1.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960
2.
Dmitri Shostakovich
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Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Russian pianist and composer of the Soviet period. He is regarded as one of the composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works. Shostakovichs orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti and his chamber output includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Born at Podolskaya street in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, Shostakovichs paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Polish Roman Catholic descent, but his immediate forebears came from Siberia. When his term of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia and he eventually became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the father, was born in exile in Narim in 1875 and studied physics and mathematics in Saint Petersburg University. He then went to work as an engineer under Dmitri Mendeleev at the Bureau of Weights, in 1903 he married another Siberian transplant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Russian Siberian native. Their son, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, displayed significant musical talent after he began lessons with his mother at the age of nine. In 1918 he wrote a march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors. In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov, Shostakovich also attended Alexander Ossovskys history of music classes. Steinberg tried to guide Shostakovich in the path of the great Russian composers and he also suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal, and initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major achievement was the First Symphony, written as his graduation piece at the age of nineteen. After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a career as concert pianist and composer. He nevertheless won a mention at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. He explained the disappointment at the competition to suffering from appendicitis and he later had his appendix removed in April 1927
3.
King's College, Cambridge
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Kings College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Formally The Kings College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, Kings was founded in 1441 by Henry VI, soon after he had founded its sister college in Eton. However, the Kings plans for the college were disrupted by the Wars of the Roses and resultant scarcity of funds, and his eventual deposition. Little progress was made on the project until in 1508 Henry VII began to take an interest in the college, the building of the colleges chapel, begun in 1446, was finally finished in 1544 during the reign of Henry VIII. Kings College Chapel is regarded as one of the greatest examples of late Gothic English architecture and it has the worlds largest fan-vault, and the chapels stained-glass windows and wooden chancel screen are considered some of the finest from their era. The building is seen as emblematic of Cambridge, the chapels choir, composed of male students at Kings and choristers from the nearby Kings College School, is one of the most accomplished and renowned in the world. Every year on Christmas Eve the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is broadcast from the chapel to millions of listeners worldwide, on 12 February 1441 King Henry VI issued letters patent founding a college at Cambridge for a rector and twelve poor scholars. This college was to be named after Saint Nicholas, upon whose saint day Henry had been born, William Millington, a fellow of Clare College was installed as the rector. Henry directed the publication of the colleges first governing statutes in 1443 and his original modest plan for the college was abandoned, and provision was instead made for community of seventy fellows and scholars headed by a provost. Henry had belatedly learned of William of Wykehams 1379 twin foundation of New College, Oxford and Winchester College, the King had in fact founded Eton College on 11 October 1440, but up until 1443 Kings and Eton had been unconnected. However, that year the relationship between the two was remodelled upon Wykehams successful institutions and the sizes of the colleges scaled up to surpass Wykehams. A second royal charter which re-founded the now much larger Kings College was issued on 12 July 1443, members of Kings were to be recruited entirely from Eton. Membership of Kings was a vocation for life, scholars were eligible for election to the fellowship after three years of probation, irrespective of whether they had achieved a degree or not. In fact, undergraduates at Kings – unlike those other colleges – did not even have to pass university examinations to achieve their BA degree. The gateway and south range of Old Court had already been built, Henrys grand design for the new college buildings survives in the 1448 Founders Will which describes his vision in detail. Behind the hall and buttery was to be another courtyard, the first stone of the chapel was laid by the King on St James Day,25 July 1446. However, within a decade Henrys engagement in the Wars of the Roses meant that funds began to dry up, work proceeded sporadically until a generation later in 1508 when the Founders nephew Henry VII was prevailed upon to finish the shell of the building. The interior had to wait a further generation until completion by 1544 with the aid of Henry VIII, the chapel would be the only part of Henry VIs Founders Will to be realised
4.
