title: Tony Benn

text: He publicly supported Sinn Féin and the unification of Ireland, although in 2005 he suggested to Sinn Féin leaders that it abandon its long-standing policy of not taking seats at Westminster (abstentionism). Sinn Féin in turn argued that to do so would recognise Britain's claim over Northern Ireland, and the Sinn Féin constitution prevented its elected members from taking their seats in any British-created institution. A supporter of the Scottish Parliament and political devolution, Benn however opposed the Scottish National Party and Scottish independence, saying: "I think nationalism is a mistake. And I am half Scots and feel it would divide me in half with a knife. The thought that my mother would suddenly be a foreigner would upset me very much."


title: Tony Benn

text: In British politics during this period, the term "Bennism" came into use to describe the conviction politics, economic, social and political ideology of Tony Benn; and an exponent or advocate of Bennism was regarded as a "Bennite".


title: Tony Benn

text: In a keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference of 1980, shortly before the resignation of party leader James Callaghan and election of Michael Foot as successor, Benn outlined what he envisaged the next Labour Government would do. "Within days", a Labour Government would gain powers to nationalise industries, control capital and implement industrial democracy; "within weeks", all powers from Brussels would be returned to Westminster, and the House of Lords would be abolished by creating one thousand new peers and then abolishing the peerage. Benn received tumultuous applause. On 25 January 1981, Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers (known collectively as the "Gang of Four") launched the Council for Social Democracy, which became the Social Democratic Party in March. The "Gang of Four" left the Labour Party because of what they perceived to be the influence of the Militant tendency and the Bennite "hard left" within the party. Benn was highly critical of the SDP, saying that "Britain has had SDP governments for the past 25 years."


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn stood against Denis Healey, the party's incumbent deputy leader, triggering the 1981 deputy leadership election, disregarding an appeal from Michael Foot to either stand for the leadership or abstain from inflaming the party's divisions. Benn defended his decision insisting that it was "not about personalities, but about policies". The result was announced on 27 September 1981; Healey retained his position by a margin of barely one per cent. The decision of several soft left MPs, including Neil Kinnock, to abstain triggered the split of the Socialist Campaign Group from the left of the Tribune Group.


title: Tony Benn

text: After Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands in April 1982, Benn argued that the dispute should be settled by the United Nations and that the British Government should not send a task force to recapture the islands. The task force was sent, and following the Falklands War, they were back in British control by mid-June. In a debate in the Commons just after the Falklands were recaptured, Benn's demand for "a full analysis of the costs in life, equipment and money in this tragic and unnecessary war" was rejected by Margaret Thatcher, who stated that "he would not enjoy the freedom of speech that he put to such excellent use unless people had been prepared to fight for it".


title: Tony Benn

text: For the 1983 election Benn's Bristol South East constituency was abolished by boundary changes, and he lost to Michael Cocks in the selection of a candidate to stand in the new winnable seat of Bristol South. Rejecting offers from the new seat of Livingston in Scotland, Benn contested Bristol East, losing to the Conservative's Jonathan Sayeed in June 1983. Foot resigned as leader following the defeat which reduced Labour to only 209 MPs, while Healey also decided to step down as deputy leader. However Benn's absence from parliament meant that he was unable to stand in the resulting leadership contest as only MPs were eligible to be candidates. Benn's absence from the contest was reported by "The Glasgow Herald" to leave Neil Kinnock as "the favourite Left-wing candidate". Ultimately Kinnock won the contest, formally replacing Foot as party leader in October of that year.


title: Tony Benn

text: In a by-election, Benn was elected as the MP for Chesterfield, the next Labour seat to fall vacant, after Eric Varley had left the Commons to head Coalite. On the day of the by-election, 1 March 1984, "The Sun" newspaper ran a hostile feature article, "Benn on the Couch", which purported to be the opinions of an American psychiatrist.


title: Tony Benn

text: Newly elected to a mining seat, Benn was a supporter of the 1984–85 UK miners' strike, which was beginning when he returned to the Commons, and of his long-standing friend, the National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill. However, some miners considered Benn's 1977 industry reforms to have caused problems during the strike; firstly, that they led to huge wage differences and distrust between miners of different regions; and secondly that the controversy over balloting miners for these reforms made it unclear as to whether a ballot was needed for a strike or whether it could be deemed as a "regional matter" in the same way that the 1977 reforms had been. Benn also spoke at a Militant tendency rally held in 1984, saying: "The labour movement is not engaged in a personalised battle against individual cabinet ministers, nor do we seek to win public support by arguing that the crisis could be ended by the election of a new and more humane team of ministers who are better qualified to administer capitalism. We are working for a majority labour government, elected on a socialist programme, as decided by conference."


title: Tony Benn

text: In June 1985, three months after the miners admitted defeat and ended their strike, Benn introduced the Miners' Amnesty (General Pardon) Bill into the Commons, which would have extended an amnesty to all miners imprisoned during the strike. This would have included two men convicted of murder (later reduced to manslaughter) for the killing of David Wilkie, a taxi driver driving a non-striking miner to work in South Wales during the strike.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn stood for election as party leader in 1988, against Neil Kinnock, following Labour's third successive defeat in the 1987 general election, losing by a substantial margin, and received only about 11 per cent of the vote. In May 1989 he made an extended appearance on Channel 4's late-night discussion programme "After Dark", alongside among others Lord Dacre and Miles Copeland. During the Gulf War, Benn visited Baghdad in order to try to persuade Saddam Hussein to release the hostages who had been captured.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn supported various LGBT social movements, which were then known as gay liberation; Benn had voted in favour of decriminalisation in 1967. Talking about Section 28 of the 1988 Local Government Act, a piece of anti-gay legislation preventing the "promotion of homosexuality", Benn said:


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn later voted for the repeal of Section 28 during the first term of Tony Blair's New Labour Government, and voted in favour of equalising the age of consent.


title: Tony Benn

text: In 1990 he proposed a "Margaret Thatcher (Global Repeal) Bill", which he said "could go through both Houses in 24 hours. It would be easy to reverse the policies and replace the personalities—the process has begun—but the rotten values that have been propagated from the platform of political power in Britain during the past 10 years will be an infection—a virulent strain of right-wing capitalist thinking which it will take time to overcome."


title: Tony Benn

text: In 1991, with Labour still in opposition and a general election due by June 1992, he proposed the Commonwealth of Britain Bill, abolishing the monarchy in favour of the United Kingdom becoming a "democratic, federal and secular commonwealth", a republic with a written constitution. It was read in Parliament a number of times until his retirement at the 2001 election, but never achieved a second reading. He presented an account of his proposal in "Common Sense: A New Constitution for Britain".


title: Tony Benn

text: In the same year, Benn also received a Pipe Smoker of the Year award, claiming in his acceptance speech that "pipe smoking stopped you going to war".


title: Tony Benn

text: In 1991, Benn reiterated his opposition to the European Commission and highlighted an alleged democratic deficit in the institution, saying: "Some people genuinely believe that we shall never get social justice from the British Government, but we shall get it from Jacques Delors. They believe that a good king is better than a bad Parliament. I have never taken that view." This argument has also been used by many on the right-wing Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party, such as Daniel Hannan MEP. Jonathan Freedland writes in "The Guardian" that "For [Tony Benn], even benign rule by a monarch was worthless because the king's whim could change and there'd be nothing you could do about it."


title: Tony Benn

text: In 1997, the Labour Party under the leadership of Tony Blair won the general election in a landslide, after 18 years of Conservative Party rule. Despite later calling Labour under Blair "the idea of a Conservative group who had taken over Labour" and saying "[Blair] set up a new political party, New Labour", his political diaries "Free at Last" show that Benn was initially somewhat sympathetic to Blair, welcoming a change of government. Benn supported the introduction of the national minimum wage, and welcomed the progress towards peace and security in Northern Ireland (particularly under Mo Mowlam). He was supportive of the extra money given to public services in the New Labour years but believed it to be under the guise of privatisation. Overall, his concluding judgement on New Labour is highly critical; he describes its evolution as a way of retaining office by abandoning socialism and distancing the party from the trade union movement, adopting a presidentialist style of politics, overriding the concept of the collective ministerial responsibility by reducing the power of the Cabinet, eliminated any effective influence from the annual conference of the Labour Party and "hinged its foreign policy on support for one of the worst presidents in US history".


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn strongly objected to the bombing of Iraq in December 1998, calling it immoral and saying: "Aren't Arabs terrified? Aren't Iraqis terrified? Don't Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Does bombing strengthen their determination? ... Every Member of Parliament tonight who votes for the government motion will be consciously and deliberately accepting the responsibility for the deaths of innocent people if the war begins, as I fear it will." Benn also opposed the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.


title: Tony Benn

text: Several months prior to his retirement, Benn was a signatory to a letter, alongside Niki Adams (Legal Action for Women), Ian Macdonald QC, Gareth Peirce, and other legal professionals, that was published in "The Guardian" newspaper on 22 February 2001 condemning raids of more than 50 brothels in the central London area of Soho. At the time, a police spokesman said: "As far as we know, this is the biggest simultaneous crackdown on brothels and prostitution in this country in recent times", the arrest of 28 people in an operation that involved around 110 police officers. The letter read:


title: Tony Benn

text: In the name of "protecting" women from trafficking, about 40 women, including a woman from Iraq, were arrested, detained and in some cases summarily removed from Britain. If any of these women have been trafficked ... they deserve protection and resources, not punishment by expulsion. ... Having forced women into destitution, the government first criminalised those who begged. Now it is trying to use prostitution as a way to make deportation of the vulnerable more acceptable. We will not allow such injustice to go unchallenged.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn chose not to seek re-election at the 2001 general election, saying he was "leaving parliament in order to spend more time on politics." Along with former Prime Minister Edward Heath, Benn was permitted by the Speaker to continue using the House of Commons Library and Members' refreshment facilities. Shortly after his retirement, he became the President of the Stop the War Coalition. He became a leading figure of the British opposition to the War in Afghanistan from 2001 and the Iraq War, and in February 2003 he travelled to Baghdad to meet Saddam Hussein. The interview was broadcast on British television.


title: Tony Benn

text: He spoke against the war at the February 2003 protest in London organised by the Stop the War Coalition, with police saying it was the biggest ever demonstration in the UK with about 750,000 marchers, and the organisers estimating nearly a million people participating. In February 2004 and 2008, he was re-elected President of the Stop the War Coalition.


