title: Herring

text: In addition, a number of related species, all in the Clupeidae, are commonly referred to as herrings. The table immediately below includes those members of the family Clupeidae referred to by FishBase as herrings which have been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.


title: Herring

text: Also, a number of other species are called herrings, which may be related to clupeids or just share some characteristics of herrings (such as the lake herring, which is a salmonid). Just which of these species are called herrings can vary with locality, so what might be called a herring in one locality might be called something else in another locality. Some examples:


title: Herring

text: The species of "Clupea" belong to the larger family Clupeidae (herrings, shads, sardines, menhadens), which comprises some 200 species that share similar features. These silvery-coloured fish have a single dorsal fin, which is soft, without spines. They have no lateral line and have a protruding lower jaw. Their size varies between subspecies: the Baltic herring ("Clupea harengus membras") is small, 14 to 18 cm; the proper Atlantic herring ("Clupea harengus harengus") can grow to about 46 cm (18 in) and weigh up 700 g (1.5 lb); and Pacific herring grow to about 38 cm (15 in).


title: Herring

text: At least one stock of Atlantic herring spawns in every month of the year. Each spawns at a different time and place (spring, summer, autumn, and winter herrings). Greenland populations spawn in of water, while North Sea (bank) herrings spawn at down to in autumn. Eggs are laid on the sea bed, on rock, stones, gravel, sand or beds of algae. Females may deposit from 20,000 to 40,000 eggs, according to age and size, averaging about 30,000. In sexually mature herring, the genital organs grow before spawning, reaching about one-fifth of its total weight.


title: Herring

text: The eggs sink to the bottom, where they stick in layers or clumps to gravel, seaweed, or stones, by means of their mucous coating, or to any other objects on which they chance to settle.


title: Herring

text: If the egg layers are too thick they suffer from oxygen depletion and often die, entangled in a maze of mucus. They need substantial water microturbulence, generally provided by wave action or coastal currents. Survival is highest in crevices and behind solid structures, because predators feast on openly exposed eggs. The individual eggs are in diameter, depending on the size of the parent fish and also on the local race. Incubation time is about 40 days at , 15 days at , or 11 days at . Eggs die at temperatures above .


title: Herring

text: The larvae are long at hatching, with a small yolk sac that is absorbed by the time the larvae reach . Only the eyes are well pigmented. The rest of the body is nearly transparent, virtually invisible under water and in natural lighting conditions.


title: Herring

text: The dorsal fin forms at , the anal fin at about —the ventral fins are visible and the tail becomes well forked at 30 to — at about , the larva begins to look like a herring.


title: Herring

text: Herring larvae are very slender and can easily be distinguished from all other young fish of their range by the location of the vent, which lies close to the base of the tail; however, distinguishing clupeoids one from another in their early stages requires critical examination, especially telling herring from sprats.


title: Herring

text: Herrings consume copepods, arrow worms, pelagic amphipods, mysids, and krill in the pelagic zone. Conversely, they are a central prey item or forage fish for higher trophic levels. The reasons for this success are still enigmatic; one speculation attributes their dominance to the huge, extremely fast cruising schools they inhabit.


title: Herring

text: Herring feed on phytoplankton, and as they mature, they start to consume larger organisms. They also feed on zooplankton, tiny animals found in oceanic surface waters, and small fish and fish larvae. Copepods and other tiny crustaceans are the most common zooplankton eaten by herring. During daylight, herring stay in the safety of deep water, feeding at the surface only at night when the chance of being seen by predators is less. They swim along with their mouths open, filtering the plankton from the water as it passes through their gills.


title: Herring

text: Young herring mostly hunt copepods individually, by means of "particulate feeding" or "raptorial feeding", a feeding method also used by adult herring on larger prey items like krill. If prey concentrations reach very high levels, as in microlayers, at fronts, or directly below the surface, herring become filter feeders, driving several meters forward with wide open mouth and far expanded opercula, then closing and cleaning the gill rakers for a few milliseconds.


title: Herring

text: Copepods, the primary zooplankton, are a major item on the forage fish menu. Copepods are typically long, with a teardrop-shaped body. Some scientists say they form the largest animal biomass on the planet. Copepods are very alert and evasive. They have large antennae (see photo below left). When they spread their antennae, they can sense the pressure wave from an approaching fish and jump with great speed over a few centimetres. If copepod concentrations reach high levels, schooling herrings adopt a method called ram feeding. In the photo below, herring ram feed on a school of copepods. They swim with their mouths wide open and their operculae fully expanded.


title: Herring

text: The fish swim in a grid where the distance between them is the same as the jump length of their prey, as indicated in the animation above right. In the animation, juvenile herring hunt the copepods in this synchronised way. The copepods sense with their antennae the pressure wave of an approaching herring and react with a fast escape jump. The length of the jump is fairly constant. The fish align themselves in a grid with this characteristic jump length. A copepod can dart about 80 times before it tires. After a jump, it takes it 60 milliseconds to spread its antennae again, and this time delay becomes its undoing, as the almost endless stream of herring allows a herring to eventually snap up the copepod. A single juvenile herring could never catch a large copepod.


title: Herring

text: Other pelagic prey eaten by herring includes fish eggs, larval snails, diatoms by herring larvae below , tintinnids by larvae below , molluscan larvae, menhaden larvae, krill, mysids, smaller fishes, pteropods, annelids, "Calanus" spp., Centropagidae, and "Meganyctiphanes norvegica".


title: Herring

text: Herrings, along with Atlantic cod and sprat, are the most important commercial species to humans in the Baltic Sea. The analysis of the stomach contents of these fish indicate Atlantic cod is the top predator, preying on the herring and sprat. Sprat are competitive with herring for the same food resources. This is evident in the two species' vertical migration in the Baltic Sea, where they compete for the limited zooplankton available and necessary for their survival. Sprat are highly selective in their diet and eat only zooplankton, while herring are more eclectic, adjusting their diet as they grow in size. In the Baltic, copepods of the genus "Acartia" can be present in large numbers. However, they are small in size with a high escape response, so herring and sprat avoid trying to catch them. These copepods also tend to dwell more in surface waters, whereas herring and sprat, especially during the day, tend to dwell in deeper waters.


title: Herring

text: Predators of herring include seabirds, marine mammals such as dolphins, porpoises, whales, seals, and sea lions, predatory fish such as sharks, billfish, tuna, salmon, striped bass, cod, and halibut. Fishermen also catch and eat herring.


title: Herring

text: The predators often cooperate in groups, using different techniques to panic or herd a school of herring into a tight bait ball. Different predatory species then use different techniques to pick the fish off in the bait ball. The sailfish raises its sail to make it appear much larger. Swordfish charge at high speed through the bait balls, slashing with their swords to kill or stun prey. They then turn and return to consume their "catch". Thresher sharks use their long tails to stun the shoaling fish. These sharks compact their prey school by swimming around them and splashing the water with their tails, often in pairs or small groups. They then strike them sharply with the upper lobe of their tails to stun them. Spinner sharks charge vertically through the school, spinning on their axes with their mouths open and snapping all around. The sharks' momentum at the end of these spiraling runs often carries them into the air.


title: Herring

text: Some whales lunge feed on bait balls. Lunge feeding is an extreme feeding method, where the whale accelerates from below the bait ball to a high velocity and then opens its mouth to a large gape angle. This generates the water pressure required to expand its mouth and engulf and filter a huge amount of water and fish. Lunge feeding by rorquals, a family of huge baleen whales that includes the blue whale, is said to be the largest biomechanical event on Earth.


title: Herring

text: Adult herring are harvested for their flesh and eggs, and they are often used as baitfish. The trade in herring is an important sector of many national economies. In Europe, the fish has been called the "silver of the sea", and its trade has been so significant to many countries that it has been regarded as the most commercially important fishery in history.


title: Herring

text: Environmental Defense have suggested that the Atlantic herring ("Clupea harengus") fishery is an environmentally responsible fishery.


title: Herring

text: Herring has been a staple food source since at least 3000 BC. The fish is served numerous ways, and many regional recipes are used: eaten raw, fermented, pickled, or cured by other techniques, such as being smoked as kippers.


title: Herring

text: Herring are very high in the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA. They are a source of vitamin D.


title: Herring

text: Water pollution influences the amount of herring that may be safely consumed. For example, large Baltic herring slightly exceeds recommended limits with respect to PCB and dioxin, although some sources point out that the cancer-reducing effect of omega-3 fatty acids is statistically stronger than the carcinogenic effect of PCBs and dioxins. The contaminant levels depend on the age of the fish which can be inferred from their size. Baltic herrings larger than may be eaten twice a month, while herrings smaller than 17 cm can be eaten freely. Mercury in fish also influences the amount of fish that women who are pregnant or planning to be pregnant within the next one or two years may safely eat.


