title: Lee Dong-wook

text: In 2021, he appeared in "A Year-End Medley", a romantic comedy film by Kwak Jae-yong and in an iQIYI original mystery drama "Bad and Crazy", which aired on December 17, 2021.


title: Lee Dong-wook

text: Lee enlisted in the military in August 2009, serving under the National Defense Public Relations Service. He was discharged in June 2011.


title: Lee Dong-wook

text: His parents are mainly of Korean descent. In a "Wook Talk" episode that aired on January 22, 2020, guest and forensic professor Yoo Sung-ho revealed genealogical DNA test results for him and one of the show's producers. According to Lee's results, a significant part of his mother's genetic makeup matches that of Koryaks and Khakas people—both ethnic groups that are indigenous to Siberia (to be more specific, Kamchatka and Khakassia respectively).


title: Lee Dong-wook

text: On March 11, 2022, Lee made a donation million to the Hope Bridge Disaster Relief Association to help the victims of the massive wildfire that started in Uljin, Gyeongbuk and has spread to Samcheok, Gangwon.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Louis Perry Anderson (March 24, 1953 – January 21, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, author and game show host. Anderson created the cartoon series "Life with Louie" and the television sitcom "The Louie Show", and wrote four books, including "Hey Mom: Stories for My Mother, But You Can Read Them Too", which was published in 2018. He was the fourth host of the game show "Family Feud", from 1999 to 2002, in its third run and second revival.


title: Louie Anderson

text: For his performance on the FX comedy television series "Baskets", Anderson received three consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nominations and won once in 2016.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Anderson performed a stand-up show called "Louie: Larger Than Life" in Las Vegas, Nevada, from 2003 through 2012. The show originated at the Union Plaza hotel downtown, before moving to Excalibur, South Point, and Palace Station hotels.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Anderson was born and raised in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the son of Ora Zella ("née" Prouty; 1912–1990), a "Mayflower" descendant, and Louis William Anderson (1901–1980). His father was a trumpeter for singer Hoagy Carmichael. Anderson was the second youngest of 11 children in his family. In a 2016 interview on "WTF with Marc Maron", Anderson revealed that his mother actually gave birth to 16 children, but five of them—the first baby and then two sets of twins—died at birth. Anderson described his father as "abusive" and an alcoholic.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Anderson made his television debut on January 13, 1984, on Rodney Dangerfield's "Young Comedians Special" on HBO.


title: Louie Anderson

text: On November 20, 1984, Anderson made his network debut as a comedian on "The Tonight Show". In late 1985, Anderson was cast as Lou Appleton alongside Bronson Pinchot on the pilot episode of "Perfect Strangers" for ABC (which was known in this early stage as "The Greenhorn"). When the show was picked up, Anderson was replaced by Mark Linn-Baker in the role of Appleton (whose first name was then changed from Lou to Larry) as the producers didn't think the chemistry between Anderson and Pinchot was quite right. The show ran for eight seasons on ABC. Anderson had a small role in the singing-telegram scene in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", as well as appearing in a comedy special on Showtime.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Anderson also played a role in John Landis' film "Coming to America", which starred Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, a role which he reprised in the 2021 sequel. Murphy requested Anderson be hired for "Coming To America" after producers wanted a white actor in the otherwise African-American cast; Murphy described his friend Anderson as "the funniest white guy around". Anderson also starred in the 1988 camp comedy "The Wrong Guys", based on a story by John Hughes.


title: Louie Anderson

text: In 1989, Anderson guest-starred on the first episode of The Muppets television segment of "The Jim Henson Hour".


title: Louie Anderson

text: In 1995, Anderson created and produced a Saturday-morning animated series for Fox called "Life with Louie". The series was based on Anderson's childhood with 10 siblings, a sweet-hearted mother and a loud, war-crazed father. It also detailed how he was picked on for his weight, and how he used comedy to deal with the teasing. The show was a 3-year hit on Fox, and won two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Anderson created and starred in "The Louie Show" for CBS. The show had Anderson playing a psychotherapist in Duluth, Minnesota. The show ran six episodes and was cancelled.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Anderson landed the role of host of the new version of "Family Feud" in 1999. Anderson asked former "Feud" host Richard Dawson to appear on the premiere show to give him his blessing, but Dawson declined. Anderson organized a 9/11-themed tournament week of "Family Feud" between the FDNY and the NYPD, putting up $75,000 toward both organizations for recovery from the September 11, 2001, attacks. Anderson was let go from the show in 2002 and was replaced by Richard Karn.


title: Louie Anderson

text: In 2000, Anderson appeared as a panelist on an episode of "To Tell the Truth" hosted by John O'Hurley, and in 2001, Anderson appeared on an episode of "Weakest Link", winning $31,000. He made appearances on network television in "Scrubs", "Grace Under Fire", "Touched by an Angel" (Then Sings My Soul, November 28, 1999), and "Chicago Hope". He guest starred on the Adult Swim cameo-filled show "Tom Goes to the Mayor".


title: Louie Anderson

text: Anderson filmed a standup special entitled "Louie Anderson: Big Baby Boomer". In it, Anderson poked fun at his bad habits, pesky family members, and aging body.


title: Louie Anderson

text: In 2013, Anderson appeared in the ABC reality television series "Splash". After practicing several dives into a swimming pool then nearly drowning, he needed help getting out from co-star football player Ndamukong Suh. Anderson signed on as the promotional spokesperson for his home state's Land O'Lakes Sweet Cream butter brand. Anderson appeared in radio jingles, web ads, and television commercials promoting the product.


title: Louie Anderson

text: From 2016 to 2019, Anderson played the part of Christine Baskets on the FX comedy series "Baskets". Anderson won the 2016 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance.


title: Louie Anderson

text: On July 23, 2017, Anderson competed on an episode of "Celebrity Family Feud" (hosted today by Steve Harvey); his opponent was singer/actress Christina Milian. This made him one of only a small number of individuals to have both hosted and been a contestant on the same game show, and also marked his first appearance on any form of "Family Feud" since his departure as host in 2002. Anderson was a regular panelist on the TV game show "Funny You Should Ask" from September 2017 until the show went on hiatus in 2020.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Dennis Miller called him "one of the lightest on his feet comedians I know ... There's very few guys I'm going to leave my dressing room early (to watch). ... (Louie has) a Fred Astaire, with a broken leg, approach. Very quick thinking, and he wouldn't hammer points home, but he would do a 'weave-back' that was almost "Pulp Fiction"-like."


title: Louie Anderson

text: In 1984, Anderson married Diane Jean Vono; however, they divorced after four months. In 1985, Anderson married his high school sweetheart, Norma J. Walker. The marriage lasted only four weeks.


title: Louie Anderson

text: In 1997, Anderson was blackmailed by Richard John Gordon, who threatened to tell tabloids that Anderson sexually propositioned him in a casino in 1993.


title: Louie Anderson

text: Between 1997 and 1998, Anderson paid Gordon $100,000 in hush money, fearing that the story would threaten his starring roles in two family-oriented series, but when Gordon's demands increased to $250,000 in 2000, Anderson's lawyer informed federal authorities. Gordon, who was 31 at the time, was arrested after leading FBI agents on a high-speed chase along Santa Monica Boulevard. Gordon was fined and sentenced to 21 months in prison.


title: Louie Anderson

text: On January 18, 2022, it was announced that Anderson had been hospitalized in Las Vegas for large B-cell lymphoma; he had first been diagnosed with cancer a decade earlier, but kept the information private. He died of complications from the cancer three days later, on January 21, at the age of 68.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm and blues and Merseybeat, and were briefly part of the British Invasion of the United States until their touring ban in 1965. Their third single, the Ray Davies-penned "You Really Got Me", became an international hit, topping the charts in the United Kingdom and reaching the Top 10 in the United States.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks' music drew from a wide range of influences, including American R&B and rock and roll initially, and later adopting British music hall, folk, and country. The band gained a reputation for reflecting English culture and lifestyle, fuelled by Ray Davies' wittily observational writing style, and made apparent in albums such as "Face to Face" (1966), "Something Else" (1967), "The Village Green Preservation Society" (1968), "Arthur" (1969), "Lola Versus Powerman" (1970), and "Muswell Hillbillies" (1971), along with their accompanying singles including the transatlantic hit "Lola" (1970). After a fallow period in the mid-1970s, the band experienced a revival during the late 1970s and early 1980s with their albums "Sleepwalker" (1977), "Misfits" (1978), "Low Budget" (1979), "Give the People What They Want" (1981) and "State of Confusion" (1983), the last of which produced one of the band's most successful US hits, "Come Dancing". In addition, groups such as Van Halen, the Jam, the Knack, the Pretenders and the Romantics covered their songs, helping to boost the Kinks' record sales. In the 1990s, Britpop acts such as Blur and Oasis cited the band as a major influence.


title: The Kinks

text: Ray Davies (rhythm guitar, lead vocals, keyboards) and Dave Davies (lead guitar, vocals) remained members throughout the band's 33-year run. The next longest-serving member, Mick Avory (drums and percussion), was replaced by Bob Henrit, formerly of Argent, in 1984. Original bass guitarist Pete Quaife was replaced by John Dalton in 1969. After Dalton's 1976 departure, Andy Pyle briefly served as the band's bassist before being replaced by Argent bassist Jim Rodford in 1978. Session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins accompanied the band in the studio for many of their recordings in the mid-to-late 1960s. The band became an official five-piece in 1970, when keyboardist John Gosling joined them. Gosling quit in 1978; he was first replaced by ex-Pretty Things member Gordon Edwards, then more permanently by Ian Gibbons in 1979. The band gave its last public performance in 1996 and broke up in 1997 as a result of creative tension between the Davies brothers.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks have had five Top 10 singles on the US "Billboard" chart. Nine of their albums charted in the Top 40. In the UK, they have had seventeen Top 20 singles and five Top 10 albums. Four Kinks albums have been certified gold by the RIAA and the band have sold 50 million records worldwide. Among numerous honours, they received the Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Service to British Music". In 1990, the original four members of the Kinks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the UK Music Hall of Fame in November 2005. In 2018, after years of ruling out a reunion due to the brothers' animosity and the difficult relationship between longtime drummer Mick Avory and Dave, Ray and Dave Davies finally announced they were working to reform the Kinks, with Avory also on board. However, comments made by each of the Davies brothers in 2020 and 2021 would indicate that in the years since the initial announcement, little (if any) progress has been made towards an actual Kinks reunion for a new studio band album.