title: Tony Benn

text: He toured with a one-man stage show and appeared a few times each year in a two-man show with folk singer Roy Bailey. In 2003, his show with Bailey was voted 'Best Live Act' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2002, he opened the "Left Field" stage at the Glastonbury Festival. He continued to speak at each subsequent festival; attending one of his speeches was described as a "Glastonbury rite of passage". In October 2003, he was a guest of British Airways on the last scheduled Concorde flight from New York to London. In June 2005, he was a panellist on a special edition of BBC One's "Question Time" edited entirely by a school-age film crew selected by a BBC competition.


title: Tony Benn

text: On 21 June 2005, Benn presented a programme on democracy as part of the Channel 5 series "Big Ideas That Changed The World". He presented a left-wing view of democracy as the means to pass power from the "wallet to the ballot". He argued that traditional social democratic values were under threat in an increasingly globalised world in which powerful institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Commission are unelected and unaccountable to those whose lives they affect daily.


title: Tony Benn

text: On 27 September 2005, Benn became ill while attending the annual Labour Party Conference in Brighton and was taken by ambulance to the Royal Sussex County Hospital after being treated by paramedics on-the-scene at the Brighton Centre. Benn reportedly fell and struck his head. He was kept in hospital for observation and was described as being in a "comfortable condition". He was subsequently fitted with an artificial pacemaker to help regulate his heartbeat.


title: Tony Benn

text: In a list compiled by the magazine "New Statesman" in 2006, he was voted twelfth in the list of "Heroes of our Time". In September 2006, Benn joined the "Time to Go" demonstration in Manchester the day before the final Labour Party Conference with Tony Blair as Leader of the Labour Party, with the aim of persuading the Government to withdraw troops from Iraq, to refrain from attacking Iran and to reject replacing the Trident missile and submarines with a new system. He spoke to the demonstrators in the rally afterwards. In 2007, he appeared in an extended segment in the Michael Moore film "Sicko" giving comments about democracy, social responsibility and healthcare, notably, "If we can find the money to kill people, we can find the money to help people." A poll by the BBC2 "The Daily Politics" programme in January 2007 selected Benn as the UK's "Political Hero" with 38% of the vote, narrowly defeating Margaret Thatcher, who had 35%.


title: Tony Benn

text: For the 2007 Labour Party leadership election, Benn backed the left-wing MP John McDonnell in his unsuccessful bid. In September 2007, Benn called for the government to hold a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty. In October 2007, aged 82, and when it appeared that a general election was about to be held, Benn reportedly announced that he wanted to stand, having written to his local Constituency Labour Party offering himself as a prospective candidate for the newly drawn Kensington seat. His main opponent would have been the incumbent Conservative MP for the predecessor seat of Kensington and Chelsea, Malcolm Rifkind. However, there was no election held in 2007, and so the boundary changes did not take effect until the eventual election in 2010, when Benn was not a candidate and the new seat was won by Rifkind.


title: Tony Benn

text: In early 2008, Benn appeared on Scottish singer-songwriter Colin MacIntyre's album "The Water", reading a poem he had written himself. In September 2008, he appeared on the DVD release for the "Doctor Who" story "The War Machines" with a vignette discussing the Post Office Tower; he became the second Labour politician, after Roy Hattersley to appear on a "Doctor Who" DVD.


title: Tony Benn

text: At the Stop the War Conference 2009, he described the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as "Imperialist war(s)" and discussed the killing of American and allied troops by Iraqi or foreign insurgents, questioning whether they were in fact freedom fighters, and comparing the insurgents to a British Dad's Army, saying: "If you are invaded you have a right to self-defence, and this idea that people in Iraq and Afghanistan who are resisting the invasion are militant Muslim extremists is a complete bloody lie. I joined Dad's Army when I was sixteen, and if the Germans had arrived, I tell you, I could use a bayonet, a rifle, a revolver, and if I'd seen a German officer having a meal I'd have tossed a grenade through the window. Would I have been a freedom fighter or a terrorist?"


title: Tony Benn

text: In an interview published in Dartford Living in September 2009, Benn was critical of the Government's decision to delay the findings of the Iraq War Inquiry until after the general election, stating that "people can take into account what the inquiry has reported on but they’ve deliberately pushed it beyond the election. Government is responsible for explaining what it has done and I don't think we were told the truth." He also stated that local government was strangled by Margaret Thatcher and had not been liberated by New Labour.


title: Tony Benn

text: In 2009, Benn was admitted to hospital and "An Evening with Tony Benn", scheduled to take place at London's Cadogan Hall, was cancelled. He performed his show, "The Writing on the Wall", with Roy Bailey at St Mary's Church, Ashford, Kent, in September 2011, as part of the arts venue's first Revelation St. Mary's Season. In July 2011 Benn was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Glamorgan, Wales.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn headed the "coalition of resistance", a group which was opposed to the UK austerity programme. In interviews in 2010 with Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now!" and 2013 with Afshin Rattansi on "RT UK", Benn claimed that the actions of New Labour in the leadup to and aftermath of the Iraq War were such that the former Prime Minister Tony Blair should be tried for war crimes. Benn also claimed in 2010 that Blair had lost the "trust of the nation" regarding the war in Iraq.


title: Tony Benn

text: In 2012, Benn was awarded an honorary degree from Goldsmiths, University of London. He was also the honorary president of the Goldsmiths Students' Union, who successfully campaigned for him to retract comments dismissing the Julian Assange rape allegations. In February 2013, Benn was among those who gave their support to the People's Assembly in a letter published by "The Guardian" newspaper. He gave a speech at the People's Assembly Conference held at Westminster Central Hall on 22 June 2013.


title: Tony Benn

text: In 2013, Benn reiterated his previous opposition to European integration. Speaking to the Oxford Union on the alleged overshadowing of the EU debate by "UKIP and Tory backbenchers", he said:I took the view that having fought [Europeans in the Second World War<nowiki>]</nowiki> that we should now work with them, and co-operate, and that was my first thought about it. Then how I saw how the European Union was developing, it was very obvious that what they had in mind was not democratic. ... And the way that Europe has developed is that the bankers and the multinational corporations have got very powerful positions, and if you come in on their terms, they will tell you what you can and cannot do. And that is unacceptable. My view about the European Union has always been not that I am hostile to foreigners, but that I am in favour of democracy ... I think they're building an empire there, they want us to be a part of their empire and I don't want that.


title: Tony Benn

text: In 1990, Benn was diagnosed with chronic lymphatic leukaemia and given three or four years to live; at this time, he kept the news of his leukaemia from everyone except his immediate family. Benn said: "When you're in parliament, you can't describe your medical condition. People immediately start wondering what your majority is and when there will be a by-election. They're very brutal." This was revealed in 2002 with the release of his 1990–2001 diaries.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn suffered a stroke in 2012, and spent much of the following year in hospital. He was reported to be "seriously ill" in hospital in February 2014. Benn died at home on 14 March 2014, surrounded by his family, less than a month shy of his 89th birthday.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn's funeral took place on 27 March 2014 at St Margaret's Church, Westminster. His body had lain in rest at St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster the night before the funeral service. The service ended with the singing of "The Red Flag". His body was then cremated; the ashes were expected to be buried alongside those of his wife at the family home near Steeple, Essex.


title: Tony Benn

text: Figures from across the political spectrum praised Benn following his death, and the leaders of all three major political parties (the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats) in the United Kingdom paid tribute.


title: Tony Benn

text: Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron said:... he was an extraordinary man: a great writer, a brilliant speaker, extraordinary in Parliament, and a great life of public and political and parliamentary service. I mean, I disagreed with most of what he said. But he was always engaging and interesting, and you were never bored when reading or listening to him, and the country a great campaigner, a great writer, and someone who I'm sure whose words will be followed keenly for many, many years to come.


title: Tony Benn

text: Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg called Benn an "astonishing, iconic figure" and a "veteran parliamentarian, he was a great writer, he had great warmth and he had great conviction ... his political life will be looked back on with affection and admiration".


title: Tony Benn

text: Leader of the Opposition and Labour leader Ed Miliband, who knew Benn personally as a family friend, said:I think Tony Benn will be remembered as a champion of the powerless, as a conviction politician, as somebody of deep principle and integrity. The thing about Tony Benn is that you always knew what he stood for, and who he stood up for. And I think that's why he was admired right across the political spectrum. There are people who agreed with him and disagreed with him, including in my own party, but I think people admired that sense of conviction and integrity that shone through from Tony Benn.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn was a prolific diarist. Nine volumes of his diaries have been published. The final volume was published in 2013. Collections of his speeches and writings were published as "Arguments for Socialism" (1979), "Arguments for Democracy" (1981), (both edited by Chris Mullin), "Fighting Back" (1988) and (with Andrew Hood) "Common Sense" (1993), as well as "Free Radical: New Century Essays" (2004). In August 2003, London DJ Charles Bailey created an album of Benn's speeches () set to ambient groove.


title: Tony Benn

text: He made public several episodes of audio diaries he made during his time in Parliament and after retirement, entitled "The Benn Tapes", broadcast originally on BBC Radio 4. Short series have been played periodically on BBC Radio 4 Extra. A major biography was written by Jad Adams and published by Macmillan in 1992; it was updated to cover the intervening 20 years and reissued by Biteback Publishing in 2011: "Tony Benn: A Biography" (). A more recent "semi-authorised" biography with a foreword by Benn was published in 2001: David Powell, "Tony Benn: A Political Life", Continuum Books (). An autobiography, "Dare to be a Daniel: Then and Now", Hutchinson (), a reference to the Old Testament prophet in the lions' den , was published in 2004.


title: Tony Benn

text: There are substantial essays on Benn in the "Dictionary of Labour Biography" by Phillip Whitehead, Greg Rosen (eds), Politicos Publishing, 2001 () and in "Labour Forces: From Ernie Bevin to Gordon Brown", Kevin Jefferys (ed.), I.B. Tauris Publishing, 2002 (). American Michael Moore dedicates his book "Mike's Election Guide 2008" () to Benn, with the words: "For Tony Benn, keep teaching us".


title: Tony Benn

text: On 5 March 2019, it was announced that a large political archive of Benn's speeches, diaries, letters, pamphlets, recordings and ephemera had been accepted in lieu of £210,000 inheritance tax and allocated to the British Library. The audio recordings total to thousands of hours of content.


title: Tony Benn

text: During his final years in Parliament, Benn placed three plaques within the Houses of Parliament. Two are in a room between the Central Lobby and Strangers' Gallery that holds a permanent display about the suffragettes. The first was placed in 1995. The second was placed in 1996 and is dedicated to all who work within the Houses of Parliament.


title: Tony Benn

text: The third is dedicated to Emily Wilding Davison, who died for the cause of "Votes for women", and was placed in the broom cupboard next to the Undercroft Chapel, where Davison is said to have hidden during the night of the 1911 census in order to establish her address as the House of Commons.


title: Tony Benn

text: In 2011 Benn unveiled a plaque in Highbury, North London, to commemorate the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.


title: Tony Benn

text: In Bristol, where Benn first served as a member of parliament, a number of tributes exist in his honour. A bust of him was unveiled in Bristol's City Hall in 2005. In 2012 Transport House on Victoria Street, headquarters of Unite the Union's regional office, was officially renamed Tony Benn House and opened by Benn himself. As of 2015 he appears, alongside other famous people associated with the city, on the reverse of the Bristol Pound's £B5 banknote.