title: Herring

text: The herring has played a highly significant role in history both socially and economically. During the Middle Ages, herring prompted the founding of Great Yarmouth, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen. In 1274, while on his deathbed at the monastery of Fossanova (south of Rome, Italy), when encouraged to eat something to regain his strength, Thomas Aquinas asked for fresh herring.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: The Stepford Wives is a 2004 American science fiction black comedy film directed by Frank Oz from a screenplay by Paul Rudnick and stars Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, and Faith Hill. It is based on Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name and is the second feature-length adaptation of the novel following the 1975 film of the same name. The film received generally negative reviews from the critics and was a box office failure, grossing $103 million worldwide on a $90–100 million budget.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: Successful reality television executive producer Joanna Eberhart's career suddenly ends after a disillusioned reality show participant named Hank attempts a shootout. After Joanna suffers a mental breakdown, she, her husband Walter Kresby, and their two children Pete and Kimberly move from Manhattan to Stepford, a quiet Fairfield County, Connecticut suburb. Upon the family's arrival, Joanna befriends writer and recovering alcoholic Roberta "Bobbie" Markowitz and Roger Bannister, a flamboyant gay man who has moved to town with his long-time partner Jerry.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: After the trio witness Sarah Sunderson violently dance and then collapse, Joanna argues with Walter about the incident until Walter bluntly informs her that her children barely know her, their marriage is falling apart, and her domineering nature makes people want to kill her. As he tries to walk out of their marriage, Joanna apologizes and agrees to appease him by trying to fit in with the other wives. The next day, Joanna, Bobbie and Roger go to Sarah's home to check up on her, where upon entering, they hear her upstairs, ecstatically screaming during sex with her husband Herb. As they scramble to sneak out, they find a remote control labeled SARAH, discovering a button that causes Sarah's breasts to enlarge and makes her walk backwards robotically.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: One evening, Walter and Bobbie's husband Dave go to the Men's Association with Roger and Jerry, but Joanna and Bobbie hire a babysitter and sneak inside to spy on them and the other husbands. They discover a hall filled with family portraits, but Roger catches them and assures them that all is well. The next day, the pair discover Roger's flamboyant clothing, Playbill program from "Hairspray", and photo of Orlando Bloom have all been discarded. Jerry tells them to meet him in the town hall and they see Roger, apparently running for State Senate, with a bland look and conformist personality. Joanna wants to leave and Walter agrees, saying they will go the next day. Going into Walter's study, she discovers that all the Stepford wives were once working women in high-power positions.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: The next day, Joanna visits Bobbie, noticing that her formerly messy house is spotless. Now blending in with the other Stepford wives, Bobbie says she is a whole new person and the most important thing is her cookbook. While offering to help Joanna change, Bobbie obliviously puts her hand over the stove's burner. Returning to the Men's Association, Joanna finds that in her family picture she now resembles a Stepford wife. Men's Association leader Mike shows how they insert nanochips into their wives' brains to make them Stepford wives. The men corner Joanna and Walter, force them toward the transformation room, but Joanna asks if the new wives really mean it when they tell their husbands that they love them. The next scene shows the Stepford wives, including Joanna, now blonde and dressed in Sunday dresses, at the grocery store.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: With Joanna and Walter as special guests, Stepford hosts a formal ball. During the festivities, Joanna distracts Mike and entices him into the garden, while Walter slips away to the transformation room where he destroys the software that programs the women. At the ball, the wives corner their husbands and reveal that Joanna never received the microchip implant. Mike threatens Walter, but Joanna decapitates him with a candlestick, exposing him as a robot. Mike's wife Claire explains that she created Stepford because she, too, was a bitter career-minded woman. When she discovered Mike's affair with her research assistant, she murdered them in a jealous rage. Claire then electrocutes herself by kissing Mike's severed robotic head.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: Six months later, in an interview with Larry King, Joanna (who has won six Emmys for producing the hard-hitting documentary "Stepford: The Secret of the Suburbs"), Roger (who has won his State Senate seat as an Independent) and Bobbie (who has written and published her first book of poetry "Wait Until He's Asleep, Then Cut It Off") explain that the Stepford husbands are being retrained to become better people. The closing scene reveals that the wives have now taken over Stepford and have placed their husbands under house arrest, making them complete the same domestic tasks that they had forced the women to do.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: John Cusack was originally cast as Walter and his sister Joan Cusack was originally cast as Bobbie. Joan Cusack had previously appeared in two other films written by Rudnick - "Addams Family Values" and "In & Out", the latter also directed by Frank Oz, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. They both had to drop out of the film only weeks before filming started, to be with their father, Dick Cusack, who was dying.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: Reportedly, there were problems on-set between Oz and stars Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken, Glenn Close and Roger Bart. In a 2003 interview Oz stated "Tension on the set? Absolutely! In every movie I do, there's tension. That's the whole point. And working people hard, that's exactly what they expect me to do... Bette has been under a lot of stress lately... She made the mistake of bringing her stress on the set."


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: The film was originally conceived as a darkly satirical piece with an ending closer to the finale of the original but negative results from test screenings caused Paramount to commission numerous rounds of reshoots which significantly altered the tone of the film and gave it a new ending.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: In a 2007 interview with "Ain't It Cool News", Oz's take on the film was "I had too much money and I was too responsible and concerned for Paramount. I was too concerned for the producers. And I didn't follow my instincts."


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: In a 2005 interview Matthew Broderick stated, "Making that film wasn't enjoyable. It was nobody's fault but my part was not terribly interesting... It was not a thrilling film. I would hate it if it were my last."


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "The Stepford Wives" holds an approval rating of 26% based on 176 reviews, with an average rating of 4.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "In exchanging the chilling satire of the original into mindless camp, this remake has itself become Stepford-ized." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: Pete Travers of "Rolling Stone" said that the on-set complications of the film "can't compare to the mess onscreen." Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" said, "The remake is, in fact, marooned in a swamp of camp, inconsequentiality." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" said, "the movie never lives up to its satiric potential, collapsing at the end into incoherence and wishy-washy, have-it-all sentimentality."


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: Some critics were more receptive to the film. Roger Ebert called Paul Rudnick's screenplay "rich with zingers" and gave the film three stars. However, in the "Worst Movies of 2004" episode of "At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper", he admitted that, while he gave the film a "thumbs up", it wouldn't be "the first movie that [he] would defend."


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: The film's teaser won several Golden Trailer Awards in the categories of "Summer 2004 Blockbuster" and "Most Original", as well as "Best of Show".


title: The Stepford Wives (2004 film)

text: The U.S. opening weekend's gross was a respectable $21.4 million but sales fell off quickly. That weekend represented over a third of the final domestic gross of $59.5 million. The film also grossed $42.9 million internationally for a worldwide total gross of $103.4 million.


title: Caroline Munro

text: Caroline Munro (born 16 January 1949) is an English actress, model and singer known for her many appearances in horror, science fiction and action films of the 1970s and 1980s. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.


title: Caroline Munro

text: Born in Windsor, Berkshire, Munro was the youngest child of a lawyer and a housewife. As a young child, Munro and her family moved to Rottingdean, near Brighton where she attended a convent school.


title: Caroline Munro

text: Munro's career commenced in 1966 when her mother and a photographer friend entered some headshots of her in "The Evening News"s "Face of the Year" contest:


title: Caroline Munro

text: This led to modelling work for "Vogue" magazine at the age of 17. She moved to London to pursue modelling work and became a cover girl for fashion and TV advertisements while there. She had bit parts in films such as "Casino Royale" (1967) and "Where's Jack?" (1969). One of her photo ads led to a screen test and a one-year contract with Paramount where she was cast as Richard Widmark's daughter in the comedy western "A Talent for Loving" (also 1969). Photographs of Munro were used to portray Victoria Regina Phibes, the wife of the title character (played by Vincent Price) in "The Abominable Dr Phibes" (1971), and its sequel, "Dr Phibes Rises Again" (1972).


title: Caroline Munro

text: The chairman of Hammer Films, Sir James Carreras, spotted Munro on a Lamb's Navy Rum poster/billboard. He asked his assistant, James Liggett, to find and screen test her. She was promptly signed to a one-year contract. Her first film for Hammer proved to be a turning point in her career. It was during the making of "Dracula AD 1972" (1972) that she decided from this film onward she was a full-fledged actress. Munro acted in "Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter" (1974). Directed by Brian Clemens, she played the barefoot gypsy girl Carla. In Paramount Pictures' DVD commentary, Clemens explains that he envisioned the role as a fiery Raquel Welch-type redhead.


title: Caroline Munro

text: Munro has the distinction of being the only actor ever signed to a long-term contract by Hammer Films. She turned down the lead female roles in Hammer's "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde" (1971), "Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell" (1974), and the unmade "Vampirella" because they required nudity. She also turned down roles in "Force 10 from Navarone" (1978) and "The World Is Full of Married Men" (1979) as they required nudity.


title: Caroline Munro

text: Brian Clemens helped her to be cast in the role of Margiana, the slave girl in "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1973).


title: Caroline Munro

text: Other appearances during this time included "I Don't Want to Be Born" (1975) with Joan Collins, and "At the Earth's Core" (1976) with Peter Cushing and Doug McClure. She appeared also as Tammy, a nursing employee of a sinister health farm, in "The Angels of Death", an episode of the TV series "The New Avengers" that featured also rising stars Pamela Stephenson and Lindsay Duncan.


title: Caroline Munro

text: In 1977, Munro turned down the opportunity to play villainess Ursa in "Superman" in favour of Bond girl Naomi in "The Spy Who Loved Me."


title: Caroline Munro

text: Munro continued to work in numerous British and European horror and science fiction films throughout the 1970s and 1980s, such as "Starcrash" (1978) with David Hasselhoff, Christopher Plummer and Marjoe Gortner.


title: Caroline Munro

text: Munro's career continued to thrive well in the 1980s, and she appeared in many slasher and Eurotrash productions. Her first film shot on American soil was the William Lustig production "Maniac" (1980). This was soon followed by the "multi-award winning, shot during the Cannes Film Festival" shocker "The Last Horror Film" (1982) (directed by David Winters), in which she was reunited with her "Maniac" (and "Starcrash") co-star Joe Spinell. She had a cameo role in the film "Don't Open Till Christmas" (1984), "Slaughter High" (1986), Paul Naschy's "Howl of the Devil", and Jess Franco's "Faceless" (1988), followed in rapid succession. She reteamed with "Starcrash" director Luigi Cozzi for "Demons 6: De Profundis" (aka "Il gatto nero", 1989).


