about my comments in one town hall. This was something deeper.\"\n\nIn the book, also, Clinton tries to explain the combination of factors that led to her electoral loss, including James Comey, Vladimir Putin, Mitch McConnell, The New York Times, NBC, WikiLeaks, the American media as a whole, sexism, white resentment, Bernie Sanders and his supporters, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and herself, specifically her comments on putting \"coal miners out of business\" and labeling her opponent's supporters as a \"basket of deplorables\". \n\nShe noted that President Obama worried that extending the handover process after Trump's win would be bad for the country. She wrote \"After so much hand-wringing about Trump undermining our democracy by not pledging to accept the results, the pressure was on us to do it right. If I was going to lose, the President wanted me to concede quickly and gracefully. It was hard to think straight, but I agreed with him.\"\n\nThe book contains a number of Clinton's policy proposals, featuring her analysis of a problem area and her ideas for how to solve it like resolving the issues of climate change and securing the vote. It also says though she was ecstatic about Barack Obama's win in 2008, \"in some ways, the [moment with Trump as president] now feels even more hopeful, because it is a battle-hardened hope, tempered by loss and clear-eyed about the stakes.... We are doing the work.\n\nAnother subject of the book is how to get through difficult experiences. Clinton discusses her practice of yoga and her liking of chardonnay, but in particular, she lists a large number of books that helped her cope with the loss in one way or another. These included mysteries by Louise Penny, Jacqueline Winspear, Donna Leon, and Caroline and Charles Todd. They also included the Neapolitan Novels of Elena Ferrante, the spiritual works of Henri Nouwen, and the collected poems of Maya Angelou, Marge Piercy and T. S. Eliot.\n\nWhat Happened closes with a scene from a speech she gave at her alma mater Wellesley College. Clinton concludes it with the advice to readers to \"Keep going.\"\n\nSales\n\nDomestic sales\n\nThe hardcover edition was published on September 12, 2017; it immediately went to the top of the Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and USA Today bestseller lists.\n\nIt debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller List for both hardcover nonfiction and combined print and e-book nonfiction sales where it stayed for 2 weeks. It dropped to number two on both lists in its third week. By the beginning of November it had spent six weeks in the top four positions of the list. By the beginning of January 2018 the book had spent sixteen weeks on the list. The following week it fell off.\n\nWhat Happened sold 300,000 copies in its first week. The first-week sales were lower than her 2003 memoir, Living History, but triple the first-week sales of Clinton's previous memoir, 2014's Hard Choices.\n\nThe first-week hardcover sales for What Happened were 167,000. This marked the strongest hardcover debut for a nonfiction book since 2012's No Easy Day. Simon & Schuster also announced that What Happened sold more e-books in its first-week than any nonfiction book had since 2010.\n\nThe book debuted at number one of the Publishers Weekly \"Top 10 overall\" and \"hardcover nonfiction\" bestseller lists. In its third week on the lists, it dropped to number three of the \"Top 10 overall\" and to number two of the \"hardcover nonfiction\" lists with a total of 311,982 hardcover copies sold. As of December 10, 2017, the book had sold 448,947 hardcover copies.\n\nInternational sales \nWhat Happened also performed strongly in its release outside of the United States. In the United Kingdom, What Happened debuted atop The Sunday Times bestseller list.\n\nIn Ireland, the book was able to peak atop the Nielsen BookScan component chart for hardcover non-fiction. On the primary Irish Nielsen BookScan chart tracking sales of both hardcover and paperback books in all genres, What Happened debuted at number ten (selling 767 copies). It jumped to number seven in its second week (selling 800 copies). It jumped further to number four in its third week (selling 1,117 copies). In its fourth week it dropped to number six (however with consistent sales, selling 1,116 copies). It exited the top-ten in its seventh week.\n\nIn Canada, What Happened debuted atop The Globe and Mails hardcover non-fiction best sellers list. It remained on the chart for six consecutive weeks. In New Zealand, What Happened debuted number 8 on Nielsen BookScan's \"International Non-fiction - Adults\" chart. In Australia, the book charted on Books+Publishings bestsellers chart.\n\nCritical reception \nWhat Happened polarized book critics.\n\nEntertainment Weekly gave it a \"B\" grade. Writer Tina Jordan said: \n\nI think the first woman candidate for President, the one who won the popular vote, has every right to offer her own take on the election. But bear in mind that many—if not all—of the people tearing down Clinton and her new memoir, What Happened, haven't actually read it. Bear in mind, too, that few—if any—of these same people called out Bernie Sanders for writing his own campaign memoir, one that dropped just days post-election. No, there's some sort of special virulence reserved for Clinton. And she gets it. In fact, she spends much of What Happened parsing that very question.\n\nJennifer Senior of The New York Times said:\n\n\"What Happened\" is not one book, but many. It is a candid and blackly funny account of her mood in the direct aftermath of losing to President Donald J. Trump. It is a post-mortem, in which she is both coroner and corpse. It is a feminist manifesto. It is a score-settling jubilee. It is a rant against James B. Comey, Bernie Sanders, the media, James B. Comey, Vladimir Putin and James B. Comey. It is a primer on Russian spying. It is a thumping of Trump.\n\nFor Washington Post writer David Weigel noted that Clinton \"apologizes to the reader, who has to relive all of this. 'It wasn't healthy or productive,' she writes, 'to dwell on the ways I felt I'd been shivved.' It's a perfect word, 'shivved.' The Hillary Clinton of this bitter memoir ... again and again ... blames herself for losing, apologizing for her 'dumb' email management, for giving paid speeches to banks, for saying she would put coal miners 'out of business.' She veers between regret and righteous, sometimes in the same paragraph.\"\n\nA review in the Chicago Tribune by Heidi Stevens stated that the passages in the book about Russia's involvement in the US election \"read like a spy novel\". Thomas Frank in The Guardian contends that \"Unfortunately, her new book is less an effort to explain than it is to explain away. ... Still, by exercising a little discernment, readers can find clues to the mystery of 2016 here and there among the clouds of blame-evasion and positive thinking.\"\n\nAn analysis by Ezra Klein, editor-in-chief of Vox, saw a different role for the book, making reference to Clinton's belief that progress is best made by working within the political system: \"What Happened has been sold as Clinton's apologia for her 2016 campaign, and it is that. But it's more remarkable for Clinton's extended defense of a political style that has become unfashionable in both the Republican and Democratic parties.\"\n\nDavid L. Ulin of the Los Angeles Times wrote in his review for the newspaper that the book is a \"necessary—if at times clunky and unconvincing—retrospective\" and that \"She should have been president, and she knows it; regret and loss is palpable throughout the book. And yet it's also the case that she remains unable to reckon with just what happened in the 2016 election, looking for explanations, for reasons, while at the same time never quite uncovering her own complicity.\"\n\nSarah Jones of The New Republic wrote: \n\nThe real problem with What Happened is that it is not the book it needed to be. It spends more time on descriptions of Clinton's various post-election coping strategies, which include chardonnay and \"alternative nostril breathing,\" than it does on her campaign decisions in the Midwest. It is written for her fans, in other words, and not for those who want real answers about her campaign, and who worry that the Democratic Party is learning the wrong lessons from the 2016 debacle.\n\nJeff Greenfield wrote in Politico Magazine that the book suggests \"that the person we've seen over the past quarter-century, and the person we watched seek the presidency twice, is the authentic Hillary. In fact, to judge by her book, she may have been the most authentic person in the race.\"\n\nA 2019 study in the journal Perspectives on Politics tried to evaluate the veracity of reasons that Clinton presented for her loss in the 2016 election. The study found that \"more often than not, HRC’s assumptions are supported\" but that there was little evidence that the e-mail scandal, including FBI Director James Comey’s intervention shortly before Election Day, contributed to her loss.\n\nAwards and honors\nTime magazine listed What Happened as #1 on its list of the best non-fiction books of 2017. NPR's Book Concierge included What Happened on its list of \"2017's Great Reads.\" What Happened also won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Memoir & Autobiography.\n\nBook tour \n\nIt was announced on August 28, 2017, that Hillary Clinton would be starting a North American book tour in September 2017 to promote What Happened, as well as the picture book It Takes a Village (a new take on that 1996 volume).\n\nClinton scheduled more than thirty appearances in cities across the United States and Canada as part of an official book tour which lasted through December 2017.\n\nClinton also traveled to the United Kingdom to promote the book. In part, the events in the U.K. were considered a great success, with tickets being sold out in less than an hour in some places.\n\nIn May 2018, she took her book tour to New Zealand and Australia.\n\nHillary Clinton: Live\nClinton partook in a series of engagements titled Hillary Clinton: Live. At many of her appearances, Clinton was met with enthusiastic audiences filling multi-thousand-seat venues. Starting prices for general admission tickets ranged from $30 to $125.\n\nBook signings\nIn addition to Hillary Clinton Live events, Clinton also held book signings at locations across the United States as part of her book tour.\n\nTickets for particular signings sold out very soon after going on sale. For instance, tickets to Clinton's signing at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena sold out within ninety minutes. The president of Vroman's Bookstore reported that it was the fastest that the store had ever sold out for an event.\n\nIn the United States, some of the book tour's stops were located relatively near Chappaqua, New York, where Clinton maintains her personal residence. She also held book signings in California or Colorado.\n\nSee also \n\n Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nDiscussion with Clinton on What Happened, September 18, 2017, C-SPAN\nDiscussion with Clinton on book and related matters with Ezra Klein, September 12, 2017\n\n2017 non-fiction books\nBooks by Hillary Clinton\nBooks about Hillary Clinton\nAmerican memoirs\nAmerican political books\nBooks about the 2016 United States presidential election\nAftermath of the 2016 United States presidential election\nSimon & Schuster books" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly", "When did he win that election?", "1946, and two years later won", "Who was his opponent in that election?", "I don't know.", "What happened to him after the 1948 election?", "1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs" ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	What was his next position after being appointed as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs?	6	What was P. W. Botha's next position after being appointed as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs.	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	false	[ "Abdusalom Abdumavlonovich Azizov (Uzbek: Abdusalom Abdumavlonovich Azizov; born January 20, 1960) is an Uzbek military leader who was the Minister of Defence of Uzbekistan from September 4, 2017 to February 11, 2019. He now serves as head of the State Security Service.\n\nBiography \nAzizov was born on January 20, 1960 in Tashkent. He formerly served in the ranks of the Soviet Army. He graduated from the Tashkent Police School (now the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan). From 1982 to 2001, he served in the Main Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Tashkent from the inspector of the checkpoint to the first deputy chief of the GUVD. In 2001-2002, he was the head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the city of Tashkent. From 2002 to 2006, he was chairman of the national holding company Uzbekneftegaz. From September 2006 to November 2008, Azizov was the General Director of Uzneftprodukt (a subsidiary of Uzbekneftegaz). In November 2008 he returned to work at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and in the winter of the same year he served as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Bakhodyr Matlyubov, from December 2008 to December 2009 he was First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan Bakhodyr Matlyubov. From 2008 to 2009, he was simultaneously one of the vice presidents of the Uzbekistan Football Association. In 2009-2017 he was the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate in the Jizzakh region.\n\nAfter the death of former President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov and Shavkat Mirziyoyev coming to power in his place, on January 4, 2017, Azizov was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs instead of Adham Ahmedbaev. 10 days after being appointed Minister of the Interior, he was awarded the title of Major General. As the Minister of Internal Affairs, Azizov participated in a radical reform of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan towards transparency and openness, abolished the term “police” and established the phrase “Internal Affairs Bodies of the Republic of Uzbekistan” instead. On September 4, 2017, Azizov was relieved of his post as Minister of Internal Affairs and appointed by President Mirziyoyev as Minister of Defense to replace Qobul Berdiyev. In January 2019, Azizov was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General. On February 11, he was relieved of his post of Minister of Defense and appointed chairman of the State Security Service instead of Ihtiyor Abdullayev. Since July 15, 2019, he also became the president of the Football Association of Uzbekistan and promised to destroy contractual matches and corruption in Uzbek football.\n\nHas 2 daughters 1 son. The son is married to the daughter of the former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.\n\nReferences \n\n1967 births\nUzbekistani politicians\nUzbekistani military personnel\nLiving people\nDefence Ministers of Uzbekistan", "Erlan Zamanbekuly Turgymbaev , Erlan Zamanbekūly Tūrğymbaev; born 14 August 1962) is a Kazakh politician who's serving as a Minister of Internal Affairs since 12 February 2019.\n\nBiography\n\nEarly life and education \nTurgymbaev was born in the city Alma-Ata (now Almaty). In 1984 he graduated from the Law Faculty of the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University specializing in law and in 2003 from the Faculty of Economics.\n\nCareer \nAfter graduating, Turgymbaev served as a detective in the criminal investigation of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Saransk City Executive Committee in the Karaganda Region. From 1986 to 2001, he held various leadership positions in the investigative and operational units of the Alatau and Kalinin district Internal Affairs departments, as well as the Police Department of Almaty.\n\nIn 2001, Turgymbaev became the Managing Director of NAC Kazatomprom CJSC and from 2002, he was the head of the 9th Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. That same year, he was appointed as the head of the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs until April 2003, when Turgymbaev became the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the North Kazakhstan Region. From March 2006, Turgymbaev served as chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and in August 2006, he was appointed as the head of the Department of Internal Affairs of Almaty. \n\nIn December 2012, Turgymbaev was appointed as a Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan. He served that position until he became the Minister on 12 February 2019 after his predecessor Kalmukhanbet Kassymov was appointed as a secretary of the Security Council.\n\nReferences \n\n1962 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Almaty\nGovernment ministers of Kazakhstan\nNur Otan politicians" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly", "When did he win that election?", "1946, and two years later won", "Who was his opponent in that election?", "I don't know.", "What happened to him after the 1948 election?", "1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs", "What was his next position after being appointed as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs?", "in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs." ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	What impact did he have in that position?	7	What impact did P. W. Botha have in the Minister of Coloured Affairs position?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	false	[ "Slammiversary XVII was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on July 7, 2019 at the Gilley's Dallas in Dallas, Texas. It was the fifteenth event under the Slammiversary chronology.\n\nProduction\n\nBackground\nAt Rebellion, Impact Wrestling announced the date for Slammiversary XVII, but did not announce a venue.\n On May 14, 2019 via its website and on social media, IMPACT Wrestling announced that the event would be held at Gilley's Dallas, and would be the first event held in Dallas.\n\nStorylines \nThe event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.\n\nReception \nSlammiversary received widespread critical acclaim. Bob Kapur of Canoe.ca declared that \"if Impact Wrestling can put great PPV shows like Slammiversary every time they go there, then they should never leave\". He gave the Tessa-Sami match a perfect 10/10, Cage-Elgin 9/10, Monsters Ball Knockouts 4-way match 9/10 and the Swann-Impact match 8/10. He rated the event 9/10. He stated the match of the night – and there were many contenders for that honour – was an intergender match, Tessa-Sami with the Vile Sami Callihan and arguably the best female wrestler in any company, Tessa Blanchard. The match was historic in that it was the first intergender match to ever headline a PPV event. And what a great precedent it set. He further emphasized While that match had many hard-hitting moments, it may have been rivaled on that front by the Impact World Championship match, Cage-Elgin that saw Brian Cage defend against “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin. He gave credit to the Monsters Ball knockouts four-way match labeling it 'a good, violent affair'.\n\nThe writer of the Slammiversary report on 411 Mania, Larry Csonka, rated the event an 8 out of 10. Csonka stated that Impact Slammiversary 2019 was another good PPV from the company, with nothing bad, a great X-Division title match, Cage vs. Elgin in Impact’s match of the year, and Tessa Blanchard getting a chance to shine in the main event. This was a really entertaining and easy to watch show that flew by.\"\n\nJason Powell from Pro Wrestling Dot Net praised the event stating \"Overall, this was a very good pay-per-view. Impact continues to be at its best when they focus on the more traditional pro wrestling approach. \nHe praised the main event calling it \"A very good main event. Intergender wrestling isn’t for everyone and I haven’t been a big fan of it over the years, but they made this feel like a big deal throughout the show and the broadcast team did a nice job of putting over the effort of Blanchard and what a POS Callihan was throughout the match.\"\n\nDave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter rated the Tessa/Sami match at 4.25 stars out of 5, Cage/Elgin match at 4.25 stars, Swann/Impact match at 4 stars and the Knockouts Monsters Ball 4-way match at 3.25 stars.\n\nResults\n\nSee also\n2019 in professional wrestling\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nimpactwrestling.com\n\nSlammiversary\nProfessional wrestling in Texas\n2019 in Texas\nEvents in Dallas\nJuly 2019 events in the United States\n2019 Impact Wrestling pay-per-view events", "Onon is an impact crater on Mars, located in the Amenthes quadrangle at 16.3° N and 257.6° W. It measures 3.5 kilometer in diameter and was named after Onon, a town in Mongolia. Impact craters generally have a rim with ejecta around them, in contrast volcanic craters usually do not have a rim or ejecta deposits. As craters get larger (greater than 10 km in diameter) they usually have a central peak. The peak is caused by a rebound of the crater floor following the impact. Sometimes craters expose layers that were buried. Rocks from deep underground are tossed onto the surface. Hence, craters can show us what lies deep under the surface.\n\nSee also \n\n Impact crater\n Impact event\n Inverted relief\n List of craters on Mars\n Ore resources on Mars\n Planetary nomenclature\n\nReferences \n\nImpact craters on Mars\nAmenthes quadrangle" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly", "When did he win that election?", "1946, and two years later won", "Who was his opponent in that election?", "I don't know.", "What happened to him after the 1948 election?", "1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs", "What was his next position after being appointed as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs?", "in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs.", "What impact did he have in that position?", "I don't know." ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	What was his next position after being Minister of Coloured Affairs?	8	What was P. W. Botha's next position after being Minister of Coloured Affairs?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	He was appointed Minister for Defence	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	false	[ "The Minister of Urban Affairs is a former cabinet position in Manitoba, Canada.\n\nThe position was created in the early 1970s, incorporating responsibilities that had previously been held by the Minister of Municipal Affairs. It was discontinued by the government of Gary Doer in 1999.\n\nList of Ministers of Urban Affairs\n\nNote: From 1966 to 1968, Thelma Forbes was designated as Minister of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs.\nFrom 1971 to 1972, Sidney Green served as Minister responsible for Urban Affairs. This was not a full cabinet portfolio, although Green was already a member of cabinet by virtue of being Minister of Mines, Resources and Environmental Management.\nFrom 1978 to 1979, Gerald Mercier was designated as Minister of Municipal and Urban Affairs.\nLinda McIntosh was designated as Minister of Urban Affairs and Housing.\n\nSources: , \n\nUrban Affairs, Minister of", "The Magufuli Cabinet was formed by President of Tanzania John Magufuli after taking the oath of office on 5 November 2015. Magufuli won the 2015 general election with 58% of the vote in a tightly contested race against ex-CCM Chadema rival Edward Lowassa. After being sworn in on 5 November 2015, Magufuli announced his cabinet almost a month later, on 10 December 2015. He reduced the cabinet to 19 ministers from 30 in the previous cabinet. The Second Cabinet's tenure was cut short on 19 March 2021, following the death of President John Magufuli, and the swearing-in of Samia Suluhu Hassan as the new president.\n\nFirst Term\n\nInaugural Cabinet\nMagufuli's running mate during the 2015 general election was Samia Suluhu; his victory secured Tanzania's first female Vice President of Tanzania. His next appointment was Kassim Majaliwa for the post of Prime Minister.\n\nChanges \n Charles Kitwanga was replaced on 21 May 2016 as the minister of home affairs after he attended a parliamentary session under the influence of alcohol. \n Nape Nnauye was relieved of his duty on 23 March 2017 from the post of Minister of Information, Culture, Artists and Sports. Harrison Mwakyembe the Minister of Justice and constitutional affairs at the time took his position and was replaced by Palamagamba John Aidan Mwaluko Kabudi. \n Sospeter Muhongo was suspended on 24 May 2017 as the Minister of Energy and Minerals after he was implicated in the mineral saga report. His position remained vacant until the first cabinet reshuffle of October 2017.\n\nCabinet Reshuffle\nMagufuli conducts his first major reshuffle on 7 October 2017 increasing the number of ministries from 19 to 21. The biggest change was the splitting of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals into two separate ministries. Furthermore, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries was split into two, one being the Ministry of Agriculture and the other being the Ministry of Livestock & Fisheries.\n\nChanges \n George Masaju was promoted to a Judge at the High Court of Tanzania and the Adelardus Kilangi was appointed as the new Attorney General on February 1, 2020.\n Mwigulu Nchemba was replaced by Alphaxard Kangi Lugola as the minister of home affairs on 30 June 2018.\n Charles Mwijage was replaced by Joseph Kakunda as the minister of industry, trade and investment on 10 November 2018 by the president following a national cashew nut price saga.\n Charles Tizeba was replaced by Japhet Hasunga as the minister of Agriculture on 10 November 2018 following a national cashew nut price saga.\n Angellah Kairuki was appointed to a new position under the Minister of State in the President’s Office for investments, Doto Biteko took over as the new Minister of Minerals on January 9, 2019.\n Augustine Mahiga the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Palamagamba Kabudi the Minister of Justice had their appoints switched on March 3, 2019\n Joseph Kakunda was replaced by Innocent Bashungwa as the minister of Industry, Trade and Investment on June 8, 2019. \n January Makamba was replaced by George Simbachawene as the new Minister of State in the Vice President's Office on 21 July 2019.\n Alphaxard Lugola was replaced by George Simbachawene as the Minister of Home affairs and Mussa Zungu replaced Simbachawene as the Minister of State in the Vice President's Office on January 23, 2020.\n Mwigulu Nchemba was reinstated into the cabinet as the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs following the death of Augustine Mahiga on May 2, 2020.\n\nSecond Term\nFollowing Magufuli's reelection in the 2020 Tanzanian general election, Magufuli unveiled his new cabinet on December 5th 2020. In total, the cabinet includes a docket of 23 ministers, up 1 from his previous cabinet. The ministry of Works, Transport and Communications was broken out into two, The Ministry of Works & Transport and the other being the Ministry of Communications and ICT. This cabinet ended its tenure following the death of President John Magufuli.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Government website\n\nJohn Magufuli\n2015 establishments in Tanzania\nCabinets established in 2015" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly", "When did he win that election?", "1946, and two years later won", "Who was his opponent in that election?", "I don't know.", "What happened to him after the 1948 election?", "1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs", "What was his next position after being appointed as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs?", "in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs.", "What impact did he have in that position?", "I don't know.", "What was his next position after being Minister of Coloured Affairs?", "He was appointed Minister for Defence" ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	What was his impact there?	9	What was P. W. Botha's impact in the Ministry of Defence?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	the South African Defence Force reached a zenith,	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	false	[ "Doug Oldham (November 30, 1930 – July 21, 2010) was an American Southern Gospel singer and a member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.\n\nEarly years\nOldham was the son of Dr. Dale Oldham, a minister in the Church of God. His grandfather was also a clergyman. He nearly died from pneumonia as a child.\n\nMusical career\nOldham was a musical performer for more than 60 years, with 64 albums to his credit, often traveling and performing with his wife Laura Lee. The couple produced a CD and wrote three books together.\n\nEarly years\nOldham traveled with Fred Waring and Waring's Pennsylvanians in 1951 and sang as a member of that group's Glory Voices Quartet.\n\nRadio\nBeginning in 1950, Oldham was a soloist on the Christian Brotherhood Hour, after having served as soloist for several years on the broadcast of Cadle Tabernacle in Indianapolis, Indiana.\n\nTelevision\nOldham was a regular performer on The Old Time Gospel Hour with Jerry Falwell, The PTL Club with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker during the 1970s and 80s, and traveled with the Bill Gaither Trio and the Slaughters during the 1960s. In 1975, he sang with the Speer Family for Christian concerts. He was also a performer on several of Bill Gaither's Gaither Homecoming videos.\n\nInfluence\nThe trials that Oldham faced in his life were the basis for \"a number of songs ... including Something Worth Living For and Thanks to Calvary (We Don't Live Here Anymore).\n\nMinistry\nOldham was a minister of music, having been ordained in 1955. He served in that position in churches in High Point, North Carolina, Royal Oak, Michigan, Middletown, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana.\n\nIn 1963, Oldham began ministering in evangelism through music. A newspaper article noted that he \"served as song director and soloist for citywide preaching missions, camp meetings, youth conventions and concerts\" across the United States and in other countries.\n\nAwards and honors\nOldham's album, Something Worth Living For, was named the best gospel album of 1968 by the National Evangelical Film Foundation.\n\nIn the mid-1970s, Oldham was granted an honorary doctor of divinity degree from the California Graduate School of Theology. In 2006, he was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.\n\nHe was the recipient of two GMA Dove Awards and an Angel Award.\n\nIn 2007, Liberty University named a campus recital hall at the Fine Arts Building, the \"Oldham Recital Hall, in his honor and established the Liberty University Oldham Concert Hall Scholarship Fund at the Center for Worship.\n\nPersonal life\nOldham and his wife Laura Lee had three daughters, Paula, Karen, and DeeDee. He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate degree and was named an Honorary Colonel of Alabama.\n\nDiscography\nI've A Song (TDE)\nSongs that Lift the Heart (TDE)\nDoug and Dr. Dale Oldham - Duets and Devotions (TDE 506)\nSongs that Touch the Heart (TDE 507)\nRequests and Favorites (TDE 509)\nThe Lord is My Song - with the Leppien Sisters (Universal 3661)\nDoug Oldham Sings from the Hymnal (Universal 3667)\nSings Songs of Joy, Real Joy - with the Leppien Sisters (Universal 66621)\nDoug Oldham with Jake Hess and the Imperials (Heartwarming 1930)\nSomething Worth Living For (Heartwarming 1959)\nFor Such a Time as This (Heartwarming 1977)\nA Rich Man Am I (Heartwarming-Impact 1997)\nI've Got To Go On (Heartwarming-Impact 3039)\nSings Jerry Falwell's Television Favorites (Impact 3062)\nHave You Heard... God Loves You! (Impact 3064)\nThe King is Coming! (Impact 3087)\nBathing in the Sunlight of God's Love - renamed The Family of God (Impact 3099)\nSings the Best of Bill Gaither (Impact 3143)\nThrough It All (Impact 3156)\nGet All Excited... Go Tell Everybody! (Impact 3183)\nChristmas with Doug Oldham (Impact 3193)\nInspiration (Vista 1235)\nLive (Impact 3211)\nTo God Be the Glory (Impact 3240)\nSings More Songs of Bill Gaither (Impact 3272)\nThe Church Triumphant ... Alive and Well! (Impact 3324)\nDoug/Warm (Impact 3345)\nLive... with the Speers (Impact 3353)\nDoug Oldham & Friends (Impact 3393)\nI Am... Because (Impact 3430)\nGolden Treasury of Hymns for the Family of God (Impact 3496)\nSings the Old and New of Bill and Gloria Gaither (Impact 3529)\nSpecial Delivery (Impact 3546)\nHoliday Song (Impact 3562)\nWhat's It Gonna Take (Impact 3707)\nGolden Treasury of Hymns Volume 2 (Impact 3755)\nCount Me In (Impact 3781)\nHymns of the Faith (PTL 1857)\nAll Rise (PTL 1996)\nPoet of Praise (Lovesong)\nHe Saw Me (Brentwood)\nThe Storyteller (Song Garden)\nUnmistakably Doug\nMy God Is Good\n\nBook\nI Don't Live There Anymore by Doug Oldham (Impact Books 1973 )\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nwww.dougoldham.com—Official website\n\n1930 births\n2010 deaths\nAmerican gospel singers\nSouthern gospel performers\nAnderson University (Indiana) alumni\nSingers from Indiana", "Slammiversary XVII was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by Impact Wrestling. It took place on July 7, 2019 at the Gilley's Dallas in Dallas, Texas. It was the fifteenth event under the Slammiversary chronology.\n\nProduction\n\nBackground\nAt Rebellion, Impact Wrestling announced the date for Slammiversary XVII, but did not announce a venue.\n On May 14, 2019 via its website and on social media, IMPACT Wrestling announced that the event would be held at Gilley's Dallas, and would be the first event held in Dallas.\n\nStorylines \nThe event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.\n\nReception \nSlammiversary received widespread critical acclaim. Bob Kapur of Canoe.ca declared that \"if Impact Wrestling can put great PPV shows like Slammiversary every time they go there, then they should never leave\". He gave the Tessa-Sami match a perfect 10/10, Cage-Elgin 9/10, Monsters Ball Knockouts 4-way match 9/10 and the Swann-Impact match 8/10. He rated the event 9/10. He stated the match of the night – and there were many contenders for that honour – was an intergender match, Tessa-Sami with the Vile Sami Callihan and arguably the best female wrestler in any company, Tessa Blanchard. The match was historic in that it was the first intergender match to ever headline a PPV event. And what a great precedent it set. He further emphasized While that match had many hard-hitting moments, it may have been rivaled on that front by the Impact World Championship match, Cage-Elgin that saw Brian Cage defend against “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin. He gave credit to the Monsters Ball knockouts four-way match labeling it 'a good, violent affair'.\n\nThe writer of the Slammiversary report on 411 Mania, Larry Csonka, rated the event an 8 out of 10. Csonka stated that Impact Slammiversary 2019 was another good PPV from the company, with nothing bad, a great X-Division title match, Cage vs. Elgin in Impact’s match of the year, and Tessa Blanchard getting a chance to shine in the main event. This was a really entertaining and easy to watch show that flew by.\"\n\nJason Powell from Pro Wrestling Dot Net praised the event stating \"Overall, this was a very good pay-per-view. Impact continues to be at its best when they focus on the more traditional pro wrestling approach. \nHe praised the main event calling it \"A very good main event. Intergender wrestling isn’t for everyone and I haven’t been a big fan of it over the years, but they made this feel like a big deal throughout the show and the broadcast team did a nice job of putting over the effort of Blanchard and what a POS Callihan was throughout the match.\"\n\nDave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter rated the Tessa/Sami match at 4.25 stars out of 5, Cage/Elgin match at 4.25 stars, Swann/Impact match at 4 stars and the Knockouts Monsters Ball 4-way match at 3.25 stars.\n\nResults\n\nSee also\n2019 in professional wrestling\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nimpactwrestling.com\n\nSlammiversary\nProfessional wrestling in Texas\n2019 in Texas\nEvents in Dallas\nJuly 2019 events in the United States\n2019 Impact Wrestling pay-per-view events" ]
[ "P. W. Botha", "Parliamentary career", "When did he enter Parliament?", "At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946,", "What happened to him after that?", "and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly", "When did he win that election?", "1946, and two years later won", "Who was his opponent in that election?", "I don't know.", "What happened to him after the 1948 election?", "1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs", "What was his next position after being appointed as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs?", "in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs.", "What impact did he have in that position?", "I don't know.", "What was his next position after being Minister of Coloured Affairs?", "He was appointed Minister for Defence", "What was his impact there?", "the South African Defence Force reached a zenith," ]	C_aaac65e4571c414494e27b69b6adffff_1	How long was he a Minister for Defence?	10	How long was P. W. Botha a Minister for Defence?	P. W. Botha	At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later won a race for the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 advanced to Minister of Coloured Affairs. He was appointed Minister for Defence by Verwoerd's successor B.J. Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder, in 1966. Under his 14 years as its leader, the South African Defence Force reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78-72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." On becoming head of the government, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed chief of the South African Defence Force, General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West - especially the United States - but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, his greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence he began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the production of six nuclear bombs destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of the neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet. He was also instrumental in building the South African Defence Force's strength. Adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention in support of the rebel UNITA (Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend) movement in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. CANNOTANSWER	14 years	Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989. First elected to Parliament in 1948, Botha was an outspoken opponent of black majority rule and international communism. However, his administration did make concessions towards political reform, whereas internal unrest saw widespread human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party (NP) in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was also coerced to leave the presidency. In F. W. de Klerk's 1992 apartheid referendum, Botha campaigned for a No vote and denounced De Klerk's administration as irresponsible for opening the door to black majority rule. In early 1998, when Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition. For his refusal, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence. The sentence was overturned on appeal. Early life and education Pieter Willem Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province (now Free State Province), the son of Afrikaner parents. His father, Pieter Willem Botha Sr., fought as a commando against the British in the Second Boer War. His mother, Hendrina Christina Botha (née de Wet), was interned in a British concentration camp during the war. Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Voortrekker Secondary School in Bethlehem, South Africa. In 1934, he entered the Grey University College (now the University of the Free State) in Bloemfontein to study law, but left early at the age of twenty in order to pursue a career in politics. He began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province. In the run-up to World War II, Botha joined the Ossewabrandwag, a right-wing Afrikaner nationalist group which was sympathetic to the German Nazi Party; but months after the German attack on the USSR, Botha condemned the Ossewabrandwag and changed his ideological allegiance to Christian nationalism. In 1943, Botha married Anna Elizabeth Rossouw (Elize). The couple had two sons and three daughters. Parliamentary career At age 30, Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power. His opponent in the 1948 election was JP Marais from the United Party. In 1958 Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development. In 1966, Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year. Under his 14 years in charge of the ministry, the South African Defence Force (SADF) reached a zenith, at times consuming 20% of the national budget, compared to 1.3% in 1968, and was involved in the South African Border War. When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik Botha. In the final internal ballot, he beat Connie Mulder, the scandal's namesake, in a 78–72 vote. Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands (or Bantustans), while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed ancestry) and Asians in order to widen support for the government. Upon enacting the reforms, he remarked in the House of Assembly; "We must adapt or die." Upon becoming Prime Minister, Botha retained the defence portfolio until October 1980, when he appointed SADF Chief General Magnus Malan, his successor. From his ascension to the cabinet, Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability. He sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results. He argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence. As Prime Minister and later State President, Botha's greatest parliamentary opponents were Harry Schwarz and Helen Suzman of the Progressive Federal Party until 1987, when his former cabinet colleague Andries Treurnicht's new Conservative Party became the official opposition on a strictly anti-concessionist agenda. In 1977, as Minister of Defence, Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s. He remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north. Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit. He was also instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion. South African intervention, with support of the rebel UNITA movement (led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a personal friend), in the Angolan Civil War continued until the late 1980s, terminating with the Tripartite Accord. To maintain the nation's military strength, a very strict draft was implemented to enforce compulsory military service for white South African men. State President In 1983, Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population. Though it did not implement a federal system as established in 1961, it implemented what was ostensibly a power-sharing agreement with Coloureds and Indians. The new constitution created two new houses of parliament alongside the existing, white-only House of Assembly—the House of Representatives for Coloureds and the House of Delegates for Indians. The three chambers of the new Tricameral Parliament had sole jurisdiction over matters relating to their respective communities. Legislation affecting "general affairs," such as foreign policy and race relations, had to pass all three chambers after consideration by joint standing committees. The plan included no chamber or system of representation for the black majority. Each Black ethno-linguistic group was allocated a 'homeland' which would initially be a semi-autonomous area. However, blacks were legally considered citizens of the Bantustans, not of South Africa, and were expected to exercise their political rights there. Bantustans were expected to gradually move towards a greater state of independence with sovereign nation status being the final goal. During Botha's tenure, Ciskei, Bophutatswana and Venda all achieved nominal nationhood. These new countries, set up within the borders of South Africa, never gained international recognition, and economically all remained heavily dependent on South Africa. Over half of the Bantustans, most notably KwaZulu led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, rejected independence due to their leaders' commitment to opposing Apartheid from within. The new constitution also changed the executive branch from the parliamentary system that had been in place in one form or another since 1910, to a presidential system. The prime minister's post was abolished, and its functions were merged with those of the state president, which became an executive post with sweeping powers. He was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament. The state president and cabinet had sole jurisdiction over "general affairs." Disputes between the three chambers regarding "general affairs" were resolved by the President's Council, composed of members from the three chambers and members directly appointed by the state president. In practice, the composition of the President's Council and the electoral college made it impossible for the Coloured and Indian chambers to outvote the white chamber on any substantive matter, even if they voted as a bloc. Thus, the real power remained in white hands—and in practice, in the hands of Botha's National Party, which commanded a large majority in the white chamber. Though the new constitution was criticised by the black majority for failing to grant them any formal role in government, many international commentators praised it as a "first step" in what was assumed to be a series of reforms. On 14 September 1984, Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution. Implementing the presidential system was seen as a key step in consolidating Botha's personal power. In previous years, he had succeeded in getting a number of strict laws that limited freedom of speech through parliament, and thus suppressed criticism of government decisions. In many western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom (where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was based) and the Commonwealth, there was much debate over the imposition of economic sanctions in order to weaken Botha and undermine the white regime. By the late 1980s – as foreign investment in South Africa declined – disinvestment began to have a serious effect on the nation's economy. Apartheid government Botha undertook some superficial changes to apartheid practices. He legalised interracial marriage and so-called miscegenation, both completely banned since the late 1940s. The constitutional prohibition on multiracial political parties was lifted. He also relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas. In 1988, a new law created "Open Group Areas" or racially mixed neighbourhoods but these neighbourhoods had to receive a Government permit, had to have the support of the local whites immediately concerned, and had to be an upper-class neighbourhood in a major city in order to be awarded a permit. In 1983, the aforementioned constitutional reforms granted limited political rights to "Coloureds" and "Indians". Botha also became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress (ANC). Even these meager reforms went too far for a group of NP hardliners, led by former Education Minister Andries Treurnicht. In 1982, the group broke away to form the Conservative Party. However, they did not even begin to meet the demands of the opposition. In the face of rising discontent and violence, Botha refused to cede political power to blacks and imposed greater security measures against anti-apartheid activists. Botha also refused to negotiate with the ANC. In 1985, Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela. Botha's defiance of international opinion further isolated South Africa, leading to economic sanctions and a rapid decline in the value of the rand. The following year, when the United States introduced the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, Botha declared a nationwide state of emergency. He is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us". As economic and diplomatic actions against South Africa increased, civil unrest spread amongst the black population, supported by the ANC and neighbouring black-majority governments. On 16 May 1986, Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs. Four days later, Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists. Botha charged that these raids were just a "first installment" and showed that "South Africa has the capacity and the will to break the [ANC]." In spite of the concessions made by Botha, the apartheid years under his leadership were by far the most brutal. Thousands were detained without trial during Botha's presidency, while others were tortured and killed. The TRC found Botha responsible for gross violations of human rights. He was also found to have directly authorised "unlawful activity which included killing." Botha declined to apologise for apartheid. In a 2006 interview to mark his 90th birthday, he suggested that he had no regrets about the way he had run the country. Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view. He also claimed that the racial segregation laws of apartheid "started in Lord Milner’s time" and the National Party merely inherited them; however, Botha conceded that the Afrikaner population had been "happy to perpetuate [apartheid]", as many of them "were, and some of them still are... 'racists at heart'". Resignation State President Botha's loss of influence can be directly attributed to decisions taken at the Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev summit of the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union in Moscow (29 May – 1 June 1988) that paved the way to resolving the problem of Namibia which, according to foreign minister Pik Botha, was destabilising the region and "seriously complicating" the major issue which South Africa itself would shortly have to face. Soviet military aid would cease and Cuban troops be withdrawn from Angola as soon as South Africa complied with UN Security Council Resolution 435 by relinquishing control of Namibia and allowing UN-supervised elections there. The Tripartite Agreement, which gave effect to the Reagan/Gorbachev summit decisions, was signed at UN headquarters in New York on 22 December 1988 by representatives of Angola, Cuba and South Africa. On 18 January 1989, Botha (then aged 73) suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989. Botha's place was taken by acting president J. Christiaan Heunis. On 2 February 1989, Botha resigned as leader of the National Party (NP), anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him. Instead, the NP's parliamentary caucus selected as leader education minister F. W. de Klerk, who moved quickly to consolidate his position within the party. In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term. Following a series of acrimonious meetings in Cape Town, and five days after UNSCR 435 was implemented in Namibia on 1 April 1989, Botha and De Klerk reached a compromise: Botha would retire after the parliamentary elections in September, allowing de Klerk to take over as state president. However, Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia: "The ANC is enjoying the protection of president Kaunda and is planning insurgency activities against South Africa from Lusaka", Botha declared on nationwide television. He said he had asked the cabinet what reason he should give the public for abruptly leaving office. "They replied I could use my health as an excuse. To this, I replied that I am not prepared to leave on a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the government of this country, as well as the security of our country, I am being ignored by ministers serving in my cabinet." De Klerk was sworn in as acting state president on 14 August 1989 and the following month was nominated by the electoral college to succeed Botha in a five-year term as state president. De Klerk soon announced the removal of legislation against anti-apartheid groups – including the African National Congress – and the release of Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's term saw the dismantling of the apartheid system and negotiations that eventually led to South Africa's first racially inclusive democratic elections on 27 April 1994. In a statement on the death of Botha in 2006, De Klerk said: "Personally, my relationship with P. W. Botha was often strained. I did not like his overbearing leadership style and was opposed to the intrusion of the State Security Council system into virtually every facet of government. After I became leader of the National Party in February 1989, I did my best to ensure that P. W. Botha would be able to end his term as president with full dignity and decorum. Unfortunately, this was not to be." Retirement Botha and his wife Elize retired to their home, Die Anker, in the town of Wilderness, from the city of George and located on the Indian Ocean coast of the Western Cape. Elize died in 1997, and he later married Barbara Robertson, a legal secretary 25 years his junior, on 22 June 1998. Botha remained largely out of sight of the media and it was widely believed that he remained opposed to many of F. W. de Klerk's reforms. He resigned from the Afrikaner Broederbond. Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The TRC found that he had ordered the 1988 bombing of the South African Council of Churches headquarters in Johannesburg. In August 1998, he was fined and given a suspended jail sentence for his refusal to testify on human rights violations and violence sanctioned by the State Security Council (SSC) which he, as president until 1989, had directed. In June 1999, Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence. The Court's ruling by Judge Selikowitz (with Judge Foxcroft concurring) found that the notice served on Botha to appear before the TRC was technically invalid. Death Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90. His death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents. Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr. Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we also remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country". President Thabo Mbeki announced that flags would be flown at half mast to mark the death of a former head of state. The offer of a state funeral was declined by Botha's family, and a private funeral was held on 8 November in the town of George, where Botha's body was buried. Mbeki attended the funeral. Awards : Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon (1980) References Further reading Botha's last interview before he died The Mandela Document, dated prior to Mandela's release "Fighter and Reformer: Extracts from the Speeches of P. W. Botha", Compiled by J.J.J. Scholtz, Published: Bureau for Information, Pretoria, 1989 The life and times of PW Botha – IOL PW, Tambo 'partners in peace' – News24 'He was my bread and botha' (By artists) – Mail&Guardian Zuma on PW: 'He saw the need for change' – Mail&Guardian Thabo Mbeki on PW – Moneyweb 1916 births 2006 deaths People from Dihlabeng Local Municipality Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Members of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) National Party (South Africa) politicians State Presidents of South Africa Prime Ministers of South Africa Defence ministers of South Africa Members of the House of Assembly of South Africa Apartheid government South African anti-communists South African collaborators with Nazi Germany University of the Free State alumni Heads of government who were later imprisoned Burials in South Africa	true	[ "The Minister for Defence is the Ghanaian government official responsible for the Ministry of Defence of Ghana and the Ghana Armed Forces. The Minister for Defence since February 2017 is the Hon. Dominic Nitiwul. He was appointed by President Nana Akufo-Addo.\n\nList of ministers\nThe ministry has had a succession of ministers since independence starting with the Governor - General. During the rule of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, there was no specific minister as the council as a body was responsible for Defence.\n\nSee also\nMinistry of Defence (Ghana)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nMinister for Defence, Official Ghana Government website\n\nPolitics of Ghana\nDefence", "The Ministry of Defence was a department of the British Government responsible for defence and the British Armed Forces.\n\nHistory\nPrior to the Second World War defence policy was co-ordinated by the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID). In 1936 the post of Minister for Co-ordination of Defence was established, though he did not have a department and the political heads of the three services—the First Lord of the Admiralty for the Royal Navy, the Secretary of State for War for the Army and the Secretary of State for Air for the Royal Air Force—continued to attend Cabinet.\n\nOn the outbreak of war in 1939 the CID was suspended and on 3 April 1940 the office of Minister for Co-ordination of Defence was abolished. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940 he personally assumed responsibility for inter-service co-ordination, with the title of Minister of Defence, and the heads of the three services were not included in the War Cabinet. The Minister had few departments, the most famous of which was MD1 which allowed unusual ideas for weapons to be developed under the patronage of Churchill with less interference from the services and got the nickname \"Churchill's Toyshop\".\n\nAfter the end of the war in Europe in May 1945 the First Lord and the Secretaries for War and Air rejoined the Cabinet, though the Prime Minister remained Minister of Defence.\n\nThe suspension of the CID was made permanent by a White Paper (Cmd. 6923) in 1946, and from 4 October that year the service chiefs were no longer in the Cabinet. The former First Lord of the Admiralty A.V. Alexander was appointed Minister of Defence on 20 December 1946 and the Ministry of Defence was formally established on 1 January 1947 by the Ministry of Defence Act 1946. The Ministry was responsible for liaising between the individual service ministries and co-ordinating defence policy.\n\nUnder the Defence (Transfer of Functions) Act 1964 the Ministry of Defence was merged with the Admiralty, the War Office and the Air Ministry to form the current Ministry of Defence on 1 April 1964; the Minister of Defence became Secretary of State for Defence.\n\nList of Ministers of Defence, 1940–1964\n\nPermanent Secretaries to the Ministry of Defence, 1947–1964\n 1947: Sir Henry Wilson Smith\n 1948: Sir Harold Parker\n 1956: Sir Richard Powell\n 1960: Sir Edward Playfair\n 1961: Sir Robert Scott\n 1964: Sir Henry Hardman\n\nParliamentary Secretaries to the Ministry of Defence, 1952–1964\n 28 February 1952: Nigel Birch\n 18 October 1954: The Lord Carrington\n 26 May 1956: The Earl of Gosford\n 18 January 1957: The Lord Mancroft\n 11 June 1957: office vacant.\n\nSee also\n Secretary of State for Defence\n Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n David Butler and Gareth Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000, eighth edition, Macmillan, 2000\n\nDefunct departments of the Government of the United Kingdom\n1947 establishments in the United Kingdom\n1964 disestablishments in the United Kingdom" ]
