1.
Album
–
Album, is a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item on CD, record, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century album sales have mostly focused on compact disc and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used from the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl, an album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed live, the majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, historically, the term album was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, the LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was adopted by the industry as a standard format for the album. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, the term album had been carried forward from the early nineteenth century when it had been used for collections of short pieces of music. Later, collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums, as part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some commenters have declared that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs, Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yess Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks. There are no rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as albums. These are known as box sets, material is stored on an album in sections termed tracks, normally 11 or 12 tracks. A music track is a song or instrumental recording. The term is associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks. When vinyl records were the medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves
2.
The Fall (band)
–
The Fall are an English post-punk band, formed in 1976 in Prestwich, Lancashire. They have undergone many line up changes, with Mark E. Smith as the founder, the Falls long term musicians have included bassist Steve Hanley, drummers Paul Hanley and Karl Burns, and guitarists Marc Riley, Craig Scanlon and Brix Smith. First associated with the late 1970s punk movement, the Falls music has undergone numerous stylistic changes, while the Fall have never achieved widespread success beyond minor hit singles in the late 1980s, they have maintained a strong cult following. The Fall have been called the most prolific band of the British post-punk movement and they have released thirty-one studio albums as of 2015, and more than three times that number when live albums and compilations are taken into account. The Fall were formed in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1976 by Mark E. Smith, Martin Bramah, Una Baines, the four friends would meet to read their writings to each other and take drugs. Their musical influences included Can, The Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart and garage bands like The Monks. The members were devoted readers, with Smith citing H. P, lovecraft, Raymond Chandler and Malcolm Lowry among his favourite writers. After seeing the Sex Pistols play Manchesters Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, Smith wanted to name the group The Outsiders, but Friel came up with the name The Fall after a 1956 novel by Albert Camus. Smith became the singer, Bramah the guitarist, Friel played bass guitar and Baines bashed biscuit tins instead of drums, unable to afford buying a drum kit, the Falls music was intentionally raw and repetitive. The song Repetition, declaring that weve repetition in the music, the group played its first concert on 23 May 1977 at the North West Arts basement. The bands first drummer was remembered only as Dave or Steve for thirty-four years, Ormrod lasted just one show, at least in part due to political differences with the other members of the group. He was replaced by Karl Burns, whom Friel played with in a band Nuclear Angel, the Fall soon caught attention of Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon, who funded their first recording session. And in November 1977 they recorded material for their debut EP, Boon planned to release the EP on his New Hormones label, but after discovering that he could not afford to release the EP, he gave the tapes back to the group. The Falls line-up underwent first drastic changes in 1977–78, kay Carroll, Una Bainess friend and colleague at the psychiatric hospital, became the groups manager and occasional backing vocalist, as well as Smiths girlfriend. Friel, unhappy with Carrolls management, left in December 1977 and he was briefly replaced by Jonnie Brown and later Eric McGann. 16-year-old Marc Riley, the roadie, was eventually recruited to the group to play bass guitar. Finally was released in August 1978 on Step Forward Records, the single Its the New Thing followed in November 1978, and in December The Fall recorded their debut album Live at the Witch Trials, which was released in March 1979. Burns quit the group shortly after the album was recorded, and was replaced by Mike Leigh from Rockin Ricky, a cabaret band
3.
Manchester
–
Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 514,414 as of 2013. It lies within the United Kingdoms second-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.55 million, Manchester is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east and an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation. The local authority is Manchester City Council and it was historically a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated during the 20th century. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a township but began to expand at an astonishing rate around the turn of the 19th century. Manchesters unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment, in 2014, the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked Manchester as a beta world city, the highest-ranked British city apart from London. Manchester is the third-most visited city in the UK and it is notable for its architecture, culture, musical exports, media links, scientific and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the worlds first inter-city passenger railway station and in the city scientists first split the atom, the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are generally thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, both meanings are preserved in languages derived from Common Brittonic, mam meaning breast in Irish and mother in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Salford and Stretford. Central Manchester has been settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell, much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North. Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor, founded and constructed a church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral, the premises of the college house Chethams School of Music. The library, which opened in 1653 and is open to the public today, is the oldest free public reference library in the United Kingdom. Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282, around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the regions textile industry
4.