title: Caroline Munro

text: Between 1984 and 1987, Munro was a hostess on the Yorkshire Television game show "3-2-1". Munro was a popular pin-up girl during this time, although she refused to pose nude. In the early 1980s, she appeared in music videos for Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes" (1982) and Meat Loaf's "If You Really Want To" (1983).


title: Caroline Munro

text: Munro's film roles were confined to performing cameos as herself in "Night Owl" (1993), as Mrs. Pignon in "To Die For" (1994), as the counselor in her friend Jeffrey Arsenault's film "Domestic Strangers" (1996), and as Carla the Gypsy in "Flesh for the Beast" (2003).


title: Caroline Munro

text: In 2018, Munro re-teamed with her "Dracula A.D. 1972" co-star Christopher Neame to appear in the horror film "House of the Gorgon" (2018).


title: Caroline Munro

text: In September 2021, Munro started presenting Talking Pictures TV’s new, exclusive series "The Cellar Club". In the series, Caroline introduces celebrated and obscure horror films from her Cellar Club and gives her personal, insider perspective.


title: Caroline Munro

text: An early effort of Munro's was a 45 single release by Columbia, "Tar and Cement", backed with "The Sporting Life". The musicians who played on the recording included Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker.


title: Caroline Munro

text: In 1984, Munro collaborated with Gary Numan for the single "Pump Me Up", which was released on Numan's Numa record label.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nicknamed "The Terrors" or "The Tangerines" and the supporters are known as "Arabs".