[ "Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford", "Coming of age" ]	C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_0	What was going on in Edward's life during his teenage years	1	What was going on in Edward de Vere's life during his teenage years	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford	On 12 April 1571, de Vere attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, de Vere was finally granted the income of PS666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of PS3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further PS4,000 for suing his livery. De Vere pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of PS21,000. By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, de Vere attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. CANNOTANSWER	By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier,	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate. Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child. A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals. He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates. Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works. Family and childhood Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ). Wardship While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries. Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570. In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law. On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence. Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring. In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court. Coming of age On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000. By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. Marriage In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried. In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace. Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece. In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain. The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000. In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour. Foreign travel Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship. Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September. Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "." In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds. On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him. On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years. In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year. Quarrels, plots and scandals Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more. In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment. In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen". In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February. Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters. Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time. Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless". The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did." Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave." Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus. On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth." During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it. On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July. While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house". Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton. At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored. Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet". On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later. After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude. Theatrical enterprises The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602. Royal annuity On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music. Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments. In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety. In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death. Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age. In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592. In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him. In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship. In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes. In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music. Remarriage and later life On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31. On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir. Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime. Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing. His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them. Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly. In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit. In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health. On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown. In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy. After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment. Last years In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession. Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000. Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time. The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey: The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England Literary reputation Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain. Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman. Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse". May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable". Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences". Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s. Notes References External links De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham Earls of Oxford Lord Great Chamberlains Edward People of the Elizabethan era Court of Elizabeth I English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English poets 17th-century male writers 1550 births 1604 deaths 16th-century English nobility 16th-century English poets Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Patrons of literature Theatre patrons Lyric poets English art patrons People from Castle Hedingham Prisoners in the Tower of London English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets 17th-century English nobility Literary peers	false	[ "Todd W. Langen is an American screenwriter and former engineer, best known for his work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.\n\nEarly life\nLangen was born in Detroit and earned a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan.\n\nHe was 30 years old and working on the space shuttle for Hughes Aircraft Company when he decided that what he really wanted to do with his life was to be a screenwriter. His first sale was an episode of Pursuit of Happiness, a television comedy series that lasted less than two months.\n\nCareer\nHe soon became a regular writer of The Wonder Years. His biggest success would come when Langen was hired to work on the film adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The original treatment of 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was written by Bobby Herbeck; Langen was called in to do a \"Page One rewrite,\" that is, a complete revision based on a screenplay that a studio had deemed interesting bur unworkable as submitted. Langen and Herbeck did not work together and did not meet until the film opened. He is listed first in the credits. Langen would return to write the sequel in 1991.\n\nAwards\n Writers Guild of America Award for Television: Episodic Comedy for an episode of The Wonder Years.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n20th-century American screenwriters\nAmerican male screenwriters\nAmerican television writers\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nUniversity of Michigan College of Engineering alumni\n20th-century American male writers", "Edward Joseph Baines (about 1815 – 1880) was an alderman and mayor of the Brisbane Municipal Council.\n\nPersonal life \n\nEdward Joseph Baines was born about 1815 (1819?).\n\nEdward was married to Elizabeth Buchanan (daughter of David and Jane Buchanan), who died on 30 March 1863 at their home on Kangaroo Point Road.\n\nEdward Joseph Baines married Maria Jane Schneider (possibly the widow of Louis Schneider?) in Brisbane on 1 June 1869. Maria was born on 25 May 1822 and died on 9 Oct 1919.\n\nEdward Joseph Baines died on 29 February 1880 aged 61 (or 64?) years at his residence, the Pineapple Hotel at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane. Baines was buried in Toowong Cemetery. His wife Maria is memorialised on the headstone at Toowong cemetery, but she was buried with her subsequent husband Edward Ryan in the Paddington Cemetery (now under Suncorp Stadium). Her headstone was removed from the Paddington Cemetery to the Reserve behind Christ Church in 1913 but disappeared with another 503 headstones in 1930.\n\nBusiness life \n\nEdward Joseph Baines was the hotelkeeper of the Pineapple Hotel at Kangaroo Point. His widow Maria took over the license after his death.\n\nPublic life \n\nEdward John Baines was an alderman 1868–1880. He was mayor in 1872. His political career ended with his death.\n\nHe served on the following committees:\n Finance Committee 1870, 1873, 1875, 1879. \n Town Hall Committee 1870. \n Improvement Committee 1871, 1872, 1874, 1878. \n Legislative Committee 1878.\n\nSee also\n\n List of mayors and lord mayors of Brisbane\n\nReferences \n\nMayors and Lord Mayors of Brisbane\nBurials at Toowong Cemetery\n1815 births\n1880 deaths\n19th-century Australian politicians" ]
[ "Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford", "Coming of age", "What was going on in Edward's life during his teenage years", "By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier," ]	C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_0	What is a tilt?	2	What is a tilt?	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford	On 12 April 1571, de Vere attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, de Vere was finally granted the income of PS666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of PS3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further PS4,000 for suing his livery. De Vere pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of PS21,000. By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, de Vere attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. CANNOTANSWER	where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators.	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate. Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child. A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals. He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates. Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works. Family and childhood Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ). Wardship While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries. Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570. In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law. On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence. Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring. In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court. Coming of age On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000. By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. Marriage In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried. In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace. Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece. In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain. The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000. In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour. Foreign travel Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship. Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September. Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "." In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds. On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him. On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years. In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year. Quarrels, plots and scandals Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more. In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment. In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen". In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February. Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters. Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time. Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless". The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did." Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave." Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus. On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth." During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it. On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July. While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house". Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton. At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored. Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet". On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later. After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude. Theatrical enterprises The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602. Royal annuity On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music. Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments. In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety. In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death. Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age. In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592. In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him. In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship. In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes. In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music. Remarriage and later life On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31. On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir. Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime. Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing. His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them. Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly. In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit. In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health. On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown. In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy. After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment. Last years In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession. Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000. Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time. The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey: The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England Literary reputation Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain. Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman. Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse". May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable". Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences". Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s. Notes References External links De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham Earls of Oxford Lord Great Chamberlains Edward People of the Elizabethan era Court of Elizabeth I English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English poets 17th-century male writers 1550 births 1604 deaths 16th-century English nobility 16th-century English poets Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Patrons of literature Theatre patrons Lyric poets English art patrons People from Castle Hedingham Prisoners in the Tower of London English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets 17th-century English nobility Literary peers	false	[ "Loch Tilt is a small mountain freshwater loch that sits at the end of Glen Tilt and is located in north-east Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Loch Tilt has a north to south orientation. Loch Tilt is located 10 miles southwest of Braemar.\n\nReferences\n\nTilt\nTilt\nTay catchment", "Beam tilt is used in radio to aim the main lobe of the vertical plane radiation pattern of an antenna below (or above) the horizontal plane.\n\nThe simplest way is mechanical beam tilt, where the antenna is physically mounted in such a manner as to lower the angle of the signal on one side. However, this also raises it on the other side, making it useful in only very limited situations.\n\nMore common is electrical beam tilt, where the phasing between antenna elements is tweaked to make the signal go down (usually) in all directions. This is extremely useful when the antenna is at a very high point, and the edge of the signal is likely to miss the target (broadcast audience, cellphone users, etc.) entirely.\n\nWith electrical tilting, front and back lobes tilt in the same direction. For example, an electrical downtilt will make both the front lobe and the back lobe tilt down. This is the property used in the above example where the signal is pointed down in all directions. On the contrary, mechanical downtilting will make the front lobe tilt down and the back lobe tilt up. In almost all practical cases, antennas are only tilted down – though tilting up is technically possible.\n\nThe use of purely electrical tilt with no mechanical tilt is an attractive choice for aesthetic reasons which are very important for operators seeking acceptance of integrated antennas in visible locations.\n\nIn GSM and UMTS cellular networks, mechanical tilt is almost always fixed whereas electrical tilt can be controlled using remote actuators and position sensors, thus reducing operating expenses. Remote electrical tilt is abbreviated as RET and it is part of the Antenna Interface Standards Group's open specification for the control interface of antenna devices.\n\nOccasionally, mechanical and electrical tilt will be used together in order to create greater beam tilt in one direction than the other, mainly to accommodate unusual terrain. Along with null fill, beam tilt is the essential parameter controlling the focus of radio communications, and together they can create almost infinite combinations of 3-D radiation patterns for any situation.\n\nBeam tilt optimization \nBeam tilt optimization is a network optimization technique used in mobile networks aiming at controlling the inclination of the vertical tilt angle of the antenna in order to optimize a set of network performance indicators.\n\nDifferent studies in beam tilt optimization focus on Coverage-Capacity Optimization (CCO), for which the goal is to control the beam tilt in order to jointly optimize the radio coverage and capacity in the network cells and reduce interference from neighbouring cells.\n\nThere exists mainly two types of approaches to beam tilt optimization:\n\n Rule-based algorithms: consist of optimization strategies based on domain knowledge and control theory, and mainly based on the optimization of utility metrics, or threshold-based policies employing Fuzzy Logic (FL) to model representative network performance indicators.\n Data-driven algorithms : consist of optimization strategies based on the use learning techniques based on the availability of network data (e.g. Contextual Bandit (CB) techniques), or by directly interacting with the environment (e.g. Reinforcement Learning (RL) techniques )\n\nReferences \n\nAntennas\nBroadcast engineering" ]
[ "Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford", "Coming of age", "What was going on in Edward's life during his teenage years", "By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier,", "What is a tilt?", "where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators." ]	C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_0	Did he gain power in his country?	3	Did Edward de Vere gain power in his country?	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford	On 12 April 1571, de Vere attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, de Vere was finally granted the income of PS666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of PS3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further PS4,000 for suing his livery. De Vere pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of PS21,000. By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, de Vere attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate. Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child. A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals. He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates. Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works. Family and childhood Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ). Wardship While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries. Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570. In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law. On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence. Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring. In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court. Coming of age On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000. By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. Marriage In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried. In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace. Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece. In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain. The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000. In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour. Foreign travel Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship. Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September. Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "." In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds. On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him. On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years. In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year. Quarrels, plots and scandals Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more. In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment. In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen". In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February. Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters. Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time. Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless". The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did." Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave." Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus. On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth." During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it. On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July. While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house". Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton. At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored. Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet". On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later. After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude. Theatrical enterprises The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602. Royal annuity On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music. Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments. In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety. In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death. Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age. In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592. In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him. In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship. In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes. In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music. Remarriage and later life On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31. On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir. Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime. Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing. His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them. Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly. In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit. In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health. On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown. In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy. After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment. Last years In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession. Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000. Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time. The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey: The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England Literary reputation Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain. Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman. Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse". May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable". Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences". Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s. Notes References External links De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham Earls of Oxford Lord Great Chamberlains Edward People of the Elizabethan era Court of Elizabeth I English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English poets 17th-century male writers 1550 births 1604 deaths 16th-century English nobility 16th-century English poets Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Patrons of literature Theatre patrons Lyric poets English art patrons People from Castle Hedingham Prisoners in the Tower of London English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets 17th-century English nobility Literary peers	false	[ "In electronics, gain is a measure of the ability of a two-port circuit (often an amplifier) to increase the power or amplitude of a signal from the input to the output port by adding energy converted from some power supply to the signal. It is usually defined as the mean ratio of the signal amplitude or power at the output port to the amplitude or power at the input port. It is often expressed using the logarithmic decibel (dB) units (\"dB gain\"). A gain greater than one (greater than zero dB), that is amplification, is the defining property of an active component or circuit, while a passive circuit will have a gain of less than one.\n\nThe term gain alone is ambiguous, and can refer to the ratio of output to input voltage (voltage gain), current (current gain) or electric power (power gain). In the field of audio and general purpose amplifiers, especially operational amplifiers, the term usually refers to voltage gain, but in radio frequency amplifiers it usually refers to power gain. Furthermore, the term gain is also applied in systems such as sensors where the input and output have different units; in such cases the gain units must be specified, as in \"5 microvolts per photon\" for the responsivity of a photosensor. The \"gain\" of a bipolar transistor normally refers to forward current transfer ratio, either hFE (\"beta\", the static ratio of Ic divided by Ib at some operating point), or sometimes hfe (the small-signal current gain, the slope of the graph of Ic against Ib at a point).\n\nThe gain of an electronic device or circuit generally varies with the frequency of the applied signal. Unless otherwise stated, the term refers to the gain for frequencies in the passband, the intended operating frequency range of the equipment. \nThe term gain has a different meaning in antenna design; antenna gain is the ratio of radiation intensity from a directional antenna to (mean radiation intensity from a lossless antenna).\n\nLogarithmic units and decibels\n\nPower gain\nPower gain, in decibels (dB), is defined as follows:\n\nwhere is the power applied to the input, is the power from the output.\n\nA similar calculation can be done using a natural logarithm instead of a decimal logarithm, resulting in nepers instead of decibels:\n\nVoltage gain\nThe power gain can be calculated using voltage instead of power using Joule's first law ; the formula is:\n\nIn many cases, the input impedance and output impedance are equal, so the above equation can be simplified to:\n\nThis simplified formula, the 20 log rule, is used to calculate a voltage gain in decibels and is equivalent to a power gain if and only if the impedances at input and output are equal.\n\nCurrent gain\nIn the same way, when power gain is calculated using current instead of power, making the substitution , the formula is:\n\nIn many cases, the input and output impedances are equal, so the above equation can be simplified to:\n\nThis simplified formula is used to calculate a current gain in decibels and is equivalent to the power gain if and only if the impedances at input and output are equal.\n\nThe \"current gain\" of a bipolar transistor, or , is normally given as a dimensionless number, the ratio of to (or slope of the -versus- graph, for ).\n\nIn the cases above, gain will be a dimensionless quantity, as it is the ratio of like units (decibels are not used as units, but rather as a method of indicating a logarithmic relationship). In the bipolar transistor example, it is the ratio of the output current to the input current, both measured in amperes. In the case of other devices, the gain will have a value in SI units. Such is the case with the operational transconductance amplifier, which has an open-loop gain (transconductance) in siemens (mhos), because the gain is a ratio of the output current to the input voltage.\n\nExample\nQ. An amplifier has an input impedance of 50 ohms and drives a load of 50 ohms. When its input () is 1 volt, its output () is 10 volts. What is its voltage and power gain?\n\nA. Voltage gain is simply:\n\nThe units V/V are optional but make it clear that this figure is a voltage gain and not a power gain.\nUsing the expression for power, P = V2/R, the power gain is:\n\nAgain, the units W/W are optional. Power gain is more usually expressed in decibels, thus:\n\nA gain of factor 1 (equivalent to 0 dB) where both input and output are at the same voltage level and impedance is also known as unity gain.\n\nSee also\n\n Active laser medium\n Antenna gain\n Aperture-to-medium coupling loss\n Automatic gain control\n Attenuation\n Complex gain\n DC offset\n Effective radiated power\n Gain before feedback\n Insertion gain\n Loop gain\n Open-loop gain\n Net gain\n Power gain\n Process gain\n Transmitter power output\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nAntennas (radio)\nTransfer functions\nElectrical parameters", "In electromagnetics, an antenna's power gain or simply gain is a key performance number which combines the antenna's directivity and electrical efficiency. In a transmitting antenna, the gain describes how well the antenna converts input power into radio waves headed in a specified direction. In a receiving antenna, the gain describes how well the antenna converts radio waves arriving from a specified direction into electrical power. When no direction is specified, gain is understood to refer to the peak value of the gain, the gain in the direction of the antenna's main lobe. A plot of the gain as a function of direction is called the gain pattern or radiation pattern.\n\nAntenna gain is usually defined as the ratio of the power produced by the antenna from a far-field source on the antenna's beam axis to the power produced by a hypothetical lossless isotropic antenna, which is equally sensitive to signals from all directions. Usually this ratio is expressed in decibels, and these units are referred to as decibels-isotropic (dBi). An alternative definition compares the received power to the power received by a lossless half-wave dipole antenna, in which case the units are written as dBd. Since a lossless dipole antenna has a gain of 2.15 dBi, the relation between these units is . For a given frequency, the antenna's effective area is proportional to the power gain. An antenna's effective length is proportional to the square root of the antenna's gain for a particular frequency and radiation resistance. Due to reciprocity, the gain of any reciprocal antenna when receiving is equal to its gain when transmitting.\n\nDirective gain or directivity is a different measure which does not take an antenna's electrical efficiency into account. This term is sometimes more relevant in the case of a receiving antenna where one is concerned mainly with the ability of an antenna to receive signals from one direction while rejecting interfering signals coming from a different direction.\n\nPower gain\n\nPower gain (or simply gain) is a unitless measure that combines an antenna's efficiency and directivity D:\n\nThe notions of efficiency and directivity depend on the following.\n\nEfficiency\n\nThe efficiency of an antenna is the total radiated power divided by the input power at the feedpoint\n\nA transmitting antenna is supplied power by a feedline, a transmission line connecting the antenna to a radio transmitter. The input power to the antenna is typically defined to be the power supplied to the antenna's terminals (the feedpoint), so antenna power losses do not include power lost due to joule heating in the feedline and reflections back down the feedline due to antenna/line impedance mismatches.\n\nThe electromagnetic reciprocity theorem guarantees that the electrical properties of an antenna, such as efficiency, directivity, and gain, are the same when the antenna is used for receiving as when it is transmitting.\n\nDirectivity\n\nAn antenna's directivity is determined by its radiation pattern, how the radiated power is distributed with direction in three dimensions. All antennas are directional to a greater or lesser extent, meaning that they radiate more power in some directions than others. The direction is specified here in spherical coordinates , where is the altitude or angle above a specified reference plane (such as the ground), while is the azimuth as the angle between the projection of the given direction onto the reference plane and a specified reference direction (such as north or east) in that plane with specified sign (either clockwise or counterclockwise).\n\nThe distribution of output power as a function of the possible directions is given by its radiation intensity (in SI units: watts per steradian, W⋅sr−1). The output power is obtained from the radiation intensity by integrating the latter over all solid angles :\n\nThe mean radiation intensity is therefore given by\n since there are 4π steradians in a sphere\n using the first formula for .\n\nThe directive gain or directivity of an antenna in a given direction is the ratio of its radiation intensity in that direction to its mean radiation intensity . That is,\n\nAn isotropic antenna, meaning one with the same radiation intensity in all directions, therefore has directivity, D = 1, in all directions independent of its efficiency. More generally the maximum, minimum, and mean directivities of any antenna are always at least 1, at most 1, and exactly 1. For the half-wave dipole the respective values are 1.64 (2.15 dB), 0, and 1.\n\nWhen the directivity of an antenna is given independently of direction it refers to its maximum directivity in any direction, namely\n\nGain\n\nThe power gain or simply gain of an antenna in a given direction takes efficiency into account by being defined as the ratio of its radiation intensity in that direction to the mean radiation intensity of a perfectly efficient antenna. Since the latter equals , it is therefore given by\n\n using the second equation for \n using the equation for \n\nAs with directivity, when the gain of an antenna is given independently of direction it refers to its maximum gain in any direction. Since the only difference between gain and directivity in any direction is a constant factor of independent of and , we obtain the fundamental formula of this section:\n\nSummary\n\nIf only a certain portion of the electrical power received from the transmitter is actually radiated by the antenna (i.e. less than 100% efficiency), then the directive gain compares the power radiated in a given direction to that reduced power (instead of the total power received), ignoring the inefficiency. The directivity is therefore the maximum directive gain when taken over all directions, and is always at least 1. On the other hand, the power gain takes into account the poorer efficiency by comparing the radiated power in a given direction to the actual power that the antenna receives from the transmitter, which makes it a more useful figure of merit for the antenna's contribution to the ability of a transmitter in sending a radio wave toward a receiver. In every direction, the power gain of an isotropic antenna is equal to the efficiency, and hence is always at most 1, though it can and ideally should exceed 1 for a directional antenna.\n\nNote that in the case of an impedance mismatch, Pin would be computed as the transmission line's incident power minus reflected power. Or equivalently, in terms of the rms voltage V at the antenna terminals:\n\nwhere Zin is the feedpoint impedance.\n\nGain in decibels\nPublished numbers for antenna gain are almost always expressed in decibels (dB), a logarithmic scale. From the gain factor G, one finds the gain in decibels as:\n\nTherefore, an antenna with a peak power gain of 5 would be said to have a gain of 7 dBi. dBi is used rather than just dB to emphasize that this is the gain according to the basic definition, in which the antenna is compared to an isotropic radiator.\n\nWhen actual measurements of an antenna's gain are made by a laboratory, the field strength of the test antenna is measured when supplied with, say, 1 watt of transmitter power, at a certain distance. That field strength is compared to the field strength found using a so-called reference antenna at the same distance receiving the same power in order to determine the gain of the antenna under test. That ratio would be equal to G if the reference antenna were an isotropic radiator(irad).\n\nHowever a true isotropic radiator cannot be built, so in practice a different antenna is used. This will often be a half-wave dipole, a very well understood and repeatable antenna that can be easily built for any frequency. The directive gain of a half-wave dipole is known to be 1.64 and it can be made nearly 100% efficient. Since the gain has been measured with respect to this reference antenna, the difference in the gain of the test antenna is often compared to that of the dipole. The gain relative to a dipole is thus often quoted and is denoted using dBd instead of dBi to avoid confusion. Therefore, in terms of the true gain (relative to an isotropic radiator) G, this figure for the gain is given by:\n\nFor instance, the above antenna with a gain G=5 would have a gain with respect to a dipole of 5/1.64 = 3.05, or in decibels one would call this 10 log(3.05) = 4.84 dBd. In general:\n\nBoth dBi and dBd are in common use. When an antenna's maximum gain is specified in decibels (for instance, by a manufacturer) one must be certain as to whether this means the gain relative to an isotropic radiator or with respect to a dipole. If it specifies dBi or dBd then there is no ambiguity, but if only dB is specified then the fine print must be consulted. Either figure can be easily converted into the other using the above relationship.\n\nNote that when considering an antenna's directional pattern, gain with respect to a dipole does not imply a comparison of that antenna's gain in each direction to a dipole's gain in that direction. Rather, it is a comparison between the antenna's gain in each direction to the peak gain of the dipole (1.64). In any direction, therefore, such numbers are 2.15 dB smaller than the gain expressed in dBi.\n\nPartial gain\nPartial gain is calculated as power gain, but for a particular polarization. It is defined as the part of the radiation intensity corresponding to a given polarization, divided by the total radiation intensity of an isotropic antenna.\n\nThe partial gains in the and components are expressed as\n\nand\n\n,\n\nwhere and represent the radiation intensity in a given direction contained in their respective field component.\n\nAs a result of this definition, we can conclude that the total gain of an antenna is the sum of partial gains for any two orthogonal polarizations.\n\nExample calculation\nSuppose a lossless antenna has a radiation pattern given by:\n\nLet us find the gain of such an antenna.\n\nSolution:\n\nFirst we find the peak radiation intensity of this antenna:\n\nThe total radiated power can be found by integrating over all directions:\n\nSince the antenna is specified as being lossless the radiation efficiency is 1. The maximum gain is then equal to:\n\n .\n\nExpressed relative to the gain of a half-wave dipole we would find:\n\n.\n\nRealized gain \nAccording to IEEE Standard 145–1993, realized gain differs from the above definitions of gain in that it is \"reduced by the losses due to the mismatch of the antenna input impedance to a specified impedance.\" This mismatch induces losses above the dissipative losses described above; therefore, realized gain will always be less than gain.\n\nGain may be expressed as absolute gain if further clarification is required to differentiate it from realized gain.\n\nTotal radiated power\nTotal radiated power (TRP) is the sum of all RF power radiated by the antenna when the source power is included in the measurement. TRP is expressed in watts or the corresponding logarithmic expressions, often dBm or dBW.\n\nWhen testing mobile devices, TRP can be measured while in close proximity of power-absorbing losses such as the body and hand of the user.\n\nThe TRP can be used to determine body loss (BoL). The body loss is considered as the ratio of TRP measured in the presence of losses and TRP measured while in free space.\n\nSee also\nAntenna\nAntenna measurement\nAntenna effective area\nCardioid\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\nAntenna Theory (3rd edition), by C. Balanis, Wiley, 2005, \nAntenna for all applications (3rd edition), by John D. Kraus, Ronald J. Marhefka, 2002, \n\nDirective Gain\nTelecommunications engineering\nEngineering ratios" ]
[ "Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford", "Coming of age", "What was going on in Edward's life during his teenage years", "By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier,", "What is a tilt?", "where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators.", "Did he gain power in his country?", "I don't know." ]	C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_0	Did he get along with his family	4	Did Edward de Vere get along with his family	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford	On 12 April 1571, de Vere attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, de Vere was finally granted the income of PS666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of PS3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further PS4,000 for suing his livery. De Vere pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of PS21,000. By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, de Vere attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. CANNOTANSWER	which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade.	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate. Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child. A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals. He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates. Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works. Family and childhood Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ). Wardship While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries. Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570. In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law. On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence. Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring. In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court. Coming of age On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000. By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. Marriage In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried. In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace. Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece. In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain. The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000. In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour. Foreign travel Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship. Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September. Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "." In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds. On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him. On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years. In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year. Quarrels, plots and scandals Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more. In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment. In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen". In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February. Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters. Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time. Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless". The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did." Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave." Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus. On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth." During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it. On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July. While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house". Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton. At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored. Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet". On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later. After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude. Theatrical enterprises The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602. Royal annuity On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music. Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments. In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety. In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death. Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age. In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592. In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him. In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship. In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes. In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music. Remarriage and later life On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31. On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir. Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime. Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing. His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them. Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly. In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit. In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health. On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown. In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy. After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment. Last years In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession. Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000. Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time. The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey: The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England Literary reputation Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain. Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman. Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse". May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable". Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences". Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s. Notes References External links De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham Earls of Oxford Lord Great Chamberlains Edward People of the Elizabethan era Court of Elizabeth I English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English poets 17th-century male writers 1550 births 1604 deaths 16th-century English nobility 16th-century English poets Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Patrons of literature Theatre patrons Lyric poets English art patrons People from Castle Hedingham Prisoners in the Tower of London English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets 17th-century English nobility Literary peers	true	[ "John Adalbert Madigan, (12 August 1850 - 23 August 1897) was an American circus performer and ringmaster, during the later years of his life he worked in Scandinavia. He was raised in an American circus family of Irish background. He is known for his work in U.S circus scenes between 1866 and 1869, but from 1872 he worked at Cirkus Myers in Central Europe. To this circus, the Swedish-Norwegian circus artist Eleonora Olsen, later known as Laura Madigan (mother of Elvira Madigan) came to work in 1875, the two became a couple.\n\nJohan Madigan at this time performed as a rider in vaultage, his specialty was a double somersault from the horseback, but exactly how the routine was made is not known today. He also performed a pas-de-deux standing on the backs of two horses along with his loved one Laura Madigan. He later would perform this act along with his stepdaughter Elvira Madigan, who had to at times replace her mother.\n\nIn 1879, John tried to run his own small circus business in Finland, however as this proved unsuccessful the family looked for work in other circuses in Central Europe, were Elvira along with the fosterchild Gisela Brož did routines as tight-rope dancers. In 1887 Madigan along with his brother James Madigan, founded yet another circus, this time in Denmark. In the following year, Sixten Sparre visited Cirkus Madigan in Kristianstad, where he fell in love with Elvira, he persuaded her to leave the family, which she did in the end of May 1889. Less than two months later Elvira was murdered by Sparre who would then commit suicide.\n\nThe murder of Elvira Madigan was a huge blow for the family but the circus lived on. In late 1889 and onward the circus toured mainly in Sweden, but also in Finland and Norway. Laura and John Madigan became parents of a daughter called Motalia Madigan (1891-1892). She died less than a year after birth and a half year after her death Laura and John married.\n\nWhen the circus visited Gävle in August 1897, fire broke out in the building were the Madigan family was staying over night. The rest of the family managed to save themselves and get out of the building, but John got bad burns all over his body and died two days later. He was buried in Gävle. Laura later had the gravestone (but not the casket) moved to their family plot in Lund. Laura ran the circus for a few more years on her own, but in 1902 she sold the business to a circus performer named Henning Orlando, and the circus was renamed Cirkus Orlando.\n\nReferences\n\n1850 births\n1897 deaths\nPeople from Lafayette, Indiana\nAmerican circus performers\nAmerican expatriates in Sweden", "Joe Scully is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Shane Connor. He made his first on-screen appearance on 20 October 1999, along with his family.\n\nDevelopment\nIn October 1999, the five-strong Scully family were introduced to Neighbours, replacing the departing Martin family. The Scullys were the first new family to be introduced to the show since Ruth Wilkinson (Ailsa Piper) arrived with her twins in 1996. Actor Shane Connor was cast as Joe Scully, the patriarch of the family in July 1999. He had previously made a guest appearance in the show as Phil Hoffman in 1991. Connor was invited to audition for the role of Joe by the show's producers, and he accepted when he learned that there was a chance to work with Janet Andrewartha, who was cast as Joe's wife Lyn. The character of Joe also offered Connor a chance to play someone other than a bad guy or \"a man on the verge.\" Connor was contracted with Neighbours for three years, with 12-month options. He began filming with his on-screen family in August 1999 and made his first screen appearance as Joe on 20 October. Connor's contract was renewed several times during his stay on the show.\n\nOf Joe, Connor said, \"Basically, Joe's the only male there when you want something stirred up. Everyone else is so easy to get along with. He's the only one who isn't so easy to get along with. Well, he is, as long as you don't get on the wrong side of him.\" Connor explained that Joe was not one for caring what others thought and he thought that someone like Joe, who could not care less, would stir up the street. Connor added, \"He doesn't fit into the landscape easily, and neither do I.\" Joe owns his own building business and \"lives on the edge\".\n\nIn 2003, Connor had his contract terminated by Grundy Television and he was dismissed from the show after he developed an amphetamine problem, which caused him to clash with cast members and disrupt filming. Joe made an off-screen exit in early 2004, leaving Erinsborough to take care of his injured father in Bendigo. Connor later filed an unfair dismissal claim against Grundy and sued them for nine months of lost earnings ($200,000). He admitted that he had suffered from \"amphetamine hangovers\", but he denied that he had been aggressive. He also claimed that Andrewartha did not like him and was behind most of the complaints to producers. Connor later won his case and Grundy Television were ordered to pay him more than $230,000.\n\nStorylines\nJoe married Lyn O'Rourke in 1978 and together they had four children – Stephanie Scully, Jack Scully, Felicity Scully and Michelle Scully.\n\nAfter moving to Ramsay Street Joe started as an apprentice in the building trade. He eventually worked his way up to forming his own construction company, Ozbuilt.\n\nHis wife Lyn decided she wanted another baby, and they went on to have their fifth child Oscar Scully. Soon after the birth of Oscar Joe's father and brother are hospitalised following a tractor accident. Joe left Ramsay Street to take care of his family and his father's farm. Lyn later joined Joe for a short period. However, she wanted to remain in Ramsay Street, and decided she didn't love him anymore. They divorced with Lyn remaining in Ramsay Street and retaining custody of Oscar.\n\nLyn left Ramsay Street in 2006 and moved to Shelly Bay. Offscreen, she and Joe shared custody of Oscar. Lyn returned to Ramsay Street in 2009 without Oscar, who remains living with Joe.\n\nReception\nOf Joe, Virgin Media said \"Ramsay Street's Joe Scully had his hands full with tearaway teen kids, Steph, Flick, Michelle and Jack. If he was not trying to put an end to Flick's latest romance, he was feuding with his neighbour, Karl Kennedy.\" Andrew Mercado, author of Super Aussie Soaps, describes Joe as being a \"permanently missing-in-action\" character following his abrupt departure. The BBC said Joe's most notable moment was \"Delivering a baby in a bushfire.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Character profile at the BBC\n Character profile at Neighbours.com\n\nNeighbours characters\nFictional taxi drivers\nFictional construction workers\nTelevision characters introduced in 1999\nMale characters in television" ]