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn told the "Socialist Review" in 2007 that:I'd like to have on my gravestone: "He encouraged us." I'm proud to have been in the parliament that introduced the health service, the welfare state and voted against means testing. I did my maiden speech on nationalising the steel industry, put down the first motion for the boycott of South African goods, and resigned from the shadow cabinet in 1958 because of their support for nuclear weapons.


title: Tony Benn

text: I think you do plant a few acorns, and I have lived to see one or two trees growing: gay rights, freedom of information, CND. I'm not claiming them for myself but you feel you have encouraged other people and see the arguments developing.


title: Tony Benn

text: I'm not ashamed of making mistakes. I've made a million mistakes and they're all in the diary. When we edit the diary—which is cut to around 10 per cent—every mistake has to be printed because people look to see if you do. I would be ashamed if I thought I'd ever said anything I didn't believe to get on, but making mistakes is part of life, isn't it?


title: Tony Benn

text: Benn was widely seen as a key proponent of democratic socialism. He was described as "one of the few UK politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office". Harold Wilson, his former boss, maintained that Benn was the only man he knew who "immatures with age".


title: Tony Benn

text: He has been cited as being a key mentor to future leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, with his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell commenting that "they would discuss everything under the sun. Jeremy was very close to Tony right up until the end." Corbyn was elected as leader of the Labour Party a little over a year after Benn's death, an act which Hilary Benn said would have made his father feel "thrilled".


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Hum Saath-Saath Hain () is a 1999 Indian Hindi-language family drama film written and directed by Sooraj Barjatya under the production and distribution of Rajshri Productions. The film stars Mohnish Bahl, Tabu, Salman Khan, Sonali Bendre, Saif Ali Khan, Karisma Kapoor, Neelam Kothari and Mahesh Thakur. It also features Alok Nath, Reema Lagoo, Shakti Kapoor, Himani Shivpuri, Ajit Vachani, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Rajeev Verma and Satish Shah in supporting roles. The story centers on a joint family and its values and togetherness, who grow apart after a misunderstanding.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: "Hum Saath Saath Hain" is the third film to feature Salman Khan with Rajshri Productions. Raamlaxman composed its music while Dev Kohli wrote the lyrics. Principal photography took place in Mumbai and various locations in Rajasthan. The film was released on 5 November 1999, and became the highest grossing film of the year and one of biggest blockbuster of the decade, With a worldwide gross of . It received predominantly positive reviews from critics. It was also the first Bollywood film to be played in Canadian theatres, with six screenings in Toronto.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: In the past Ramkishan Chaturvedi, a rich businessman loses his first wife Lakshmi sadly. They have a 1-year-old son Vivek. Ramkishan remarries the kind Mamta, and Vivek also accepts and respects her as his own mother. Later the two have three kids: Prem, Sangita and Vinod.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: While trying to save Prem and Vinod from a probable accident, Vivek is injured leaving him handicapped due to his right hand paralysis.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Prem returns from US after completing his studies. Sangita lives with her husband Anand and daughter Radhika. Vinod is busy in studies. Vivek is still in treatment for his hand. On Ramkishan and Mamta's anniversary function, the four siblings wish them with respect.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Seeing Vivek's love for them, Ramkishan's business associate Adarsh's daughter Sadhna likes him at first sight. Adarsh sends a wedding proposal for her. Vivek agrees and marries Sadhna. Vinod is secretly in love with Sapna (daughter of Ramkishan's colleague Dharamraj Bajpai).


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: They show the love of Prem and Preeti (daughter of Ramkishan's friend Pritam). Everyone agrees to engage them. Eventually, Prem and Preeti find out about Vinod and Sapna who get engaged too. Ramkishan makes Vivek the managing director of his company.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: A bitter turn comes when Anand's brother Anurag cheats on him from inheritance and share in the family business. This incident triggers insecurity in Mamta's mind. Meanwhile, her three friends and Dharamraj fill her head with thoughts as to why Vivek should be in charge of the family inheritance. This makes Mamta very paranoid.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: She questions Ramkishan's decision, and wants division of the business equally between all sons. He disagrees as it will divide the family. Heartbroken after finding out, Vivek


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: asks Ramkishan to put Prem in charge of family empire and moves back to their ancestral village Rampur with Sadhna. Vinod accompanies them.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Prem refuses to replace Vivek as head of the family. Vivek convinces him to go along with plan in the interest of preventing further conflict within the family. Prem tells Mamta that he won't marry and can't replace Vivek if she wants so. Eventually, Anurag realizes his mistake and unites with Anand.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Sangita asks Mamta to bring back Vivek. Mamta realizes her mistakes and visits Rampur with Ramkishan. In the hospital, Sadhna delivers a boy. Later, Prem and Vinod marry Preeti and Sapna. Dharamraj apologises realising ill-manner cannot end the love in family. All live happily ever after.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Salman Khan, Mohnish Bahl, Reema Lagoo, Alok Nath, Himani Shivpuri, Satish Shah and Ajit Vachani who all were part of Barjatya's Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! were cast in this film. Among this Salman, Lagoo, Nath, Bahl and Vachani appeared in Barjatya's Maine Pyar Kiya too.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: While discussing Bahl's role, it was first offered to Anil Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor but upon their refusal Bahl was cast to play Vivek and prepared it by making a habit of keeping right hand in pocket accordingly the role.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Barjatya initially approached Madhuri Dixit for Sadhna's role, who played the lead actress in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! but declined owing to her popularity, and then Manisha Koirala got the offer; even she was unable to take it due to filming for Mann, before Tabu was chosen.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Later, the makers talked with Rishi Kapoor again for Anand's role, but his refusal came again as did by Nitish Bhardwaj when offered too, and thus Mahesh Thakur was roped in.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: The maximum principal photography of the film was done in Film City, Mumbai, and left portions were shot in Jodhpur, Rajasthan like the song "Mhare Hiwade Mein Naache Mor".


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: During the Jodhpur film schedule, some members of the cast, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Neelam Kothari, Tabu, and Sonali Bendre, were involved in a case of shooting of an endangered black buck on a hunting expedition.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: The incident generated significant press coverage, and Salman Khan spent a week in Jodhpur jail in 2007, before the court granted him bail.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: "Hum Saath-Saath Hain" had released earlier but the music director Raamlaxman took time to check the soundtrack album for second time to not suffer any mistake. Following all work including post-production, cinematography, choreography and other things was completed followed by promotions, "Hum Saath-Saath Hain" finally hit the theatre screens on 5 November 1999 during Diwali.


title: Hum Saath-Saath Hain

text: Raamlaxman composed the music, teaming up with Sooraj Barjatya for the third time. The soundtrack features seven songs and playback singers Kavita Krishnamurthy (as Sapna), Kumar Sanu (as Prem), Alka Yagnik (as Preeti), Udit Narayan (as Vinod), Anuradha Paudwal (as Sadhna), Hariharan (as Vivek), Sonu Nigam (as Anwar), Hema Sardesai (as Sangita), and Roop Kumar Rathod (as Pranab). Raamlaxman plagiarised his track "A B C D" from the Spanish singer Jeanette's 1974 song "Porque te vas". Savera R Someshwar of Rediff said that "..It is definitely time for Barjatya to look out for a new music director. Even the lyrics – barring "Maare hidwa ma naache mor" and "Mayya yashoda" – are banal...".


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Steven Berkoff (born Leslie Steven Berks; 3 August 1937) is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: As a theatre maker he is recognised for staging work with a heightened performance style eponymously known as "Berkovian theatre", which combines elements of physical theatre, total theatre and expressionism. His work has sometimes been viewed as an example of in-yer-face theatre, due to the intense presentation and taboo-breaking material in a number of his plays.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: As a film actor, he is known for his performances in villainous roles, including the portrayals of General Orlov in the "James Bond" film "Octopussy" (1983), Victor Maitland in "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), Lt. Col. Podovsky in "" (1985) and Adolf Hitler in the TV mini-series "War and Remembrance" (1988–89).


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff was born Leslie Steven Berks on 3 August 1937, in Stepney in the East End of London, the son of Pauline "Polly" (née Hyman), a housewife, and Alfred "Al" Berks, a tailor. He had an older sister, Beryl (1930-before 2010). He comes from a Jewish family; his grandparents emigrated to England in the 1890s, his paternal grandparents from Romania, and his maternal grandparents from Russia. The family name was originally Berkowitz, but Steven's father anglicised it to Berks in order to aid the family's assimilation into British society. Steven (who had been known as Leslie growing up) later legally changed his surname to Berkoff and went by his middle name.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: During World War II, Berkoff, his sister and their mother were evacuated to Luton, Bedfordshire in 1942. In 1947 he and his family emigrated to the United States, sailing from Southampton aboard the "Queen Elizabeth" to live with relatives of Berkoff's mother in Nyack, New York. However, Berkoff's father struggled to find work, and after a few months the family returned to England. Berkoff attended Raine's Foundation Grammar School (1948–50) and Hackney Downs School (1950-1955).


