title: It's Complicated (film)

text: The film ends with Adam at Jane's house ready to commence the remodeling. Before the credits roll, Jane and Adam are seen laughing about the chocolate croissants while walking into her house.


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: In May 2008, Nancy Meyers agreed to a project for Universal Studios that she would write and direct, to be co-produced with Scott Rudin. The project was referred to as "The Untitled Nancy Meyers Project" during its inception and early production. Establishing commitments from the principals began in 2008, with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin entering discussions in August, and Steve Martin joining the cast in October. Casting continued through 2009, with Zoe Kazan, Lake Bell, and Hunter Parrish joining in January, John Krasinski in February, Rita Wilson in March, and Caitlin Fitzgerald in June.


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: While the majority of the film is set in Santa Barbara, California, most of the filming – including nearly all of the interiors – took place in New York City. Principal photography began on February 18, 2009 at the Broadway Stages in the Brooklyn borough, where the interior scenes of Jane's house were shot. Several other key locations were used during the first portion of filming in New York, including Picnic House, a large, studio-sized structure in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, where Jane's bakery was built inside; the facilities at Sarabeth's Bakery in the Chelsea Market; and a commercial loft building in New York's Chelsea district, where scenes at Adam's office were filmed in. As Martin was soon to embark on a concert tour to promote "" (2009), his schedule required the team to complete shooting his scenes during the first two months of filming.


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: In April 2009, the company relocated to Los Angeles, where cast and crew started filming scenes taking place outside Jane's house, for which a ranch house located in Thousand Oaks in the north of Los Angeles was used. In mid-April, the crew spent a few days filming exteriors in Montecito and Santa Barbara – just days before wildfires took a heavy toll on the area. Additional scenes were taken in front of numerous downtown landmarks, including the Santa Barbara County Courthouse and the El Paseo section. Afterwards, the team returned to Los Angeles for completion of the scenes at Jane's house and for the filming at the Bel-Air Bay Club in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. In early May, principal photography returned to Brooklyn for completion. For Luke's graduation scenes, shooting took place at St. John's University in Queens and on Park Avenue in Manhattan. Several different locations stood in for the fictional Park Regent hotel: While a residence building on Park Avenue and 59th Street was used for exterior shots, the lobby and Jane's hotel room were in the JW Marriott Essex House. The hotel bar was the interior of a restaurant on Tenth Avenue. Filming eventually completed in August 2009.


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: The sets were easy to design. Most scenes take place in the protagonist's home and interior courtyard, and as such the details had to be fastidiously worked out, but the rooms were kept bare to reflect the character's functional tastes and limited budget. There are relatively few decorations, just "a bunch of thrift-store things haphazardly thrown together", in the words of production designer Jon Hutman. The building itself is a traditional 1920s Spanish-ranch-style adobe-mud house which "epitomised the Santa Barbara area."


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 58% based on 183 reviews, with an average rating of 5.80/10. The website's critical consensus is: "Despite fine work by an appealing cast, "It's Complicated" is predictable romantic comedy fare, going for broad laughs instead of subtlety and nuance." Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average, gave the film a score of 57 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A−.


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: Wesley Morris of the "Boston Globe" called the film "the most emotionally sophisticated of all Meyers’s fantasies" and praised the acting performances in it. He noted that the film felt like "a made-for-Meryl film [in which] Streep deploys all her best moves [...] in movie star mode, and she’s irresistible," and declared Baldwin a worthy match to her, writing: ""It’s Complicated" unleashes an unabashedly, desperately romantic side of Baldwin that we haven’t seen before. He doesn’t steal this movie so much as grant all Streep’s fluttering and twirling and hand-fanning an exuberant counterweight." In his review for the "Washington Post", Michael O'Sullivan called the film a "very grown-up – and very funny – love story [which] manages to be both light on its feet and heavy enough to deliver something of a message." He concluded: "Food Network porn, hot, middle-age sex and a happy, if slightly bittersweet, ending. For a particular audience – but not just for that audience – what's not to love?" Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" called the film an "unapologetic chick flick" and wrote that "you don't have to feel guilty for lapping up this froth. Just don't expect nourishment." He rated the film two and a half stars out of four.


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" also gave it two and a half stars and called the film a prime example of Meyers' established "cottage industry of movies about romantically inclined middle-aged people." He found praise for the cast of both Baldwin and Streep, the latter of whom he felt "inspires as so often our belief that she's good at everything she does," but noted that while the film contained "funny stuff" and likeable characters, "It's Complicated" was more of "a rearrangement of the goods in Nancy Meyers' bakery, and some of them belong on the day-old shelf." Writing for "Time" magazine, Mary Pols complimented Streep's "radiant, funny and endearingly vulnerable" performance and Meyers' "clever and fresh [...] intent in showing the reality of the fantasy coming true." However, she felt that "It's Complicated" "is positioned more as a which-guy-will-she-choose story" which misses "dramatic tension to feed that plot line."


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the film a B− rating and declared the film a "middle-aged porn, the specialty of Meyers, who also set ladies and interior decorators drooling over homes and gardens in 2006's "The Holiday"." Lou Lumenick from "New York Post" stated that it "coulda had more laughs, but in the spirit of seasonal good cheer, let me predict that the best-chocolate-croissant-making montage in Hollywood history is going to help this one clean up at the box office." He found that Martin seemed "uncomfortable in his thankless role," while "Streep and Baldwin, though, seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves" and compared the film to Noël Coward's classic farce "Private Lives". Salon.com writer Stephanie Zacharek dismissed the film as "another missive from romantic-comedy hell," and felt that "Alec Baldwin -- in his undershorts, no less -- saves Nancy Meyers' latest midlife whingefest."


title: It's Complicated (film)

text: Released on December 25, 2009 in the United States, the film opened in 2,887 locations and placed fourth on the US box office after its first weekend. It charted behind "Avatar", "Sherlock Holmes", and "" with $22.1 million, scoring a $7,655 average income per theatre. It played well through the holidays and into January 2010, ultimately closing on April 1 with $112.7 million in North America and a total of $219.1 million worldwide.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Lady in the Water is a 2006 American fantasy psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who produced with Sam Mercer. The film features the starring cast of Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard with Bob Balaban, Jeffrey Wright, Sarita Choudhury, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin and Jared Harris in supporting roles. Produced by Legendary Pictures and Blinding Edge Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film's plot concerns the superintendent of a Philadelphia apartment complex who discovers a young woman in the swimming pool. Gradually, he and his neighbors learn that she is a water nymph (or Narf) whose life is in danger from a vicious, wolf-like, mystical creature called a Scrunt that tries to keep her from returning to her watery "blue world." "Lady in the Water" was released on July 21, 2006. It is Shyamalan's first film not distributed by Walt Disney Studios under their Touchstone Pictures and Hollywood Pictures labels since "Wide Awake".


title: Lady in the Water

text: The film was critically panned, with criticism revolving around the self-indulgence with which Shyamalan cast himself in the film, the lack of consistency, and the film's characterization. The film was also a financial failure grossing $72 million against a $70 million production budget. At the 27th Golden Raspberry Awards, "Lady in the Water" received four nominations for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay, and won two for Worst Director, and Worst Supporting Actor for Shyamalan.


title: Lady in the Water

text: One evening, Cleveland Heep, who became the superintendent of a Philadelphia apartment complex after his family was murdered, discovers Story, a Narf (a naiad-like being) from the Blue World, in his building's pool, immediately rescuing her from an attack by a Scrunt, a grass-covered, wolf-like creature that hides by flattening its body against the turf.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Story explains she has arrived to find the Writer, the "vessel" who will be magically awakened when he meets her, and then write a book that will save humanity in the future. When Heep mentions the word "Narf" to tenant Young-Soon, she recognizes it from stories told by her mother, Mrs. Choi, then summarizes the stories for him.


title: Lady in the Water

text: After questioning residents Farber, Bell, Dury, and five nameless smokers, Heep discovers the Writer is tenant Vick Ran, who is struggling to complete "The Cookbook". Heep brings Vick to Story; their meeting eliminates his fear and sharpens his inner voice. She later explains that "The Cookbook" will contain views and ideas so significant they will inspire a future President, a great Midwestern orator, to greatly change the world for the better. Vick later deduces, and Story confirms, that he will be killed because of the controversial nature of his ideas.


title: Lady in the Water

text: As Mrs. Choi remembers more details of the Narf legend, Heep better understands the situation. The Tartutic, an invincible simian-like quartet that serve as the Blue World's peacekeeping force, have forbidden any attack on Story while she travels home. Nonetheless, the Scrunt does just that because they know that Story is destined to be a great Narf leader, the once in a generation Madam Narf who will let all of humanity know they are on the right path.


title: Lady in the Water

text: For Story to recover from her wounds and return safely, she foresees that she will need the help of a Guardian, a Symbolist, a Guild, and a Healer. Story believes Heep to be her Guardian; Heep asks Farber, an abrasive film critic, to help him figure out the others' identities. Working off movie tropes, Farber misadvises Heep, leading him to a flawed conclusion that a resident named Dury is the Symbolist, the smokers are the Guild, and a kindly woman named Bell is the Healer.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Heep confronts the Scrunt, but nearly dies in the process, convincing him he is not the Guardian. The next night, Farber's bad advice leads to their plan's immediate failure. In the confusion, Farber is killed and Story is mortally wounded by the Scrunt. Dury suddenly realizes his son Joey is the real Symbolist. Interpreting the information on cereal boxes, Joey deduces the true Guild is composed of seven sisters, that two new men must be present, and that the Healer is a man, soon revealed to be Heep. Heep goes about healing Story by bringing forth his repressed grief: Story's wounds heal when he confesses to her that he does not want to lose her too.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Story again prepares to depart, but the Scrunt attacks. It is stopped by the gaze of Reggie, a lopsidedly muscled tenant who clearly is the Guardian. Reggie's intense stare and stalking approach intimidate the Scrunt into a slow retreat, but Reggie is distracted by the cry of the giant eagle arriving to transport Story back to the Blue World. When Reggie momentarily breaks eye contact, the Scrunt leaps, but the concealed Tartutic leap out of hiding, grab it, and drag it away.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Story hugs Heep goodbye; he thanks her for saving his life. The eagle lands, enfolds Story in one of its wings, and as the residents gaze on, it carries Story up into the night sky.