University of Cambridge
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The University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, England, often regarded as one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Founded in 1209 and given royal status by King Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople, the two ancient universities share many common features and are often referred to jointly as Oxbridge. Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 constituent colleges, Cambridge University Press, a department of the university, is the worlds oldest publishing house and the second-largest university press in the world. The university also operates eight cultural and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridges libraries hold a total of around 15 million books, eight million of which are in Cambridge University Library, a legal deposit library. In the year ended 31 July 2015, the university had an income of £1.64 billion. The central university and colleges have an endowment of around £5.89 billion. The university is linked with the development of the high-tech business cluster known as Silicon Fen. It is a member of associations and forms part of the golden triangle of leading English universities and Cambridge University Health Partners. As of 2017, Cambridge is ranked the fourth best university by three ranking tables and no other institution in the world ranks in the top 10 for as many subjects. Cambridge is consistently ranked as the top university in the United Kingdom, the university has educated many notable alumni, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, politicians, lawyers, philosophers, writers, actors, and foreign Heads of State. Ninety-five Nobel laureates, fifteen British prime ministers and ten Fields medalists have been affiliated with Cambridge as students, faculty, by the late 12th century, the Cambridge region already had a scholarly and ecclesiastical reputation, due to monks from the nearby bishopric church of Ely. The University of Oxford went into suspension in protest, and most scholars moved to such as Paris, Reading. After the University of Oxford reformed several years later, enough remained in Cambridge to form the nucleus of the new university. A bull in 1233 from Pope Gregory IX gave graduates from Cambridge the right to teach everywhere in Christendom, the colleges at the University of Cambridge were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself, the colleges were endowed fellowships of scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels, the hostels were gradually absorbed by the colleges over the centuries, but they have left some indicators of their time, such as the name of Garret Hostel Lane. Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, Cambridges first college, the most recently established college is Robinson, built in the late 1970s
5.
NME
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New Musical Express is a British music journalism magazine published since 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. It started as a newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s. An online version of NME, NME. com, was launched in 1996 and it became the worlds biggest standalone music site, with over seven million users per month. With newsstand sales falling across the UK magazine sector, the paid circulation in the first half of 2014 was 15,830. In 2013, the list of NMEs The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, NME magazine was relaunched in September 2015 as a nationally distributed free publication. NMEs headquarters are in Southwark, London, England, the brands editor-in-chief is Mike Williams, who replaced Krissi Murison in 2012. The paper was established in 1952, the Accordion Times and Musical Express was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, for the sum of £1,000, just 15 minutes before it was due to be officially closed. It was relaunched as the New Musical Express, and was published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the US magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart, the first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was Here in My Heart by Al Martino, during the 1960s the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The NME circulation peaked under Andy Gray, Editor 1957–1972, with a figure of 306,881 for the period from January to June 1964, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists appeared at the NME Poll Winners Concert. The concert also featured a ceremony where the winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners Concerts took place between 1959 and 1972, from 1964 onwards they were filmed, edited and transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place. The latter part of the 1960s saw the chart the rise of psychedelia. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as rock, in early 1972 the paper found itself on the verge of closure by its owner IPC. Alan Smith was made editor and in 1972 was told by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure, according to The Economist, the New Musical Express started to champion underground, up-and-coming music. NME became the gateway to a more rebellious world
6.
