Geezer Butler
Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler is an English musician and songwriter. Butler is best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, he has recorded and performed with Heaven & Hell, GZR, Ozzy Osbourne. He serves as bassist of Deadland Ritual. Butler received the nickname "Geezer" at age eight, because he "used to call everybody Geezer" at school. "It was just a slang term for a man." Butler grew up in a working-class Irish Catholic family and was influenced by the writing of Aleister Crowley as a teenager. Butler formed his first band, Rare Breed, in the autumn of 1967, with John "Ozzy" Osbourne soon joining as lead vocalist. Butler dated a girl who lived near Tony Iommi, Iommi's earliest memories of Butler involved seeing him walking past his house in Birmingham quite to visit her. Iommi and Butler became acquainted when their bands played at a nearby nightclub. Separated for a time and Butler reunited in the blues foursome, Polka Tulk, along with guitarist Iommi and drummer Bill Ward.
They renamed their band Earth, but because a band existed in the small-time English circuit with the same name, they soon changed the name again to Black Sabbath in early 1969. Inspired by John Lennon, Butler played rhythm guitar in his pre-Sabbath days, including with Rare Breed; when Sabbath was formed, Iommi made it clear that he did not want to play with another guitarist, so Butler moved to bass. Butler lists Jack Bruce of Cream as his biggest influence as a bassist. Iommi described Butler as being "from another planet" in the band's early days. At the time Black Sabbath was formed, Butler was studying to become an accountant, this training resulted in him managing the band's finances in the early days. Butler left Black Sabbath during the recording of their 1980 album Heaven and Hell as he dealt with the divorce from his first wife; the album was recorded with bassist Craig Gruber but Butler returned to the band at the last minute and re-recorded the bass parts prior to release. He again left the band in 1984 after touring in support of their 1983 album, Born Again, though he returned months as the band attempted a comeback with vocalist David Donato.
In 1988 he joined his former Sabbath bandmate Osbourne to take part in the No Rest for the Wicked World Tour. Butler re-joined Black Sabbath in 1991 for the reunion of the Mob Rules line-up, but again quit the group after the Cross Purposes tour in 1994. In 1995 Butler joined with Osbourne to play on the Ozzmosis album. After recording Ozzmosis, he formed G/Z/R, issuing Plastic Planet in 1995, his next solo album, Black Science, followed in 1997. Butler returned to Sabbath once more for the 1997 edition of Ozzfest, has remained with the band since. In 2005 he released his third solo album. In October 2006 it was announced that Butler, along with Tony Iommi, would be reforming the Dehumanizer-era Black Sabbath line-up with Vinny Appice and Ronnie James Dio, under the name Heaven & Hell to differentiate between the reunited touring band fronted by Osbourne, the current Sabbath line-up, he recorded and toured for the album "13" and the subsequent tour, reaching an end for the final tour in 2017. Butler is married to Gloria Butler, who managed Hell.
He shares his Los Angeles home with several cats, of whom he has posted pictures on his website. His son, Biff Butler, was the frontman in the nu metal band Apartment 26. Butler's other son James resides in London. Butler is a lifelong supporter of Aston Villa Football Club, during Black Sabbath's induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Butler is heard shouting "Up the Villa" as the members of the band left the stage. In an interview for the Aston Villa FC YouTube channel, he stated that Villa legend Peter McParland is his "all-time hero". According to Ozzy Osbourne's autobiography I Am Ozzy, Geezer "never uses foul language." Butler was raised on a vegetarian diet and is now a vegan, appeared in an advertisement for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2009. He urged fans to boycott Mason until they remove foie gras from their shelves. Butler said, "I've seen some outrageous things in my time, but watching those poor birds suffer so that their diseased livers can be sold on your shop floor is horrific!"In January 2015, Butler was detained after a bar brawl in Death Valley and charged with misdemeanor assault, public intoxication and vandalism.