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 1952, he was arrested for stealing a bicycle and was sentenced to three months in borstal. He took drama courses at City Literary Institute (1957–58), trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art (1958–59), and later trained in physical theatre and mime at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, graduating in 1965.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff started his theatre training in the Repertory Company at Her Majesty's Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness, for approximately two months, in June and July 1962.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: As well as an actor, Berkoff is a noted playwright and theatre director. His earliest plays are adaptations of works by Franz Kafka: "The Metamorphosis" (1969); "In the Penal Colony" (1969), and "The Trial" (1971). In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of verse plays including "East" (1975), "Greek" (1980), and "Decadence" (1981), followed by "West" (1983) (later adapted and recorded at Limehouse Studios for transmission on Channel 4 in 1983), "Harry's Christmas (Lunch)" (also recorded at Limehouse Studios in 1983 but was never transmitted by C4 as it was considered "too dark"), "Sink the Belgrano!" (1986), "Massage" (1997), and "The Secret Love Life of Ophelia" (2001). Berkoff described "Sink the Belgrano!" as "even by my modest standards... one of the best things I have done".


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 1988, Berkoff directed an interpretation of "Salome" by Oscar Wilde, performed in slow motion, at the Gate Theatre, Dublin. For his first directorial job at the UK's Royal National Theatre, Berkoff revived the play with a new cast at the Lyttelton Auditorium; it opened in November 1989. In 1998, his solo play "Shakespeare's Villains" premièred at London's Haymarket Theatre and was nominated for a Society of London Theatre Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In a 2010 interview with guest presenter Emily Maitlis on "The Andrew Marr Show", Berkoff stated that he found it "flattering" to play evil characters, saying that the best actors assumed villainous roles. In 2011, Berkoff revived a previously performed one-man show at the Hammersmith Riverside Studios, titled "One Man". It consisted of two monologues; the first was an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart", the second a piece called "Dog", written by Berkoff, which was a comedy about a loud-mouthed football fan and his dog. In 2013, Berkoff performed his play "An Actor's Lament" at the Sinden Theatre in Tenterden, Kent; it is his first verse play since "Decadence" in 1981. His 2018 one-act play "Harvey" deals with the story of Harvey Weinstein.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In film, Berkoff has played villains such as Soviet General Orlov in the "James Bond" film "Octopussy" (1983), the corrupt art dealer Victor Maitland in "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), the Soviet officer Colonel Podovsky in "" (1985), and gangster George Cornell in "The Krays" (1990). Berkoff has stated that he accepts roles in Hollywood only to subsidise his theatre work, and that he regards many of the films in which he has appeared as lacking artistic merit.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In the Stanley Kubrick films "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) and "Barry Lyndon" (1975), Berkoff played, respectively, a police officer and a gambler aristocrat. His other films include the Hammer film "Prehistoric Women" (1967), "Nicholas and Alexandra" (1971), "The Passenger" (1975), "Joseph Andrews" (1977), "McVicar" (1980), "Outland" (1981), "Coming Out of the Ice" (1982), "Underworld" (1985), "Revolution" (1985), "Absolute Beginners" (1986), Prince's film "Under the Cherry Moon" (1986), "Prisoner of Rio" (1988), the Australian film "Flynn" (1993), "Fair Game" (1995), and "Legionnaire" (1998).


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff was the main character voice in "Expelling the Demon" (1999), a short animation with music by Nick Cave. It received the award for Best Debut at the KROK International Animated Films Festival. He has a cameo in the 2008 film "The Cottage". Berkoff appeared in the 2010 British gangster film "The Big I Am" as "The MC", and in the same year, portrayed the antagonist in "The Tourist". Berkoff portrayed Dirch Frode, attorney to Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), in David Fincher's 2011 adaptation of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Another 2011 credit is the independent film "Moving Target". He also stars in "Decline of an Empire" (2014) playing the role of Liberius.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 1994, he both appeared in and directed the film version of his verse play "Decadence". Filmed in Luxembourg, it co-stars Joan Collins.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In television, Berkoff had early roles in episodes of "The Avengers" and "UFO" episodes "The Cat with Ten Lives" and “Destruction’ in 1970. Other TV credits include: Hagath, in the episode "" of ""; Stilgar, in the mini-series "Children of Dune"; gangster Mr. Wiltshire in one episode of "Hotel Babylon"; Dr. Paul Jorry in the episode "Deadline" of "Space Precinct"; lawyer Freddie Eccles in "By the Pricking of My Thumbs", an episode of "Agatha Christie's Marple"; and Adolf Hitler in the mini-series "War and Remembrance". In 1998, he made a guest appearance in the Canadian TV series "La Femme Nikita" (in the episode "In Between"). In 2006, he played celebrity/criminal Ray Cook in the "New Tricks" episode "Bank Robbery".


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 2010, Berkoff played former Granada Television chairman Sidney Bernstein for the BBC Four drama, "The Road to Coronation Street". He has played the historical Florentine preacher Girolamo Savonarola in two separate TV productions: the 1990 TV film "A Season of Giants" and the 2011 series "The Borgias". Berkoff appears as himself in the "Science" episode of the British current affairs satire "Brass Eye" (1997), warning against the dangers of the fictional environmental disaster "Heavy Electricity". In September 2012, Berkoff appeared in the "Doctor Who" episode "The Power of Three".


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 2014, Berkoff played a supporting role in the second season of the Lifetime TV show "Witches of East End" as King Nikolaus, the patriarch of the Beauchamp family.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 2016, he appeared in series 3, episode 1 of the Channel 4 sitcom "Man Down" as Mr. Klackov, a "terrifying" caretaker with an Eastern European accent "who makes covering [series protagonist] Dan's mistakes even more complicated" when his job as a schoolteacher is threatened.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 1996, Berkoff appeared as the Master of Ceremonies in a BBC Radio 2 concert version of Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret". He provided the voice-over for the N-Trance single "The Mind of the Machine", which rose to No. 15 in the UK Singles Chart in August 1997. He appeared in the opening sequence to Sky Sports' coverage of the 2007 Heineken Cup Final, modelled on a speech by Al Pacino in the film "Any Given Sunday" (1999).


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff voices the character General Lente, commander of the Helghan Third Army, in "Killzone". He provides motion capture and voice performance for the PlayStation 3 game "Heavenly Sword", as General Flying Fox.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff's 2015 novel "Sod the Bitches" has been described as "a kind of Philip Roth-like romp through the sex life of a libidinous actor". His 2014 memoir "Bad Guy! Journal of a Hollywood Turkey" records his time working on a Hollywood blockbuster.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff appeared in the British Heart Foundation's two-minute public service advertisement, "Watch Your Own Heart Attack", broadcast on ITV in August 2008. He also presented two episodes of the BBC Two "Horizon" episodes: "To Infinity and Beyond..." (2010) and "The Power of the Placebo" (2014).


title: Steven Berkoff

text: According to Annette Pankratz in her 2005 "Modern Drama" review of "Steven Berkoff and the Theatre of Self-Performance" by Robert Cross: "Steven Berkoff is one of the major minor contemporary dramatists in Britain anddue to his self-fashioning as a bad boy of British theatre and the ensuing attention of the media – a phenomenon in his own right." Pankratz further asserts that Cross "focuses on Berkoff's theatre of self-performance: that is, the intersections between Berkoff, the public phenomenon and Berkoff, the artist."


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff married Alison Minto in 1970, and Shelley Lee in 1976; both marriages ended in divorce. He lived with his partner Clara Fischer, a German pianist, in Limehouse, east London until her death, having previously lived in Portsmouth. Fischer appeared onscreen with Berkoff in his film "Decadence". He has two daughters, Mylea and Sarah, from previous relationships.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 1996, Berkoff won "Berkoff vs. Burchill", a libel civil action that he brought against "Sunday Times" journalist Julie Burchill after she published comments suggesting that he was "hideously ugly". The judge ruled for Berkoff, finding that Burchill's actions "held him to ridicule and contempt."


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Berkoff has spoken and written about how he believes Jews and Israel to be regarded in Britain. In a January 2009 interview with "The Jewish Chronicle", in which he discussed anti-Israel sentiment in the aftermath of the Gaza War, he said: Interviewer Simon Round noted that Berkoff was also keen to express his view that right-wing Israeli politicians, such as Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu, were "wretched". Asked if British antisemitism manifested itself in theatre, Berkoff responded: "They quite like diversity and will tolerate you as long as you act a bit Gentile and don't throw your chicken soup around too much. You are perfectly entitled occasionally even to touch the great prophet of British culture, Shakespeare, as long as you keep your Jewishness well zipped up." Berkoff also referred to the Gaza war as a factor in writing "Biblical Tales": "It was the recent 'Gaza' war and the appalling flack that Israel received that prompted me to investigate ancient Jewish values."


title: Steven Berkoff

text: Speaking to "The Jewish Chronicle" in May 2010, Berkoff criticised the Bible but added, "it inspires the Jews to produce Samsons and heroes and to have pride". Berkoff went on to say of the Talmud in the same article: "As Jews, we are so incredibly lucky to have the Talmud, to have a way of re-interpreting the Torah. So we no longer cut off hands, and slay animals, and stone women."


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In a "Daily Telegraph" travel article written while visiting Israel in 2007, Berkoff described Melanie Phillips' book "", as "quite overwhelming in its research and common sense. It grips me throughout the journey."