title: Lady in the Water

text: David Ogden Stiers is the uncredited narrator heard at the opening of the film, explaining how: the magical Narf of the undersea Blue World provided guidance to humanity millennia ago; humanity has forgotten that relationship, plunging itself into the devastating wars that are referenced through the remainder of the film; seeing the looming end of humanity, the Narf have now sent some of their (human-appearing) young to help humanity, though most are killed by the Scrunts and humanity has forgotten how to listen to the others.


title: Lady in the Water

text: The film was originally planned to be produced by Touchstone Pictures—just as Shyamalan's previous four films were released by Walt Disney Studios—but ultimately no deal was reached. Disney executive Nina Jacobson had spoken with Shyamalan about the film's storyline, the idea for which studio chairman Dick Cook didn't understand. Shyamalan was reportedly angry about the response, claiming that Disney "no longer valued individualism". Despite the fact that Disney was willing to completely fund the film regardless, Shyamalan rejected their offer and eventually presented the project to Warner Bros., who agreed to finance the film. The events that led to the making of the film were featured in a book, "The Man Who Heard Voices", by Michael Bamberger.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Shyamalan established a production facility at the Jacobson Logistics warehouse site in nearby Levittown, Pennsylvania, where sets for the apartment complex and a half-city block of row houses were built. Occasional footage was shot inside the overflow area of the warehouse. Most of the filming was completed after work hours.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Having already formulated ideas for the score the previous year, James Newton Howard wrote it during the early part of 2006, and the orchestral score was recorded over a period of four days in May by the 91-piece Hollywood Studio Symphony.


title: Lady in the Water

text: The soundtrack was composed by James Newton Howard. The last four tracks are non-soundtrack Bob Dylan covers from singer/songwriter Amanda Ghost, indie rock band A Whisper in the Noise, and rock 'n' roll revivalists Silvertide. Howard won the IFMCA Award for Best Film Score for "Lady in the Water" in 2006, as well as the awards for Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film, and Best Single Cue of 2006 for "The Great Eatlon"


title: Lady in the Water

text: In its opening weekend (July 21–23, 2006), the film grossed a total of $18.2 million, placing third in the U.S behind "" and "Monster House". It was Shyamalan's lowest opening for any of his five major films. As a result of the negative reviews and poor word-of-mouth, its second week fell sharply to $7.1 million, pushing its total to only $32.2 million. Its third weekend was no better, falling another 62.1% to $2.7 million. As of 2011, its total was $42.285 million. In addition, the film made only $30.5 million in other territories, bringing its tally to approximately $72.785 million internationally.


title: Lady in the Water

text: "Lady in the Water" was panned around the time of its release. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 25% based on 212 reviews, with an average rating of 4.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A far-fetched story with little suspense and unconvincing scenarios, "Lady in the Water" feels contrived, pretentious, and rather silly." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100 based on reviews from 36 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B− on scale of A to F.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Brian Lowry of "Variety" magazine wrote a scathing advance review that appeared on July 16, 2006. Common complaints about the film were that little effort was put into getting the viewer to believe in the world, that few moments of the film could be taken seriously, and that Shyamalan was using the film as a form of self-indulgence; instead of having a minor cameo, as in most of his films, Shyamalan cast himself as a visionary whose writing changes the world, and another character included a film critic—portrayed by actor Bob Balaban as arrogant, self-assured, and passive—who comes to a violent end. Many reviewers attacked this perceived self-indulgence: Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" wrote of the story, "Apparently those who live in the water now roam the earth trying to make us listen, though initially it's rather foggy as to what precisely we are supposed to hear—the crash of the waves, the songs of the sirens, the voice of God—until we realize that of course we're meant to cup our ear to an even higher power: Mr. Shyamalan." Of Shyamalan's role in the film, Mark Kermode said, "It's like someone pouring petrol over their heads and setting fire to themselves."


title: Lady in the Water

text: Frank Lovece of "Film Journal International" said, "Fans of actor Paul Giamatti or of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan may get something out of "Lady in the Water", a fractured fairy tale about a water nymph who comes to a Philadelphia apartment house to deliver an important message. Anyone else is likely to be perplexed by the muddled mythmaking or actively astonished at the self-indulgent ego of a writer-director-producer who casts himself in the role of a visionary writer whose martyrdom will change the world." Michael Medved gave "Lady in the Water" one-and-a-half stars (out of four) calling it, "…a full-out, flamboyant cinematic disaster, a work of nearly unparalleled arrogance and vapidity", adding, "…"Lady in the Water" is all wet…" Also panned was the fact that the film was based on a bedtime story Shyamalan told to his children; Pete Vonder Haar of "Film Threat" commented: "If Shyamalan is going to use his kids as a focus group for future projects, maybe he should start making movies for Nickelodeon already and stop wasting our time."


title: Lady in the Water

text: CNN's Tom Charity, among others, has called "Lady in the Water" the worst film of 2006. It was listed by "Variety" as one of the ten "biggest (financial) losers" of 2006. Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" wrote that though the film is "built on too much ponderous self-regard…[t]here is a good chunk of "Lady in the Water" that is simply too well made and affectingly acted to dismiss as a mere exercise in arrogance."


title: Lady in the Water

text: The film was ranked sixth in the influential film magazine "Cahiers du cinéma"s top ten films of 2006, above films such as Terrence Malick's "The New World".


title: Lady in the Water

text: The film was released simultaneously on DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray by Warner Home Video on December 19, 2006. "Lady in the Water" is the only M. Night Shyamalan film that was ever released on HD DVD.


title: Lady in the Water

text: Shyamalan, who credits the development of the movie to a bedtime story he told his children about what happens in their pool at night, wrote the 72-page children's book "Lady in the Water: A Bedtime Story" (Little, Brown, New York, ) to coincide with the movie. The book was illustrated by Crash McCreery and released the same day as the film, July 21, 2006.


title: Lady in the Water

text: "The Man Who Heard Voices" (Gotham Books, New York, ), by "Sports Illustrated" writer Michael Bamberger, recounting the making of the film, was released July 20, 2006.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix-en-Provence (, , ; ; ), or simply Aix (medieval Occitan: "Aics"), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the subprefecture of the arrondissement of Aix-en-Provence, in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The population of Aix-en-Provence is approximately 145,000. Its inhabitants are called "Aixois" or, less commonly, "Aquisextains".


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix ("Aquae Sextiae") was founded in 123 BC by the Roman consul Sextius Calvinus, who gave his name to its springs, following the destruction of the nearby Gallic oppidum at Entremont. In 102 BC its vicinity was the scene of the Battle of Aquae Sextiae, where the Romans under Gaius Marius defeated the Ambrones and Teutones, with mass suicides among the captured women, which passed into Roman legends of Germanic heroism.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: In the 4th century AD it became the metropolis of Narbonensis Secunda. It was occupied by the Visigoths in 477. In the succeeding century, the town was repeatedly plundered by the Franks and Lombards, and was occupied by the Saracens in 731 and by Charles Martel in 737. Aix, which during the Middle Ages was the capital of Provence, did not reach its zenith until after the 12th century, when, under the houses of Barcelona/Aragon and Anjou, it became an artistic centre and seat of learning.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix passed to the crown of France with the rest of Provence in 1487, and in 1501 Louis XII established there the parliament of Provence, which existed until 1789. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the town was the seat of the Intendance of Provence. Current archeological excavations in the Ville des Tours, a medieval suburb of Aix, have unearthed the remains of a Roman amphitheatre. A deposit of fossil bones from the Upper Continental Miocene gave rise to a Christian dragon legend.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix-en-Provence is situated in the south of France, in a plain overlooking the Arc river, about from the right bank of the river. The city slopes gently from north to south and the Montagne Sainte-Victoire can easily be seen to the east. Aix's position in the south of France gives it a warm climate, though more extreme than Marseille due to the inland location. It has an average January temperature of and a July average of . It has an average of 300 days of sunshine and only 91 days of rain. While it is partially protected from the Mistral, Aix still occasionally experiences the cooler and gusty conditions it brings.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: The Cours Mirabeau is a wide thoroughfare, planted with double rows of plane trees, bordered by fine houses and decorated by fountains. It follows the line of the old city wall, and divides the town into two sections. The new town extends to the south and west; the old town, with its narrow, irregular streets, and its old mansions dating from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, lies to the north. Situated on this avenue, which is lined on one side with banks and on the other with cafés, is the Deux Garçons, the most famous brasserie in Aix. Built in 1792, it was frequented by the likes of Paul Cézanne, Émile Zola and Ernest Hemingway. On 01/12/2019 Les Deux Garçons was devastated by a fire that engulfed the entire building, leaving the much loved establishment just a shell.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: The Cathedral of the Holy Saviour (Aix Cathedral) is situated to the north in the medieval part of Aix. Built on the site of a former Roman forum and an adjacent basilica, it contains a mixture of all styles from the 5th to the 17th century, including a richly decorated portal in the Gothic style with doors elaborately carved in walnut. The interior contains 16th-century tapestries, a 15th-century triptych depicting King René and his wife on the side panels, as well as a Merovingian baptistery, its Renaissance dome supported by original Roman columns. The archbishop's palace (Palais de l'Archêveché) and a Romanesque cloister adjoin the cathedral on its south side. The Archbishopric of Aix is now shared with Arles.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Among its other public institutions, Aix also has the second most important Appeal Court (Palais de Justice) outside of Paris, located near the site of the former Palace of the Counts (Palais des Comtes) of Provence.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: The Aix-en-Provence Town Hall ("Hôtel de Ville"), a building in the classical style of the middle of the 17th century, looks onto a picturesque square (Place de l'Hôtel de Ville). It contains some fine woodwork and tapestries. At its side rises a handsome clock-tower, erected in 1510. Also on the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville is the former Corn Exchange (1759–1761) (Halle de Grains). This ornately decorated 18th-century building was designed by the Vallon brothers. Nearby are the remarkable thermal springs, containing lime and carbonic acid, that first drew the Romans to Aix and gave it the name "Aquae Sextiae". A spa was built in 1705 near the remains of the ancient Roman baths of Sextius.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: South of the Cours Mirabeau is the Quartier Mazarin. This residential district was constructed for the gentry of Aix by Archbishop Michele Mazzarino brother of Cardinal Jules Mazarin in the last half of the 17th century and contains several notable "hôtels particuliers". The 13th-century church of Saint-Jean-de-Malte contains valuable pictures and a recently restored organ. Next to it is the Musée Granet, devoted to European painting and sculpture.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix is often referred to as the city of a thousand fountains. Among the most notable are the 17th-century Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins (Fountain of the Four Dolphins) in the Quartier Mazarin, designed by Jean-Claude Rambot, and three of the fountains down the central Cours Mirabeau: at the top, a 19th-century fountain depicts the "good king" René holding the Muscat grapes that he introduced to Provence in the 15th century; halfway down is a natural hot water fountain (34 °C), covered in moss, dating back to the Romans; and at the bottom, at la Rotonde, the hub of modern Aix, stands a monumental fountain from 1860 beneath three giant statues representing art, justice and agriculture. In the older part of Aix, there are also fountains of note in the Place d'Albertas and the Place des Trois-Ormeaux.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix the birthplace of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne. A walking trail links sites including his childhood home, Jas de Bouffan, and his former studio, Atelier Cézanne. The white limestone mountain Sainte-Victoire overlooks the city and was a frequent subject of Cézanne’s works.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix has long been a university town: Louis II of Anjou granted a royal charter for a university in 1409. Today Aix-en-Provence remains an important educational centre, with many teaching and research institutes:


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix also has several training collèges, lycées, and a college of art and design. It has also become a centre for many international study programmes. Several lycées offer CPGE.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: An important opera festival, the "Festival international d'Art Lyrique", founded in 1948, now ranks with those in Bayreuth, Salzburg and Glyndebourne. The director until 2018 was Bernard Foccroulle, organist and director of la Monnaie in Brussels. The festival takes place in late June and July each year. The main venues in Aix itself are the outdoor Théâtre de l'Archévêché in the former garden of the archbishop's palace, the recently restored 18th-century Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, and the newly built Grand Théâtre de Provence; operas are also staged in the outdoor Théâtre du Grand Saint-Jean outside Aix. Linked to the festival is the Académie européenne de musique, a summer school for young musicians with master classes by celebrated artists. Over the four-year period from 2006 until 2009, Sir Simon Rattle's version of Wagner's Ring Cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic was performed at the Aix festival. The current director of the festival is Pierre Audi.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: This takes place each year in June to coincide with the national 'Fête de la Musique.' There is a week of classical, jazz, and popular concerts held in different street venues and courtyards in the city. Some of these events are held in the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud, named in honour of the French composer, a native of Aix.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: The dance company "Ballet Preljocaj" of the French dancer and choreographer Angelin Preljocaj has been located in Aix since 1996. In 2007 it took up residence in the Pavillon Noir, a centre for dance performance, designed in 1999 by the architect Rudy Ricciotti. The centre is one of nineteen of its kind in France, designated "Centre chorégraphique national".


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix-en-Provence was part of Marseille-Provence 2013, the year-long cultural festival when the region served as the European Capital of Culture. Aix hosted several major cultural events including one half of the Grand Atelier du Midi gala exhibition and an episode of the Révélations pyrotechnical performance. The city also unveiled major new cultural infrastructure to coincide with Marseille-Provence 2013, including the Darius Milhaud Conservatory designed by Kengo Kuma.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Prior to 1989 Aix had several libraries, for example in the Parc Jourdan and the Town Hall. In 1989, many of these were moved to the Méjanes, an old match factory.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: In 1993, the "Cité du Livre" was opened around the library. This has media spaces for dance, cinema and music, and a training facility for librarians. Adjacent to the Cité du Livre are the Grand Théâtre de Provence and the Pavillon Noir (see above).


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: To the east of Aix rises Montagne Sainte-Victoire (), one of the landmarks of the Pays d'Aix. It is accessible from the centre of Aix by road or on foot, taking the wooded footpath of Escrachou Pevou to the plateau of Bibemus. It dramatically overshadows the small dam built by Émile Zola's father and was a favourite subject and haunt of Paul Cézanne throughout his lifetime. In the village of Le Tholonet on the precipitous southern side of Mont Sainte-Victoire, there is a windmill that he used, and beyond that a mountain hut, the "refuge Cézanne", where he liked to paint.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: To the north, the mountain slopes gently down through woodland to the village of Vauvenargues. The Château of Vauvenargues overlooking the village was formerly occupied by the counts of Provence (including René of Anjou) and the Archbishops of Aix before it became the family home of the marquis de Vauvenargues. It was acquired by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in 1958, who was resident there from 1959 until 1962, when he moved to Mougins. He and his wife Jacqueline are buried in its grounds,


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Mont Sainte-Victoire has a complex network of paths, leading to the priory and "Croix de Provence" at the summit, to the large man-made reservoir of Bimont and to the Roman viaduct above le Tholonet.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Industries formerly included flour-milling, the manufacture of confectionery, iron-ware, hats, matches and the extraction of olive oil.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: From 1990 to 2000, criminal organizations established complex extortion rings in Marseille extending to Aix-en-Provence and the greater French Riviera. Since 2002, "Le Milieu" is known for, in addition to its extortion rings, large counterfeiting and white-collar crime operations. Due to increased financial regulation, "Le Milieu" has collectively pushed to integrate their crime profits into the legal economy.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: A set of ancient roads radiate out from Aix to the surrounding countryside, the Pays d'Aix. There are also a large number of modern autoroutes connecting Aix to nearby towns. There are autoroutes northwards to Avignon and to the Luberon; southwards to Marseille; and eastwards to Aubagne and the Mediterranean coast of Provence; and to Nice and other towns on the French Riviera. Aix and Marseille are equidistant from the Marseille Provence Airport (MRS) at Marignane on the Étang de Berre which features domestic and international scheduled passenger service. There is another airport at Les Milles, which is mostly used by general aviation. There is a frequent bus shuttle service from the main bus station in Aix which also serves the nearby TGV station at l'Arbois, in the middle of the countryside about from Aix.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: At Aix, the line from Paris branches to Marseille and Nice; it takes about 3 hours to get from Paris to Aix by TGV. Aix also has a railway station near the centre, Gare d'Aix-en-Provence, with connections to Marseille, Pertuis and Briançon in the French Alps. A frequent and rapid shuttle bus service for commuters operates between the bus station in Aix and Marseille. There are many other long distance and local buses from the bus station. The city also offers a "city pass" available in 24, 48, and 72-hour packages for visiting tourists. The "pass tourisitque" is offered at the Aix-en-Provence Tourist Office, the Atelier de Cézanne, and the official Aix tourism website.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: In the town itself, there is an inexpensive municipal bus service, including a dial-a-bus service ("proxibus"), a park-and-ride service and tiny electrified buses for those with mobility problems – these are six-seater vehicles that circulate at a speed of . The central old town of Aix is for the most part pedestrianised. There are large underground and overground parking structures placed at regular intervals on the "boulevard exterieur", the predominantly one-way ring road that encircles the old town. Access to the old town is by a series of often narrow one-way streets that can be confusing to navigate for the uninitiated.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: As well as overland routes, two "rivers" flow through Aix, the Arc and the Torse, but neither of which can remotely be described as navigable.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: The local Aix dialect, rarely used and spoken by a rapidly decreasing number of people, is part of the provencal dialect of the Occitan language. The provencal for "Aix-en-Provence" is "Ais de Prouvènço" . Most of the older streets in Aix have names in both Provençal and French.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Aix is the home town of the rugby union team Provence Rugby. It played host to the All Blacks during the early stages of the 2007 Rugby World Cup.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: "Ysabel", the tenth novel of the best-selling Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay, was set and written in Aix.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: Italian electroacoustic artist Giuseppe Ielasi's album Aix was produced in Aix-en-Provence, hence the title.