He was released following a citation. In 2016 he opened up about the event: "This guy started mouthing off about something, he was, some drunken Nazi bloke. He started going on about Jews and everything - Jews this, Jews that. My missus is Jewish and I'd just had enough, me hand sort of met his chin. I whacked him one." Butler is noted as being one of the first bassists to use a wah pedal and to down-tune his instrument, as exemplified on Black Sabbath's Master of Reality album, to match Iommi who had started tuning his guitar to C#. During the band's Ozzy Osbourne era, Butler wrote all of the band's lyrics, drawing upon his fascination with religion, science-fiction and horror, musings on the darker side of human nature that posed a constant threat of global annihilation. Butler is regarded as one of the most influential bassists in heavy metal. Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big said: "He’s a founding father of a whole genre of music and a man who set the bar early on to be such an integral part of the sound and song structure of Sabbath".
In Mick Wall's biography of Iron Maiden entitled Run t
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United Kingdom. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock, acid rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, overall loudness; the genre's lyrics and performance styles are sometimes associated with machismo. In 1968, three of the genre's most famous pioneers, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple were founded. Though they came to attract wide audiences, they were derided by critics. During the mid-1970s, Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence. Beginning in the late 1970s, bands in the new wave of British heavy metal such as Iron Maiden and Def Leppard followed in a similar vein. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal fans became known as "metalheads" or "headbangers". During the 1980s, glam metal became popular with groups such as Mötley Crüe.
Underground scenes produced an array of more aggressive styles: thrash metal broke into the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, while other extreme subgenres of heavy metal such as death metal and black metal remain subcultural phenomena. Since the mid-1990s popular styles have further expanded the definition of the genre; these include groove metal and nu metal, the latter of which incorporates elements of grunge and hip hop. Heavy metal is traditionally characterized by loud distorted guitars, emphatic rhythms, dense bass-and-drum sound, vigorous vocals. Heavy metal subgenres variously alter, or omit one or more of these attributes; the New York Times critic Jon Pareles writes, "In the taxonomy of popular music, heavy metal is a major subspecies of hard-rock—the breed with less syncopation, less blues, more showmanship and more brute force." The typical band lineup includes a drummer, a bassist, a rhythm guitarist, a lead guitarist, a singer, who may or may not be an instrumentalist.
Keyboard instruments are sometimes used to enhance the fullness of the sound. Deep Purple's Jon Lord played an overdriven Hammond organ. In 1970, John Paul Jones used a Moog synthesizer on Led Zeppelin III; the electric guitar and the sonic power that it projects through amplification has been the key element in heavy metal. The heavy metal guitar sound comes from a combined use of heavy distortion. For classic heavy metal guitar tone, guitarists maintain moderate levels gain at moderate levels, without excessive preamp or pedal distortion, to retain open spaces and air in the music. Thrash metal guitar tone has scooped mid-frequencies and compressed sound with lots of bass frequencies. Guitar solos are "an essential element of the heavy metal code... that underscores the significance of the guitar" to the genre. Most heavy metal songs "feature at least one guitar solo", "a primary means through which the heavy metal performer expresses virtuosity"; some exceptions are nu grindcore bands, which tend to omit guitar solos.
With rhythm guitar parts, the "heavy crunch sound in heavy metal... palm muting" the strings with the picking hand and using distortion. Palm muting creates a tighter, more precise sound and it emphasizes the low end; the lead role of the guitar in heavy metal collides with the traditional "frontman" or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension as the two "contend for dominance" in a spirit of "affectionate rivalry". Heavy metal "demands the subordination of the voice" to the overall sound of the band. Reflecting metal's roots in the 1960s counterculture, an "explicit display of emotion" is required from the vocals as a sign of authenticity. Critic Simon Frith claims; the prominent role of the bass is key to the metal sound, the interplay of bass and guitar is a central element. The bass guitar provides the low-end sound crucial to making the music "heavy"; the bass plays a "more important role in heavy metal than in any other genre of rock". Metal basslines vary in complexity, from holding down a low pedal point as a foundation to doubling complex riffs and licks along with the lead or rhythm guitars.