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club have played in tangerine kits since August 1969, and have played at Tannadice Park since the club's foundation in 1909. United was a founding member of the Scottish Premier League (SPL) in 1998, and was ever-present in the competition until it was abolished in 2013 to make way for the SPFL structure. United was relegated in 2016 to the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the SPFL, before being promoted back to the Scottish Premiership in 2020.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Domestically, the club has won the Scottish Premier Division on one occasion (1982–83), the Scottish Cup twice (1994 and 2010) and the Scottish League Cup twice (1979 and 1980). United appeared in European competition for the first time in the 1966–67 season, going on to appear in Europe in 14 successive seasons from 1976. They also reached the European Cup semi-finals in 1983–84 and the UEFA Cup final in 1987.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club contest the Dundee derby with local rivals Dundee F.C.; this is the geographically closest derby in Britain, for Dens Park stadium is located virtually next door to Tannadice Park. Dundee United have won the local derby 81 times, Dundee F.C. have won it 49 times, and there have been 44 draws between the close rivals.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club was formed as Dundee Hibernian in 1909, playing from the outset at Tannadice Park (previously known as Clepington Park), named after the street it's located on - Tannadice Street. They were voted into the Scottish Football League in 1910. After being saved from going out of business in October 1923, the club changed their name to Dundee United in order to widen their appeal. Between 1925 and 1932 United were promoted and relegated between the first and second tier three times, winning the Second Division title in 1925 and 1929.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club took significant strides forward when Jerry Kerr became manager in 1959. Kerr's team won promotion in his first season in charge and became an established team in the top flight, where they remained until 1995.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: A key characteristic of Kerr's reign was the strengthening of the playing squad with Scandinavian imports, most notably with the signings of Lennart Wing, Finn Dossing, Mogens Berg, Finn Seemann and Orjan Persson.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: It was during this period that United qualified for European competition for the first time, eliminating Inter-Cities Fairs Cup holders Barcelona on their European debut in 1966.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Jim McLean took over from Kerr in 1971 and under his management the club enjoyed the most successful era in its history. McLean's era became known for his youth policy and the offering of long-term contracts that would see future Scotland international players such as Dave Narey, Paul Sturrock, Paul Hegarty, Davie Dodds, Eamonn Bannon and Maurice Malpas spend the majority of their careers at the club.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: United won their first major honour under McLean, capturing the Scottish League Cup in 1979 and again in 1980. They were crowned Premier Division champions in 1982–83.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club were also successful in Europe, reaching the European Cup semi-finals in 1984 and the UEFA Cup Final in 1987, the latter campaign involving another elimination of Barcelona during the earlier rounds (maintaining a 100% record over the Spaniards in competitive European ties). Despite losing to IFK Gothenburg in the final, the club was awarded a FIFA Fair Play Award.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: United won the Scottish Cup for the first time in 1994 under McLean's successor Ivan Golac, but were relegated in 1995, before returning to the Premier Division a year later.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Following a number of board changes, the club was purchased from McLean in 2002 by former Morning Noon and Night co-founder and chief executive Eddie Thompson. A lifelong United fan, Thompson invested heavily in the team in a bid to compete with significant spending which had developed following the formation of the Scottish Premier League, however little progress was made until Craig Levein became manager in 2006. Levein established United as a top six club, regularly achieving European qualification before he left the club to take the post as Scotland men's national team manager in 2009.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: With the foundations of the side in place, United won the Scottish Cup for a second time in 2010 under the management of Peter Houston.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: After several relatively successful seasons, a series of poor results in the Premiership led to United being relegated in 2016.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Dundee United's first season in the Championship was under the management of Ray McKinnon. United won the Challenge Cup by beating St Mirren 2–1 in the final and they reached the play-off final for the Premiership. However they lost narrowly 1–0 to Hamilton. The second season in the second tier was less successful, as manager McKinnon was sacked and replaced with Csaba László; after a very disappointing season, United lost in the play-off semi-final to eventual promotion winners Livingston. After a poor start to the 2018–19 season the manager was once again sacked and replaced with Robbie Neilson. The team finished second in the Championship but lost in the play-offs to St Mirren, missing four penalty kicks in the process. United started the 2019–20 season in title winning form, maintaining the top spot since the opening weekend, but the season was postponed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic on 13 March 2020. On 15 April 2020, the SPFL plan proposing an end to the season was approved. A 14-point lead over second place Inverness CT saw United crowned champions and subsequently promoted back to the Premiership. On 21 June 2020, the club announced that they were parting ways with manager Robbie Neilson, who agreed a deal to return to newly relegated side Heart of Midlothian.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Prior to the start of the Premiership season, Dundee United hired Tranmere Rovers manager Micky Mellon to replace Neilson, and began their campaign at home to Tayside rivals St Johnstone, drawing 1–1. In their first season back in the top flight United finished in 9th place, whilst also making a Scottish Cup semi final appearance, losing to Hibernian.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: In May 2021 Mellon departed the club, being replaced on 7 June by Tam Courts. Courts first season as Dundee United manager saw the team finish 4th, their highest position since 2014, and qualify to play in the third qualification round of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: United were eliminated in the third qualification round by AZ Alkmaar after a 7–1 aggregate defeat, losing 7–0 away from home, equaling the record defeat for a Scottish club in European competition. They started the league season equally poorly, and were beaten 9–0 at home by Celtic on 28 August 2022.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: United's playing kit consists of tangerine shirts and black shorts, first used when the team played under the Dallas Tornado moniker in the United Soccer Association competition of 1967, which they were invited to participate in after their first European excursion had created many headlines in the football world. After persuasion by the wife of manager Jerry Kerr, the colour would soon be adopted as the club's own in 1969 to give the club a brighter, more modern image. The new colour was paraded for the first time in a pre-season friendly against Everton in August.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: When founded as Dundee Hibernian, they had followed the example of other clubs of similar heritage by adopting the traditionally Irish colours of green shirts and white shorts. By the time the club became Dundee United in 1923, the colours had been changed to white shirts and black shorts as they sought to appeal to a wider cross-section of the community. These colours persisted in various forms up until 1969, sometimes using plain shirts, but also at various times including Celtic-style broad hoops, Queen's Park-style narrow hoops and an Airdrie-style "V" motif.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The present club badge was introduced in 2022, and saw the previous lion rampant design updated in a new logo incorporating the club colours. To mark the club's centenary in 2009, a special version of the badge with an added ""1909 2009 Centenary"" logo was introduced for the duration of the 2009–10 season, along with additional green trim on the badge, representing Dundee Hibernian's colours.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Previously, the lion had been represented on a simpler shield design. Although this "classic" version had been used as the club crest on the cover of the matchday programme as early as 1956, it had never appeared on the players' strip prior to 1983. Since 1959, various other designs had been worn on the shirts, incorporating either the lion rampant or the letters DUFC, often on a circular badge.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club first introduced shirt sponsorship in the 1985–86 season when future chairman Eddie Thompson's VG chain sponsored the club in the first of a two-year deal. A six-year association with Belhaven then ensued with a sponsorless 1993–94 season. Rover began a two-year deal early in time for the 1994 Scottish Cup final, sponsoring the club until the end of the 1995–96 season. Telewest took over sponsorship from 1996 for six years until Eddie Thompson's Morning, Noon and Night started sponsoring the club in 2002. This association continued until 2006 when Anglian Home Improvements began a two-year deal with an optional third year. At the same time, Ole International became the first shorts sponsors. JD Sports' Carbrini Sportswear brand sponsored the club in the 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons. United's shirt sponsor from the 2016–17 season was McEwan Fraser Legal, before Utilita took over the sponsorship from 2018 until 2021. United's current shirt sponsors are Eden Mill, who took over before the 2021-22 season.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: United have had a number of official kit suppliers, including Adidas, Hummel, Nike and most recently Macron.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Dundee United's home ground throughout their history has been Tannadice Park, located on Tannadice Street in the Coldside area of the city. It is situated a mere away from Dens Park, home of rivals Dundee; The club has only ever played one home fixture at another venue. This was a League Cup tie against Rangers in March 1947, when despite snow rendering Tannadice Park unplayable, the match was able to go ahead across the road at Dens Park.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Tannadice is currently an all-seater with a capacity of . The Main Stand, built in 1962, was the first cantilever to be constructed at a Scottish football ground. For long periods of its history, only a small proportion of the ground contained seated accommodation. In the late 1980s the ground had 2,252 seats out of a total capacity of 22,310.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The comparative age and proximity of their stadiums has led to various discussions about the possibility of both Dundee clubs moving to a new, purpose-built shared stadium. The most recent proposal was put forward as part of Scotland's bid to jointly host the UEFA Euro 2008 championship, with several clubs seeking to benefit from a new stadium. With planning permission given to a proposed site at Caird Park, special dispensation was requested to proceed with the proposal, as rules at the time forbade SPL teams from groundsharing. Following Scotland's failed bid to host the tournament, the scheme was shelved, although it was resurrected in June 2008, following doubts about joint-host Ukraine's ability to stage Euro 2012, and the SFA's keenness to act as an alternative host.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The highest attendance in that period came on 30 August 2019 when United beat their city rivals Dundee 6-2 in front a 14,108 crowd, their largest league attendance since 1998. In the same season United also set their highest average attendance and highest low attendance of the decade, these records being set despite the club residing in the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League at the time. The lowest attendance of the 2019–20 season was larger than the highest attendance of the previous year, likely due to United's strong performance.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Due to United's failure to gain promotion back to the Scottish Premiership over the previous seasons and growing mistrust of the club chairman and owner, 2018–19 saw the lowest average attendance of the decade. The lowest attendance was set the season before.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Dundee United's first trophy came in 1925, when they won the 1924–25 Division Two championship. After two seasons in the top tier, they were relegated, but they won the Division Two title for a second time in 1928–29. Immediate relegation followed and the club finished runners-up in 1931–32. Another runners-up spot was claimed in 1959–60, in manager Jerry Kerr's first season, and from then club remained in the top division for the next 35-years. Under Jim McLean's management, the club won the Premier Division title for the only time, in 1982–83, resulting in European Cup football the following season. The title win was United's last major league success, although they finished runners-up in the First Division in 1995–96, after nearly avoiding relegation the previous season, and in third place in their first season back in the Premier Division. A third lower league title was added in 2019–20, after the curtailment of the campaign with United clear in 1st place.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club had to wait several decades before their first realistic chance at cup silverware, when they began the first of a six-game losing streak of Scottish Cup Final appearances in 1974, losing 3–0 to Celtic. Towards the end of the 1970s, things began to change, with three successive appearances in the League Cup Final. United won their first major trophy with a 3–0 replay victory over Aberdeen in the 1979–80 Scottish League Cup Final. The club reached both cup finals in the following season; while they retained the League Cup by winning 3–0 against rivals Dundee, United lost out again in the Scottish Cup with a replay defeat to Rangers. United reached a third consecutive League Cup Final in 1981–82, but failed to make it a hat-trick of wins as they lost 2–1 to Rangers.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: United suffered the agony of reaching three out of four Scottish Cup finals in the mid-1980s, only to lose them all by a single goal. First came a 2–1 defeat to Celtic in 1984–85, compounded by a 1–0 League Cup final loss to Rangers in the same season; then a 1–0 defeat in extra time to St Mirren in 1986–87; and finally, a last-minute 2–1 loss against Celtic the following year, despite being a goal ahead. A three-year gap ensued before the 1990–91 Scottish Cup final, which pitted Jim McLean against his brother Tommy, at Motherwell. The final was won 4–3 by 'Well, with United again losing in extra time. The sixth Cup Final loss was also the club's fifth final appearance in eleven years.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: These defeats in cup finals at Hampden Park led to the Scottish football media claiming that United suffered from a "Hampden hoodoo", as they had failed to win ten cup finals played at the ground between 1974 and 1991. When the club reached the 1994 Scottish Cup Final, manager Ivan Golac dismissed talk of the hoodoo, even though opponents Rangers were strong favourites to complete a domestic treble in the 1993–94 season. United broke the supposed hoodoo and won the Scottish Cup for the first time when Craig Brewster's goal gave them a 1–0 win.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Eleven years passed until the next Scottish Cup final appearance, when United lost 1–0 to Celtic in 2005. Sandwiched in the middle of these appearances was a defeat on penalties to Stenhousemuir in the Scottish Challenge Cup (when United failed to concede a goal in the whole competition) and a 3–0 defeat to Celtic in the 1997 Scottish League Cup Final. United then lost the 2008 Scottish League Cup Final on penalties to Rangers after the match had finished 2–2 after extra time. Dundee United won their next major trophy in 2010, under the guidance of manager Peter Houston, when First Division side Ross County were defeated 3–0 in the 2010 Scottish Cup Final. David Goodwillie scored the first goal and Craig Conway scored the second and third goals in front of 28,000 Dundee United fans at Hampden Park.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: United's 10th appearance in the Scottish Cup final came in 2014, but the team lost 2–0 to St Johnstone at Celtic Park. The Tangerines reached the League Cup final the following year, but lost to Celtic in the final.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Two years later, after the club's relegation from the Scottish Premiership, they faced St Mirren in the 2017 Scottish Challenge Cup Final. United won the game 2–1, marking the club's first silverware since 2010.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club's first experience of Europe came in 1966–67 season when, helped by a clutch of Scandinavian players, United defeated Inter-Cities Fairs Cup holders FC Barcelona both home and away. Although Juventus proved too strong in the next round with a 3–1 aggregate victory, United made headlines and were asked to compete as Dallas Tornado in the United Soccer Association league in North America during the summer of 1967.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: In 1981–82 they began a period in which they were competitive in European competition. In a six-year spell they reached one UEFA final, another semi-final and two quarter finals. After their only Premier Division win in 1983, the team reached the resulting semi-final of the European Cup in 1984, losing 3–2 on aggregate to Roma. In 1987, the club went one better, reaching the final of the UEFA Cup beating FC Barcelona in both the home and away fixtures en route to the final. Despite the 2–1 aggregate loss to IFK Gothenburg in the final, the club won the first-ever FIFA Fair Play Award for their supporters' sporting behaviour after the final defeat.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Dundee United are famous for having a 100% record against FC Barcelona in European fixtures (4 wins out of 4 matches), and remain the only British team to have achieved this feat.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The team entered the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League at the third qualifying round, culminating in a 7–1 aggregate loss to AZ Alkmaar, the 7–0 second leg defeat matching the record greatest loss inflicted on a Scottish club in European competition.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Dundee United's traditional rivals are Dundee, with whom they compete in the Dundee derby. The fixture was lacking a competitive element for a number of years until Dundee's return to the top flight of the Scottish game. A unique element of the rivalry lies in the fact that the clubs' stadiums are located within 100 yards of one another.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: In spite of their rivalry, the two sides previously contemplated ground-sharing as part of the SFA's unsuccessful bid to host Euro 2008. Perhaps the most notable meeting was the final game of the 1982–83 Premier Division season, where if United were victors at Dens Park, they would clinch the top flight title; United were victorious thanks to an Eamonn Bannon winner.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Another intense fixture is that of the New Firm derby between United and North-East rivals Aberdeen. The match itself became one of fierce competition due to the domestic and European success the two sides achieved in the late 1970s and 1980s under the stewardship of United's Jim McLean and Aberdeen's Alex Ferguson.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: St Johnstone also claim a rivalry due to the relatively close proximity of Dundee and Perth, known as the Tayside derby. The most notable meeting between the two sides was in the 2014 Scottish Cup Final, when St Johnstone won 2–0 at Celtic Park in United's tenth final appearance.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: This is a list of former and current players who have played at full international level while with the club. They are ordered by nationality and year of United debut below. Additionally, two goalkeepers – Pat Onstad (Canada) and Kémoko Camara (Guinea) – were both capped while at Tannadice yet never played a first-team game for United.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The club launched its official Hall of Fame in 2008, with seven inaugural members. A further six players were inducted in January 2009 and seven more in January 2010. Since then six players have been inducted each year.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: The first manager of Dundee Hibernian in 1909 was Pat Reilly. The club's longest serving and most successful manager, Jim McLean, held the position from 1971 to 1993, winning three major honours – the Scottish Premier Division title in 1982–83 and the Scottish League Cup twice in 1979 and 1980. Two Dundee United managers have won the Scottish Cup – Ivan Golac in 1994 and Peter Houston in 2010.


title: Dundee United F.C.

text: Dundee United announced in April 2015 that the club would be launching a women's team, with the aim of entering the Scottish league structure in 2016. Gavin Beith was appointed as the team's manager in June 2015.


title: Luv Ranjan

text: Luv Ranjan is an Indian film director, writer and producer who works in Hindi cinema. He was born in Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh. He has directed films such as "Pyaar Ka Punchnama", "Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety", "Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2" and "Akaash Vani". He is an alumnus of St. Paul's Academy, Ghaziabad and Hindu College, University of Delhi.


title: Luv Ranjan

text: After finishing his schooling from St. Paul's Academy, Ghaziabad, he studied at the Hindu College, Delhi University.


title: Luv Ranjan

text: He began his career as a director in 2011 with the film, "Pyaar Ka Punchnama" produced by Abhishek Pathak, Panorama Studios and Viacom18 Motion Pictures. The film is a romantic comedy which depicts the life of three young bachelors. In 2013, he wrote and directed Akaash Vani, reuniting him with Aaryan and Bharucha. Two years later, in 2015, he co-wrote and directed the sequel of "Pyaar Ka Punchnama", "Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2" starring Aaryan, Bharucha, Sunny Singh, Ishita Raj Sharma, Omkar Kapoor and Sonnalli Seygall. The sequel too received much appreciation and performed well at the box office.