[ "Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford", "Coming of age", "What was going on in Edward's life during his teenage years", "By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier,", "What is a tilt?", "where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators.", "Did he gain power in his country?", "I don't know.", "Did he get along with his family", "which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade." ]	C_7e8111b624dd4f6299e0e38a2286c06e_0	Did his father leave him in debt?	5	Did Edward de Vere's father leave him in debt?	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford	On 12 April 1571, de Vere attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, de Vere was finally granted the income of PS666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of PS3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further PS4,000 for suing his livery. De Vere pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of PS21,000. By 1571, de Vere was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, where although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, de Vere attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. CANNOTANSWER	set aside to pay his father's debts	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of the arts, and noted by his contemporaries as a lyric poet and court playwright, but his volatile temperament precluded him from attaining any courtly or governmental responsibility and contributed to the dissipation of his estate. Edward de Vere was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and Margery Golding. After the death of his father in 1562, he became a ward of Queen Elizabeth I and was sent to live in the household of her principal advisor, Sir William Cecil. He married Cecil's daughter, Anne, with whom he had five children. Oxford was estranged from her for five years and refused to acknowledge he was the father of their first child. A champion jouster, Oxford travelled widely throughout France and the many states of Italy. He was among the first to compose love poetry at the Elizabethan court and was praised as a playwright, though none of the plays known as his survive. A stream of dedications praised Oxford for his generous patronage of literary, religious, musical, and medical works, and he patronised both adult and boy acting companies, as well as musicians, tumblers, acrobats and performing animals. He fell out of favour with the Queen in the early 1580s and was exiled from court and briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London when his mistress Anne Vavasour, one of Elizabeth's maids of honor, gave birth to his son in the palace. Vavasour, too, was incarcerated, and the affair instigated violent street brawls between Oxford and her kinsmen. He was reconciled to the Queen in May 1583 at Theobalds, but all opportunities for advancement had been lost. In 1586, the Queen granted Oxford £1,000 annually ($483,607 in 2020 US dollars) to relieve the financial distress caused by his extravagance and the sale of his income-producing lands for ready money. After the death of his first wife, Anne Cecil, Oxford married Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's maids of honour, with whom he had an heir, Henry de Vere. Oxford died in 1604, having spent the entirety of his inherited estates. Since the 1920s, Oxford has been among the most prominent alternative candidates proposed for the authorship of Shakespeare's works. Family and childhood Edward de Vere was born heir to the second-oldest extant earldom in England at the de Vere ancestral home, Hedingham Castle, in Essex, northeast of London. He was the only son of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Margery Golding and was probably named to honour Edward VI, from whom he received a gilded christening cup. He had an older half-sister, Katherine, the child of his father's first marriage to Dorothy Neville, and a younger sister, Mary de Vere. Both his parents had established court connections: the 16th Earl accompanying Princess Elizabeth from her house arrest at Hatfield to the throne, and the countess being appointed a maid of honour in 1559. Before his father’s death, Edward de Vere was styled Viscount Bulbeck, or Bolebec, and was raised in the Protestant reformed faith. Like many children of the nobility, he was raised by surrogate parents, in his case in the household of Sir Thomas Smith. At eight he entered Queens' College, Cambridge, as an impubes, or immature fellow-commoner, later transferring to St John's. Thomas Fowle, a former fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, was paid £10 annually as de Vere's tutor. His father died on 3 August 1562, shortly after making his will. Because he held lands from the Crown by knight service, his son became a royal ward of the Queen and was placed in the household of Sir William Cecil, her secretary of state and chief advisor. At 12, de Vere had become the 17th Earl of Oxford, Lord Great Chamberlain of England, and heir to an estate whose annual income, though assessed at approximately £2,500, may have run as high as £3,500 (£ as of ). Wardship While living at the Cecil House, Oxford’s daily studies consisted of dancing instruction, French, Latin, cosmography, writing exercises, drawing, and common prayers. During his first year at Cecil House, he was briefly tutored by Laurence Nowell, the antiquarian and Anglo-Saxon scholar. In a letter to Cecil, Nowell explains: "I clearly see that my work for the Earl of Oxford cannot be much longer required", and his departure after eight months has been interpreted as either a sign of the thirteen-year-old Oxford’s intractability as a pupil, or an indication that his precocity surpassed Nowell's ability to instruct him. In May 1564 Arthur Golding, in his dedication to his Th' Abridgement of the Histories of Trogus Pompeius, attributed to his young nephew an interest in ancient history and contemporary events. In 1563, Oxford’s older half-sister, Katherine, then Lady Windsor, challenged the legitimacy of the marriage of de Vere's parents in the Ecclesiastical court. His uncle Golding argued that the Archbishop of Canterbury should halt the proceedings, since a proceeding against a ward of the Queen could not be brought without prior licence from the Court of Wards and Liveries. Some time before October 1563, Oxford’s mother married secondly Charles Tyrrell, a Gentleman Pensioner. In May 1565 she wrote to Cecil, urging that the money from family properties set aside by Oxford’s father's will for his use during his minority should be entrusted to herself and other family friends, to protect it and to ensure that Oxford would be able to meet the expenses of furnishing his household and suing his livery when he reached his majority; this last would end his wardship, through cancelling his debt with the Court of Wards, and convey to him the powers attached to his titles. There is no evidence that Cecil ever replied to her request. She died three years later, and was buried beside her first husband at Earls Colne. Oxford’s stepfather, Charles Tyrrell, died in March 1570. In August 1564 Oxford was among 17 noblemen, knights, and esquires in the Queen's entourage who were awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts by the University of Cambridge, and he was awarded another by the University of Oxford on a Royal progress in 1566. His future father-in-law, William Cecil, also received honorary degrees of Master of Arts on the same progresses. There is no evidence that Oxford ever received a Bachelor of Arts degree. In February 1567 he was admitted to Gray's Inn to study law. On 23 July 1567, while practicing fencing in the backyard of Cecil House in the Strand, the seventeen-year-old Oxford killed Thomas Brincknell, an under-cook in the Cecil household. At the coroner's inquest the next day, the jury, which included Oxford’s servant, and Cecil's protégé, the future historian Raphael Holinshed, found that Brincknell, drunk, had deliberately committed suicide by running onto Oxford's blade. As a suicide, he was not buried in consecrated ground, and all his worldly possessions were confiscated, leaving his pregnant wife destitute. She delivered a still-born child shortly after Brinknell's death. Cecil later wrote that he attempted to have the jury find that Oxford had acted in self defence. Records of books purchased for Oxford in 1569 attest to his continued interest in history, as well as literature and philosophy. Among them were editions of a gilt Geneva Bible, Chaucer, Plutarch, two books in Italian, and folio editions of Cicero and Plato. In the same year Thomas Underdown dedicated his translation of the Æthiopian History of Heliodorus to Oxford, praising his 'haughty courage', 'great skill' and 'sufficiency of learning'. In the winter of 1570, Oxford made the acquaintance of the mathematician and astrologer John Dee and became interested in occultism, studying magic and conjuring. In 1569, Oxford received his first vote for membership in the Order of the Garter, but never attained the honour in spite of his high rank and office. In November of that year, Oxford petitioned Cecil for a foreign military posting. Although the Roman Catholic Revolt of the Northern Earls had broken out that year, Elizabeth refused to grant the request. Cecil eventually obtained a position for Oxford under the Earl of Sussex in a Scottish campaign the following spring. He and Sussex became staunch mutual supporters at court. Coming of age On 12 April 1571, Oxford attained his majority and took his seat in the House of Lords. Great expectations attended his coming of age; Sir George Buck recalled predictions that 'he was much more like ... to acquire a new erldome then to wast & lose an old erldom', a prophecy that was never fulfilled. Although formal certification of his freedom from Burghley's control was deferred until May 1572, Oxford was finally granted the income of £666 which his father had intended him to have earlier, but properties set aside to pay his father's debts would not come his way for another decade. During his minority as the Queen's ward, one third of his estate had already reverted to the Crown, much of which Elizabeth had long since settled on Robert Dudley. Elizabeth demanded a further payment of £3,000 for overseeing the wardship and a further £4,000 for suing his livery. Oxford pledged double the amount if he failed to pay when it fell due, effectively risking a total obligation of £21,000. By 1571, Oxford was a court favourite of Elizabeth's. In May, he participated in the three-day tilt, tourney and barrier, at which although he did not win he was given chief honours in celebration of the attainment of his majority, his prowess winning admiring comments from spectators. In August, Oxford attended Paul de Foix, who had come to England to negotiate a marriage between Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjou, the future King Henry III of France. His published poetry dates from this period and, along with Edward Dyer he was one of the first courtiers to introduce vernacular verse to the court. Marriage In 1562, the 16th Earl of Oxford had contracted with Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, for his son Edward to marry one of Huntingdon's sisters; when he reached the age of eighteen, he was to choose either Elizabeth or Mary Hastings. However, after the death of the 16th Earl, the indenture was allowed to lapse. Elizabeth Hastings later married Edward Somerset, while Mary Hastings died unmarried. In the summer of 1571, Oxford declared an interest in Cecil's 14 year-old daughter, Anne, and received the queen's consent to the marriage. Anne had been pledged to Philip Sidney two years earlier, but after a year of negotiations Sidney's father, Sir Henry, was declining in the Queen's favour and Cecil suspected financial difficulties. In addition, Cecil had been elevated to the peerage as Lord Burghley in February 1571, thus elevating his daughter's rank, so the negotiations were cancelled. Cecil was displeased with the arrangement, given his daughter's age compared to Oxford’s, and had entertained the idea of marrying her to the Earl of Rutland instead. The marriage was deferred until Anne was fifteen and finally took place at the Palace of Whitehall on 16 December 1571, in a triple wedding with that of Lady Elizabeth Hastings and Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, and Edward Sutton, 4th Baron Dudley and bride, Mary Howard, with the Queen in attendance. The tying of two young English noblemen of great fortune into Protestant families was not lost on Elizabeth's Catholic enemies. Burghley gave Oxford for his daughter’s dowry land worth £800, and a cash settlement of £3,000. This amount was equal to Oxford’s livery fees and was probably intended to be used as such, but the money vanished without a trace. Oxford assigned Anne a jointure of some £669, but even though he was of age and a married man, he was still not in possession of his inheritance. After finally paying the Crown the £4,000 it demanded for his livery, he was finally licensed to enter on his lands in May 1572. He was entitled to yearly revenues from his estates and the office of Lord Great Chamberlain of approximately £2,250, but he was not entitled to the income from his mother's jointure until after her death, nor to the income from certain estates set aside until 1583 to pay his father's debts. In addition, the fines assessed against Oxford in the Court of Wards for his wardship, marriage, and livery already totalled some £3,306. To guarantee payment, he entered into bonds to the Court totalling £11,000, and two further private bonds for £6,000 apiece. In 1572, Oxford's first cousin and closest relative, the Duke of Norfolk, was found guilty of a Catholic conspiracy against Elizabeth and was executed for treason. Oxford had earlier petitioned both the Queen and Burghley on the condemned Norfolk's behalf, to no avail, and it was claimed in a "murky petition from an unidentified woman" that he had plotted to provide a ship to assist his cousin's escape attempt to Spain. The following summer, Oxford planned to travel to Ireland; at this point, his debts were estimated at a minimum of £6,000. In the summer of 1574, Elizabeth admonished Oxford "for his unthriftyness", and on 1 July he bolted to the continent without permission, travelling to Calais with Lord Edward Seymour, and then to Flanders, "carrying a great sum of money with him". Coming as it did during a time of expected hostilities with Spain, Mary, Queen of Scots, interpreted his flight as an indication of his Catholic sympathies, as did the Catholic rebels then living on the continent. Burghley, however, assured the queen that Oxford was loyal, and she sent two Gentlemen Pensioners to summon him back, under threat of heavy penalties. Oxford returned to England by the end of the month and was in London on the 28th. His request for a place on the Privy Council was rejected, but the queen's anger was abated and she promised him a licence to travel to Paris, Germany, and Italy on his pledge of good behaviour. Foreign travel Elizabeth issued Oxford a licence to travel in January 1575, and provided him with letters of introduction to foreign monarchs. Prior to his departure, Oxford entered into two indentures. In the first contract, he sold his manors in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire to three trustees for £6,000. In the second, since he had no heirs, and if he should die abroad the estates would pass to his sister, Mary, he entailed the lands of the earldom on his first cousin, Hugh Vere. The indenture also provided for payment of debts amounting to £9,096, £3,457 of which was still owed to the Queen as expenses for his wardship. Oxford left England in the first week of February 1575, and a month later was presented to the King and Queen of France. News that Anne was pregnant had reached him in Paris, and he sent her many extravagant presents in the coming months. But somewhere along the way his mind was poisoned against Anne and the Cecils, and he became convinced that the expected child was not his. The elder Cecils loudly voiced their outrage at the rumours, which probably worsened the situation. In mid-March he travelled to Strasbourg, and then made his way to Venice, via Milan. Although his daughter, Elizabeth, was born at the beginning of July, for unexplained reasons Oxford did not learn of her birth until late September. Oxford remained in Italy for a year, during which he was evidently captivated by Italian fashions in clothing, jewellery and cosmetics. He is recorded by John Stow as having introduced various Italian luxury items to the English court which immediately became fashionable, such as embroidered or trimmed scented gloves. Elizabeth had a pair of decorated gloves scented with perfume that for many years was known as the "Earl of Oxford's perfume". Lacking evidence, his interest in higher Italian culture, its literature, music and visual art, is less sure. His only recorded judgement about the country itself was unenthusiastic. In a letter to Burghley he wrote, "." In January 1576 Oxford wrote to Lord Burghley from Siena about complaints that had reached him about his creditors' demands, which included the Queen and his sister, and directing that more of his land be sold to pay them. He left Venice in March, intending to return home by way of Lyons and Paris; although one later report has him as far south as Palermo in Sicily. At this point the Italian financier Benedict Spinola had lent Oxford over £4,000 for his 15-month-long continental tour, while in England over a hundred tradesmen were seeking settlement of debts totalling thousands of pounds. On Oxford's return across the Channel in April 1576, his ship was seized by pirates from Flushing, who took his possessions, stripped him to his shirt, and might have murdered him had not one of them recognized him. On his return, Oxford refused to live with his wife and took rooms at Charing Cross. Aside from the unspoken suspicion that Elizabeth was not his child, Burghley's papers reveal a flood of bitter complaints by Oxford against the Cecil family. Upon the Queen's request, he allowed his wife to attend the Queen at court, but only when he was not present, and he insisted that she not attempt to speak to him. He also stipulated that Burghley must make no further appeals to him on Anne's behalf. He was estranged from Anne for five years. In February 1577 it was rumoured that Oxford's sister Mary would marry Lord Gerald Fitzgerald (1559–1580), but by 2 July her name was linked with that of Peregrine Bertie, later Lord Willoughby d'Eresby. Bertie's mother, the Duchess of Suffolk, wrote to Lord Burghley that "my wise son has gone very far with my Lady Mary Vere, I fear too far to turn". Both the Duchess and her husband Richard Bertie first opposed the marriage, and the Queen initially withheld her consent. Oxford's own opposition to the match was so vehement that for some time Mary's prospective husband feared for his life. On 15 December the Duchess of Suffolk wrote to Burghley describing a plan she and Mary had devised to arrange a meeting between Oxford and his daughter. Whether the scheme came to fruition is unknown. Mary and Bertie were married sometime before March of the following year. Quarrels, plots and scandals Oxford had sold his inherited lands in Cornwall, Staffordshire, and Wiltshire prior to his continental tour. On his return to England in 1576 he sold his manors in Devonshire; by the end of 1578 he had sold at least seven more. In 1577 Oxford invested £25 in the second of Martin Frobisher's expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In July 1577, he asked the Crown for the grant of Castle Rising, which had been forfeited to the Crown due to his cousin Norfolk's attainder in 1572. As soon as it was granted to him, he sold it, along with two other manors, and sank some £3,000 into Frobisher's third expedition. The 'gold' ore brought back turned out to be worthless, and Oxford lost the entire investment. In the summer of 1578, Oxford attended the Queen's progress through East Anglia. The royal party stayed at Lord Henry Howard's residence at Audley End. A contretemps occurred during the progress in mid-August when the Queen twice asked Oxford to dance before the French ambassadors, who were in England to negotiate a marriage between the 46-year-old English queen and the younger brother of Henri III of France, the 24 year-old Duke of Anjou. Oxford refused, on the grounds that he "would not give pleasure to Frenchmen". In April 1578, the Spanish ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, had written to King Philip II of Spain that it had been proposed that if Anjou were to travel to England to negotiate his marriage to the Queen, Oxford, Surrey, and Windsor should be hostages for his safe return. Anjou himself did not arrive in England until the end of August, but his ambassadors were already in England. Oxford was sympathetic to the proposed marriage; Leicester and his nephew Philip Sidney were adamantly opposed to it. This antagonism may have triggered the famous quarrel between Oxford and Sidney on the tennis court at Whitehall. It is not entirely clear who was playing on the court when the fight erupted; what is undisputed is that Oxford called Sidney a 'puppy', while Sidney responded that "all the world knows puppies are gotten by dogs, and children by men". The French ambassadors, whose private galleries overlooked the tennis court, were witness to the display. Whether it was Sidney who next challenged Oxford to a duel or the other way around, the matter was not taken further, and the Queen personally took Sidney to task for not recognizing the difference between his status and Oxford's. Christopher Hatton and Sidney's friend Hubert Languet also tried to dissuade Sidney from pursuing the matter, and it was eventually dropped. The specific cause is not known, but in January 1580 Oxford wrote and challenged Sidney; by the end of the month Oxford was confined by the Queen to his chambers, and was not released until early February. Oxford openly quarrelled with the Earl of Leicester at about this time; he was confined to his chamber at Greenwich for some time 'about the libelling between him and my Lord of Leicester'. In the summer of 1580, Gabriel Harvey, apparently motivated by a desire to ingratiate himself with Leicester, satirized Oxford's love for things Italian in verses entitled Speculum Tuscanismi and in Three Proper and Witty Familiar Letters. Although details are unclear, there is evidence that in 1577 Oxford attempted to leave England to see service in the French Wars of Religion on the side of King Henry III. Like many members of older established aristocratic families in England, he inclined to Roman Catholicism; and after his return from Italy, he was reported to have embraced the religion, perhaps after a distant kinsman, Charles Arundell, introduced him to a seminary priest named Richard Stephens. But just as quickly, by late in 1580 he had denounced a group of Catholics, among them Arundell, Francis Southwell, and Henry Howard, for treasonous activities and asking the Queen's mercy for his own, now repudiated, Catholicism. Elizabeth characteristically delayed in acting on the matter and Oxford was detained under house arrest for a short time. Leicester is credited by author Alan H. Nelson with having "dislodged Oxford from the pro-French group", i.e., the group at court which favoured Elizabeth's marriage to the Duke of Anjou. The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, was also of the view that Leicester was behind Oxford's informing on his fellow Catholics in an attempt to prevent the French marriage. Peck concurs, stating that Leicester was "intent upon rendering Sussex's allies politically useless". The Privy Council ordered the arrest of both Howard and Arundel; Oxford immediately met secretly with Arundell to convince him to support his allegations against Howard and Southwell, offering him money and a pardon from the Queen. Arundell refused this offer, and he and Howard initially sought asylum with Mendoza. Only after being assured that they would be placed under house arrest in the home of a Privy Councillor, did the pair give themselves up. During the first weeks after their arrest they pursued a threefold strategy: they would admit to minor crimes, attempt to prove Oxford a liar by his offers of money to testify to his accusations, and try to demonstrate that their accuser posed the real danger to the Crown. Their allegations against Oxford included atheism, lying, heresy, disobedience to the crown, treason, murder for hire, sexual perversion, habitual drunkenness, vowing to murder various courtiers, and criticizing the Queen for doing "everything with the worst grace that ever woman did." Most seriously, Howard and Arundell charged Oxford with serial child rape, claiming he'd abused "so many boyes it must nedes come out." Detailed testimony from nearly a dozen victims and witnesses substantiated the charge and included names, dates, and places. Two of the six boys named had sought help from adults after Oxford raped them violently and denied them medical care. A young cook named Powers reported being subjected to multiple assaults at Hampton Court in winter 1577-78, at Whitehall, and in Oxford's Broad Street home. Orazio Coquo's account is well documented outside the Howard-Arundel report. In testimony to the Venetian Inquisition dated 27 August 1577, Coquo explained that he was singing in the choir at Venice's Santa Maria Formosa on 1 March 1576 when Oxford invited him to work in England as his page. Then 15, the boy sought his parents' advice and departed Venice just 4 days later. Coquo arrived with Oxford in Dover on 20 April 1576 and fled 11 months later on 20 March 1577, aided by a Milanese merchant who gave him 25 ducats for the journey: He "told me that I would be corrupted if I remained," Orazio testified, "and he didn't want me to stay there any longer." When asked whether he sought Oxford's permission before leaving, the boy replied, "Sirs, no, because he would not have allowed me to leave." Arundell and Howard cleared themselves of Oxford's accusations, although Howard remained under house arrest into August, while Arundell was not freed until October or November. None of the three was ever indicted or tried. Neither Arundell or Howard ever returned to court favour, and after the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, Arundell fled to Paris with Thomas, Lord Paget, the elder brother of the conspirator Charles Paget. In the meantime, Oxford won a tournament at Westminster on 22 January. His page's speech at the tournament, describing Oxford's appearance as the Knight of the Tree of the Sun, was published in 1592 in a pamphlet entitled Plato, Axiochus. On 14 April 1589 Oxford was among the peers who found Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, the eldest son and heir of Oxford's cousin, Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, guilty of treason; Arundel later died in prison. Oxford later insisted that "the Howards were the most treacherous race under heaven" and that "my Lord Howard [was] the worst villain that lived in this earth." During the early 1580s it is likely that the Earl of Oxford lived mainly at one of his Essex country houses, Wivenhoe, which was sold in 1584. In June 1580 he purchased a tenement and seven acres of land near Aldgate in London from the Italian merchant Benedict Spinola for £2,500. The property, located in the parish of St Botolphs, was known as the Great Garden of Christchurch and had formerly belonged to Magdalene College, Cambridge. He also purchased a London residence, a mansion in Bishopsgate known as Fisher's Folly. According to Henry Howard, Oxford paid a large sum for the property and renovations to it. On 23 March 1581 Sir Francis Walsingham advised the Earl of Huntingdon that two days earlier Anne Vavasour, one of the Queen's maids of honour, had given birth to a son, and that "the Earl of Oxford is avowed to be the father, who hath withdrawn himself with intent, as it is thought, to pass the seas". Oxford was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London, as was Anne and her infant, who would later be known as Sir Edward Vere. Burghley interceded for Oxford, and he was released from the Tower on 8 June, but he remained under house arrest until some time in July. While Oxford was under house arrest in May, Thomas Stocker dedicated to him his Divers Sermons of Master John Calvin, stating in the dedication that he had been "brought up in your Lordship's father's house". Oxford was still under house arrest in mid-July, but took part in an Accession Day tournament at Whitehall on 17 November 1581. He was then banished from court until June 1583. He appealed to Burghley to intervene with the Queen on his behalf, but his father-in-law repeatedly put the matter in the hands of Sir Christopher Hatton. At Christmas 1581, Oxford was reconciled with his wife, Anne, but his affair with Anne Vavasour continued to have repercussions. In March 1582 there was a skirmish in the streets of London between Oxford and Anne's uncle, Sir Thomas Knyvet. Oxford was wounded, and his servant killed; reports conflict as to whether Kynvet was also injured. There was another fray between Knyvet's and Oxford's retinues on 18 June, and a third six days later, when it was reported that Knyvet had "slain a man of the Earl of Oxford's in fight". In a letter to Burghley three years later Oxford offered to attend his father-in-law at his house "as well as a lame man might"; it is possible his lameness was a result of injuries from that encounter. On 19 January 1585 Anne Vavasour's brother Thomas sent Oxford a written challenge; it appears to have been ignored. Meanwhile, the street-brawling between factions continued. Another of Oxford's men was killed in January, and in March Burghley wrote to Sir Christopher Hatton about the death of one of Knyvet's men, thanking Hatton for his efforts "to bring some good end to these troublesome matters betwixt my Lord Oxford and Mr Thomas Knyvet". On 6 May 1583, eighteen months after their reconciliation, Edward and Anne's only son was born, but died the same day. The infant was buried at Castle Hedingham three days later. After intervention by Burghley and Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford was reconciled to the Queen, and his two-year exile from court ended at the end of May on condition of his guarantee of good behaviour. However, he never regained his position as a courtier of the first magnitude. Theatrical enterprises The previous Earl of Oxford had maintained a company of players known as Oxford's Men, which was discontinued by the 17th Earl two years after his father's death. Beginning in 1580, Oxford patronised both adult and boy companies and a company of musicians, and also sponsored performances by tumblers, acrobats, and performing animals. The new Oxford's Men toured the provinces between 1580 and 1587. Sometime after November 1583, Oxford bought a sublease of the premises used by the boy companies in the Blackfriars, and then gave it to his secretary, the writer John Lyly. Lyly installed Henry Evans, a Welsh scrivener and theatrical affectionado, as the manager of the new company of Oxford's Boys, composed of the Children of the Chapel and the Children of Paul's, and turned his talents to play writing until the end of June 1584, when the original playhouse lease was voided by its owner. In 1584–1585, "the Earl of Oxford's musicians" received payments for performances in the cities of Oxford and Barnstaple. Oxford's Men (also known as Oxford's Players) stayed active until 1602. Royal annuity On 6 April 1584, Oxford's daughter Bridget was born, and two works were dedicated to him, Robert Greene's Gwydonius; The Card of Fancy, and John Southern's Pandora. Verses in the latter work mention Oxford's knowledge of astronomy, history, languages, and music. Oxford's financial situation was steadily deteriorating. At this point, he had sold almost all his inherited lands, which cut him off from what had been his principal source of income. Moreover, because the properties were security for his unpaid debt to the Queen in the Court of Wards, he had had to enter into a bond with the purchaser, guaranteeing that he would indemnify them if the Queen were to make a claim against the lands to collect on the debt. To avoid this eventuality, the purchasers of his estates agreed to pay Oxford's debt to the Court of Wards in instalments. In 1585 negotiations were underway for King James VI of Scotland to come to England to discuss the release of his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots, and in March Oxford was to be sent to Scotland as one of the hostages for James's safety. In 1586, Oxford petitioned the Queen for an annuity to relieve his distressed financial situation. His father-in-law made him several large loans, and Elizabeth granted him a £1,000 annuity, to be continued at her pleasure or until he could be provided for otherwise. This annuity was later continued by James I. De Vere's widow, Elizabeth, petitioned James I for an annuity of £250 on behalf of her 11-year-old son, Henry, to continue the £1,000 annuity granted to de Vere. Henry ultimately was awarded a £200 annuity for life. James I would continue the grant after her death. Another daughter, Susan, was born on 26 May 1587. On 12 September, another daughter, Frances, is recorded as buried at Edmonton. Her birthdate is unknown; presumably she was between one and three years of age. In July Elizabeth granted the Earl property which had been seized from Edward Jones, who had been executed for his role in the Babington Plot. In order to protect the land from Oxford's creditors, the grant was made in the name of two trustees. At the end of November it was agreed that the purchasers of Oxford's lands would pay his entire debt of some £3,306 due to the Court of Wards over a five-year period, finishing in 1592. In July and August 1588 England was threatened by the Spanish Armada. On 28 July Leicester, who was in overall command of the English land troops, asked for instructions regarding Oxford, stating that "he seems most willing to hazard his life in this quarrel". The Earl was offered the governorship of the port of Harwich, but he thought it was unworthy and declined the post; Leicester was glad to be rid of him. In December 1588 Oxford had secretly sold his London mansion Fisher's Folly to Sir William Cornwallis; by January 1591 the author Thomas Churchyard was dealing with rent owing for rooms he had taken in a house on behalf of his patron. Oxford wrote to Burghley outlining a plan to purchase the manorial lands of Denbigh, in Wales, if the Queen would consent, offering to pay for them by commuting his £1,000 annuity and agreeing to abandon his suit to regain the Forest of Essex (Waltham Forest), and to deed over his interests in Hedingham and Brets for the use of his children, who were living with Burghley under his guardianship. In the spring of 1591 the plan for the purchasers of his land to discharge his debt to the Court of Wards was disrupted by the Queen's taking extents, or writs allowing a creditor to temporarily seize a debtor's property. Oxford complained that his servant Thomas Hampton had taken advantage of these writs by taking money from the tenants to his own use, and had also conspired with another of his servants to pass a fraudulent document under the Great Seal of England. The Lord Mayor, Thomas Skinner, was also involved. In June, Oxford wrote to Burghley reminding him that he had made an agreement with Elizabeth to relinquish his claim to the Forest of Essex for three reasons, one of which was the Queen's reluctance to punish Skinner's felony, which had caused Oxford to forfeit £20,000 in bonds and statutes. In 1586 Angel Day dedicated The English Secretary, the first epistolary manual for writing model letters in English, to Oxford, and William Webbe praised him as "most excellent among the rest" of our poets in his Discourse of English Poetry. In 1588 Anthony Munday dedicated to Oxford the two parts of his Palmerin d'Oliva. The following year The Arte of English Poesie, attributed to George Puttenham, placed Oxford among a "crew" of courtier poets; Puttenham also considered him among the best comic playwrights of the day. In 1590 Edmund Spenser addressed to Oxford the third of seventeen dedicatory sonnets which preface The Faerie Queene, celebrating his patronage of poets. The composer John Farmer, who was in Oxford's service at the time, dedicated The First Set of Divers & Sundry Ways of Two Parts in One to him in 1591, noting in the dedication his patron's love of music. Remarriage and later life On 5 June 1588 Oxford's wife Anne Cecil died at court of a fever; she was 31. On 4 July 1591 Oxford sold the Great Garden property at Aldgate to John Wolley and Francis Trentham. The arrangement was stated to be for the benefit of Francis's sister, Elizabeth Trentham, one of the Queen's Maids of Honour, whom Oxford married later that year. On 24 February 1593, at Stoke Newington, she gave birth to his only surviving son, Henry de Vere, who was his heir. Between 1591 and 1592 Oxford disposed of the last of his large estates; Castle Hedingham, the seat of his earldom, went to Lord Burghley, it was held in trust for Oxford's three daughters by his first marriage. He commissioned his servant, Roger Harlakenden, to sell Colne Priory. Harlekenden contrived to undervalue the land, then purchase it (as well as other parcels that were not meant to be sold) under his son's name; the suits Oxford brought against Harlakenden for fraud dragged out for decades and were never settled in his lifetime. Protracted negotiations to arrange a match between his daughter Elizabeth and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, did not result in marriage; on 19 November 1594, six weeks after Southampton turned 21, 'the young Earl of Southampton, refusing the Lady Vere, payeth £5000 of present money'. In January Elizabeth married William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby. Derby had promised Oxford his new bride would have £1,000 a year, but the financial provision for her was slow in materializing. His father-in-law, Lord Burghley, died on 4 August 1598 at the age of 78, leaving substantial bequests to Oxford's two unmarried daughters, Bridget and Susan. The bequests were structured to prevent Oxford from gaining control of his daughters' inheritances by assuming custody of them. Earlier negotiations for a marriage to William Herbert having fallen through, in May or June 1599 Oxford's 15 year-old daughter Bridget married Francis Norris. Susan married Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery. From March to August 1595 Oxford actively importuned the Queen, in competition with Lord Buckhurst, to farm the tin mines in Cornwall. He wrote to Burghley, enumerating years of fruitless attempts to amend his financial situation and complained: 'This last year past I have been a suitor to her Majesty that I might farm her tins, giving £3000 a year more than she had made.' Oxford's letters and memoranda indicate that he pursued his suit into 1596, and renewed it again three years later, but was ultimately unsuccessful in obtaining the tin monopoly. In October 1595, Oxford wrote to his brother in law, Sir Robert Cecil, of friction between himself and the ill-fated Earl of Essex, partly over his claim to property, terming him 'the only person that I dare rely upon in the court'. Cecil seems to have done little to further Oxford's interests in the suit. In March he was unable to go to court due to illness, in August he wrote to Burghley from Byfleet, where he had gone for his health: 'I find comfort in this air, but no fortune in the court.' In September, he again wrote of ill health, regretting he had not been able to pay attendance to the Queen. Two months later Rowland Whyte wrote to Sir Robert Sidney that 'Some say my Lord of Oxford is dead'. Whether the rumour of his death was related to the illness mentioned in his letters earlier in the year is unknown. Oxford attended his last Parliament in December, perhaps another indication of his failing health. On 28 April 1599 Oxford was sued by the widow of his tailor for a debt of £500 for services rendered some two decades earlier. He claimed that not only had he paid the debt, but that the tailor had absconded with 'cloth of gold and silver and other stuff' belonging to him, worth £800. The outcome of the suit is unknown. In July 1600 Oxford wrote requesting Sir Robert Cecil's help in securing an appointment as Governor of the Isle of Jersey, once again citing the Queen's unfulfilled promises to him. In February he again wrote for his support, this time for the office of President of Wales. As with his former suits, Oxford was again unsuccessful; during this time he was listed on the Pipe rolls as owing £20 for the subsidy. After the abortive Essex rebellion in February 1601, Oxford was 'the senior of the twenty-five noblemen' who rendered verdicts at the trials of Essex and Southampton for treason. After Essex's co-conspirator Sir Charles Danvers was executed on in March, Oxford became a party to a complicated suit regarding lands which had reverted to the Crown by escheat at Danvers's attainder, a suit opposed by Danvers's kinsmen. De Vere continued to suffer from ill health, which kept him from court. On 4 December, Oxford was shocked that Cecil, who had encouraged him to undertake the Danvers suit on the Crown's behalf, had now withdrawn his support for it. As with all his other suits aimed at improving his financial situation, this last of Oxford’s suits to the Queen ended in disappointment. Last years In the early morning of 24 March 1603, Queen Elizabeth died without naming a successor. A few days beforehand, at his house at Hackney, Oxford had entertained the Earl of Lincoln, a nobleman known for erratic and violent behaviour similar to his host's. Lincoln reported that after dinner Oxford spoke of the Queen's impending death, claiming that the peers of England should decide the succession, and suggested that since Lincoln had 'a nephew of the blood royal ... Lord Hastings', he should be sent to France to find allies to support this claim. Lincoln relayed this conversation to Sir John Peyton, Lieutenant of the Tower, who, knowing how physically and financially infirm Oxford was, refused to take Lincoln's report as a serious threat to King James's accession. Oxford expressed his grief at the late Queen's death, and his apprehension for the future. These fears were unfounded; in letters to Cecil in May and June 1603 he again pressed his decades-long claim to have Waltham Forest (Forest of Essex) and the house and park of Havering restored to him, and on 18 July the new King granted his suit. On 25 July, Oxford was among those who officiated at the King's coronation, and a month later James confirmed his annuity of £1,000. Long weakened by poor health, Vere passed custody of the Forest of Essex to his son-in-law Francis Norris and his cousin Sir Francis Vere on 18 June 1604. He died on 24 June of unknown causes at King's Place, Hackney, and was buried on 6 July in the Hackney churchyard of St Augustine's (now the parish of St. John-at-Hackney). Oxford's death passed without public or private notice. His grave was still unmarked on 25 November 1612 when his widow Elizabeth Trentham signed her will. She asked "to be buried in the Church of Hackney within the Countie of Middlesex, as neare vnto [unto] the bodie of my said late deare and noble lorde and husband as may bee," and she requested that "there bee in the said Church erected for vs [us] a tombe fittinge our degree." The 18th Earl of Oxford failed to fulfill his mother's request, and the location of his parents' graves has been lost to time. The absence of a grave marker and an unpublished manuscript written fifteen years after Oxford's death have led to questions regarding his burial place. Documentary records including the Hackney registers and the will of de Vere's widow (1612) confirm that he was buried in the church of St Augustine on 4 July 1604. One register lists "Edward Veare earl of Oxford" among burials; the other reads, "Edward deVeare Erle of Oxenford was buryed the 6th daye of Iulye Anno 1604." A manuscript history of the Vere family (c. 1619) written by Oxford’s first cousin, Percival Golding (1579-1635), raises the possibility of a re-interment sometime between 1612 and 1619 at Westminster Abbey: The same manuscript further suggests that de Vere enjoyed an honorary stewardship of the Privy Council in the last year of his life. While Nelson disputes his membership on the Council, de Vere's signature appears on a letter dated 8 April 1603 from the Privy Council to the Lord High Treasurer of England Literary reputation Oxford's manuscript verses circulated widely in courtly circles. Three of his poems, "When wert thou born desire", "My mind to me a kingdom is", and "Sitting alone upon my thought", are among the texts that repeatedly appear in the surviving 16th century manuscript miscellanies and poetical anthologies. His earliest published poem was "The labouring man that tills the fertile soil" in Thomas Bedingfield's translation of Cardano's Comforte (1573). Bedingfield's dedication to Oxford is dated 1 January 1572. In addition to his poem, Oxford also contributed a commendatory letter setting forth the reasons why Bedingfield should publish the work. In 1576 eight of his poems were published in the poetry miscellany The Paradise of Dainty Devises. According to the introduction, all the poems in the collection were meant to be sung, but Oxford's were almost the only genuine love songs in the collection. Oxford's "What cunning can express" was published in The Phoenix Nest (1593) and republished in England's Helicon (1600). "Who taught thee first to sigh alas my heart" appeared in The Teares of Fancie (1593). Brittons Bowre of Delight (1597) published "If women could be fair and yet not fond" under Oxford's name, but the attribution today is not considered certain. Contemporary critics praised Oxford as a poet and a playwright. William Webbe names him as "the most excellent" of Elizabeth's courtier poets. Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589), places him first on a list of courtier poets and includes an excerpt from "When wert thou born desire" as an example of "his excellance and wit". Puttenham also says that "highest praise" should be given to Oxford and Richard Edwardes for "Comedy and Enterlude". Francis Meres' Palladis Tamia (1598) names Oxford first of 17 playwrights listed by rank who are "the best for comedy amongst us", and he also appears first on a list of seven Elizabethan courtly poets "who honoured Poesie with their pens and practice" in Henry Peacham's 1622 The Compleat Gentleman. Steven W. May writes that the Earl of Oxford was Elizabeth's "first truly prestigious courtier poet ... [whose] precedent did at least confer genuine respectability upon the later efforts of such poets as Sidney, Greville, and Raleigh." He describes de Vere as a "competent, fairly experimental poet working in the established modes of mid-century lyric verse" and his poetry as "examples of the standard varieties of mid-Elizabethan amorous lyric". May says that Oxford's youthful love lyrics, which have been described as experimental and innovative, "create a dramatic break with everything known to have been written at the Elizabethan court up to that time" by virtue of being lighter in tone and metre and more imaginative and free from the moralizing tone of the courtier poetry of the "drab" age, which tended to be occasional and instructive. and describes one poem, in which the author cries out against "this loss of my good name", as a "defiant lyric without precedent in English Renaissance verse". May says that Oxford's poetry was "one man's contribution to the rhetorical mainstream of an evolving Elizabethan poetic" indistinguishable from "the output of his mediocre mid-century contemporaries". However, C. S. Lewis wrote that his poetry shows "a faint talent", but is "for the most part undistinguished and verbose." Nelson says that "contemporary observers such as Harvey, Webbe, Puttenham, and Meres clearly exaggerated de Vere's talent in deference to his rank. By any measure, his poems pale in comparison with those of Sidney, Lyly, Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, and Jonson." He says that his known poems are "astonishingly uneven" in quality, ranging from the "fine" to the "execrable". Oxford was sought after for his literary and theatrical patronage; between 1564 and 1599, twenty-eight works were dedicated to him by authors, including Arthur Golding, John Lyly, Robert Greene, and Anthony Munday. Of his 33 dedications, 13 appeared in original or translated works of literature, a higher percentage of literary works than other patrons of similar means. His lifelong patronage of writers, musicians, and actors prompted May to term Oxford "a nobleman with extraordinary intellectual interests and commitments", whose biography exhibits a "lifelong devotion to learning". He goes on to say that "Oxford's genuine commitment to learning throughout his career lends a necessary qualification to Stone's conclusion that de Vere simply squandered the more than 70,000 pounds he derived from selling off his patrimony ... for which some part of this amount de Vere acquired a splendid reputation for nurture of the arts and sciences". Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship The Oxfordian theory of Shakespeare authorship proposes that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays and poems traditionally attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Though rejected by nearly all academic Shakespeareans, it has been among the most popular alternative Shakespeare authorship theories since the 1920s. Notes References External links De Vere's Patronage of Theater: Patrons and Performances Web Site Index entry for Edward de Vere at Poets' Corner Edward de Vere Birthplace – Castle Hedingham Earls of Oxford Lord Great Chamberlains Edward People of the Elizabethan era Court of Elizabeth I English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English poets 17th-century male writers 1550 births 1604 deaths 16th-century English nobility 16th-century English poets Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Patrons of literature Theatre patrons Lyric poets English art patrons People from Castle Hedingham Prisoners in the Tower of London English male dramatists and playwrights English male poets 17th-century English nobility Literary peers	true	[ "Henry Frederick Joseph James Perceval, 5th Earl of Egmont (3 January 1796 – 23 December 1841), styled Viscount Perceval from 1822 to 1835, was a British peer and politician. An alcoholic from an early age, he inherited estates heavily encumbered by debt; avoiding writs for debt shaped much of his life. He was briefly elected a Member of Parliament, but may never have taken his seat, and spent much of his life either abroad or living under an alias. His solicitor took personal advantage of the Earl's incapacity for business, resulting in belated litigation with the next Earl in 1863.\n\nHenry was the only son of John Perceval, 4th Earl of Egmont and his wife Bridget Wynn. He was privately educated, and was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge on 21 September 1814. He received an MA in 1818.\n\nBy the time his father succeeded to the earldom in 1822, the family estates at Churchtown, County Cork and Enmore, Somerset were heavily encumbered with debts. While his father's seat in the House of Lords protected him from prosecution for debt, Perceval was not so fortunate, and was often forced to leave the country to escape writs. He developed dissipated habits early in life, and became an alcoholic. Perhaps to escape this wandering life, he began to seek a seat in Parliament (which would protect him from duns) in 1824, announcing he would stand for Penryn, where Henry Swann had fallen ill. However, he begun his canvass too late to effectively compete for the vacancy and did not go to the poll. In March 1826, when George Watson-Taylor retired to take another seat, he was put in at East Looe on the interest of James Drummond Buller-Elphinstone. It is not clear that he ever took his seat; in April, his family's Irish agent and solicitor, Edward Tierney, was writing to him to beg him to \"abandon his evil courses and his associates\". He contested Penryn at the 1826 election, but was served with a writ, probably for debt, during the canvass and was defeated, lacking the means to make headway with a venal electorate.\n\nDeclared an outlaw for debt in 1828, Perceval fled abroad. In December 1828, he married Louisa Maria D'Orselet in Paris. Their son was born about four months later, and died sometime between 1835 and 1841. Perceval inherited his father's property on the latter's death in 1835; Enmore had been sold to pay debts in the previous year, while the Irish estates in Cork were so heavily encumbered that no buyer could be found. While he did assume his seat in the House of Lords (as Baron Lovel and Holland) in February 1836, he afterwards lived at Burderop Park with a female companion, Mrs. Cleese, who had lived with him before at Hythe; he took the alias of \"Mr. Lovell\" and claimed she was his sister. He was often drunk and neglectful of business as regarded his estate, although a clergyman of his acquaintance thought him a gentleman and intelligent in conversation. A legal appeal of his outlawry in 1838 ended when his solicitors were unable to prove that he was still alive. He left the country for Portugal in 1840; after the death of Mrs. Cleese, he returned to England and died in 1841. He was succeeded by his half-first cousin once removed, the 3rd Baron Arden.\n\nUnder the 5th Earl's will, Tierney was made sole executor and residuary legatee of the estate; the wills of the 4th and 5th Earls were not proven until 1857, after Tierney's death, by his son-in-law Sir William Darell. The 5th Earl's will was rather belatedly contested by the 6th Earl in 1863, on the grounds that Tierney had taken advantage of the 5th Earl's drunkenness to provide a misleading valuation of the estates which influenced the drafting of the will. The 6th Earl ultimately settled out of court with Darell, paying £125,000 for the return of the Irish estates; Tierney and his heirs had realized an estimated £300,000 for their stewardship.\n\nReferences\n\n1796 births\n1841 deaths\nPerceval, Henry Perceval, Viscount\nAlumni of Trinity College, Cambridge\nPerceval, Henry Perceval, Viscount\nEgmont, E5\nEarls of Egmont", "Arthur Thomas Sanders (21 December 1900 – 22 November 1920) played first-class cricket for Somerset in one match in the 1919 season. He was born and died at Westminster, London.\n\nSanders was the only son of Robert Sanders, 1st Baron Bayford, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Bridgwater and Wells between 1910 and 1929. He was educated at Harrow School and topped the batting averages in his last cricket season in the school team, 1918, when he made 216 runs as a middle-order batsman with a highest score of 57 not out. Wartime meant that the set-piece Eton v Harrow cricket match normally held at Lord's was not played, and Sanders did not do well in the two one-day school matches arranged in the 1918 season between Harrow and Eton College: the Harrow team in his time was \"decidedly mediocre\", according to a 2017 book. He played in just one first-class match, batting at No 9 for Somerset in the match against Essex at Leyton and failing to score in his only innings in the match. His death barely a year later and before the age of 20 went unrecorded in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.\n\nThe circumstances of Sanders' death did not, however, go unrecorded elsewhere: The Times of London reported it as \"Suicide in the Tower\". Having initially been rejected for the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, Sanders was accepted in January 1919 and graduated in the summer of 1920 to join the Third Battalion of the Grenadier Guards as a second lieutenant. In November 1920, the inquest on him was told that he was stationed at the Tower of London, but had dined on the evening of Sunday 21 November with his father, who lived in Eaton Square, Belgravia; he had told his father he had run up a £200 gambling debt, which his annual allowance of £500 was unable to cover. He returned to his regiment at the Tower, and was called the following morning by his orderly; but when he had not appeared an hour later, the orderly returned and found that Sanders had shot himself in the temple. The inquest was told that the gambling debt was £700 rather than the £200 Sanders had admitted to his father, and there was a further £900 debt that was being investigated; the coroner recorded a verdict of \"suicide while in a state of unsound mind\".\n\nReferences\n\n1900 births\n1920 suicides\nPeople educated at Harrow School\nEnglish cricketers\nSomerset cricketers\nGrenadier Guards officers\nSuicides by firearm in England\nSuicides in London\nHeirs apparent who never acceded" ]
[ "Rubin Carter", "Second conviction and appeal" ]	C_2f5ecf770c6e4154acfe65d0ed94a7f4_0	What was Rubin Carter's second conviction for?	1	What was Rubin Carter's second conviction for?	Rubin Carter	During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3). While the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information that the Brady disclosure law required that they provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975-1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. CANNOTANSWER	During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill.	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison. In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested. Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed. Carter's autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1974 by Viking Press. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada). In 2019, the case was the focus of a 13-part BBC podcast series, The Hurricane Tapes. The series was based on interviews which were conducted with survivors, case notes which were taken during the original investigations, and 40 hours of recorded interviews which were conducted with Carter by the author Ken Klonsky who cited them in his 2011 book The Eye of the Hurricane. Early life Carter was born in Clifton, New Jersey, the fourth of seven children. He later admitted to a troubled relationship with his father, a strict disciplinarian; at the age of eleven, he was sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault, having stabbed a man, who he claimed had tried to sexually assault him. Carter escaped from the reformatory in 1954 and joined the United States Army. A few months after completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was sent to West Germany. While in Germany, Carter began to box for the Army. He was later discharged in 1956 as unfit for service, after four courts-martial. Shortly after his discharge, he returned home to New Jersey, was convicted of two muggings and sent to prison. Boxing career After his release from prison in September 1961, Carter became a professional boxer. At , Carter was shorter than the average middleweight, but he fought all of his professional career at 155–160 lb (70–72.6 kg). His aggressive style and punching power (resulting in many early-round knockouts) drew attention, establishing him as a crowd favorite and earning him the nickname "Hurricane". After he defeated a number of middleweight contenders—such as Florentino Fernandez, Holley Mims, Gomeo Brennan, and George Benton—the boxing world took notice. The Ring first listed him as one of its "Top 10" middleweight contenders in July 1963. At the end of 1965, they ranked him as the number five middleweight. He fought six times in 1963, winning four bouts and losing two. He remained ranked in the lower part of the top 10 until December 20, when he surprised the boxing world by flooring past and future world champion Emile Griffith twice in the first round and scoring a technical knockout. That win resulted in The Rings ranking of Carter as the number three contender for Joey Giardello's world middleweight title. Carter won two more fights (one a decision over future heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis) in 1964, before meeting Giardello in Philadelphia for a 15-round championship match on December 14. Carter landed a few solid rights to the head in the fourth that left Giardello staggering, but was unable to follow them up, and Giardello took control of the fight in the fifth round. The judges awarded Giardello a unanimous decision. After that fight, Carter's ranking in The Ring began to decline. He fought nine times in 1965, winning five but losing three of four against contenders Luis Manuel Rodríguez, Dick Tiger, and Harry Scott. Tiger, in particular, floored Carter three times in their match. "It was", Carter said, "the worst beating that I took in my life—inside or outside the ring". During his visit to London to fight Scott, Carter was involved in an incident in which a shot was fired in his hotel room. Carter's career record in boxing was 27 wins, 12 losses, and one draw in 40 fights, with 19 total knockouts (8 KOs and 11 TKOs). He received an honorary championship title belt from the World Boxing Council in 1993 (as did Joey Giardello at the same banquet) and was later inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Arrest and conviction At approximately 2:30 AM on June 17, 1966, two men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, and began shooting. The bartender, James Oliver, and a customer, Fred Nauyoks, were killed immediately. Hazel Tanis died in a hospital a month later, having suffered multiple wounds from shotgun pellets; a third customer, Willie Marins, survived the attack, despite a head wound that cost him the sight in one eye. When questioned, both told police the shooters had been black males, though neither identified Carter or John Artis. Ten minutes after the murders, around 2:40 AM, a police cruiser stopped Carter and Artis in a rental car, returning from a night out at the Nite Spot, a nearby bar; Carter was in the back, with Artis driving, and a third man, John Royster, in the passenger seat. The police recognised Carter, a well-known and controversial local figure, but let him go. Minutes later, the same officers solicited a description of the getaway car from two eyewitnesses outside the bar, Patricia “Patty” Valentine and Al Bello. Bello later admitted he was in the area acting as a lookout while an accomplice, Arthur Bradley, broke into a nearby warehouse. At the time, he claimed to have discovered the bodies when he entered the bar to buy cigarettes; it also transpired that he took the opportunity to empty the cash register, and ran into the police as he came out. At the trial, he testified he was approaching the Lafayette when two black males, one with a shotgun, the other a pistol, came around the corner. He ran from them, and they got into a white car that was double-parked near the Lafayette. Valentine lived above the bar, and heard the shots; like Bello, she reported seeing two black men leave the bar, then get into a white car. They reportedly described it as white, with "a geometric design, sort of a butterfly type design in the back of the car", and New York state license plates, with blue background and orange lettering. Another neighbor, Ronald Ruggiero, also heard the shots, and said that, from his window, he saw Alfred Bello running west on Lafayette Street toward 16th Street. He then heard the screech of tires and saw a white car shoot past, heading west, with two black males in the front seat. Valentine initially stated the car had rear lights which lit up completely like butterflies; at the retrial in 1976, she changed this to an accurate description of Carter's car, which had conventional tail-lights with aluminum decoration in a butterfly shape. This aligned with that provided by Bello; the prosecution later suggested the confusion was the result of a misreading of a court transcript by the defense. Having dropped off Royster, Carter was now being driven home by Artis; they were stopped again at 3:00 AM, and ordered to follow the police to the station, where they were arrested. However, variances in descriptions given by Valentine and Bello, the physical characteristics of the attackers provided by the two survivors, lack of forensic evidence, and the timeline provided by the police were key factors in the conviction being overturned in 1985. Forensics later established the victims were shot by a .32-caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun, although the weapons themselves have never been found. There was no forensic evidence linking Carter or Artis to the murders; while gun residue tests were commonly used, DeSimone, the lead detective, later claimed he had no time to bring in an expert. He did arrange for an expert to conduct lie detector tests, which they passed; in 1976, a second report was discovered, claiming they failed. After 17 hours of interrogation, they were released. Carter and Artis voluntarily appeared before a grand jury, which found there was no case to answer. However, several months later, Bello changed his story, after the police discovered why he was in the area, and his theft from the cash register. He positively identified Artis as one of the attackers, while Bradley now came forward to claim Carter was the other; based on this, the two were arrested and indicted. Bello later claimed in return, he was promised the $10,500 reward offered for catching the killers, which was never paid. The rental car had been impounded when Carter and Artis were arrested, and retained by police; five days after their release, a detective reported that on searching it again, he discovered two unfired rounds, one .32 caliber, the other from a 12-gauge. Neither matched those retrieved from the victims; the .32 round was brass, rather than copper, while the shotgun shell was an older model, with a different wad and color. Asked to account for these differences at the trial, the prosecution produced a second report, allegedly lodged 75 minutes after the murders which recorded the two rounds. They were unable to explain why, having that evidence, the police released the men, or why standard 'bag and tag' procedure was not followed. They also argued since the expended rounds retrieved at the scene were also a mixture, the fact that the two rounds did not match was meaningless; what did matter was they were the same caliber as those used in the shootings. The defense, led by Raymond A. Brown, focused on inconsistencies in the evidence given by eyewitnesses Marins and Bello. He also produced witnesses who confirmed Carter and Artis were still in the Nite Spot at the time of the shootings. The all-white jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, with a recommendation of mercy, which meant they avoided death sentences. Judge Samuel Larner imposed one concurrent and two consecutive life sentences on Carter, and three concurrent life sentences on Artis. Retrial and release In 1974, Bello and Bradley withdrew their identifications of Carter and Artis, and these recantations were used as the basis for a motion for a new trial. Judge Samuel Larner denied the motion on December 11, saying they "lacked the ring of truth". Despite Larner's ruling, Madison Avenue advertising executive George Lois organized a campaign on Carter's behalf, which led to increasing public support for a retrial or pardon. Muhammad Ali lent his support to the campaign (including publicly wishing Carter good luck on his appeal during the airing of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on September 7, 1973). Bob Dylan co-wrote (with Jacques Levy) and performed a song called "Hurricane" (1975), which declared that Carter was innocent. On December 7, 1975, Dylan performed the song at a concert at Trenton State Prison, where Carter was temporarily an inmate. However, during the hearing on the recantations, defense attorneys also argued that Bello and Bradley had lied during the 1967 trial, telling the jurors that they had made only certain narrow, limited deals with prosecutors in exchange for their trial testimony. A detective taped one interrogation of Bello in 1966, and when it was played during the recantation hearing, defense attorneys argued that the tape revealed promises beyond what Bello had testified to. If so, prosecutors had either had a Brady obligation to disclose this additional exculpatory evidence, or a duty to disclose the fact that their witnesses had lied on the stand. Larner denied this second argument as well, but the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the evidence of various deals made between the prosecution and witnesses Bello and Bradley should have been disclosed to the defense before or during the 1967 trial as this could have "affected the jury's evaluation of the credibility" of the eyewitnesses. "The defendants' right to a fair trial was substantially prejudiced", said Justice Mark Sullivan. The court set aside the original convictions and granted Carter and Artis a new trial. Despite the difficulties of prosecuting a ten-year-old case, Prosecutor Burrell Ives Humphreys decided to try Carter and Artis again. To ensure, as best he could, that he did not use perjured testimony to obtain a conviction, Humphreys had Bello polygraphed—once by Leonard H. Harrelson and a second time by Richard Arther, both well-known and respected experts in the field. Both men concluded that Bello was telling the truth when he said that he had seen Carter outside the Lafayette immediately after the murders. However, Harrelson also reported orally that Bello had been inside the bar shortly before and at the time of the shooting, a conclusion that contradicted Bello's 1967 trial testimony wherein he had said that he had been on the street at the time of the shooting. Despite this oral report, Harrelson's subsequent written report stated that Bello's 1967 testimony had been truthful. Second conviction and appeal During the new trial in 1976, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4–3). Although the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information the Brady disclosure law required them to provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975–1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. Federal court action In 1985, Carter's attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Later that year, Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the writ, noting that the prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure", and set aside the convictions. Carter, 48 years old, was freed without bail in November 1985. Prosecutors appealed Sarokin's ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed a motion with the court to return Carter to prison pending the outcome of the appeal. The court denied this motion and eventually upheld Sarokin's opinion, affirming his Brady analysis without commenting on his other rationale. The prosecutors appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Prosecutors therefore could have tried Carter (and Artis) a third time, but decided not to, and filed a motion to dismiss the original indictments. "It is just not legally feasible to sustain a prosecution, and not practical after almost 22 years to be trying anyone", said New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards. Acting Passaic County Prosecutor John P. Goceljak said several factors made a retrial impossible, including Bello's "current unreliability" as a witness and the unavailability of other witnesses. Goceljak also doubted whether the prosecution could reintroduce the racially motivated crime theory due to the federal court rulings. A judge granted the motion to dismiss, bringing an end to the legal proceedings. Post emancipation Carter lived in Toronto, Ontario, where he became a Canadian citizen, and was executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) from 1993 until 2005. Carter resigned when the AIDWYC declined to support Carter's protest of the appointment (to a judgeship) of Susan MacLean, who was the prosecutor of Canadian Guy Paul Morin, who served over eighteen months in prison for rape and murder until exonerated by DNA evidence. Carter's second marriage was to Lisa Peters. The couple separated later. In 1996, Carter, then 59, was arrested when Toronto police mistakenly identified him as a suspect in his thirties believed to have sold drugs to an undercover officer. He was released after the police realized their error. Carter often served as a motivational speaker. On October 14, 2005, he received two honorary Doctorates of Law, one from York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and one from Griffith University (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), in recognition of his work with AIDWYC and the Innocence Project. Carter received the Abolition Award from Death Penalty Focus in 1996. Prostate cancer and death In March 2012, while attending the International Justice Conference in Burswood, Western Australia, Carter revealed that he had terminal prostate cancer. At the time, doctors gave him between three and six months to live. Beginning shortly after that time, John Artis lived with and cared for Carter, and on April 20, 2014, he confirmed that Carter, at the age of 76, had succumbed to his illness. He was afterwards cremated and his ashes were scattered in part over Cape Cod and in part at a horse farm in Kentucky. In the months leading up to his death, Carter worked for the exoneration of David McCallum, a Brooklyn man who had been incarcerated since 1985 on charges of murder. Two months before his death, Carter published "Hurricane Carter's Dying Wish", an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, in which he asked for an independent review of McCallum's conviction. "I request only that McCallum be granted a full hearing by the Brooklyn conviction integrity unit, now under the auspices of the new district attorney, Ken Thompson. Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release ... Just as my own verdict 'was predicated on racism rather than reason and on concealment rather than disclosure', as Sarokin wrote, so too was McCallum's", Carter wrote. On October 15, 2014, McCallum was exonerated. John Artis died of an Abdominal aortic aneurysm on November 7, 2021, at the age of 75. In popular culture Carter's story inspired: The 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane", which proclaimed that Carter was innocent. Carter appeared as himself in Dylan's 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara. In the 2019 film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Dylan talked about his involvement with the Carter case and Carter was also interviewed in the film, describing his relationship with Dylan. Norman Jewison's 1999 feature film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington in the lead role as Carter. The film is about Rubin Carter's accusation, trials, and time spent in prison. Carter later discussed at a lecture how he fell in love with Washington's portrayal of him during auditions for The Hurricane, noting that boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler and actors Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson all vied for the role. For his performance as Carter, Washington won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Washington was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Carter at the 72nd Academy Awards. In the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, when characters Bobbie (Mark Wahlberg) and Christina (Diane Lane) come down the stairs from their apartment above the bar, after having a fight the night before, Murph (John C. Reilly) comments on Christina being Hurricane Boom Boom Carter because of the black eye she gave Bobbie. Professional boxing record See also List of wrongful convictions in the United States Romeo Phillion References Sources External links 1937 births 2014 deaths African-American boxers American male boxers American emigrants to Canada American people convicted of assault American people convicted of murder American people convicted of robbery American convicts who became writers Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from prostate cancer Supreme Court of New Jersey Overturned convictions in the United States People convicted of murder by New Jersey Sportspeople from Clifton, New Jersey Prison writings Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey Boxers from Toronto United States Army soldiers People wrongfully convicted of murder Canadian people of African-American descent Boxers from New Jersey Middleweight boxers 20th-century African-American sportspeople Rubin Carter	false	[ "Nathan Blenner (1965–1985) was a 20-year-old man from Queens, New York who was kidnapped in 1985 outside his home. His body was found with a single fatal bullet wound in his head. Willie Stuckey and David McCallum, both just 16 at the time, were arrested and allegedly confessed to killing Blenner during an attempted car theft and later alleged to having a joyride in the victim's car. \n\nDespite recanting their confessions soon after, both suspects were found guilty and sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment based on false confessions. Both suspects were exonerated in 2014. McCallum was exonerated and released after serving 29 years of his sentence. Stuckey was posthumously exonerated. He died in prison in 2001 having served 16 years behind bars. A campaign for the exoneration of the two came after a lengthy and publicized campaigns for McCallum's release.\n\nDocumentary David and Me\n\nA documentary titled David & Me, by the Toronto-based documentary filmmakers Ray Klonsky and co-director Marc Lamy of Markham Street Films, was to show the inconsistencies of the case and a campaign for release of McCallum, after meeting him and fighting for a decade for his release. Their film had its world premiere at the 2014 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto.\n\nRubin Carter campaign\n\nIt also included a famous op-ed in the New York Daily News by former boxer and wrongful convictions advocate Rubin \"Hurricane\" Carter, who penned a plea from his death bed to District Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson to release what he said was the wrongly convicted McCallum. \"My single regret in life is that David McCallum (...) is still in prison\", Carter wrote in February 2014, two months before he died, calling for Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson to review the case. \"Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release\", Carter wrote.\n\nExoneration\nAfter being imprisoned for 29 years, a new legal process was opened on the case and David McCallum, now 45, and William Stuckey, already deceased, were both found innocent of the murder. District Attorney Ken Thompson's office and the Conviction Review Unit completed their reviews of McCallum's case and agreed to set him free. \"We have determined that there's not a single piece of evidence that linked David McCallum or William Stuckey to the abduction of Nathan Blenner or his death — \"except for their brief confessions, which prosecutors have now concluded were false\". \n\nThompson stated that he had \"inherited a legacy of disgrace\" when he took office in January 2014 and had to act swiftly for justice. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D'Emic dismissed the conviction at the request of DA Thompson. The judge also threw out the conviction of Willie Stuckey, finding they were \"both pressured into confessing as teenagers\". Thompson's predecessor had reviewed the convictions in 2013 and decided to stand by them. Upon the hearing, McCallum was released on October 15, 2014. Stuckey died in 2001 in prison of a heart attack after spending 16 years behind bars.\n\nSee also\nList of wrongful convictions in the United States\n\nReferences\n\n1985 murders in the United States\nOverturned convictions in the United States\nPeople wrongfully convicted of murder\n1985 in New York (state)\nKidnappings in the United States", "The Hurricane is a 1999 American biographical sports drama film directed and produced by Norman Jewison. The film stars Denzel Washington as Rubin \"The Hurricane\" Carter, a former middleweight boxer who was wrongly convicted for a triple murder in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. The script was adapted by Armyan Bernstein and Dan Gordon from Carter's 1974 autobiography The Sixteenth Round: From Number 1 Contender To 45472 and the 1991 non-fiction work Lazarus and the Hurricane: The Freeing of Rubin \"The Hurricane\" Carter by Sam Chaiton and Terry Swinton.\n\nThe film depicts Carter's arrest, his life in prison and how he was freed by the love and compassion of a teenager from Brooklyn named Lesra Martin and his Canadian foster family. The film received positive reviews and won several awards, including a Golden Globe for Best Actor for Washington's performance. Washington was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.\n\nThe film was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on December 29, 1999. It grossed $74 million against a budget of $50 million.\n\nPlot\nThe film tells the story of middleweight boxer Rubin \"The Hurricane\" Carter, who was wrongfully convicted of committing a triple murder in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey. His sentence was set aside after he had spent nearly 20 years in prison. The film concentrates on Rubin Carter's life between 1966 and 1985. It describes his fight against the conviction for triple murder and how he copes with nearly 20 years in prison.\n\nA parallel plot follows Lesra Martin, an underprivileged Afro-American youth from Brooklyn, now living in Toronto. In the 1980s, the child becomes interested in Carter's life and circumstances after reading Carter's autobiography. He convinces his Canadian foster family to commit themselves to Carter's case. The story culminates with Carter's legal team's successful pleas to Judge H. Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.\n\nIn 1966, Rubin \"The Hurricane\" Carter was a top-ranked middleweight boxer, expected by many fans to become the world's greatest boxing champion. When three victims, specifically the club's bartender and a male and a female customer, were shot to death in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey, Carter and his friend John Artis, driving home from another club in Paterson, were stopped and interrogated by the police.\n\nAlthough the police asserted that Carter and Artis were innocent and thus, \"were never suspects,\" a man named Alfred Bello, a suspect himself in the killings, claimed that Carter and Artis were present at the time of the murders. On the basis of Bello's testimony, Carter and Artis were convicted of the triple homicide in the club, and Carter was given three consecutive life sentences.\n\nThroughout the trial, Carter proclaimed his innocence, claiming that his race, his boxing career and status and his work as a civil rights activist were the real reasons for his conviction. Eight years later, Bello and a co-suspect, Arthur Bradley, who also claimed that Carter was present at the scene of the crimes, renounced and recanted their testimony. However, Carter and Artis were convicted once again.\n\nAfterwards, the plot goes back to Lesra Martin, who works with a trio of Canadian activists to push the State of New Jersey to reexamine Carter's case.\n\nIn 1985, a Federal District Court ruled that the prosecution in Carter's second trial committed \"grave constitutional violations\" and that his conviction was based on racism rather than facts. As a result, Carter was finally freed, and he summed up his story by saying, \"Hate got me into this place, love got me out.\"\n\nCast\n Denzel Washington as Rubin 'The Hurricane' Carter\n Vicellous Reon Shannon as Lesra Martin\n Deborah Kara Unger as Lisa Peters\n Liev Schreiber as Sam Chaiton\n John Hannah as Terry Swinton\n Dan Hedaya as Sergeant Della Pesca, based on Vincent DeSimone\n Debbi Morgan as Mae Thelma Carter\n Clancy Brown as Lieutenant Jimmy Williams\n David Paymer as Myron Beldock\n Harris Yulin as Leon Friedman\n Rod Steiger as Judge H. Lee Sarokin\n Vincent Pastore as Alfred Bello\n George T. Odom as Ed 'Big Ed' \n Beatrice Winde as Louise Cockersham\n Badja Djola as Mobutu\n\nProduction\n\nBackground\nNorman Jewison got interested in a \"Hurricane\" Carter biopic in 1992. Armyan Bernstein purchased the filming rights through Beacon Pictures, and went on to write the first scripts while establishing a financing partnership with Irving Azoff. At first, Jewison felt the story was so extensive that it would fit better as a television miniseries. Once Denzel Washington signed to play the title character, he went through long boxing training, and worked closely with Rubin Carter. Washington said, \"He went through pots and pots of coffee and packs of cigarettes. I'd drink a little coffee. It's interesting and challenging when the person is there, alive and in the room.\" Filming began in November 1998, with locations in both New Jersey – East Jersey State Prison in Trenton and the cities of Avenel and Paterson – and Toronto.\n\nSoundtrack\n\nRelease\n\nPremiere\nThe Hurricane premiered on September 17, 1999, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It also was featured at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2000.\n\nTwo weeks prior to its opening in North America, a premiere for The Hurricane was held at the Mann Village Theater in Los Angeles. Many of the depicted people were in attendance. When asked about being portrayed by Denzel Washington, Rubin Carter replied that “I didn’t know I was that good-looking.\" The film was praised by Lesra Martin, who described it as \"a stupendous depiction of accurate events\", and John Artis, Carter's friend who was convicted with him, said he “was in awe to see what unfolded and not have to feel the pressure I felt at the time.” An objection was held by H. Lee Sarokin, the federal judge who freed Carter, saying that unlike his portrayal by Rod Steiger “I’m a lower-key guy.”\n\nBox office\nThe film opened in North American limited release on December 29, 1999. The first week's gross was $384,640 (11 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $50,668,906. In its widest release the film was featured in 2,148 theaters. It closed the week of April 14, 2000. The motion picture was in circulation sixteen weeks.\n\nCritical response\nThe Hurricane has an 83% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 113 reviews. The consensus reads: \"Thanks in large part to one of Denzel Washington's most powerful on-screen performances, The Hurricane is a moving, inspirational sports drama, even if it takes few risks in telling its story.\" Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun Times, liked the film and the acting, and wrote, \"This is one of Denzel Washington's great performances, on a par with his work in Malcolm X.... Washington as Hurricane Carter is spare, focused, filled with anger and pride.... This is strong stuff, and I was amazed, after feeling some impatience in the earlier reaches of the film, to find myself so deeply absorbed in its second and third acts, until at the end I was blinking at tears. What affects me emotionally at the movies is never sadness, but goodness.\" Metacritic gave the score a film of 74 based on 30 reviews, indicating \"generally favorable reviews\".\n\nEbert discussed his perspective on the \"fictionalized\" aspects of the film: \"Several people have told me dubiously that they heard the movie was 'fictionalized'. Well, of course it was. Those who seek the truth about a man from the film of his life might as well seek it from his loving grandmother. Most biopics, like most grandmothers, see the good in a man and demonize his enemies. They pass silently over his imprudent romances. In dramatizing his victories, they simplify them. And they provide the best roles to the most interesting characters. If they didn't, we wouldn't pay to see them.\" He added, \"The Hurricane is not a documentary but a parable, in which two lives are saved by the power of the written word.\"\n\nFilm critic Stephen Holden, writing for The New York Times, had mixed views of the film but praised the acting. He wrote: \"In telling the story of Mr. Carter's protracted and ultimately successful fight for freedom and justice, The Hurricane rides to glory on an astonishing performance by Denzel Washington.... That is to say, Mr. Washington leans into an otherwise schlocky movie and slams it out of the ballpark. If his Hurricane is an inspiring portrait of nobility, it is because the actor never conceals the demons of fury and despair gnawing beneath his character's forcefully articulate surface.\"\n\nHolden was forthright about the veracity of the film, writing, \"The film is so eager to stir us up that it thinks little of bending the facts for dramatic effect. Among its most egregious distortions is its depiction of Mr. Carter's 1964 middleweight title match with Joey Giardello. The movie (which has fine, naturalistic boxing sequences) inaccurately portrays the fight as lost by Carter solely because of the judges' racism. The taking of such license, of course, adds an extra jolt of drama. But when these and other distortions and exaggerations are added up, it's worth wondering if that self-congratulatory glow the movie leaves us with has been gotten far too easily and at what cost.\"\n\nJewison considers The Hurricane his best work.\n\nAccolades\n\nWins\n Berlin International Film Festival: Prize of the Guild of German rt House Cinemas, Norman Jewison; Silver Berlin Bear, Best Actor, Denzel Washington' 2000.\n Black Reel Awards: Black Reel; Theatrical, Best Actor; Denzel Washington; 2000.\n Golden Globes: Golden Globe; Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama; Denzel Washington; 2000.\n Image Awards: Image Award; Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, Denzel Washington; 2000.\n\nNominations\n Academy Awards: Oscar; Best Actor in a Leading Role; Denzel Washington; 2000.\n Screen Actors Guild Awards: Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role; Denzel Washington; 2000.\n Berlin International Film Festival: Golden Berlin Bear, Norman Jewison; 2000.\n Blockbuster Entertainment Awards: Blockbuster Entertainment Award, Favorite Actor, Drama, Denzel Washington; 2000.\n Chicago Film Critics Association Awards: CFCA Award; Best Actor; Denzel Washington; 2000.\n Golden Globes: Golden Globe; Best Director, Motion Picture, Norman Jewison; Best Motion Picture – Drama; 2000.\n Image Awards: Image Award; Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Debbi Morgan, Outstanding Motion Picture; 2000.\n Political Film Society: PFS Award; Democracy, Exposé, Human Rights; 2001\n\nAccuracy\nFormer middleweight World Champion Joey Giardello sued the film's producers for libel over the depiction of his fight with Carter as a \"racist fix.\" \"This is a joke, [he told the New York Daily News] he never hit me that much in 15 rounds. Virtually every boxing expert then and now will tell you I won the fight.\" Referee Robert Polis who scored the fight 72–66 in Giardello's favor stated: \"They portrayed Joey Giardello as an incompetent fighter. I thought it was ludicrous.\" Even Carter himself agreed that Giardello was the rightful victor.\n\nEventually, the case was settled out of court, with the producers paying the retired champion damages and with Jewison agreeing to make a statement on the DVD version that \"Giardello no doubt was a great fighter.\"\n\nSome critics spoke about inaccuracies in the story telling. Radio host Larry Elder outlined some inaccuracies and discussed some of Carter's previous criminal acts. Irish Times reporter George Kimball discussed the media backlash about historical inaccuracies and the possibility that they cost the film an Oscar nomination. Alex von Tunzelmann wrote a review for The Guardian giving the film a D- for accuracy, citing issues including depictions of Carter's military service, prior criminal record and the Giardello fight. It went on to point out other errors, such as the reasons for Carter's divorce.\n\nSee also\n Denzel Washington filmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1999 films\n1990s biographical drama films\n1990s sports drama films\nAmerican films\nAfrican-American biographical dramas\nAmerican sports drama films\nEnglish-language films\nBeacon Pictures films\nAmerican boxing films\nFilms scored by Christopher Young\nFilms about miscarriage of justice\nFilms about race and ethnicity\nFilms about racism\nFilms based on biographies\nFilms based on multiple works\nFilms based on non-fiction books\nFilms shot in New Jersey\nFilms shot in Toronto\nMCA Records albums\n1990s prison films\nSports films based on actual events\nTouchstone Pictures films\nUniversal Pictures films\nFilms featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance\nFilms directed by Norman Jewison\nFilms produced by Armyan Bernstein\nFilms with screenplays by Armyan Bernstein\nCultural depictions of boxers\n1999 drama films\nRubin Carter" ]
[ "Rubin Carter", "Second conviction and appeal", "What was Rubin Carter's second conviction for?", "During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill." ]	C_2f5ecf770c6e4154acfe65d0ed94a7f4_0	What happen outside the Lafayette Grill?	2	What happen outside the Lafayette Grill?	Rubin Carter	During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3). While the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information that the Brady disclosure law required that they provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975-1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. CANNOTANSWER	murders happened.	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison. In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested. Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed. Carter's autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1974 by Viking Press. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada). In 2019, the case was the focus of a 13-part BBC podcast series, The Hurricane Tapes. The series was based on interviews which were conducted with survivors, case notes which were taken during the original investigations, and 40 hours of recorded interviews which were conducted with Carter by the author Ken Klonsky who cited them in his 2011 book The Eye of the Hurricane. Early life Carter was born in Clifton, New Jersey, the fourth of seven children. He later admitted to a troubled relationship with his father, a strict disciplinarian; at the age of eleven, he was sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault, having stabbed a man, who he claimed had tried to sexually assault him. Carter escaped from the reformatory in 1954 and joined the United States Army. A few months after completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was sent to West Germany. While in Germany, Carter began to box for the Army. He was later discharged in 1956 as unfit for service, after four courts-martial. Shortly after his discharge, he returned home to New Jersey, was convicted of two muggings and sent to prison. Boxing career After his release from prison in September 1961, Carter became a professional boxer. At , Carter was shorter than the average middleweight, but he fought all of his professional career at 155–160 lb (70–72.6 kg). His aggressive style and punching power (resulting in many early-round knockouts) drew attention, establishing him as a crowd favorite and earning him the nickname "Hurricane". After he defeated a number of middleweight contenders—such as Florentino Fernandez, Holley Mims, Gomeo Brennan, and George Benton—the boxing world took notice. The Ring first listed him as one of its "Top 10" middleweight contenders in July 1963. At the end of 1965, they ranked him as the number five middleweight. He fought six times in 1963, winning four bouts and losing two. He remained ranked in the lower part of the top 10 until December 20, when he surprised the boxing world by flooring past and future world champion Emile Griffith twice in the first round and scoring a technical knockout. That win resulted in The Rings ranking of Carter as the number three contender for Joey Giardello's world middleweight title. Carter won two more fights (one a decision over future heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis) in 1964, before meeting Giardello in Philadelphia for a 15-round championship match on December 14. Carter landed a few solid rights to the head in the fourth that left Giardello staggering, but was unable to follow them up, and Giardello took control of the fight in the fifth round. The judges awarded Giardello a unanimous decision. After that fight, Carter's ranking in The Ring began to decline. He fought nine times in 1965, winning five but losing three of four against contenders Luis Manuel Rodríguez, Dick Tiger, and Harry Scott. Tiger, in particular, floored Carter three times in their match. "It was", Carter said, "the worst beating that I took in my life—inside or outside the ring". During his visit to London to fight Scott, Carter was involved in an incident in which a shot was fired in his hotel room. Carter's career record in boxing was 27 wins, 12 losses, and one draw in 40 fights, with 19 total knockouts (8 KOs and 11 TKOs). He received an honorary championship title belt from the World Boxing Council in 1993 (as did Joey Giardello at the same banquet) and was later inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Arrest and conviction At approximately 2:30 AM on June 17, 1966, two men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, and began shooting. The bartender, James Oliver, and a customer, Fred Nauyoks, were killed immediately. Hazel Tanis died in a hospital a month later, having suffered multiple wounds from shotgun pellets; a third customer, Willie Marins, survived the attack, despite a head wound that cost him the sight in one eye. When questioned, both told police the shooters had been black males, though neither identified Carter or John Artis. Ten minutes after the murders, around 2:40 AM, a police cruiser stopped Carter and Artis in a rental car, returning from a night out at the Nite Spot, a nearby bar; Carter was in the back, with Artis driving, and a third man, John Royster, in the passenger seat. The police recognised Carter, a well-known and controversial local figure, but let him go. Minutes later, the same officers solicited a description of the getaway car from two eyewitnesses outside the bar, Patricia “Patty” Valentine and Al Bello. Bello later admitted he was in the area acting as a lookout while an accomplice, Arthur Bradley, broke into a nearby warehouse. At the time, he claimed to have discovered the bodies when he entered the bar to buy cigarettes; it also transpired that he took the opportunity to empty the cash register, and ran into the police as he came out. At the trial, he testified he was approaching the Lafayette when two black males, one with a shotgun, the other a pistol, came around the corner. He ran from them, and they got into a white car that was double-parked near the Lafayette. Valentine lived above the bar, and heard the shots; like Bello, she reported seeing two black men leave the bar, then get into a white car. They reportedly described it as white, with "a geometric design, sort of a butterfly type design in the back of the car", and New York state license plates, with blue background and orange lettering. Another neighbor, Ronald Ruggiero, also heard the shots, and said that, from his window, he saw Alfred Bello running west on Lafayette Street toward 16th Street. He then heard the screech of tires and saw a white car shoot past, heading west, with two black males in the front seat. Valentine initially stated the car had rear lights which lit up completely like butterflies; at the retrial in 1976, she changed this to an accurate description of Carter's car, which had conventional tail-lights with aluminum decoration in a butterfly shape. This aligned with that provided by Bello; the prosecution later suggested the confusion was the result of a misreading of a court transcript by the defense. Having dropped off Royster, Carter was now being driven home by Artis; they were stopped again at 3:00 AM, and ordered to follow the police to the station, where they were arrested. However, variances in descriptions given by Valentine and Bello, the physical characteristics of the attackers provided by the two survivors, lack of forensic evidence, and the timeline provided by the police were key factors in the conviction being overturned in 1985. Forensics later established the victims were shot by a .32-caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun, although the weapons themselves have never been found. There was no forensic evidence linking Carter or Artis to the murders; while gun residue tests were commonly used, DeSimone, the lead detective, later claimed he had no time to bring in an expert. He did arrange for an expert to conduct lie detector tests, which they passed; in 1976, a second report was discovered, claiming they failed. After 17 hours of interrogation, they were released. Carter and Artis voluntarily appeared before a grand jury, which found there was no case to answer. However, several months later, Bello changed his story, after the police discovered why he was in the area, and his theft from the cash register. He positively identified Artis as one of the attackers, while Bradley now came forward to claim Carter was the other; based on this, the two were arrested and indicted. Bello later claimed in return, he was promised the $10,500 reward offered for catching the killers, which was never paid. The rental car had been impounded when Carter and Artis were arrested, and retained by police; five days after their release, a detective reported that on searching it again, he discovered two unfired rounds, one .32 caliber, the other from a 12-gauge. Neither matched those retrieved from the victims; the .32 round was brass, rather than copper, while the shotgun shell was an older model, with a different wad and color. Asked to account for these differences at the trial, the prosecution produced a second report, allegedly lodged 75 minutes after the murders which recorded the two rounds. They were unable to explain why, having that evidence, the police released the men, or why standard 'bag and tag' procedure was not followed. They also argued since the expended rounds retrieved at the scene were also a mixture, the fact that the two rounds did not match was meaningless; what did matter was they were the same caliber as those used in the shootings. The defense, led by Raymond A. Brown, focused on inconsistencies in the evidence given by eyewitnesses Marins and Bello. He also produced witnesses who confirmed Carter and Artis were still in the Nite Spot at the time of the shootings. The all-white jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, with a recommendation of mercy, which meant they avoided death sentences. Judge Samuel Larner imposed one concurrent and two consecutive life sentences on Carter, and three concurrent life sentences on Artis. Retrial and release In 1974, Bello and Bradley withdrew their identifications of Carter and Artis, and these recantations were used as the basis for a motion for a new trial. Judge Samuel Larner denied the motion on December 11, saying they "lacked the ring of truth". Despite Larner's ruling, Madison Avenue advertising executive George Lois organized a campaign on Carter's behalf, which led to increasing public support for a retrial or pardon. Muhammad Ali lent his support to the campaign (including publicly wishing Carter good luck on his appeal during the airing of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on September 7, 1973). Bob Dylan co-wrote (with Jacques Levy) and performed a song called "Hurricane" (1975), which declared that Carter was innocent. On December 7, 1975, Dylan performed the song at a concert at Trenton State Prison, where Carter was temporarily an inmate. However, during the hearing on the recantations, defense attorneys also argued that Bello and Bradley had lied during the 1967 trial, telling the jurors that they had made only certain narrow, limited deals with prosecutors in exchange for their trial testimony. A detective taped one interrogation of Bello in 1966, and when it was played during the recantation hearing, defense attorneys argued that the tape revealed promises beyond what Bello had testified to. If so, prosecutors had either had a Brady obligation to disclose this additional exculpatory evidence, or a duty to disclose the fact that their witnesses had lied on the stand. Larner denied this second argument as well, but the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the evidence of various deals made between the prosecution and witnesses Bello and Bradley should have been disclosed to the defense before or during the 1967 trial as this could have "affected the jury's evaluation of the credibility" of the eyewitnesses. "The defendants' right to a fair trial was substantially prejudiced", said Justice Mark Sullivan. The court set aside the original convictions and granted Carter and Artis a new trial. Despite the difficulties of prosecuting a ten-year-old case, Prosecutor Burrell Ives Humphreys decided to try Carter and Artis again. To ensure, as best he could, that he did not use perjured testimony to obtain a conviction, Humphreys had Bello polygraphed—once by Leonard H. Harrelson and a second time by Richard Arther, both well-known and respected experts in the field. Both men concluded that Bello was telling the truth when he said that he had seen Carter outside the Lafayette immediately after the murders. However, Harrelson also reported orally that Bello had been inside the bar shortly before and at the time of the shooting, a conclusion that contradicted Bello's 1967 trial testimony wherein he had said that he had been on the street at the time of the shooting. Despite this oral report, Harrelson's subsequent written report stated that Bello's 1967 testimony had been truthful. Second conviction and appeal During the new trial in 1976, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4–3). Although the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information the Brady disclosure law required them to provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975–1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. Federal court action In 1985, Carter's attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Later that year, Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the writ, noting that the prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure", and set aside the convictions. Carter, 48 years old, was freed without bail in November 1985. Prosecutors appealed Sarokin's ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed a motion with the court to return Carter to prison pending the outcome of the appeal. The court denied this motion and eventually upheld Sarokin's opinion, affirming his Brady analysis without commenting on his other rationale. The prosecutors appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Prosecutors therefore could have tried Carter (and Artis) a third time, but decided not to, and filed a motion to dismiss the original indictments. "It is just not legally feasible to sustain a prosecution, and not practical after almost 22 years to be trying anyone", said New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards. Acting Passaic County Prosecutor John P. Goceljak said several factors made a retrial impossible, including Bello's "current unreliability" as a witness and the unavailability of other witnesses. Goceljak also doubted whether the prosecution could reintroduce the racially motivated crime theory due to the federal court rulings. A judge granted the motion to dismiss, bringing an end to the legal proceedings. Post emancipation Carter lived in Toronto, Ontario, where he became a Canadian citizen, and was executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) from 1993 until 2005. Carter resigned when the AIDWYC declined to support Carter's protest of the appointment (to a judgeship) of Susan MacLean, who was the prosecutor of Canadian Guy Paul Morin, who served over eighteen months in prison for rape and murder until exonerated by DNA evidence. Carter's second marriage was to Lisa Peters. The couple separated later. In 1996, Carter, then 59, was arrested when Toronto police mistakenly identified him as a suspect in his thirties believed to have sold drugs to an undercover officer. He was released after the police realized their error. Carter often served as a motivational speaker. On October 14, 2005, he received two honorary Doctorates of Law, one from York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and one from Griffith University (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), in recognition of his work with AIDWYC and the Innocence Project. Carter received the Abolition Award from Death Penalty Focus in 1996. Prostate cancer and death In March 2012, while attending the International Justice Conference in Burswood, Western Australia, Carter revealed that he had terminal prostate cancer. At the time, doctors gave him between three and six months to live. Beginning shortly after that time, John Artis lived with and cared for Carter, and on April 20, 2014, he confirmed that Carter, at the age of 76, had succumbed to his illness. He was afterwards cremated and his ashes were scattered in part over Cape Cod and in part at a horse farm in Kentucky. In the months leading up to his death, Carter worked for the exoneration of David McCallum, a Brooklyn man who had been incarcerated since 1985 on charges of murder. Two months before his death, Carter published "Hurricane Carter's Dying Wish", an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, in which he asked for an independent review of McCallum's conviction. "I request only that McCallum be granted a full hearing by the Brooklyn conviction integrity unit, now under the auspices of the new district attorney, Ken Thompson. Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release ... Just as my own verdict 'was predicated on racism rather than reason and on concealment rather than disclosure', as Sarokin wrote, so too was McCallum's", Carter wrote. On October 15, 2014, McCallum was exonerated. John Artis died of an Abdominal aortic aneurysm on November 7, 2021, at the age of 75. In popular culture Carter's story inspired: The 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane", which proclaimed that Carter was innocent. Carter appeared as himself in Dylan's 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara. In the 2019 film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Dylan talked about his involvement with the Carter case and Carter was also interviewed in the film, describing his relationship with Dylan. Norman Jewison's 1999 feature film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington in the lead role as Carter. The film is about Rubin Carter's accusation, trials, and time spent in prison. Carter later discussed at a lecture how he fell in love with Washington's portrayal of him during auditions for The Hurricane, noting that boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler and actors Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson all vied for the role. For his performance as Carter, Washington won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Washington was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Carter at the 72nd Academy Awards. In the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, when characters Bobbie (Mark Wahlberg) and Christina (Diane Lane) come down the stairs from their apartment above the bar, after having a fight the night before, Murph (John C. Reilly) comments on Christina being Hurricane Boom Boom Carter because of the black eye she gave Bobbie. Professional boxing record See also List of wrongful convictions in the United States Romeo Phillion References Sources External links 1937 births 2014 deaths African-American boxers American male boxers American emigrants to Canada American people convicted of assault American people convicted of murder American people convicted of robbery American convicts who became writers Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from prostate cancer Supreme Court of New Jersey Overturned convictions in the United States People convicted of murder by New Jersey Sportspeople from Clifton, New Jersey Prison writings Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey Boxers from Toronto United States Army soldiers People wrongfully convicted of murder Canadian people of African-American descent Boxers from New Jersey Middleweight boxers 20th-century African-American sportspeople Rubin Carter	true	[ "Center is an unincorporated community located in Metcalfe County, Kentucky, United States. The community is part of the Glasgow Micropolitan Statistical Area\n\nCenter is home to the former North Metcalfe Elementary, which was part of the Metcalfe County School District. Today the structure houses the Roadside BBQ and Grill.\n\nHistory\nCenter, also known in the past as Frederick or Lafayette, got its name from its location, equidistant from four county seats.\n\nReferences\n\nUnincorporated communities in Metcalfe County, Kentucky\nUnincorporated communities in Kentucky\nGlasgow, Kentucky, micropolitan area", "Clare Grill (born 1979) is an artist from Western Springs, Illinois. Grill currently lives and works in Queens, New York.\n\nFor her undergraduate degree, Grill attended the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. She received instruction in painting at the nearby St. Catherine University because her university did not have an art department. After college, she moved to New York City to pursue her MFA at Pratt Institute.\n\nGrill began her career in New York as a figurative painter. In 2008, the New York Times described Grill as a landscape and figurative painter in a profile of her and other artists' work in a group show at Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark.\n\nIn her artist statement for her 2010 show, \"What You're Told,\" at the Jen Bekman Gallery, Grill elaborated on her inspiration, source material and process: \"I think about the beliefs and stories that were handed down to me and I reinterpret them in my paintings. Family folklore, backyard rituals, religious sacraments, ghost stories, church, school, obedience and trust in what you're told are among my subjects. The things we're taught can be learned a thousand different ways. I like for the familiar to seem a little unfamiliar and complicated, because it is.\n\nI look at images from the past as I work because they're heartbreaking and so haunting – what was never can be again. I mess with my imagery, layering and wearing it away until I've made a painting that makes you notice the paint as much as the pictures.\"\n\t\t\nGrill's recent works are abstract, drawing inspiration from early American sampler embroidery. After studying artists Peter Doig and Mamma Andersson, Grill began to rely her source material for a mood, rather than a literal imagery or narrative.\n\nGrill's 2015 Touch’d Lustre was her fifth solo show in New York, and her first show at the gallery Zieher Smith & Horton. The show included eight large, abstract, oil-on-linen paintings. Further departing from her figurative beginnings, the paintings' imagery referred to modernist abstraction. The show attracted critical attention from publications including The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, and Hyperallergic. She is represented by Derek Eller Gallery in New York City.\n\nReferences\n\n1979 births\nLiving people\nAmerican landscape painters\nAmerican women painters\nPeople from Western Springs, Illinois\nPratt Institute alumni\nUniversity of St. Thomas (Minnesota) alumni\n21st-century American women artists" ]
[ "Rubin Carter", "Second conviction and appeal", "What was Rubin Carter's second conviction for?", "During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill.", "What happen outside the Lafayette Grill?", "murders happened." ]	C_2f5ecf770c6e4154acfe65d0ed94a7f4_0	How many people were murdered?	3	How many people were murdered outside the Lafayette Grill?	Rubin Carter	During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3). While the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information that the Brady disclosure law required that they provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975-1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison. In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested. Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed. Carter's autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1974 by Viking Press. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada). In 2019, the case was the focus of a 13-part BBC podcast series, The Hurricane Tapes. The series was based on interviews which were conducted with survivors, case notes which were taken during the original investigations, and 40 hours of recorded interviews which were conducted with Carter by the author Ken Klonsky who cited them in his 2011 book The Eye of the Hurricane. Early life Carter was born in Clifton, New Jersey, the fourth of seven children. He later admitted to a troubled relationship with his father, a strict disciplinarian; at the age of eleven, he was sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault, having stabbed a man, who he claimed had tried to sexually assault him. Carter escaped from the reformatory in 1954 and joined the United States Army. A few months after completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was sent to West Germany. While in Germany, Carter began to box for the Army. He was later discharged in 1956 as unfit for service, after four courts-martial. Shortly after his discharge, he returned home to New Jersey, was convicted of two muggings and sent to prison. Boxing career After his release from prison in September 1961, Carter became a professional boxer. At , Carter was shorter than the average middleweight, but he fought all of his professional career at 155–160 lb (70–72.6 kg). His aggressive style and punching power (resulting in many early-round knockouts) drew attention, establishing him as a crowd favorite and earning him the nickname "Hurricane". After he defeated a number of middleweight contenders—such as Florentino Fernandez, Holley Mims, Gomeo Brennan, and George Benton—the boxing world took notice. The Ring first listed him as one of its "Top 10" middleweight contenders in July 1963. At the end of 1965, they ranked him as the number five middleweight. He fought six times in 1963, winning four bouts and losing two. He remained ranked in the lower part of the top 10 until December 20, when he surprised the boxing world by flooring past and future world champion Emile Griffith twice in the first round and scoring a technical knockout. That win resulted in The Rings ranking of Carter as the number three contender for Joey Giardello's world middleweight title. Carter won two more fights (one a decision over future heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis) in 1964, before meeting Giardello in Philadelphia for a 15-round championship match on December 14. Carter landed a few solid rights to the head in the fourth that left Giardello staggering, but was unable to follow them up, and Giardello took control of the fight in the fifth round. The judges awarded Giardello a unanimous decision. After that fight, Carter's ranking in The Ring began to decline. He fought nine times in 1965, winning five but losing three of four against contenders Luis Manuel Rodríguez, Dick Tiger, and Harry Scott. Tiger, in particular, floored Carter three times in their match. "It was", Carter said, "the worst beating that I took in my life—inside or outside the ring". During his visit to London to fight Scott, Carter was involved in an incident in which a shot was fired in his hotel room. Carter's career record in boxing was 27 wins, 12 losses, and one draw in 40 fights, with 19 total knockouts (8 KOs and 11 TKOs). He received an honorary championship title belt from the World Boxing Council in 1993 (as did Joey Giardello at the same banquet) and was later inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Arrest and conviction At approximately 2:30 AM on June 17, 1966, two men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, and began shooting. The bartender, James Oliver, and a customer, Fred Nauyoks, were killed immediately. Hazel Tanis died in a hospital a month later, having suffered multiple wounds from shotgun pellets; a third customer, Willie Marins, survived the attack, despite a head wound that cost him the sight in one eye. When questioned, both told police the shooters had been black males, though neither identified Carter or John Artis. Ten minutes after the murders, around 2:40 AM, a police cruiser stopped Carter and Artis in a rental car, returning from a night out at the Nite Spot, a nearby bar; Carter was in the back, with Artis driving, and a third man, John Royster, in the passenger seat. The police recognised Carter, a well-known and controversial local figure, but let him go. Minutes later, the same officers solicited a description of the getaway car from two eyewitnesses outside the bar, Patricia “Patty” Valentine and Al Bello. Bello later admitted he was in the area acting as a lookout while an accomplice, Arthur Bradley, broke into a nearby warehouse. At the time, he claimed to have discovered the bodies when he entered the bar to buy cigarettes; it also transpired that he took the opportunity to empty the cash register, and ran into the police as he came out. At the trial, he testified he was approaching the Lafayette when two black males, one with a shotgun, the other a pistol, came around the corner. He ran from them, and they got into a white car that was double-parked near the Lafayette. Valentine lived above the bar, and heard the shots; like Bello, she reported seeing two black men leave the bar, then get into a white car. They reportedly described it as white, with "a geometric design, sort of a butterfly type design in the back of the car", and New York state license plates, with blue background and orange lettering. Another neighbor, Ronald Ruggiero, also heard the shots, and said that, from his window, he saw Alfred Bello running west on Lafayette Street toward 16th Street. He then heard the screech of tires and saw a white car shoot past, heading west, with two black males in the front seat. Valentine initially stated the car had rear lights which lit up completely like butterflies; at the retrial in 1976, she changed this to an accurate description of Carter's car, which had conventional tail-lights with aluminum decoration in a butterfly shape. This aligned with that provided by Bello; the prosecution later suggested the confusion was the result of a misreading of a court transcript by the defense. Having dropped off Royster, Carter was now being driven home by Artis; they were stopped again at 3:00 AM, and ordered to follow the police to the station, where they were arrested. However, variances in descriptions given by Valentine and Bello, the physical characteristics of the attackers provided by the two survivors, lack of forensic evidence, and the timeline provided by the police were key factors in the conviction being overturned in 1985. Forensics later established the victims were shot by a .32-caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun, although the weapons themselves have never been found. There was no forensic evidence linking Carter or Artis to the murders; while gun residue tests were commonly used, DeSimone, the lead detective, later claimed he had no time to bring in an expert. He did arrange for an expert to conduct lie detector tests, which they passed; in 1976, a second report was discovered, claiming they failed. After 17 hours of interrogation, they were released. Carter and Artis voluntarily appeared before a grand jury, which found there was no case to answer. However, several months later, Bello changed his story, after the police discovered why he was in the area, and his theft from the cash register. He positively identified Artis as one of the attackers, while Bradley now came forward to claim Carter was the other; based on this, the two were arrested and indicted. Bello later claimed in return, he was promised the $10,500 reward offered for catching the killers, which was never paid. The rental car had been impounded when Carter and Artis were arrested, and retained by police; five days after their release, a detective reported that on searching it again, he discovered two unfired rounds, one .32 caliber, the other from a 12-gauge. Neither matched those retrieved from the victims; the .32 round was brass, rather than copper, while the shotgun shell was an older model, with a different wad and color. Asked to account for these differences at the trial, the prosecution produced a second report, allegedly lodged 75 minutes after the murders which recorded the two rounds. They were unable to explain why, having that evidence, the police released the men, or why standard 'bag and tag' procedure was not followed. They also argued since the expended rounds retrieved at the scene were also a mixture, the fact that the two rounds did not match was meaningless; what did matter was they were the same caliber as those used in the shootings. The defense, led by Raymond A. Brown, focused on inconsistencies in the evidence given by eyewitnesses Marins and Bello. He also produced witnesses who confirmed Carter and Artis were still in the Nite Spot at the time of the shootings. The all-white jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, with a recommendation of mercy, which meant they avoided death sentences. Judge Samuel Larner imposed one concurrent and two consecutive life sentences on Carter, and three concurrent life sentences on Artis. Retrial and release In 1974, Bello and Bradley withdrew their identifications of Carter and Artis, and these recantations were used as the basis for a motion for a new trial. Judge Samuel Larner denied the motion on December 11, saying they "lacked the ring of truth". Despite Larner's ruling, Madison Avenue advertising executive George Lois organized a campaign on Carter's behalf, which led to increasing public support for a retrial or pardon. Muhammad Ali lent his support to the campaign (including publicly wishing Carter good luck on his appeal during the airing of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on September 7, 1973). Bob Dylan co-wrote (with Jacques Levy) and performed a song called "Hurricane" (1975), which declared that Carter was innocent. On December 7, 1975, Dylan performed the song at a concert at Trenton State Prison, where Carter was temporarily an inmate. However, during the hearing on the recantations, defense attorneys also argued that Bello and Bradley had lied during the 1967 trial, telling the jurors that they had made only certain narrow, limited deals with prosecutors in exchange for their trial testimony. A detective taped one interrogation of Bello in 1966, and when it was played during the recantation hearing, defense attorneys argued that the tape revealed promises beyond what Bello had testified to. If so, prosecutors had either had a Brady obligation to disclose this additional exculpatory evidence, or a duty to disclose the fact that their witnesses had lied on the stand. Larner denied this second argument as well, but the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the evidence of various deals made between the prosecution and witnesses Bello and Bradley should have been disclosed to the defense before or during the 1967 trial as this could have "affected the jury's evaluation of the credibility" of the eyewitnesses. "The defendants' right to a fair trial was substantially prejudiced", said Justice Mark Sullivan. The court set aside the original convictions and granted Carter and Artis a new trial. Despite the difficulties of prosecuting a ten-year-old case, Prosecutor Burrell Ives Humphreys decided to try Carter and Artis again. To ensure, as best he could, that he did not use perjured testimony to obtain a conviction, Humphreys had Bello polygraphed—once by Leonard H. Harrelson and a second time by Richard Arther, both well-known and respected experts in the field. Both men concluded that Bello was telling the truth when he said that he had seen Carter outside the Lafayette immediately after the murders. However, Harrelson also reported orally that Bello had been inside the bar shortly before and at the time of the shooting, a conclusion that contradicted Bello's 1967 trial testimony wherein he had said that he had been on the street at the time of the shooting. Despite this oral report, Harrelson's subsequent written report stated that Bello's 1967 testimony had been truthful. Second conviction and appeal During the new trial in 1976, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4–3). Although the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information the Brady disclosure law required them to provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975–1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. Federal court action In 1985, Carter's attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Later that year, Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the writ, noting that the prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure", and set aside the convictions. Carter, 48 years old, was freed without bail in November 1985. Prosecutors appealed Sarokin's ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed a motion with the court to return Carter to prison pending the outcome of the appeal. The court denied this motion and eventually upheld Sarokin's opinion, affirming his Brady analysis without commenting on his other rationale. The prosecutors appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Prosecutors therefore could have tried Carter (and Artis) a third time, but decided not to, and filed a motion to dismiss the original indictments. "It is just not legally feasible to sustain a prosecution, and not practical after almost 22 years to be trying anyone", said New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards. Acting Passaic County Prosecutor John P. Goceljak said several factors made a retrial impossible, including Bello's "current unreliability" as a witness and the unavailability of other witnesses. Goceljak also doubted whether the prosecution could reintroduce the racially motivated crime theory due to the federal court rulings. A judge granted the motion to dismiss, bringing an end to the legal proceedings. Post emancipation Carter lived in Toronto, Ontario, where he became a Canadian citizen, and was executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) from 1993 until 2005. Carter resigned when the AIDWYC declined to support Carter's protest of the appointment (to a judgeship) of Susan MacLean, who was the prosecutor of Canadian Guy Paul Morin, who served over eighteen months in prison for rape and murder until exonerated by DNA evidence. Carter's second marriage was to Lisa Peters. The couple separated later. In 1996, Carter, then 59, was arrested when Toronto police mistakenly identified him as a suspect in his thirties believed to have sold drugs to an undercover officer. He was released after the police realized their error. Carter often served as a motivational speaker. On October 14, 2005, he received two honorary Doctorates of Law, one from York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and one from Griffith University (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), in recognition of his work with AIDWYC and the Innocence Project. Carter received the Abolition Award from Death Penalty Focus in 1996. Prostate cancer and death In March 2012, while attending the International Justice Conference in Burswood, Western Australia, Carter revealed that he had terminal prostate cancer. At the time, doctors gave him between three and six months to live. Beginning shortly after that time, John Artis lived with and cared for Carter, and on April 20, 2014, he confirmed that Carter, at the age of 76, had succumbed to his illness. He was afterwards cremated and his ashes were scattered in part over Cape Cod and in part at a horse farm in Kentucky. In the months leading up to his death, Carter worked for the exoneration of David McCallum, a Brooklyn man who had been incarcerated since 1985 on charges of murder. Two months before his death, Carter published "Hurricane Carter's Dying Wish", an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, in which he asked for an independent review of McCallum's conviction. "I request only that McCallum be granted a full hearing by the Brooklyn conviction integrity unit, now under the auspices of the new district attorney, Ken Thompson. Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release ... Just as my own verdict 'was predicated on racism rather than reason and on concealment rather than disclosure', as Sarokin wrote, so too was McCallum's", Carter wrote. On October 15, 2014, McCallum was exonerated. John Artis died of an Abdominal aortic aneurysm on November 7, 2021, at the age of 75. In popular culture Carter's story inspired: The 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane", which proclaimed that Carter was innocent. Carter appeared as himself in Dylan's 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara. In the 2019 film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Dylan talked about his involvement with the Carter case and Carter was also interviewed in the film, describing his relationship with Dylan. Norman Jewison's 1999 feature film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington in the lead role as Carter. The film is about Rubin Carter's accusation, trials, and time spent in prison. Carter later discussed at a lecture how he fell in love with Washington's portrayal of him during auditions for The Hurricane, noting that boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler and actors Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson all vied for the role. For his performance as Carter, Washington won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Washington was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Carter at the 72nd Academy Awards. In the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, when characters Bobbie (Mark Wahlberg) and Christina (Diane Lane) come down the stairs from their apartment above the bar, after having a fight the night before, Murph (John C. Reilly) comments on Christina being Hurricane Boom Boom Carter because of the black eye she gave Bobbie. Professional boxing record See also List of wrongful convictions in the United States Romeo Phillion References Sources External links 1937 births 2014 deaths African-American boxers American male boxers American emigrants to Canada American people convicted of assault American people convicted of murder American people convicted of robbery American convicts who became writers Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from prostate cancer Supreme Court of New Jersey Overturned convictions in the United States People convicted of murder by New Jersey Sportspeople from Clifton, New Jersey Prison writings Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey Boxers from Toronto United States Army soldiers People wrongfully convicted of murder Canadian people of African-American descent Boxers from New Jersey Middleweight boxers 20th-century African-American sportspeople Rubin Carter	false	[ "The Gippsland massacres were a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people, an Aboriginal Australian people living in East Gippsland, Victoria, committed by European settlers and the Aboriginal Police during the Australian frontier wars.\n\nThe perpetrators often did not record or speak about their actions for fear of prosecution and the death penalty under colonial law, as happened after the Myall Creek massacre. The names of many of the perpetrators remain on the rivers, roads and islands of Gippsland. Scots pastoralist Angus McMillan played a significant role in the massacres of Gippsland in retribution for the murder of a fellow pastoralist by the Gurnai Kurnai people.\n\nGippsland squatter Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846:\n\nThe blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with … I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging … For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 450 have been murdered altogether.\n\nThe following list of massacres was compiled by settlers from white perpetrator sources such as letters and diaries, and thus does not take into account Gunai Kurnai knowledge of the history of occupation.\n\n1840 - Nuntin- unknown number murdered by Angus McMillan's men\n1840 - Boney Point - \"Angus McMillan and his men took a heavy toll of Aboriginal lives\"\n1841 - Butchers Creek - 30-35 shot by Angus McMillan's men\n1841 - Maffra - unknown number shot by Angus McMillan's men\n1842 - Skull Creek - unknown number murdered\n1842 - Bruthen Creek - \"hundreds murdered\"\n1843 - Warrigal Creek - up to 150 people shot by Angus McMillan and his men\n1844 - Maffra - unknown number murdered\n1846 - South Gippsland - 14 murdered\n1846 - Snowy River - 8 murdered by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police\n1846-47 - Central Gippsland - 50 or more shot by armed party hunting for a white woman supposedly held by Aborigines; no such woman was ever found.\n1850 - East Gippsland - 15-20 murdered\n1850 - Murrindal - 16 poisoned\n1850 - Brodribb River - 15-20 murdered\n\nIn 2020, the Wellington Shire Council voted against removing the monuments that celebrate Angus McMillan, with the vote finishing 5-4. Cr Rossetti, Cr Bye, Cr Ripper, Cr Hole and Cr Stephens voted against the movement despite Mcmillan's ties to genocide.\n\nSee also\nList of massacres in Australia\nList of massacres of Indigenous Australians\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n \n \n\n1840s murders in Australia\n1850s murders in Australia\nMassacres in the 1840s\nMassacres in the 1850s\nHistory of Victoria (Australia)\nHistory of Australia (1788–1850)\n \nGippsland\n19th century in Australia\nCrime in Victoria (Australia)\nMassacres of Indigenous Australians\n19th-century controversies", "Elah ( ’Ēlā; ; ) was the fourth king of Israel, the son and successor of Baasha. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 877–876 BCE, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 886–885 BCE. Some accounts suggest Zimri could have been a distant relative of Elah.\n\nChapter 16 of 1 Kings relates how Elah and all his family members were murdered by his chariot commander Zimri, who became his successor.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n 1 Kings Chapter 16\n \"Elah\", Jewish encyclopedia\n\n880s BC deaths\n9th-century BC Kings of Israel\n9th-century BC murdered monarchs\nBiblical murder victims\nHouse of Baasha\nDethroned monarchs\nMale murder victims" ]