Some bands feature the bass as a lead instrument, an approach popularized by Metallica's Cliff Burton with his heavy emphasis on bass guitar solos and use of chords while playing bass in the early 1980s. Lemmy of Motörhead played overdriven power chords in his bass lines; the essence of heavy metal drumming is creating a loud, constant beat for the band using the "trifecta of speed and precision". Heavy metal drumming "requires an exceptional amount of endurance", drummers have to develop "considerable speed and dexterity... to play the intricate patterns" used in heavy metal. A characteristic metal drumming technique is the cymbal choke, which consists of striking a cymbal and immediately silencing it by grabbing it with the other hand, producing a burst of sound; the metal drum setup is much larger than those employed in other forms of rock music. Black metal, death metal and some "mainstream metal" bands "all depend upon double-kicks and blast beats". In live performance, loudness—an "onslaught of sound", in sociologist Deena Weinstein's description—is considered vital.
In his book Metalheads, psychologist Jeffrey Arnett refers to heavy me
Quo Vadis (band)
Quo Vadis was a melodic death metal band from Montreal, Canada, formed in 1992 by Bart Frydrychowicz, Yanic Bercier, Arie Itman, named after the novel by Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz. Since its inception, the band released three studio albums, one compilation album, one demo, one live DVD, one live album and two videos. Not to be confused with another technical death metal band from Poland, bearing the same name. Quo Vadis was formed in 1992 by guitarists and vocalists Bart Frydrychowicz and Arie Itman and drummer Yanic Bercier; the band's music consisted of Metallica and Megadeth covers. However, over time, the band began to incorporate them into their live shows. By 1995, the band wanted to record a demo. Bassist Remy Beauchamp was recruited as a permanent member after the band tried out 17 others and soprano vocalist Sebrina Lipari performed on certain songs live; the Quo Vadis Demo was released on cassette on March 21, 1995 through VomiT Productions and helped the band establish themselves in the Montreal metal community.
In early 1996, Quo Vadis headed back into the studio and recorded their debut album with Pierre Rémillard, who had worked with Cryptopsy, as producer. On April 10, 1996, Forever... was released and was received favorably by both fans and critics, leading Earth AD Records in Germany and Immortal Records in Poland to sign licensing deals with Quo Vadis. Bart said of the album, "We recorded a demo, released as an EP on cassette last year; the reaction was positive. We were still searching for direction at that time; the music is much more focused now. Forever... is much more aggressive the EP was, it's much more melodic and intricate. That may sound like a contradiction but, the case. I think. Our objective was not to loose our edge. I think. It's pretty weird. You have to listen to both to understand." After signing onto Hypnotic Records in 1999, Quo Vadis received a budget of around $20,000 to record their second album. Recorded at Victor Studios and produced again by Quo Vadis and Pierre Rémillard, Day into Night was released on March 30, 2000 in Canada.
Whereas the composing duties for Forever were credited to all members, a majority of the songs on the Day Into Night album were in fact written and recorded by Arie. However, due to logistical problems, the album was released to Europe in December. To promote the album a video for "Dysgenics" was made. Remy commented on the making of the video, "It was long! We did two days of shooting. It's not the most pleasant thing to do lipsing and pretend to be playing, but it's all worth it in the end. What's fun is the editing, seeing the whole thing take shape. We did a video release in Music Plus studios in December, but what people saw that day wasn't the finished version. We changed it a lot since and it looks cool." Day into Night sold much more than Forever.... Remy Beauchamp elaborated, "Basically, it was over three years between the recordings of both albums so within that time, the music we listen to has changed. We all improved on our instruments... The female vocals are just something; the song was written in 1994, every band started doing it so we decided to drop it.
The violin is not out though, we might be putting some on our next album but for'Day Into Night', we wanted to have a good heavy album, no extras." Bart said. Our budget helped as well - we spent ten times the amount that we spent on Forever..." He said, "One thing that many fans asked about... was why there was no violin. At the time we wanted to distance ourselves from all the bands that filled space in their music with different instruments as opposed to writing good music that stood on its own. We did the violin thing five years ago. In face, we did record a violin piece for the album but chose not to include it for the reason above. Too many bands with violins. We wanted Day into Night to be heavy and kick ass and not diluted by association."In 2001, Quo Vadis released Passage in Time, a compilation album, under Skyscraper Music. The compilation album featured the entire Quo Vadis Demo, two live tracks, two remixes, one new song and the "Dysgenics" video. Remy commented on the album, "The demo hasn't been available for over three years and many fans were asking for it so we decided we might as well do something special if we were to re-release it.