title: Aix-en-Provence

text: This is also the site of an alleged sighting and landing of a UFO in 1981 that is taken seriously by GEIPAN, the department within the French Space Agency responsible for investigating aerospace phenomena.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: The first Battle of Panipat, on 20 April 1526, was fought between the invading forces of Babur and the Lodi dynasty. It took place in North India and marked the beginning of the Mughal Empire and the end of the Delhi Sultanate. This was one of the earliest battles involving gunpowder firearms and field artillery in the Indian subcontinent which were introduced by Mughals in this battle.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: After losing Samarkand for the second time, Babur gave attention to conquer Hindustan as he reached the banks of the Chenab in 1519. Until 1524, his aim was to only expand his rule to Punjab, mainly to fulfil his ancestor Timur's legacy, since it used to be part of his empire. At that time, most of North India was under the rule of Ibrahim Lodi of the Lodi dynasty, but the empire was crumbling and there were many defectors. He received invitations from Daulat Khan Lodi, Governor of Punjab and Ala-ud-Din, uncle of Ibrahim. He sent an ambassador to Ibrahim, claiming himself the rightful heir to the throne of the country, however the ambassador was detained at Lahore and released months later.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: Babur started for Lahore, Punjab, in 1524 but found that Daulat Khan Lodi had been driven out by forces sent by Ibrahim Lodi. When Babur arrived at Lahore, the Lodi army marched out and was routed. In response, Babur burned Lahore for two days, then marched to Dipalpur, placing Alam Khan, another rebel uncle of Lodi's, as governor. Alam Khan was quickly overthrown and fled to Kabul. In response, Babur supplied Alam Khan with troops who later joined up with Daulat Khan Lodi and together with about 30,000 troops, they besieged Ibrahim Lodi at Delhi. He defeated them and drove Alam's army off; and Babur realised Lodi would not allow him to occupy the Punjab.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: Hearing of the size of Ibrahim's army, Babur secured his right flank against the city of Panipat, while digging a trench covered with tree branches to secure his left flank. In the centre, he placed 700 carts tied together with ropes. Between every two carts, there were breastworks for his matchlock men. Babur also ensured that there was enough space for his soldiers to rest their guns and fire. Babur referred to this method as the "Ottoman device" due to its previous use by the Ottomans during the Battle of Chaldiran.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: When Ibrahim's army arrived, he found the approach to Babur's army too narrow to attack. While Ibrahim redeployed his forces to allow for the narrower front, Babur quickly took advantage of the situation to flank ("tulghuma") the Lodi army. Many of Ibrahim's troops were unable to get into action and fled when the battle turned against them. Ibrahim Lodi was killed while trying to retreat and beheaded. 20,000 Lodi soldiers were killed in battle.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: Babur's guns proved decisive in battle, firstly because Ibrahim lacked any field artillery, but also because the sound of the cannon frightened Ibrahim's elephants, causing them to trample his men.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: Tactics used by Babur were the "tulguhma" and the "araba". "Tulguhma" meant dividing the whole army into various units, viz. the Left, the Right, and the Centre. The Left and Right divisions were further subdivided into Forward and Rear divisions. Through this, a small army could be used to surround the enemy from all sides. The Centre Forward division was then provided with carts ("araba") which were placed in rows facing the enemy and tied to each other with animal hide ropes. Behind them were placed cannons protected and supported by mantlets that could be used to easily manoeuvre the cannons. These two tactics made Babur's artillery lethal. The cannons could be fired without any fear of being hit, as they were shielded by the bullock carts held in place by hiding ropes. The heavy cannons could also be easily traversed onto new targets, as they could be manoeuvred by the mantlets which were on wheels.


title: First Battle of Panipat

text: Ibrahim Lodi died on the field of battle along with 20,000 of his troops. The battle of Panipat was militarily a decisive victory for the Timurids. Politically it gained Babur new lands, and initiated a new phase of his establishment of the long-lasting Mughal Empire in the heart of the Indian subcontinent.


title: Roy Wood

text: Roy Wood (born 8 November 1946) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands. Altogether he had more than 20 singles in the UK Singles Chart under various guises, including three UK No. 1 hits.


title: Roy Wood

text: The BBC has described Wood as being "responsible for some of the most memorable sounds of the Seventies" and "credited as playing a major role in the glam rock, psychedelic and prog rock movements". In 2008, Wood was awarded an honorary doctorate for his contribution to rock and pop by the University of Derby. In 2015, his long and eclectic career was recognised with the "Outer Limits" award at the Progressive Music Awards in London.


title: Roy Wood

text: Wood was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017 as a member of Electric Light Orchestra.


title: Roy Wood

text: Roy Wood was born on 8 November 1946 in Kitts Green, a suburb of Birmingham, England. For some years the legend persisted that his real name was Ulysses Adrian Wood, until it was revealed that this was probably the result of somebody close to The Move in their early days filling in such names on a 'lifelines' feature for the press as a joke. His first group in Birmingham in the early 1960s was the Falcons, which he left in 1963 to join Gerry Levene and the Avengers. He then moved to Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders (the band later became the Idle Race). He attended the Moseley College of Art, but was expelled in 1964.


title: Roy Wood

text: From this and other Birmingham-based groups, was formed The Move, and they quickly entered the UK Singles Chart. Their single "Night of Fear" climbed to No. 2 in early 1967. Their third hit, "Flowers in the Rain", was the first song played by Tony Blackburn at the launch of BBC Radio 1 on September 30, 1967, and the band evolved over a three-year period. After the departure of The Move's lead singer Carl Wayne, Wood's influence became more prominent. In 1967, Wood (and fellow Move member Trevor Burton) supplied backing vocals on the track, "You Got Me Floatin'", on the Jimi Hendrix Experience's album "".


title: Roy Wood

text: Wood was keen on musical experimentation and was an early proponent of combining rock and roll and pop music with other styles, such as classical music, or the big band sound, and introduced classically styled string and brass sections into the pop record. In early 1972, Wood's composition "Songs of Praise" was shortlisted by the BBC as one of six possible choices for the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972. When performed by the New Seekers on the Cliff Richard vehicle "It's Cliff Richard!", the song finished in last place with 3,842 votes. The group included the track on their album "We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing". Wood recorded his own version of "Songs of Praise", releasing it on the B-side of his 1973 single, "Dear Elaine".


title: Roy Wood

text: Whilst The Move were still together, Wood, along with his band colleagues Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, founded Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was later to gain major commercial success. The original intention was to split The Move at the end of 1970, but contractual obligations meant that both they and ELO existed together for a year, until the former finally broke up in June 1972.


title: Roy Wood

text: In 2017, the ELO line-up of Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan, and Richard Tandy were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


title: Roy Wood

text: ELO's early live performances were chaotic, due to both poor sound quality of the string instruments competing against the guitars and drums, as well as Wood's constant moving from instrument to instrument during the shows (playing bass, guitar, cello and saxophone). After increasing tensions, Wood left in July 1972 at the start of the second album sessions, following a trip to Italy and formed a new group, Wizzard, which assembled cellists, brass players and a bigger rhythm section, with several drummers and percussionists. Wood emulated the wall of sound production style of Phil Spector while successfully and affectionately pastiching the rock and roll style of the early 1960s. Wizzard scored seven UK Singles Chart hits with different songs during this period including two consecutive singles, "See My Baby Jive" and "Angel Fingers" which reached the top of that chart. Meanwhile, he released several solo albums, exploring further musical directions. His 1973 album "Boulders" was an almost entirely genuine solo effort, right down to the sleeve artwork, with Wood playing a wide variety of musical instruments. A second solo album, "Mustard", released in 1975 and including contributions by Phil Everly and Annie Haslam, was less successful.


title: Roy Wood

text: By the late 1970s, Wood was appearing less in public; commercial success faded away, and his musical experiments did not always match popular taste, but he remained productive in the studio as musician, producer and songwriter. He was a fan of Elvis Presley, but never succeeded in getting him to adopt one of his compositions. However, he was untiring as a producer for other acts, most successfully doo-wop revivalists Darts. In 1976, Wood recorded the Beatles songs "Lovely Rita" and "Polythene Pam" for the ill-fated musical documentary "All This and World War II".


title: Roy Wood

text: In 1977, he formed Wizzo Band, a jazz-rock ensemble, whose only live performance was a BBC simultaneous television and radio broadcast in stereo. The Wizzo Band split early the following year after cancelling a nationwide tour.


title: Roy Wood

text: Between 1980 and 1982, Wood released a few singles under his own name and also as Roy Wood's Helicopters, and played some live dates under this name, with a band comprising Robin George (guitar), Terry Rowley (keyboards), Jon Camp (bass) and Tom Farnell (drums). The release of what would have been the last of these singles, "Aerial Pictures", backed with "Airborne", was cancelled owing to the lack of chart success for its predecessors, but both sides appeared for the first time in 2006 on a compilation CD, "Roy Wood – The Wizzard!". "Aerial Pictures", using the original backing track, subsequently became a solo single for Carl Wayne, The Move's former vocalist.


title: Roy Wood

text: Wood also made a one-off rock and roll medley single with Phil Lynott, Chas Hodges and John Coghlan, credited to The Rockers, "We Are The Boys" (1983), and played a leading role in the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert 1986, on 15 March 1986, which was later partly televised by the BBC. As well as designing the logo, Wood performed in a line-up which also included the Electric Light Orchestra and the Moody Blues.


title: Roy Wood

text: After a hiatus following the release of the album "Starting Up" (1987), a cover version of the Len Barry hit "1–2–3", and a guest vocal appearance on one track on Rick Wakeman's "The Time Machine", he went on the road with a band billed as Roy Wood's Army. He also wrote and recorded two tracks with Lynne in 1989 ("If You Can't Get What You Want" and "Me and You"), which were never released.


title: Roy Wood

text: His most regularly broadcast song is the seasonal Wizzard single "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday". In 1995, Wood released a new live version as the 'Roy Wood Big Band', which charted at No. 59, and in 2000 he joined forces with Mike Batt and the Wombles, for a re-working of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" and the Wombles' hit "Wombling Merry Christmas", together in one song which reached No. 22. Over Christmas 2007, Wood appeared in a catalogue advertisement for Argos, where he played the part of a rowdy neighbour playing guitar along to Wizzard's "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", and the song once again entered the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 16. In the 2010 Christmas special of the ITV comedy "Benidorm", Wood in a cameo role performed his Christmas hit at the Benidorm Palace cabaret theatre. He later performed with Wizzard on the Christmas edition of Pointless Celebrities in December 2013.


title: Roy Wood

text: Wood formed the Roy Wood Rock & Roll Band for occasional live dates and television performances in the UK. They were the support act for Status Quo at several UK dates in the weeks leading up to Christmas 2009 and 2011. In December 2018, Wood and his band's touring equipment worth £100,000 was stolen following a ram-raid on a warehouse in Leeds. The police later recovered the van and equipment in East Ardsley.