[ "Rubin Carter", "Second conviction and appeal", "What was Rubin Carter's second conviction for?", "During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill.", "What happen outside the Lafayette Grill?", "murders happened.", "How many people were murdered?", "I don't know." ]	C_2f5ecf770c6e4154acfe65d0ed94a7f4_0	How long was he sentenced to prison?	4	How long was Rubin Carter sentenced to prison?	Rubin Carter	During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3). While the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information that the Brady disclosure law required that they provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975-1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. CANNOTANSWER	a double life sentence for Carter,	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison. In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested. Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed. Carter's autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1974 by Viking Press. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada). In 2019, the case was the focus of a 13-part BBC podcast series, The Hurricane Tapes. The series was based on interviews which were conducted with survivors, case notes which were taken during the original investigations, and 40 hours of recorded interviews which were conducted with Carter by the author Ken Klonsky who cited them in his 2011 book The Eye of the Hurricane. Early life Carter was born in Clifton, New Jersey, the fourth of seven children. He later admitted to a troubled relationship with his father, a strict disciplinarian; at the age of eleven, he was sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault, having stabbed a man, who he claimed had tried to sexually assault him. Carter escaped from the reformatory in 1954 and joined the United States Army. A few months after completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was sent to West Germany. While in Germany, Carter began to box for the Army. He was later discharged in 1956 as unfit for service, after four courts-martial. Shortly after his discharge, he returned home to New Jersey, was convicted of two muggings and sent to prison. Boxing career After his release from prison in September 1961, Carter became a professional boxer. At , Carter was shorter than the average middleweight, but he fought all of his professional career at 155–160 lb (70–72.6 kg). His aggressive style and punching power (resulting in many early-round knockouts) drew attention, establishing him as a crowd favorite and earning him the nickname "Hurricane". After he defeated a number of middleweight contenders—such as Florentino Fernandez, Holley Mims, Gomeo Brennan, and George Benton—the boxing world took notice. The Ring first listed him as one of its "Top 10" middleweight contenders in July 1963. At the end of 1965, they ranked him as the number five middleweight. He fought six times in 1963, winning four bouts and losing two. He remained ranked in the lower part of the top 10 until December 20, when he surprised the boxing world by flooring past and future world champion Emile Griffith twice in the first round and scoring a technical knockout. That win resulted in The Rings ranking of Carter as the number three contender for Joey Giardello's world middleweight title. Carter won two more fights (one a decision over future heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis) in 1964, before meeting Giardello in Philadelphia for a 15-round championship match on December 14. Carter landed a few solid rights to the head in the fourth that left Giardello staggering, but was unable to follow them up, and Giardello took control of the fight in the fifth round. The judges awarded Giardello a unanimous decision. After that fight, Carter's ranking in The Ring began to decline. He fought nine times in 1965, winning five but losing three of four against contenders Luis Manuel Rodríguez, Dick Tiger, and Harry Scott. Tiger, in particular, floored Carter three times in their match. "It was", Carter said, "the worst beating that I took in my life—inside or outside the ring". During his visit to London to fight Scott, Carter was involved in an incident in which a shot was fired in his hotel room. Carter's career record in boxing was 27 wins, 12 losses, and one draw in 40 fights, with 19 total knockouts (8 KOs and 11 TKOs). He received an honorary championship title belt from the World Boxing Council in 1993 (as did Joey Giardello at the same banquet) and was later inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Arrest and conviction At approximately 2:30 AM on June 17, 1966, two men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, and began shooting. The bartender, James Oliver, and a customer, Fred Nauyoks, were killed immediately. Hazel Tanis died in a hospital a month later, having suffered multiple wounds from shotgun pellets; a third customer, Willie Marins, survived the attack, despite a head wound that cost him the sight in one eye. When questioned, both told police the shooters had been black males, though neither identified Carter or John Artis. Ten minutes after the murders, around 2:40 AM, a police cruiser stopped Carter and Artis in a rental car, returning from a night out at the Nite Spot, a nearby bar; Carter was in the back, with Artis driving, and a third man, John Royster, in the passenger seat. The police recognised Carter, a well-known and controversial local figure, but let him go. Minutes later, the same officers solicited a description of the getaway car from two eyewitnesses outside the bar, Patricia “Patty” Valentine and Al Bello. Bello later admitted he was in the area acting as a lookout while an accomplice, Arthur Bradley, broke into a nearby warehouse. At the time, he claimed to have discovered the bodies when he entered the bar to buy cigarettes; it also transpired that he took the opportunity to empty the cash register, and ran into the police as he came out. At the trial, he testified he was approaching the Lafayette when two black males, one with a shotgun, the other a pistol, came around the corner. He ran from them, and they got into a white car that was double-parked near the Lafayette. Valentine lived above the bar, and heard the shots; like Bello, she reported seeing two black men leave the bar, then get into a white car. They reportedly described it as white, with "a geometric design, sort of a butterfly type design in the back of the car", and New York state license plates, with blue background and orange lettering. Another neighbor, Ronald Ruggiero, also heard the shots, and said that, from his window, he saw Alfred Bello running west on Lafayette Street toward 16th Street. He then heard the screech of tires and saw a white car shoot past, heading west, with two black males in the front seat. Valentine initially stated the car had rear lights which lit up completely like butterflies; at the retrial in 1976, she changed this to an accurate description of Carter's car, which had conventional tail-lights with aluminum decoration in a butterfly shape. This aligned with that provided by Bello; the prosecution later suggested the confusion was the result of a misreading of a court transcript by the defense. Having dropped off Royster, Carter was now being driven home by Artis; they were stopped again at 3:00 AM, and ordered to follow the police to the station, where they were arrested. However, variances in descriptions given by Valentine and Bello, the physical characteristics of the attackers provided by the two survivors, lack of forensic evidence, and the timeline provided by the police were key factors in the conviction being overturned in 1985. Forensics later established the victims were shot by a .32-caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun, although the weapons themselves have never been found. There was no forensic evidence linking Carter or Artis to the murders; while gun residue tests were commonly used, DeSimone, the lead detective, later claimed he had no time to bring in an expert. He did arrange for an expert to conduct lie detector tests, which they passed; in 1976, a second report was discovered, claiming they failed. After 17 hours of interrogation, they were released. Carter and Artis voluntarily appeared before a grand jury, which found there was no case to answer. However, several months later, Bello changed his story, after the police discovered why he was in the area, and his theft from the cash register. He positively identified Artis as one of the attackers, while Bradley now came forward to claim Carter was the other; based on this, the two were arrested and indicted. Bello later claimed in return, he was promised the $10,500 reward offered for catching the killers, which was never paid. The rental car had been impounded when Carter and Artis were arrested, and retained by police; five days after their release, a detective reported that on searching it again, he discovered two unfired rounds, one .32 caliber, the other from a 12-gauge. Neither matched those retrieved from the victims; the .32 round was brass, rather than copper, while the shotgun shell was an older model, with a different wad and color. Asked to account for these differences at the trial, the prosecution produced a second report, allegedly lodged 75 minutes after the murders which recorded the two rounds. They were unable to explain why, having that evidence, the police released the men, or why standard 'bag and tag' procedure was not followed. They also argued since the expended rounds retrieved at the scene were also a mixture, the fact that the two rounds did not match was meaningless; what did matter was they were the same caliber as those used in the shootings. The defense, led by Raymond A. Brown, focused on inconsistencies in the evidence given by eyewitnesses Marins and Bello. He also produced witnesses who confirmed Carter and Artis were still in the Nite Spot at the time of the shootings. The all-white jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, with a recommendation of mercy, which meant they avoided death sentences. Judge Samuel Larner imposed one concurrent and two consecutive life sentences on Carter, and three concurrent life sentences on Artis. Retrial and release In 1974, Bello and Bradley withdrew their identifications of Carter and Artis, and these recantations were used as the basis for a motion for a new trial. Judge Samuel Larner denied the motion on December 11, saying they "lacked the ring of truth". Despite Larner's ruling, Madison Avenue advertising executive George Lois organized a campaign on Carter's behalf, which led to increasing public support for a retrial or pardon. Muhammad Ali lent his support to the campaign (including publicly wishing Carter good luck on his appeal during the airing of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on September 7, 1973). Bob Dylan co-wrote (with Jacques Levy) and performed a song called "Hurricane" (1975), which declared that Carter was innocent. On December 7, 1975, Dylan performed the song at a concert at Trenton State Prison, where Carter was temporarily an inmate. However, during the hearing on the recantations, defense attorneys also argued that Bello and Bradley had lied during the 1967 trial, telling the jurors that they had made only certain narrow, limited deals with prosecutors in exchange for their trial testimony. A detective taped one interrogation of Bello in 1966, and when it was played during the recantation hearing, defense attorneys argued that the tape revealed promises beyond what Bello had testified to. If so, prosecutors had either had a Brady obligation to disclose this additional exculpatory evidence, or a duty to disclose the fact that their witnesses had lied on the stand. Larner denied this second argument as well, but the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the evidence of various deals made between the prosecution and witnesses Bello and Bradley should have been disclosed to the defense before or during the 1967 trial as this could have "affected the jury's evaluation of the credibility" of the eyewitnesses. "The defendants' right to a fair trial was substantially prejudiced", said Justice Mark Sullivan. The court set aside the original convictions and granted Carter and Artis a new trial. Despite the difficulties of prosecuting a ten-year-old case, Prosecutor Burrell Ives Humphreys decided to try Carter and Artis again. To ensure, as best he could, that he did not use perjured testimony to obtain a conviction, Humphreys had Bello polygraphed—once by Leonard H. Harrelson and a second time by Richard Arther, both well-known and respected experts in the field. Both men concluded that Bello was telling the truth when he said that he had seen Carter outside the Lafayette immediately after the murders. However, Harrelson also reported orally that Bello had been inside the bar shortly before and at the time of the shooting, a conclusion that contradicted Bello's 1967 trial testimony wherein he had said that he had been on the street at the time of the shooting. Despite this oral report, Harrelson's subsequent written report stated that Bello's 1967 testimony had been truthful. Second conviction and appeal During the new trial in 1976, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4–3). Although the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information the Brady disclosure law required them to provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975–1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. Federal court action In 1985, Carter's attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Later that year, Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the writ, noting that the prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure", and set aside the convictions. Carter, 48 years old, was freed without bail in November 1985. Prosecutors appealed Sarokin's ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed a motion with the court to return Carter to prison pending the outcome of the appeal. The court denied this motion and eventually upheld Sarokin's opinion, affirming his Brady analysis without commenting on his other rationale. The prosecutors appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Prosecutors therefore could have tried Carter (and Artis) a third time, but decided not to, and filed a motion to dismiss the original indictments. "It is just not legally feasible to sustain a prosecution, and not practical after almost 22 years to be trying anyone", said New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards. Acting Passaic County Prosecutor John P. Goceljak said several factors made a retrial impossible, including Bello's "current unreliability" as a witness and the unavailability of other witnesses. Goceljak also doubted whether the prosecution could reintroduce the racially motivated crime theory due to the federal court rulings. A judge granted the motion to dismiss, bringing an end to the legal proceedings. Post emancipation Carter lived in Toronto, Ontario, where he became a Canadian citizen, and was executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) from 1993 until 2005. Carter resigned when the AIDWYC declined to support Carter's protest of the appointment (to a judgeship) of Susan MacLean, who was the prosecutor of Canadian Guy Paul Morin, who served over eighteen months in prison for rape and murder until exonerated by DNA evidence. Carter's second marriage was to Lisa Peters. The couple separated later. In 1996, Carter, then 59, was arrested when Toronto police mistakenly identified him as a suspect in his thirties believed to have sold drugs to an undercover officer. He was released after the police realized their error. Carter often served as a motivational speaker. On October 14, 2005, he received two honorary Doctorates of Law, one from York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and one from Griffith University (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), in recognition of his work with AIDWYC and the Innocence Project. Carter received the Abolition Award from Death Penalty Focus in 1996. Prostate cancer and death In March 2012, while attending the International Justice Conference in Burswood, Western Australia, Carter revealed that he had terminal prostate cancer. At the time, doctors gave him between three and six months to live. Beginning shortly after that time, John Artis lived with and cared for Carter, and on April 20, 2014, he confirmed that Carter, at the age of 76, had succumbed to his illness. He was afterwards cremated and his ashes were scattered in part over Cape Cod and in part at a horse farm in Kentucky. In the months leading up to his death, Carter worked for the exoneration of David McCallum, a Brooklyn man who had been incarcerated since 1985 on charges of murder. Two months before his death, Carter published "Hurricane Carter's Dying Wish", an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, in which he asked for an independent review of McCallum's conviction. "I request only that McCallum be granted a full hearing by the Brooklyn conviction integrity unit, now under the auspices of the new district attorney, Ken Thompson. Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release ... Just as my own verdict 'was predicated on racism rather than reason and on concealment rather than disclosure', as Sarokin wrote, so too was McCallum's", Carter wrote. On October 15, 2014, McCallum was exonerated. John Artis died of an Abdominal aortic aneurysm on November 7, 2021, at the age of 75. In popular culture Carter's story inspired: The 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane", which proclaimed that Carter was innocent. Carter appeared as himself in Dylan's 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara. In the 2019 film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Dylan talked about his involvement with the Carter case and Carter was also interviewed in the film, describing his relationship with Dylan. Norman Jewison's 1999 feature film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington in the lead role as Carter. The film is about Rubin Carter's accusation, trials, and time spent in prison. Carter later discussed at a lecture how he fell in love with Washington's portrayal of him during auditions for The Hurricane, noting that boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler and actors Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson all vied for the role. For his performance as Carter, Washington won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Washington was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Carter at the 72nd Academy Awards. In the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, when characters Bobbie (Mark Wahlberg) and Christina (Diane Lane) come down the stairs from their apartment above the bar, after having a fight the night before, Murph (John C. Reilly) comments on Christina being Hurricane Boom Boom Carter because of the black eye she gave Bobbie. Professional boxing record See also List of wrongful convictions in the United States Romeo Phillion References Sources External links 1937 births 2014 deaths African-American boxers American male boxers American emigrants to Canada American people convicted of assault American people convicted of murder American people convicted of robbery American convicts who became writers Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from prostate cancer Supreme Court of New Jersey Overturned convictions in the United States People convicted of murder by New Jersey Sportspeople from Clifton, New Jersey Prison writings Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey Boxers from Toronto United States Army soldiers People wrongfully convicted of murder Canadian people of African-American descent Boxers from New Jersey Middleweight boxers 20th-century African-American sportspeople Rubin Carter	true	[ "Isabella Belfer is a sixty-nine-year-old Russian-born Israeli woman convicted of kidnapping in Israel and was the oldest person incarcerated in Israel, until she was granted a pardon in 2010. Her case was made famous through RT, an English language Russian news service, while the Israeli media paid little attention to the case.\n\nCapture\nBelfer returned to Israel in 2006 to assist her ailing mother. Rottem located her and pressed kidnapping charges. Belfer was arrested and put on trial for kidnapping.\n\nTrial\nBefore her trial, Belfer suffered a mild heart attack and had to undergo surgery. Belfer's defense claimed that she was too old to survive prison conditions and would die even if sentenced to one day. She herself expressed worry about going to prison. She had stated that she wondered how long she could survive in prison. Despite claims that she was too old, she was found guilty of kidnapping on January 27, 2008 and sentenced to six years in prison by Judge Oded Mudric, who in the sentencing, stated that Belfer was guilty of \"causing fatal [emotional] injuries by not allowing [Yaron Rottem] to be a parent\". Michael Yarnin, her lawyer, attempted to overturn the sentence by appealing to the Supreme Court of Israel, but this proved unsuccessful. Her lawyer began trying to obtain a pardon from Israeli president Shimon Peres. After serving her first six months, an Israeli court reduced Belfer's term to three years in prison. After the trial concluded, Belfer was deeply distressed and stated that she felt weak both morally and physically.\n\nReferences\n\nhttp://alefmagazine.com/pub2000.html\n\nLiving people\nIsraeli prisoners and detainees\nRussian emigrants to Israel\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nRussian people of Israeli descent\nIsraeli people of Russian-Jewish descent", "The following is a list of convicted Romanian politicians.\n\nPresidents \n Nicolae Ceaușescu, convicted by a special military tribunal on charges of genocide and sabotage of the Romanian economy and sentenced to death\n\nPrime ministers \n Constantin Dăscălescu, sentenced in 1990 to life imprisonment for manslaughter\n Adrian Năstase, convicted in 2012 for two years in prison for misuse of a publicly funded conference to raise cash for his unsuccessful campaign in 2004. Convicted in 2014 for four years in prison for taking bribes and a three-year prison sentence for blackmail.\n\nMinisters \n Ion Dincă, Deputy Prime Minister (1980 1989), sentenced in February 1990 to life imprisonment and confiscation of all property\n Emil Bobu, Minister of Interior (1973 1975), Labor Minister (1979 1981), was found guilty of complicity in genocide for his role in issuing orders to fire during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and received a term of life imprisonment and confiscation of all his personal property\n Decebal Traian Remeș, Minister of Agriculture, and Rural Development (4 April 2007 11 October 2007), sentenced in 2012 to three years' imprisonment for bribery.\n Victor Babiuc, Minister of Defense (1996 2000), was sentenced in 2013 to 2 years in prison for a land swap through which the Romanian state lost almost $1 million.\n George Copos, Deputy Prime-Minister (December 2004 January 2006), was sentenced in 2014 to 4 years imprisonment for tax evasion of around $1 million that was linked to the sale of several retail spaces from his company, Ana Electronics, to the Romanian National Lottery.\n Tudor Chiuariu, Minister of Justice (5 April 2007 10 December 2007) and Zsolt Nagy, Minister of Communications (2004 2007), received in 2014 for corruption a 3½ and a four-year suspended sentence, respectively.\n Relu Fenechiu, Minister of Transportation (2012 2013), was sentenced in 2014 to 5 years imprisonment. Fenechiu sold a number of old electrical transformers to Electrica Moldova at a highly inflated price of 2.8 million €.\n Monica Iacob Ridzi, Minister of Youth and Sport (2008 2009), was sentenced in 2014 to five years in prison for embezzling money that was spent by the Ministry on the Youth Day festivities.\n Gabriel Sandu, Minister of Communications (2008 2010), was sentenced in 2016 to 3 years imprisonment (before the appeal to 2 years imprisonment) for bribery and money laundering, and to an asset forfeiture of over €2 million in the Microsoft licensing corruption scandal.\n Codruț Șereș, Minister of Economy and Commerce (2004 2006), was sentenced in 2016 to 4 years imprisonment for embezzlement of funds belonging to the Hidroelectrica company.\n Dan Șova, minister in several Ponta cabinets, was sentenced in 2018 to 3 years imprisonment and €100,000 forfeiture for influence peddling.\n Elena Udrea, Minister of Regional Development and Tourism (2009 2012), was sentenced in 2018 to 6 years imprisonment for bribery and abuse of power in the \"Bute Gala\" case.\n\nSenators \n Corneliu Coposu, convicted in 1956 for \"betrayal of the working class\" and \"crime against social reforms\" and sentenced to life imprisonment\n Vasile Duță, sentenced in 2010 to 5 years imprisonment for influence peddling\n Cătălin Voicu, sentenced in 2012 to 7 years imprisonment for bribery\n Dan Voiculescu, sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison for using his political influence in the privatization of the Food Research Institute which had an estimated value of €7.7 million, but was instead bought by his company, Grivco at an undervalued price of €100,000 According to the prosecutors, the damages brought to the Romanian state amounted to over €60 million.\n , convicted in 2015 for using false documents to contract financing of €900,000 from European funds that should have been used to revamp four schools. Nicolescu was also convicted for having taken a €60,000 bribe from businessman Cornel Penescu and sentenced to 7 years in prison. Also sentenced in 2017 to 8 years in prison for bribery, sentence subject to appeal.\n , sentenced in 2016 to 3 years imprisonment for influence-peddling\n\nDeputies \n Liviu Dragnea, President of the Chamber of Deputies starting December 2016 and former Minister of Administration and Regional Development (2012-2015), convicted in a case involving electoral fraud, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence in April 2016. Dragnea was later sentenced to 3½ years in prison, in May 2019 after being found guilty of corruption.\n\nNotes \n\n \nConvicted of crimes" ]
[ "Rubin Carter", "Second conviction and appeal", "What was Rubin Carter's second conviction for?", "During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill.", "What happen outside the Lafayette Grill?", "murders happened.", "How many people were murdered?", "I don't know.", "How long was he sentenced to prison?", "a double life sentence for Carter," ]	C_2f5ecf770c6e4154acfe65d0ed94a7f4_0	When did his appeal begin?	5	When did Rubin Carter appeal begin?	Rubin Carter	During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3). While the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information that the Brady disclosure law required that they provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975-1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. CANNOTANSWER	Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3).	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison. In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested. Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed. Carter's autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1974 by Viking Press. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada). In 2019, the case was the focus of a 13-part BBC podcast series, The Hurricane Tapes. The series was based on interviews which were conducted with survivors, case notes which were taken during the original investigations, and 40 hours of recorded interviews which were conducted with Carter by the author Ken Klonsky who cited them in his 2011 book The Eye of the Hurricane. Early life Carter was born in Clifton, New Jersey, the fourth of seven children. He later admitted to a troubled relationship with his father, a strict disciplinarian; at the age of eleven, he was sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault, having stabbed a man, who he claimed had tried to sexually assault him. Carter escaped from the reformatory in 1954 and joined the United States Army. A few months after completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was sent to West Germany. While in Germany, Carter began to box for the Army. He was later discharged in 1956 as unfit for service, after four courts-martial. Shortly after his discharge, he returned home to New Jersey, was convicted of two muggings and sent to prison. Boxing career After his release from prison in September 1961, Carter became a professional boxer. At , Carter was shorter than the average middleweight, but he fought all of his professional career at 155–160 lb (70–72.6 kg). His aggressive style and punching power (resulting in many early-round knockouts) drew attention, establishing him as a crowd favorite and earning him the nickname "Hurricane". After he defeated a number of middleweight contenders—such as Florentino Fernandez, Holley Mims, Gomeo Brennan, and George Benton—the boxing world took notice. The Ring first listed him as one of its "Top 10" middleweight contenders in July 1963. At the end of 1965, they ranked him as the number five middleweight. He fought six times in 1963, winning four bouts and losing two. He remained ranked in the lower part of the top 10 until December 20, when he surprised the boxing world by flooring past and future world champion Emile Griffith twice in the first round and scoring a technical knockout. That win resulted in The Rings ranking of Carter as the number three contender for Joey Giardello's world middleweight title. Carter won two more fights (one a decision over future heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis) in 1964, before meeting Giardello in Philadelphia for a 15-round championship match on December 14. Carter landed a few solid rights to the head in the fourth that left Giardello staggering, but was unable to follow them up, and Giardello took control of the fight in the fifth round. The judges awarded Giardello a unanimous decision. After that fight, Carter's ranking in The Ring began to decline. He fought nine times in 1965, winning five but losing three of four against contenders Luis Manuel Rodríguez, Dick Tiger, and Harry Scott. Tiger, in particular, floored Carter three times in their match. "It was", Carter said, "the worst beating that I took in my life—inside or outside the ring". During his visit to London to fight Scott, Carter was involved in an incident in which a shot was fired in his hotel room. Carter's career record in boxing was 27 wins, 12 losses, and one draw in 40 fights, with 19 total knockouts (8 KOs and 11 TKOs). He received an honorary championship title belt from the World Boxing Council in 1993 (as did Joey Giardello at the same banquet) and was later inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Arrest and conviction At approximately 2:30 AM on June 17, 1966, two men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, and began shooting. The bartender, James Oliver, and a customer, Fred Nauyoks, were killed immediately. Hazel Tanis died in a hospital a month later, having suffered multiple wounds from shotgun pellets; a third customer, Willie Marins, survived the attack, despite a head wound that cost him the sight in one eye. When questioned, both told police the shooters had been black males, though neither identified Carter or John Artis. Ten minutes after the murders, around 2:40 AM, a police cruiser stopped Carter and Artis in a rental car, returning from a night out at the Nite Spot, a nearby bar; Carter was in the back, with Artis driving, and a third man, John Royster, in the passenger seat. The police recognised Carter, a well-known and controversial local figure, but let him go. Minutes later, the same officers solicited a description of the getaway car from two eyewitnesses outside the bar, Patricia “Patty” Valentine and Al Bello. Bello later admitted he was in the area acting as a lookout while an accomplice, Arthur Bradley, broke into a nearby warehouse. At the time, he claimed to have discovered the bodies when he entered the bar to buy cigarettes; it also transpired that he took the opportunity to empty the cash register, and ran into the police as he came out. At the trial, he testified he was approaching the Lafayette when two black males, one with a shotgun, the other a pistol, came around the corner. He ran from them, and they got into a white car that was double-parked near the Lafayette. Valentine lived above the bar, and heard the shots; like Bello, she reported seeing two black men leave the bar, then get into a white car. They reportedly described it as white, with "a geometric design, sort of a butterfly type design in the back of the car", and New York state license plates, with blue background and orange lettering. Another neighbor, Ronald Ruggiero, also heard the shots, and said that, from his window, he saw Alfred Bello running west on Lafayette Street toward 16th Street. He then heard the screech of tires and saw a white car shoot past, heading west, with two black males in the front seat. Valentine initially stated the car had rear lights which lit up completely like butterflies; at the retrial in 1976, she changed this to an accurate description of Carter's car, which had conventional tail-lights with aluminum decoration in a butterfly shape. This aligned with that provided by Bello; the prosecution later suggested the confusion was the result of a misreading of a court transcript by the defense. Having dropped off Royster, Carter was now being driven home by Artis; they were stopped again at 3:00 AM, and ordered to follow the police to the station, where they were arrested. However, variances in descriptions given by Valentine and Bello, the physical characteristics of the attackers provided by the two survivors, lack of forensic evidence, and the timeline provided by the police were key factors in the conviction being overturned in 1985. Forensics later established the victims were shot by a .32-caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun, although the weapons themselves have never been found. There was no forensic evidence linking Carter or Artis to the murders; while gun residue tests were commonly used, DeSimone, the lead detective, later claimed he had no time to bring in an expert. He did arrange for an expert to conduct lie detector tests, which they passed; in 1976, a second report was discovered, claiming they failed. After 17 hours of interrogation, they were released. Carter and Artis voluntarily appeared before a grand jury, which found there was no case to answer. However, several months later, Bello changed his story, after the police discovered why he was in the area, and his theft from the cash register. He positively identified Artis as one of the attackers, while Bradley now came forward to claim Carter was the other; based on this, the two were arrested and indicted. Bello later claimed in return, he was promised the $10,500 reward offered for catching the killers, which was never paid. The rental car had been impounded when Carter and Artis were arrested, and retained by police; five days after their release, a detective reported that on searching it again, he discovered two unfired rounds, one .32 caliber, the other from a 12-gauge. Neither matched those retrieved from the victims; the .32 round was brass, rather than copper, while the shotgun shell was an older model, with a different wad and color. Asked to account for these differences at the trial, the prosecution produced a second report, allegedly lodged 75 minutes after the murders which recorded the two rounds. They were unable to explain why, having that evidence, the police released the men, or why standard 'bag and tag' procedure was not followed. They also argued since the expended rounds retrieved at the scene were also a mixture, the fact that the two rounds did not match was meaningless; what did matter was they were the same caliber as those used in the shootings. The defense, led by Raymond A. Brown, focused on inconsistencies in the evidence given by eyewitnesses Marins and Bello. He also produced witnesses who confirmed Carter and Artis were still in the Nite Spot at the time of the shootings. The all-white jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, with a recommendation of mercy, which meant they avoided death sentences. Judge Samuel Larner imposed one concurrent and two consecutive life sentences on Carter, and three concurrent life sentences on Artis. Retrial and release In 1974, Bello and Bradley withdrew their identifications of Carter and Artis, and these recantations were used as the basis for a motion for a new trial. Judge Samuel Larner denied the motion on December 11, saying they "lacked the ring of truth". Despite Larner's ruling, Madison Avenue advertising executive George Lois organized a campaign on Carter's behalf, which led to increasing public support for a retrial or pardon. Muhammad Ali lent his support to the campaign (including publicly wishing Carter good luck on his appeal during the airing of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on September 7, 1973). Bob Dylan co-wrote (with Jacques Levy) and performed a song called "Hurricane" (1975), which declared that Carter was innocent. On December 7, 1975, Dylan performed the song at a concert at Trenton State Prison, where Carter was temporarily an inmate. However, during the hearing on the recantations, defense attorneys also argued that Bello and Bradley had lied during the 1967 trial, telling the jurors that they had made only certain narrow, limited deals with prosecutors in exchange for their trial testimony. A detective taped one interrogation of Bello in 1966, and when it was played during the recantation hearing, defense attorneys argued that the tape revealed promises beyond what Bello had testified to. If so, prosecutors had either had a Brady obligation to disclose this additional exculpatory evidence, or a duty to disclose the fact that their witnesses had lied on the stand. Larner denied this second argument as well, but the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the evidence of various deals made between the prosecution and witnesses Bello and Bradley should have been disclosed to the defense before or during the 1967 trial as this could have "affected the jury's evaluation of the credibility" of the eyewitnesses. "The defendants' right to a fair trial was substantially prejudiced", said Justice Mark Sullivan. The court set aside the original convictions and granted Carter and Artis a new trial. Despite the difficulties of prosecuting a ten-year-old case, Prosecutor Burrell Ives Humphreys decided to try Carter and Artis again. To ensure, as best he could, that he did not use perjured testimony to obtain a conviction, Humphreys had Bello polygraphed—once by Leonard H. Harrelson and a second time by Richard Arther, both well-known and respected experts in the field. Both men concluded that Bello was telling the truth when he said that he had seen Carter outside the Lafayette immediately after the murders. However, Harrelson also reported orally that Bello had been inside the bar shortly before and at the time of the shooting, a conclusion that contradicted Bello's 1967 trial testimony wherein he had said that he had been on the street at the time of the shooting. Despite this oral report, Harrelson's subsequent written report stated that Bello's 1967 testimony had been truthful. Second conviction and appeal During the new trial in 1976, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4–3). Although the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information the Brady disclosure law required them to provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975–1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. Federal court action In 1985, Carter's attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Later that year, Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the writ, noting that the prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure", and set aside the convictions. Carter, 48 years old, was freed without bail in November 1985. Prosecutors appealed Sarokin's ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed a motion with the court to return Carter to prison pending the outcome of the appeal. The court denied this motion and eventually upheld Sarokin's opinion, affirming his Brady analysis without commenting on his other rationale. The prosecutors appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Prosecutors therefore could have tried Carter (and Artis) a third time, but decided not to, and filed a motion to dismiss the original indictments. "It is just not legally feasible to sustain a prosecution, and not practical after almost 22 years to be trying anyone", said New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards. Acting Passaic County Prosecutor John P. Goceljak said several factors made a retrial impossible, including Bello's "current unreliability" as a witness and the unavailability of other witnesses. Goceljak also doubted whether the prosecution could reintroduce the racially motivated crime theory due to the federal court rulings. A judge granted the motion to dismiss, bringing an end to the legal proceedings. Post emancipation Carter lived in Toronto, Ontario, where he became a Canadian citizen, and was executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) from 1993 until 2005. Carter resigned when the AIDWYC declined to support Carter's protest of the appointment (to a judgeship) of Susan MacLean, who was the prosecutor of Canadian Guy Paul Morin, who served over eighteen months in prison for rape and murder until exonerated by DNA evidence. Carter's second marriage was to Lisa Peters. The couple separated later. In 1996, Carter, then 59, was arrested when Toronto police mistakenly identified him as a suspect in his thirties believed to have sold drugs to an undercover officer. He was released after the police realized their error. Carter often served as a motivational speaker. On October 14, 2005, he received two honorary Doctorates of Law, one from York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and one from Griffith University (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), in recognition of his work with AIDWYC and the Innocence Project. Carter received the Abolition Award from Death Penalty Focus in 1996. Prostate cancer and death In March 2012, while attending the International Justice Conference in Burswood, Western Australia, Carter revealed that he had terminal prostate cancer. At the time, doctors gave him between three and six months to live. Beginning shortly after that time, John Artis lived with and cared for Carter, and on April 20, 2014, he confirmed that Carter, at the age of 76, had succumbed to his illness. He was afterwards cremated and his ashes were scattered in part over Cape Cod and in part at a horse farm in Kentucky. In the months leading up to his death, Carter worked for the exoneration of David McCallum, a Brooklyn man who had been incarcerated since 1985 on charges of murder. Two months before his death, Carter published "Hurricane Carter's Dying Wish", an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, in which he asked for an independent review of McCallum's conviction. "I request only that McCallum be granted a full hearing by the Brooklyn conviction integrity unit, now under the auspices of the new district attorney, Ken Thompson. Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release ... Just as my own verdict 'was predicated on racism rather than reason and on concealment rather than disclosure', as Sarokin wrote, so too was McCallum's", Carter wrote. On October 15, 2014, McCallum was exonerated. John Artis died of an Abdominal aortic aneurysm on November 7, 2021, at the age of 75. In popular culture Carter's story inspired: The 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane", which proclaimed that Carter was innocent. Carter appeared as himself in Dylan's 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara. In the 2019 film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Dylan talked about his involvement with the Carter case and Carter was also interviewed in the film, describing his relationship with Dylan. Norman Jewison's 1999 feature film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington in the lead role as Carter. The film is about Rubin Carter's accusation, trials, and time spent in prison. Carter later discussed at a lecture how he fell in love with Washington's portrayal of him during auditions for The Hurricane, noting that boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler and actors Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson all vied for the role. For his performance as Carter, Washington won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Washington was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Carter at the 72nd Academy Awards. In the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, when characters Bobbie (Mark Wahlberg) and Christina (Diane Lane) come down the stairs from their apartment above the bar, after having a fight the night before, Murph (John C. Reilly) comments on Christina being Hurricane Boom Boom Carter because of the black eye she gave Bobbie. Professional boxing record See also List of wrongful convictions in the United States Romeo Phillion References Sources External links 1937 births 2014 deaths African-American boxers American male boxers American emigrants to Canada American people convicted of assault American people convicted of murder American people convicted of robbery American convicts who became writers Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from prostate cancer Supreme Court of New Jersey Overturned convictions in the United States People convicted of murder by New Jersey Sportspeople from Clifton, New Jersey Prison writings Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey Boxers from Toronto United States Army soldiers People wrongfully convicted of murder Canadian people of African-American descent Boxers from New Jersey Middleweight boxers 20th-century African-American sportspeople Rubin Carter	false	[ "Terence Norbert Donovan, Baron Donovan (13 June 1898 – 12 December 1971) was a British Labour Party politician and later a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.\n\nBorn in West Ham, London, Donovan was educated at Brockley Grammar School, before serving in the Bedfordshire Regiment and the Royal Air Force during World War I. After demobilisation, he joined the Civil Service. He was called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1924, although he did not begin practising at the bar until 1932.\n\nDonovan was elected as Member of Parliament for Leicester East in the 1945 general election, and took silk the same year. When that constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, he was re-elected for the new Leicester North East constituency.\n\nHowever, Donovan resigned from the House of Commons within weeks of the election, when he was appointed as a High Court judge, receiving the customary knighthood (his successor, Sir Lynn Ungoed-Thomas, also became a judge, in 1962). He was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1960, when he also became a Privy Counsellor. On 11 January 1964 he was appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, remaining in post until 1971. As a Law Lord he was given a life peerage as Baron Donovan, of Winchester in the County of Hampshire.\n\nIn 1965-1968 he chaired the Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations (the so-called \"Donovan commission\") on the system of collective UK labour law.\n\nHe died in the City of London aged 73.\n\nArms\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n \n\n1898 births\n1971 deaths\nLabour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies\nDonovan, Terence Norbert, Baron Donovan\nDonovan, Terence Donovan, Baron\nUK MPs 1945–1950\nUK MPs 1950–1951\nUK MPs who were granted peerages\nMembers of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council\nBritish trade unions history\nKnights Bachelor\nEnglish Queen's Counsel\nQueen's Counsel 1901–2000\nQueen's Bench Division judges\nEnglish justices of the peace\n20th-century English lawyers", "Jacques Delisle (born 1935 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian judge who sat on the Quebec Superior Court from 1985 to 1992, and on the Quebec Court of Appeal from 1992 until his retirement in 2009. In June 2010, he was arrested and charged with murder, in connection with the November 2009 death of his wife Marie-Nicole Rainville.\n\nDelisle is the first judge in Canadian history to be charged with murder.\n\nHis trial began in May 2012; it had been scheduled to begin in 2011, but was delayed after one of the prosecutors withdrew.\n\nOn June 14, 2012, Delisle was found guilty of first-degree murder for killing his wife.\n\nHe subsequently appealed his conviction; in May 2013, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the decision, and in December 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his case.\n\nLater developments\nDelisle, who did not testify at his trial, stated in March 2015 that his wife had committed suicide with a gun which he had supplied, a position reportedly supported by forensic experts. On March 19, 2015 Justice Minister Peter MacKay announced that he would take under consideration Delisle's request for a new trial.\n\nOn April 7, 2021 Federal Justice Minister David Lametti ordered a new trial for Delisle. Both the sentence and conviction were set aside.\n\nReferences\n\nLawyers from Montreal\nJudges in Quebec\nUniversité Laval alumni\nLiving people\n1935 births\nCanadian people convicted of murder" ]