The Smiths
–
The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. The band consisted of vocalist Morrissey, guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist Andy Rourke, critics have called them the most important alternative rock band to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 1980s. The NME named the Smiths the most influential artist ever in a 2002 poll, four of their albums appeared on Rolling Stones list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. They have also released several compilations, and numerous non-LP singles, the Smiths had several singles reach the UK top twenty and all four of their studio albums reached the UK top five, including one which topped the charts. They won a significant following and remain cult favourites, although they had limited success outside the UK while they were still together. The band broke up in 1987 and have turned down offers to reunite. The bands focus on a guitar, bass, and drum sound, Marrs guitar-playing on his Rickenbacker often had a jangly sound reminiscent of Roger McGuinn of the Byrds. Marrs guitar-playing influenced later Manchester bands, including the Stone Roses, Morrissey and Marrs songs combined themes about ordinary people with complex, literate lyrics delivered by Morrissey with a mordant sense of humour. In 2014 and 2015, they were nominated for induction into the Rock, on 31 August 1978, Morrissey was briefly introduced to the 14-year-old Johnny Marr by mutual acquaintances Billy Duffy and Howard Bates at a Patti Smith gig held at Manchesters Apollo Theatre. According to Morrissey, We got on absolutely famously and we were very similar in drive. Conversing, the two found that they were fans of many of the same bands, the next day, Morrissey phoned Marr to confirm that he would be interested in forming a band with him. A few days later, Morrissey and Marr held their first rehearsal in Marrs rented attic room in Bowdon, the next song that they worked on was titled The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, which again was based on lyrics produced by Morrissey. Marr included a tempo which was based on the Patti Smith song Kimberly, the third track that the duo worked on was Suffer Little Children. Around the time of the formation, Morrissey decided that he would be publicly known only by his surname. In 1983 he forbade those around him using the name of Steven. After remaining with the band for rehearsals, Pomfret departed un-amicably. He was replaced by the bass player Dale Hibbert, who worked at Manchesters Decibel Studios and it was through Hibbert that the Smiths were able to record their first demo at Decibel, doing so one night in August 1982. Aided by drummer Simon Wolstencroft, whom Marr had worked with in Freak Party, meanwhile, Morrissey took the demo recording to Factory Records, but Factorys Tony Wilson wasnt interested
5.
Factory Records
–
Like the label 4AD Records, Factory Records used a creative team which gave the label and the artists recording for it a particular sound and image. The label employed a unique cataloguing system that gave a not just to its musical releases. At that time there was a label in Manchester called Rabid Records, run by Tosh Ryan. It had several successful acts, including Slaughter & The Dogs, John Cooper Clarke, after his seminal TV series So It Goes, Tony Wilson was interested in the way Rabid Records ran, and was convinced that the real money and power were in album sales. With a lot of discussion, Tony Wilson, Rob Gretton and Alan Erasmus set up Factory Records, the Factory name was first used for a club in May of that year, which featured local bands including The Durutti Column, Cabaret Voltaire from Sheffield, and Joy Division. Peter Saville designed advertising for the club, and in September Factory released an EP of music by acts who had played at the club called A Factory Sample, in 1978, Wilson compered the new wave afternoon at Deeply Vale Festival. The Factory label set up an office in Erasmus home on the first floor of 86 Palatine Road, singles followed by A Certain Ratio and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The first Factory LP, Joy Divisions Unknown Pleasures, was released in June, in January 1980, The Return of the Durutti Column was released, the first in a long series of releases by guitarist Vini Reilly. In May, Joy Division singer Ian Curtis committed suicide shortly before a tour of the USA. The following month saw Joy Divisions single Love Will Tear Us Apart reach the UK top twenty, in late 1980, the remaining members of Joy Division decided to continue as New Order. Hannett left the label, as he had wanted to open a studio instead. Saville also quit as a due to problems with payments. Wilson, Erasmus and Gretton formed Factory Communications Ltd, the Haçienda opened in May 1982. Adjusting bar prices failed to help matters as by the crowds were increasingly preferring ecstasy to alcohol. Therefore the Haçienda ended up costing tens of thousands of pounds every month, in 1983 New Orders Blue Monday became an international chart hit. Saville noted that nobody at Factory expected Blue Monday to be a successful record at all. 1985 saw the first release by Happy Mondays, New Order and Happy Mondays became the most successful bands on the label, bankrolling a host of other projects. Factory, and the Haçienda, became a hub of the emerging techno and acid house genres
6.