title: Luv Ranjan

text: He directed the film "Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety" in 2018. The film performed exceedingly well at the box office, although it holds a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 10 reviews.


title: Luv Ranjan

text: In December 2019, it was announced that Ranjan will direct a romantic-comedy, titled "Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar". It stars Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead roles. It went on floors in January 2021 and is set to release on 8 March 2023, for Holi.


title: Luv Ranjan

text: He turned to production in 2012 with his childhood friend and co-producer, Ankur Garg, and founded their company, Luv Films. In 2016, he produced "Life Sahi Hai", an Indian coming of age comedy web-series created by Tarun Jain. He directed and co-produced the comedy film, "Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety", along with Ankur Garg and in collaboration with T-Series. It starred Kartik Aaryan, Nushrat Bharucha, and Sunny Singh in the lead roles. It emerged as a commercial success and ranked as one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 2018. He next produced the urban-romcom, "De De Pyaar De", starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu, and Rakul Preet Singh. It was directed by his longtime editor, Akiv Ali.


title: Asia Carrera

text: Asia Carrera Lemmon (born Jessica Steinhauser, August 6, 1973) is an American former pornographic actress.


title: Asia Carrera

text: Asia Carrera was born Jessica Steinhauser in New York City to a German mother and Japanese father, the oldest of four siblings. She was raised on Lippincott Road in Little Silver, New Jersey, attending Red Bank Regional High School. She performed piano at Carnegie Hall at age 13 and 14. At the age of 16, she taught English at Tsuruga College in Tsuruga, Fukui, Japan.


title: Asia Carrera

text: Carrera won a National Merit Scholarship and scored over 1440 on the SAT, as well as a Garden State Scholarship for her grades. She attended Rutgers University on full academic scholarship, where she majored in Japanese and business, but did not graduate. Carrera is a member of Mensa, with an IQ of 156.


title: Asia Carrera

text: Carrera's adult film career started in 1993. In 1995, she became the first Asian performer ever to win the AVN Female Performer of the Year Award. Carrera retired from the film industry in 2003, following her marriage to Don Lemmon.


title: Asia Carrera

text: Carrera lent her voice to several erotic hentai OVAs for publisher Pink Pineapple, such as "Inmu" (2001) and "Shusaku" (1999). In October 2001, Carrera attended the Big Apple Anime Fest in New York City for her voice roles and along with Kobe Tai was an Opening Night Guest of Honor at the fest's Midnight Anime Concourse.


title: Asia Carrera

text: Carrera was also in the 2012 documentary "After Porn Ends", which documents the lives of actors after they leave the adult film industry. In the documentary, she discusses her membership in Mensa. Despite being a celebrity member of the group, the organization refused to link to her website because it contained pornographic elements.


title: Asia Carrera

text: In 1998, she appeared in an uncredited cameo role in the film "The Big Lebowski" in the faux pornographic movie "Logjammin"' within the film.


title: Asia Carrera

text: Carrera is an atheist. As of November 2014, she wore a colander on her head for her Utah driver's license photograph. State law normally prohibits the wearing of hats in driver license photos, but there is an exception for religious headwear and Carerra's colander was worn in honor of the religion of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. She is one of about a dozen "Pastafarian" Utahns who have worn a colander in their official state ID photos.


title: Asia Carrera

text: In September 1995, Carrera married adult film director Bud Lee. They divorced in 2003, but remain good friends. She married nutritionist and author Don Lemmon on December 19, 2003. The couple moved to St. George, Utah, where she gave birth to a daughter on March 4, 2005. On June 10, 2006, Lemmon was killed in a car accident outside of Las Vegas. Seven weeks later, on July 31, Carrera gave birth to the couple's second child. In June 2012, she gave birth to a boy whom she later placed for adoption.


title: Asia Carrera

text: In 2015, she was arrested for DUI with "a reported blood alcohol content of .254 percent – more than three times Utah’s .08 legal limit." She pleaded no contest in exchange for avoiding jail time and was sentenced to house arrest.


title: Asia Carrera

text: She identified investor Warren Buffett as her hero on her website, which Buffett was pleased to learn.


title: Asia Carrera

text: In 2017, Carrera began studies at Dixie State University with her daughter. At 11 years old, Carrera's daughter was the youngest student to ever attend college at Dixie State University and the youngest full-time college student in the state of Utah at the time.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021, under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in the sixth election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. The election was held alongside the Senedd election, English local elections, London Assembly and mayoral election and the Hartlepool by-election.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The election campaign started on 25 March 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland, although Parliament would not be officially dissolved until 5 May, the day before the election. The main parties that ran for election are the Scottish National Party (SNP), led by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish Conservatives led by Douglas Ross, Scottish Labour led by Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Liberal Democrats led by Willie Rennie, and the Scottish Greens, led by their co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. Of those five parties, three changed their leader since the 2016 election.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Newer parties set up since the last election included Reform UK Scotland, led by Michelle Ballantyne; the Alba Party, led by former First Minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond; and All for Unity, led by George Galloway. These parties only competed for seats on the regional lists and all failed to win any seats.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The election concluded with the SNP winning a fourth consecutive term in government, winning 64 seats and an increase of one. The SNP gained Edinburgh Central, Ayr, and East Lothian as well as winning the largest share of the popular vote and the largest number of constituency seats in any Scottish Parliament election (62). The Greens won 8 seats, their best result to date at a Scottish Parliament election, while the Conservatives retained second place with 31 seats. Labour had its worst-ever result with 22 seats, and the lowest share of the vote in both Constituency & List votes for either Westminster or Holyrood since 1910. The Lib Dems won four seats, their worst showing at a Holyrood election to date.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The SNP and the Greens, both of which support Scottish independence, won 72 of the 129 seats in the parliament. Unionist parties achieved a slight majority of votes in constituency contests, whilst pro-independence parties did the same in the regional list votes. Voter turnout in the election reached 63.5%, the highest ever at a Scottish Parliament election. Following the election, the third Sturgeon government was formed, initially consisting of just the SNP but later including the appointment of Slater and Harvie as junior ministers, after the two parties negotiated a power-sharing agreement.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: At the 2016 election, the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) lost its parliamentary majority but was able to continue governing under Nicola Sturgeon as a minority administration. At the same election, the Conservatives overtook Labour into second place, whilst the Greens overtook the Liberal Democrats into fourth place. No representatives of minor parties were elected to the Parliament.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The 2017 local elections saw the SNP hold its first-preference vote share compared to 2012 at 32%, finishing as the largest party in half of councils (sixteen).


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Conservatives considerably increased their vote share to 25%, an increase of 12%, as they became the largest party outright in six council areas and joint largest in one other. Labour fell 11% to 20% and became the largest party outright in only three councils, compared to fifteen in 2012.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Independent candidates won 10% of the vote, down 1%, as the Lib Dems were marginally up, winning 7% of votes. The Greens increased their share by 2%, to earn 4% of votes. For the first time since the electoral system was changed to the single transferable vote in 2007, no mainland council had a majority government.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: A month later, at the 2017 UK general election, the SNP lost twenty-one of its MPs, winning thirty-five seats on 37% of the vote (down thirteen percentage points). Most notably, former First Minister Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson, the party's Westminster leader, lost their seats.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Conservatives won their highest vote share in any election in Scotland since 1979, at 29%, and their highest number of MPs since 1983, winning thirteen. They surpassed Labour on both counts, Labour earning 28% and seven seats – both an improvement over its 2015 showing. The Lib Dems won four seats, up three, but lost nearly 1% of their national vote share. None of the smaller parties managed more than 0.2% of the vote. UKIP and the Greens heavily reduced the number of candidates compared to 2015, with UKIP down from forty-one to ten and the Greens from thirty-one to three.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The 2019 European election was dominated by the impending Brexit-deadline and was won in Scotland by the SNP. The party won three of the six seats, up one from 2014, in the European Parliament and increased its vote share from 29% to 38%; they were the largest party in all local authority areas, with the exception of Orkney and Shetland.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Brexit Party, led by former-UKIP leader Nigel Farage, finished second on 15% – 4% higher than UKIP achieved in 2014. The pro-remain Liberal Democrats won 14% of the vote and were the largest party in the two Northern Isle councils.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Both the Conservatives and Labour performed badly across Britain, and finished fourth and fifth in Scotland respectively. The Tories fared relatively better in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK, achieving 12% (down 6% on 2014) in Scotland compared to 9% elsewhere. Labour lost 17% of the vote, finishing on 9%, and had its worst showing in Scotland since 1910; the Greens held level at 8%.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Brexit Party, Lib Dems and Conservatives each won a single seat, in addition to the SNP's three. Labour (two) and UKIP (one) lost the seats they won in 2014.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The SNP increased its vote share to 45% at the 2019 general election, only 5% behind its 2015 performance, reclaiming thirteen of the seats they lost in 2017, constituting in a landslide victory.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Conservatives lost half the seats they gained in 2017, but retained a quarter of the vote – down 4%. The party won a majority of seats in the House of Commons across the UK, its biggest majority since 1987. Labour recorded its worst general election result in Scotland since 1910, being again reduced to a single Scottish seat, and achieved a 19% share of the vote. Across Britain, the party suffered its worst result since 1935, with many former safe Labour seats being gained by the Conservatives.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Liberal Democrats made no net losses, but Jo Swinson, the party's UK leader, lost her seat to the SNP. The party increased its share by 3%, to record just under one in ten votes. The Greens managed 1% of the vote, as they stood in twenty-two seats.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Three parties underwent leadership changes during the parliamentary term. In 2017, Kezia Dugdale resigned as Leader of Scottish Labour and was replaced by Richard Leonard. On 14 January 2021, less than four months before the election was held, Leonard resigned. The 2021 Scottish Labour leadership election was held in February 2021, and was won by Anas Sarwar.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Later in August 2019, Ruth Davidson resigned as leader of the Scottish Conservatives and was succeeded by Jackson Carlaw. Carlaw, however, himself resigned from the leadership in July 2020, and Douglas Ross won the subsequent leadership election without opposition.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: This is the first election after the passage of the Scottish Elections (Franchise and Representation) Act, which extended the franchise to those serving prison sentences of 12 months or less. In 2005, the United Kingdom was found in breach of Protocol 1, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in regards of prisoner voting rights in the European Court of Human Rights as a result of "Hirst v United Kingdom (No 2)"; the Act brings Scotland in line with the court ruling.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: This act also allows all foreign nationals resident in Scotland to vote and all those with indefinite leave to remain or equivalent status, including pre–settled status in the United Kingdom, to stand as candidates. A BBC News report in April 2021 said that there were around 55,000 foreign nationals who had been given the right to vote as a result of these changes, including 20,000 refugees.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: In order to vote by post, a person must have registered for a postal vote by 6 April 2021. Everyone seeking to vote in person on the day of the election must have registered to vote before the deadline at 11:59pm on 19 April 2021.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Under the Scotland Act 1998, an ordinary general election to the Scottish Parliament would normally have been held on the first Thursday in May four years after the 2016 election, i.e. in May 2020. This would have clashed with the proposed date of a UK general election, although this became a moot point when a snap UK general election was held in June 2017 (a further UK general election was held in December 2019). In November 2015, the Scottish Government published a Scottish Elections (Dates) Bill, which proposed to extend the term of the Parliament to five years. That Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 25 February 2016 and received Royal Assent on 30 March 2016, setting the new date for the election as 6 May 2021.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Scottish Elections (Dates) Act did not affect the legal possibilities for the Parliament to be dissolved earlier, those being;