[ "Rubin Carter", "Second conviction and appeal", "What was Rubin Carter's second conviction for?", "During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill.", "What happen outside the Lafayette Grill?", "murders happened.", "How many people were murdered?", "I don't know.", "How long was he sentenced to prison?", "a double life sentence for Carter,", "When did his appeal begin?", "Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3)." ]	C_2f5ecf770c6e4154acfe65d0ed94a7f4_0	Is he still in prison today?	6	Is Rubin Carter still in prison today?	Rubin Carter	During the new trial, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3). While the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information that the Brady disclosure law required that they provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975-1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. CANNOTANSWER	In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4-3).	Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (May 6, 1937 – April 20, 2014) was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison. In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested. Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed. Carter's autobiography, titled The Sixteenth Round, written while he was in prison, was published in 1974 by Viking Press. The story inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and the 1999 film The Hurricane (with Denzel Washington playing Carter). From 1993 to 2005, Carter served as executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (later rebranded as Innocence Canada). In 2019, the case was the focus of a 13-part BBC podcast series, The Hurricane Tapes. The series was based on interviews which were conducted with survivors, case notes which were taken during the original investigations, and 40 hours of recorded interviews which were conducted with Carter by the author Ken Klonsky who cited them in his 2011 book The Eye of the Hurricane. Early life Carter was born in Clifton, New Jersey, the fourth of seven children. He later admitted to a troubled relationship with his father, a strict disciplinarian; at the age of eleven, he was sentenced to a juvenile reformatory for assault, having stabbed a man, who he claimed had tried to sexually assault him. Carter escaped from the reformatory in 1954 and joined the United States Army. A few months after completing basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, he was sent to West Germany. While in Germany, Carter began to box for the Army. He was later discharged in 1956 as unfit for service, after four courts-martial. Shortly after his discharge, he returned home to New Jersey, was convicted of two muggings and sent to prison. Boxing career After his release from prison in September 1961, Carter became a professional boxer. At , Carter was shorter than the average middleweight, but he fought all of his professional career at 155–160 lb (70–72.6 kg). His aggressive style and punching power (resulting in many early-round knockouts) drew attention, establishing him as a crowd favorite and earning him the nickname "Hurricane". After he defeated a number of middleweight contenders—such as Florentino Fernandez, Holley Mims, Gomeo Brennan, and George Benton—the boxing world took notice. The Ring first listed him as one of its "Top 10" middleweight contenders in July 1963. At the end of 1965, they ranked him as the number five middleweight. He fought six times in 1963, winning four bouts and losing two. He remained ranked in the lower part of the top 10 until December 20, when he surprised the boxing world by flooring past and future world champion Emile Griffith twice in the first round and scoring a technical knockout. That win resulted in The Rings ranking of Carter as the number three contender for Joey Giardello's world middleweight title. Carter won two more fights (one a decision over future heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis) in 1964, before meeting Giardello in Philadelphia for a 15-round championship match on December 14. Carter landed a few solid rights to the head in the fourth that left Giardello staggering, but was unable to follow them up, and Giardello took control of the fight in the fifth round. The judges awarded Giardello a unanimous decision. After that fight, Carter's ranking in The Ring began to decline. He fought nine times in 1965, winning five but losing three of four against contenders Luis Manuel Rodríguez, Dick Tiger, and Harry Scott. Tiger, in particular, floored Carter three times in their match. "It was", Carter said, "the worst beating that I took in my life—inside or outside the ring". During his visit to London to fight Scott, Carter was involved in an incident in which a shot was fired in his hotel room. Carter's career record in boxing was 27 wins, 12 losses, and one draw in 40 fights, with 19 total knockouts (8 KOs and 11 TKOs). He received an honorary championship title belt from the World Boxing Council in 1993 (as did Joey Giardello at the same banquet) and was later inducted into the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame. Arrest and conviction At approximately 2:30 AM on June 17, 1966, two men entered the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, and began shooting. The bartender, James Oliver, and a customer, Fred Nauyoks, were killed immediately. Hazel Tanis died in a hospital a month later, having suffered multiple wounds from shotgun pellets; a third customer, Willie Marins, survived the attack, despite a head wound that cost him the sight in one eye. When questioned, both told police the shooters had been black males, though neither identified Carter or John Artis. Ten minutes after the murders, around 2:40 AM, a police cruiser stopped Carter and Artis in a rental car, returning from a night out at the Nite Spot, a nearby bar; Carter was in the back, with Artis driving, and a third man, John Royster, in the passenger seat. The police recognised Carter, a well-known and controversial local figure, but let him go. Minutes later, the same officers solicited a description of the getaway car from two eyewitnesses outside the bar, Patricia “Patty” Valentine and Al Bello. Bello later admitted he was in the area acting as a lookout while an accomplice, Arthur Bradley, broke into a nearby warehouse. At the time, he claimed to have discovered the bodies when he entered the bar to buy cigarettes; it also transpired that he took the opportunity to empty the cash register, and ran into the police as he came out. At the trial, he testified he was approaching the Lafayette when two black males, one with a shotgun, the other a pistol, came around the corner. He ran from them, and they got into a white car that was double-parked near the Lafayette. Valentine lived above the bar, and heard the shots; like Bello, she reported seeing two black men leave the bar, then get into a white car. They reportedly described it as white, with "a geometric design, sort of a butterfly type design in the back of the car", and New York state license plates, with blue background and orange lettering. Another neighbor, Ronald Ruggiero, also heard the shots, and said that, from his window, he saw Alfred Bello running west on Lafayette Street toward 16th Street. He then heard the screech of tires and saw a white car shoot past, heading west, with two black males in the front seat. Valentine initially stated the car had rear lights which lit up completely like butterflies; at the retrial in 1976, she changed this to an accurate description of Carter's car, which had conventional tail-lights with aluminum decoration in a butterfly shape. This aligned with that provided by Bello; the prosecution later suggested the confusion was the result of a misreading of a court transcript by the defense. Having dropped off Royster, Carter was now being driven home by Artis; they were stopped again at 3:00 AM, and ordered to follow the police to the station, where they were arrested. However, variances in descriptions given by Valentine and Bello, the physical characteristics of the attackers provided by the two survivors, lack of forensic evidence, and the timeline provided by the police were key factors in the conviction being overturned in 1985. Forensics later established the victims were shot by a .32-caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun, although the weapons themselves have never been found. There was no forensic evidence linking Carter or Artis to the murders; while gun residue tests were commonly used, DeSimone, the lead detective, later claimed he had no time to bring in an expert. He did arrange for an expert to conduct lie detector tests, which they passed; in 1976, a second report was discovered, claiming they failed. After 17 hours of interrogation, they were released. Carter and Artis voluntarily appeared before a grand jury, which found there was no case to answer. However, several months later, Bello changed his story, after the police discovered why he was in the area, and his theft from the cash register. He positively identified Artis as one of the attackers, while Bradley now came forward to claim Carter was the other; based on this, the two were arrested and indicted. Bello later claimed in return, he was promised the $10,500 reward offered for catching the killers, which was never paid. The rental car had been impounded when Carter and Artis were arrested, and retained by police; five days after their release, a detective reported that on searching it again, he discovered two unfired rounds, one .32 caliber, the other from a 12-gauge. Neither matched those retrieved from the victims; the .32 round was brass, rather than copper, while the shotgun shell was an older model, with a different wad and color. Asked to account for these differences at the trial, the prosecution produced a second report, allegedly lodged 75 minutes after the murders which recorded the two rounds. They were unable to explain why, having that evidence, the police released the men, or why standard 'bag and tag' procedure was not followed. They also argued since the expended rounds retrieved at the scene were also a mixture, the fact that the two rounds did not match was meaningless; what did matter was they were the same caliber as those used in the shootings. The defense, led by Raymond A. Brown, focused on inconsistencies in the evidence given by eyewitnesses Marins and Bello. He also produced witnesses who confirmed Carter and Artis were still in the Nite Spot at the time of the shootings. The all-white jury convicted both men of first-degree murder, with a recommendation of mercy, which meant they avoided death sentences. Judge Samuel Larner imposed one concurrent and two consecutive life sentences on Carter, and three concurrent life sentences on Artis. Retrial and release In 1974, Bello and Bradley withdrew their identifications of Carter and Artis, and these recantations were used as the basis for a motion for a new trial. Judge Samuel Larner denied the motion on December 11, saying they "lacked the ring of truth". Despite Larner's ruling, Madison Avenue advertising executive George Lois organized a campaign on Carter's behalf, which led to increasing public support for a retrial or pardon. Muhammad Ali lent his support to the campaign (including publicly wishing Carter good luck on his appeal during the airing of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on September 7, 1973). Bob Dylan co-wrote (with Jacques Levy) and performed a song called "Hurricane" (1975), which declared that Carter was innocent. On December 7, 1975, Dylan performed the song at a concert at Trenton State Prison, where Carter was temporarily an inmate. However, during the hearing on the recantations, defense attorneys also argued that Bello and Bradley had lied during the 1967 trial, telling the jurors that they had made only certain narrow, limited deals with prosecutors in exchange for their trial testimony. A detective taped one interrogation of Bello in 1966, and when it was played during the recantation hearing, defense attorneys argued that the tape revealed promises beyond what Bello had testified to. If so, prosecutors had either had a Brady obligation to disclose this additional exculpatory evidence, or a duty to disclose the fact that their witnesses had lied on the stand. Larner denied this second argument as well, but the New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that the evidence of various deals made between the prosecution and witnesses Bello and Bradley should have been disclosed to the defense before or during the 1967 trial as this could have "affected the jury's evaluation of the credibility" of the eyewitnesses. "The defendants' right to a fair trial was substantially prejudiced", said Justice Mark Sullivan. The court set aside the original convictions and granted Carter and Artis a new trial. Despite the difficulties of prosecuting a ten-year-old case, Prosecutor Burrell Ives Humphreys decided to try Carter and Artis again. To ensure, as best he could, that he did not use perjured testimony to obtain a conviction, Humphreys had Bello polygraphed—once by Leonard H. Harrelson and a second time by Richard Arther, both well-known and respected experts in the field. Both men concluded that Bello was telling the truth when he said that he had seen Carter outside the Lafayette immediately after the murders. However, Harrelson also reported orally that Bello had been inside the bar shortly before and at the time of the shooting, a conclusion that contradicted Bello's 1967 trial testimony wherein he had said that he had been on the street at the time of the shooting. Despite this oral report, Harrelson's subsequent written report stated that Bello's 1967 testimony had been truthful. Second conviction and appeal During the new trial in 1976, Alfred Bello repeated his 1967 testimony, identifying Carter and Artis as the two armed men he had seen outside the Lafayette Grill. Bradley refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and neither prosecution nor defense called him as a witness. The defense responded with testimony from multiple witnesses who identified Carter at the locations he claimed to be at when the murders happened. Investigator Fred Hogan, whose efforts had led to the recantations of Bello and Bradley, appeared as a defense witness. Hogan was asked on cross examinations whether any bribes or inducements were offered to Bello to secure his recantation, which Hogan denied. His original handwritten notes on his conversations with Bello were entered into evidence. The defense also pointed out the inconsistencies in the testimony of Patricia Valentine, and read the 1967 testimony of William Marins, who had died in 1973, noting that his descriptions of the shooters were drastically different from Artis and Carter's actual appearances. The court also heard testimony from a Carter associate that Passaic County prosecutors had tried to pressure her into testifying against Carter. Prosecutors denied the charge. After deliberating for almost nine hours, the jury again found Carter and Artis guilty of the murders. Judge Leopizzi re-imposed the same sentences on both men: a double life sentence for Carter, a single life sentence for Artis. Artis was paroled in 1981. Carter's attorneys continued to appeal. In 1982, the Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed his convictions (4–3). Although the justices felt that the prosecutors should have disclosed Harrelson's oral opinion (about Bello's location at the time of the murders) to the defense, only a minority thought this was material. The majority thus concluded that the prosecution had not withheld information the Brady disclosure law required them to provide to the defense. According to bail bondswoman Carolyn Kelley, in 1975–1976 she helped raise funds to win a second trial for Carter, which resulted in his release on bail in March 1976. On a fund-raising trip the following month, Kelley said the boxer beat her severely over a disputed hotel bill. The Philadelphia Daily News reported the alleged beating in a front-page story several weeks later, and celebrity support for Carter quickly eroded, though Carter denied the accusation and there was insufficient evidence for legal prosecution. Mae Thelma Basket, whom Carter had married in 1963, divorced him after their second child was born, because she found out that he had been unfaithful to her. Federal court action In 1985, Carter's attorneys filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. Later that year, Judge Haddon Lee Sarokin of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the writ, noting that the prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure", and set aside the convictions. Carter, 48 years old, was freed without bail in November 1985. Prosecutors appealed Sarokin's ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and filed a motion with the court to return Carter to prison pending the outcome of the appeal. The court denied this motion and eventually upheld Sarokin's opinion, affirming his Brady analysis without commenting on his other rationale. The prosecutors appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Prosecutors therefore could have tried Carter (and Artis) a third time, but decided not to, and filed a motion to dismiss the original indictments. "It is just not legally feasible to sustain a prosecution, and not practical after almost 22 years to be trying anyone", said New Jersey Attorney General W. Cary Edwards. Acting Passaic County Prosecutor John P. Goceljak said several factors made a retrial impossible, including Bello's "current unreliability" as a witness and the unavailability of other witnesses. Goceljak also doubted whether the prosecution could reintroduce the racially motivated crime theory due to the federal court rulings. A judge granted the motion to dismiss, bringing an end to the legal proceedings. Post emancipation Carter lived in Toronto, Ontario, where he became a Canadian citizen, and was executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) from 1993 until 2005. Carter resigned when the AIDWYC declined to support Carter's protest of the appointment (to a judgeship) of Susan MacLean, who was the prosecutor of Canadian Guy Paul Morin, who served over eighteen months in prison for rape and murder until exonerated by DNA evidence. Carter's second marriage was to Lisa Peters. The couple separated later. In 1996, Carter, then 59, was arrested when Toronto police mistakenly identified him as a suspect in his thirties believed to have sold drugs to an undercover officer. He was released after the police realized their error. Carter often served as a motivational speaker. On October 14, 2005, he received two honorary Doctorates of Law, one from York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and one from Griffith University (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia), in recognition of his work with AIDWYC and the Innocence Project. Carter received the Abolition Award from Death Penalty Focus in 1996. Prostate cancer and death In March 2012, while attending the International Justice Conference in Burswood, Western Australia, Carter revealed that he had terminal prostate cancer. At the time, doctors gave him between three and six months to live. Beginning shortly after that time, John Artis lived with and cared for Carter, and on April 20, 2014, he confirmed that Carter, at the age of 76, had succumbed to his illness. He was afterwards cremated and his ashes were scattered in part over Cape Cod and in part at a horse farm in Kentucky. In the months leading up to his death, Carter worked for the exoneration of David McCallum, a Brooklyn man who had been incarcerated since 1985 on charges of murder. Two months before his death, Carter published "Hurricane Carter's Dying Wish", an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, in which he asked for an independent review of McCallum's conviction. "I request only that McCallum be granted a full hearing by the Brooklyn conviction integrity unit, now under the auspices of the new district attorney, Ken Thompson. Knowing what I do, I am certain that when the facts are brought to light, Thompson will recommend his immediate release ... Just as my own verdict 'was predicated on racism rather than reason and on concealment rather than disclosure', as Sarokin wrote, so too was McCallum's", Carter wrote. On October 15, 2014, McCallum was exonerated. John Artis died of an Abdominal aortic aneurysm on November 7, 2021, at the age of 75. In popular culture Carter's story inspired: The 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane", which proclaimed that Carter was innocent. Carter appeared as himself in Dylan's 1978 movie Renaldo and Clara. In the 2019 film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, Dylan talked about his involvement with the Carter case and Carter was also interviewed in the film, describing his relationship with Dylan. Norman Jewison's 1999 feature film The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington in the lead role as Carter. The film is about Rubin Carter's accusation, trials, and time spent in prison. Carter later discussed at a lecture how he fell in love with Washington's portrayal of him during auditions for The Hurricane, noting that boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler and actors Wesley Snipes and Samuel L. Jackson all vied for the role. For his performance as Carter, Washington won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Washington was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Carter at the 72nd Academy Awards. In the 2000 film The Perfect Storm, when characters Bobbie (Mark Wahlberg) and Christina (Diane Lane) come down the stairs from their apartment above the bar, after having a fight the night before, Murph (John C. Reilly) comments on Christina being Hurricane Boom Boom Carter because of the black eye she gave Bobbie. Professional boxing record See also List of wrongful convictions in the United States Romeo Phillion References Sources External links 1937 births 2014 deaths African-American boxers American male boxers American emigrants to Canada American people convicted of assault American people convicted of murder American people convicted of robbery American convicts who became writers Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from prostate cancer Supreme Court of New Jersey Overturned convictions in the United States People convicted of murder by New Jersey Sportspeople from Clifton, New Jersey Prison writings Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by New Jersey Boxers from Toronto United States Army soldiers People wrongfully convicted of murder Canadian people of African-American descent Boxers from New Jersey Middleweight boxers 20th-century African-American sportspeople Rubin Carter	false	[ "Paşakapısı Prison is a small prison located in Üsküdar district of Istanbul, Turkey. First built in 1799 on orders of the Ottoman sultan Selim III as a hunting palace, the facility was used as a school for nuns between 1918 and 1923. In 1928, it was converted to a prison, which it still is at present day (October 2011). Between 2003 and 2008, it had been exclusively used for housing female prisoners. Today, after female prisoners are moved to another facility in 2008, the building still functions as a prison, allocated, this time, for convicted state employees.\n\nProbably a remote and forested place in 1799, location of the prison is now engulfed by the metropolitan Istanbul, to such an extent that it is considered one of the central locations in the city. Also owing to poor city planning, the prison is now circled by residential and other governmental buildings. The daily functions and activities of the prison reportedly cause disturbances in the daily lives of the nearby residents.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nGovernment buildings completed in 1799\nBuildings and structures in Istanbul\nPrisons in Turkey\n1928 establishments in Turkey\nÜsküdar", "Långholmen Prison, officially Långholmen Central Prison (), was historically one of the largest prison facilities in Sweden with more than 500 cells, located on the island of Långholmen in Stockholm. It was built 1874—1880 as the central prison of Sweden, and was temporary closed down between 1972–1975. Afterwards, Långholmens spinnhus was moved. Today the building is being used as a hotel/hostel and museum, as well as to accommodate a folk high school. Part of the prison was demolished in 1982. The prison is also noted for being the location of the last execution in Sweden prior to the abolition of capital punishment in 1921. The hostel was taken into usage in May 1989.\n\nThe island itself was originally rocky and barren, but in the 19th century, the prisoners were made to cover the island with mud dredged from the waterways around it. After a few years, the fertile soil had turned the island into a lush garden with a somewhat exotic flora compared to its surroundings, caused by various seeds accidentally brought and spread by the trade and merchant ships from other places and countries that passed by the island. This peculiarity still persists, and today the island is known as a lush oasis.\n\nNotable prisoners\nBarbro Alving\nJohan Alfred Ander\nJan Guillou\nMohammed Beck Hadjetlaché\nZeth Höglund\nTure Nerman\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLångholmen Prison Museum\n\n1874 establishments in Sweden\nDefunct prisons in Sweden\nBuildings and structures in Stockholm\nMuseums in Stockholm\nPrison museums in Europe\n1975 disestablishments in Sweden" ]
[ "Kevin Sydney", "Powers and abilities" ]	C_c815ba9adff5461e84b0a46f2710718e_0	What special powers did he have	1	What special powers did Kevin Sydney have?	Kevin Sydney	Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. CANNOTANSWER	the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses.	Kevin Sydney is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth, the character first appeared in The X-Men #35 (Aug. 1967). Sydney first appeared as Changeling, a mutant shapeshifter. He was a short-lived adversary for the X-Men who subsequently joined Professor X and died shortly after, making him the first member of the X-Men to die in action. The character was reintroduced as Morph in the 1990s for X-Men: The Animated Series. An alternate reality version of the character under the codename Morph reappeared in the comics as part of the Exiles in 2001. Publication history The first run of appearances occurred in 1967–1968 when he appeared in The X-Men #37-42 as Changeling. Although dying at the end of this run, he was thought to have been seen as a ghost in Excalibur: The Possession (1991) and returned as a zombie in The Sensational She-Hulk #34-35 (1991–1992). The character was later reintroduced as an easygoing comic-relief character for X-Men: The Animated Series. According to showrunner Eric Lewald's behind-the-scenes book, Previously On X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series, the creators had intended for Thunderbird to be the series' early sacrifice, but they became uncomfortable with the idea of killing off a Native American character. Scanning the X-books for a substitute, the character Changeling was found and repurposed for the series. Sydney's codename was changed to Morph because DC Comics owned the trademark to "Changeling" when the series debuted. Morph's first comic book appearance was 1992's X-Men Adventures #1, which adapted the "Night of the Sentinels" TV pilot. Then in 1995, inspired by the character in the animated series, a new Morph was featured in the "Age of Apocalypse" crossover event, debuting in the one-shot comic X-Men Alpha. The character underwent a drastic change in appearance for this event, appearing white-skinned and hairless. Then in 2001, Marvel introduced an alternate-reality version of this Morph, from Earth-1081. He first appeared in Exiles #1. Fictional character biography Earth-616 character Kevin Sydney, known as "Changeling", originally worked for the villainous organization Factor Three. He acted as the Mutant Master's second-in-command in an effort to trigger World War III. After successfully capturing the heroic X-Men, the Mutant Master is exposed as an extraterrestrial and goes out of control. The mutants of Factor Three ultimately joined with the X-Men to defeat the Mutant Master. Following that group's defeat, Changeling sought to reform. He divulged to Professor X that he was suffering from an unspecified terminal illness with only a few months left to live and wished to atone for his misdeeds. Professor X recruited Changeling to act as a stand-in, unbeknownst to the X-Men, while the Professor isolated himself to prepare a defense against the alien Z'Nox's invasion. Changeling, masquerading as Professor X, led the X-Men's efforts to defeat the Subterranean Grotesk. He was mortally wounded in battle with Grotesk by the explosion of an oscillotron machine and, consequently, died preventing the destruction of Earth. The X-Men mourned the loss of Professor X until it was later revealed that it was, in fact, Changeling. When the mystical Darkhold was recreated, Changeling's spirit used the opportunity to possess Meggan. Angry that he used his remaining time helping the X-Men instead of seeking a cure for himself, Changeling sought revenge against Professor X. However, Merlyn later admits that the encounter was merely fantasy, having orchestrated the event to prepare Excalibur. Changeling is later raised from the dead as a zombie by Black Talon to form part of the team X-Humed (which also consisted of Harry Leland, Living Diamond, and Scaleface), and used to attack She-Hulk. He is able to break Talon's control of him long enough to allow She-Hulk to win and lay the zombies back to rest. Earth-1081 character Morph is a hero from Earth-1081 who was a member of the New Mutants, X-Men, and Avengers. He was a unique son of loving parents. Early on in life he managed to use his powers, and was able to give everyone what they wanted from him. Morph always used his power to joke around and keep everyone at ease with him, only comfortable to be himself around his parents. His mother died of lung cancer and Morph tried in every way to cheer up his emotionally distraught father (often acting in a childish way whenever his father wanted him to act serious), who, unable to let his suffering go, chose to enroll his son in a boarding school; luckily, that school happened to be the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Promoted to the X-Men, Morph's sense of humor initially grated upon the much more serious team but eventually his humor and humility won them over. He was instrumental in many of the team's victories and was chosen to be part of a pilot program with the Avengers, along with the Beast, as a public representative of mutant-kind. Morph would return to the X-Men because, in his own words, "he missed his freaky mutant brothers and sisters." On a subsequent mission, Morph and the rest of the X-Men were facing off against a threat known only as Stonehenge when Morph became unhinged from time. The Exiles After becoming unhinged from time, the mysterious Timebroker appeared to him, explaining that his unhinging was the result of a chain of events that caused his reality to change. In that new reality a wounded Morph is unable to maintain his form, and is in a coma, being only a white muddy substance in Beast's lab. Hoping to save his own future, he becomes a member, and comic relief, of the Exiles, a group of universe-hopping heroes trying to save realities from ripples and alteration. Morph is a founding member of the Exiles and after Blink was removed from the group between issue #22 and #42 and Mimic was killed in issue #73, Morph is the only original member remaining throughout the series. He soon befriended the mutant Sunfire, and her death left him emotionally wrecked. Mojo's World The Exiles battled on, fixing reality after reality and struggling to keep it together. Following one of these missions the team was kidnapped by Mojo, the insane evil dictator of the Mojoverse. Mojo considered Morph the best entertainer he had ever seen and brought him back to entertain the masses. If he didn't, Mojo would kill his fellow Exile, Nocturne. Eventually, Nocturne was able to escape and set Morph free. Mojo went crazy and threatened to kill Morph's friends. An enraged Morph was on the verge of killing Mojo when the Timebroker stopped them. The Timebroker revealed Mojo had disrupted time but he was a necessary evil and could not be killed. Weapon X Morph continued to be the heart of the team until a mission in which Mimic was taken over by a Brood egg. During the battle, he killed Sunfire. Mimic was eventually cured but Morph was enraged. He was devastated by Sunfire's death and told Mimic he should have killed himself rather than let something like this happen. Morph stormed off and threatened to leave the team. Magik, an unlikely ally, followed and tried to calm him. The two connected and despite her past attitude during missions, Morph realized Illyana was just a scared girl trying to get home. He remained angry with Mimic but helped his team fight against the rogue reality-hopping team, Weapon X. Before the battle began, Magik attempted to switch sides, believing her team was weaker. Hyperion, the self-appointed leader of Weapon X, snapped her neck and Morph was driven into a rage. He attacked Hyperion, who attempted to blast Morph with his eyebeams, but Mimic saved him. During the brawl with Weapon X, Morph fought against an evil Ms. Marvel. Their battle caused a building to fall in on them, killing Ms. Marvel but Morph was able to survive. The Exiles were triumphant and the Timebroker told Morph he could finally go home. His mission was fulfilled. Morph considered the offer but asked if he could stay with his team. He realized they needed him and he could not leave them behind. The Timebroker agreed; Morph asked him not to tell the rest of the Exiles of his decision. Morph and Mimic reconciled since he realized that Sunfire's death was not Mimic's fault and that the Brood was controlling him. The team moved on. Proteus Morph helped the team take down Proteus by impersonating the Maestro and weakening Proteus with a steel strip in his head. Morph went to take down Proteus but Proteus knocked the steel plate out of his head and took over Morph's body in issue #80. When the Exiles tracked him to the "Heroes Reborn" world, cosmic entities "O" and "K" kidnapped him, saying his presence has tipped the balance of power. Using a tiara hooked to a brainwasher device, his teammate Blink managed if not to restore his consciousness, to brainwash Proteus, forcing him to act like Morph, and access to only Morph's memories, functionally "bringing him again to life." With Proteus trapped and believing he is Morph, he remained an Exile to continue fixing damaged realities. Considering Morph's body does not burn out like other hosts, Morph's consciousness is still active beneath Proteus. Also, Proteus is immune to metal while in Morph's body, since wearing a metal tiara during the "Heroes Reborn" world did not kill him. However, concerns about some discrepancies in "Morph's" behavior forced his teammates to plan regular brainwashings with the same device, and, eventually, put him in stasis whenever his behavior would change again. However, that device was destroyed when Psylocke and Sabretooth fought so intensely that they shook the Crystal Palace, causing a bookcase to fall on Morph's head, shattering the device. With the device shattered, it was only a matter of time before Proteus would re-emerge. During a confrontation where Proteus reawakened, he found himself lacking in power to defeat the adversary. About to be crushed, Proteus shouted aloud his desire to stay alive. In a vision, he saw a figure, almost identical to his own true, energy form, telling him to take its hand, and he would survive. Upon doing so, Proteus found himself full of even greater power, using it to defeat his god-like enemy. Afterward, it was revealed that this being was the personality and soul of the true Morph, having been in limbo, gaining strength within Proteus and his own body, who had before only been able to speak a few sentences through Proteus' control. Revealing to Proteus that he had the ability to eject him from his body, Morph gave Proteus the chance to work together and share his body and their powers, in order to do more good, something which Morph had discovered Proteus desired deep within him. Proteus accepted, and the two now work together harmoniously, better than either could be alone. However, soon after, when the New Exiles became immersed within the Crystal Palace, Proteus was absorbed in Morph's place, freeing Morph once and for all. Powers and abilities Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-Doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. Other versions Changeling is the character's codename in the contiguous Marvel Universe, Earth-616. However, the character's reinvention as Morph in the X-Men animated series raised his profile such that alternate versions of the character, now also named Morph, began to appear in stories set in other universes. Age of Apocalypse In the Age of Apocalypse (AoA), Morph was, like his "regular Marvel Universe" counterpart Changeling, an early recruit of the X-Men. Unlike Changeling, Kevin Sydney of AoA never died while impersonating Professor X, because in the Age of Apocalypse Xavier died before the X-Men were ever founded. In the AoA timeline, Morph often agitated his teammates with his off-the-wall sense of humor and inappropriate timing; he describes himself as wanting to die with a smile on his face when his time comes. Despite his happy-go-lucky attitude, Morph has displayed signs of a softer, more empathetic side several times. For example, he morphed into Sabretooth in an effort to comfort Blink while she doubted her abilities, and he later gave Rogue the strength to endure against the horseman Holocaust by acting as her son. Shortly after the defeat of Apocalypse, he accompanied fellow X-Men Iceman, Wildchild and Exodus on an unspecified mission, during which they disappeared. Their fate has yet to be revealed, except for Wildchild, who has since joined a new team of Exiles. The Lost Generation A Morph is also seen as a member of First Line, set in Earth-616 but in the period after World War II. In other media Changeling appears in X-Men TV series, voiced by Ron Rubin. Named Morph, he appears as a "throwaway" character for the writers to kill in the opening story arc to sell the stark nature of the series. Changeling (Morph) was chosen because of his past ties to the X-Men, as well as his long absence from Marvel Comics. Being a deceased minor character in Marvel canon, he was a "blank slate" and the writers were free to do with him as they wanted without fear of reprisal from fans of the character. Morph's death was intended to be permanent, but he gained unexpected popularity and was brought back. Sydney's codename had to be changed from Changeling to Morph as DC Comics had trademarked the Changeling name for the character, who is also known as Beast Boy of Teen Titans fame. In the first season, Morph was a member of the X-Men and a close friend of Wolverine, who claimed only Morph could make him laugh. In the series' second episode, Morph was assumed to be slain by Sentinels, leaving Wolverine distraught. Wolverine blamed Cyclops for leaving Morph behind but later overcame it, having been desensitized to seeing friends die. Morph reappeared in the second season as a recurring villain who was driven progressively mad by memories of his death. Morph's psyche had been divided into two personalities; one who loved his X-teammates and one who hated them for leaving him behind. He embarked on a guerrilla campaign in the X-Mansion, posing as several members of the X-Men to trap, injure, or otherwise incapacitate his former teammates. Wolverine, shocked at seeing his friend alive, tried to reason with Morph, assuring him that he was still a friend and ally and that Cyclops acted in the best interest of the team as a whole. Morph refused to accept the explanation and escaped in the Blackbird. Upon arriving on Muir Island, it is revealed that Mister Sinister had revived him, but with control implants that effectively brainwashed him. The ensuing battle would see Morph betray Sinister, ineffectively shooting him in the back after Cyclops assured Morph he was still an X-Man. After the battle, Morph fled Muir Island, still unable to accept the camaraderie of his former team. Wolverine embarked on a personal quest to find Morph and help him, but after Morph forcibly resisted, Wolverine abandoned his quest and decided Morph was best left to sort things out on his own. In the second-season finale "Reunion (Part 2)", Morph provided a tip that led the X-Men to a then-final confrontation with Mister Sinister. Sinister reactivated Morph's implant during the battle and once again forced him to betray the X-Men. Morph was poised to fire a laser weapon at Professor X and Cyclops until Professor X slips into Morph's mind and reminds him he's an X-Man. Morph, again, breaks free of Sinister's control and blasts him instead, shattering the arch-villain. Professor X then took Morph back to the X-Mansion and finally removed his implants, but determined that the psychological damage needed much more rehabilitation. Morph made cameos in two episodes during the third season as a patient on Muir Island; once in a hospital bed and once in a wheelchair as Cyclops and Wolverine were leaving the island. In the fourth season, Morph was the focal character in the episode "Courage". With the help of Moira MacTaggert, Morph showed significant improvement in overcoming his mental instability and eventually returned to the X-Men. When a terrorist strike interrupted his homecoming, he engaged in a scout mission with his friend Wolverine where they discovered Sentinels had once again been constructed. Morph fell victim to a flashback memory of his death at the hands of a Sentinel and was paralyzed by fear. Later, his fear also prevented him from acting when Master Mold abducted Professor X. Overcoming his guilt and fighting his fear, Morph left to challenge the Sentinels against the wishes of his teammates. However, he single-handedly dispatched many of the Sentinels and destroyed Master Mold himself by shape-shifting into Omega Red, Sasquatch, Angel, and Longshot and mimicking their powers. Though the team congratulated him and welcomed him back to the team full-time, Morph still felt insecure about his mental state and declined. He decided to return to Dr. MacTaggert, promising he would return to the team in peak mental condition. Morph returned for a cameo in the fourth season episode "Beyond Good and Evil (Part 1)", during Scott and Jean Grey's wedding where he was sitting next to Jubilee. Morph's final appearance in the fifth season was in the series finale "Graduation Day", where he briefly appeared mimicking Professor X while the professor was dying due to an illness. He then morphed into Magneto to conclude the scene. Morph appeared to have regained some of his sarcastic sense of humor, indicating an improved mental state and a possible permanent return to the X-Men. The series producer and director Larry Houston revealed that they changed his name to Morph due to Beast Boy's name. A version of Morph appears in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Tom Kenny. This version is similar to the one that appeared in the Exiles ongoing series. Morph appears at the Xavier Institute, providing the player with useful items. References External links Changeling at Marvel.com Kevin Sydney at Marvel Wolo UncannyXmen.net Character Profile on Changeling Characters created by Roy Thomas Comics characters introduced in 1967 Fictional actors Fictional characters with multiple personalities Fictional schoolteachers Male characters in comics Marvel Comics characters who are shapeshifters Marvel Comics LGBT superheroes Marvel Comics male superheroes Marvel Comics mutants Marvel Comics telepaths X-Men members	true	[ "The Special Powers Act may refer to:\n\n The Civil Authorities (Special Powers) Act (Northern Ireland) 1922\n The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of India\n Special Powers Act, 1974 of Bangladesh\n\nSee also \n War Powers Act, also called War Powers Resolution of 1973 of United States", "Powers is the first original television series from the PlayStation Network, and is based on the Powers comic book series. It premiered on March 10, 2015, as an online streaming series. The show depicts humans, known as \"Powers\", who have been granted special abilities that remain hidden until adulthood. The show centres around the character Christian Walker, who was once a hero that had the ability to fly and was known as Diamond.\n\nHe had his powers taken from him by his mentor Wolfe, after which he became a policeman. He is a member of the Powers Division, tasked with dealing with \"Powers\" who commit crimes.\n\nPowers was renewed for a second season of ten episodes, which premiered on May 31, 2016.\n\nSeries overview\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeason 1 (2015)\n\nSeason 2 (2016)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLists of American fantasy television series episodes\nLists of American science fiction television series episodes\nPlayStation Network" ]
[ "Kevin Sydney", "Powers and abilities", "What special powers did he have", "the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses." ]	C_c815ba9adff5461e84b0a46f2710718e_0	What did he do with this power	2	What did Kevin Sydney do with his power?	Kevin Sydney	Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. CANNOTANSWER	Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed.	Kevin Sydney is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth, the character first appeared in The X-Men #35 (Aug. 1967). Sydney first appeared as Changeling, a mutant shapeshifter. He was a short-lived adversary for the X-Men who subsequently joined Professor X and died shortly after, making him the first member of the X-Men to die in action. The character was reintroduced as Morph in the 1990s for X-Men: The Animated Series. An alternate reality version of the character under the codename Morph reappeared in the comics as part of the Exiles in 2001. Publication history The first run of appearances occurred in 1967–1968 when he appeared in The X-Men #37-42 as Changeling. Although dying at the end of this run, he was thought to have been seen as a ghost in Excalibur: The Possession (1991) and returned as a zombie in The Sensational She-Hulk #34-35 (1991–1992). The character was later reintroduced as an easygoing comic-relief character for X-Men: The Animated Series. According to showrunner Eric Lewald's behind-the-scenes book, Previously On X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series, the creators had intended for Thunderbird to be the series' early sacrifice, but they became uncomfortable with the idea of killing off a Native American character. Scanning the X-books for a substitute, the character Changeling was found and repurposed for the series. Sydney's codename was changed to Morph because DC Comics owned the trademark to "Changeling" when the series debuted. Morph's first comic book appearance was 1992's X-Men Adventures #1, which adapted the "Night of the Sentinels" TV pilot. Then in 1995, inspired by the character in the animated series, a new Morph was featured in the "Age of Apocalypse" crossover event, debuting in the one-shot comic X-Men Alpha. The character underwent a drastic change in appearance for this event, appearing white-skinned and hairless. Then in 2001, Marvel introduced an alternate-reality version of this Morph, from Earth-1081. He first appeared in Exiles #1. Fictional character biography Earth-616 character Kevin Sydney, known as "Changeling", originally worked for the villainous organization Factor Three. He acted as the Mutant Master's second-in-command in an effort to trigger World War III. After successfully capturing the heroic X-Men, the Mutant Master is exposed as an extraterrestrial and goes out of control. The mutants of Factor Three ultimately joined with the X-Men to defeat the Mutant Master. Following that group's defeat, Changeling sought to reform. He divulged to Professor X that he was suffering from an unspecified terminal illness with only a few months left to live and wished to atone for his misdeeds. Professor X recruited Changeling to act as a stand-in, unbeknownst to the X-Men, while the Professor isolated himself to prepare a defense against the alien Z'Nox's invasion. Changeling, masquerading as Professor X, led the X-Men's efforts to defeat the Subterranean Grotesk. He was mortally wounded in battle with Grotesk by the explosion of an oscillotron machine and, consequently, died preventing the destruction of Earth. The X-Men mourned the loss of Professor X until it was later revealed that it was, in fact, Changeling. When the mystical Darkhold was recreated, Changeling's spirit used the opportunity to possess Meggan. Angry that he used his remaining time helping the X-Men instead of seeking a cure for himself, Changeling sought revenge against Professor X. However, Merlyn later admits that the encounter was merely fantasy, having orchestrated the event to prepare Excalibur. Changeling is later raised from the dead as a zombie by Black Talon to form part of the team X-Humed (which also consisted of Harry Leland, Living Diamond, and Scaleface), and used to attack She-Hulk. He is able to break Talon's control of him long enough to allow She-Hulk to win and lay the zombies back to rest. Earth-1081 character Morph is a hero from Earth-1081 who was a member of the New Mutants, X-Men, and Avengers. He was a unique son of loving parents. Early on in life he managed to use his powers, and was able to give everyone what they wanted from him. Morph always used his power to joke around and keep everyone at ease with him, only comfortable to be himself around his parents. His mother died of lung cancer and Morph tried in every way to cheer up his emotionally distraught father (often acting in a childish way whenever his father wanted him to act serious), who, unable to let his suffering go, chose to enroll his son in a boarding school; luckily, that school happened to be the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Promoted to the X-Men, Morph's sense of humor initially grated upon the much more serious team but eventually his humor and humility won them over. He was instrumental in many of the team's victories and was chosen to be part of a pilot program with the Avengers, along with the Beast, as a public representative of mutant-kind. Morph would return to the X-Men because, in his own words, "he missed his freaky mutant brothers and sisters." On a subsequent mission, Morph and the rest of the X-Men were facing off against a threat known only as Stonehenge when Morph became unhinged from time. The Exiles After becoming unhinged from time, the mysterious Timebroker appeared to him, explaining that his unhinging was the result of a chain of events that caused his reality to change. In that new reality a wounded Morph is unable to maintain his form, and is in a coma, being only a white muddy substance in Beast's lab. Hoping to save his own future, he becomes a member, and comic relief, of the Exiles, a group of universe-hopping heroes trying to save realities from ripples and alteration. Morph is a founding member of the Exiles and after Blink was removed from the group between issue #22 and #42 and Mimic was killed in issue #73, Morph is the only original member remaining throughout the series. He soon befriended the mutant Sunfire, and her death left him emotionally wrecked. Mojo's World The Exiles battled on, fixing reality after reality and struggling to keep it together. Following one of these missions the team was kidnapped by Mojo, the insane evil dictator of the Mojoverse. Mojo considered Morph the best entertainer he had ever seen and brought him back to entertain the masses. If he didn't, Mojo would kill his fellow Exile, Nocturne. Eventually, Nocturne was able to escape and set Morph free. Mojo went crazy and threatened to kill Morph's friends. An enraged Morph was on the verge of killing Mojo when the Timebroker stopped them. The Timebroker revealed Mojo had disrupted time but he was a necessary evil and could not be killed. Weapon X Morph continued to be the heart of the team until a mission in which Mimic was taken over by a Brood egg. During the battle, he killed Sunfire. Mimic was eventually cured but Morph was enraged. He was devastated by Sunfire's death and told Mimic he should have killed himself rather than let something like this happen. Morph stormed off and threatened to leave the team. Magik, an unlikely ally, followed and tried to calm him. The two connected and despite her past attitude during missions, Morph realized Illyana was just a scared girl trying to get home. He remained angry with Mimic but helped his team fight against the rogue reality-hopping team, Weapon X. Before the battle began, Magik attempted to switch sides, believing her team was weaker. Hyperion, the self-appointed leader of Weapon X, snapped her neck and Morph was driven into a rage. He attacked Hyperion, who attempted to blast Morph with his eyebeams, but Mimic saved him. During the brawl with Weapon X, Morph fought against an evil Ms. Marvel. Their battle caused a building to fall in on them, killing Ms. Marvel but Morph was able to survive. The Exiles were triumphant and the Timebroker told Morph he could finally go home. His mission was fulfilled. Morph considered the offer but asked if he could stay with his team. He realized they needed him and he could not leave them behind. The Timebroker agreed; Morph asked him not to tell the rest of the Exiles of his decision. Morph and Mimic reconciled since he realized that Sunfire's death was not Mimic's fault and that the Brood was controlling him. The team moved on. Proteus Morph helped the team take down Proteus by impersonating the Maestro and weakening Proteus with a steel strip in his head. Morph went to take down Proteus but Proteus knocked the steel plate out of his head and took over Morph's body in issue #80. When the Exiles tracked him to the "Heroes Reborn" world, cosmic entities "O" and "K" kidnapped him, saying his presence has tipped the balance of power. Using a tiara hooked to a brainwasher device, his teammate Blink managed if not to restore his consciousness, to brainwash Proteus, forcing him to act like Morph, and access to only Morph's memories, functionally "bringing him again to life." With Proteus trapped and believing he is Morph, he remained an Exile to continue fixing damaged realities. Considering Morph's body does not burn out like other hosts, Morph's consciousness is still active beneath Proteus. Also, Proteus is immune to metal while in Morph's body, since wearing a metal tiara during the "Heroes Reborn" world did not kill him. However, concerns about some discrepancies in "Morph's" behavior forced his teammates to plan regular brainwashings with the same device, and, eventually, put him in stasis whenever his behavior would change again. However, that device was destroyed when Psylocke and Sabretooth fought so intensely that they shook the Crystal Palace, causing a bookcase to fall on Morph's head, shattering the device. With the device shattered, it was only a matter of time before Proteus would re-emerge. During a confrontation where Proteus reawakened, he found himself lacking in power to defeat the adversary. About to be crushed, Proteus shouted aloud his desire to stay alive. In a vision, he saw a figure, almost identical to his own true, energy form, telling him to take its hand, and he would survive. Upon doing so, Proteus found himself full of even greater power, using it to defeat his god-like enemy. Afterward, it was revealed that this being was the personality and soul of the true Morph, having been in limbo, gaining strength within Proteus and his own body, who had before only been able to speak a few sentences through Proteus' control. Revealing to Proteus that he had the ability to eject him from his body, Morph gave Proteus the chance to work together and share his body and their powers, in order to do more good, something which Morph had discovered Proteus desired deep within him. Proteus accepted, and the two now work together harmoniously, better than either could be alone. However, soon after, when the New Exiles became immersed within the Crystal Palace, Proteus was absorbed in Morph's place, freeing Morph once and for all. Powers and abilities Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-Doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. Other versions Changeling is the character's codename in the contiguous Marvel Universe, Earth-616. However, the character's reinvention as Morph in the X-Men animated series raised his profile such that alternate versions of the character, now also named Morph, began to appear in stories set in other universes. Age of Apocalypse In the Age of Apocalypse (AoA), Morph was, like his "regular Marvel Universe" counterpart Changeling, an early recruit of the X-Men. Unlike Changeling, Kevin Sydney of AoA never died while impersonating Professor X, because in the Age of Apocalypse Xavier died before the X-Men were ever founded. In the AoA timeline, Morph often agitated his teammates with his off-the-wall sense of humor and inappropriate timing; he describes himself as wanting to die with a smile on his face when his time comes. Despite his happy-go-lucky attitude, Morph has displayed signs of a softer, more empathetic side several times. For example, he morphed into Sabretooth in an effort to comfort Blink while she doubted her abilities, and he later gave Rogue the strength to endure against the horseman Holocaust by acting as her son. Shortly after the defeat of Apocalypse, he accompanied fellow X-Men Iceman, Wildchild and Exodus on an unspecified mission, during which they disappeared. Their fate has yet to be revealed, except for Wildchild, who has since joined a new team of Exiles. The Lost Generation A Morph is also seen as a member of First Line, set in Earth-616 but in the period after World War II. In other media Changeling appears in X-Men TV series, voiced by Ron Rubin. Named Morph, he appears as a "throwaway" character for the writers to kill in the opening story arc to sell the stark nature of the series. Changeling (Morph) was chosen because of his past ties to the X-Men, as well as his long absence from Marvel Comics. Being a deceased minor character in Marvel canon, he was a "blank slate" and the writers were free to do with him as they wanted without fear of reprisal from fans of the character. Morph's death was intended to be permanent, but he gained unexpected popularity and was brought back. Sydney's codename had to be changed from Changeling to Morph as DC Comics had trademarked the Changeling name for the character, who is also known as Beast Boy of Teen Titans fame. In the first season, Morph was a member of the X-Men and a close friend of Wolverine, who claimed only Morph could make him laugh. In the series' second episode, Morph was assumed to be slain by Sentinels, leaving Wolverine distraught. Wolverine blamed Cyclops for leaving Morph behind but later overcame it, having been desensitized to seeing friends die. Morph reappeared in the second season as a recurring villain who was driven progressively mad by memories of his death. Morph's psyche had been divided into two personalities; one who loved his X-teammates and one who hated them for leaving him behind. He embarked on a guerrilla campaign in the X-Mansion, posing as several members of the X-Men to trap, injure, or otherwise incapacitate his former teammates. Wolverine, shocked at seeing his friend alive, tried to reason with Morph, assuring him that he was still a friend and ally and that Cyclops acted in the best interest of the team as a whole. Morph refused to accept the explanation and escaped in the Blackbird. Upon arriving on Muir Island, it is revealed that Mister Sinister had revived him, but with control implants that effectively brainwashed him. The ensuing battle would see Morph betray Sinister, ineffectively shooting him in the back after Cyclops assured Morph he was still an X-Man. After the battle, Morph fled Muir Island, still unable to accept the camaraderie of his former team. Wolverine embarked on a personal quest to find Morph and help him, but after Morph forcibly resisted, Wolverine abandoned his quest and decided Morph was best left to sort things out on his own. In the second-season finale "Reunion (Part 2)", Morph provided a tip that led the X-Men to a then-final confrontation with Mister Sinister. Sinister reactivated Morph's implant during the battle and once again forced him to betray the X-Men. Morph was poised to fire a laser weapon at Professor X and Cyclops until Professor X slips into Morph's mind and reminds him he's an X-Man. Morph, again, breaks free of Sinister's control and blasts him instead, shattering the arch-villain. Professor X then took Morph back to the X-Mansion and finally removed his implants, but determined that the psychological damage needed much more rehabilitation. Morph made cameos in two episodes during the third season as a patient on Muir Island; once in a hospital bed and once in a wheelchair as Cyclops and Wolverine were leaving the island. In the fourth season, Morph was the focal character in the episode "Courage". With the help of Moira MacTaggert, Morph showed significant improvement in overcoming his mental instability and eventually returned to the X-Men. When a terrorist strike interrupted his homecoming, he engaged in a scout mission with his friend Wolverine where they discovered Sentinels had once again been constructed. Morph fell victim to a flashback memory of his death at the hands of a Sentinel and was paralyzed by fear. Later, his fear also prevented him from acting when Master Mold abducted Professor X. Overcoming his guilt and fighting his fear, Morph left to challenge the Sentinels against the wishes of his teammates. However, he single-handedly dispatched many of the Sentinels and destroyed Master Mold himself by shape-shifting into Omega Red, Sasquatch, Angel, and Longshot and mimicking their powers. Though the team congratulated him and welcomed him back to the team full-time, Morph still felt insecure about his mental state and declined. He decided to return to Dr. MacTaggert, promising he would return to the team in peak mental condition. Morph returned for a cameo in the fourth season episode "Beyond Good and Evil (Part 1)", during Scott and Jean Grey's wedding where he was sitting next to Jubilee. Morph's final appearance in the fifth season was in the series finale "Graduation Day", where he briefly appeared mimicking Professor X while the professor was dying due to an illness. He then morphed into Magneto to conclude the scene. Morph appeared to have regained some of his sarcastic sense of humor, indicating an improved mental state and a possible permanent return to the X-Men. The series producer and director Larry Houston revealed that they changed his name to Morph due to Beast Boy's name. A version of Morph appears in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Tom Kenny. This version is similar to the one that appeared in the Exiles ongoing series. Morph appears at the Xavier Institute, providing the player with useful items. References External links Changeling at Marvel.com Kevin Sydney at Marvel Wolo UncannyXmen.net Character Profile on Changeling Characters created by Roy Thomas Comics characters introduced in 1967 Fictional actors Fictional characters with multiple personalities Fictional schoolteachers Male characters in comics Marvel Comics characters who are shapeshifters Marvel Comics LGBT superheroes Marvel Comics male superheroes Marvel Comics mutants Marvel Comics telepaths X-Men members	true	[ "is a real-time strategy game for the PlayStation Portable. The game centers on creating mazes and monsters to help defend a demon lord from heroes seeking to capture him.\n\nThe game was released in North America exclusively as a download game on the PlayStation Store, under the title Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This?. However, on February 9, 2010, NIS America revealed it would be changing the game's name to avoid conflict with the Batman franchise. The game was re-released on April 22, 2010 on the PlayStation Network after it was removed to make the changes, while its sequel, What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? 2, had been delayed to May 4, 2010.\n\nGameplay \nUsing a limited number of \"Dig Power\" and a pickaxe, the player must dig and create a dungeon, and populate it with monsters to defend the demon lord Badman from heroes. More steps are given when a stage is cleared, based on how well the player did. The \"Dig Power\" has another function, however: it is also used to upgrade monsters. The player is given some time to dig out the dungeon and create monsters before a hero comes to capture the demon lord. When the hero is about to enter the dungeon, the player must take Badman and change his location, preferably making it harder for the hero to find him. When the hero gets into the dungeon, he will navigate the dungeon until he finds and captures the demon lord. The hero will fight against any monster that gets in his way.\n\nWhen the hero captures the demon lord, he will retrace the same path, taking the demon lord with him. It is possible to create monsters to save the demon lord during this.\n\nMonsters are created depending on the number of nutrients or mana in the blocks of the dungeon. If the block is covered with moss, and the player uses his pickaxe on this block, a slime will be released. These slimes move around the dungeon, absorbing, and expelling the nutrients from adjacent blocks, creating blocks with more and more nutrients. Once a block obtains enough nutrients, it will change textures depending on just how much is in the block. Stronger, more powerful monsters will be released the more nutrients a block has. The death of monsters or heroes, along with some of the heroes' actions, has varied effects on the surrounding ground. For example, if a hero casts a spell, the surrounding blocks will be filled with mana, which can be used to create different monsters. More so, if that hero dies, the remainder of his mana is expelled onto surrounding blocks.\n\nDevelopment \nThis game is mostly unknown outside Japan and is considered to be a cult hit. A sequel was released entitled Yuusha no Kuse Ni Namaikida or2, which features almost identical gameplay with a few different additions and changes. In April 2009, it was announced that the game was released in North America under the name Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This? On February 9, 2010, the name was changed again to What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord!?, to avoid infringing upon the Batman IP. A third game, No Heroes Allowed! was released in late 2010.\n\nReception \n\nWith the exception of Japan, Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This? received average reviews. \"Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! is an extremely quirky, challenging title that has a few frustrating elements that keep it from being a stellar downloadable,\" IGN said about the game. Game Revolution gave the game a C-, stating, \"A weird and unique freak of nature amongst the mundane shooters and RPGs with their played out themes of morality, but it's trying too hard to be clever.\" The game currently holds 69/100 on Metacritic.\n\nSequels\nThere have been two sequels to What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? released on PSP: What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? 2 and No Heroes Allowed!. A third sequel, No Heroes Allowed: No Puzzles Either!, was released in 2014 for PlayStation Vita, with a fourth, No Heroes Allowed! VR, released on October 14 2017 for PlayStation VR.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nOfficial website\n\n2007 video games\nGod games\nPlayStation Portable games\nPlayStation Portable-only games\nReal-time strategy video games\nSony Interactive Entertainment games\nVideo games developed in Japan", "The situation, task, action, result (STAR) format is a technique used by interviewers to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires. \n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenging situation in which you found yourself.\n Task: What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions? Did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience? Have you used this learning since?\n\nThe STAR technique is similar to the SOARA technique.\n\nThe STAR technique is also often complemented with an additional R on the end STARR or STAR(R) with the last R resembling reflection. This R aims to gather insight and interviewee's ability to learn and iterate. Whereas the STAR reveals how and what kind of result on an objective was achieved, the STARR with the additional R helps the interviewer to understand what the interviewee learned from the experience and how they would assimilate experiences. The interviewee can define what they would do (differently, the same, or better) next time being posed with a situation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nThe ‘STAR’ technique to answer behavioral interview questions\nThe STAR method explained\n\nJob interview" ]