title: The Kinks

text: The Davies brothers were born in suburban North London on Huntingdon Road, East Finchley, the youngest and the only boys among their family's eight children. Their parents, Frederick and Annie Davies, moved the family to 6Denmark Terrace, Fortis Green, in the neighbouring suburb of Muswell Hill. At home the brothers were immersed in a world of varied musical styles, from the music hall of their parents' generation to the jazz and early rock and roll their older sisters enjoyed. Both Ray and his brother Dave, younger by almost three years, learned to play guitar, and they played skiffle and rock and roll together.


title: The Kinks

text: The brothers attended William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School (later merged with Tollington Grammar School to become Fortismere School), where they formed a band, the Ray Davies Quartet, with Ray's friend and classmate Pete Quaife and Quaife's friend John Start (although they would also be known as the Pete Quaife Quartet, if the bass player landed a gig for them instead). Their debut at a school dance was well received, which encouraged the group to play at local pubs and bars. The band went through a series of lead vocalists, including Rod Stewart, another student at William Grimshaw, who performed with the group at least once in early 1962. He then formed his own group, Rod Stewart and the Moonrakers, who became a local rival to the Ray Davies Quartet.


title: The Kinks

text: In late 1962, Ray Davies left home to study at Hornsey College of Art. He pursued interests in subjects such as film, sketching, theatre, and music, including jazz and blues. When Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated played at the college in December, he asked advice from Alexis Korner, who recommended Giorgio Gomelsky, the former Yardbirds manager, who put Davies in touch with the Soho-based Dave Hunt Band, a professional group of musicians who played jazz and R&B. A few days after the Ray Davies Quartet supported Cyril Stapleton at the Lyceum Ballroom on New Year's Eve, Davies, while still remaining in the Quartet, joined the Dave Hunt Band which briefly included Charlie Watts on drums. In February 1963, Davies left Dave Hunt to join the Hamilton King Band (also known as the Blues Messengers), which had Peter Bardens as pianist. At the end of the spring term, he left Hornsey College with a view to study film at the Central School of Art and Design. Around this time the Quartet changed their name to the Ramrods. Davies has referred to a show the fledgling Kinks played (again as the Ray Davies Quartet) at Hornsey Town Hall on Valentine's Day 1963 as their first important gig. In June, the Hamilton King Band broke up, though the Ramrods kept going, performing under several other names, including the Pete Quaife Band, and the Bo-Weevils, before (temporarily) settling on the Ravens. The fledgling group hired two managers, Grenville Collins and Robert Wace, and in late 1963 former pop singer Larry Page became their third manager. American record producer Shel Talmy began working with the band, and the Beatles' promoter, Arthur Howes, was retained to schedule the Ravens' live shows. The group unsuccessfully auditioned for various record labels until early 1964, when Talmy secured them a contract with Pye Records. During this period they had acquired a new drummer, Mickey Willet; however, Willet left the band shortly before they signed to Pye. The Ravens invited Mick Avory to replace him after seeing an advertisement Avory had placed in "Melody Maker". Avory had a background in jazz drumming and had played one gig with the fledgling Rolling Stones.


title: The Kinks

text: Around this period, the Ravens decided on a new, permanent name: the Kinks. Numerous explanations of the name's genesis have been offered. In Jon Savage's analysis, they "needed a gimmick, some edge to get them attention. Here it was: 'Kinkiness'—something newsy, naughty but just on the borderline of acceptability. In adopting the 'Kinks' as their name at that time, they were participating in a time-honoured pop ritual—fame through outrage." Manager Robert Wace related his side of the story: "I had a friend... He thought the group was rather fun. If my memory is correct, he came up with the name just as an idea, as a good way of getting publicity... When we went to [the band members] with the name, they were... absolutely horrified. They said, 'We're not going to be called kinky! Ray Davies' account conflicts with Wace's—he recalled that the name was coined by Larry Page, and referenced their "kinky" fashion sense. Davies quoted him as saying, "The way you look, and the clothes you wear, you ought to be called the Kinks." "I've never really liked the name," Ray stated.


title: The Kinks

text: The band's first single was a cover of the Little Richard song "Long Tall Sally". Bobby Graham, a friend of the band, was recruited to play drums on the recording. He would continue to occasionally substitute for Avory in the studio and play on several of the Kinks' early singles, including the early hits "You Really Got Me", "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tired of Waiting for You". "Long Tall Sally" was released in February 1964, but despite the publicity efforts of the band's managers, the single was almost completely ignored. When their second single, "You Still Want Me", failed to chart, Pye Records threatened to annul the group's contract unless their third single was successful.


title: The Kinks

text: "You Really Got Me", a Ray Davies song, influenced by American blues and the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie", was recorded on 15 June 1964 at Pye Studios with a slower and more produced feel than the final single. Ray Davies wanted to re-record the song with a lean, raw sound, but Pye refused to fund another session; Davies was adamant, so the producer, Shel Talmy, broke the stalemate by underwriting the session himself. The band used an independent studio, IBC, and went in on 15 July, getting it done in two takes. The single was released in August 1964, and, supported by a performance on the television show "Ready Steady Go!" and extensive pirate radio coverage, it entered the UK charts on 15 August, reaching number one on 19 September. Hastily imported by the American label Reprise Records, where the band was signed by legendary executive Mo Ostin, it also made the Top 10 in the United States. The loud, distorted guitar riff and solo on "You Really Got Me"—played by Dave Davies and achieved by a slice he made in the speaker cone of his Elpico amplifier (referred to by the band as the "little green amp")—helped with the song's signature, gritty guitar sound. "You Really Got Me" has been described as "a blueprint song in the hard rock and heavy metal arsenal", and as an influence on the approach of some American garage rock bands. After its release, the group recorded most of the tracks for their debut LP, simply titled "Kinks". Consisting largely of covers and revamped traditional songs, it was released on 2October 1964, reaching number four on the UK chart. The group's fourth single, "All Day and All of the Night", another Ray Davies hard rock tune, was released three weeks later, reaching number two in the United Kingdom, and number seven in the United States. The next singles, "Set Me Free" and "Tired of Waiting for You", were also commercially successful, the latter topping the UK singles chart.


title: The Kinks

text: The group opened 1965 with their first tour of Australia and New Zealand, with Manfred Mann and the Honeycombs. An intensive performing schedule saw them headline other package tours throughout the year with acts such as the Yardbirds and Mickey Finn. Tensions began to emerge within the band, expressed in incidents such as the on-stage fight between Avory and Dave Davies at the Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, Wales, on 19 May. After finishing the first song, "You Really Got Me", Davies insulted Avory and kicked over his drum set. Avory responded by hitting Davies with his hi-hat stand, rendering him unconscious, before fleeing from the scene, fearing that he had killed his bandmate. Davies was taken to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, where he received 16 stitches to his head. To placate the police, Avory later claimed that it was part of a new act in which the band members would hurl their instruments at each other.


title: The Kinks

text: Following a mid-year tour of the United States, the American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the group to appear in concerts there for the next four years, effectively cutting off the Kinks from the main market for rock music at the height of the British Invasion. Although neither the Kinks nor the union revealed a specific reason for the ban, at the time it was widely attributed to their rowdy on-stage behaviour. It has been reported that an incident when the band were taping Dick Clark's TV show "Where the Action Is" in 1965 led to the ban. Ray Davies recalls in his autobiography, "Some guy who said he worked for the TV company walked up and accused us of being late. Then he started making anti-British comments. Things like 'Just because the Beatles did it, every mop-topped, spotty-faced limey juvenile thinks he can come over here and make a career for himself.; subsequently a punch was thrown and the AFM banned them.


title: The Kinks

text: A stopover in Bombay, India, during the band's Australian and Asian tour had led Davies to write the song "See My Friends", released as a single in July 1965. This was an early example of crossover music, and one of the first pop songs of the period to display the direct influence of traditional music from the Indian Subcontinent. Davies had written "See My Friends" with a raga feel after hearing the early morning chants of local fishermen. Music historian Jonathan Bellman argues that the song was "extremely influential" on Davies' musical peers: "And while much has been made of the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood' because it was the first pop record to use a sitar, it was recorded well after the Kinks' clearly Indian 'See My Friends' was released." Pete Townshend of the Who was particularly affected by the song: See My Friends' was the next time I pricked up my ears and thought, 'God, he's done it again. He's invented something new.' That was the first reasonable use of the drone—far, far better than anything The Beatles did and far, far earlier. It was a European sound rather than an Eastern sound but with a strong, legitimate Eastern influence which had its roots in European folk music." In a widely quoted statement by Barry Fantoni, 1960s celebrity and friend of the Kinks, the Beatles, and the Who, he recalled that it was also an influence on the Beatles: "I remember it vividly and still think it's a remarkable pop song. I was with the Beatles the evening that they actually sat around listening to it on a gramophone, saying 'You know this guitar thing sounds like a sitar. We must get one of those. The song's radical departure from popular music conventions proved unpopular with the band's American following—it hit number 10 in the UK, but stalled at number 111 in the US.