There will be a whole multimedia-section with it too. It will be an interesting package." In 2002, Yanic Bercier relocated to Tennessee, United States for work but remained in the band, although not attending a single practice after August 2002. Bart asserted, "Yanic is one of the most solid and reliable people I've known... We are in touch multiple times a day and he participates in the band... Our rehearsals are at the live shows we play... Yanic makes great efforts to stay in touch, practice, to fly in for all the shows, mastering, etc."In the same year, vo
Sebastian Bach
Sebastian Philip Bierk, known professionally as Sebastian Bach, is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved mainstream success as frontman of Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. He continues a solo career, acted on Broadway, has made appearances in film and television; the members of Kid Wikkid were based in Ontario. Upon hearing of the band and unaware of their ages, 14-year-old Bach auditioned for the group, was hired by guitar player and band leader Jason Delorme. Kid Wikkid moved back to Toronto, Bach's dad allowed Bach to move in with an aunt. Skid Row formed in the mid 1980s with lead singer Matt Fallon, they began playing at various New Jersey clubs. Fallon would soon leave the band in 1987. Bach was spotted singing at rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding by Jon Bon Jovi's parents who suggested that he try out for their son's friend's band. At the time Bach was wary of joining another USA-based band after his negative experience in his previous band Madam X, but upon hearing Skid Row's demo tapes, Bach flew to New Jersey to audition and the members asked him to join in early 1987.
In 1991, Bach was criticized for performing wearing a T-shirt reading "AIDS Kills Fags Dead". He claimed he wore it without reading it first. Although he made light of the incident in his original apology, Bach has since apologized for and disavowed the statement, "That was stupid and wrong for me to wear that for one half-hour in my life. What nobody brings up is in 2000, when I was in Jekyll & Hyde, at an auction for Broadway Cares, I donated $12,000 of my own money to fight AIDS."Following disagreements over musical material, Bach was fired from the band in 1996. However, rumors circulated that he had left the band due to his other band-mates believing they should not play as an opening act for KISS. Band-mate Rachel Bolan had a side project, a punk band Prunella Scales who were playing at the same time as the planned KISS show; the rift between Bach and the other band members subsequently led to his leaving Skid Row. Four years Skid Row was one of the opening acts for the 2000 Kiss Farewell Tour, without Bach.
In 1996, Bach formed The Last Hard Men, with Frogs guitarist Jimmy Flemion, Breeders lead guitarist Kelley Deal, Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The group recorded a full-length eponymous album for Atlantic Records, who opted not to release it. In 1998 it was released on Kelley Deal's label, Nice Records, with no fanfare and a limited pressing of 1,000 CDs; this run may have been sold via mail order only. In 1999, Bach released his debut solo album Bring'Em Bach Alive!, his first release after his departure from Skid Row. A live album of Bach's Skid Row songs, it presented five new studio recordings, including the single "Superjerk, Supertears". In 2000, Bach began performing in Broadway productions, he made his Broadway debut with the title role in Jekyll & Hyde in April 2000. He appeared as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show in 2001. On November 28, 2001 Bach appeared at New York Steel, a benefit concert held in response to 9/11. In early 2002, he became the host of VH1's Forever Wild.