[ "Kevin Sydney", "Powers and abilities", "What special powers did he have", "the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses.", "What did he do with this power", "Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed." ]	C_c815ba9adff5461e84b0a46f2710718e_0	Did he fight anyone using powers	3	Did Kevin Sydney fight anyone using his shape-shift powers?	Kevin Sydney	Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	Kevin Sydney is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth, the character first appeared in The X-Men #35 (Aug. 1967). Sydney first appeared as Changeling, a mutant shapeshifter. He was a short-lived adversary for the X-Men who subsequently joined Professor X and died shortly after, making him the first member of the X-Men to die in action. The character was reintroduced as Morph in the 1990s for X-Men: The Animated Series. An alternate reality version of the character under the codename Morph reappeared in the comics as part of the Exiles in 2001. Publication history The first run of appearances occurred in 1967–1968 when he appeared in The X-Men #37-42 as Changeling. Although dying at the end of this run, he was thought to have been seen as a ghost in Excalibur: The Possession (1991) and returned as a zombie in The Sensational She-Hulk #34-35 (1991–1992). The character was later reintroduced as an easygoing comic-relief character for X-Men: The Animated Series. According to showrunner Eric Lewald's behind-the-scenes book, Previously On X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series, the creators had intended for Thunderbird to be the series' early sacrifice, but they became uncomfortable with the idea of killing off a Native American character. Scanning the X-books for a substitute, the character Changeling was found and repurposed for the series. Sydney's codename was changed to Morph because DC Comics owned the trademark to "Changeling" when the series debuted. Morph's first comic book appearance was 1992's X-Men Adventures #1, which adapted the "Night of the Sentinels" TV pilot. Then in 1995, inspired by the character in the animated series, a new Morph was featured in the "Age of Apocalypse" crossover event, debuting in the one-shot comic X-Men Alpha. The character underwent a drastic change in appearance for this event, appearing white-skinned and hairless. Then in 2001, Marvel introduced an alternate-reality version of this Morph, from Earth-1081. He first appeared in Exiles #1. Fictional character biography Earth-616 character Kevin Sydney, known as "Changeling", originally worked for the villainous organization Factor Three. He acted as the Mutant Master's second-in-command in an effort to trigger World War III. After successfully capturing the heroic X-Men, the Mutant Master is exposed as an extraterrestrial and goes out of control. The mutants of Factor Three ultimately joined with the X-Men to defeat the Mutant Master. Following that group's defeat, Changeling sought to reform. He divulged to Professor X that he was suffering from an unspecified terminal illness with only a few months left to live and wished to atone for his misdeeds. Professor X recruited Changeling to act as a stand-in, unbeknownst to the X-Men, while the Professor isolated himself to prepare a defense against the alien Z'Nox's invasion. Changeling, masquerading as Professor X, led the X-Men's efforts to defeat the Subterranean Grotesk. He was mortally wounded in battle with Grotesk by the explosion of an oscillotron machine and, consequently, died preventing the destruction of Earth. The X-Men mourned the loss of Professor X until it was later revealed that it was, in fact, Changeling. When the mystical Darkhold was recreated, Changeling's spirit used the opportunity to possess Meggan. Angry that he used his remaining time helping the X-Men instead of seeking a cure for himself, Changeling sought revenge against Professor X. However, Merlyn later admits that the encounter was merely fantasy, having orchestrated the event to prepare Excalibur. Changeling is later raised from the dead as a zombie by Black Talon to form part of the team X-Humed (which also consisted of Harry Leland, Living Diamond, and Scaleface), and used to attack She-Hulk. He is able to break Talon's control of him long enough to allow She-Hulk to win and lay the zombies back to rest. Earth-1081 character Morph is a hero from Earth-1081 who was a member of the New Mutants, X-Men, and Avengers. He was a unique son of loving parents. Early on in life he managed to use his powers, and was able to give everyone what they wanted from him. Morph always used his power to joke around and keep everyone at ease with him, only comfortable to be himself around his parents. His mother died of lung cancer and Morph tried in every way to cheer up his emotionally distraught father (often acting in a childish way whenever his father wanted him to act serious), who, unable to let his suffering go, chose to enroll his son in a boarding school; luckily, that school happened to be the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Promoted to the X-Men, Morph's sense of humor initially grated upon the much more serious team but eventually his humor and humility won them over. He was instrumental in many of the team's victories and was chosen to be part of a pilot program with the Avengers, along with the Beast, as a public representative of mutant-kind. Morph would return to the X-Men because, in his own words, "he missed his freaky mutant brothers and sisters." On a subsequent mission, Morph and the rest of the X-Men were facing off against a threat known only as Stonehenge when Morph became unhinged from time. The Exiles After becoming unhinged from time, the mysterious Timebroker appeared to him, explaining that his unhinging was the result of a chain of events that caused his reality to change. In that new reality a wounded Morph is unable to maintain his form, and is in a coma, being only a white muddy substance in Beast's lab. Hoping to save his own future, he becomes a member, and comic relief, of the Exiles, a group of universe-hopping heroes trying to save realities from ripples and alteration. Morph is a founding member of the Exiles and after Blink was removed from the group between issue #22 and #42 and Mimic was killed in issue #73, Morph is the only original member remaining throughout the series. He soon befriended the mutant Sunfire, and her death left him emotionally wrecked. Mojo's World The Exiles battled on, fixing reality after reality and struggling to keep it together. Following one of these missions the team was kidnapped by Mojo, the insane evil dictator of the Mojoverse. Mojo considered Morph the best entertainer he had ever seen and brought him back to entertain the masses. If he didn't, Mojo would kill his fellow Exile, Nocturne. Eventually, Nocturne was able to escape and set Morph free. Mojo went crazy and threatened to kill Morph's friends. An enraged Morph was on the verge of killing Mojo when the Timebroker stopped them. The Timebroker revealed Mojo had disrupted time but he was a necessary evil and could not be killed. Weapon X Morph continued to be the heart of the team until a mission in which Mimic was taken over by a Brood egg. During the battle, he killed Sunfire. Mimic was eventually cured but Morph was enraged. He was devastated by Sunfire's death and told Mimic he should have killed himself rather than let something like this happen. Morph stormed off and threatened to leave the team. Magik, an unlikely ally, followed and tried to calm him. The two connected and despite her past attitude during missions, Morph realized Illyana was just a scared girl trying to get home. He remained angry with Mimic but helped his team fight against the rogue reality-hopping team, Weapon X. Before the battle began, Magik attempted to switch sides, believing her team was weaker. Hyperion, the self-appointed leader of Weapon X, snapped her neck and Morph was driven into a rage. He attacked Hyperion, who attempted to blast Morph with his eyebeams, but Mimic saved him. During the brawl with Weapon X, Morph fought against an evil Ms. Marvel. Their battle caused a building to fall in on them, killing Ms. Marvel but Morph was able to survive. The Exiles were triumphant and the Timebroker told Morph he could finally go home. His mission was fulfilled. Morph considered the offer but asked if he could stay with his team. He realized they needed him and he could not leave them behind. The Timebroker agreed; Morph asked him not to tell the rest of the Exiles of his decision. Morph and Mimic reconciled since he realized that Sunfire's death was not Mimic's fault and that the Brood was controlling him. The team moved on. Proteus Morph helped the team take down Proteus by impersonating the Maestro and weakening Proteus with a steel strip in his head. Morph went to take down Proteus but Proteus knocked the steel plate out of his head and took over Morph's body in issue #80. When the Exiles tracked him to the "Heroes Reborn" world, cosmic entities "O" and "K" kidnapped him, saying his presence has tipped the balance of power. Using a tiara hooked to a brainwasher device, his teammate Blink managed if not to restore his consciousness, to brainwash Proteus, forcing him to act like Morph, and access to only Morph's memories, functionally "bringing him again to life." With Proteus trapped and believing he is Morph, he remained an Exile to continue fixing damaged realities. Considering Morph's body does not burn out like other hosts, Morph's consciousness is still active beneath Proteus. Also, Proteus is immune to metal while in Morph's body, since wearing a metal tiara during the "Heroes Reborn" world did not kill him. However, concerns about some discrepancies in "Morph's" behavior forced his teammates to plan regular brainwashings with the same device, and, eventually, put him in stasis whenever his behavior would change again. However, that device was destroyed when Psylocke and Sabretooth fought so intensely that they shook the Crystal Palace, causing a bookcase to fall on Morph's head, shattering the device. With the device shattered, it was only a matter of time before Proteus would re-emerge. During a confrontation where Proteus reawakened, he found himself lacking in power to defeat the adversary. About to be crushed, Proteus shouted aloud his desire to stay alive. In a vision, he saw a figure, almost identical to his own true, energy form, telling him to take its hand, and he would survive. Upon doing so, Proteus found himself full of even greater power, using it to defeat his god-like enemy. Afterward, it was revealed that this being was the personality and soul of the true Morph, having been in limbo, gaining strength within Proteus and his own body, who had before only been able to speak a few sentences through Proteus' control. Revealing to Proteus that he had the ability to eject him from his body, Morph gave Proteus the chance to work together and share his body and their powers, in order to do more good, something which Morph had discovered Proteus desired deep within him. Proteus accepted, and the two now work together harmoniously, better than either could be alone. However, soon after, when the New Exiles became immersed within the Crystal Palace, Proteus was absorbed in Morph's place, freeing Morph once and for all. Powers and abilities Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-Doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. Other versions Changeling is the character's codename in the contiguous Marvel Universe, Earth-616. However, the character's reinvention as Morph in the X-Men animated series raised his profile such that alternate versions of the character, now also named Morph, began to appear in stories set in other universes. Age of Apocalypse In the Age of Apocalypse (AoA), Morph was, like his "regular Marvel Universe" counterpart Changeling, an early recruit of the X-Men. Unlike Changeling, Kevin Sydney of AoA never died while impersonating Professor X, because in the Age of Apocalypse Xavier died before the X-Men were ever founded. In the AoA timeline, Morph often agitated his teammates with his off-the-wall sense of humor and inappropriate timing; he describes himself as wanting to die with a smile on his face when his time comes. Despite his happy-go-lucky attitude, Morph has displayed signs of a softer, more empathetic side several times. For example, he morphed into Sabretooth in an effort to comfort Blink while she doubted her abilities, and he later gave Rogue the strength to endure against the horseman Holocaust by acting as her son. Shortly after the defeat of Apocalypse, he accompanied fellow X-Men Iceman, Wildchild and Exodus on an unspecified mission, during which they disappeared. Their fate has yet to be revealed, except for Wildchild, who has since joined a new team of Exiles. The Lost Generation A Morph is also seen as a member of First Line, set in Earth-616 but in the period after World War II. In other media Changeling appears in X-Men TV series, voiced by Ron Rubin. Named Morph, he appears as a "throwaway" character for the writers to kill in the opening story arc to sell the stark nature of the series. Changeling (Morph) was chosen because of his past ties to the X-Men, as well as his long absence from Marvel Comics. Being a deceased minor character in Marvel canon, he was a "blank slate" and the writers were free to do with him as they wanted without fear of reprisal from fans of the character. Morph's death was intended to be permanent, but he gained unexpected popularity and was brought back. Sydney's codename had to be changed from Changeling to Morph as DC Comics had trademarked the Changeling name for the character, who is also known as Beast Boy of Teen Titans fame. In the first season, Morph was a member of the X-Men and a close friend of Wolverine, who claimed only Morph could make him laugh. In the series' second episode, Morph was assumed to be slain by Sentinels, leaving Wolverine distraught. Wolverine blamed Cyclops for leaving Morph behind but later overcame it, having been desensitized to seeing friends die. Morph reappeared in the second season as a recurring villain who was driven progressively mad by memories of his death. Morph's psyche had been divided into two personalities; one who loved his X-teammates and one who hated them for leaving him behind. He embarked on a guerrilla campaign in the X-Mansion, posing as several members of the X-Men to trap, injure, or otherwise incapacitate his former teammates. Wolverine, shocked at seeing his friend alive, tried to reason with Morph, assuring him that he was still a friend and ally and that Cyclops acted in the best interest of the team as a whole. Morph refused to accept the explanation and escaped in the Blackbird. Upon arriving on Muir Island, it is revealed that Mister Sinister had revived him, but with control implants that effectively brainwashed him. The ensuing battle would see Morph betray Sinister, ineffectively shooting him in the back after Cyclops assured Morph he was still an X-Man. After the battle, Morph fled Muir Island, still unable to accept the camaraderie of his former team. Wolverine embarked on a personal quest to find Morph and help him, but after Morph forcibly resisted, Wolverine abandoned his quest and decided Morph was best left to sort things out on his own. In the second-season finale "Reunion (Part 2)", Morph provided a tip that led the X-Men to a then-final confrontation with Mister Sinister. Sinister reactivated Morph's implant during the battle and once again forced him to betray the X-Men. Morph was poised to fire a laser weapon at Professor X and Cyclops until Professor X slips into Morph's mind and reminds him he's an X-Man. Morph, again, breaks free of Sinister's control and blasts him instead, shattering the arch-villain. Professor X then took Morph back to the X-Mansion and finally removed his implants, but determined that the psychological damage needed much more rehabilitation. Morph made cameos in two episodes during the third season as a patient on Muir Island; once in a hospital bed and once in a wheelchair as Cyclops and Wolverine were leaving the island. In the fourth season, Morph was the focal character in the episode "Courage". With the help of Moira MacTaggert, Morph showed significant improvement in overcoming his mental instability and eventually returned to the X-Men. When a terrorist strike interrupted his homecoming, he engaged in a scout mission with his friend Wolverine where they discovered Sentinels had once again been constructed. Morph fell victim to a flashback memory of his death at the hands of a Sentinel and was paralyzed by fear. Later, his fear also prevented him from acting when Master Mold abducted Professor X. Overcoming his guilt and fighting his fear, Morph left to challenge the Sentinels against the wishes of his teammates. However, he single-handedly dispatched many of the Sentinels and destroyed Master Mold himself by shape-shifting into Omega Red, Sasquatch, Angel, and Longshot and mimicking their powers. Though the team congratulated him and welcomed him back to the team full-time, Morph still felt insecure about his mental state and declined. He decided to return to Dr. MacTaggert, promising he would return to the team in peak mental condition. Morph returned for a cameo in the fourth season episode "Beyond Good and Evil (Part 1)", during Scott and Jean Grey's wedding where he was sitting next to Jubilee. Morph's final appearance in the fifth season was in the series finale "Graduation Day", where he briefly appeared mimicking Professor X while the professor was dying due to an illness. He then morphed into Magneto to conclude the scene. Morph appeared to have regained some of his sarcastic sense of humor, indicating an improved mental state and a possible permanent return to the X-Men. The series producer and director Larry Houston revealed that they changed his name to Morph due to Beast Boy's name. A version of Morph appears in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Tom Kenny. This version is similar to the one that appeared in the Exiles ongoing series. Morph appears at the Xavier Institute, providing the player with useful items. References External links Changeling at Marvel.com Kevin Sydney at Marvel Wolo UncannyXmen.net Character Profile on Changeling Characters created by Roy Thomas Comics characters introduced in 1967 Fictional actors Fictional characters with multiple personalities Fictional schoolteachers Male characters in comics Marvel Comics characters who are shapeshifters Marvel Comics LGBT superheroes Marvel Comics male superheroes Marvel Comics mutants Marvel Comics telepaths X-Men members	false	[ "Executive Order 13942 is the 178th executive order signed by former U.S. President Donald Trump on August 6, 2020, which directs the Secretary of Commerce to prohibit all transactions between anyone under the jurisdiction the United States and ByteDance, the parent company of a social media platform called TikTok.\n\nBackground\n\nProvisions \nProhibits all transactions between ByteDance and anyone under the jurisdiction of the United States\nEmpowers the United States Secretary of Commerce to enforce this rule, using the powers granted by IEEPA\n\nReferences\n\nExecutive orders of Donald Trump", "Flash Bomba is a comic book superhero created by Filipino graphic novelist Mars Ravelo.\n\nFictional character biography\nPaul Lester Sison AKA Flash Bomba was a man who lost the use of his legs in an accident. Because of this, he trained the rest of his body to an incredible level of athletic ability and did everyday stuff using his hands to compensate for the loss of his ability to walk. Eventually, he heard a rumour about a \"Tikbalang\" (a mythological creature with the body of a man and the head of a horse) who would grant powers to anyone who could defeat it in battle. Flash Bomba challenged the Tikbalang and set a time and place for the battle. He defeated it despite his physical limitations and the Tikbalang granted him superpowers. But as a jest, the Tikbalang gave him powers that made him look awkward. Flash Bomba was given the Tikbalang's magic hair, said talisman () allowing him to transform into his super-powered version - a being with large hands and feet, as well as superhuman powers. Using his new abilities, he became a crimefighter.\n\nPowers and abilities\n\nFlash Bomba has superhuman strength, the ability to walk up walls, to generate \"thunderclaps\" using his large hands or block almost anything with same. In spite of his enlarged extremities, Flash Bomba is not in the least clumsy, and is a skilled unarmed fighter. He can also mystically summon \"devil horses\" to create a stampede.\n\nIn other media\n\nTelevision\n\nThe 2009 television series Komiks Presents: Flash Bomba stars Luis Manzano. Reno Maniquis redid the logo and modernized the costumes.\n\nFlash Bomba also stars Roxanne Guinoo, Sid Lucero, Lito Pimentel, Nanette Inventor, Alan Paule, Rio Locsin, and Empoy Marquez.\n\nIsang Lakas\nFlash Bomba was part of the \"Isang Lakas\" team composed of past Komiks Presents heroes such as Varga, Tiny Tony and Kapitan Boom. The Isang Lakas crew is a superhero group conceptualized by ABS-CBN inspired by America's Super Friends and Justice League.\n\nCollected editions\n\nSee also \nIsang Lakas\nList of Filipino superheroes\n\nExternal links\n\nFlash Bomba at the International Catalogue of Superheroes\nPhilippine Comics - The most comprehensive library of Filipino comics on the internet.\n\nReferences\n\nFictional Filipino people\nTelevision superheroes\nComics superheroes\nFilipino superheroes\nFilipino comics characters" ]
[ "Kevin Sydney", "Powers and abilities", "What special powers did he have", "the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses.", "What did he do with this power", "Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed.", "Did he fight anyone using powers", "I don't know." ]	C_c815ba9adff5461e84b0a46f2710718e_0	What else can you tell me of interest	4	In addition to his powers, what else can you tell me of interest about Kevin Sydney?	Kevin Sydney	Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. CANNOTANSWER	Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities.	Kevin Sydney is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Werner Roth, the character first appeared in The X-Men #35 (Aug. 1967). Sydney first appeared as Changeling, a mutant shapeshifter. He was a short-lived adversary for the X-Men who subsequently joined Professor X and died shortly after, making him the first member of the X-Men to die in action. The character was reintroduced as Morph in the 1990s for X-Men: The Animated Series. An alternate reality version of the character under the codename Morph reappeared in the comics as part of the Exiles in 2001. Publication history The first run of appearances occurred in 1967–1968 when he appeared in The X-Men #37-42 as Changeling. Although dying at the end of this run, he was thought to have been seen as a ghost in Excalibur: The Possession (1991) and returned as a zombie in The Sensational She-Hulk #34-35 (1991–1992). The character was later reintroduced as an easygoing comic-relief character for X-Men: The Animated Series. According to showrunner Eric Lewald's behind-the-scenes book, Previously On X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series, the creators had intended for Thunderbird to be the series' early sacrifice, but they became uncomfortable with the idea of killing off a Native American character. Scanning the X-books for a substitute, the character Changeling was found and repurposed for the series. Sydney's codename was changed to Morph because DC Comics owned the trademark to "Changeling" when the series debuted. Morph's first comic book appearance was 1992's X-Men Adventures #1, which adapted the "Night of the Sentinels" TV pilot. Then in 1995, inspired by the character in the animated series, a new Morph was featured in the "Age of Apocalypse" crossover event, debuting in the one-shot comic X-Men Alpha. The character underwent a drastic change in appearance for this event, appearing white-skinned and hairless. Then in 2001, Marvel introduced an alternate-reality version of this Morph, from Earth-1081. He first appeared in Exiles #1. Fictional character biography Earth-616 character Kevin Sydney, known as "Changeling", originally worked for the villainous organization Factor Three. He acted as the Mutant Master's second-in-command in an effort to trigger World War III. After successfully capturing the heroic X-Men, the Mutant Master is exposed as an extraterrestrial and goes out of control. The mutants of Factor Three ultimately joined with the X-Men to defeat the Mutant Master. Following that group's defeat, Changeling sought to reform. He divulged to Professor X that he was suffering from an unspecified terminal illness with only a few months left to live and wished to atone for his misdeeds. Professor X recruited Changeling to act as a stand-in, unbeknownst to the X-Men, while the Professor isolated himself to prepare a defense against the alien Z'Nox's invasion. Changeling, masquerading as Professor X, led the X-Men's efforts to defeat the Subterranean Grotesk. He was mortally wounded in battle with Grotesk by the explosion of an oscillotron machine and, consequently, died preventing the destruction of Earth. The X-Men mourned the loss of Professor X until it was later revealed that it was, in fact, Changeling. When the mystical Darkhold was recreated, Changeling's spirit used the opportunity to possess Meggan. Angry that he used his remaining time helping the X-Men instead of seeking a cure for himself, Changeling sought revenge against Professor X. However, Merlyn later admits that the encounter was merely fantasy, having orchestrated the event to prepare Excalibur. Changeling is later raised from the dead as a zombie by Black Talon to form part of the team X-Humed (which also consisted of Harry Leland, Living Diamond, and Scaleface), and used to attack She-Hulk. He is able to break Talon's control of him long enough to allow She-Hulk to win and lay the zombies back to rest. Earth-1081 character Morph is a hero from Earth-1081 who was a member of the New Mutants, X-Men, and Avengers. He was a unique son of loving parents. Early on in life he managed to use his powers, and was able to give everyone what they wanted from him. Morph always used his power to joke around and keep everyone at ease with him, only comfortable to be himself around his parents. His mother died of lung cancer and Morph tried in every way to cheer up his emotionally distraught father (often acting in a childish way whenever his father wanted him to act serious), who, unable to let his suffering go, chose to enroll his son in a boarding school; luckily, that school happened to be the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Promoted to the X-Men, Morph's sense of humor initially grated upon the much more serious team but eventually his humor and humility won them over. He was instrumental in many of the team's victories and was chosen to be part of a pilot program with the Avengers, along with the Beast, as a public representative of mutant-kind. Morph would return to the X-Men because, in his own words, "he missed his freaky mutant brothers and sisters." On a subsequent mission, Morph and the rest of the X-Men were facing off against a threat known only as Stonehenge when Morph became unhinged from time. The Exiles After becoming unhinged from time, the mysterious Timebroker appeared to him, explaining that his unhinging was the result of a chain of events that caused his reality to change. In that new reality a wounded Morph is unable to maintain his form, and is in a coma, being only a white muddy substance in Beast's lab. Hoping to save his own future, he becomes a member, and comic relief, of the Exiles, a group of universe-hopping heroes trying to save realities from ripples and alteration. Morph is a founding member of the Exiles and after Blink was removed from the group between issue #22 and #42 and Mimic was killed in issue #73, Morph is the only original member remaining throughout the series. He soon befriended the mutant Sunfire, and her death left him emotionally wrecked. Mojo's World The Exiles battled on, fixing reality after reality and struggling to keep it together. Following one of these missions the team was kidnapped by Mojo, the insane evil dictator of the Mojoverse. Mojo considered Morph the best entertainer he had ever seen and brought him back to entertain the masses. If he didn't, Mojo would kill his fellow Exile, Nocturne. Eventually, Nocturne was able to escape and set Morph free. Mojo went crazy and threatened to kill Morph's friends. An enraged Morph was on the verge of killing Mojo when the Timebroker stopped them. The Timebroker revealed Mojo had disrupted time but he was a necessary evil and could not be killed. Weapon X Morph continued to be the heart of the team until a mission in which Mimic was taken over by a Brood egg. During the battle, he killed Sunfire. Mimic was eventually cured but Morph was enraged. He was devastated by Sunfire's death and told Mimic he should have killed himself rather than let something like this happen. Morph stormed off and threatened to leave the team. Magik, an unlikely ally, followed and tried to calm him. The two connected and despite her past attitude during missions, Morph realized Illyana was just a scared girl trying to get home. He remained angry with Mimic but helped his team fight against the rogue reality-hopping team, Weapon X. Before the battle began, Magik attempted to switch sides, believing her team was weaker. Hyperion, the self-appointed leader of Weapon X, snapped her neck and Morph was driven into a rage. He attacked Hyperion, who attempted to blast Morph with his eyebeams, but Mimic saved him. During the brawl with Weapon X, Morph fought against an evil Ms. Marvel. Their battle caused a building to fall in on them, killing Ms. Marvel but Morph was able to survive. The Exiles were triumphant and the Timebroker told Morph he could finally go home. His mission was fulfilled. Morph considered the offer but asked if he could stay with his team. He realized they needed him and he could not leave them behind. The Timebroker agreed; Morph asked him not to tell the rest of the Exiles of his decision. Morph and Mimic reconciled since he realized that Sunfire's death was not Mimic's fault and that the Brood was controlling him. The team moved on. Proteus Morph helped the team take down Proteus by impersonating the Maestro and weakening Proteus with a steel strip in his head. Morph went to take down Proteus but Proteus knocked the steel plate out of his head and took over Morph's body in issue #80. When the Exiles tracked him to the "Heroes Reborn" world, cosmic entities "O" and "K" kidnapped him, saying his presence has tipped the balance of power. Using a tiara hooked to a brainwasher device, his teammate Blink managed if not to restore his consciousness, to brainwash Proteus, forcing him to act like Morph, and access to only Morph's memories, functionally "bringing him again to life." With Proteus trapped and believing he is Morph, he remained an Exile to continue fixing damaged realities. Considering Morph's body does not burn out like other hosts, Morph's consciousness is still active beneath Proteus. Also, Proteus is immune to metal while in Morph's body, since wearing a metal tiara during the "Heroes Reborn" world did not kill him. However, concerns about some discrepancies in "Morph's" behavior forced his teammates to plan regular brainwashings with the same device, and, eventually, put him in stasis whenever his behavior would change again. However, that device was destroyed when Psylocke and Sabretooth fought so intensely that they shook the Crystal Palace, causing a bookcase to fall on Morph's head, shattering the device. With the device shattered, it was only a matter of time before Proteus would re-emerge. During a confrontation where Proteus reawakened, he found himself lacking in power to defeat the adversary. About to be crushed, Proteus shouted aloud his desire to stay alive. In a vision, he saw a figure, almost identical to his own true, energy form, telling him to take its hand, and he would survive. Upon doing so, Proteus found himself full of even greater power, using it to defeat his god-like enemy. Afterward, it was revealed that this being was the personality and soul of the true Morph, having been in limbo, gaining strength within Proteus and his own body, who had before only been able to speak a few sentences through Proteus' control. Revealing to Proteus that he had the ability to eject him from his body, Morph gave Proteus the chance to work together and share his body and their powers, in order to do more good, something which Morph had discovered Proteus desired deep within him. Proteus accepted, and the two now work together harmoniously, better than either could be alone. However, soon after, when the New Exiles became immersed within the Crystal Palace, Proteus was absorbed in Morph's place, freeing Morph once and for all. Powers and abilities Kevin Sydney is a mutant metamorph with the ability to alter his physical appearance and voice at will to resemble that of any person he chooses. His power could also transform the appearance of his costume as well, which was made of unstable molecules. Morph's mutation to shape-shift has also made it so that his body is a Play-Doh-like substance and he can reattach limbs after they have been severed. He has limited telepathic abilities, which (in the original timeline) were enhanced by Professor X. As a side effect, he also gained limited telekinetic abilities. Upon choosing to work together and share his body with the energy mutant Proteus, Morph's powers appear to be amplified, at least enough to defeat a self-proclaimed god. Whether the two have access to Proteus' reality changing abilities has yet to be determined. He has also stated that his mutation gives him a high metabolism and makes him very hormonal. In Exiles #33 Sasquatch said she was never able to detect a scent on Morph and Sabretooth stated that while hunting Proteus in Morph's body, Morph stands out like a sore thumb in a crowd of "normal" people to Sabretooth's senses regardless of his form. It also appears he has the ability to fly as demonstrated in Exiles #27. Due to his shapeshifting ability he does not wear any actual clothing, and he takes joy in pointing this out. Kevin Sydney is a skilled actor, and a highly trained and efficient organizer of subversive activities. He carried various advanced weaponry of alien Siri design belonging to Factor Three, including a ray gun carried in a holster at his side. Though Morph is a prankster who downplays his intelligence, he is deceptively smart. He has a Master's degree in computer engineering, which he earned at Xavier's Institute. Other versions Changeling is the character's codename in the contiguous Marvel Universe, Earth-616. However, the character's reinvention as Morph in the X-Men animated series raised his profile such that alternate versions of the character, now also named Morph, began to appear in stories set in other universes. Age of Apocalypse In the Age of Apocalypse (AoA), Morph was, like his "regular Marvel Universe" counterpart Changeling, an early recruit of the X-Men. Unlike Changeling, Kevin Sydney of AoA never died while impersonating Professor X, because in the Age of Apocalypse Xavier died before the X-Men were ever founded. In the AoA timeline, Morph often agitated his teammates with his off-the-wall sense of humor and inappropriate timing; he describes himself as wanting to die with a smile on his face when his time comes. Despite his happy-go-lucky attitude, Morph has displayed signs of a softer, more empathetic side several times. For example, he morphed into Sabretooth in an effort to comfort Blink while she doubted her abilities, and he later gave Rogue the strength to endure against the horseman Holocaust by acting as her son. Shortly after the defeat of Apocalypse, he accompanied fellow X-Men Iceman, Wildchild and Exodus on an unspecified mission, during which they disappeared. Their fate has yet to be revealed, except for Wildchild, who has since joined a new team of Exiles. The Lost Generation A Morph is also seen as a member of First Line, set in Earth-616 but in the period after World War II. In other media Changeling appears in X-Men TV series, voiced by Ron Rubin. Named Morph, he appears as a "throwaway" character for the writers to kill in the opening story arc to sell the stark nature of the series. Changeling (Morph) was chosen because of his past ties to the X-Men, as well as his long absence from Marvel Comics. Being a deceased minor character in Marvel canon, he was a "blank slate" and the writers were free to do with him as they wanted without fear of reprisal from fans of the character. Morph's death was intended to be permanent, but he gained unexpected popularity and was brought back. Sydney's codename had to be changed from Changeling to Morph as DC Comics had trademarked the Changeling name for the character, who is also known as Beast Boy of Teen Titans fame. In the first season, Morph was a member of the X-Men and a close friend of Wolverine, who claimed only Morph could make him laugh. In the series' second episode, Morph was assumed to be slain by Sentinels, leaving Wolverine distraught. Wolverine blamed Cyclops for leaving Morph behind but later overcame it, having been desensitized to seeing friends die. Morph reappeared in the second season as a recurring villain who was driven progressively mad by memories of his death. Morph's psyche had been divided into two personalities; one who loved his X-teammates and one who hated them for leaving him behind. He embarked on a guerrilla campaign in the X-Mansion, posing as several members of the X-Men to trap, injure, or otherwise incapacitate his former teammates. Wolverine, shocked at seeing his friend alive, tried to reason with Morph, assuring him that he was still a friend and ally and that Cyclops acted in the best interest of the team as a whole. Morph refused to accept the explanation and escaped in the Blackbird. Upon arriving on Muir Island, it is revealed that Mister Sinister had revived him, but with control implants that effectively brainwashed him. The ensuing battle would see Morph betray Sinister, ineffectively shooting him in the back after Cyclops assured Morph he was still an X-Man. After the battle, Morph fled Muir Island, still unable to accept the camaraderie of his former team. Wolverine embarked on a personal quest to find Morph and help him, but after Morph forcibly resisted, Wolverine abandoned his quest and decided Morph was best left to sort things out on his own. In the second-season finale "Reunion (Part 2)", Morph provided a tip that led the X-Men to a then-final confrontation with Mister Sinister. Sinister reactivated Morph's implant during the battle and once again forced him to betray the X-Men. Morph was poised to fire a laser weapon at Professor X and Cyclops until Professor X slips into Morph's mind and reminds him he's an X-Man. Morph, again, breaks free of Sinister's control and blasts him instead, shattering the arch-villain. Professor X then took Morph back to the X-Mansion and finally removed his implants, but determined that the psychological damage needed much more rehabilitation. Morph made cameos in two episodes during the third season as a patient on Muir Island; once in a hospital bed and once in a wheelchair as Cyclops and Wolverine were leaving the island. In the fourth season, Morph was the focal character in the episode "Courage". With the help of Moira MacTaggert, Morph showed significant improvement in overcoming his mental instability and eventually returned to the X-Men. When a terrorist strike interrupted his homecoming, he engaged in a scout mission with his friend Wolverine where they discovered Sentinels had once again been constructed. Morph fell victim to a flashback memory of his death at the hands of a Sentinel and was paralyzed by fear. Later, his fear also prevented him from acting when Master Mold abducted Professor X. Overcoming his guilt and fighting his fear, Morph left to challenge the Sentinels against the wishes of his teammates. However, he single-handedly dispatched many of the Sentinels and destroyed Master Mold himself by shape-shifting into Omega Red, Sasquatch, Angel, and Longshot and mimicking their powers. Though the team congratulated him and welcomed him back to the team full-time, Morph still felt insecure about his mental state and declined. He decided to return to Dr. MacTaggert, promising he would return to the team in peak mental condition. Morph returned for a cameo in the fourth season episode "Beyond Good and Evil (Part 1)", during Scott and Jean Grey's wedding where he was sitting next to Jubilee. Morph's final appearance in the fifth season was in the series finale "Graduation Day", where he briefly appeared mimicking Professor X while the professor was dying due to an illness. He then morphed into Magneto to conclude the scene. Morph appeared to have regained some of his sarcastic sense of humor, indicating an improved mental state and a possible permanent return to the X-Men. The series producer and director Larry Houston revealed that they changed his name to Morph due to Beast Boy's name. A version of Morph appears in Marvel Heroes, voiced by Tom Kenny. This version is similar to the one that appeared in the Exiles ongoing series. Morph appears at the Xavier Institute, providing the player with useful items. References External links Changeling at Marvel.com Kevin Sydney at Marvel Wolo UncannyXmen.net Character Profile on Changeling Characters created by Roy Thomas Comics characters introduced in 1967 Fictional actors Fictional characters with multiple personalities Fictional schoolteachers Male characters in comics Marvel Comics characters who are shapeshifters Marvel Comics LGBT superheroes Marvel Comics male superheroes Marvel Comics mutants Marvel Comics telepaths X-Men members	true	[ "\"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" is the title of a number-one R&B single by singer Tevin Campbell. To date, the single is Campbell's biggest hit peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending one week at number-one on the US R&B chart. The hit song is also Tevin's one and only Adult Contemporary hit, where it peaked at number 43. The song showcases Campbell's four-octave vocal range from a low note of E2 to a D#6 during the bridge of the song.\n\nTrack listings\nUS 7\" vinyl\nA \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (edit) – 4:16\t\nB \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (instrumental) – 5:00\n\n12\" vinyl\nA \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (edit) – 4:16\t\nB \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (album version) – 5:02\n\nUK CD\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" – 4:16\n \"Goodbye\" (7\" Remix Edit) – 3:48\n \"Goodbye\" (Sidub and Listen) – 4:58\n \"Goodbye\" (Tevin's Dub Pt 1 & 2) – 6:53\n\nJapan CD\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" – 4:10\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (instrumental version) – 4:10\n\nGermany CD\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (edit) – 4:10\n \"Just Ask Me\" (featuring Chubb Rock) – 4:07\n \"Tomorrow\" (A Better You, Better Me) – 4:46\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nSee also\nList of number-one R&B singles of 1992 (U.S.)\n\nReferences\n\nTevin Campbell songs\n1991 singles\n1991 songs\nSongs written by Tevin Campbell\nSongs written by Narada Michael Walden\nSong recordings produced by Narada Michael Walden\nWarner Records singles\nContemporary R&B ballads\nPop ballads\nSoul ballads\n1990s ballads", "\"Tell Me What You Want\" is the fourth single by English R&B band Loose Ends from their first studio album, A Little Spice, and was released in February 1984 by Virgin Records. The single reached number 74 in the UK Singles Chart.\n\nTrack listing\n7” Single: VS658\n \"Tell Me What You Want) 3.35\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Dub Mix)\" 3.34\n\n12” Single: VS658-12\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Extended Version)\" 6.11\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Extended Dub Mix)\" 5.41\n\nU.S. only release - 12” Single: MCA23596 (released 1985)\n \"Tell Me What You Want (U.S. Extended Remix)\" 6.08 \n \"Tell Me What You Want (U.S. Dub Version)\" 5.18\n\n The U.S. Extended Remix version was released on CD on the U.S. Version of the 'A Little Spice' album (MCAD27141).\n\nThe Extended Version also featured on Side D of the limited gatefold sleeve version of 'Magic Touch'\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Tell Me What You Want at Discogs.\n\n1984 singles\nLoose Ends (band) songs\nSong recordings produced by Nick Martinelli\nSongs written by Carl McIntosh (musician)\nSongs written by Steve Nichol\n1984 songs\nVirgin Records singles" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)" ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	wwhen was avatar released	1	When was Avatar released ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	on December 18, 2009.	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	true	[ "Lego Avatar: The Last Airbender was a Lego theme based on the Nickelodeon television show Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is licensed from Nickelodeon. The theme was first introduced in June 2006. It was eventually discontinued by the end of 2007.\n\nOverview\nLego Avatar: The Last Airbender was based on Book One of Avatar. The product line focuses on the centered around the journey of twelve-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last survivor of his nation, the Air Nomads, along with his friends Katara and Sokka, as they strive to end the Fire Nation's war against the other nations of the world. Lego Avatar: The Last Airbender aimed to recreate the main characters in Lego form, including Aang, Katara, Sokka, Momo, Zuko, Firebender and Fire Nation soldier.\n\nInitially, the Nickelodeon featured Lego sets did not only release the 2 Lego Avatar: The Last Airbender sets. Lego SpongeBob SquarePants sets were released at the same time in 2006, both being the flagship product for a newly-signed partnership of Lego and Nickelodeon. The Nickelodeon series featured its most iconic shows, which were Avatar, SpongeBob SquarePants and its newest member, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Lego Avatar: The Last Airbender sets were not a series of their own, but only a theme out of many of the main series which was Nickelodeon.\n\nCharacters\n Aang: The last surviving Airbender, a monk of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple.\n Sokka: A fifteen-year-old Sokka is a warrior of the Southern Water Tribe, a nation where some people are able to telekinetically manipulate, or \"bend\", water.\n Katara: A fourteen-year-old waterbender (i.e., she has the ability to telekinetically control water and ice); at the beginning of the story, she is the only waterbender in the Southern Water Tribe, one of three known communities in which waterbending is practiced.\n Momo: A winged Lemur was introduced when Aang finds him at the Southern Air Temple and then keeps him as a pet.\n Zuko: The Crown Prince of the Fire Nation and a skilled firebender, meaning he has the ability to create and control fire.\n\nConstruction sets\nAccording to Bricklink, The Lego Group released a total of 2 Lego sets as part of Lego Avatar: The Last Airbender theme. It was discontinued by the end of 2007.\n\nIn 2006, The Lego Group announced a partnership with Nickelodeon. It was officially announced by The Lego Group that the two sets based on Book One of Avatar was released on 1 June 2006. The two sets being released were Air Temple (set number: 3828) and Fire Nation Ship (set number: 3829).\n\nAir Temple\nAir Temple (set number: 3828) was released on 1 June 2006 based on the seventeenth episode of Book I: Water The Northern Air Temple. The set consists of 400 pieces with 5 minifigures. The set included a section of the Northern Air Temple and Aang's glider. The Northern Air Temple included a main door with sliding and locking features. Also included a catapult and Fire Nation vehicle that is able to seat with one minifigure. The set included Lego minifigures of the Aang, Sokka, Momo, Firebender and Fire Nation soldier.\n\nFire Nation Ship\nFire Nation Ship (set number: 3829) was released on 1 June 2006 and based on Prince Zuko's ship. The set consists of 722 pieces with 5 minifigures. The set features a largest Fire Nation ship, a built in catapult, a small dinghy that could launch out of the main ship and seat with one minifigure, a retractable anchor and extending ladder along the side of the ship. The set included Lego minifigures of the Aang, Katara, Zuko, Firebender and Fire Nation soldier.\n\nOther media\n\nLego Ideas\nIn 2020, a revival set named Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Avatar Returns and it was created by StudioTRico reached 10,000 votes on LEGO Ideas in order for Lego to consider to make it into an official set. The project is based on Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Avatar Returns from the original Lego Avatar: The Last Airbender theme and includes characters such as Aang, Katara, Sokka, Prince Zuko, Iroh and a Fire Nation soldier.\n\nSee also \n Lego SpongeBob SquarePants\n Lego Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\n\nReferences \n\nAvatar: The Last Airbender\nProducts introduced in 2006\nProducts and services discontinued in 2007\nAvatar", "Avatar is a Swedish heavy metal band, formed in Gothenburg in 2001. The band has released eight studio albums, the most recent being Hunter Gatherer in 2020. The band has had some success on US rock radio, notably with their song \"New Land\", which peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in May 2017.\n\nHistory\n\nFormation and early releases (2001−2010)\nThe band was formed in 2001 by drummer John Alfredsson and guitarist Jonas Jarlsby, who at the time were in separate bands. After several lineup changes, the band released two four-song EP demos in 2004: Personal Observations released on 18 January 2004 and 4 Reasons to Die on 19 November 2004. Avatar's first studio album, Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was released on 25 January 2006 and peaked at #47 on the Sweden Albums Top 60. The band completed several European tours as a supporting act for Impaled Nazarene, Evergrey, and In Flames. \n\nAvatar's second album, Schlacht, was released on 24 October 2007, reaching spot 27 on the Swedish album chart. Björn Gelotte from In Flames contributed a guitar solo on the track \"Letters From Neverend\". The subsequent set of tours saw them perform at the 2008 Sweden Rock Festival as well as shows in support of Obituary (January–February 2008), and Hardcore Superstar (October–November 2009). \nThe band's third album, the self-titled Avatar, was released in Sweden in November 2009 and reached the 36th position on the national album chart. In January 2010 the music video for the song \"Queen of Blades\" was released on the band's website. Around that time, the band signed with Sony Music for the German and Swiss release of their latest album on 26 March 2010. In April of the same year a deal was signed with the Japanese label Art Union, for a 19 May launch of the album. They then launched into an ambitious touring schedule appearing at the 2010 Storsjöyran, and also with Warrior Soul (March - April 2010), Dark Tranquillity (October–November 2010), and Helloween (December 2010-January 2011).\n\nBlack Waltz and Hail the Apocalypse (2011−2015)\n\nIn December 2011 guitarist Simon Andersson left the band, being replaced by Tim Öhrström. On 25 January 2012 the album Black Waltz was released in Europe. It reached position 25 on the album list in Avatar's native Sweden. The album was released in the US on 14 February. Black Waltz marks the first appearance of the \"Clown\" face paint now worn regularly by Eckerström. To support the American release of Black Waltz, Avatar embarked on its first ever U.S. tour alongside Lacuna Coil and Sevendust in February 2013.\n\nIn August 2013, after the wife of Device and Disturbed vocalist David Draiman gave birth and Draiman opted to bow out of his tour schedule, Avatar was picked by Avenged Sevenfold to replace Device and continue to tour with them and Five Finger Death Punch. The following fall, the band spent a month in Thailand recording for a new album, planned for release in March 2014.\nOn 11 March 2014 it was announced that Avatar's fifth album would be titled Hail the Apocalypse and was released 13 May 2014 via eOne Music. The album's first single, the title track, was released 17 March 2014 and was accompanied by a video. The new album is produced by Tobias Lindell and mixed by Jay Ruston.\nSince the release of Hail the Apocalypse, Avatar has conducted several tours of the U.S. and Europe as both a supporting and headline act, as well as performing at festivals such as Rock on the Range 2014 and the inaugural Louder Than Life. The music video for 'Vultures Fly' premiered on 26 January 2015 and earned distinction by being voted #1 for five weeks in a row in Loudwire's Battle Royal video countdown, as well as their 2015 Best Rock Video. Avatar then began a U.S. tour in April 2015 consisting of headline performances, and supporting Five Finger Death Punch and Mushroomhead.\n\nOn 6 May 2015 it was announced that Avatar would be included in the lineup of Shiprocked 2016. Avatar returned to the U.S. for another headline tour in August–September 2015 with Gemini Syndrome and First Decree, and in January–February 2016 with September Mourning prior to returning to Sweden to complete writing on the follow up to Hail The Apocalypse. Sylvia Massy was announced as producer of that album, which was then recorded in three studios across Europe. Towards the end of 2015, it was announced Avatar would be scheduled to appear at several festivals in 2016, to include Rock on the Range and Carolina Rebellion.\n\nFeathers & Flesh (2016−2017)\nAfter several tours supporting 2014's Hail the Apocalypse, Avatar entered the studio in December 2015 to begin recording a then unnamed follow-up studio album. The band split their time between three European studios — Castle Studios in Rohrsdorf, Germany, Finnvox Studios in Helsinki, Finland and Spinroad Studios in Lindome, Sweden. Acclaimed producer Sylvia Massy, noted for her work with Tool and Red Hot Chili Peppers, praised Avatar as \"relentless,\" noting singer Johannes Eckerström as having \"wild energy and charisma.\" The start of recording sessions also coincided with multiple updates via the band's Instagram account, chronicling their time in the studio. Once recording finished, Avatar took part in Shiprocked 2016, then toured the southern United States with September Mourning and Saint Diablo. On 30 January 2016 in Dallas, Texas, Avatar performed the song \"For The Swarm\" for the first time, the first original song since the release of their previous album.\n\nOn 3 March 2016, Avatar revealed the name of the new album, Feathers & Flesh, via their official website, and through social media. A release date of 13 May 2016 was also announced, as well as several pre-ordering merchandise bundles that would be available to order on 17 March 2016. One bundle offers a 60-page, 109-verse poem hardcover book described on the band's Facebook as 'a story too extensive for any booklet'. The first single, \"For The Swarm,\" was released as a reward for those pre-ordering the album on iTunes. A music video of this single was also released. Fan reception of the new song and video were high, as evidenced in For The Swarm being voted #1 in Loudwire's Battle Royale for the week ending 11 March 2016. On 17 March 2016 the singles, \"Regret\" and \"House of Eternal Hunt\" were released to help kick off pre-ordering of merchandise bundles for Feathers & Flesh. A video directed by Johan Carlén was released featuring the two songs playing sequentially as the view pans around a darkened art gallery, with many paintings of birds, primarily owls, mirroring some of the artwork that the band has created for the individual songs on their album. \"Regret,\" as the opening track on the album, is described by the band as “an intense journey through epicness” and, “...by far the most different album-intro we ever written”. The song introduces The Owl, the protagonist of the album as she lays dying, reflecting on her past. \"House of Eternal Hunt,\" described by the band as \"the definition of metal\", starts the tale of The Owl, a \"predator ruling the sky\" according to Eckerström. The first official single, \"The Eagle Has Landed,\" was released 25 March 2016. As with the previously released singles, this track was an instant gratification reward for pre-ordering Feathers & Flesh. The song introduces The Eagle, \"...crashing into the world of his adversary\", according to Eckerström. No new music video was released with this track, though the band did upload the song to its official YouTube channel with the same video featured for the release of \"Regret\" and \"House of Eternal Hunt.\"\n\nOn 12 June 2017, Avatar were awarded the Breakthrough Band Award at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods.\n\nAvatar Country (2017−2020)\n\nOn 24 October 2017, Avatar released a new single called \"A Statue of the King\", along with the announcement that they will release their seventh album, Avatar Country, on 12 January 2018. It was also announced the dates of the new Avatar tour, Called \"Avatar Country Tour\", which starts in January 2018 in North America and arrives in Europe in March of the same year. On 13 December the song \"The King Wants You\" was released on SiriusXM Octane radio, and soon available on digital platforms, being the second single from the album \"Avatar Country\". The official music video was released on 19 December.\n\nOn 12 January 2018, Avatar Country was released worldwide, available both through streaming services such as Spotify, and in physical formats from music stores throughout the world. On 29 October 2018, the band launched a Kickstarter campaign for Legend of Avatar Country which has been described as \"A film featurette based on the album Avatar Country by the band Avatar.\" The band needed to meet funding of $50,000 and as of 31 October 2018, the band has over $110,000 raised for the film.\n\nHunter Gatherer (2020−present) \nIn early December 2019, Avatar announced that they had begun recording their next album at Sphere Studios in Los Angeles. An interview with Loudwire in January and later a paywalled video by the band itself revealed that Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor has a cameo in the song \"Secret Door\". The same interview also revealed the names of a few other songs on the yet unnamed album: \"Colossus\", \"Child\", \"Scream Into The Void\", and \"Silence In The Age Of Apes\". Speaking of the tone of the album, Eckerström told Loudwire \"Avatar Country, we wanted to see if we could do comedy ... It was funny and we wanted to see if we could make something funny ... But it was humorous for us, and now it’s important for us to do something devoid of humor, there is no joking around with this and it pulls us back into reality. It deals more with darkness, sadness, detachment, alienation and the anxiety of thinking of the world at large.\" In a YouTube video and a tweet on 1 May 2020, the band announced the end of the \"Avatar Country\" era and teased the upcoming album with the question \"Will you hunt with us?\".\n\nThe name \"Hunter Gatherer\" and the release date of 7 August 2020 were announced through another video on 5 May 2020.\n\nThe music video for \"Silence in the Age of Apes\" was released on 14 May 2020 and was released on streaming platforms the following day.\n\nTwo singles entitled \"Going Hunting\" and \"Barren Cloth Mother\" were released on August 31 and September 1, 2021, respectively, ahead of the band's Going Hunting tour. At the same time, the band announced their split with their record label eOne and the inception of their own label, Black Waltz Records.