title: The Kinks

text: Recording began promptly on the group's next project, "Kinda Kinks", starting the day after their return from the Asian tour. The LP—10 of whose 12 songs were originals—was completed and released within two weeks. According to Ray Davies, the band was not completely satisfied with the final cuts, but pressure from the record company meant that no time was available to correct flaws in the mix. Davies later expressed his dissatisfaction with the production, saying, "A bit more care should have been taken with it. I think [producer] Shel Talmy went too far in trying to keep in the rough edges. Some of the double tracking on that is appalling. It had better songs on it than the first album, but it wasn't executed in the right way. It was just far too rushed."


title: The Kinks

text: A significant stylistic shift in the Kinks' music became evident in late 1965, with the appearance of singles like "A Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", as well as the band's third album, "The Kink Kontroversy", on which session musician Nicky Hopkins made his first appearance with the group on keyboards. These recordings exemplified the development of Davies' songwriting style, from hard-driving rock numbers toward songs rich in social commentary, observation and idiosyncratic character study, all with a uniquely English flavour.


title: The Kinks

text: The satirical single "Sunny Afternoon" was the biggest UK hit of summer 1966, topping the charts and displacing the Beatles' "Paperback Writer". Before the release of "The Kink Kontroversy", Ray Davies suffered a nervous and physical breakdown, caused by the pressures of touring, writing and ongoing legal squabbles. During his months of recuperation, he wrote several new songs and pondered the band's direction. Quaife was involved in an automobile accident, and after his recovery decided to leave the band. Bassist John Dalton, who was initially hired to fill in for the injured Quaife, subsequently became his official replacement. However, Quaife soon had a change of heart and rejoined the band, and Dalton went back to his previous job as a coalman.


title: The Kinks

text: "Sunny Afternoon" was a dry run for the band's next album "Face to Face", which displayed Davies' growing ability to craft musically gentle yet lyrically cutting narrative songs about everyday life and people. Hopkins returned for the sessions to play various keyboard instruments, including piano and harpsichord. He played on the band's next two studio albums as well, and was involved on a number of their live BBC recordings before joining the Jeff Beck Group in 1968. "Face to Face" was released in October 1966 in the UK, where it was well received and peaked at number eight. It was released in the US in December and was tipped as a potential "chart winner" by "Billboard" magazine. Despite this, it managed only a meagre chart peak of 135—a sign of the band's flagging popularity in the American market.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks' next single was a social commentary piece entitled "Dead End Street". It was released in November 1966 and became another UK Top 10 hit, although it reached only number 73 in the United States. "Melody Maker" reviewer Bob Dawbarn praised Ray Davies' ability to create a song with "some fabulous lyrics and a marvellous melody ... combined with a great production", and music scholar Johnny Rogan described it as "a kitchen sink drama without the drama—a static vision of working class stoicism". One of the group's first promotional music videos was produced for the song. It was filmed on Little Green Street, a small 18th-century lane in north London, located off Highgate Road in Kentish Town.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks' next single, "Waterloo Sunset", was released in May 1967. The lyrics describe two lovers passing over a bridge, with a melancholic observer reflecting on the couple, the Thames, and Waterloo station. The song was rumoured to have been inspired by the romance between two British celebrities of the time, actors Terence Stamp and Julie Christie. Ray Davies denied this in his autobiography, and claimed in a 2008 interview, "It was a fantasy about my sister going off with her boyfriend to a new world and they were going to emigrate and go to another country." Despite its complex arrangement, the sessions for "Waterloo Sunset" lasted a mere ten hours; Dave Davies later commented on the recording: "We spent a lot of time trying to get a different guitar sound, to get a more unique feel for the record. In the end we used a tape-delay echo, but it sounded new because nobody had done it since the 1950s. I remember Steve Marriott of the Small Faces came up and asked me how we'd got that sound. We were almost trendy for a while." The single was one of the Kinks' biggest UK successes (hitting number two on "Melody Maker"'s chart), and went on to become one of their most popular and best-known songs. Pop music journalist Robert Christgau called it "the most beautiful song in the English language", and AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine cited it as "possibly the most beautiful song of the rock and roll era". 45 years later, Ray Davies was chosen to perform the song at the closing of the 2012 London Olympic Games.


title: The Kinks

text: The songs on the 1967 album, "Something Else by the Kinks", developed the musical progressions of "Face to Face", adding English music hall influences to the band's sound. Dave Davies scored a major UK chart success with the album's "Death of a Clown". While it was co-written by Ray Davies and recorded by the Kinks, it was also released as a Dave Davies solo single. Overall, however, the album's commercial performance was disappointing, prompting the Kinks to rush out a new single, "Autumn Almanac", in early October. Backed with "Mister Pleasant", the single became another Top5 success for the group. At this point, in a string of 13 singles, 12 of them reached the top 10 in the UK chart. Andy Miller points out that, despite its success, the single marks a turning point in the band's career—it would be their last entry into the UK Top Ten for three years: "In retrospect, 'Autumn Almanac' marked the first hint of trouble for the Kinks. This glorious single, one of the greatest achievements of British 60s pop, was widely criticised at the time for being too similar to previous [Ray] Davies efforts." Nick Jones of "Melody Maker" asked, "Is it time that Ray stopped writing about grey suburbanites going about their fairly unemotional daily business?... Ray works to a formula, not a feeling, and it's becoming rather boring." Disc jockey Mike Ahern called the song "a load of old rubbish". Dave's second solo single, "Susannah's Still Alive", was released in the UK on 24 November. It sold 59,000 copies, failing to reach the Top 10. Miller states that "by the end of the year, the Kinks were rapidly sliding out of fashion".


title: The Kinks

text: Beginning early in 1968, the group largely retired from touring, instead focusing on work in the studio. As the band was not available to promote their material, subsequent releases met with little success. The Kinks' next single, "Wonderboy", released in the spring of 1968, stalled at number 36 and became the band's first single not to make the UK Top Twenty since their early covers. In the face of the band's declining popularity, Davies continued to pursue his personal song-writing style while rebelling against the heavy demands placed on him to keep producing commercial hits, and the group continued to devote time to the studio, centering on a slowly developing project of Ray's called "Village Green". In an attempt to revive the group's commercial standing, the Kinks' management booked them on a month-long package tour for April, drawing the group away from the studio. The venues were largely cabarets and clubs; headlining was Peter Frampton's group the Herd. "In general, the teenyboppers were not there to see the boring old Kinks, who occasionally had to endure chants of 'We Want The Herd!' during their brief appearances", commented Andy Miller. The tour proved taxing and stressful—Pete Quaife recalled, "It was a chore, very dull, boring and straightforward... We only did twenty minutes, but it used to drive me absolutely frantic, standing on stage and playing three notes over and over again." At the end of June, the Kinks released the single "Days", which provided a minor, but only momentary, comeback for the group. "I remember playing it when I was at Fortis Green the first time I had a tape of it", Ray said. "I played it to Brian, who used to be our roadie, and his wife and two daughters. They were crying at the end of it. Really wonderful—like going to Waterloo and seeing the sunset. ... It's like saying goodbye to somebody, then afterwards feeling the fear that you actually are alone." "Days" reached number 12 in the United Kingdom and was a Top 20 hit in several other countries, but it did not chart in the United States.


title: The Kinks

text: "Village Green" eventually morphed into their next album, "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society", released in late 1968 in the UK. A collection of thematic vignettes of English town and hamlet life, it was assembled from songs written and recorded over the previous two years. It was greeted with almost unanimously positive reviews from both UK and US rock critics, yet failed to sell strongly. One factor in the album's initial commercial failure was the lack of a popular single. It did not include the moderately successful "Days"; "Starstruck" was released in North America and continental Europe, but was unsuccessful. Though a commercial disappointment, "Village Green" (the project's original name was adopted as shorthand for the long album title) was embraced by the new underground rock press when it came out in January 1969 in the United States, where the Kinks began to acquire a reputation as a cult band. In "The Village Voice", a newly hired Robert Christgau called it "the best album of the year so far". The underground Boston paper "Fusion" published a review stating, "the Kinks continue, despite the odds, the bad press and their demonstrated lot, to come across. ... Their persistence is dignified, their virtues are stoic. The Kinks are forever, only for now in modern dress." The record did not escape criticism, however. In the student paper "California Tech", one writer commented that it was "schmaltz rock... without imagination, poorly arranged and a poor copy of The Beatles". Although Davies later estimated it sold only around 100,000 copies worldwide on its initial release, it has since become the Kinks' best-selling original record. The album remains popular; in 2004, it was re-released in a 3-CD "Deluxe" edition and one of its tracks, "Picture Book", was featured in a popular Hewlett-Packard television commercial, helping to boost the album's popularity considerably.


title: The Kinks

text: In early 1969, Quaife again told the band he was leaving. The other members did not take his statement seriously until an article appeared in "New Musical Express" on 4 April featuring Quaife's new band, Maple Oak, which he had formed without telling the rest of the Kinks. Ray Davies pleaded with him to return for the sessions for their upcoming album, but Quaife refused. Davies immediately called up John Dalton, who had replaced Quaife three years prior, and asked him to rejoin. Dalton remained with the group until the recording of the album "Sleepwalker" in 1976.


title: The Kinks

text: Ray Davies travelled to Los Angeles in April 1969 to help negotiate an end to the American Federation of Musicians' ban on the group, opening up an opportunity for them to return to touring in the US. The group's management quickly made plans for a North American tour, to help restore their standing in the US pop music scene. Before their return to the US, the Kinks recorded another album, "Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)". As with the previous two albums, "Arthur" was grounded in characteristically English lyrical and musical hooks. A modest commercial success, it was well received by American music critics. Conceived as the score for a proposed but unrealised television drama, much of the album revolved around themes from the Davies brothers' childhood; their sister Rosie, who had migrated to Australia in the early 1960s with her husband, Arthur Anning, the album's namesake; and life growing up during the Second World War. The Kinks embarked on their tour of the US in October 1969. The tour was generally unsuccessful, as the group struggled to find cooperative promoters and interested audiences; many of the scheduled concert dates were cancelled. The band did, however, manage to play a few major venues such as the Fillmore East and Whisky a Go Go.