title: Roy Wood

text: Roy Wood currently lives in the former Howard Arms public house in Cubley, Derbyshire. Wood voted to leave the European Union in the 23 June 2016 referendum, and in May 2019 joined the Brexit Party. Wood has one child.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is heavily centred on bringing about change and involving the younger generation in activist causes.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg was born in 1957 in Barking, Essex (which is now in Greater London) to Dennis Frederick Austin Bragg, an assistant sales manager to a Barking cap maker and milliner, and his wife Marie Victoria D'Urso, who was of Italian descent. Bragg's father died of lung cancer in 1976, and his mother died in 2011.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg was educated at Northbury Junior School and Park Modern Secondary School (now part of Barking Abbey Secondary School) in Barking, where he failed his eleven-plus exam, effectively precluding him from going to university. However he developed an interest in poetry at the age of twelve, when his English teacher chose him to read a poem he had written for a homework assignment on a local radio station. He put his energies into learning and practising the guitar with his next-door neighbour, Philip Wigg (Wiggy); some of their influences were the Faces, Small Faces and the Rolling Stones. He was also exposed to folk and folk-rock music during his teenage years, citing Simon & Garfunkel and Bob Dylan as early influences on his songwriting.


title: Billy Bragg

text: During the rise of punk rock and new wave in the late 1970s, Elvis Costello also served as an inspiration for Bragg. He was also particularly influenced by the Clash, whom he'd seen play live in London in May 1977 on their White Riot Tour, and again at a Rock Against Racism carnival in April 1978, which he admits was the first time he really stepped into the world of music as it is used for political activism. The experience of the gig and preceding march helped shape Bragg's left-wing politics, having previously "turned a blind eye" to casual racism.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In 1977 Bragg formed the punk rock/pub rock band Riff Raff with Wiggy. The band decamped to rural Oundle in Northamptonshire in 1978 to record a series of singles (the first on independent Chiswick Records) which did not receive wide exposure. After a period of gigging in Northamptonshire and London, they returned to Barking and split in 1980. Taking a series of odd jobs including working at Guy Norris' record shop in Barking high street, Bragg became disillusioned with his stalled music career and in May 1981 joined the British Army as a recruit destined for the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars of the Royal Armoured Corps. After completing three months' basic training, he bought himself out for £175 and returned home.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg peroxided his hair to mark a new phase in his life and began performing frequent concerts and busking around London, playing solo with an electric guitar under the name "Spy vs Spy" (after the strip in "Mad" magazine).


title: Billy Bragg

text: His demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office of Charisma Records' A&R man Peter Jenner. Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for music publisher Chappell & Co., so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. "Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy" (credited to Billy Bragg) was released in July 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played a song from "Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy" albeit at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Within months Charisma had been taken over by Virgin Records and Jenner, who had been made redundant, became Bragg's manager. Stiff Records' press officer Andy Macdonald – who was setting up his own record label, Go! Discs – received a copy of "Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy". He made Virgin an offer and the album was re-released on Go! Discs in November 1983, at the fixed low price of £2.99. Around this time, Andy Kershaw, an early supporter at Radio Aire in Leeds, was employed by Jenner as Bragg's tour manager. (He later became a BBC DJ and TV presenter, and he and Bragg appeared in an episode of the BBC TV programme "Great Journeys" in 1989, in which they travelled the Silver Road from Potosí, Bolivia, to the Pacific coast at Arica, Chile.)


title: Billy Bragg

text: Though never released as a Bragg single, album track and live favourite "A New England", with an additional verse, became a Top 10 hit in the UK for Kirsty MacColl in January 1985. Since MacColl's early death, Bragg always sings the extra verse live in her honour.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In 1984, he released "Brewing Up with Billy Bragg", a mixture of political songs (e.g. "It Says Here") and songs of unrequited love (e.g. "The Saturday Boy"). This was followed in 1985 by "Between the Wars", an EP of political songs that included a cover version of Leon Rosselson's "The World Turned Upside Down". The EP made the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart and earned Bragg an appearance on "Top of the Pops", singing the title track. Bragg later collaborated with Rosselson on the song "Ballad of a Spycatcher".


title: Billy Bragg

text: In the same year, he embarked on his first tour of North America, with Wiggy as tour manager, supporting Echo & the Bunnymen. The tour began in Washington D.C. and ended in Los Angeles. On the same trip, in New York, Bragg unveiled his "Portastack", a self-contained, mobile PA system weighing 35 lbs (designed for £500 by engineer Kenny Jones), the wearing of which became an archetypal image of the singer at that time. With it, he was able to busk outside the New Music Seminar, a record industry conference.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In 1986 Bragg released "Talking with the Taxman About Poetry", which became his first Top 10 album. Its title is taken from a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky and a translated version of the poem was printed on the record's inner sleeve. "Back to Basics" is a 1987 collection of his first three releases: "Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy", "Brewing Up with Billy Bragg", and "Between the Wars". He enjoyed his only Number 1 hit single in May 1988, a cover of the Beatles' "She's Leaving Home", a shared A-side with Wet Wet Wet's "With a Little Help from My Friends". Both were taken from a multi-artist re-recording of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" titled "Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father" coordinated by the "NME" in aid of the charity Childline. Wet Wet Wet's cover dominated radio airplay and its video was shown over three consecutive weeks on "Top of the Pops"; in week four, Bragg went on the programme to play his cover, with regular accompanist Cara Tivey on piano.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg released his fourth album, "Workers Playtime", in September 1988. With this album, Bragg added a full backing band and accompaniment, including Tivey on piano, Danny Thompson on double bass and veteran Micky Waller on drums. Wiggy earned a co-production credit with Joe Boyd.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In August 1989 Bragg took lead vocal on the ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’ sampling Norman Cook's UK top 40 hit "Won’t Talk About It", which was a double-A-side with "Blame It On the Bassline". The track was a bigger hit a year later with Lindy Layton replacing Bragg as lead vocal.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In May 1990 Bragg released the political mini-LP "The Internationale" on his and Jenner's own short-lived label Utility, which operated independently of Go! Discs, to which Bragg was still contracted. The songs were, in part, a return to his solo guitar style, but some featured more complicated arrangements and included a brass band. The album paid tribute to one of Bragg's influences with the song, "I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night", which is an adapted version of Earl Robinson's song, "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night", itself an adaptation of a poem by Alfred Hayes. Though the album only reached Number 34 in the UK Charts, Bragg described it as "a reassertion of my rights as an individual ... and a childish two fingers [to Go! Discs boss Andy Macdonald, who'd recently signed a distribution deal with entertainment industry giant PolyGram]."


title: Billy Bragg

text: His sixth studio album "Don't Try This at Home" was recorded in the shadow of the build-up to the Gulf War and subsequent ground war, inspiring the track "Rumours of War". Although there is social comment ("The Few", "North Sea Bubble"), it was intended as a more commercial pop album, released in September 1991. (Bragg called it "a very long-range attempt to convert the ball between the posts."). The first single was the upbeat "Sexuality", which, despite an accessible video and a dance remix on the B-side, only reached Number 27 on the UK Singles Chart. Following overtures by rival label Chrysalis, Bragg and Jenner had been persuaded by Go! Discs' Andy and Juliet Macdonald to sign a four-album deal for a million pound advance; in return he would promote the album with singles and videos. A more commercial sound and aggressive marketing had no appreciable effect on album sales, and after a grueling, 13-month world tour with a full band (the Red Stars, led by Wiggy), and a period of forced convalescence after appendicitis, Bragg left Go! Discs in summer 1992, paying back the remainder of his advance in return for all rights to his back catalogue.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg released the album "William Bloke" in 1996 after taking time off to help new partner Juliet Wills raise their son Jack. (There is a reference to him in the track "Brickbat": "Now you'll find me with the baby, in the bathroom.") After the ambitious instrumentation of "Don't Try This at Home", it was a simpler record, musically, more personal and even spiritual, lyrically (its title a pun on the name of 18th-century English poet William Blake, who is referenced in the song "Upfield").


title: Billy Bragg

text: Around that time, Nora Guthrie (daughter of American folk artist Woody Guthrie) asked Bragg to set some of her father's unrecorded lyrics to music. The result was a collaboration with the band Wilco and Natalie Merchant (with whom Bragg had worked previously). They released the album "Mermaid Avenue" in 1998, and "Mermaid Avenue Vol. II" in 2000. The first album was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category. A third batch, "Mermaid Avenue Vol III", and "The Complete Sessions" followed in 2012 to mark Woody Guthrie's centennial. A rift with Wilco over mixing and sequencing the first album led to Bragg recruiting his own band, The Blokes, to promote the album live. The Blokes included keyboardist Ian McLagan, who had been a member of Bragg's boyhood heroes The Faces. The documentary film "Man in the Sand" depicts the roles of Nora Guthrie, Bragg, and Wilco in the creation of the "Mermaid Avenue" albums.


title: Billy Bragg

text: A developing interest in English national identity, driven by the rise of the BNP and his own move from London to rural Dorset in 1999, informed his 2002 album "England, Half-English" (whose single, "Take Down The Union Jack" put him back on "Top of the Pops" in the Queen's Golden Jubilee year) and his 2006 book "The Progressive Patriot". The book expressed his view that English socialists can reclaim patriotism from the right wing. He draws on Victorian poet Rudyard Kipling for an inclusive sense of Englishness. In 2007 Bragg moved closer to his English folk music roots by joining the WOMAD-inspired collective The Imagined Village, who recorded an album of updated versions of traditional English songs and dances and toured through that autumn.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In December Bragg previewed tracks from his forthcoming album "Mr. Love & Justice" at a one-off evening of music and conversation to mark his 50th birthday at London's South Bank. The album was released in March 2008, the second Bragg album to be named after a book by Colin MacInnes after "England, Half-English". The same year, during the NME Awards ceremony, Bragg sang a duet with British solo act Kate Nash. They mixed up two of their greatest hits, Nash playing "Foundations", and Bragg redoing "A New England". Also in 2008, Bragg played a small role in Stuart Bamforth's film "A13: Road Movie".