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Nevertheless, no extraordinary general elections have been held to date. Any extraordinary general election would be in addition to the ordinary general elections, unless held less than six months before the due date of an ordinary general election, in which case it would supplant it. This would not affect the year in which the subsequent ordinary general election would be held.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: On 16 November 2020, the Scottish General Election (Coronavirus) Bill was introduced. This draft legislation stated that while the next election was intended to be held on 6 May 2021, the Presiding Officer would gain the power to postpone the election by up to six months if the spread of COVID-19 made that date impractical. The bill also proposed to change the date of dissolution to the day before the election, meaning that the Parliament could be recalled during the election period. The bill was enacted and received Royal Assent on 29 January 2021. Parliament was in fact recalled on 12 April, to allow MSPs to mark the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: James Dornan announced in February 2020 his intention to retire at the next Holyrood election, but reversed this decision some months later.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The SNP, Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats fielded candidates in all 73 constituencies and all eight of the regional ballots. Five other parties contested both all eight regions and at least one constituency: the Scottish Greens (12 constituencies) the Scottish Libertarian Party (9), the Scottish Family Party (7), UKIP (5) and the Freedom Alliance (4). Four parties – Abolish the Scottish Parliament Party, Alba Party, All for Unity, and Reform UK – stood in all eight electoral regions, but did not contest any constituencies.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Six other parties contested some of the regions and at least one constituency: TUSC (3 regions and 3 constituencies), Restore Scotland (2 regions, 4 constituencies), Scotia Future (2 of each), the Communist Party of Britain (2 regions and 1 constituency), the Reclaim Party (1 of each) and the Vanguard Party (also 1 of each). Five other parties – Independent Green Voice (5 regions), Renew (5), the Social Democratic Party (2), Women's Equality (2) and Animal Welfare (1) – contested some of the regions, but not any constituencies.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Scottish Socialist Party, which participated in the last election as part of the electoral alliance RISE – Scotland's Left Alliance, opted not to participate in this election, for the first time since its inception.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Scottish Parliament uses an additional member system (AMS), designed to produce approximate proportional representation for each region. There are 8 regions, each sub-divided into smaller constituencies. There is a total of 73 constituencies. Each constituency elects one MSP by the plurality (first past the post) system of election. Each region elects 7 additional MSPs using an additional member system. A modified D'Hondt method, using the constituency results, is used to elect these additional MSPs.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The boundaries of the 73 constituencies last changed as of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, as did the configuration of the electoral regions used to elect "list" members of the Scottish Parliament. These revisions were the outcome of the First Periodical Review of the Scottish Parliament's constituencies and regions conducted by the Boundary Commission for Scotland; the Review was announced on 3 July 2007 and the Commission published its final report on 26 May 2010.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The Scottish Parliament constituencies have not been coterminous with Scottish Westminster constituencies since the 2005 general election, when the 72 former UK Parliament constituencies were replaced with a new set of 59, generally larger, constituencies (see Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004). The size difference between Westminster and Holyrood boundaries was due to diverge further upon the implementation of the Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, which has not been voted upon by Parliament. The 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies for a UK total of 650 MPs commenced in England in 2021 and will complete for the UK by 2023.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The election campaign started on 25 March 2021. The Scottish Conservatives launched their campaign the same day, with a focus on promoting Scotland's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: On 26 March 2021, the Alba Party was publicly launched by former First Minister of Scotland and SNP leader, Alex Salmond. The party announced plans to stand list-only candidates. The party later gained two sitting MPs who defected from the SNP. The Action for Independence party, which had intended to pursue a similar list-only strategy, announced they would stand down their candidates in favour of Alba. Sturgeon said she would refuse to have any dealings with Salmond unless he apologises to the women who had accused him of harassment.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: BBC Scotland announced that it would broadcast two debates between the main parties' leaders; the first was aired on 30 March 2021 and was moderated by the corporation's Scotland editor Sarah Smith. The debate included key questions from the audience on the COVID-19 recovery, climate change, and a second referendum on Scottish independence. The second BBC debate was held on 4 May 2021 and was moderated by BBC Scotland's political editor Glenn Campbell.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Commercial broadcaster STV held their leaders' debate on 13 April, moderated by their political editor Colin Mackay. NUS Scotland held a debate on specifically on student issues which was moderated by NUS Scotland president, Matt Crilly on 20 April which featured the three main party leaders.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: On 1 April, Planet Radio announced that their Clyde 2 station would be hosting a Leaders Phone-In with the main parties' leaders every Sunday before the election. Douglas Ross was the first to be interviewed on 4 April, with Willie Rennie following on 18 April. Whilst Nicola Sturgeon was set to be interviewed on 11 April, campaigning was delayed following the death of Prince Philip and her phone-in was instead held on 22 April. Patrick Harvie followed on 25 April; and Anas Sarwar had the final phone-in on 2 May.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Following Prince Philip's death on 9 April, the SNP, Conservatives, Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats said they would suspend election campaigning until further notice. After discussion between the parties, they agreed to resume campaigning after a special parliamentary session on 12 April to make tributes and to pause activities again on the day of the funeral (17 April).


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Graph of opinion poll results prior to the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. Trendlines are 30-day moving averages.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Below are listed all the constituencies which required a swing of less than 5% from the 2016 result to change hands. The most marginal opportunity for the Greens was in Glasgow Kelvin, which they needed a 7.1% swing to gain. The Liberal Democrats' best bet was Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, which required a 6.1% swing. The SNP ended up holding both of these constituencies.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The SNP won 64 seats, falling one seat short of an overall majority. Some commentators put this down to unionists voting tactically for Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem candidates. According to psephologist John Curtice, "Denying the SNP an overall majority was, indeed, a collective effort – at least on the part of Unionist voters, who on the constituency ballot demonstrated a remarkable willingness to back whichever pro-Union party appeared to be best placed locally to defeat the SNP. [...] These patterns had a decisive impact on the outcome." This was apparent in seats like Dumbarton, where incumbent Labour MSP Jackie Baillie saw her 0.3% majority increased to 3.9%, whilst both the Conservative and Lib Dem vote share decreased.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: In "The National", Emer O'Toole questioned whether social media adverts with "a lack of transparency over funding" may have cost the SNP key seats as well. The day before the election, "The Guardian" reported that anti-independence groups and campaigners had "spent tens of thousands of pounds in the past week", including on Facebook adverts, calling for tactical voting to prevent the SNP getting a majority. One of these groups was Scotland Matters, whose founder, Professor Hugh Pennington said, "Across the country as a whole, tactical voting is obviously one of the ways forward to basically harm the SNP, not to put too fine a point on it."


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Additionally, the Greens claimed that they may have been deprived of two seats because of Independent Green Voice (IGV), a far-right party which has nothing to do with the Scottish Greens (who support Scottish independence) received nearly 10,000 votes, including 2,210 in Glasgow (where the Greens were 1,000 short of gaining a seat) and 1,690 in South Scotland (where the Greens fell 100 short). This potentially prevented pro-independence parties from having a 19-seat majority instead of 15 seats.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: The "Scottish and Welsh Election Studies 2021", revealed on 13 June, found that around a third of Scottish voters who decided to vote differently in the run-up to the election did so to stop another party, and that 90% of those who did this did so in a bid to prevent the SNP winning the seat. Rob Johns, Professor in Politics at the University of Essex, said: "[W]e found a lot more switching than we had expected. The polls had suggested that not much was changing and obviously the overall election result was almost eerily similar to 2016. That can mean that nobody has changed their mind or it can mean lots of people have changed their mind – but these have cancelled out as people have moved in opposing directions. We found there was quite a lot more of that than we had expected."