title: The Kinks

text: The band added keyboardist John Gosling to their line-up in early 1970; before this Nicky Hopkins, along with Ray, had done most of the session work on keyboards. In May 1970 Gosling debuted with the Kinks on "Lola", an account of a confused romantic encounter with a transvestite, that became both a UK and a US Top 10 hit, helping return the Kinks to the public eye. The lyrics originally contained the word "Coca-Cola", and as a result the BBC refused to broadcast the song, considering it to be in violation of their policy against product placement. Part of the song was hastily rerecorded by Ray Davies, with the offending line changed to the generic "cherry cola", although in concert the Kinks still used "Coca-Cola". Recordings of both versions of "Lola" exist. The accompanying album "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One" was released in November 1970. It was a critical and commercial success, charting in the Top 40 in the US, making it their most successful album since the mid-1960s. After the success of "Lola", the band went on to release "Percy" in 1971, a soundtrack album to a film of the same name about a penis transplant. The album, which consisted largely of instrumentals, did not receive positive reviews. The band's US label, Reprise, declined to release it in the US, precipitating a major dispute that contributed to the band's departure from the label. Directly after the release of the album, the band's contracts with Pye and Reprise expired.


title: The Kinks

text: Before the end of 1971, the Kinks signed a five-album deal with RCA Records and received a million-dollar advance, which helped fund the construction of their own recording studio, Konk. Their debut for RCA, "Muswell Hillbillies", was replete with the influence of music hall and traditional American musical styles, including country and bluegrass. It is often hailed as their last great record, though it was not as successful as its predecessors. It was named after Muswell Hill, where the Davies brothers were brought up, and contained songs focusing on working-class life and, again, the Davies' childhood. "Muswell Hillbillies", despite positive reviews and high expectations, peaked at number 48 on the "Record World" chart and number 100 on the "Billboard" chart. It was followed in 1972 by a double album, "Everybody's in Show-Biz", which consisted of both studio tracks and live numbers recorded during a two-night stand at Carnegie Hall. The record featured the ballad "Celluloid Heroes" and the Caribbean-themed "Supersonic Rocket Ship", their last UK Top 20 hit for more than a decade. "Celluloid Heroes" is a bittersweet rumination on dead and fading Hollywood stars (Mickey Rooney was still alive), in which the narrator declares that he wishes his life were like a movie "because celluloid heroes never feel any pain... and celluloid heroes never really die." The album was moderately successful in the United States, peaking at number 47 in "Record World" and number 70 in "Billboard". It marks the transition between the band's early 1970s rock material and the theatrical incarnation in which they immersed themselves for the next four years.


title: The Kinks

text: In 1973, Ray Davies dived headlong into the theatrical style, beginning with the rock opera "Preservation", a sprawling chronicle of social revolution, and a more ambitious outgrowth of the earlier "Village Green Preservation Society" ethos. In conjunction with the "Preservation" project, the Kinks' line-up was expanded to include a horn section and female backup singers, essentially reconfiguring the group as a theatrical troupe.


title: The Kinks

text: Ray Davies' marital problems during this period began to affect the band adversely, particularly after his wife, Rasa, took their children and left him in June 1973. Davies became depressed; during a July gig at White City Stadium he told the audience he was "fucking sick of the whole thing", and was retiring. He subsequently collapsed after a drug overdose and was taken to hospital. With Ray Davies in a seemingly critical condition, plans were discussed for Dave to continue as frontman in a worst-case scenario. Ray recovered from his illness as well as his depression, but throughout the remainder of the Kinks' theatrical incarnation the band's output remained uneven, and their already fading popularity declined even more. John Dalton later commented that when Davies "decided to work again... I don't think he was totally better, and he's been a different person ever since."<ref name="Marten/Hudson 128-129">Marten, Neville; Hudson, Jeff (2001). pp. 128–129</ref>


title: The Kinks

text: "Preservation Act 1" (1973) and "Preservation Act 2" (1974) received generally poor reviews. The story on the albums involved an anti-hero called Mr Flash, and his rival and enemy Mr Black (played by Dave Davies during live shows), an ultra-purist and corporatist. "Preservation Act 2" was the first album recorded at Konk Studio; from this point forward, virtually every Kinks studio recording was produced by Ray Davies at Konk. The band embarked on an ambitious US tour throughout late 1974, adapting the "Preservation" story for stage. Author Robert Polito: "[Ray] Davies expanded the Kinks into a road troupe of perhaps a dozen costumed actors, singers and horn players. ... Smoother and tighter than on record, "Preservation" live proved funnier as well."


title: The Kinks

text: Davies began another project for Granada Television, a musical called "Starmaker". After a broadcast with Ray Davies in the starring role and the Kinks as both back-up band and ancillary characters, the project eventually morphed into the concept album "The Kinks Present a Soap Opera", released in May 1975, in which Ray Davies fantasised about what would happen if a rock star traded places with a "normal Norman" and took a 9–5 job. In August 1975, the Kinks recorded their final theatrical work, "Schoolboys in Disgrace", a backstory biography of "Preservation's" Mr Flash. The record was a modest success, peaking at number 45 on the "Billboard" charts.


title: The Kinks

text: Following the termination of their contract with RCA, the Kinks signed with Arista Records in 1976. With the encouragement of Arista's management they stripped back down to a five-man core group and were reborn as an arena rock band. John Dalton left the band before finishing the sessions for the debut Arista album. Andy Pyle was brought in to complete the sessions and to play on the subsequent tour. "Sleepwalker", released in 1977, marked a return to success for the group as it peaked at number 21 on the "Billboard" chart. After its release and the recording of the follow-up, "Misfits", Andy Pyle and keyboardist John Gosling left the group to work together on a separate project. In May 1978, "Misfits", the Kinks' second Arista album, was released. It included the US Top 40 hit "A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy", which helped make the record another success for the band. The non-album single "Father Christmas" has remained a popular track. Driven by session drummer Henry Spinetti's drumming and Dave Davies' heavy guitar the song "Father Christmas" has become a classic seasonal favorite on mainstream radio. For the following tour, the band recruited ex-Argent bassist Jim Rodford and ex–Pretty Things keyboardist Gordon Edwards. Edwards was soon fired from The Kinks for failing to show up to recordings sessions, and the band recorded 1979's "Low Budget" as a quartet, with Ray Davies handling keyboard duties. Keyboardist Ian Gibbons was recruited for the subsequent tour, and became a permanent member of the group. Despite the personnel changes, the popularity of the band's records and live shows continued to grow.


title: The Kinks

text: Beginning in the late 1970s, bands such as the Jam ("David Watts"), the Pretenders ("Stop Your Sobbing", "I Go to Sleep"), the Romantics ("Hung On You"), and the Knack ("The Hard Way") recorded covers of Kinks songs, which helped bring attention to the group's new releases. In 1978, Van Halen covered "You Really Got Me" for their debut single, a Top 40 US hit, helping boost the band's commercial resurgence (Van Halen later covered "Where Have All the Good Times Gone", another early Kinks song which had been covered by David Bowie on his 1973 album "Pin Ups"). The hard rock sound of "Low Budget", released in 1979, helped make it the Kinks' second gold album and highest charting original album in the US, where it peaked at number 11. In 1980, the group's third live album, "One for the Road", was produced, along with a video of the same title, bringing the group's concert-drawing power to a peak that would last into 1983. Dave Davies also took advantage of the group's improved commercial standing to fulfill his decade-long ambitions to release albums of his solo work. The first was the eponymous "Dave Davies" in 1980. It was also known by its catalogue number "AFL1-3603" because of its cover art, which depicted Dave Davies as a leather-jacketed piece of price-scanning barcode. He produced another, less successful, solo album in 1981, "Glamour".


title: The Kinks

text: The next Kinks album, "Give the People What They Want", was released in late 1981 and reached number 15 in the US. The record attained gold status and featured the UK hit single "Better Things" as well as "Destroyer", a major Mainstream Rock hit for the group. To promote the album, the Kinks spent the end of 1981 and most of 1982 touring relentlessly, and played multiple sell-out concerts throughout Australia, Japan, England and the US. The tour culminated with a performance at the US Festival in San Bernardino, California, for a crowd of 205,000. In spring 1983, the song "Come Dancing" became their biggest American hit since "Tired of Waiting for You", peaking at number six. It also became the group's first Top 20 hit in the UK since 1972, peaking at number 12 in the charts. The accompanying album, "State of Confusion", was another commercial success, reaching number 12 in the US, but, like all the group's albums since 1967, it failed to chart in the UK. Another single released from the record, "Don't Forget to Dance", became a US top 30 hit and minor UK chart entry.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks' second wave of popularity remained at a peak with "State of Confusion", but that success began to fade, a trend that also affected their British rock contemporaries the Rolling Stones and the Who. During the second half of 1983, Ray Davies started work on an ambitious solo film project, "Return to Waterloo", about a London commuter who daydreams that he is a serial murderer. The film gave actor Tim Roth a significant early role. Davies' commitment to writing, directing and scoring the new work caused tension in his relationship with his brother. Another problem was the stormy end of the relationship between Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde. The old feud between Dave Davies and drummer Mick Avory also re-ignited. Davies eventually refused to work with Avory, and called for him to be replaced by Bob Henrit, former drummer of Argent (of which Jim Rodford had also been a member). Avory left the band, and Henrit was brought in to take his place. Ray Davies, who was still on amiable terms with Avory, invited him to manage Konk Studios. Avory accepted, and continued to serve as a producer and occasional contributor on later Kinks albums.