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In 2012, Berkoff, with others, wrote in support of Israel's national theatre, Habima, performing in London.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: In the 1989 romantic comedy "The Tall Guy", struggling actor Dexter King (Jeff Goldblum) auditions unsuccessfully for an imaginary "Berkoff play" called "England, My England". In the audition, characters dressed as skinheads swear repetitively at each other and a folding table is kicked over. Afterwards, Dexter's agent Mary (Anna Massey) muses, "I think he's probably mad ..."


title: Steven Berkoff

text: "I'm scared of Steven Berkoff" is a line in the lyrics of the song "I'm Scared" by Queen guitarist Brian May, issued on his 1993 debut solo album "Back to the Light". May has declared himself to be an admirer of Berkoff and his wife, Anita Dobson, has appeared in several of Berkoff's plays.


title: Steven Berkoff

text: The Berkoff Performing Arts Centre at Alton College, Hampshire, is named for Berkoff. Attending the Alton College ceremony to honour him, he stated:


title: Steven Berkoff

text: He taught a drama master-class later that day, and performed "Shakespeare's Villains" for an invited audience that evening.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric is a Canadian rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of Emily Haines (lead vocals, synthesizers, guitar, tambourine, harmonica, piano), James Shaw (guitar, synthesizers, theremin, backing vocals), Joshua Winstead (bass, synthesizers, backing vocals) and Joules Scott-Key (drums, percussion). The band started in 1998 as a duo formed by Haines and Shaw with the name "Mainstream". After releasing an EP titled "Mainstream EP", they changed the band's name to Metric.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band's first studio album, "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?", was released in 2003. "Live It Out", released in 2005, was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the "Canadian Album of the Year" and for the 2006 Juno Awards for "Best Alternative Album". Their third studio album, "Grow Up and Blow Away", was recorded in 2001; it was initially planned as their debut album, but was delayed for many years and finally released, with some changes, in 2007.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric's fourth album "Fantasies" was released in 2009. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for "Canadian Album of the Year", and won the "Alternative Album of the Year" at the 2010 Juno Awards. Metric also won the 2010 "Group of the Year". The fifth Metric studio album, "Synthetica", was released in 2012. The band won two awards at 2013 Juno Awards: "Alternative Album of the Year" for "Synthetica" and "Producer of the Year" for Shaw. The art director/designer/photographer Justin Broadbent also won an award for "Recording Package of the Year" for "Synthetica". Metric's sixth album, "Pagans in Vegas", was released in 2015, and their seventh album, "Art of Doubt", was released in 2018.


title: Metric (band)

text: Haines was born in New Delhi, India, to American-born parents, and was raised in Fenelon Falls, Ontario. She grew up as a dual citizen of both Canada and the United States. Her father, poet Paul Haines (best known for his lyrical collaboration with Carla Bley in the 1971 jazz opera "Escalator over the Hill"), often made cassettes of rare and eclectic music for his daughter to listen to, and her early influences included Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt.


title: Metric (band)

text: Haines attended Etobicoke School of the Arts. There she met Amy Millan (future member of Stars and Broken Social Scene), and Kevin Drew (future member of Broken Social Scene). Haines and Millan briefly formed their first band around 1990 while at ESA. Haines attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1992–1993, at Toronto in 1995, and at Concordia University in Montreal in 1995–1996. She distributed in 1996 an early album titled "Cut in Half and Also Double" with a limited number of copies. The album included songs written and recorded during her student years.


title: Metric (band)

text: Shaw, who was born in England and raised in Ontario, was attending a Boston music school when he befriended singer Torquil Campbell and Chris Seligman, both future members of the band Stars. Campbell convinced Shaw to apply to Juilliard Music School and the two moved to New York City. After a three-year classical music education at the institution, Shaw decided that his musical interests lay elsewhere; Shaw and Campbell returned to Toronto.


title: Metric (band)

text: In the summer of 1996, Haines and Shaw met at Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern. Bonded over a mutual distaste of the music scene, they began dating and writing songs together. In 1997, Shaw released the studio album "Life on the Clock" which featured Haines singing on some songs. Shaw also moved to Montreal where Haines was living. In 1998, calling themselves Mainstream, the pair self-released the five-song "Mainstream EP" with an overall downtempo and electronic feel.


title: Metric (band)

text: At some point in 1998, they changed the band's name to Metric, which was originally the name of a sound that Shaw had programmed into his keyboard while working on a song.


title: Metric (band)

text: In the fall of 1998, Shaw, Haines, Campbell, and Seligman moved back to New York City, where they shared a loft in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Struggling financially during their two-year stay at the loft, Haines and Shaw were erstwhile roommates with future members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars and TV on the Radio.


title: Metric (band)

text: That same year, the band signed a development deal with Warner Bros. Records. A producer in London listened to the demos they recorded in this period and offered to bring Metric to the United Kingdom for a possible record deal. Eager to escape from the crowded conditions of the loft, Haines and Shaw set off to London in early 2000 and signed a publishing deal with Chrysalis Records.


title: Metric (band)

text: With the help of the producer Stephen Hague, Metric recorded a set of new wave/synthpop drum machine paced songs. The pair tired of recording demos, and in November 2000 returned to their Brooklyn loft to put a band together; they recruited Joules Scott-Key (a native of Flint, Michigan) as their drummer and Jarrett Mason as their bassist.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric continued to work on their debut album in the first few months of 2001. Now dubbed "Grow Up and Blow Away", they developed a more musically layered and mature sound than the earlier "Mainstream EP". Haines and Shaw completed the album in April and by this time had found a new label for their release, the Los Angeles indie label Restless Records. However, the album, produced by Shaw, was delayed for years by the label. It was finally released in 2007 on Last Gang Records.


title: Metric (band)

text: "Grow Up and Blow Away" included the uptempo songs "Grow Up and Blow Away", "Raw Sugar", and "Soft Rock Star", as well as downtempo songs "White Gold", "The Twist", and "Rock Me Now" (which included falsetto singing by Shaw and spoken-word vocals by Haines in a manner reminiscent of "The Mandate", and had an overall jazzy vibe). "Parkdale", featuring trumpeting by Shaw and a fanfare intro, concerned the Parkdale, Toronto neighborhood. When the track titled "Rock Me Now" was reworked, it had been stripped of its intro "bubble" sounds, as well as an additional vocal part was added to the bridge. The title track was also reworked during the chorus, in which, Haines vocalizes "If this is the life, why does it feel so good to die today?" and the synths get a more "heavier" feel.


title: Metric (band)

text: In the same year, the band released "Static Anonymity", a five-song EP which they sold only at Metric performances and on their official site. Three tracks from the EP were also included on "Grow Up and Blow Away".


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric up to this time had been for the most part a studio band; live shows could not reproduce the synthesizer-centered and drum machine-driven sound of the recordings. After recruiting a drummer to allow a stronger, more engaging live presence, Metric performed in New York in early spring and late summer 2001. They handed out handmade CD-R copies of their unreleased music to fans at shows and by mail, and later gave away the music on the internet.


title: Metric (band)

text: In August 2001 the television commercial "Be Afraid", advertising Polaroid's I-Zone Pocket Fortune film, used music from the song "Grow Up and Blow Away", with the line "Why does it feel so good to die today?" changed to "Why does it feel so good to fly today?".


title: Metric (band)

text: In March 2002, Metric performed at Canadian Music Week. The band's performance was criticized in an article in University of Waterloo's newspaper "Imprint", where the reviewer referred to the band's music as "derivative, pretentious, boring pap at its most mediocre".


title: Metric (band)

text: By the end of 2002, Metric had gained another bandmate: the bassist Joshua Winstead (a native of Texas), who was in town performing with long-time friend Scott-Key in the local music scene.


title: Metric (band)

text: In 2003, Metric released their first official studio album "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" on Everloving Records and shortly thereafter it appeared on the !earshot National Top 50 radio chart. The album was produced by Michael Andrews and recorded at Elgonix Labs, Los Angeles. The band then moved to Los Angeles, where they performed locally, often playing at Silverlake Lounge and Spaceland. "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?" received generally positive reviews. In December 2005, the album was certified gold in Canada.


title: Metric (band)

text: The songs "Combat Baby" and "Dead Disco" were released as singles. "Combat Baby" was featured as a free single on iTunes in 2004. Six music videos were created to promote the album and accompany "Calculation Theme", "IOU", "Combat Baby", "Succexy", and "Dead Disco" respectively.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric was featured as themselves in the 2004 independent French film, "Clean", directed by Olivier Assayas and starring Maggie Cheung. The band performed the song "Dead Disco" in the film and also acted in a short sequence. The film, which also featured songs by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Tricky, was nominated for the Palme D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival.


title: Metric (band)

text: On October 4, 2005, Metric released their second studio album, "Live It Out", on Last Gang Records. The album, produced by Shaw, was well received by critics and fans, and eventually went twice platinum in Canada, selling over 200,000 units.


title: Metric (band)

text: Three singles supported the album' sales: "Monster Hospital" (number 55 on UK singles charts), "Poster of a Girl" and "Empty". "Monster Hospital" was selected as NME Track of the Week and was number 12 on NME Tracks of 2006. "Live It Out" as well as number 38 on NME Recordings of 2006.


title: Metric (band)

text: During this time, Metric opened for the Rolling Stones, whose tour coincided with theirs in New York City. The band did a UK-wide tour supporting Bloc Party as well as performing at Reading and Leeds Festival, The Great Escape in Brighton, Wireless Festival at Hyde Park in London and club dates throughout the UK. The band toured the world extensively for several years playing concerts in France, Germany, Iceland, Brazil, Greece, Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, United States, Canada, Venezuela, Mexico and Japan to promote "Live it Out".


title: Metric (band)

text: On June 26, 2007, Last Gang Records released Metric's 2001 album "Grow Up and Blow Away", with an altered track listing compared to the unofficial version. There were added the songs "London Halflife" and "Soft Rock Star" (Jimmy vs. Joe mix) from the 2001 EP "Static Anonymity" and removed the songs "Torture Me", "Fanfare" and "Parkdale". The tracks were reordered and some songs (including the title track and "Rock Me Now") were slightly reworked.


title: Metric (band)

text: Throughout the summer of 2007, four new songs were road-tested by the band, tentatively named "Black Sheep", "The Hooks", "Stadium Love", and "Up in Flames". On October that year Metric played a live webcast show on Myspace's "Hey Play This" programme, playing requests sent in by fans. Along with old material, they performed several new songs, including "Freddie" (aka "Black Sheep"), "Standing in Line", "Gimme Sympathy" (aka "The Hooks"), "Twilight", "Joyride" and "Stadium Love".


title: Metric (band)

text: On November 13, 2007, Last Gang Records released a trailer on YouTube for a Metric DVD showcasing a live concert at the Metropolis Theatre in Montreal, as well as all three music videos from "Live It Out". The DVD "Live at Metropolis" was released on February 12, 2008. A three-track EP was released on iTunes in December, featuring the live tracks "The Police and the Private", "Too Little Too Late" and "Patriarch on a Vespa" from the DVD, as well as the DVD trailer.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band performed in 2008 in Canada, Mexico and Brazil while continuing to record their upcoming fourth album. They performed at the 2008 Coachella Festival, and at the 2008 Ottawa Bluesfest in addition to playing at the inaugural Pemberton Music Festival in Pemberton, British Columbia in July and All Points West Music & Arts Festival in New Jersey in August.