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: Nicola Sturgeon was nominated as First Minister by a vote of the parliament on 18 May 2021. Her cabinet was approved by the parliament two days later and thus the Third Sturgeon government, a minority government, was formed.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: On 3 August 2021, it was reported that a co-operation agreement between the SNP and the Greens was "on the brink of being finalised" and could see Green MSPs take ministerial positions in government. On 19 August, the power-sharing agreement between the two parties was announced. Under the terms of the agreement, the Greens have two MSPs appointed as junior ministers in the government who are invited to attend cabinet meetings when their portfolios are being discussed. The Greens signed up to the bulk of the SNP's policies, but in areas of disagreement such as international relations and fee-paying schools the two parties are free to publicly disagree. The agreement states that the Greens support the government on votes of confidence and supply.


title: 2021 Scottish Parliament election

text: A deal that would see Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater made ministers was revealed on 26 August, subject to being voted upon by Green Party members. Two days later, members of both parties overwhelmingly voted in favour of the deal.


title: Young M.A

text: Katorah Kasanova Marrero (born April 3, 1992), better known by her stage name Young M.A (acronym for Young Me. Always), is an American rapper. She first gained widespread recognition with the release of the quadruple-platinum hit single "Ooouuu", breaking the top 20 of the "Billboard" Hot 100, boasting over 300 million YouTube views on the music video.


title: Young M.A

text: After the success of her debut single, Young M.A was nominated for BET and MTV Artist of the Year and Female Hip-Hop Artist of the Year awards. She began appearing on magazine covers. She has been featured in global ad campaigns for Google Pixel 2, Beats By Dre and Pandora. She has appeared on a variety of television shows and performed alongside Alicia Keys on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon".


title: Young M.A

text: In 2018, Young M.A was featured on the " Forbes" 30 Under 30, the same year she launched the KWEENZ Foundation with her mother.


title: Young M.A

text: Katorah Marrero was born on April 3, 1992, in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother is Jamaican, and her father is Puerto Rican. Her father was incarcerated when she was 1 and was not released until she was 11, spending approximately 10 years behind bars. With the absence of her father, Young M.A grew close to her brother, Kenneth Ramos, and her mother. When Marrero was 7, her mother decided to relocate to Chesterfield, Virginia, as it provided better school facilities and her children would remain away from the violence of East New York. In Virginia, she started to play tackle football. When she was 10, Young M.A started to write rhymes in her schoolbooks. Her mother encouraged her and purchased a karaoke machine, which M.A would set up as a makeshift studio in her closet. In 2010, she graduated from Sheepshead Bay High School.


title: Young M.A

text: Young M.A raps about many of the same topics as male rappers, such as violence, sexuality, and wealth, and acquisitions. She stated, "this industry is male-dominated, we can't pretend that it's not. So when you do make it as a female, you feel more honored, because the guys take over so much." When she was a child, Young M.A exhibited a passion for music. When she began seriously focusing on music as an adult, she self-funded a recording studio with local record producers while working at the Shake Shack and T.J. Maxx.


title: Young M.A

text: In 2014, she gained notoriety when a Facebook post criticized her song "Brooklyn Chiraq", a freestyle to Nicki Minaj and G Herbo "ChiRaq"; the song then went viral. The post's author, pundit Boyce Watkins, said the song promoted "violent, negative, and genocidal energy", but the controversy expanded Young M.A's name recognition and brought new listeners to her work. In 2015, Young M.A released a new song, "Body Bag", which became a "YouTube hit", said "Rolling Stone", along with the release of her mixtape called "Sleep Walkin", which MTV described as a "thoughtful debut project".


title: Young M.A

text: In 2016, Young M.A released her official debut single, "Ooouuu," which peaked at number 19 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. In September 2016, the song had nearly 7 million plays on Spotify and was widely remixed by other rappers and hip hop artists such as Remy Ma, French Montana, Nicki Minaj, Jadakiss, Uncle Murda, ASAP Ferg, Bryan Mathers and Tink, all of whom released their versions of the song. Stereogum's Tom Breihan said "Ooouuu" was "a brash, intense, hard-as-fuck piece of rider music... the song feels like it marks the arrival of a major rap talent." "The Fader" said Young M.A has "[established] herself as a quintessential New York MC", and MTV's Doreen St. Félix said, "This summer, the atmosphere belongs to Young M.A and her single 'OOOUUU.'" The song's popularity drew attention from labels, though M.A remains an independent artist.


title: Young M.A

text: At the 2016 BET Hip Hop Awards, she performed a freestyle on a cypher and performed "Ooouuu", giving what "XXL Magazine" described as "show-stopping freestyle... one of the best freestyles of the night". Despite the enthusiasm for her performance, Young M.A expressed disappointment, saying BET cut out a portion of her performance. Remy Ma featured M.A at "Hot 97"'s Summer Jam 2017, where she performed alongside other female rap greats. M.A was quoted as saying "There's been a lot of opportunities, and of course a lot of money, but then there's the downside: you lose a lot of people that were once around you once their true colors start to show".


title: Young M.A

text: Freestyles such as "Who Run It" and "I Get The Bag" have gained millions of online streams and views, along with her previous single, "Walk", which has amassed over 20 million listens. M.A's single titled "Praktice" is supposedly a reference to the idea that her previous releases have all led up to the full album. Young M.A's debut studio album "Herstory in the Making" was released on September 27, 2019, and peaked at number 16 on the "Billboard" 200. It included the singles "Big" and "PettyWap 2". On May 22, 2020, she released the EP "Red Flu", marking her first new project since the release of her debut album. On May 21, 2021, she released her second studio album "Off the Yak". "Pitchfork" rated the album 6.9 out of 10.


title: Young M.A

text: In 2016, during an interview with "Rolling Stone", Young M.A said Lee Daniels offered her the role of "Betty Bars" on the show "Empire". The character and role were made especially for her, but she turned it down, preferring to pursue her career as a rapper on her terms and with her moniker instead of being known first as a fictional character. She references being offered the role in her freestyle "Check," rapping, "Shout out to Fox trying to get me on that Empire / At first I had to turn it down, wasn't up to par / 'Cause it's Young M.A, bitch! Fuck is 'Betty Bars'?"


title: Young M.A

text: In 2018, she directed her first pornographic film, which was a lesbian porn film, produced by Pornhub, titled "The Gift". In 2019, she also appeared in the fourth and final season of "Mr. Robot" as Peanuts, an employee of criminal Fernando Vera. In 2020, Young M.A appeared as the first feature on Eminem's surprise-released album "Music to Be Murdered By" on the song "Unaccommodating".


title: Young M.A

text: Young M.A has been open about her sexual orientation in her music throughout her career. During an interview with the " Breakfast Club", she stated that she has liked girls since the first grade. She told "Vogue" that coming out was an important point in her artistic development, stating "I held in being sexually attracted to women for so long that once I got that out of me, the music became easy." As of 2019, she no longer likes to use any kind of label for herself; when Jason Lee of "Hollywood Unlocked" asked Young M.A about her orientation, the rapper stated, "No, I'm Young M.A . . . . We don't do no labels. I just wouldn't date a guy. Nah, bro, I don't like that."


title: Young M.A

text: In an interview with "The Breakfast Club", Young M.A stated that she often felt out of place when she was hiding her sexuality. Her mother would often try to get her to discuss her sexuality, but she would always deny she was a lesbian. She stated that she feared her mother wouldn't accept her if she came out. In the interview, she said, "I used to be scared to tell my moms, though I knew my moms wasn't the type of mother to be like 'Oh, I don't like you' or 'I'm gonna ignore you,' but part of me still was scared." Young M.A also said in a different interview, "I was scared to express it to people who are close to me, That was me not accepting it yet, even though I knew deep down in my heart that I liked women."


title: Young M.A

text: When she came out to her family at the age of 18, she saw this as a turning point in her rap career. She also said in an interview with "Noisey Raps", "Since I came out officially, that's when all the girls flopped, that's when it was a wrap," she laughed. She also said people "feel her more" because she's more comfortable. To continue, another time she said, "Once I became myself, the music was a wrap. Music is my expression. Music is my release. Music is my therapy. This is where I’m going to speak about my sexuality. I’ve held it in for so long, now I can express it."


title: Young M.A

text: Marrero revealed that growing up in New York City helped her accept herself and sexuality. The rapper stated, "In New York City, it’s popular. I used to think to myself, man, there’s a lot of gay people out there. And it makes me comfortable, it was like, I can be myself! I used to still try to hide it until it was overwhelming — there were just too [many] girls attracted to me!" However, even though she is open about being a lesbian, she doesn't want it to define her as an artist.


title: Young M.A

text: On September 26, 2009, Young M.A's brother, Kenneth Ramos, was stabbed to death by his former friend. Young M.A missed school for a month due to depression and mourning, and later underwent therapy to deal with the tragedy.


title: Young M.A

text: Young M.A is the founder of the KWEENZ Foundation. KWEENZ foundation "helps those residing in her East New York neighborhood overcome the grief and trauma that comes with the loss of a loved one." "It’s for women and for men—Kings and Queens…KWEENZ," she says. "I got my mother involved because she sadly lost her son, my brother, in 2009 and this is something for her to get into and give her a little relief and meet other mothers who have been in that situation so they’re not alone." Regarding the vicissitudes of life, Young M.A said, "No matter how much success you have in this life, you still go through those struggles and still go through that pain."


title: Young M.A

text: Young M.A appears regularly at the end of "Vice News Tonight" (on HBO) episodes critiquing many genres of music.