title: The Kinks

text: Between the completion of "Return to Waterloo" and Avory's departure, the band had begun work on "Word of Mouth", their final Arista album, released in November 1984. As a result it includes Avory on three tracks, with Henrit and a drum machine on the rest. Many of the songs also appeared as solo recordings on Ray Davies' "Return to Waterloo" soundtrack album. "Word of Mouth"s lead track, "Do It Again", was released as a single in April 1985. It reached number 41 in the US, the band's last entry into the "Billboard" Hot 100. Coinciding with the album's release, the first three books on the Kinks were published: "The Kinks: The Official Biography", by Jon Savage; "The Kinks Kronikles", by rock critic John Mendelsohn, who had overseen the 1972 "The Kink Kronikles" compilation album; and "The Kinks – The Sound And The Fury" ("The Kinks – A Mental Institution" in the US), by Johnny Rogan.


title: The Kinks

text: In early 1986, the group signed with MCA Records in the United States and London Records in the UK. Their first album for the new labels, "Think Visual", released later that year, was a moderate success, peaking at number 81 on the "Billboard" albums chart. Songs like the ballad "Lost and Found" and "Working at the Factory" concerned blue-collar life on an assembly line, while the title track was an attack on the very MTV video culture from which the band had profited earlier in the decade. The Kinks followed "Think Visual" in 1987 with another live album, "The Road", which was a mediocre commercial and critical performer. In 1989, the Kinks released "UK Jive", a commercial failure, making only a momentary entry into the album charts at number 122. MCA Records ultimately dropped them, leaving the Kinks without a label deal for the first time in over a quarter of a century. Longtime keyboardist Ian Gibbons left the group and was replaced by Mark Haley.


title: The Kinks

text: In 1990, their first year of eligibility, the Kinks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Mick Avory and Pete Quaife were present for the award. The induction, however, did not revive the Kinks' stalled career. A compilation from the MCA Records period, "Lost & Found (1986–1989)", was released in 1991 to fulfil contractual obligations, and marked the official end of the group's relationship with MCA. The band then signed with Columbia Records and released the five-song EP "Did Ya" in 1991 which, despite being coupled with a new studio re-recording of the band's 1968 British hit "Days", failed to chart.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks reverted to a four-piece band for the recording of their first Columbia album, "Phobia", in 1993. Following Mark Haley's departure after the band's sellout performance at the Royal Albert Hall, London, Gibbons rejoined the Kinks for a US tour. "Phobia" managed only one week in the US "Billboard" chart at number 166; as had by then become usual for the band, it made no impression in the UK. One single, "Only a Dream", narrowly failed to reach the British chart. "Scattered", the album's final candidate for release as a single, was announced, followed by TV and radio promotion, but the record was unavailable in stores—several months later a small number appeared on the collector market. The group was dropped by Columbia in 1994. In the same year, the band released the first version of the album "To the Bone" on their own Konk label in the UK. This live acoustic album was partly recorded on the highly successful UK tours of 1993 and 1994 and partly in the Konk studio, before a small, invited audience. Two years later the band released a new, improved, live double CD set in the US, which retained the same name and contained two new studio tracks, "Animal" and "To The Bone". The CD set also featured new treatments of many old Kinks hits. The record drew respectable press but failed to chart in either the US or the UK.


title: The Kinks

text: The band's profile rose considerably in the mid-1990s, primarily as a result of the "Britpop" boom. Several of the most prominent bands of the decade cited the Kinks as a major influence. Despite such accolades, the group's commercial viability continued to decline. They gradually became less active, leading Ray and Dave Davies to pursue their own interests. Each released an autobiography; Ray's "X-Ray" was published in early 1995, and Dave responded with his memoir "Kink", published a year later. The Kinks gave their last public performance in mid-1996, and the group assembled for what would turn out to be their last time together at a party for Dave's 50th birthday. Kinks chronicler and historian Doug Hinman stated, "The symbolism of the event was impossible to overlook. The party was held at the site of the brothers' very first musical endeavour, the Clissold Arms pub, across the street from their childhood home on Fortis Green in North London."


title: The Kinks

text: The band members subsequently focused on solo projects, and both Davies brothers released their own studio albums. Talk of a Kinks reunion circulated (including an aborted studio reunion of the original band members in 1999), but neither Ray nor Dave Davies showed much interest in playing together again. Meanwhile, former members John Gosling, John Dalton and Mick Avory had regrouped in 1994 and started performing on the oldies circuit along with guitar-player/singer Dave Clarke as the Kast Off Kinks.


title: The Kinks

text: Ray Davies released the solo album "Storyteller", a companion piece to "X-Ray", in 1998. Originally written two years earlier as a cabaret-style show, it celebrated his old band and his estranged brother. Seeing the programming possibilities in his music/dialogue/reminiscence format, the American music television network VH1 launched a series of similar projects featuring established rock artists titled "VH1 Storytellers". Dave Davies spoke favourably of a Kinks reunion in early 2003, and as the 40th anniversary of the group's breakthrough neared, both the Davies brothers expressed interest in working together again. However, hopes for a reunion were dashed in June 2004 when Dave suffered a stroke while exiting an elevator, temporarily impairing his ability to speak and play guitar. Following Dave's recovery, the Kinks were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in November 2005, with all four of the original band members in attendance. The induction helped fuel sales for the group; in August 2007, a re-entry of "The Ultimate Collection", a compilation of material spanning the band's career, reached number 32 on the UK Top 100 album chart and number one on the UK Indie album chart. Quaife, who had been receiving kidney dialysis for more than ten years, died on 23 June 2010, at the age of 66. On 20 January 2018, long-time bassist Jim Rodford died at the age of 76. In July 2019, keyboardist Ian Gibbons died of cancer.


title: The Kinks

text: In June 2018, the Davies brothers said they were working on a new Kinks studio album with Avory. In July 2019, the band again said they were working on new music. However, in a December 2020 interview with "The New York Times", Ray Davies did not indicate that much work has been done, saying "I'd like to work with Dave again—if he'll work with me." When asked about a reunion in an interview published January 2021, Dave Davies said "We've been talking about it. I mean there's a lot of material and, you know, it could still happen."


title: The Kinks

text: The first live performance of the Ray Davies Quartet, the band that would become the Kinks, was at a dance for their school, William Grimshaw, in 1962. The band performed under several names between 1962 and 1963—the Pete Quaife Band, the Bo-Weevils, the Ramrods, and the Ravens—before settling on the Kinks in early 1964. Ray has stated that a performance at Hornsey Town Hall on Valentine's Day 1963 was when the band were truly born.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks made their first tour of Australia and New Zealand in January 1965 as part of a "package" bill that included Manfred Mann and the Honeycombs. They performed and toured relentlessly, headlining package tours throughout 1965 with performers such as the Yardbirds and Mickey Finn. Tensions began to emerge within the band, expressed in incidents such as the on-stage fight between drummer Mick Avory and Dave Davies at The Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, Wales on 19 May. After finishing the first song, "You Really Got Me", Davies insulted Avory and kicked over his drum set. Avory responded by hitting Davies with his hi-hat stand, rendering him unconscious, before fleeing from the scene, fearing that he had killed his bandmate. Davies was taken to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, where he received 16 stitches to his head. To placate police, Avory later claimed that it was part of a new act in which the band members would hurl their instruments at each other. Following their summer 1965 American tour, the American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the group to appear in concerts in the United States for the next four years, possibly due to their rowdy on-stage behaviour.


title: The Kinks

text: In April 1969 Davies helped negotiate an end to the American Federation of Musician ban on the group, which allowed plans for a North American tour. However, over the next few years, Davies went into a state of depression, not helped by his collapsing marriage, culminating in his onstage announcement that he was "sick of it all" at a gig in White City Stadium, London in 1973. A review of the concert published in "Melody Maker" stated: "Davies swore on stage. He stood at The White City and swore that he was 'F... sick of the whole thing' ... He was 'Sick up to here with it' ... and those that heard shook their heads. Mick just ventured a disbelieving smile, and drummer on through 'Waterloo Sunset. Davies proceeded to try to announce that the Kinks were breaking up as the band were leaving the stage, but this attempt was foiled by the group's publicity management, who pulled the plug on the microphone system.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks started out playing the then popular R&B and blues styles; then, under the influence of The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" recording, developed louder rock and hard rock sounds. Due to their pioneering contribution to the field, they have often been labelled as "the original punks". Dave Davies was "really bored with this guitar sound—or lack of an interesting sound" so he purchased "a little green amplifier... an Elpico" from a radio spares shop in Muswell Hill, and "twiddled around with it", including "taking the wires going to the speaker and putting a jack plug on there and plugging it straight into my AC30" (a larger amplifier), but didn't get the sound he wanted until he got frustrated and "got a single-sided Gillette razorblade and cut round the cone [from the centre to the edge]... so it was all shredded but still on there, still intact. I played and I thought it was amazing." The jagged sound of the amplifier was replicated in the studio; the Elpico was plugged into the Vox AC30, and the resulting effect became a mainstay in The Kinks' early recordings—most notably on "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night".


title: The Kinks

text: From 1966 onwards, The Kinks came to be known for their adherence to traditions of English music and culture, during a period when many other British bands dismissed their heritage in favour of American blues, R&B and pop styles. Ray Davies recalled that at a distinct moment in 1965 he decided to break away from the American scene, and write more introspective and intelligent songs. "I decided I was going to use words more, and say things. I wrote 'A Well Respected Man'. That was the first real word-oriented song I wrote... [I also] abandoned any attempt to Americanise my accent." The Kinks' allegiance to English styles was strengthened by the ban placed on them by the American Federation of Musicians. The ban cut them off from the American record buying public, the world's largest musical market, forcing them to focus on Britain and mainland Europe. The Kinks expanded on their English sound throughout the remainder of the 1960s, incorporating elements of music hall, folk, and baroque music through use of harpsichord, acoustic guitar, mellotron, and horns, in albums such as "Face to Face", "Something Else by the Kinks", "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society", and "Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire)", creating some of the most influential and important music of the period.


title: The Kinks

text: Beginning with "Everybody's In Show-biz" (1972), Ray Davies began exploring theatrical concepts on the group's albums; these themes became manifest on the 1973 album "Preservation Act 1" and continued through "Schoolboys In Disgrace" (1976). The Kinks were less commercially successful with these conceptual works, and were dropped by RCA which had signed them in 1971. In 1977 they moved to Arista Records, who insisted on a more traditional rock format. "Sleepwalker" (1977), which heralded their return to commercial success, featured a mainstream, relatively slick production style that would become their norm. The band returned to hard rock for "Low Budget" (1979), and continued to record within the genre throughout the remainder of their career, however, they took a detour for pop music in the 1980s, which can be heard on almost all of their albums beginning with "Give the People What They Want" and continuing to their breakup. Songs featuring a pop sound include "Better Things".