title: Metric (band)

text: During December 13–23, 2008, Metric toured across Canada with Tokyo Police Club, The Dears, and Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains, to raise money for various charities under the name "Jingle Bell Rock" tour. "Help, I'm Alive" was released as the lead single from the upcoming album on iTunes on December 23, 2008 in Canada and January 1, 2009 elsewhere.


title: Metric (band)

text: Their fourth record, "Fantasies", was self-released on April 7, 2009 through Last Gang Records in Canada, and their own label, Metric Music International. The album was produced by Gavin Brown and by Shaw; it was recorded at the band's Giant Studios in Toronto, and Electric Lady Studios, New York. "Fantasies" was issued in a standard edition (featuring 10 tracks), a deluxe edition (including 4 more tracks), a deluxe edition UK edition (including 10 more tracks), and later, an Expanded Edition (a second disc with 10 tracks).


title: Metric (band)

text: A fusion of new wave and loud rock, "Fantasies" was generally well received by critics and fans. By 2012 it had sold 500,000 copies, the band's best selling album so far. Haines and Shaw had performed all ten tracks acoustically the previous September at Union Pool in Brooklyn.


title: Metric (band)

text: The music video for "Gimme Sympathy" was released on Myspace on March 16, 2009. Haines and Shaw completed a mini tour of acoustic shows across Canada, with stops in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, and Victoria in late April with cooperation from local radio stations. The band finished a Europe tour in May 2009 and toured the US (with Sebastien Grainger and The Mountains and Smile Smile), UK, and Canada at music festivals during the summer. They then headed to Australia for their first Australian tour in early October, and performed a show in Tokyo.


title: Metric (band)

text: In August that year Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park fame began streaming a remix of the track "Gold Guns Girls" through his website. The track was the theme for his art exhibition Glorious Excess (Dies), and later became part of a compilation album set up by Linkin Park's "Music for Relief" for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.


title: Metric (band)

text: In October 2009, Metric released a five-track EP called "Plug in Plug Out" containing acoustic versions of songs from "Fantasies", which was available on Amazon for 30 days. In December that year the band produced a charity T-shirt for the Yellow Bird Project to raise funding to promote musical education across Canada. The T-shirt bears the slogan 'Keep the dream tight' - a lyric from their song, "Hustle Rose".


title: Metric (band)

text: Haines and Shaw performed an acoustic version of "Help I'm Alive" on January 22, 2010 for the Canada for Haiti telethon. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Metric, along with several other Canadian music acts, came together in Vancouver to re-record K'Naan's song "Wavin' Flag" to benefit Haiti in a movement called Young Artists for Haiti. Haines and Shaw also performed at a Neil Young tribute event alongside their friends in Broken Social Scene. It was at this event that Haines met Lou Reed, leading to later collaborations between the two of them.


title: Metric (band)

text: The track "Black Sheep" was released on August 10, 2010, and became available on the band's Myspace page. The song is on the soundtrack for the film "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World". In the movie, the song is sung by Brie Larson, who portrayed Envy Adams in the film. "Scott Pilgrim" author Bryan Lee O'Malley said he was inspired by concert photos of Haines while originally drawing Envy's singing poses.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band toured in Western USA, before playing shows in the Canadian Maritimes and Eastern Ontario for most of March 2010. Metric also toured with Sarah McLachlan for part of her 2010 Lilith Fair.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric won two awards ("Group of the Year" and "Alternative Album of the Year" for "Fantasies") at the 2010 Juno Awards.


title: Metric (band)

text: On June 8, 2010, the was released featuring Metric' song "Eclipse (All Yours)". The song was written with the film's composer, Howard Shore. An acoustic version of the song can be found on the Expanded Edition of "Fantasies". On July 21, 2010, the band performed the song on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno".


title: Metric (band)

text: During October and November 2010, Metric opened for Muse for seven shows of "The Resistance Tour". Later that year, the band was part of the lineup for Voodoo Experience 2010, which took place over Halloween weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, US.


title: Metric (band)

text: On January 4, 2011, Metric released an "iTunes Session EP" exclusively on iTunes, consisting of 8 live tracks, including "Hustle Rose", "Empty" and a cover of the Buffalo Springfield song "Expecting to Fly", and a 30-minute interview.


title: Metric (band)

text: In October 2011, Metric released a collection of remixes from "Fantasies" entitled "Fantasies Flashbacks" through a collaboration with website Indaba Music. The band released all the individual tracks as well as their stems so that the general public could remix the songs. The songs were then submitted online to Indaba and the band chose the winning remixes for the album. An unofficial album "Electrified Fantasies" featuring 14 remixes of songs of the album "Fantasies" appeared in January 2012. The tracks were selected from 1767 remixes that arose from the official remix contest and are licensed under a Creative Commons license.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band's fifth studio album, "Synthetica", was released on June 12, 2012 on the band's own label, Metric Music International, and received generally positive reviews. "Synthetica" was produced by Gavin Brown, John O'Mahony, Liam O'Neil, James Shaw, and it was recorded at Giant Studios (Metric's own studio) and Electric Lady Studios. The album also included a collaboration with Lou Reed, who sang with Haines on "The Wanderlust". For iTunes pre-orders, they included five instrumental bonus tracks, that were the basis of five songs from the album. A deluxe version, with five additional acoustic tracks, was released on November 20, 2012.


title: Metric (band)

text: The album's first single "Youth Without Youth" was released to the internet on April 30, 2012. The single was the first song in history to debut at #1 on the Canadian Alternative Rock Charts. This was followed by a sneak preview of "Speed the Collapse", which was released to the internet on May 23, 2012.


title: Metric (band)

text: On May 29, 2012, the band started a hide and seek hunt for fans to access an early stream of "Synthetica". The secretive stream became available on the band's SoundCloud page. A few days later the stream became publicly available.


title: Metric (band)

text: In late 2011 it was announced that the band would be contributing to the soundtrack of David Cronenberg's 2012 drama film entitled "Cosmopolis". Songs were co-written by the band with film composer Howard Shore as well as an appearance by K'naan on one track. This was the second time that the band collaborated with Shore after their previous work on the "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" soundtrack. The soundtrack was released on June 5, 2012 in Canada and on July 10, 2012 in the United States.


title: Metric (band)

text: On August 21, 2012, the first episode of a documentary about the making of "Synthetica", covering events at the band's home studio in Toronto and recording sessions at New York's Electric Lady Studios, was released on the band's YouTube channel. The band wrapped up a 25-tour dates US Tour on October 14, 2012. They embarked on their first arena tour across Canada, which started in Victoria, BC on November 9, 2012 and ended November 24, 2012 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario.


title: Metric (band)

text: On November 20, 2012, Metric released a deluxe version of "Synthetica", which featured acoustic versions of songs on the album, as well as a cover of "Strange Weather" by Tom Waits. In April, 2013 they performed at Coachella Festival.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band won three awards at 2013 Juno Awards: "Alternative Album of the Year" for "Synthetica" and "Producer of the Year" for James Shaw. The art director/designer/photographer Justin Broadbent also won an award for "Recording Package of the Year" for "Synthetica". In June 2013, "Synthetica" was longlisted for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize.


title: Metric (band)

text: On July 1, 2013, Metric performed at Parliament Hill on Canada Day for then Prime Minister Stephen Harper.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band spent 2014 writing for their upcoming sixth studio album. They also played at several festivals around North America including a return to Pemberton Music Festival (the band played the original 2008 festival), and Riot Fest and Made In America LA.


title: Metric (band)

text: In December 2014, it was announced Metric would be appearing in early 2015 on a new series called "Sessions X" alongside artists like The Trews, Dear Rouge, and Buck 65. In a preview, Haines and Shaw revealed they'd be playing two new tracks entitled "I Forget Why" and "All In A Day". They also will perform new acoustic versions of "The Police and the Private" and "Dreams So Real". An unfinished track entitled "The Fatal Gift, released at this time, later ended up being reworked as an Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton track, and was released as the lead single for her 2017 record "Choir of the Mind".


title: Metric (band)

text: On May 11, 2015, Metric released "The Shade", the first single off their upcoming album. The single marked a noted departure for the new record from Metric's more guitar oriented synth rock, and leaned more heavily on synthesizers, with electronic and pop stylings.


title: Metric (band)

text: In June, 2015, Metric released a track from their upcoming album, "Pagans in Vegas", entitled "Cascades". They created an app called "The Pagan Portal" to debut their song "Too Bad, So Sad". "Pagans in Vegas" was released in September, and appeared on the !earshot National Top 50 Chart in December that year. After recording an untitled companion album to Pagans in Vegas, some of it in Nashville, the concept was eventually scrapped.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric toured with Imagine Dragons over the summer of 2015. They then toured Europe, the southern US, and Mexico throughout the fall of 2015. The band announced on November 17 that they would tour the United States with Joywave as support. On December 8, 2015, they announced a Canadian tour in Spring 2016 co-headlining with Death Cab for Cutie. They also performed in New York that spring.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric were nominated for Group of the Year at the 2016 Juno Awards. Throughout 2017 the band took a break, with Shaw and Haines both contributing to the Broken Social Scene record "Hug of Thunder", and Haines releasing new solo material for the first time in 10 years with her Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton record, "Choir of the Mind".


title: Metric (band)

text: In early 2018, it was announced Metric and PledgeMusic were releasing a concert film based on their "Lights on the Horizon" tour, entitled "Dreams So Real". The release of the eOne-distributed Blu-ray/DVD concert film was screened in over 30 movie house screenings across North America and one in Australia. The band appeared at the March 23rd screening at Toronto's TIFF Lightbox for a Q&A session. "Dreams So Real" was produced and directed by Jeff Rogers and T. Edward Martin, partners in Media Goes HERE. Using a Pledge Music campaign, the 4K, Ultra HD, concert documentary captured the group's live performance at Vancouver's Thunderbird Sports Centre using 24 cameras on the final show of a year-long sold-out world tour.