Brian Eno
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Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, RDI is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer, writer, and visual artist. He is best known for his work in rock, ambient, pop. He has been described as one of musics most influential. Born in Suffolk, Eno studied painting and experimental music at art school in the late 1960s before joining glam rock group Roxy Music as synthesizer player in 1971. He took part in frequent collaborations with such as Robert Fripp, Cluster, David Bowie on his Berlin Trilogy. In subsequent decades, Eno continued to record albums, collaborate, and produce for other artists, including U2, Coldplay, Laurie Anderson, James, Grace Jones. He continues to release music, produce, and write, the unusual surname Eno, long established in Suffolk, derives from the French Huguenot surname Hennot. Maria had already had a daughter, and together William and Maria would have two children, Roger and Arlette. In school, Eno used a tape recorder as an instrument and experimented with his first, sometimes improvisational. From that collaboration, he involved in Cornelius Cardews Scratch Orchestra. The first released recording in which Eno played is the Deutsche Grammophon edition of Cardews The Great Learning, Another early recording was the Berlin Horse soundtrack, by Malcom Le Grice, a nine-minute,2 ×16 mm-double-projection, released in 1970 and presented in 1971. He then progressed to appearing on stage as a member of the group. He quit the band on completing the tour for the bands second album, For Your Pleasure, because of disagreements with lead singer Bryan Ferry. If Id walked ten yards further on the platform, or missed that train, or been in the next carriage, during his period with Roxy Music, and for his first three solo albums, he was credited on records only as Eno. Eno embarked on a career almost immediately. Between 1973 and 1977 he created four albums of electronically inflected art pop, Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain, Another Green World, and Before and After Science. Tiger Mountain contains the galloping Third Uncle, one of Enos best-known songs and these four albums were remastered and reissued in 2004 by Virgins Astralwerks label. Due to Enos decision not to add any extra tracks of the original material, in 1972, Eno and Robert Fripp developed the Frippertronics tape delay system, a year later, the pair released the proto-ambient album
7.
David Bowie
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David Robert Jones, known professionally as David Bowie, was an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a figure in music for over five decades, regarded by critics and musicians as an innovator. His career was marked by reinvention and visual presentation, his music, during his lifetime, his record sales, estimated at 140 million worldwide, made him one of the worlds best-selling music artists. In the UK, he was awarded nine platinum album certifications, eleven gold and eight silver, in the US, he received five platinum and seven gold certifications. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, born in Brixton, South London, Bowie developed an interest in music as a child, eventually studying art, music and design before embarking on a professional career as a musician in 1963. Space Oddity became his first top-five entry on the UK Singles Chart after its release in July 1969, after a period of experimentation, he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with his flamboyant and androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. The character was spearheaded by the success of his single Starman and album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, in 1976, Bowie starred in the cult film The Man Who Fell to Earth and released Station to Station. Heroes and Lodger followed, each reached the UK top five. He then reached his peak in 1983 with Lets Dance. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Bowie continued to experiment with styles, including industrial. He stopped concert touring after 2004, and his last live performance was at a charity event in 2006, in 2013, Bowie returned from a decade-long recording hiatus with the release of The Next Day. He remained musically active until he died of cancer two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar. David Robert Jones was born on 8 January 1947, in Brixton, south London and his mother, Margaret Mary Peggy, was born in Kent, and had Irish ancestry, she worked as a waitress. His father, Haywood Stenton John Jones, from Yorkshire, was an officer for the childrens charity Barnardos. The family lived at 40 Stansfield Road, near the border of the south London areas of Brixton, Bowie attended Stockwell Infants School until he was six years old, acquiring a reputation as a gifted and single-minded child—and a defiant brawler. In 1953, Bowie moved with his family to the suburb of Bromley and his voice was considered adequate by the school choir, and he demonstrated above-average abilities in playing the recorder. Upon listening to Little Richards song Tutti Frutti, Bowie would later say, presleys impact on him was likewise emphatic, I saw a cousin of mine dance to. Hound Dog and I had never seen her get up and be moved so much by anything and it really impressed me, the power of the music
8.