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks are regarded as one of the most influential rock acts of the 1960s and early 1970s. Stephen Thomas Erlewine called them "one of the most influential bands of the British Invasion". They were ranked 65th on "Rolling Stone" magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list.


title: The Kinks

text: Artists influenced by the Kinks include punk rock groups such as the Ramones, The Clash, Blondie, and The Jam, heavy metal acts including Van Halen and Britpop groups such as Oasis, Blur and Pulp. Craig Nicholls, singer and guitarist of The Vines, described the Kinks as "great songwriters, so underrated". Pete Townshend, guitarist with the Kinks' contemporaries The Who, credited Ray Davies with inventing "a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning." Jon Savage wrote that The Kinks were an influence on late 1960s American psychedelic rock groups "like The Doors, Love and Jefferson Airplane". Music writers and other musicians have acknowledged the influence of the Kinks on the development of hard rock and heavy metal. Musicologist Joe Harrington stated: "You Really Got Me', 'All Day and All of the Night' and 'I Need You' were predecessors of the whole three-chord genre... [T]he Kinks did a lot to help turn rock 'n' roll (Jerry Lee Lewis) into rock." Queen guitarist Brian May credited the band with planting "the seed which grew into riff-based music."


title: The Kinks

text: They have two albums, "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" (No. 384), and "Something Else by the Kinks" (No. 478) on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. They have three songs on the same magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list as updated in September 2021: "Waterloo Sunset" (No. 14), "You Really Got Me" (No. 176), and "Lola" (No. 386). A musical, "Sunny Afternoon", based on the early life of Ray Davies and the formation of the Kinks, opened at the Hampstead Theatre in April 2014. The musical's name came from the band's 1966 hit single "Sunny Afternoon" and features songs from the band's back catalogue.


title: The Kinks

text: In 2015, it was reported that Julien Temple would direct a biopic of The Kinks titled "You Really Got Me", but as of 2021 nothing had come of the project. Temple previously released a documentary about Ray Davies titled "Imaginary Man".


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks were active for over three decades between 1964 and 1996, releasing 24 studio and 4 live albums. The first two albums were differently released in UK and US partly due to difference in popularity of the extended play format (the UK market liked it, the US market did not, so US albums had the EP releases bundled onto them), and partly due to the US albums including the hit singles, and the UK albums not; after "The Kink Kontroversy" in 1965 the albums were the same. There have been somewhere between 100 and 200 compilation albums released worldwide. Their hit singles included three UK number-one singles, starting in 1964 with "You Really Got Me"; plus 18 Top 40 singles in the 1960s alone and further Top 40 hits in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: The Kinks

text: The Kinks had five Top 10 singles on the US "Billboard" chart. Nine of their albums charted in the Top 40. In the UK, the group had seventeen Top 20 singles along with five Top 10 albums. The RIAA has certified four of the Kinks' albums as gold records. "Greatest Hits!", released in 1965, was certified gold for sales of 1,000,000 on 28 November 1968—six days after the release of "The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society", which failed to chart worldwide. The group would not receive another gold record award until 1979's "Low Budget". The 1980 live album "One For The Road" was certified gold on 8December 1980. "Give The People What They Want", released in 1981, received its certification on 25 January 1982, for sales of 500,000 copies. Despite not selling at the time of its release,"The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society" was awarded a gold disc in the UK in 2018 for selling more than 100,000 copies. ASCAP, the performing-rights group, presented the Kinks with an award for "One of the Most Played Songs Of 1983" for the hit single "Come Dancing".


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars (commonly stylized as 30 Seconds to Mars) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1998. The band consists of brothers Jared Leto (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Shannon Leto (drums, percussion). During the course of its existence, it has undergone various line-up changes.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: The band's debut album, "30 Seconds to Mars" (2002), was produced by Bob Ezrin and released to positive reviews but only to limited commercial success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of its second album "A Beautiful Lie" (2005), which received multiple certifications all over the world. Its next release, "This Is War" (2009), showed a dramatic evolution in the band's musical style, as it incorporated experimental music as well as eclectic influences. The recording process of the album was marked by a legal dispute with record label EMI that eventually became the subject of the documentary film "Artifact" (2012). Thirty Seconds to Mars then moved to Universal Music and released the fourth album, "Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams" (2013), to critical and commercial success. It was followed by "America" (2018), which polarized critics upon release.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: As of September 2014, the band had sold over 15 million albums worldwide. Thirty Seconds to Mars has consistently enjoyed sold out tours and numerous headlining festival slots. The band is noted for its energetic live performances and for fusing elements from a wide variety of genres, through its use of philosophical and spiritual lyrics, concept albums, and experimental music. Thirty Seconds to Mars has received several awards and accolades throughout its career, including a Guinness World Record, and has been included in the "Kerrang!" list of best artists of the 2000s.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars started in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, as a collaboration between brothers Jared Leto and Shannon Leto, who had been playing music together since their childhood. The duo later expanded to a four-piece when they added guitarist Solon Bixler and bassist Matt Wachter to the line-up. Additional guitarist Kevin Drake, who first auditioned for the position of bassist, also joined the band as a touring musician. The band played its first concerts under different names, before finally settling on the name "Thirty Seconds to Mars", which was taken from a rare manuscript titled Argus Apocraphex. Jared Leto described the name as "a reference, a rough translation from the book. I think the idea is interesting, it's a metaphor for the future," he explained. "Thirty seconds to Mars—the fact that we're so close to something that's not a tangible idea. Also Mars being the God of War makes it really interesting, as well. You could substitute that in there, but what's important for my brother and I, is that it be imaginative and really represent the sound of our music in as unique a way as possible." He described it as a name that "works on several different levels, a phrase that is lyrical, suggestive, cinematic, and filled with immediacy." When Thirty Seconds to Mars first started, Jared Leto did not allow his vocation as a Hollywood actor to be used in promotion of the band.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: By 1998, the group performed gigs at small American venues and clubs. Their eponymous debut album had been in the works for a couple of years, with Leto writing the majority of the songs. During this period, the band recorded demo tracks such as "Valhalla" and "Revolution", or "Jupiter" and "Hero", which later appeared on the band's debut album as "Fallen" and "Year Zero" respectively, but also "Buddha for Mary". Their work led to a number of record labels being interested in signing Thirty Seconds to Mars, which eventually signed to Immortal Records. In 1999, Virgin Records entered into the contract.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars retreated to the isolation of Wyoming's countryside in 2001 to record their debut album, working with producers Bob Ezrin and Brian Virtue. They contacted Ezrin because they grew up listening to his work with Pink Floyd, Kiss and Alice Cooper and they felt he was the only one who could help them capture the size and scope of what they wanted to accomplish on their debut recording. The band chose an empty warehouse lot on , striving for the precise location that would enhance their sound. Even before the album was released, Puddle of Mudd invited Thirty Seconds to Mars to open a six-week tour for them in the spring of 2002. The band later embarked on a North American tour to support Incubus and began a club tour in August.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: The band released their first studio album, "30 Seconds to Mars", on August 27, 2002 in the United States through Immortal and Virgin. Jared Leto described the record as a concept album that focuses on human struggle and self-determination, in which otherworldly elements and conceptual ideas are used to illustrate a truthful personal situation. The album reached number 107 on the US "Billboard" 200 and number one on the US Top Heatseekers, selling 121,000 copies in the United States. It was preceded by the single "Capricorn (A Brand New Name)", which peaked at number 31 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. Upon its release, "30 Seconds to Mars" was met with mostly positive reviews; music critic Megan O'Toole felt that the band has "managed to carve out a unique niche for themselves in the rock realm." The album was a slow-burning success, and eventually sold two million copies worldwide as of March 2011.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: In October 2002, the band toured with I Mother Earth and Billy Talent on MTV Campus Invasion. The following month, Thirty Seconds to Mars made their first appearance on television on "Last Call with Carson Daly" and opened concerts for Our Lady Peace and Sevendust. Released in 2003, "Edge of the Earth" became the second single from the album. In early 2003, Bixler left the band due to issues primarily related to touring. He was later replaced by Tomo Miličević, who successfully auditioned for the part of guitarist. The band later went on tour with Chevelle, Trust Company, and Pacifier, and took a slot on the 2003 Lollapalooza tour.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars returned to the studio in March 2004 to begin working on their second album "A Beautiful Lie", with Josh Abraham producing. During the recording process, the band traveled to four different continents to accommodate Jared Leto's acting career. "A Beautiful Lie" was notably different from the band's debut album, from both musical and lyrical aspect. "On the first record I created a world, then hid behind it," Leto said. "With "A Beautiful Lie", it was time to take a more personal and less cerebral approach. Although this record is still full of conceptual elements and thematic ideas it is ultimately much more wrapped around the heart than the head. It's about brutal honesty, growth, change. It's an incredibly intimate look into a life that is in the crossroads. A raw emotional journey. A story of life, love, death, pain, joy, and passion. Of what it is to be human."