title: Metric (band)

text: A triple live vinyl recording of the concert, exclusively available on Pledge, had a limited-edition run of 1000 pressings.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric worked on their seventh full-length record with producer Justin Meldal-Johnson, who is known for his work with Beck, Nine Inch Nails, and M83. Recording sessions took place at EastWest Studios and the band's own studio in Toronto. The band headlined Toronto's Field Trip Festival on June 2, 2018, where they played a special set consisting of their 2009 record "Fantasies" played front to back, then two new songs followed by a few hits.


title: Metric (band)

text: A single, titled "Dark Saturday", from the band's upcoming album, was released on July 12, 2018. A music video for "Dark Saturday," which was shot entirely on an iPhone X, was released on July 17, 2018, along with a link to pre-order the upcoming album, although at that time no title or track listing had been confirmed. A second song from the record, "Dressed to Suppress," was released on July 26, 2018. Throughout the summer of 2018 the band supported The Smashing Pumpkins on their Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour reunion. They capped off the summer playing the inaugural SKOOKUM Festival in Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC.


title: Metric (band)

text: After releasing a single, "Now or Never Now" in August, the band released their seventh album, "Art of Doubt", through the MMI/Universal label on September 21, 2018. The album favoured a more guitar driven sound than their previous one. The band played their first ever show in Moscow, Russia and then toured throughout Europe over the fall and winter of 2018. They then co-headlined a tour across the United States with Mexican psychedelic band Zoé, with July Talk as support. A cross-Canada arena tour followed (without Zoé) with July Talk as direct support. The band toured Mexico throughout June, supporting Zoé, and then appeared at select festivals over the summer of 2019, including Osheaga, and Lollapalooza Paris. The band performed at Austin City Limits on October 5 and 12 2019. In between the dates, they returned to Mexico City for one final show supporting "Art Of Doubt".


title: Metric (band)

text: On November 1, 2019, the band released the track "Common Lives", recorded in collaboration with Zoé during their tour dates in Mexico.


title: Metric (band)

text: Over November 2019, Emily and Jimmy performed 4 acoustic shows at the Funhouse in Toronto, a now defunct "immersive art experience and venue", where fans selected the setlist by submitting requests and the story behind why they chose it. Each show was limited to 200 tickets, and was recorded in full and pressed onto a limited edition vinyl.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band had been announced to headline the CBC Music Festival in Toronto, on May 30, 2020, along with acts such as Half Moon Run and Lights. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was cancelled. Over 2020, also due to the pandemic, the band was separated by the US/Canada border closure, with Haines and Shaw being in Canada, and Winstead and Scott-Key being in the United States. The band celebrated the 15 year anniversary of Live It Out with exclusive merch items. Haines and Shaw released a series of "Dirt Road Versions" of the band's tracks throughout the year, all pressed on 7 inch vinyl with limited runs.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band released their first Greatest Hits compilation on November 26, 2021, featuring 10 tracks: "Combat Baby", "Gold Guns Girls", "Help I'm Alive", "Now or Never Now", "Breathing Underwater", "Cascades", "Black Sheep", "Empty", "Synthetica", and an acoustic version of "Gimme Sympathy" recorded at the Funhouse during the band's 2019 residency. The limited-edition release was pressed exclusively on vinyl, and was limited to only 2,500 copies.


title: Metric (band)

text: On March 29, 2022, Metric announced they would be headlining Budweiser Stage in Toronto, on August 26, 2022, with Spoon and Interpol as support. In a letter to fans, Emily mentioned they had been working on new music alongside the announcement. The band also announced a show in Mexico City with Young The Giant for May 20, 2022.


title: Metric (band)

text: On April 28, 2022, Metric released "All Comes Crashing", the first single off their upcoming album, titled "Formentera". The band also announced a North American tour with Dear Rouge and Bartees Strange as support in Canada.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band released the 10-minute single "Doomscroller" on May 18, 2022, followed by the single "What Feels Like Eternity" on June 8, 2022, ahead of the record's release. The record released on July 8, 2022, to generally positive reviews.


title: Metric (band)

text: Emily Haines and James Shaw also perform with Broken Social Scene. Haines featured as one of the vocalists on their albums "You Forgot It in People", "Bee Hives", "Broken Social Scene" and "Forgiveness Rock Record". One of Broken Social Scene's most popular songs, "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl", is sung by Haines.


title: Metric (band)

text: Haines has also been a guest on albums by artists like Stars, KC Accidental, The Stills, Jason Collett, The Crystal Method, Tiësto, Delerium, k-os, and Todor Kobakov.


title: Metric (band)

text: In 1996, Haines released a solo album entitled "Cut in Half and Also Double". Under the "Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton" moniker, she released the 2006 studio album "Knives Don't Have Your Back", followed in 2007 by the EP "What Is Free to a Good Home?". The album and the EP are a collection of piano-driven songs backed with soft strings and horns. The songs "Our Hell" and "Doctor Blind" were issued as singles with music videos.


title: Metric (band)

text: In 1997, Shaw released his studio album, "Life on the Clock", which featured Haines singing on some tracks. The songs "Down" and "Tortury" were later reworked as Metric songs, with the latter being renamed to "Torture Me". The reworked version of "Down" featured later on the 2001 EP "Static Anonymity" and "Torture Me" on the unreleased version of the album "Grow Up and Blow Away".


title: Metric (band)

text: Scott-Key and Winstead have a side project, the band Bang Lime. The band released the album "Best Friends in Love" on August 14, 2007 on Last Gang Records.


title: Metric (band)

text: As of late August 2013, Haines was involved with FLEET4HEARme, a collaboration with Fleet Jewelry, and HearMe—the latter is an organization that aims to increase children's access to music programs in public schools. In support of the project, Haines explained: "I feel like anybody who wants to play an instrument should be able to."


title: Metric (band)

text: September 2015, Rudsak unveiled a leather jacket customized by Haines. The jacket is a classic black motor-cycle style with lyrics from "The Governess" on the back.


title: Metric (band)

text: Winstead released a solo album "MMXX" on June 3, 2016. In Fall 2016, Winstead performed tour dates in support of his album.


title: Metric (band)

text: Haines released her first solo record in 11 years, "Choir of the Mind", on September 5, 2017. A small North American tour took place in the winter of 2017 through venues hand picked by Haines, including Massey Hall in Toronto, Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, and Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric partnered with Plus 1 to support GRID Alternatives to bring accessible renewable energy technology to underserved communities.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric's music style has been described as indie rock and alternative rock, with elements of new wave, post-punk revival, synthpop, and dance-rock. Sounds generated by synthesizers are prominent in their songs.


title: Metric (band)

text: Their sound evolved from the mellow/downtempo style of their early EPs and "Grow Up and Blow Away" album, to the new wave style of "Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?", then more hard rock on "Live It Out", then to the accessible indie rock of "Fantasies", and to the more grandiose of "Synthetica", and then the electronic of "Pagans in Vegas", later fusing this with their gothic rock and new wave styles for "Art of Doubt". Some of their songs (like "IOU", "Succexy", "Combat Baby", "Monster Hospital") include anti-war messages.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band also recorded many covers from artists like Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Pet Shop Boys, The Church, Death from Above 1979, Brenda Lee, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Blondie, The Strokes, Morrissey, Tame Impala and Elliott Smith. They also released many acoustic versions of some of their own songs on deluxe versions of some of their albums.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric has toured extensively in North America, South America and Europe, but also have toured through Australia, The Philippines, and Japan.


title: Metric (band)

text: During Metric live performances, Haines sings and plays two synthesizers and occasionally plays a tambourine or a guitar. One of the two synthesizers is a Sequential Circuits Pro-One, which she has played at every live performance with the whole band since the "Grow Up and Blow Away" era. Her other keyboard is a Nord Wave with a custom built stand. James Shaw plays guitar and Winstead plays bass. Both Shaw and Winstead occasionally play a synthesizer each, and also sing backing vocals. Joules Scott-Key plays drums.


title: Metric (band)

text: The band is also known for their acoustic performances as a duo, with Haines singing and/or playing various instruments (piano, harmonica, tambourine) and James Shaw playing the acoustic guitar and occasionally singing.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric has performed at music festivals around the world, including Coachella, Osheaga, Bluesfest, Pemberton, All Points West, Glastonbury, Bumbershoot, Virgin Festival, Download Festival, Pukkelpop, Squamish, SXSW, Sasquatch!, La Route Du Rock, The Great Escape, Edgefest, Reading and Leeds Festival, Rock Werchter, Wireless, Splendour in the Grass, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, and the Hillside Festival. They also collaborated with Lou Reed.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric performed at various radio stations (including KCRW, 3VOOR12, BBC 6Music, XFM) and various TV shows ("The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", "Late Show with David Letterman", "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson", "VH1 Divas", "Later... with Jools Holland", "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "Last Call with Carson Daly").