title: Billy Bragg

text: In 2009, Bragg was invited by London's South Bank to write new lyrics for "Ode to Joy", the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (original libretto by Friedrich Schiller), since adopted as an international anthem of unity. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performed it at the Royal Festival Hall in front of the Queen and Bragg met her afterwards to earn "brownie points" with his mother, also in attendance.


title: Billy Bragg

text: He was involved in the play "Pressure Drop" at the Wellcome Collection in London in April and May 2010. The production, written by Mick Gorden, and billed as "part play, part gig, part installation", featured new songs by Bragg. He performed during the play with his band, and acted as compere.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg was invited by Michael Eavis to curate the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2010, which he has continued to do in subsequent years. He also took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project "Sixty-Six Books", where he wrote a piece based upon a book of the King James Bible. Bragg performed a set of the Guthrie songs that he had set to music for "Mermaid Avenue" during the Hay Literary Festival in June 2012, he also performed the same set on the Friday night of the 2012 Cambridge Folk Festival.


title: Billy Bragg

text: On 18 March 2013, five years after "Mr. Love & Justice", Bragg released the studio album "Tooth & Nail". Recorded in five days at the home studio of musician/producer Joe Henry in South Pasadena it featured 11 original songs, including one written for the Bush Theatre and a Woody Guthrie cover. Stylistically, it continued to explore genres of Americana and Alternative country, a natural progression since "Mermaid Avenue". The album was a commercial success, becoming his best charting record since 1991's "Don't Try This at Home".


title: Billy Bragg

text: In February 2014, Bragg started a series of "radio shows" on Spotify, in which he talked listeners through self-curated playlists of "his favourite tracks and artists, and uncovering some little-known musical gems." On 14 April 2014, Bragg put out "Live at the Union Chapel", a souvenir album and DVD of a show he played on 5 June 2013 at the Union Chapel in London, featuring songs from "Tooth & Nail" as well as favourites from his back catalogue.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In February 2016, Bragg was given the Trailblazer Award at the inaugural Americana Music Association UK Awards in London. Following that, in September he was given the Spirit of Americana Free Speech Award at the Americana Music Association US Awards in Nashville.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In August 2016, Bragg released his eleventh album, a collaboration with Joe Henry, "Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad", recorded at various points on a journey between Chicago and Los Angeles by train in March. It reached number 28 in the UK Album Charts and number one in the UK Americana album chart. The pair started a dual "Shine a Light" tour at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville in September 2016, and taking them across the States and Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. In April 2017, they played in Australia.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Faber published Bragg's second nonfiction book (after 2006's "The Progressive Patriot"), "Roots, Radicals and Rockers" in June 2016, a history of the British skiffle movement, tracing the form from its 1950s boom back to ragtime, blues, jazz and American folk music. On BBC Music Day 2017, he helped unveil a blue plaque marking the studio (Trident) where the late David Bowie recorded two classic albums and the single "Space Oddity", in Soho; he joined album sleeve designer George Underwood and BBC Radio London’s Robert Elms. In November, he released all six tracks from the mini-album "Bridges Not Walls" as downloads through the Billy Bragg website, followed by the single "Full English Brexit" through Cooking Vinyl.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In April 2018, Bragg was invited to deliver a Bank of England Flagship Seminar; his presentation was titled "Accountability: the Antidote to Authoritarianism". The speech was made available on the Bank of England's website. At the Ivor Novello Awards ("the Ivors") in May, he accepted the PRS Outstanding Contribution to British Music award. Also in May, his official biography "Still Suitable for Miners" was published in a new, 20th anniversary updated edition.


title: Billy Bragg

text: He ended 2018 touring New Zealand and Australia. In Auckland, he road-tested a new live format for 2019 (first tried out in Toronto), "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back". The idea was to play three consecutive shows over three nights at each venue: the first night a current, mixed Bragg set; the second from his first three albums; the third from his second three albums. "It’s a way of keeping things interesting," he said. The tour would cover the United States and the UK and Ireland throughout 2019.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In May, Faber and Faber published "The Three Dimensions of Freedom", a short polemic by Bragg intended, according to the publisher's blurb, to "protect ourselves from encroaching tyranny." The author urges readers to "look beyond [the] one-dimensional notion of what it means to be free" and "by reconnecting liberty to equality and accountability, restore ... the three dimensions of freedom."


title: Billy Bragg

text: For all of Bragg's 30-year-plus recording career he has been involved with grassroots, broadly leftist, political movements, and this is often reflected in his lyrics. He has also recorded and performed cover versions of famous socialist anthems such as "The Internationale" and "The Red Flag". Bragg said in an interview: "I don't mind being labelled a political songwriter. The thing that troubles me is being dismissed as a political songwriter." Bragg has cited the Clash as a strong influence on his politically-themed material and activism:It wasn't so much their lyrics as what they stood for and the actions they took. That became really important to me. Phil Collins might write a song about the homeless, but if he doesn't have the action to go with it he's just exploiting that for a subject. I got that from the Clash, and I try to remain true to that tradition as best I can.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg's politics were focused by the Conservative Party's 144-seat majority landslide at the 1983 general election. He told his biographer, "By 1983, the scales had fallen from my eyes." His record label boss Andy Macdonald observed that "his presence onstage took on more of the avenging angel." Bragg was at the forefront of music's influence on the 1984 miners' strike, and played many benefit gigs in towns close to coalfields such as Newport and Sunderland. He also released an EP during this year titled "Between the Wars", which connected struggles of class solidarity to the present issue. This single was his most successful up until this point, reaching number 15 on the charts. The following year, after playing a short Labour Party-sponsored Jobs For Youth tour, he joined other like-minded activists in the public eye to form the musicians' alliance Red Wedge, which promoted Labour's cause – and in turn lobbied the party on youth issues – in the run-up to the 1987 general election, with a national tour in 1986 alongside The Style Council, Jerry Dammers and The Communards.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg travelled twice to the Soviet Union in 1986, the year Mikhail Gorbachev started to promote the policies of perestroika and glasnost. He played a gig in Leningrad, and the Festival of Song in the Struggle for Peace in Kiev.


title: Billy Bragg

text: On 12 June 1987, the night after Labour lost that year's general election, Bragg appeared on a notable edition of the Channel 4 discussion programme "After Dark", alongside David Selbourne, Teresa Gorman and Hilary Hook among others. "The Independent" wrote "A show called "Is Britain Working?" brought together victorious Tory MP Teresa Gorman; ...Helen from the Stonehenge Convoy; old colonialist Colonel Hilary Hook... and Adrian, one of the jobless. It was a perfect example of the chemistry you can get. There were unlikely alliances (Bragg and Hook)". Later Gorman "stormed off the set, claiming she had been misled about the nature of the programme" "She told...Bragg: 'You and your kind are finished. We are the future now.'" Bragg said "I sing in smokey rooms every night and I can keep talking for far longer than you can Teresa". Bragg explained later: "She was so smug. And because she was Essex I took it personally. Then she accused me of being a fine example of Thatcherism."


title: Billy Bragg

text: In 1999, he was invited to appear before a commission that debated possible reform of the House of Lords, at which he put forward what became known as "the Bragg Method": the arrangement of the Upper House to proportionally reflect the results of a general election. "Trying to make it sexy is impossible," he said.


title: Billy Bragg

text: At the time of the 2001 general election, Bragg promoted tactical voting in an attempt to unseat Conservative Party candidates in his adopted home county Dorset, particularly in South Dorset and West Dorset. The Conservatives did indeed narrowly lose South Dorset to the Labour Party.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg has been an opponent of fascism, racism, bigotry, sexism and homophobia, and is a supporter of a multi-racial Britain. As a result, he has conflicted with far-right groups such as the British National Party (BNP). In a 2004 "The Guardian" article, Bragg was quoted as saying:The British National Party would probably make it into a parliament elected by proportional representation, too. It would shine a torch into the dirty little corner where the BNP defecate on our democracy, and that would be much more powerful than duffing them up in the street – which I'm also in favour of.


title: Billy Bragg

text: During the 2005 general election campaign in the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, Bragg endorsed Oona King, the Labour Party's pro-Iraq War candidate, over George Galloway, the left-wing socialist anti-war candidate from the Respect Party; due to a belief that splitting the left-wing vote would allow the Conservatives to win the seat. Galloway overturned King's 10,000-strong majority to become the Respect Party's only MP.


title: Billy Bragg

text: At the NME Awards in 2007, on the fifth anniversary of Joe Strummer's death, Bragg founded Jail Guitar Doors (taking its name from a song by the Clash), an organisation aimed at supplying instruments to prisons and encouraging prisoners to address problems in a non-confrontational way. An American chapter of the organisation was launched in 2009 by MC5's Wayne Kramer.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In January 2010, Bragg stated his intention to withhold his income tax as a protest against the Royal Bank of Scotland's plan to pay bonuses of approximately £1,500,000,000 to staff in its investment banking business. Bragg set up a Facebook group, made appearances on radio and television news programmes, and made a speech at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park saying, "Millions are already facing stark choices: are they willing to work longer hours for less money, or would they rather be unemployed? I don’t see why the bankers at RBS shouldn’t be asked the same."


title: Billy Bragg

text: In the 2010 general election, Bragg supported the Liberal Democrats because "they've got the best manifesto".