\n\n\"Going Hunting\" was elected by Loudwire as the 34th best metal song of 2021.\n\nMusical style and influences\n\nAvatar has been described as a heavy metal band, and more specifically as melodic death metal and groove metal. The band has also been referred to as a \"grease-painted Swedish death/industrial/progressive metal ensemble\". Originally a pure melodic death metal band, Avatar later began to play a different style of music, moving to a more avant-garde metal style.\n\nAvatar's influences include In Flames, Dark Tranquility, The Haunted, Marilyn Manson, Ministry, Strapping Young Lad, Devin Townsend, ABBA, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy, Rammstein, Beethoven, Helloween, the Beatles, Ozzy Osbourne, Meshuggah, Gojira, and Cryptopsy.\n\nBand members\n\nCurrent members\n Jonas \"Kungen\" Jarlsby – guitars (2001–present)\n John Alfredsson – drums (2001–present)\n Johannes Eckerström – lead vocals (2002–present), trombone (2018–present), piano, keyboards (2021–present) \n Henrik Sandelin – bass, backing vocals (2003–present)\n Tim Öhrström – guitars, backing vocals (2011–present)\n\nFormer members\n Simon Andersson – guitars (2003–2011)\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\n\nLive\n\nEP\n\nDemo\n\nSingles\n\nMusic videos\n\nFilmography\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n\nMusical groups established in 2001\nMusical groups from Gothenburg\nGroove metal musical groups\nSwedish heavy metal musical groups\nExperimental musical groups\nSwedish progressive metal musical groups\nAvant-garde metal musical groups\nSwedish melodic death metal musical groups\n2001 establishments in Sweden" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)", "wwhen was avatar released", "on December 18, 2009." ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	what is james ole in avrtar	2	What is James Cameron role in Avatar ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	false	[ "Ole and Lena (also Sven and Ole) are central characters in jokes by Scandinavian Americans, particularly in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. These include the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota, where Scandinavian immigrant traditions are common.\n\nFormat\nOle and Lena jokes can be long and drawn-out stories, or as short as two or three sentences. Lena is typically portrayed as the smarter of the two, often explaining where Ole went wrong in his misadventures. Another common character is Sven, who usually shows up in jokes along with Ole, making Sven and Ole jokes, though all three may appear together. Sven isn't as bright as Ole and Lena, but he means well. Ole and Lena are typically Norwegian, and Sven and his wife are Swedish. In Michigan's U.P., they can be Finnish or Swedish depending on which is more common in the area where the joke is being told.\n\nOne would not find Ole and Lena jokes in Sweden or Norway. Rather they are an outgrowth of an immigrant experience. Language mistakes are a frequent source of Ole and Lena joke material. Turning the misunderstandings and mistakes into jokes enabled people to jest about their American immigrant experience. The popularity of the jokes was greatly enhanced by the numerous Ole and Lena joke books authored by Red Stangland.\n\nOne reason that the Ole and Lena jokes have endured and thrive is that they are quaint and well-meaning. Ole, Lena, Sven and others still speak with the marring accent and fractured English of the immigrant who just arrived. Humor of this sort is intended to maintain a sense of perspective. The core of this folk humor is probably the strongly egalitarian sense that permeates the cultural code in the Nordic countries.\n\nExamples\n Ole and Sven are at a funeral. Suddenly it occurs to Ole that he doesn't remember the name of the dearly departed. Ole turns to Sven and asks: \"Sven, could you remind me again who died?\" Sven thinks for a moment and says, \"I'm not sure,\" Sven points at the casket, \"...but I think it was de guy in de box.\"\n Ole and Sven are out deer hunting. Ole bags a buck. After they dress the deer and tag it, they grab it by its hind legs and start dragging through the woods back to the car. A game warden happens on the pair and, after checking their tags and admiring the buck tells them that they are dragging the deer out all wrong. By dragging it by the rear legs, the snow, leaves and dirt are getting caught by the animal's fur, and the horns are getting all tangled in the brush. The warden suggests that they drag it by the front legs. They agree to try it and much to their surprise, it is much easier dragging the deer this way. After a half-hour of this Sven turns to Ole and says, \"Boy dat game warden was right, it sure is easier dragging de deer dis way, but ya know, we are getting further away from de car.\"\n Ole went to the Sons of Norway Hall one night and finally won the door prize, which was a toilet brush. He was so excited that he won he brought it home and used it often. Someone asked him during the next meeting what the prize was and if he liked it or not. Ole replied, \"Yea I like the toilet brush, but I think I'm gonna go back to using paper.\"\n Ole goes out one day to use the outhouse, and he finds Sven there. Sven has his wallet out, and he's throwing money down into the hole of the outhouse. Ole asks, \"Uff da! Sven, watcha doin' there, fella? You're throwing the five dollar bill and the ten dollar bill down into the hole of the outhouse! Whatcha doin' that for?\" Sven answers, \"Well, when I pulled up my trousers I dropped a nickel down there—and I'm not going down into that mess for just a nickel!\"\nSven and Ole are roofing a house. Ole picks a nail out of the pan, examines it, and with a \"nope\" tosses it over his shoulder, picks up another one does the same thing, picks up a third and after examining it uses it to nail in the shingle. Sven seeing all of this exclaims, \"Ole! what the hell are you doing, wasting nails like that?\" Ole replies, \"Well you see, those nails they're pointing towards the house, I can use them. But these nails... they're pointing away from the house, they're useless.\" \"Ole you IDIOT!!\" Sven replies, \"those nails aren't something you just throw 'way willy nilly... those nails are for the other side of the house.\"\nOle is on his deathbed. The doctor has told him he has only a few hours to live. He catches the scent of his favorite bars wafting through the air. With all the strength he can muster, he drags himself into the kitchen and sees a fresh pan cooling on the rack. He cuts one out and bites into the scrumptious cookie. Lena comes in, smacks his hand, and says, \"Shame on you, Ole! Dese are for after de funeral!\"\n\nMany of the jokes are bawdy:\n Sven and Ole go to Fargo and visit a brothel. A woman says she will have sex with both of them for $20, but insists, \"You have to use rubbers 'cause I don't want to get pregnant.\" They agree. Back on the farm, a week later, Sven says, \"Hey, Ole, remember that girl we met in Fargo?\" \"You betcha, why?\" Well, I been thinking I don't give a damn whether she gets pregnant or not.\" \"Me neither.\" \"Well, let's take dese damn tings off, then.\"\n Sven is late for work. The boss finds him in the bunkhouse, and Sven explains that he has an erection and can't get his overalls on. \"OK, Sven, you need to go in the barn and get a shovel full of nice hot horse manure and pack it around there. That'll take down the swelling and you can come on and get to work.\" Sven goes to the barn and open his fly and gets the shovel full of manure ready. At that moment, the boss's wife walks in. \"What the hell are you doing, Sven?\" Sven explains what he is doing. \"Yumping Yeesus, Sven, don't do that, stick it in here!\" (She pulls up her dress). \"What?\" says Sven. \"The whole shovelful?\"\n Ole wakes up one morning, remembering that it's his and Lena's 25th wedding anniversary. Ole punches Lena in the arm. Lena awakes and asks, \"What was that for?\" Ole says, \"That's for 25 years of bad sex!\" Lena then punches Ole in the arm. Ole asks, \"Why did you hit me?\" Lena says, \"That's for knowing the difference!\"\n\nSee also\n Boudreaux and Thibodeaux\n Uff da\n\nReferences\n\nOther sources\nIn addition to the Prairie Home Companion joke books, there are various collections in print under the name of editor Red Stangland.\n\nMinnesota culture\nNorwegian-American culture\nStock characters in jokes\nNorwegian migration to North America\nNorwegian-American culture in Minnesota\nNonexistent people used in jokes", "Jima is a village in the Pandaguo area of Lamu County, Kenya. It is approximately 2 kilometers from Pandanguo.\n\nHistory\nOn July 8, 2017, approximately 15 al-Shabaab terrorists from Somalia beheaded nine male civilians in the village, according to Kenyan government official James Ole Serian.\n\nReferences\n\nPopulated places in Lamu County" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)", "wwhen was avatar released", "on December 18, 2009.", "what is james ole in avrtar", "began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing" ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	who starred in the movie	3	Who starred in the movie Avatar ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	CANNOTANSWER	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	false	[ "John \"Johnny\" DeLuca (born April 25, 1986) is an American actor and singer who is known for his role as Butchy in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Teen Beach Movie, as well as its sequel Teen Beach 2, and as Anthony in coming-of-age comedy Staten Island Summer. He also guest starred with Maia Mitchell on an episode of Disney Channel's show, Jessie, along with a guest appearance on Wizards of Waverly Place.\n\nEarly life \nDeLuca was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, the eldest of 3 boys. Growing up, DeLuca was an athlete. In his senior year of high school, DeLuca decided to try out for high school production of The Wizard of Oz, where he auditioned for the role of Scarecrow. After he got the part, he decided to pursue acting. He graduated from Longmeadow High School. DeLuca is a graduate of Fordham University in New York where he was a Theatre major.\n\nCareer \nIn 2009, DeLuca had his acting and TV debut, when he guest starred in shows Ugly Betty and 30 Rock. In 2011, he guest starred in TV shows Lights Out and Wizards of Waverly Place. That same year he also starred as Bucky Buchanan in Disney Channel unsold pilot Zombies and Cheerleaders. In early 2012, DeLuca guest starred in an episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager.\n\nIn 2012, DeLuca had a film debut in We Made This Movie, where he played the role of Jeff. Later, he guest-starred in an episode of Sketchy. In December 2012, he had a role as Colin Hemingway in the indie drama movie Hemingway. In early 2013, DeLuca guest starred with Maia Mitchell on Disney show Jessie. In 2013, he landed the role of Butchy in a hit Disney Channel Original Movie, Teen Beach Movie. The movie was directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and earned 13.5 million total viewers on Disney Channel. He played the role of Butchy, the leader of the biker gang in the movie within the movie. Also in 2013, DeLuca had a recurring role in the TV series Twisted, as Cole Farell. He had a role in short film It Remains.\n\nIn 2014, he guest starred on an episode of Instant Mom. In 2015, DeLuca reprised his role as Butchy, leader of the biker gang, in the Disney Channel Original Movie, Teen Beach 2 sequel to the hit movie Teen Beach Movie. The film was directed by Jeffrey Hornaday and premiered to 7.5 million total viewers on Disney Channel. He had a main role in coming-of-age comedy Staten Island Summer as Anthony DiBuono, Italian lifeguard who dreams of joining the Navy. The film was directed by Rhys Thomas and written by Colin Jost and had a limited release in theater before premiering worldwide on Netflix on July 30, 2015.\n\nOn April 4, 2016, it was announced that DeLuca had joined the cast of ABC's soap opera, General Hospital. His character, Aaron Roland, started recurring on April 27, 2016. DeLuca guest starred in multiple season 4 episodes as Jeremy in Hulu's drama East Los High. He played the role of Brett in web released short films Free Period. The short films were released on Disney Channel's YouTube page.\n\nHe starred as Chet in the family friendly gymnastic movie Chalk It Up alongside Maddy Curley and Nikki SooHoo. The movie was released on September 13, 2016 on iTunes, Amazon and Google Play. He also starred as Wade in the family friendly movie All Halloes' Eve co-starring Lexi Giovagnoli and Ashley Argota. The movie was released on digital hd on September 27, 2016. On October 6, 2016 DeLuca guest starred in an episode of How to Get Away with Murder. He also guest starred in an episode of Comrade Detective, where he voiced the character Young Nikita.\n\nIn 2017, he starred as Maverick in the short film Lara Croft Is My Girlfriend alongside his then girlfriend Lidia Rivera. Later that year, he also appeared as Bobby in the Go90's romantic comedy series Relationship Status. DeLuca guest starred as Billy in the horror web series Welcome To Daisyland. He also guest starred as Rod in an episode of FX's American Horror Story: 1984. DeLuca had a supporting role as Davey Wallace in Hallmark Channel Original Movie A Merry Christmas Match opposite Lindsey Gort. He guest starred as Vinny Linguini (voice) in Disney's Muppet Babies.\n\nIn 2020, DeLuca played the supporting role of Mario in the independent thriller Spree, which had its world premiere on January 24, 2020 at Sundance Film Festival. He starred as Josh Grant in the Lifetime original movie Killer Dream Home alongside Maiara Walsh. In 2021, he played the role of Bobby in the comedy film Donny's Bar Mitzvah.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nDiscography\n\nSoundtrack albums\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n \n \n\n1986 births\nLiving people\nAmerican male film actors\nAmerican male television actors\nPeople from Longmeadow, Massachusetts\nFordham University alumni", "Randy Wayne Frederick (born August 7, 1981) is an American actor.\n\nLife and career\nWayne was born and raised in Moore, Oklahoma. He attended Moore High School and Campbellsville University.\n\nHe appeared on the 2002 season of the British reality show Shipwrecked, which led to guest appearances on the television shows The Closer, Huff, NCIS, Jack & Bobby, and Numbers as well as a series regular role as the not-so-bright teenager Jeff Fenton on the 2006 ABC sitcom Sons & Daughters. In 2006, Wayne starred as Robbie Zirpollo in the movie The Surfer King.\n\nHe is most famous for his portrayal of Luke Duke in the movie The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning. Since then he has starred in numerous independent features including the gay-themed drama Dream Boy, Grizzly Park, and Foreign Exchange. He also portrayed Michael in The Haunting of Molly Hartley, The Last Hurrah, and Ghost Town (a 2009 Syfy Channel horror film, not to be confused with the 2008 Ricky Gervais film of the same name). He starred in the lead role of Jake Taylor in To Save a Life, which was released to theaters on January 22, 2010. Wayne also starred as Duffy in the movie Frat Party.\n\nHe starred opposite Matthew Modine in the 20th Century Fox movie, The Trial, released in 2010. His latest appearance was on Talent, a web series from the producers of Pretty Little Liars, as Gabe on www.thetalentshow.com. He also guest starred on The Secret Life of the American Teenager as Frank for four episodes. Wayne also appeared on The Lying Game as Justin Miller, a boy that Laurel was seriously dating but broke up with because he was using Laurel to get revenge on her father, Ted, a surgeon who operated on his mother that died on the operating table.\n\nIn 2011, Wayne starred as Dick in the movie Cougar Hunting. He also starred in the 2011 movie Honey 2 co-starring Katerina Graham. In 2011 he played a side character named 'Matt' in HBO's True Blood for two episodes. In 2012, Wayne starred as a young skater named Caleb in the movie Hardflip. He also starred as Johnny in the horror film Hold Your Breath co-starring Katrina Bowden. Wayne had a role as Luke in the movie Heart of the Country. In 2013, he starred as Cyrus Rothwell in the crime film The Freemason. In 2014, Wayne had roles in movies Android Cop, where he played role of Android Cop and Mantervention.\n\nIn 2015, Wayne starred as Mike in the horror film Paranormal Island co-starring Briana Evigan. He also starred as Joel Gilbert in the family friendly film The Ivy League Farmer. In 2016, Wayne starred as Collin Jenkins in the thriller film Cassidy Way co-starring Christopher Rich. He starred as Thomas J. Ryan in the history drama film Union Bound. He had supporting roles as Graham in the romantic comedy Accidentally Engaged and as Oliver in thriller The Last Bid. In 2017, he starred as Johnny Taylor in the thriller film Death Pool. That year, he also starred as Jeff in the horror movie Escape Room. He also had a supporting role as Scott Schaeffer in the Hallmark Christmas movie Enchanted Christmas.\n\nWayne had a recurring role as Matthew Johnson in the season 3 of the web series The Bay. He also had a supporting role as Detective Jake Dark in the film Paint It Red. He starred as Stephen in the short film It Happened Again Last Night alongside Gabrielle Stone. Wayne had a supporting role as Detective Jacobs in the film Cops and Robbers. In 2018, Wayne played the role of David Carter in the direct-to-video horror film Hellraiser: Judgment.\n\nPersonal life\nWayne confirmed via his Twitter account that he voted for Donald Trump during the 2020 United States presidential election.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nWeb\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1981 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Moore, Oklahoma\nMale actors from Oklahoma\nAmerican male film actors\nAmerican male television actors\nCampbellsville University alumni" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)", "wwhen was avatar released", "on December 18, 2009.", "what is james ole in avrtar", "began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing", "who starred in the movie", "I don't know." ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	did it win an award	4	Did Avatar win an award ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	It was nominated for nine Academy Awards,	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	false	[ "Ralph Dawson (April 18, 1897 in Westborough, Massachusetts – November 15, 1962) was an American film editor who also did some acting, directing, and screenwriting. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing four times, and won the Award three times.\n\nSelected filmography as editor\n1925: Lady of the Night\n1928: The Singing Fool with co-editor Harold McCord\n1928: Tenderloin\n1929: Stark Mad\n1929: The Desert Song\n1930: Under a Texas Moon\n1931: The Mad Genius\n1933: Girl Missing\n1934: Something Always Happens with co-editor Bert Bates\n1934: The Life of the Party\n1935: A Midsummer Night's Dream - First Academy Award\n1936: Anthony Adverse - Second Academy Award win\n1936: The Story of Louis Pasteur\n1937: The Prince and the Pauper\n1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood - Third Academy Award win\n1938: Four Daughters\n1939: Daughters Courageous\n1939: Espionage Agent\n1941: The Great Lie\n1942: Kings Row \n1942: Larceny, Inc.\n1944: The Adventures of Mark Twain\n1944: Mr. Skeffington\n1945: Saratoga Trunk\n1948: An Act of Murder\n1950: Harvey \n1952: The Lusty Men\n1954: The High and the Mighty - Fourth Academy Award nomination\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican film editors\nBest Film Editing Academy Award winners\n1897 births\n1962 deaths", "Carnivàle is an American television series that aired on HBO between 2003 and 2005. Created by Daniel Knauf, the show traces the disparate storylines of a young carnival worker named Ben Hawkins (played by Nick Stahl) and a preacher in California named Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown) during the United States Dust Bowl. Although Carnivàle was praised for its production and art style, the unfolding story proved too inaccessible for the general audience and led to the show's cancellation after two of six planned seasons. The inaugural season of Carnivàle garnered numerous awards and nominations, including five Emmy Awards and two Emmy nominations in the creative arts categories. The second season received eight Emmy nominations. Nominations for two Golden Reel Awards, four Satellite Awards and two Saturn Awards did not result in a win. The only actor of Carnivàle's large main cast to win an award was Adrienne Barbeau (\"Ruthie\") with a WIN Award (Women's Image Network Awards). Overall, Carnivàle has received eleven awards from thirty-six nominations.\n\nCostume Designers Guild Awards\nFounded in 1999, the Costume Designers Guild Awards honors Costume Designers in Motion Pictures, Television, and Commercials. Carnivàle was nominated for a CDG twice, winning in 2003.\n\nEmmy Awards\nThe Emmy is a television production award considered the television equivalent to the Academy Award. The inaugural season of Carnivàle received nominations for seven Emmys in 2004, winning five in creative arts categories. The second season received eight further Emmy nominations in 2005 without a win.\n\nGolden Reel Awards\nThe Golden Reel Award has been annually presented by the American Motion Picture Sound Editors since 1953, honoring motion picture and television sound editors and their soundtracks. Carnivàle was nominated for two Golden Reel Awards in 2003.\n\nSatellite Awards\nThe Satellite Award, originally known as the Golden Satellite Award, is an annual award given by the International Press Academy.\n\nSaturn Awards\nThe Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. Carnivàle was nominated in two categories in 2004, but failed to win in either.\n\nVES Awards\nThe Visual Effects Society represents the full breadth of visual effects practitioners in all areas of entertainment and honors film, television, commercials, music videos and video games with an award since 2002. Carnivàle won one of three nominations in 2003.\n\nOther awards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n List of awards on IMDb\n\nAwards and nominations\nCarnivale" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)", "wwhen was avatar released", "on December 18, 2009.", "what is james ole in avrtar", "began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing", "who starred in the movie", "I don't know.", "did it win an award", "It was nominated for nine Academy Awards," ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	how many copies were sold	5	How many copies of Avatar were sold ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide,	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	false	[ "Young-hu Kim is a South Korean music producer, songwriter and software engineer. He works mainly with SM Entertainment artists, and has written songs for Girls Generation, Exo, TVXQ, BoA, Shinee, f(x), Super Junior, Shinhwa, and Fly to the Sky.\n\nCareer\nBorn on November 7, 1981, in Seoul, South Korea, Young-hu Kim started his career when he was signed to SM Entertainment as the youngest producer at the age of 15. His first number 1 single was Shinhwa's \"I Pray For You\", with work on subsequent hits including TVXQ's \"Whatever They Say,\" Shinee's \"Replay,\" and Girls Generation's \"Oh.\" He co-founded XP Music Publishing based in Los Angeles, with offices in Seoul and Tokyo, taking on projects in tech and building the first online music publishing catalog system in South Korea. \nHe is currently the CEO of the technology company Qoop.\n\nDiscography\n\nSouth Korea\nBoA: My Prayer - 250,000 copies sold (2 platinum) \nBoA: If You Were Here - 120,000 copies sold (platinum)\nBoA: Girls on Top(English Version) \nExo: My Turn to Cry - 500,000 copies sold\nExo: Can't Bring Me Down - 1 Million copies sold\nFly to the Sky: How Many Nights, How Many Days - 200,000 copies sold (2 platinum)\nFly to the Sky: Magic Song - 170,000 copies sold (platinum) - Number 3 on biggest online chart\nFly to the Sky: My Never ending Story - 100,000 copies sold (platinum) \nF(x): Me + U - 100,000 copies sold (platinum)\nF(x): Goodbye Summer - 80,000 copies sold\nF(x): Summer Lover\nF(x): Diamond\nGirl's Generation: Let's Talk About Love - 100,000 copies sold(platinum)\nGirl's Girls Generation: Oh! - 300,000 copies sold (3 platinum) - number 1 on several countries. Number 1 on numerous music channels. Winner of Golden Disc Award \nGirl's Generation: Say Yes - 400,000 copies sold (4 platinum) - won Golden Disk Awards and Seoul Music Awards \nIsak N Jiyeon: I Dream Of You\nS.E.S.: You Told Me\nShinee: Replay\nShinee: Love Like Oxygen\nShinee: In my room - 150,000 copies sold(platinum) \nShinee: 차라리 때려 - 150,000 copies sold (platinum)\nShinee: Y.O.U. (Year Of Us) \nShinee: Runaway - 250,000 copies sold (2 platinum) \nShinhwa: Just 2 be with U - 400,000 copies sold (4 platinum)\nShinhwa: I pray 4 U - 400,000 copies sold (4 platinum) - Number 1 song on MBC Music Show, SBS Music Show and several online charts. Japanese Anime “Inuyasha” Korea Territory title song\nShinhwa: Soulmate - 300,000 copies sold (3 platinum)\nShinhwa: Hurricane - 100,000 copies sold (platinum)\nSuper Junior: Over - 100,000 copies sold (platinum)\nSuper Junior: You're my endless love - 200,000 copies sold (2 platinum)\nSuper Junior: She wants it - 300,000 copies sold (3 platinum)\nSuper Junior: Shake It Up! - 300,000 copies sold (3 platinum)\nSuper Junior: Over - 100,000 copies sold (platinum)\nThe Grace: Dancer In The Rain\nThe Grace: Catch The Shooting Star\nTim: Sarang Han Mankeum \nTim: My Destiny\nTim: Nae Ahn Eh Jun Jeng\nTim: Manual For My Heart\nTVXQ: Whatever They Say - 300,000 copies sold (3 platinum) - Number 4 on SBS music show. \nTVXQ: Free your mind\nTVXQ: Beautiful Life - 300,000 copies sold (3 platinum)\nTVXQ: 세상의단하나뿐인마음\nTVXQ: On & On - 535,000 copies sold (5 platinum) - Number 1 album of 2006 + Winner of Golden Disc Award.\nTVXQ: Crazy Love\nTVXQ: 넌 나의 노래 - 600,000 copies sold (6 platinum) - Number 1 album of 2008, Winner of Golden Disc Award.\nTVXQ: Here I stand - 300,000 copies sold (3 platinum)\nWhee Sung: Angel - 400,000 copies sold (4 platinum)\n\nJapan\nGirls Generation Oh! single: Oh! - 100,000 copies sold (gold) - Number One on Oricon Chart\nGirls Generation 2nd album: Oh! - 200,000 copies sold (gold)\nShinee 1st single album: Replay - 110,000 copies sold (gold)\nShinee 1st album: Replay - 120,000 copies sold (gold)\nTenjochiki Piranha album: Just for one day - 100,000 copies sold (gold)\nTVXQ 3rd album: Beautiful Life -150,000 copies sold (gold)\nTVXQ 3rd Album: You're my miracle - 150,000 copies sold (gold)\nTVXQ Bolero album: Wasurenaide - 150,000 copies sold (gold)\nTVXQ 4th album: Wasurenaide - 300,000 copies sold (platinum)\n\nReferences\n\nSM Entertainment people\nSouth Korean electronic musicians\nSouth Korean dance musicians\nSouth Korean songwriters\nSouth Korean record producers\n1981 births\nLiving people", "The Dresden Dolls is the self-titled debut EP by American dark cabaret band The Dresden Dolls, released in 2001. It is a completely separate release from the band's 2003 debut studio album, also titled The Dresden Dolls.\n\nThe CD was recorded and engineered at Sonics Studios and at Emerson College in Boston, MA by Owen Curtin in 2001 and mastered by Noah-Blumenson Cook, with guest Brian Knoth playing a guitar solo on \"Good Day\".\n\nThe album was first sold at the band's first appearance at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA. The band made 50 copies, all of which were sold at the show. The covers are slightly different from copies sold later.\n\nThe EP was sold by the band at shows until late 2003, via mail order until early 2004, and from drummer Brian Viglione while he was working at Toscanini's, an ice cream parlor in Cambridge. The EP is now completely out of print, although \"Girl Anachronism\" has been made available for download from the band's official web site.\n\nIt is unknown exactly how many copies exist, although singer Amanda Palmer has estimated that \"a few thousand copies\" exist.\n\nTrack listing \n\n \"Half Jack\" – 5:25\n \"Girl Anachronism\" – 3:01\n \"The Perfect Fit\" – 5:40\n \"Colorblind\" – 5:31\n \"Good Day\" – 5:36\n\n Note: The songs on the EP are demos.\n\nAlbum personnel \n\n Amanda Palmer – piano and vocals\n Brian Viglione – drums, acoustic guitar, bass\n Brian Knoth – guitar on \"Good Day\"\n Owen Curtin – recording and engineering\n Noah-Blumenson Cook – mastering\n\nReferences \n\nThe Dresden Dolls albums\n2001 debut EPs\nSelf-released EPs\nDemo albums" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)", "wwhen was avatar released", "on December 18, 2009.", "what is james ole in avrtar", "began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing", "who starred in the movie", "I don't know.", "did it win an award", "It was nominated for nine Academy Awards,", "how many copies were sold", "It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide," ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	what is it on the chart	6	What is Avatar position on the chart ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada,	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	true	[ "\"You Know What It Is\" is a song by American hip hop recording artist T.I., released July 10, 2007, as the second single from his fifth studio album T.I. vs. T.I.P. (2007). The song was produced by Jerry \"Wonda\" Duplessis and Wyclef Jean, the latter of whom contributes vocals throughout the hip hop track. The single peaked at number 34 on the US Billboard Hot 100.\n\nMusic video\nThe song's music video was filmed in Miami, by director and friend Chris Robinson. On June 12, the video was made available on iTunes. The video premiered MTV's TRL on June 14, 2007. The video features cameo appearances from B.G., Kymani Marley, and P$C.\n\nChart performance\n\"You Know What It Is\" debuted at number 73 on the US Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs on the chart dated June 28, 2007. The song later managed to peak at number 11. On the chart dated July 21, 2007, the single debuted at number 68 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The song eventually peaked at number 34 on the chart and spent a total of 18 weeks.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPromo CD single\n \"You Know What It Is\" (Clean Version)\n \"You Know What It Is\" (Dirty Version)\n \"You Know What It Is\" (Instrumental)\n\nVinyl single\n\"You Know What It Is\" (Radio Version)\n\"You Know What It Is\" (Amended Version)\n\"You Know What It Is\" (Instrumental)\n\"You Know What It Is\" (Explicit version)\n\"You Know What It Is\" (Acapella)\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nVideo shooting in Miami.\n\"You Know What It Is\" on VH1 confirmed by T.I.\nSneak Peek from video \"You Know What It Is\".\n\"You Know What It Is\" Lyrics\n\n2007 singles\nGrand Hustle Records singles\nMusic videos directed by Chris Robinson (director)\nT.I. songs\nWyclef Jean songs\nSongs written by Wyclef Jean\nSongs written by Jerry Duplessis\nSong recordings produced by Jerry Duplessis\nSongs written by T.I.\nSong recordings produced by Wyclef Jean\n2007 songs\nAtlantic Records singles", "\"This Is Not a Love Song\" is a single released by English post-punk group Public Image Ltd in 1983. It is the group's biggest commercial hit, peaking at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and at number 3 on the Irish Singles Chart.\n\nThe 12\" remixed version of the song is featured on Commercial Zone as \"Love Song\". A re-recorded version of the song is featured on PiL's fourth studio album This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get and includes a horn section.\n\nThe song was used in the 2008 animated movie Waltz with Bashir.\n\nTrack listing\n7\" vinyl – A\|B Virgin 105 938\n\"This Is Not a Love Song\" – 3:30\n\"Public Image\" – 2:58\n\n12\" maxi – Virgin 600 997\n\"This Is Not a Love Song\" – 4:27\n\"Blue Water\" – 3:46\n\"This Is Not a Love Song (Remixed version)\" – 4:27\n\"Public Image\" – 2:58\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1983 singles\n1983 songs\nPublic Image Ltd songs\nSongs written by John Lydon\nVirgin Records singles\nSongs written by Keith Levene" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)", "wwhen was avatar released", "on December 18, 2009.", "what is james ole in avrtar", "began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing", "who starred in the movie", "I don't know.", "did it win an award", "It was nominated for nine Academy Awards,", "how many copies were sold", "It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide,", "what is it on the chart", "becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada," ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	any intresting thing about the article	7	Is there any interesting thing about the article on Avatar ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010,	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	false	[ "Wild Thing is a podcast about the relationship between science and society. It is hosted by Laura Krantz and produced by Foxtopus Ink. In 2006 Krantz learned that she was related to anthropologist Grover Krantz, who had spent much of his career writing about and hunting for Sasquatch, after she read an article in the Washington Post. At the time, Krantz was working at National Public Radio and thought that she needed to dig deeper. Through her reporting she came to understand that the search for Sasquatch spoke to important questions about human evolution, conspiracy theories, and the human connection to the natural world. The second season of Wild Thing concerns the search for extraterrestrial life.\n\nEpisodes \n\nSeason 2: Wild Thing: Space Invaders\n\nIn addition to the main episodes, both seasons also include bonus interviews. Season one includes conversations with well known cryptozoologist Bob Gimlin, director William Dear, Sasquatch hunter Peter Byrne and Bigfoot erotica author Virginia Wade. In season two Krantz speaks with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, science YouTuber Joe Scott, as well as astronomers involved with searching for life on Venus and Mars.\n\nCritical reception \nWild Thing garnered largely positive press from around the country. The Atlantic announced Wild Thing as one of the best podcasts of 2018, largely owing to its gentle handing of a topic that many people view with skepticism. Emily Todd VanDerWeff of Vox wrote: \"It’s smart, well produced, well written, and intelligently structured.\" The Los Angeles Times called Wild Thing \"Serial for Sasquatches.\" Mashable named it the most \"binge-worth podcasts of 2018\" The Atlanticnamed season 2 one of the best podcasts of 2020. The show was also featured in Rolling Stone, Outside Magazine, and Scientific American.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Official Website\n\n2018 podcast debuts\nAudio podcasts", "Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) also known as the General Article of the UCMJ is an article of military law in the United States that provides for penalties by court-martial various offences that prejudice good order and discipline or bring discredit upon the armed forces, such as for \"disloyal\" statements made \"with the intent to promote disloyalty or disaffection toward the United States by any member of the armed forces or to interfere with or impair the loyalty to the United States or good order and discipline of any member of the armed forces.\"\n\nManual for Courts-Martial\n\nSee also\n Uniform Code of Military Justice\n General article (UCMJ article 134)\n\nExternal links\n About.com article\n Kuro5hin.org article\n\nUnited States military law" ]
[ "James Cameron", "Avatar (2009)", "wwhen was avatar released", "on December 18, 2009.", "what is james ole in avrtar", "began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing", "who starred in the movie", "I don't know.", "did it win an award", "It was nominated for nine Academy Awards,", "how many copies were sold", "It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide,", "what is it on the chart", "becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada,", "any intresting thing about the article", "Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010," ]	C_bf7cdecf53b94c1994a3b6f31d4370a4_0	did cameron receive award for this	8	Did James Cameron receive an award for Avatar ?	James Cameron	In June 2005, Cameron was announced to be working on a project tentatively titled "Project 880" (now known to be Avatar) in parallel with another project, Alita: Battle Angel (an adaptation of the manga series Battle Angel Alita). Both movies were to be shot in 3D. By December, Cameron stated that he wanted to film Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar. However, in February 2006, he switched goals for the two film projects and decided to film Avatar first. He mentioned that if both films were successful, he would be interested in seeing a trilogy being made for both. Alita: Battle Angel eventually began production in 2016 with Cameron writing and producing and Robert Rodriguez directing. Avatar had an estimated budget of over $300 million and was released on December 18, 2009. This marked his first feature film since 1997's Titanic. It is composed almost entirely of computer-generated animation, using a more-advanced version of the "performance capture" technique used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. James Cameron had written an 80-page scriptment for Avatar in 1995 and announced in 1996 that he would make the film after completing Titanic. In December 2006, Cameron explained that the delay in producing the film since the 1990s had been to wait until the technology necessary to create his project was advanced enough, since at the time no studio would finance for the development of the visual effects. The film was originally scheduled to be released in May 2009 but was pushed back to December 2009 to allow more time for post-production on the complex CGI and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors. Cameron originally intended Avatar to be 3D-only. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Cameron's Titanic. Avatar also became the first movie to ever earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Including revenue from the re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, it grossed $760.5 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.78 billion worldwide. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. Avatar's success made Cameron the highest earner in Hollywood for 2010, netting him $257 million as reported by Vanity Fair. Disney announced in September 2011 that it would adapt James Cameron's film Avatar into Pandora-The World of Avatar, a themed area at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. CANNOTANSWER	It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three for Best Art Direction,	James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984). He found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and the action comedy True Lies (1994). He also directed Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), with Titanic earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, earned him nominations in the same categories. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic sea explorer and has produced many documentaries on the subject, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed approximately US$2 billion in North America and US$6 billion worldwide. Avatar and Titanic are the highest and third highest-grossing films of all time, earning $2.85 billion and $2.19 billion, respectively. Cameron holds the achievement of having directed the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, the son of Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron is the eldest of five siblings. He spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. As a child, he declined to join in the Lord's Prayer at school, comparing it to a "tribal chant". He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa, Ontario to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. He worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a janitor, but wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Career 1978–1983: Early work Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock and Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. However, Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Disillusioned from being in Rome and suffering from a fever, Cameron had a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, which later led to the inspiration of The Terminator. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". 1984–1992: Breakthrough Inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), in 1982 Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, to whom Cameron was married from 1984 to 1989, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Cameron's future wife, Linda Hamilton, also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron co-wrote the screenplay to Rambo: First Blood Part II with Sylvester Stallone. Cameron moved onto his next directorial feature, which was the sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror directed by Ridley Scott. After titling the sequel Aliens (1986), Cameron recast Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, who first appeared in Alien. Aliens follows the protagonist, Ripley, as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors—James Remar with Michael Biehn—Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, the film including Weaver made the cover of Time magazine in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, inside the building of an unfinished nuclear power plant with two huge water tanks. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations and won Best Visual Effects. In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow, to whom he was married between 1989 and 1991. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel. In the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by William Wisher Jr. and himself, Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), possessing shape-shifting ability and hunting for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance—a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained, "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million. Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in the North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). 1993–2001: Continued efforts and Titanic In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million worldwide. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks. Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic film about , which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for 12 years until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tie of fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950)) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won 11 of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge publicity of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, a company to allow streaming of documentaries on the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. He had planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to cancellation of the series. 2002–2010: Documentaries and Avatar success In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had mentioned two projects as early as June 2005; Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the latter which he produced, both films were to be shot in 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated a worldwide $33.2 million at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2020, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the five films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. 2011–present In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic Channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at Royal Albert Hall, London. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on the National Geographic channel. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019 after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza" despite the bulky script. Cameron returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Upcoming projects In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates have been postponed to December 16, 2022, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. The other sequels are expected to begin production as soon as Avatar 2 and 3 have finished. Although the sequels 4 and 5 have been given the green-light, Cameron stated in a 2017 interview, "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel, The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa; Cameron plans to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. Activism and social causes As of 2012, Cameron and his family have adopted a vegan diet. Cameron states that "by changing what you eat, you will change the entire contract between the human species and the natural world". He and his wife are advocates of plant-based food and have called for constructive actions to produce more plant-based food and less meat to mitigate the impact of climate change. In 2006, Cameron's wife co-founded MUSE School, which became the first K-12 vegan school in the United States. He has also hosted events for Global Green USA, and pushed for sustainable solutions to energy use. In early 2014, Cameron purchased the Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery in Courtenay, British Columbia for $2.7 million, to pursue his passion for sustainable agribusiness. In June 2019, Cameron announced a business venture with film director Peter Jackson, to produce plant-based meat, cheese, and dairy products in New Zealand. He suggested that we need "a nice transition to a meatless or relatively meatless world in 20 or 30 years". In 2012, Cameron purchased more than 1,000 hectares (2,471 acres) of land in remote South Wairarapa, New Zealand; subsequent purchases have seen that grow to approximately 5,000 hectares. The Camerons grow a range of organic fruit, nuts and vegetables on the land. Nearby in Greytown, they run a café and grocery store, Forest Food Organics, selling produce from their land. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. However, NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement [...] and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film". Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Sharon divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow whom he wed in 1989, but they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron used to reside in the United States from 1971, but he remains a Canadian citizen. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Captivated by New Zealand while filming Avatar, Cameron bought a 1500ha farm and a home there and divides his time between California and New Zealand now. However, Cameron listed his house in Malibu, California for sale and has now decided to be a resident in New Zealand and make all his future movies there. He said in August 2020 "......As a New Zealand resident (and hopefully soon-to-be-citizen) I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar will be a beacon that, when this is over, will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years. Cameron has said he is a "Converted Agnostic", adding "I've sworn off agnosticism, which I now call cowardly atheism". Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron is an expert on deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss and Titanic, and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In his role on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the Bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million. Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Ferman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Directorial style and reception Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated, "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on" and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios [...] fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said, "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire magazine, "when somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying, "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked, "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn, however, acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented, "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron drily responded, “I don’t have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Cameron's work has had an influence in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories." His films Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Inspired by Avatar, Disney constructed Pandora – The World of Avatar, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also James Cameron's unrealized projects Hans Hass Award List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. External links 1954 births 20th-century Canadian male writers 20th-century Canadian screenwriters 21st-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian screenwriters Action film directors American Cinema Editors Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Best Film Editing Academy Award winners California State University, Fullerton alumni Canadian agnostics Canadian atheists Canadian documentary film directors Canadian documentary film producers Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian environmentalists Canadian expatriate film directors in the United States Canadian expatriate writers in the United States Canadian emigrants to New Zealand Canadian film editors Canadian film producers Canadian inventors Canadian male screenwriters Canadian male television writers Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian philanthropists Canadian television directors Canadian television producers Canadian television writers Companions of the Order of Canada Directors Guild of America Award winners Fantasy film directors Film directors from California Film directors from Ontario Film producers from California Fullerton College alumni Golden Globe Award-winning producers Living people People from Brea, California People from Kapuskasing People from Malibu, California People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Producers who won the Best Picture Academy Award Science fiction film directors Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees Screenwriters from California Special effects people Veganism activists Writers from California Writers from Ontario	false	[ "James Cameron is a Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer who has had an extensive career in film and television. Cameron's debut was the 1978 science fiction short Xenogenesis, which he directed, wrote and produced. In the early part of his career, he did various technical jobs such as special visual effects producer, set dresser assistant, matte artist, and photographer. His feature directorial debut was the 1982 release Piranha II: The Spawning. The next film he directed was the science fiction action thriller The Terminator (1984). It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular cyborg assassin, and was Cameron's breakthrough feature. In 1986, he directed and wrote the science fiction action sequel Aliens starring Sigourney Weaver. He followed this by directing another science fiction film The Abyss (1989). In 1991, Cameron directed the sequel to The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (with Schwarzenegger reprising his role), and also executive produced the action crime film Point Break. Three years later he directed a third Schwarzenegger-starring action film True Lies (1994).\n\nIn 1997, Cameron directed, wrote, and produced the epic romantic disaster film Titanic which grossed over $1.84 billion at the worldwide box-office and became the highest grossing of all time. He received the Academy Award for Best Director, the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, and shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with the other producers. It had a total of 14 Oscar nominations (tying the record set by the 1950 drama All About Eve) and won 11 (tying the record set by the 1959 epic historical drama Ben-Hur). Cameron also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director and shared the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama with the other producers. He followed this by directing, and producing two underwater documentaries: Ghosts of the Abyss (2003), and Aliens of the Deep (2005). He returned to directing features in 2009 with the 3D science fiction film Avatar. It grossed over $2.8 billion at the worldwide box-office and became the highest grossing of all time surpassing Titanic. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won three in technical categories. Cameron also earned a second Golden Globe Award for Best Director, and Best Motion Picture – Drama. He followed this by executive producing two 3D films, Sanctum (2011) and Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012), as well as the documentary Deepsea Challenge 3D (2014).\n\nCameron made his television debut in 1998 playing himself in the sitcom Mad About You. Two years later he executive produced the science fiction television series Dark Angel (2000) starring Jessica Alba. In 2005, he appeared in two documentaries about the sinking of the RMS Titanic: Last Mysteries of the Titanic, and Tony Robinson's Titanic Adventure. He also made appearances as himself on the comedy-drama television series Entourage that same year. Cameron followed this by executive producing two biblical documentaries, The Exodus Decoded (2006) and Lost Tomb of Jesus (2007). He executive produced and appeared in a third Titanic related documentary, Titanic: Final Word with James Cameron, in 2012. Two years later, Cameron executive produced the climate change documentary television series Years of Living Dangerously (2014) which received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nDirector filmographies", "Mark James Walter Cameron CBE (17 June 1911 – 26 January 1985) was a British journalist, in whose memory the annual James Cameron Memorial Lecture is given.\n\nEarly life \nCameron was born in Battersea, London, of Scottish parentage. His father, William Ernest Cameron, was a barrister who wrote novels under the pseudonym Mark Allerton and his mother was Margaret Douglas (née Robertson) Cameron.\n\nCareer \nCameron began as an office dogsbody with the Weekly News in 1935. Having worked for several Scottish newspapers and for the Daily Express in Fleet Street, he was rejected for military service in World War II. After the war, his experience of reporting on the Bikini Atoll nuclear experiments turned him into a pacifist and, later, a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He continued to work for the Express until 1950, after which he briefly joined Picture Post, where he and photographer Bert Hardy covered the Korean War, winning the Missouri Pictures of the Year International Award for \"Inchon\". Tom Hopkinson, the editor of Picture Post, lost his job as publisher when he defended the magazine's coverage of atrocities committed by South Korean troops at a concentration camp in Pusan. Cameron wrote, \"I had seen Belsen, but this was worse. This terrible mob of men – convicted of nothing, un-tried, South Koreans in South Korea, suspected of being 'unreliable'.\" The founder of the Hulton press, Edward G. Hulton, decided to \"kill\" the story.\n\nIn 1952 Cameron wrote an obituary essay for The Illustrated London News, \"The King Is Dead\", about the death of King George VI. Cameron then spent eight years with the News Chronicle. In 1953 he visited Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné, in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon) and found flaws in the practices and attitudes of Schweitzer and his staff. This was the subject of The Walrus and the Terrier, a BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play by Christopher Ralling, broadcast on 7 April 2008.\n\nIn 1965, Cameron wangled his way into North Vietnam for interviews and photos (with photographer Romano Cagnoni) of Ho Chi Minh and its other leaders. His book Here Is Your Enemy was published in the United States, and his five-part series on North Vietnam was published in December 1965 in The New York Times, where it was edited by journalist Anthony Lewis.\n\nCameron also did illustration work, especially in his early career. Working in Scotland for D. C. Thomson, he prepared drawings for sensationalist items in Thomson's publications. He rebelled when asked to draw a picture of a murdered young girl, embellishing it with excess blood and grisly detail. Called to Thomson's office, he was rebuked merely for exposing her underwear.\n\nCameron became a broadcaster for the BBC after the war, writing and presenting such television series as Cameron Country, and numerous single documentaries. An unusual example was Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Made His Name, a television biography of the thriller writer and journalist. He was a frequent contributor to Up Sunday, a magazine show that featured him and other commentators talking to the camera about topics of interest to them. Cameron also wrote a radio play, The Pump (1973), based on his experience of open heart surgery, which won a Prix Italia award in 1973. In his last years, he wrote a column for The Guardian. Cameron wrote two volumes of autobiography: Point of Departure, a chronicle of his life, and An Indian Summer, about his relationship with India; his marriage to his third wife, Moni, originally of Indian nationality, and his serious car accident and near death in Calcutta.\n\nPersonal life\nCameron's first wife, Elma, died in childbirth near the start of World War II. Before she died she gave birth to their daughter, also Elma (Eleanor Margaret). \nHe later married Elizabeth Marris (who already had son Desmond Roderic O’Conor by a previous marriage to Denis O'Conor Don). He also had a son with Elizabeth; Fergus. \nIn 1971 he married Moneesha (\"Moni\") Sarkar,. \nJames Cameron died of a stroke in his sleep on 26 January 1985. He was 73.\n\nAmong his literary relatives are the Gighan poet the Rev Kenneth Macleod – of \"The Road to the Isles\" fame – and the writer the Rev Dr John Urquhart Cameron of St Andrews.\n\nWorks by Cameron\n\nBooks by Cameron \n Touch of the Sun (1950)\n Mandarin Red (1955)\n 1914: A Portrait of the Year (1959)\n The African Revolution (1961)\n 1916: Year of Decision (1962)\n Men of Our Time (1963)\n Here is Your Enemy (1965)\n Witness [in Vietnam] (1966)\n Point of Departure (1967) \n What a Way to Run the Tribe (selected journalism) (1968)\n An Indian Summer: A Personal Experience of India (1974) \n The Making of Israel (1976) \n Wish You Were Here: The English at Play. London: Gordon Fraser, 1976. . Introduction and commentary by Cameron, photographs by Patrick Ward).\n Yesterday's Witness (1979)\n The Best of Cameron (1981)\n\nBroadcasts\nCameron's television work include:\n\nJames Cameron Memorial Trust Award \nThere is an annual James Cameron Award Ceremony in London.\n\nPrevious winners include:\n\n 1987. David Hirst\n 1988. Michael Buerk\n 1989. Neal Ascherson\n 1990. John Simpson\n 1991. Robert Fisk & Charles Wheeler\n 1992. Bridget Kendall\n 1993. Martin Woollacott\n 1994. Ed Vulliamy\n 1995. George Alagiah\n 1996. Maggie O'Kane\n 1997. Fergal Keane\n 1998. Jonathan Steele\n 1999. Ann Leslie\n 2000. Jon Swain\n 2001. For consistently impartial reporting from Israel, Suzanne Goldenberg.\n 2002. For reporting from Africa, Chris McGreal.\n 2003. Norma Percy\n 2004. For Outstanding Journalism, John Ware.\n 2004. Special Posthumous Award, Paul Foot.\n 2005. Lindsey Hilsum\n 2006. Patrick Cockburn\n 2007. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad\n 2008. Peter Taylor\n 2009. For reporting on Barack Obama's election, Gary Younge.\n 2010. Michela Wrong & Lasantha Wickrematunge\n 2011. Alex Crawford\n 2012. Martin Wolf\n 2013. Lyse Doucet\n 2014. Luke Harding\n 2015. Jeremy Bowen\n 2016. Ian Pannell received the James Cameron Memorial Award. The Special Award went to David Walsh of The Sunday Times. The lecture was given by Gideon Rachman of The Financial Times.\n\nFrom 2017 onwards, City, University of London continued to host the James Cameron Memorial Lecture, but the prize was replaced with the Eric Robbins Prize. The James Cameron Memorial Lecture was given by:\n 2017. Lyse Doucet\n2018. Lionel Barber\n2019. Isabel Hilton\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n James Cameron Memorial Lecture and Award at City University London\n \n James Cameron at BFI\n In the Beginning was the Word, BBC TV, 1984 – first episode in Once Upon a Time series about Cameron\n Point of Departure, Cameron Country episode (clip), BBC TV, 14 September 1968\n James Cameron: A Pain In The Neck, BBC Time Shift Documentary\n James Cameron (short biography with excerpts from his writing), spartacus-educational.com\n Meeting Two British Journalists Who Made History by David J. Marcou. Great History Blog, 2009 (archived 2013)\n Another Famous James Cameron by David J. Marcou, 2009, La Crosse History Unbound\nJames Cameron's World (1911-1985): A Great Journalist Lives His Calling Via the Curiosity and Talents of a Cat by David Joseph Marcou as cited in La Crosse Public Library Catalog\n\n1911 births\n1985 deaths\nBritish autobiographers\nScottish journalists\nBritish male journalists\nBritish reporters and correspondents\nBritish television presenters\nCommanders of the Order of the British Empire\nPrix Italia winners" ]

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