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: "A Beautiful Lie" was released on August 30, 2005 in the United States. It has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has reached platinum and gold status in several countries, with a sales total of over four million. Its lead single, "Attack", made its radio debut on June 6, 2005 and became the most added track on American modern rock radio during its first week of release. During 2005, Thirty Seconds to Mars went on tour with Chevelle, Audioslave and The Used. The group embarked on their first headlining tour Forever Night, Never Day in March 2006. At the same time, the band released the album's second single, "The Kill", which set a record for the longest-running hit in the history of the US Modern Rock chart when it remained on the national chart for more than 50 weeks, following its number three peak in 2006. Its music video, directed by Jared Leto under the pseudonym of Bartholomew Cubbins, received a largely positive response and numerous accolades, including an MTV Video Music Award.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: In October 2006, the band began their Welcome to the Universe Tour, sponsored by MTV2, and were supported by Head Automatica, The Receiving End of Sirens, Cobra Starship, and several other bands including Street Drum Corps. The third single from the album, "From Yesterday", was released in November 2006 and became the band's first number one on the "Billboard"<nowiki>'s</nowiki> Modern Rock Tracks. Jared Leto directed a short film for the single, which became the first ever American music video shot in the People's Republic of China in its entirety. "A Beautiful Lie" was released in Europe in February 2007. During the year, Thirty Seconds to Mars toured extensively throughout Europe and played at several major festivals, including Roskilde, Pinkpop, Rock am Ring, and Download. In March 2007, Matt Wachter left the group to spend more time with his family and was replaced by Tim Kelleher, performing live only.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: On November 1, 2007, Thirty Seconds to Mars won an MTV Europe Music Award in the category of Best Rock. The band also received the Kerrang! Award for Best Single in two consecutive years for "The Kill" and "From Yesterday" in 2007 and 2008, respectively. The album's title track, "A Beautiful Lie", was released as the fourth single in North America and selected European countries. Its music video was filmed 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland, and proceeds from the sales benefited the Natural Resources Defense Council. At the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards on November 6, Thirty Seconds to Mars earned their second Best Rock and Best Video for "A Beautiful Lie".


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars began recording their third studio album, "This Is War", in August 2008. To produce the record, the band worked with Flood and Steve Lillywhite. Thirty Seconds to Mars had attempted to sign with a new label after the "A Beautiful Lie" tour, prompting EMI (the parent label of Virgin) to file a lawsuit for $30 million. EMI claimed that the band had failed to produce three of the five records they were obliged to deliver under their 1999 contract, which Virgin entered into with the now-defunct Immortal Records. Jared Leto responded to some of the claims in the suit stating "under California law, where we live and signed our deal, one cannot be bound to a contract for more than seven years." Thirty Seconds to Mars had been contracted for nine years, so the band decided to exercise their "legal right to terminate our old, out-of-date contract, which, according to the law is null and void."


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: After nearly a year of the lawsuit battle, the band announced on April 28, 2009, that the case had been settled. The suit was resolved following a defense based on a contract case involving actress Olivia de Havilland decades before. Leto explained, "The California Appeals Court ruled that no service contract in California is valid after seven years, and it became known as the De Havilland Law after she used it to get out of her contract with Warner Bros." Thirty Seconds to Mars then signed a new contract with EMI. Leto said the band had resolved their differences with EMI and the decision had been made because of "the willingness and enthusiasm by EMI to address our major concerns and issues, [and] the opportunity to return to work with a team so committed and passionate about Thirty Seconds to Mars."


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: In a bid to involve their fans in "This Is War", Thirty Seconds to Mars held an event, called the Summit, at the Avalon Club in Los Angeles, where they invited fans to provide backing vocals and percussion. After the success of the initial Summit, the group repeated the event in eight countries and extended it digitally. The band also invited fans to submit close-up shots of their faces in order to make 2,000 different individual covers for the album. Leto described "This Is War" as a record about survival: "It was a two-year creative battle that was ferocious and tough but creatively rewarding, and all of those adverse elements, in hindsight, made us stronger and made the record stronger."


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Although the release date was changed many times, "This Is War" was eventually released in December 2009. The album reached the top ten of several national album charts and entered the "Billboard" 200 at number 18, with first-week sales of 67,000 in the United States. Its first two singles, "Kings and Queens" and "This Is War", reached the number-one spot on the US Alternative Songs chart. After a promotional tour in winter 2009, Thirty Seconds to Mars embarked on their Into the Wild Tour in February 2010.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: At the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, "Kings and Queens" received four nominations, including Video of the Year and Best Direction, and went on to win Best Rock Video. The album's third single, "Closer to the Edge", was the 2010 best-selling rock single in the United Kingdom, topping the UK Rock Chart for eight consecutive weeks. Thirty Seconds to Mars collaborated with rapper Kanye West on the song "Hurricane", which was released on the deluxe edition of "This Is War" and became the album's fourth single in some countries. On November 7, Thirty Seconds to Mars and West performed "Hurricane" at the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards at the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid, where the band also received their third Best Rock. On May 13, 2011, Thirty Seconds to Mars recorded a performance for the television program "MTV Unplugged". They performed with musicians from the Vitamin String Quartet and invited a gospel choir to join the group for a rendition of U2's song "Where the Streets Have No Name".


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: A Songkick study indicated that, based on quantity of tour dates, Thirty Seconds to Mars was among the hardest-working touring artists in 2010. On October 16, 2011, it was announced that the band would enter the Guinness World Records for most live shows during a single album cycle, with 300 shows. The 300th show, called Tribus Centum Numerarae, took place on December 7, 2011 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and was followed by a special series of shows which marked the end of the Into the Wild Tour.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars took a break from touring in 2012 and spent most of the year recording their fourth album, entitled "Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams". The album was produced by Jared Leto with previous collaborator Steve Lillywhite. Leto said that the band took a new direction with "Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams". He explained that the album "is more than an evolution, it's a brand new beginning. Creatively, we've gone to an entirely new place, which is exciting, unexpected, and incredibly inspiring." In September 2012, "Artifact", a documentary about the band's legal battle against the record label EMI and the making of "This Is War", premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the People's Choice Documentary Award.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: In February 2013, it was announced that "Up in the Air" would be the first single from the fourth album. In partnership with NASA, Thirty Seconds to Mars launched the first copy of "Up in the Air" aboard the Dragon spacecraft on SpaceX CRS-2. The mission was launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on March 1, 2013, sending the first ever commercial copy of music into space. On March 18, 2013, the single premiered from the International Space Station, after a Q&A session with the band and Expedition 35 flight engineer Tom Marshburn, while Annise Parker, mayor of the city of Houston, proclaimed the Thirty Seconds to Mars Day. "Up in the Air" made its radio debut on March 18 and became commercially available for downloading the following day. The song reached number three on the US Alternative Songs chart and experienced success in international markets.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars released "Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams" on May 21, 2013, through Universal in the United States. The album received generally positive reviews and reached the top ten in more than fifteen countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. The band began their Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams Tour in June, which included festival dates at Rock Werchter, Pinkpop, Rock in Rio, and Rock am Ring. The second single from the album, "Do or Die", achieved a level of play on modern rock radio, while "City of Angels", the third single, was released to rave reviews from critics and eventually reached number eight on the Alternative Songs chart in the US. At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, held on August 25, "Up in the Air" won the award for Best Rock Video.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars announced on April 25, 2014 that they have parted from Virgin Records after tumultuous years with the label, with Leto telling "Billboard", "We're free and clear and excited about the future. It's the most wonderful place to be." In August 2014, the group embarked on a double-headline tour, dubbed the Carnivores Tour, with American rock band Linkin Park, visiting arenas and stadiums throughout North America. Thirty Seconds to Mars then launched a music festival called Camp Mars. The first edition took place in Malibu, California, in August 2015 and included a series of activities in a semi-rustic setting and several DJ sets.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: On November 3, 2015, it was announced that Thirty Seconds to Mars was working on their fifth studio album. In August 2016, the band revealed to have signed to Interscope Records. The group later unveiled that they would embark on a North American tour with Muse and PVRIS, which took take place from May to September 2017. In August 2017, "Walk on Water" was announced as the lead single from the band's fifth album. Thirty Seconds to Mars then performed the song at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards featuring special guest Travis Scott. During the ceremony, Jared Leto received media attention for his tribute to musicians Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell, who both died earlier that year.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: On January 25, 2018, Thirty Seconds to Mars released "Dangerous Night" as the second single from their upcoming fifth studio album. In February 2018, the band officially announced the Monolith Tour with Walk the Moon, Misterwives, K. Flay, Joywave, and Welshly Arms. Thirty Seconds to Mars later confirmed "America" as title of their fifth album, which was released on April 6, 2018. The album received polarizing reviews from critics and debuted at number two on the "Billboard 200", becoming the band's highest entry on the chart. "America" also reached the top ten in seventeen other countries, including number one in Germany and Austria.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: During the first leg of the Monolith Tour, it was announced that Miličević would be taking a break from touring due to personal matters. On June 11, 2018, he officially announced his departure from the band.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: On October 5, 2021, Leto announced that he would be featured in a song with Illenium called "Wouldn't Change a Thing". On August 27, 2022, Thirty Seconds to Mars announced a commemorative 20th-anniversary version of its debut album.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: The style of the band's first studio album combined progressive metal and space rock with influences and elements from electronica, utilizing programming and synthesizers. Ryan Rayhill from "Blender" described the album as a "high-minded space opera of epic scope befitting prog-rock prototypes Rush," and wrote that Thirty Seconds to Mars "emerged with an eponymous debut that sounds like Tool on "The Dark Side of the Moon"," referring to the 1973 album by Pink Floyd.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Whereas the eponymous concept album's lyrics focus on human struggle and self-determination, "A Beautiful Lie"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s lyrics are more personal and the music introduces screaming vocals. The transformation that resonates throughout the album reflects the personal and artistic changes experienced by the band members before and during the creation of the record. The album widened the band's sound by combining elements from progressive rock, hard rock and emo. Such alternative rock style has been compared to bands like The Cure, U2 and The Smashing Pumpkins.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Their third release "This Is War" was described as "an extremely progressive rock sound with killer choruses," drawing inspirations from experimental Pink Floyd to melodic M83. Chris Harris from "Rolling Stone" considered it "an ambitious collection of experimental rock" shaped by the band's personal struggles and legal battle with their record label. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic acknowledged the band's progression, referring to the overall style of the record as a mixture of synth rock, heavy metal, and progressive rock.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: In "Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams" the band experimented with different instruments and drew influences from a wider and more varied range of styles. The album mixes experimental instrumentation with elements both symphonic and electronic, and the music introduces a minimalist approach full of ethereal sonics. The record carries the concept album format of "This Is War" and expands the spectrum to revolve around the themes after which it is named.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: Thirty Seconds to Mars launched a website, called abeautifullie.org, to provide information about environmental issues and ways to participate in environmental activities. People can make donations through the site to support the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 2006, Jared Leto created the cover art for "", a compilation of live music that includes a Thirty Seconds to Mars song, which proceeds from the sales benefited The Nature Conservancy. During their Welcome to the Universe Tour, the group worked to develop strategies that would minimize fuel consumption to offset the impact that the tour would have had on the environment.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: In June 2008, the band joined Habitat for Humanity to work on a home being repaired and renovated through the Greater Los Angeles Area's "A Brush With Kindness" programme. In advance of the build, the band organized an auction of "build slots" to give fans the opportunity to volunteer alongside them. In less than a week, six extra workers were enlisted and over $10,000 was raised to fund additional Habitat for Humanity projects. Thirty Seconds to Mars fans, termed as the Echelon, started several philanthropic organizations and projects with the purpose of supporting various charities and humanitarian causes.