John Peel
–
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE, known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini described Peel as the most important man in music for about a dozen years. In 2012 he was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles Sgt, peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. Another popular feature of his shows was the annual Festive Fifty countdown of his listeners favourite records of the year. Peel appeared occasionally on British television as one of the presenters of Top of the Pops in the 1980s and he became popular with the audience of BBC Radio 4 for his Home Truths programme, which ran from the 1990s, featuring unusual stories from listeners domestic lives. John Peel was born in Heswall Cottage Hospital in Heswall on the Wirral Peninsula, near Liverpool, the solitary Peel was an avid radio listener and record collector from an early age, cutting his teeth on fare offered by the American Forces Network and Radio Luxembourg. He later recalled an early desire to host a programme of his own so that I could play music that I heard. In his posthumously published autobiography, Peel revealed that he had been raped by an older pupil while at Shrewsbury, whilst in Rochdale Monday to Friday, he stayed in a bed-and-breakfast in the area of Milkstone Road and Drake Street and developed long-term associations with Rochdale through the years. In 1960, aged 21, he went to the United States to work for a producer who had business dealings with his father. Once this job finished, he took a number of others, including working as an insurance salesman. While in Dallas, Texas, where the company he worked for was based, he conversed with the presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. Johnson, who were touring the city during the 1960 election campaign and he later phoned in the story to the Liverpool Echo. While working for the company, Peel wrote programs for punched card entry for an IBM1410 computer. There, he presented the second hour of the Monday night programme Kats Karavan, following this, and as Beatlemania hit the United States, Peel got a job with the Dallas radio station KLIF as the official Beatles correspondent on the strength of his connection to Liverpool. He later worked for KOMA in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, until 1965 when he moved to KMEN in San Bernardino, California, using the name John Ravencroft to present the breakfast show. While in Dallas, in 1965, he married his first wife, Shirley Anne Milburn, then aged 15, the marriage was never happy and although she accompanied Peel back to Britain in 1967, they were soon separated. The divorce became final in 1973, Shirley Anne Milburn later took her own life. Peel returned to England in early 1967 and found work with the pirate radio station Radio London
7.
Nuremberg
–
Nuremberg is a city on the river Pegnitz and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia, about 170 kilometres north of Munich. It is the second-largest city in Bavaria, and the largest in Franconia, the population as of February 2015, is 517,498, which makes it Germanys fourteenth-largest city. The urban area also includes Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach with a population of 763,854. The European Metropolitan Area Nuremberg has ca.3.5 million inhabitants, Nuremberg was, according to the first documentary mention of the city in 1050, the location of an Imperial castle between the East Franks and the Bavarian March of the Nordgau. From 1050 to 1571, the city expanded and rose dramatically in importance due to its location on key trade routes, Nuremberg is often referred to as having been the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly because Imperial Diet and courts met at Nuremberg Castle. The Diets of Nuremberg were an important part of the structure of the empire. The increasing demand of the court and the increasing importance of the city attracted increased trade. Nuremberg soon became, with Augsburg, one of the two great trade centers on the route from Italy to Northern Europe. In 1298, the Jews of the town were accused of having desecrated the host, behind the massacre of 1298 was also the desire to combine the northern and southern parts of the city, which were divided by the Pegnitz. The Jews of the German lands suffered many massacres during the plague years, in 1349, Nurembergs Jews were subjected to a pogrom. They were burned at the stake or expelled, and a marketplace was built over the former Jewish quarter, the plague returned to the city in 1405,1435,1437,1482,1494,1520 and 1534. Charles was the patron of the Frauenkirche, built between 1352 and 1362, where the Imperial court worshipped during its stays in Nuremberg. Charles IV conferred upon the city the right to conclude alliances independently, frequent fights took place with the burgraves without, however, inflicting lasting damage upon the city. Through these and other acquisitions the city accumulated considerable territory, the Hussite Wars, recurrence of the Black Death in 1437, and the First Margrave War led to a severe fall in population in the mid-15th century. During the Middle Ages, Nurembergs literary culture was rich, varied, the cultural flowering of Nuremberg, in the 15th and 16th centuries, made it the centre of the German Renaissance. In 1525, Nuremberg accepted the Protestant Reformation, and in 1532, during the 1552 revolution against Charles V, Nuremberg tried to purchase its neutrality, but the city was attacked without a declaration of war and was forced into a disadvantageous peace. The state of affairs in the early 16th century, increased trade routes elsewhere, frequent quartering of Imperial, Swedish and League soldiers, the financial costs of the war and the cessation of trade caused irreparable damage to the city and a near-halving of the population. In 1632, the city, occupied by the forces of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was besieged by the army of Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein, the city declined after the war and recovered its importance only in the 19th century, when it grew as an industrial centre
8.
NME
–
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
9.
Munich
–
Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
[3]