Gloucestershire
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Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the fertile valley of the River Severn. The county town is the city of Gloucester, and other towns include Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud. Gloucestershire is a historic county mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 10th century, though the areas of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire originally included Bristol, then a small town. The local rural community moved to the city, and Bristols population growth accelerated during the industrial revolution. Bristol became a county in its own right, separate from Gloucestershire and it later became part of the administrative County of Avon from 1974 to 1996. Upon the abolition of Avon in 1996, the north of Bristol became a unitary authority area of South Gloucestershire and is now part of the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire. The official former postal county abbreviation was Glos, rather than the frequently used but erroneous Gloucs. or Glouc. In July 2007, Gloucestershire suffered the worst flooding in recorded British history, the RAF conducted the largest peace time domestic operation in its history to rescue over 120 residents from flood affected areas. The damage was estimated at over £2 billion, the county recovered rapidly from the disaster, investing in attracting tourists to visit the many sites and diverse range of shops in the area. This is a chart of trend of gross value added of Gloucestershire at current basic prices published by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling. Gloucestershire has mainly comprehensive schools with seven schools, two are in Stroud, one in Cheltenham and four in Gloucester. There are 42 state secondary schools, not including sixth form colleges, all but about two schools in each district have a sixth form, but the Forest of Dean only has two schools with sixth forms. All schools in South Gloucestershire have sixth forms, each has campuses at multiple locations throughout the county. Most of the old market towns have parish churches, at Deerhurst near Tewkesbury, and Bishops Cleeve near Cheltenham, there are churches of special interest on account of the pre-Norman work they retain. These are, however, adjudged to be of English workmanship, other notable buildings include Calcot Barn in Calcot, a relic of Kingswood Abbey. Thornbury Castle is a Tudor country house, the pretensions of which evoked the jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey against its builder, Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, near Cheltenham is the 15th-century mansion of Southam de la Bere, of timber and stone. Memorials of the de la Bere family appear in the church at Cleeve, the mansion contains a tiled floor from Hailes Abbey
9.
Cremation
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Cremation is the combustion, vaporization and oxidation of cadavers to basic chemical compounds, such as gases, ashes and mineral fragments retaining the appearance of dry bone. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite as an alternative to the interment of a dead body in a coffin. Cremated remains, which do not constitute a risk, may be buried or interred in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be retained by relatives. Cremation is not an alternative to a funeral, but rather an alternative to burial or other forms of disposal, some families prefer to have the deceased present at the funeral with cremation to follow, others prefer that the cremation occur prior to the funeral or memorial service. In many countries, cremation is usually done in a crematorium, some countries, such as India and Nepal, prefer different methods, such as open-air cremation. Cremation dates from at least 20,000 years ago in the record, with the Mungo Lady. Alternative death rituals emphasizing one method of disposal of a body—inhumation, cremation, in the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the Neolithic era. Cultural groups had their own preferences and prohibitions, the ancient Egyptians developed an intricate transmigration of soul theology, which prohibited cremation. This was also widely adopted used by Semitic peoples, the Babylonians, according to Herodotus, embalmed their dead. Early Persians practiced cremation, but this became prohibited during the Zoroastrian Period, phoenicians practiced both cremation and burial. From the Cycladic civilisation in 3000 BCE until the Sub-Mycenaean era in 1200–1100 BCE, Cremation appeared around the 12th century BCE, constituting a new practice of burial, probably influenced by Anatolia. Until the Christian era, when inhumation again became the burial practice. Romans practiced both, with cremation generally associated with military honors, in Europe, there are traces of cremation dating to the Early Bronze Age in the Pannonian Plain and along the middle Danube. The custom became dominant throughout Bronze Age Europe with the Urnfield culture, in the Iron Age, inhumation again becomes more common, but cremation persisted in the Villanovan culture and elsewhere. Homers account of Patroclus burial describes cremation with subsequent burial in a tumulus, similar to Urnfield burials, criticism of burial rites is a common form of aspersion by competing religions and cultures, including the association of cremation with fire sacrifice or human sacrifice. Hinduism and Jainism are notable for not only allowing but prescribing cremation, Cremation in India is first attested in the Cemetery H culture, considered the formative stage of Vedic civilization. The Rigveda contains a reference to the practice, in RV10.15.14. Cremation remained common, but not universal, in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome, according to Cicero, in Rome, inhumation was considered the more archaic rite, while the most honoured citizens were most typically cremated—especially upper classes and members of imperial families
10.