title: Thirty Seconds to Mars

text: After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Thirty Seconds to Mars raised $100,100 for Haitian relief through a charity auction. The band has also supported the Haitian population through the Echelon project "House for Haiti" and Hope For Haiti Now telethon special. The group auctioned a quantity of items raising funds to help the Red Cross assist people affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The band contributed one dollar per concert ticket sold on the Carnivores Tour to the charity Music for Relief to support disaster relief and programs to protect and restore the environment.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: The Mask is a 1994 American superhero comedy film directed by Chuck Russell and produced by Bob Engelman from a screenplay by Mike Werb and a story by Michael Fallon and Mark Verheiden loosely based on the comics published by Dark Horse Comics. The first installment in "The Mask" franchise, it stars Jim Carrey in the title role, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck, Richard Jeni, and Cameron Diaz in her film debut. Carrey plays Stanley Ipkiss, a hapless, everyday bank clerk who finds a magical wooden green mask that transforms him into The Mask, a green-faced troublemaker with the ability to cartoonishly alter himself and his surroundings at will. He starts using these powers to fight crime, only to become targeted by Dorian Tyrell, a gangster who desires to overthrow his superior.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: The film was released on July 29, 1994, by New Line Cinema, becoming a critical and commercial success. The film grossed over $351 million on a $18–23 million budget, which made it the most-profitable film based on a comic up to that point. The film also influenced the resurgence of swing music in the 1990s. It cemented Carrey's reputation as a significant actor of the 1990s, and it established Diaz as a leading lady. Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role, and the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects but lost to "Forrest Gump". A standalone sequel, "Son of the Mask", was released in 2005 to a critical and box office bomb.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: In Edge City, insecure bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss is frequently ridiculed by everyone except for his co-worker and best friend, Charlie Schumaker. Meanwhile, gangster Dorian Tyrell, who owns the Coco Bongo nightclub, plots to overthrow his superior, Niko. One day, Tyrell sends his dazzling singer-girlfriend, Tina Carlyle, into the bank to record its layout for an upcoming robbery. Stanley is attracted to Tina, and she seemingly reciprocates.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: After being denied entrance to the Coco Bongo to watch Tina perform, Stanley's faulty loaner car breaks down during his drive home. While looking over the harbor bridge in despair, he tries rescuing a humanoid figure in the waters but finds it to be a pile of garbage concealing a wooden mask. Upon returning to his apartment and donning the mask, he transforms into a green-faced, zoot-suited trickster known as "the Mask", who can cartoonishly alter himself and his surroundings at will. With newfound confidence, Stanley indulges in a comical rampage through the city, humiliating several of his tormentors, including his temperamental landlady, Agnes Peenman, and the mechanics who gave him the faulty car.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: The next morning, Stanley encounters detective Lieutenant Mitch Kellaway and newspaper reporter Peggy Brandt, both of whom are investigating the Mask's activity. To obtain the funds necessary to attend Tina's performance, Stanley dons the mask and raids the bank, inadvertently foiling Tyrell's robbery. At the Coco Bongo, Stanley dances exuberantly with Tina, whom he ends up kissing. Shortly after, Tyrell confronts him for disrupting the robbery and Stanley flees, leaving behind a scrap of cloth from his suit, which reverts into a piece of his pajamas. After arresting Tyrell and his henchman, Kellaway finds the piece of cloth and suspects Stanley's involvement.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: Later, Stanley consults Doctor Arthur Neuman, a psychiatrist who has recently published a book on masks, and deduces that the mask may be a creation of Loki, the Norse god of mischief, and its powers are only active at night. Though Neuman believes it is mythology, he concludes that the Mask's personality is based on Stanley's repressed desires. That night, Stanley meets Tina at a local park as the Mask, until they are interrupted by Kellaway, who attempts to capture him. Stanley flees with Peggy after he distracts the police with a mass performance of the titular song from "Cuban Pete"; she then reluctantly betrays him to Tyrell for a $50,000 bounty. Tyrell dons the mask, becoming a bulky and malevolent green-faced being. Tyrell's henchmen force Stanley to reveal the location of the stolen money before turning him into the police.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: When Tina visits Stanley in the station, he urges her to leave the city. Tina thanks Stanley for showing her kindness and tells him the mask was unnecessary. She attempts to flee but is kidnapped by Tyrell and forcibly taken to a charity ball at the Coco Bongo, hosted by Niko and attended by the city's elite, including the mayor. Upon arrival, the masked Tyrell kills Niko and prepares to destroy the club with a time bomb. Milo, Stanley's dog, helps Stanley escape from the station by retrieving the keys from the guard. Stanley sets out to stop Tyrell, taking Kellaway hostage.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: After locking Kellaway in his car, Stanley enters the club and enlists Charlie's help, but is quickly discovered and captured. Tina tricks Tyrell into removing the mask, which is recovered and donned by Milo, who battles his way through Tyrell's henchmen as Stanley and Tyrell fight each other. Stanley retrieves the mask, uses its powers to swallow the bomb seconds before it detonates, and then flushes Tyrell down the drain of the club's ornamental fountain; the police arrive and arrest Tyrell's henchmen. Kellaway tries arresting Stanley again, but the mayor intervenes, implicating Tyrell as the Mask and praising Stanley as a hero.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: The following day, Stanley, exonerated and more secure returns to the harbor bridge with Tina. Tina throws the mask into the water before she and Stanley share a kiss. Charlie tries to retrieve the mask for himself, only for Milo to swim away with it.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: In 1989, Mike Richardson and Todd Moyer, who was Executive Vice President of Dark Horse Comics, first approached New Line Cinema about adapting the comic "The Mask" into a film, after having seen other offers. The main character went through several transformations, and the project was stalled a couple of times.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: One unused "Mask" idea, according to Mike Richardson, was to transform the story into one about a mask-maker who took faces off of corpses to put them on teens and turn them into zombies.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: Initially intended to become a new horror franchise, New Line Cinema offered the job of directing the film to Chuck Russell. Russell found the violence of the comic to be off-putting and wanted the film to be less grim and adult-oriented and more fun and family-friendly than the source material.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: Mike Werb says Chuck Russell tapped him after reading his script for "Curious George" for Imagine. The two decided to turn "The Mask" into a wild romantic comedy. Mike Werb wrote his first draft of "The Mask" in less than six weeks, and less than two months later it was green-lit.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: According to Mark Verheiden, they had a first draft screenplay for a film version done back in 1990. Verheiden then wrote the second draft in early 1991, adding more humor, and that ended up being the only work he did on "The Mask". Veriheiden's revised draft included more instances of fourth wall breaking like "cameos" by critics Siskel and Ebert, and dark content such as excessive bloodshed and sexual assault. The characters Stanley, Kellaway, and Doyle carried into the final film; Stanley's girlfriend Kathleen (inspired by Kathy from the comics) evolved into Tina Carlyle while Scully and Vitelli became Dorian Tyrell and Niko, respectively. After that, the film entered development hell.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: In the early stages various actors were suggested as possibilities for the lead role, including Rick Moranis, Martin Short, and Robin Williams.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: New Line executive Mike DeLuca sent a tape of Jim Carrey performing a sketch from the comedy show "In Living Color" to Richardson who was immediately impressed by the contortionist comedian. Director Chuck Russell had seen Carrey perform live at The Comedy Store and followed him on "In Living Color" and was keen to cast him in the film. Carrey was top of his list and the script had been rewritten for him but Nicolas Cage and Matthew Broderick were also kept in consideration.


title: The Mask (1994 film)

text: Russell had wanted Anna Nicole Smith as Tina, but she had gone to do "" instead. A costume director he had worked with had been recommending Cameron Diaz and they got her to audition for the part. The character was originally written as a good girl who is actually bad but after Diaz was cast the part was rewritten to make her genuinely a good person. In fact, Mike Richardson (Dark Horse founder and Mask creator) said to Forbes that Diaz was great on making the movie. "If you watch the film again, you'll notice scenes where Jim and Cameron are together. If you watch her face, oftentimes, Jim was doing something, and she would break out laughing the minute the scene ended".