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric opened for The Rolling Stones, Muse, Imagine Dragons, Billy Talent, Bloc Party, Hot Hot Heat, Modest Mouse, Death From Above 1979, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, and Paramore. Death Cab for Cutie opened for them during their Pagans in Vegas 2015/2016 tour.


title: Metric (band)

text: Bands that opened for Metric include artists like Joywave, Phantogram, Secret Machines, Dear Rouge, Crystal Castles, Holy Fuck, July Talk, Stars, Hadouken!, Sebastien Grainger, Kate Nash, The Stills, Band of Skulls, Codeine Velvet Club, Bear in Heaven, Passion Pit, Nick Zinner (from Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and Chew Lips.


title: Metric (band)

text: To kick off their tour and as a treat to fans, on September 24, 2015 Metric played Danforth Music Hall in Toronto.


title: Metric (band)

text: In support of "Pagans in Vegas", the band announced a series of tours in late 2015 and early 2016. In order, they were: Pagans Across The Pond (UK and Europe; Fall 2015), The Topaz Tour (Mexico, Southern USA; Winter 2015), I Can See The End Tour (USA; Winter/Spring 2016), and Lights On The Horizon Tour (Canada; Spring 2016). Death Cab for Cutie and Leisure Cruise opened for the Lights On The Horizon portion of the 2016 tour. One dollar for every ticket sold for the 2016 tour went to help fight climate change and secure environmental rights, working with the David Suzuki Foundation and Plus One.


title: Metric (band)

text: Throughout the summer of 2016 Metric played several North American festivals, including WayHome Music & Arts Festival in Oro, Ontario, Canada.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric performed at the Stanley Cup 125th Anniversary Tribute Concert in Ottawa, Ontario on March 17, 2017.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric served as the opening act for the North American dates of The Smashing Pumpkins' "Shiny and Oh So Bright" reunion tour, which ran from July through September 2018.


title: Metric (band)

text: On September 6, 2018, Metric, Dizzy and The Elwins played at Danforth Music Hall in Toronto to help their hometown's Indie 88 radio station celebrate their fifth birthday.


title: Metric (band)

text: Metric toured Europe and the United States during fall 2018 and winter 2019 in promotion of "Art of Doubt".


title: Metric (band)

text: From August to December 2022, Metric toured Canada and the United States in promotion of "Formentera", with the European leg of the tour (supported by Lo Moon) leading them to Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Netherlands in January and February 2023.


title: William Roache

text: William Patrick Roache (born 25 April 1932) is an English actor. He is best known for playing Ken Barlow in the ITV soap opera "Coronation Street" since it was first broadcast on 9 December 1960. He is listed in the "Guinness World Records" as the longest-serving television star in a continuous role.


title: William Roache

text: Roache was born in the Basford suburb of Nottingham the son of Joseph William Vincent Roache, a doctor, and Hester Vera, daughter of Albert and Mary Zillah Waddicor. Albert Waddicor was a violent drunk, but his wife was a successful businesswoman, who ran a restaurant and tea rooms at Alton Towers, which had been opened as a tourist attraction - but not at that time a theme park – after the death of the 20th Earl of Shrewsbury. Roache grew up in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, where he attended a Steiner school set up by his grandfather, a physician and surgeon, in the family's garden. His grandfather was a Freemason who was interested in such things as theosophy, esotericism, hypnotism, spiritualism, and homoeopathy, as well as the teachings of philosopher and educationalist Rudolf Steiner. Roache was later educated at Rydal School. He joined the British Army and was commissioned into the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1953. A year later, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. He left in 1956 with the rank of captain. Due to an exploding mortar round during his military service, he suffers from tinnitus.


title: William Roache

text: After leaving the military, Roache turned to acting. He appeared in various stage productions, then had uncredited roles in several films, and later won small parts in television serials including "Knight Errant Limited" and "Skyport". He played the minor role of a space centre operator in the Norman Wisdom film "The Bulldog Breed". Shortly before joining "Coronation Street" at the beginning of the programme in 1960, Roache played the leading role in a Granada Television play called "Marking Time", transmitted on ITV in 1961. In an interview with the "Liverpool Post" in 2007, Roache recalled "I played a young soldier in Germany who fraternised with a German girl, although I can't remember now how it ended. It was highly prestigious, though, and I have tried to hunt it down but there is no trace of it." He added: "But Tony Warren, who created "Coronation Street", saw it and thought I was right for Ken Barlow."


title: William Roache

text: On 16 October 1985, just weeks before the 25th anniversary of his debut on "Coronation Street", Roche appeared as the subject of TV show "This Is Your Life". "Ken and Me", Roache's first autobiography, was published in 1993, covering his life on and off screen. In 1999, Roache was the recipient of the British Soap Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for his role as Ken Barlow. In 2003, Roache appeared on "Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes" as Perry Como singing the song "Catch a Falling Star". In September and October 2005, he appeared as a celebrity contestant in "Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon". He was the winner of "The Golden Shot" (a remake), progressing through to "Bullseye" in which he was beaten by television presenter Vernon Kay. He later entered "All Star Family Fortunes", hosted by Kay, but lost by two points to his competitors.


title: William Roache

text: Roache's 2008 autobiography "Soul on the Street" contains a substantial amount of philosophical content in which Roache affirms his belief in the afterlife. In October 2008, he revealed on "BBC Breakfast" he had had a two-year feud with actress Pat Phoenix, a fellow "Coronation Street" player, during which they did not speak to each other: this stemmed from her changing a scene involving the two of them. However, they did reconcile and became good friends. In 2010, "50 Years on the Street: My Life with Ken Barlow", a memoir focusing on Roache's work on "Coronation Street", was published to coincide with his 50th year playing Barlow.


title: William Roache

text: On 13 April 2012, Piers Morgan interviewed Roache for his ITV series "Piers Morgan's Life Stories". On 26 September 2012, Roache was featured in the BBC series "Who Do You Think You Are?", researching his family history. He is currently "Coronation Street"s longest-serving actor, having been in the cast from the first episode. In 2018, the book "Life and Soul: How to Live a Long and Healthy Life" was released, in which Roache shares his personal philosophy and life experiences.


title: William Roache

text: Roache is currently the world's longest-serving television actor in a continuous role (as of March 2018) after the 2010 cancellation of the American soap opera "As the World Turns", in which Don Hastings had played Bob Hughes since October 1960 without a break.


title: William Roache

text: Roache lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire. His eldest son, by his first wife Anna Cropper (1938–2007), is actor Linus Roache (born 1964). The couple also had a daughter named Vanya (1967–2018). Roache and Cropper were married from 1961 until divorcing in 1974. Roache married his second wife, Sara McEwan Mottram, in 1978. She died suddenly on 7 February 2009 at their home, at the age of 58. With Sara, he had a daughter named Verity (born 1981) and a younger son, actor James Roache (christened William; born 1985). A second daughter, Edwina, died at the age of 18 months on 16 November 1984. Roache dated weather reporter Emma Jesson from 2010 to 2012.


title: William Roache

text: In 1991, Roache won a libel action against "The Sun", which had described him as boring and unpopular with his fellow "Coronation Street" stars. He was awarded £50,000 in damages by the jury, the same amount that he had turned down in an out-of-court settlement offered by the newspaper before the case. As a result, he was liable for the £120,000 costs incurred. Roache sued his law firm for negligence in 1998, and was declared bankrupt in April 1999.


title: William Roache

text: Roache is a supporter of the Conservative Party, in stark contrast to his character Ken Barlow, who has been stereotyped as a Labour supporter. In 2007, as a guest for "Daily Politics", he championed Sir John Major as Britain's greatest post-war prime minister. He backed Conservative MP Neil Hamilton in the 1997 election against Martin Bell. Roache opposed instant-runoff voting in favour of first-past-the-post voting during the 2011 referendum on the issue.


title: William Roache

text: Roache is a vegetarian, stating that he "doesn't want animals being killed" for him. He wrote about his interest in astrology in his biography, which he learned by taking a correspondence course from the Faculty of Astrological Studies. He said he had impressed members of the "Coronation Street" cast by the accuracy with which he read their astrological charts for them.


title: William Roache

text: On 1 May 2013, Roache was arrested by Lancashire Police on suspicion of having raped a 15-year-old girl in 1967, an allegation he denied. The Crown Prosecution Service subsequently announced that he was to be charged with two counts of rape. There was a preliminary hearing in a Magistrates' court on 14 May 2013 and a Crown Court hearing took place on 10 June 2013. On 6 June 2013, Roache was charged with a further five counts of indecent assault against girls aged between 12 and 16. Roache appeared at Preston Crown Court on 2 September and pleaded not guilty to all charges. The full trial started on 14 January 2014 at Preston Crown Court, before Judge Anthony Russell QC. During the trial, one charge was dismissed outright by the judge citing a lack of evidence and significant flaws emerged in two witnesses' accounts in relation to the other charges.


title: William Roache

text: On 6 February 2014, Roache was found not guilty on all charges. Following his acquittal, Roache gave a brief statement saying that there had been "no winners" and expressing his intent to "get back to work". An image of Ken Barlow had been removed from the Madame Tussauds waxwork exhibition in Blackpool due to fears it might be vandalised. The waxwork was returned to the exhibition in February 2014 following Roache's acquittal. Roache resumed filming on "Coronation Street" in June 2014, and returned to the screen on 4 August of that year.


title: William Roache

text: In 1999, he was awarded the British Soap Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for his role as Ken Barlow.


title: William Roache

text: In March 2007, he was awarded the Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Chester in recognition of his contribution to television.


title: William Roache

text: Roache was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to drama and charity.


title: Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

text: Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena of Battenberg (24 October 1887 – 15 April 1969) was Queen of Spain as the wife of King Alfonso XIII from their marriage on 31 May 1906 until 14 April 1931, when the Spanish Second Republic was proclaimed. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was the youngest granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Unlike other members of the Battenberg family, who were accorded the lower rank of "Serene Highness", Victoria Eugenie was born with the rank of "Highness" due to a Royal Warrant issued in 1886 by Queen Victoria.


title: Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

text: Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was born on 24 October 1887 at Balmoral Castle, in Scotland. Her father was Prince Henry of Battenberg, the fourth child and third son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by his morganatic wife Countess Julia von Hauke, and her mother was Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her mother, as the youngest child of the lonely queen, was kept "at home" with the court, which happened to be at Balmoral when she went into labour. Victoria Eugenie was the last grandchild of a British monarch to be born in Scotland until Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle in Angus in 1930.


title: Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

text: As Prince Henry was the product of a morganatic marriage, he took his style of "Prince of Battenberg" from his mother, who had been created Princess of Battenberg in her own right. As such, Henry's children would normally have been born with the style "Serene Highness"; however, Queen Victoria had issued a Royal Warrant on 4 December 1886 granting the higher style of "Highness" to all sons and daughters of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice, thus she was born "Her Highness Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg." She was named for her grandmother Victoria and for her godmother Eugénie de Montijo, the Spanish-born French empress who lived in exile in the United Kingdom. To her family, and the British general public, she was known by a diminutive of the last of her names, as "Ena". She was born in the 50th year of Queen Victoria’s reign, so she was called "the Jubilee baby".


title: Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

text: She was baptised in the Drawing Room at Balmoral. Her godparents were Empress Eugénie (represented by Princess Frederica of Hanover), the German Crown Princess (her maternal aunt; represented by the Duchess of Roxburghe), the Princess of Battenberg (her paternal grandmother; represented by the Marchioness of Ely), Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (her maternal aunt; represented by the Countess of Erroll), Prince Louis of Battenberg (her paternal uncle; represented by the Earl of Hopetoun) and the Duke of Edinburgh (her maternal uncle; represented by Sir Henry Ponsonby).