National Diet Library
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The National Diet Library is the only national library in Japan. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the National Diet of Japan in researching matters of public policy, the library is similar in purpose and scope to the United States Library of Congress. The National Diet Library consists of two facilities in Tokyo and Kyoto, and several other branch libraries throughout Japan. The Diets power in prewar Japan was limited, and its need for information was correspondingly small, the original Diet libraries never developed either the collections or the services which might have made them vital adjuncts of genuinely responsible legislative activity. Until Japans defeat, moreover, the executive had controlled all political documents, depriving the people and the Diet of access to vital information. The U. S. occupation forces under General Douglas MacArthur deemed reform of the Diet library system to be an important part of the democratization of Japan after its defeat in World War II. In 1946, each house of the Diet formed its own National Diet Library Standing Committee, hani Gorō, a Marxist historian who had been imprisoned during the war for thought crimes and had been elected to the House of Councillors after the war, spearheaded the reform efforts. Hani envisioned the new body as both a citadel of popular sovereignty, and the means of realizing a peaceful revolution, the National Diet Library opened in June 1948 in the present-day State Guest-House with an initial collection of 100,000 volumes. The first Librarian of the Diet Library was the politician Tokujirō Kanamori, the philosopher Masakazu Nakai served as the first Vice Librarian. In 1949, the NDL merged with the National Library and became the national library in Japan. At this time the collection gained a million volumes previously housed in the former National Library in Ueno. In 1961, the NDL opened at its present location in Nagatachō, in 1986, the NDLs Annex was completed to accommodate a combined total of 12 million books and periodicals. The Kansai-kan, which opened in October 2002 in the Kansai Science City, has a collection of 6 million items, in May 2002, the NDL opened a new branch, the International Library of Childrens Literature, in the former building of the Imperial Library in Ueno. This branch contains some 400,000 items of literature from around the world. Though the NDLs original mandate was to be a library for the National Diet. In the fiscal year ending March 2004, for example, the library reported more than 250,000 reference inquiries, in contrast, as Japans national library, the NDL collects copies of all publications published in Japan. The NDL has an extensive collection of some 30 million pages of documents relating to the Occupation of Japan after World War II. This collection include the documents prepared by General Headquarters and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the Far Eastern Commission, the NDL maintains a collection of some 530,000 books and booklets and 2 million microform titles relating to the sciences
11.
Paul McCartney
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Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained fame with the rock band the Beatles, largely considered the most popular. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most celebrated of the post-war era, after the bands break-up, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine. McCartney has been recognised as one of the most successful composers and performers of all time, More than 2,200 artists have covered his Beatles song Yesterday, more than any other copyrighted song in history. Wings 1977 release Mull of Kintyre is one of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK.5 million RIAA-certified units in the United States. McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr all received The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1965, McCartney has released an extensive catalogue of songs as a solo artist and has composed classical and electronic music. He has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to subjects as animal rights, seal hunting, land mines, vegetarianism, poverty. He has married three times and is the father of five children, James Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary Patricia, had qualified to practise as a nurse. His father, James McCartney, was absent from his sons birth due to his work as a firefighter during World War II. Paul has one brother, Michael. Though the children were baptised in their mothers Catholic faith, their father was a former Protestant turned agnostic, McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton. In 1953, with three others out of ninety examinees, he passed the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute. In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his home in Speke. The two quickly became friends, McCartney later admitted, I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger. McCartneys mother Mary was a midwife and the primary wage earner, her earnings enabled them to move into 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton. She rode a bicycle to her patients, McCartney described an early memory of her leaving at about three in the morning streets, on 31 October 1956, when McCartney was fourteen, his mother died of an embolism. McCartneys loss later became a point of connection with John Lennon, whose mother, McCartneys father was a trumpet player and pianist, who had led Jim Macs Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept a piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised Paul to take piano lessons