title: Young M.A

text: She has also appeared on the "Wendy Williams Show", "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", "Viceland" "The Therapist", Snoop Dogg's "GGN", MTV's "Ridiculousness", "Hip Hop Squares", "Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party", "Wild 'n Out", "Safeword", "Total Request Live" and "Mr. Robot"


title: Is This It

text: Is This It is the debut studio album by American rock band the Strokes. It was first released on July 30, 2001, in Australia, with RCA Records handling the release internationally and Rough Trade Records handling the United Kingdom release. It was recorded at Transporterraum in New York City with producer Gordon Raphael during March and April 2001. For their debut, the band strived to capture a simple sound that was not significantly enhanced in the studio. Building on their 2001 EP "The Modern Age", the band members molded compositions largely through live takes during recording sessions, while songwriter and lead singer Julian Casablancas continued to detail the lives and relationships of urban youth.


title: Is This It

text: Following its completion, the Strokes embarked on a promotional world tour before its release. The album was released gradually in different countries as their tour continued, with it being released in Japan on August 22 and the United Kingdom on August 27. The album's original cover photograph caused controversy for being too sexually explicit, and was replaced for the US market. Following the September 11 attacks in New York City, the American compact disc release was delayed from September 25 to October 9 and had its track list amended, with the song "New York City Cops" being removed and replaced with the newly written track "When It Started"; however, the American vinyl release still includes the track as a result of its release falling on September 11. Three singles were released from the album: "Hard to Explain", "Last Nite", and "Someday".


title: Is This It

text: Promoted by the music press for its twin-guitar interplay and melodic, pop-influenced sound, "Is This It" peaked at number 33 on the US "Billboard" 200 and number two on the UK Albums Chart, going on to achieve platinum status in several countries. It received critical acclaim, with many praising it for its charisma and rhythm, which often referenced the works of 1970s garage rock bands. The release of the album is widely considered to be a watershed moment, and crucial in the reinvention of post-millennium guitar music. It has featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of the 2000s and of all time.


title: Is This It

text: In 1997, the Strokes consisted of singer Julian Casablancas, guitarist Nick Valensi, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti. Casablancas's stepfather and Moretti's and Fraiture's older brothers introduced the quartet to the music of reggae artist Bob Marley, protopunk group the Velvet Underground, and alternative rock band Jane's Addiction. Discussing the formative stages of the group, Moretti noted, "Our music was, like, [the Doors'], but trying to be classical. We all took music classes and tried writing songs, and when we put them together they were this crazy amalgam of insane ideas that we thought was really cool." In 1998, Albert Hammond, Jr., whom Casablancas knew from his time at a Swiss boarding school, moved to New York City to attend film school and joined The Strokes as a second guitarist. His arrival provided the catalyst for the band's musical and emotional evolution.


title: Is This It

text: By 2000, all band members had part-time jobs and were practicing new material several nights a week in a small hired recording space. In the fall of that year, their demo caught the attention of Ryan Gentles, a talent booker at New York City's Mercury Lounge. He scheduled the Strokes for four December gigs. With support from personal mentor JP Bowersock and producer Gordon Raphael, the band recorded three tracks which later appeared on "Is This It": "The Modern Age", "Last Nite", and "Barely Legal". British label Rough Trade Records was impressed by the songs and released them as a January 2001 extended play titled "The Modern Age". Music press reaction was very positive and the Strokes embarked on a sold-out UK tour, followed by US support slots for alternative rock groups Doves and Guided by Voices. Gentles quit his job to manage the band full-time and, in March 2001, the Strokes signed to RCA Records after a protracted bidding war.


title: Is This It

text: After the deal with RCA, the Strokes started working with Gil Norton, who had produced recordings for alternative rock group Pixies. Although the two parties developed a rapport, the band were unhappy with the results of preliminary sessions which they thought sounded "too clean" and "too pretentious"; the three songs recorded with Norton were scrapped. Like "The Modern Age", "Is This It" was eventually recorded with Gordon Raphael at Transporterraum in Manhattan's East Village in New York City. The studio is located in a basement with poor lighting, but despite its poor infrastructure, it includes modern Pro Tools digital audio workstation hardware. The Strokes liked Raphael's lack of ego and formed a good collaborative relationship with the producer.


title: Is This It

text: Before recording started, the Strokes and Raphael organized a listening session with the musical material Hammond and Casablancas had brought to show the tone and energy they liked. At the meeting, the band said they wanted to go in a different direction than contemporary music. Casablancas wanted "Is This It" to sound like "a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record". The approach for the album became more studied than that of "The Modern Age". The group wanted the majority of songs to sound like them playing live, while they requested a few others to be like "a weird, in-studio production with a drum machine, even though no drum machine was used". The songs of the latter type were done track-by-track and were crafted into non-standard rock arrangements. Raphael's background in industrial music played a large part in the album's conception.


title: Is This It

text: During six weeks in the studio, the Strokes' gritty sound became the emphasis of the sessions. The band usually recorded songs only once, based on Casablancas's preference for "raw efficiency". RAT effects pedals and overdriving amplifiers were used at times, "taking sounds, disintegrating them and then bringing them back". The band wanted things to be only slightly stressed, with no heavy-handedness in terms of studio effects; only distortion and reverse echo were widely used. Throughout the process, Raphael improvised according to the reactions that he got from the group. At one point, he had to cope with the threat of eviction from his Transporterraum studio, but once the Strokes received backing from RCA, time and money were no longer pressing concerns. The label's A&R delegate initially did not like what had been recorded and felt that the album was not going to be professional enough. The producer and the band were given complete control only when Casablancas persuaded the delegate by playing him some of the new material on a boom box.


title: Is This It

text: Inspired by the Velvet Underground's production and the direct approach of punk rock band Ramones, the miking scheme for the drum kit included only three microphones: one above it, one for the bass drum, and one in the corner of the studio. It was crafted to capture "a compressed, explosive sound". On Moretti's advice, the transfer from the two loud guitars and the rumble of the bass picked up by the drum-kit microphones was not eliminated. The guitars were recorded more simply; Hammond and Valensi both used Fender DeVille amps on opposite sides of the room, while Raphael positioned a mic on each. The sound was then fed directly into a preamp with no equalization. Valensi commented that guitar teacher and mentor Bowersock was invaluable because he was articulating things to the producer that the group could not. While the rest of the Strokes played to a click track, Casablancas sang through a small Peavey practice amp to retain a sense of low fidelity on the album. Raphael mixed as he went along to maintain control of the record until the final mastering stage; the producer aimed to show the Strokes a final product as soon as the band finished performing a track.


title: Is This It

text: Casablancas's writing discusses life and relationships of young people in New York City. Exemplifying this theme, "The Modern Age" is a rant about the oddness of modern life. "Barely Legal" concerns a girl who has just arrived at the age of consent. Discussing its risqué nature, Moretti has stated, "It should be taken the way you interpret it. The lyrics mean different things to different people." "Alone, Together" continues the sexual theme by dropping hints about cunnilingus, while the yelp at the start of "New York City Cops" was created as a pastiche of rock band Aerosmith. "Soma" takes influence from the fictional drug in Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel "Brave New World". Here Casablancas is discussing drug use to fit in with the cool crowd. During the studio sessions, Casablancas introduced tracks with comic lines and some quips were used when the album was mixed.


title: Is This It

text: Musically, "Is This It" has been described as a garage rock revival, indie rock, and post-punk revival album. All songs on the album were mixed using 11 or fewer audio tracks. According to Valensi, the album contains "no gimmicks, no tricks" to try to get the listener to like the compositions. It opens with the title track, which features a simple, metronomic drum line, a recurring feature in the rest of the record. Containing one of the slowest tempos, "Is This It" is the Strokes' attempt at a ballad. "The Modern Age" follows and includes a guitar riff accompanied by a complementary drum line. Its staccato verse is followed by an upbeat, singalong chorus and a guitar solo. Discussing the album's simplicity and measured approach, Valensi has commented, "We don't put in a guitar solo just to have one." "Soma" incorporates jerky rhythms and starts and ends with the same guitar and drum chimes, while "Barely Legal" contains some of the album's softer guitar melodies inspired by Britpop as well as drumming patterns that evoke the sound of primitive 1980s drum machines.


title: Is This It

text: The fifth track on the record, "Someday", is infused with rockabilly elements and interlocking guitar lines, the latter a recurring element of "Is This It". "Alone, Together" is driven by a staccato rhythm, and climaxes first with a guitar solo, then a repeat of the central guitar hook. "Last Nite" is also a guitar-driven song, but leans towards pop music influences. At its core, there are reggae-inspired rhythm guitar lines played by Hammond, and studio noise effects. The rhythm section plays simple interlocking notes and beats. Like "Soma", "Hard to Explain" contains processed drum tracks using dynamic range compression and equalization studio techniques to make them sound like a drum machine. The song incorporates spliced ad-libbing extras from Casablancas, a feature also used on "New York City Cops". "Trying Your Luck", the album's mellowest point, follows and shows more melancholic vocals. The last track on "Is This It", "Take It or Leave It", is the only song in which Hammond used the bridge pickup of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.


title: Is This It

text: The international cover art of "Is This It" is by Colin Lane and features a photograph of a woman's rear and hip, with a leather-gloved hand suggestively resting on it. The model was Lane's then-girlfriend, who explained that the photoshoot was spontaneous and happened after she came out of the shower naked. Lane recalled that a stylist had left the glove in his apartment and noted, "We did about 10 shots. There was no real inspiration, I was just trying to take a sexy picture." The result was included in the book "The Greatest Album Covers of All Time", in which Grant Scott, one of the editors, noted influences from the works of Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin. Scott concluded, "It's either a stylish or graphically strong cover or a sexist "Smell the Glove" travesty." Although British retail chains HMV and Woolworths objected to the photograph, they stocked the album without amendment.