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg was also very active in his hometown of Barking as part of "Searchlight" magazine's Hope not Hate campaign, where the BNP's leader Nick Griffin was standing for election. At one point during the campaign Bragg squared up to BNP London Assembly Member Richard Barnbrook, calling him a "Fascist racist" and saying "when you're gone from this borough, we will rebuild this community". The BNP came third on election day.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In January 2011, news sources reported that 20 to 30 residents of Bragg's Dorset hometown, Burton Bradstock, had received anonymous letters viciously attacking him and his politics, and urging residents to oppose him in the village. He claimed that a BNP supporter was behind the letters, which argued that Bragg is a hypocrite for advocating socialism while living a wealthy lifestyle, and referred to him as anti-British and pro-immigration.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In July 2011 Bragg joined the growing protests over the News of the World phone hacking affair with the release of his "Never Buy the Sun" single, which references many of the scandal's key points including the Milly Dowler case, police bribes and associated political fallout. It also draws on the 22-year Liverpool boycott of "The Sun" for their coverage of the Hillsborough disaster.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In 2013, despite his scathing criticism of Margaret Thatcher, he urged people not to celebrate the death of the former Conservative Prime Minister:The death of Margaret Thatcher is nothing more than a salient reminder of how Britain got into the mess that we are in today. Of why ordinary working people are no longer able to earn enough from one job to support a family; of why there is a shortage of decent affordable housing... of why cynicism and greed became the hallmarks of our society. Raising a glass to the death of an infirm old lady changes none of this. The only real antidote to cynicism is activism. Don't celebrate – organise!


title: Billy Bragg

text: In June 2014, Bragg joined other musicians (including Radiohead's Ed O'Brien) in backing a call for the EU to intervene in a dispute between YouTube and independent labels. According to a BBC News report, the video-streaming site was offering "non-negotiable contracts" to its planned, Spotify-like music-subscription service to labels such as XL Recordings, 4AD, Cooking Vinyl and Domino "accompanied by the threat that music videos they have posted to their YouTube channels will be blocked from site altogether if they do not agree to the terms."


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg supports both Scottish and Welsh independence. In 2014, after David Bowie spoke in favour of Scotland remaining part of the UK, Bragg said, "Bowie's intervention encourages people in England to discuss the issues of the independence referendum, and I think English people should be discussing it, so I welcome his intervention." Bragg was a vocal supporter of Scottish independence during the campaign prior to the referendum on 18 September 2014. Bragg wrote an article for the "Guardian" publication on 16 September, in which he addressed the objections he had previously received from people who conflated Scottish nationalism with the far-right ethos of the BNP. He described the independence campaign as "civic nationalism" and his opinion piece concluded:


title: Billy Bragg

text: Support for Scottish self-determination might not fit neatly into any leftwing pigeonhole, but it does chime with an older progressive tradition that runs deep in English history – a dogged determination to hold the over-mighty to account. If, during the constitutional settlement that will follow the referendum, we in England can rediscover our Roundhead tradition, we might yet counter our historic weakness for ethnic nationalism with an outpouring of civic engagement that creates a fairer society for all.


title: Billy Bragg

text: Bragg was one of several celebrities who endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas at the 2015 general election. In August 2015, Bragg endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. He said: "His [Corbyn's] success so far shows you how bland our politics have become, in the aim of winning those swing voters in middle England the Labour Party has lost touch with its roots. We live in a time of austerity and what you want from that is not more austerity, you want compassion." On an edition of "Question Time" in October 2015, he said that Corbyn represents a political "urge for change" and that Ed Miliband had failed to win the 2015 general election because Miliband and the party followed "the old way of doing things". In 2016, Bragg, along with numerous other celebrities, toured the UK to support Corbyn's bid to become Prime Minister. He also voiced his support for Remain in the 2016 EU referendum.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In August 2016, "The Times" reported that at the Edinburgh Book Festival, Bragg had said: "I worry about Jeremy that he's a kind of twentieth century Labour man", and that "we need to be reaching out to people". Described as a "previously loyal supporter", who has "lent his support to Mr Corbyn on numerous occasions since he became Labour leader", "The Times" quoted Bragg: "I don't have a simple answer. My hope is that the party does not split and that we resolve this stalemate". Corbyn at the time was campaigning in an enforced second leadership election in the summer of 2016.


title: Billy Bragg

text: After "The Times" article appeared, the singer tweeted that he had "joined the long list of people stitched up by the Murdoch papers" and accused the "Times" of "twisting my words to attack Corbyn", urging "don’t let Murdoch sow discord". "The Guardian" reproduced a quote from a recording of the event absent from "The Times" article: "It's a challenge. Labour has fires to fight on different fronts. This would be happening even without Corbyn if any of the other candidates had won last year, these problems would still be there". In August 2016, Bragg also endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election.


title: Billy Bragg

text: During the general election campaign in May 2017, Bragg added his signature to a letter published in "The Guardian" calling for Labour to withdraw its candidates in two constituencies; Brighton Pavilion and the Isle of Wight and potentially allowing the Green Party to defeat the Tories in both, where Labour were running second. The letter was also signed by Labour MP Clive Lewis, former policy chief Jon Cruddas, former shadow children's minister Tulip Siddiq and journalists Paul Mason and Owen Jones. The initiative was shut down by Jeremy Corbyn.


title: Billy Bragg

text: In June 2019, Bragg publicly criticised fellow singer-songwriter Morrissey for his recent political comments and endorsement of a far-right political party, and accused him of dragging the legacy of Johnny Marr and the Smiths "through the dirt".


title: The Beautiful South

text: The Beautiful South were an English pop rock group formed in 1988 by Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway, two former members of the Hull group The Housemartins, both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. Other members throughout the band's existence were former Housemartins roadie Sean Welch (bass), Dave Stead (drums) and Dave Rotheray (guitar). The band's original material was written by Heaton and Rotheray.


title: The Beautiful South

text: After the band's first album, "Welcome to the Beautiful South" (1989, recorded as a quintet), they were joined by a succession of female vocalists. All of the following artists performed lead and backing vocals alongside Heaton and Hemingway – Briana Corrigan for albums two and three after appearing as a guest vocalist on one, followed by Jacqui Abbott for the fourth to seventh albums, and finally Alison Wheeler for the final three Beautiful South albums.


title: The Beautiful South

text: The group were known for their wry and socially observant lyrics. They broke up in January 2007, claiming the split was due to "musical similarities", having sold around 15 million records worldwide.


title: The Beautiful South

text: Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway had initially come to attention as (respectively) the lead singer and "singing drummer" of the successful Hull jangle pop band The Housemartins, who had scored seven UK Top 40 singles and two Top 10 albums between 1986 and 1988. (Heaton was with the Housemartins for their entire existence; Hemingway joined in time for their second and final album.) The band was known for blending overt socialist politics and a form of Christianity, having baited the British monarchy, the building industry and South African apartheid in their songs as well as including gospel elements in their music. The Housemartins often claimed to have set a fixed lifespan for themselves, and the members duly brought the band to an end in 1988 at the height of its success. Heaton and Hemingway immediately began work on setting up a new band, naming it "The Beautiful South" as a sarcastic comment on their staunch Northern roots.


title: The Beautiful South

text: The third initial bandmember was Dave Rotheray, a songwriting guitarist who'd previously played with Hemingway in two other Hull bands, The Newpolitans and The Velvetones. At the time Rotheray was studying for a PhD at the University of Hull and living on Grafton Street, where Heaton also lived. Rotheray and Heaton became the songwriting team for The Beautiful South, which was conceived as a quintet with Heaton and Hemingway (who was no longer drumming) as the two lead singers. The core band was completed by Dave Stead (ex-Luddites/Vicious Circle) on drums, and former Housemartins roadie Sean Welch on bass guitar. Also important to the band's sound was studio keyboard player Damon Butcher — though never an official member of the group, he would end up playing virtually all the piano and keyboard parts on the band's albums.


title: The Beautiful South

text: Their first album "Welcome to the Beautiful South" was released in 1989, and promptly produced a Number 2 UK Singles Chart hit, "Song For Whoever". With the follow-up single "You Keep It All In" reaching number 8 and "I'll Sail This Ship Alone" reaching number 31, the band were soon set to equal or surpass the success of The Housemartins, while the songwriting built on and expanded the trenchant social critiques which the previous band had been known for (topics included nationalism, domestic violence, football hooliganism and the self-serving industry of love songs, and the album's disturbing cover art also drew attention). Northern Irish singer Briana Corrigan was featured as a background vocalist on the album. Her contributions proved so successful that she was soon promoted to full membership status, as the band's third vocalist.


title: The Beautiful South

text: In 1990, the Beautiful South released their second album, "Choke". Two singles—"My Book" and "Let Love Speak Up Itself"—charted outside the Top 40, but the album also provided the band's only Number 1 hit, a Hemingway/Corrigan duet called "A Little Time". The video, featuring the aftermath of a domestic fight, won the 1991 BRIT Award for Best Video.


title: The Beautiful South

text: The band's third album "0898 Beautiful South" followed in 1992. It provided another Top 20 hit in the shape of "Bell Bottomed Tear" as well as two further Top 30 hits, "Old Red Eyes Is Back" and "We Are Each Other", although a fourth single "36D" only placed in the Top 50. "We Are Each Other" also became the band's biggest hit in the United States, peaking at No. 10 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1992.


title: The Beautiful South

text: Both "Choke" and "0898 Beautiful South" illustrated the growing fullness of the band's sound. Both featured Pete Thoms and Gary Barnacle as regular contributors on brass and woodwind, and also featured Corrigan as lead vocalist on several tracks. Her contribution helped to characterise the bittersweet kitchen sink dramas played out in the band's often barbed songs, and allowed Heaton and Rotheray to explore and express female perspectives in their songwriting. However, the latter approach had mixed success, demonstrated later in 1992 when Corrigan chose to leave the band to pursue a solo career. Although her decision was partly prompted by a desire to record and promote her own material (which was not getting exposure within The Beautiful South), she had also had ethical disagreements over some of Heaton's lyrics, most notably "Mini-correct", "Worthless Lie" and the "0898 Beautiful South" single "36D", which criticised the British glamour industry via scathing comments about glamour models. Five years later, Hemingway would admit "we all agree that we should have targeted the media as sexist instead of blaming the girls for taking off their tops".


title: The Beautiful South

text: In 1994, St Helens supermarket shop-worker Jacqui Abbott was brought on board to fill in as the new third lead vocalist for the band. Heaton had heard her sing at an after-show party in St Helens and remembered her vocal talents. Heaton referred to her as "the lass from the glass"—a reference to the Pilkington factory in St Helens. Abbott's first album with the band was "Miaow" in the same year. Hits included "Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud)" and a cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'", previously popularised by Harry Nilsson.


title: The Beautiful South

text: November 1994 saw the release of "Carry On Up the Charts", a "best of" compilation consisting of the singles to date plus new track "One Last Love Song". Released at a time when the group's album sales had been waning, the album was a huge commercial success. It secured the Christmas number one spot on the charts and became the second-best selling album of the year. In 1995, the band was one of the support acts for R.E.M. on the British leg of their world tour. On this tour the band played an extra night when Oasis pulled out of their Huddersfield appearance. The Beautiful South played "Some Might Say" and dedicated it to any Oasis fans at the gig.


title: The Beautiful South

text: The 1996 album "Blue Is the Colour" sold over a million copies, and featured hit singles "Rotterdam" and "Don't Marry Her". The album demonstrated the band's gradual shift towards a country music sound, and was well received by the public and on BBC and commercial radio. In 1997, the Beautiful South headlined stadium concerts for the first and last time, in Huddersfield and at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London. Support for the Huddersfield concert was provided by Cast and the Lightning Seeds.


title: The Beautiful South

text: The album "Quench" (1998) was released with similar commercial success, again reaching number one in the UK album charts. "Perfect 10", the first single to be released from the album, also provided the band with further singles chart success. The album is also notable for being more uptempo, and being the first on which Heaton and Hemingway's former Housemartins colleague Norman Cook was used in a consultancy role.


title: The Beautiful South

text: Although 2000's "Painting It Red" album reached Number 2 in the UK charts, the band suffered difficulties in its promotion and in touring, and a substantial number of the CDs were faulty. Jacqui Abbott left the band in the same year, discouraged by the pressures of touring and needing to concentrate on looking after her son, who had just been diagnosed with autism. After completing their tour obligations, the band marked time with a second greatest-hits album ("Solid Bronze") in 2001, and took time off to refresh themselves. Heaton embarked on a solo career under the Biscuit Boy (a.k.a. Crakerman) alias and released the "Fat Chance" album in 2001. It did not sell well, despite being critically acclaimed, and was reissued under Heaton's own name the following year.


title: The Beautiful South

text: The Beautiful South regrouped in 2003, with new recruit Alison Wheeler taking on the role of female singer. This lineup recorded "Gaze" in 2003, following it with 2004's "Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs", an album of unusually arranged cover tunes including "Livin' Thing", "You're The One That I Want", "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "I'm Stone in Love With You". One track from the album, "This Old Skin", was presented as a cover of a song by an obscure band called "The Heppelbaums"; it was later revealed to be an original Heaton/Rotheray composition.


title: The Beautiful South

text: The final Beautiful South album "Superbi" was released on 15 May 2006. It was recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, a farm in Bakewell and at producer Ian Stanley's studio in Enniskerry, County Wicklow. It was mixed by Bill Price (Sex Pistols, Clash, Guns N' Roses). Paul Heaton's hand is recognisable in quirky song titles such as "The Rose of My Cologne", "The Cat Loves The Mouse" and "Never Lost A Chicken to a Fox". The first single, "Manchester", started off as a poem—"If rain makes Britain great, then Manchester is greater"—"a sodden tribute" to the city in which he now lived, said Heaton.


title: The Beautiful South

text: After a band meeting on 30 January 2007, they decided to split. They released a statement on 31 January 2007, in which they joked that their reasons for splitting were "musical similarities"—an ironic reference to "musical differences" which are often cited as the reason for a band's split. "The band would like to thank everyone for their 19 wonderful years in music", the statement also said.


title: The Beautiful South

text: In May 2007, the band's music was used in a jukebox musical entitled "The Slide" (book by Adrian Davis). It was premiered at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.


title: BMF (TV series)

text: BMF (or Black Mafia Family) is an American crime drama television series, which follows the Black Mafia Family, a drug trafficking and money laundering organization. The series premiered on September 26, 2021, on Starz. After the series premiere, the series was renewed for a second season which is set to premiere on January 6, 2023.


title: BMF (TV series)

text: "BMF" is inspired by the true story of two brothers who rose from the decaying streets of southwest Detroit in the late 1980s and gave birth to one of the most influential crime families in this country. Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory's charismatic leadership, Terry "Southwest T" Flenory's business acumen and the fraternal partnership's vision beyond the drug trade and into the world of hip hop would render the brothers iconic on a global level. Their unwavering belief in family loyalty would be the cornerstone of their partnership and the crux of their eventual estrangement. This is a story about love, betrayal, and thug-capitalism in the pursuit of the American dream.


title: BMF (TV series)

text: In July 2019, it was announced Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson had begun developing a television series revolving around Black Mafia Family, which he would executive produce for Starz. In April 2020, Starz greenlit the series. Production companies are slated to consist of Lionsgate Television and G-Unit Films and Television Inc. On September 30, 2021, Starz renewed the series for a second season only 4 days after the series' premiere. The second season is scheduled to premiere on January 6, 2023.


title: BMF (TV series)

text: In December 2020, Russell Hornsby and Steve Harris joined the cast of the series, with Kash Doll set to star in a recurring capacity. In January 2021, Demetrius Flenory Jr., Da'Vinchi, Michole Briana White, Ajiona Alexus, Eric Kofi-Abrefa and Myles Truitt joined the cast in starring roles. In March 2021, Snoop Dogg, La La Anthony and Serayah joined the cast in recurring capacity. In September 2021, Sean Michael Gloria was cast in a recurring role. In March 2022, La La Anthony had been promoted to series regular while Kelly Hu was cast as a new series regular and Christine Horn and Leslie Jones joined the cast in a recurring role for the second season.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: Akiva D. Schaffer (; born December 1, 1977) is an American film director, comedian, actor, and writer. He is a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island along with Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone. He began his career with The Lonely Island making videos for Channel 101. In 2005, "Saturday Night Live" hired the trio, with Schaffer joining as a writer. In their time at "SNL", The Lonely Island pioneered the digital short format, creating some of the most popular sketches of all time, including "Lazy Sunday", "I Just Had Sex", "I'm on a Boat", and "Dick in a Box". After "SNL", Schaffer went on to direct movies including "Hot Rod", "The Watch", "", and "". The Lonely Island has made albums such as "Incredibad", "Turtleneck & Chain", and "The Wack Album". Schaffer also produced a number of TV shows and movies, some of which include "MacGruber", "PEN15", "I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson", and "Palm Springs".


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: After college, he and his childhood friends, Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone, moved to Los Angeles and began making comedy movies. Theater director Tony Taccone brought home the film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", a choice the other men teased as being "too theatrical". The film, however, inspired Schaffer to write an overwrought play, in the style of Tennessee Williams, called "The Lonely Island", in reference to their apartment. The name eventually extended to the comedy group itself. On the Internet, Schaffer got his start directing The Lonely Island's "The 'Bu", the group's record-breaking contribution to Channel 101, which was a parody of "The OC" and starred Sarah Chalke as Melissa, as well as Samberg and Taccone. Schaffer has contributed to several other Channel 101 productions as part of the Lonely Island.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: In the fall of 2005, Schaffer was hired for "Saturday Night Live" where he directed, co-wrote, and edited the majority of the SNL Digital Shorts. Some notable shorts/songs include "Lazy Sunday", "I Just Had Sex", "Natalie's Rap", "Dick in a Box", "Peyton Manning for the United Way", "Iran So Far", "Jizz in My Pants", "Boombox", "I'm on a Boat", "Great Day", "Threw It on the Ground", "Jack Sparrow", "Like A Boss", "YOLO", "Semicolon", "Dear Sister", "Spring Break Anthem", "Shy Ronnie", "Ras Trent" and "Motherlover", the sequel to "Dick in a Box".


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: In 2007, Schaffer directed and acted in the film "Hot Rod", which starred Samberg, Taccone, Bill Hader, Danny McBride, Isla Fisher, Ian McShane, and Sissy Spacek, which was produced by "SNL"s Lorne Michaels.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: Schaffer directed the film "The Watch" starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade, and written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: The Lonely Island has released three albums ("Incredibad", "Turtleneck & Chain", "The Wack Album") along with two full soundtracks ("Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" and "The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience"). In 2014, the group co-wrote "Everything is Awesome", the theme song to the film, "The Lego Movie". It was nominated for Best Original Song which they performed at the 2015 Oscars. That same year, "Everything Is Awesome" was certified platinum by the RIAA, joining their previous platinum singles, "I'm on a Boat" (2×), "I Just Had Sex", "Jizz in My Pants", and the gold-certified single "Like a Boss".


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: Schaffer was credited as an executive producer on the film "MacGruber". The film was co-written and directed by Jorma Taccone.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: In 2016 Schaffer co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred in the Judd Apatow produced feature film, "". The film focuses on pop/rap superstar Conner4Real (Samberg), who goes into a major tailspin and watches his celebrity high life collapse after his new album fails to sell records.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: He also co-directed/created "Michael Bolton's Big, Sexy Valentine's Day Special" for Netflix with Scott Aukerman.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: Schaffer directed four music videos for the band We Are Scientists and one for the Eagles of Death Metal.


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: In 2018, Schaffer guest-starred on NBC sitcom "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", portraying Brett Booth in the episode "Show me Going".


title: Akiva Schaffer

text: The Lonely Island co-produced both seasons of "I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson", most episodes of which Schaffer has co-directed with Alice Mathias. Also in 2019, they released Netflix's "The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience", a visual poem about former Oakland A's legends Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. That summer, The Lonely Island embarked on their first ever live tour, instantly selling out venues across the United States and drawing some of the biggest crowds of the weekend at the Bonnaroo Festival and Milwaukee’s Summerfest.