That October that same year, Bach was signed to perform in the national touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar, playing the title role alongside JCS veteran Carl Anderson. A DVD video of live performances called Forever Wild was released in June 2004; that same year, he reprised the title role in another showing of Hyde. Sometime in 2003, Bach tried out for Velvet Revolver before the band found Scott Weiland, but was turned down because, according to Slash, "We sounded like Skid Roses!" From 2003 to 2007, Bach had a recurring role on the WB television show Gilmore Girls as "Gil", the lead guitarist in Lane Kim's band, Hep Alien. Members of Bach Tight Five lived with Bach and his family as documented on VH1's I Married... Sebastian Bach, one of the "I Married..." series. In 2005, Bach cooperated with Henning Pauly to be the singer on the Frameshift album called An Absence of Empathy, released in April 2005, he was recommended to Henning by Dream Theater's James LaBrie. On May 12 and May 14, 2006, at the Guns N' Roses' warmup show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, Bach joined Axl Rose on stage for the song "My Michelle".....
He joined the rest for a third time the following night to sing "My Michelle" once again. He joined them for their Pre-Download Festival show in the Apollo Hammersmith, singing My Michelle. Rose introduced Bach by saying that the two had rekindled their friendship in the previous week after 13 years of not speaking. On June 4, 9 & 11 he again joined Rose on stage at the 2006 Gods of Metal Festival, Download Festival in RDS Dublin and in Donington, respectively. On September 23, 2006, he joined Axl on stage once again at KROQ-FM's Inland Invasion festival in California for a rendition of "My Michelle". Bach starred with Ted Nugent, Evan Seinfeld, Jason Bonham and Scott Ian on the VH1 show Supergroup in May 2006; the musicians formed a band called Damnocracy for the reality show, during which they lived in a mansion in Las Vegas for twelve days and created music. He announced a partnership record label with EMI to jointly create a label owned by Bach, including his album Angel Down, released on November 20, 2007.
Bach recorded backing vocals for the track "Sorry" on Guns N' Roses' long-delayed Chinese Democracy, released in November 2008. He spent the summer o
Folk metal
Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles, it sometimes features soft instrumentation influenced by folk rock. The earliest folk metal bands were Skyclad from Cruachan from Ireland. Skyclad's debut album The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth was released in 1991 and would be considered a thrash metal album with some folk influences, unlike Cruachan’s early work which embraced the folk element as a defining part of their sound, it was not until 1994 and 1995 that other early contributors in the genre began to emerge from different regions of Europe and beyond. Among these early groups, the German band Subway to Sally spearheaded a different regional variation that over time became known as medieval metal. Despite their contributions, folk metal remained little known with few representatives during the 1990s, it was not until the early 2000s when the genre exploded into prominence in Finland with the efforts of such groups as Finntroll, Korpiklaani and Moonsorrow.
The music of folk metal is characterised by its diversity with bands known to perform different styles of both heavy metal music and folk music. A large variety of folk instruments are used in the genre with many bands featuring six or more members in their regular line-ups. A few bands are known to rely on keyboards to simulate the sound of folk instruments. Lyrics in the genre deal with fantasy, paganism and nature; the English band Skyclad was formed in 1990 after vocalist Martin Walkyier left his previous band, Sabbat. Skyclad began as a thrash metal band but added violins from session musician Mike Evans on several tracks from their debut album, The Wayward Sons of Mother Earth, an effort described by Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic as "ambitious" and "groundbreaking." The song "The Widdershins Jig" from the debut album has been acclaimed as "particularly significant" and "a certain first in the realms of Metal". With a full-time fiddler in their lineup, the band's second album feature a "now legendary folky jig style" and "more prominent inclusion of the fiddle playing lead lines and melodies associated with the lead guitar parts of most other rock bands."Even with the departure of Martin Walkyier in 2001, Skyclad remains an active folk metal group today after nearly two decades since their formation.
In contrast, the Portuguese band Moonspell had a brief tenure in the genre. Their first release was the 1994 Under the Moonspell EP with music that featured Lusitanian folk and Medieval influences. With the release of their debut album Wolfheart in the following year, the band made a transition into gothic metal and within a matter of years "quickly evolved into one of the major players of the European goth-metal scene."Cruachan were formed in 1992 in Dublin, Ireland. From the outset their intention was to mix the native Irish folk music of their home country with the more extreme side of metal music, their debut album Tuatha Na Gael was released in 1995 and was a full folk metal album from start to finish. In the Italian book “FOLK METAL, Dalle Origini Al Ragnarok”, a comprehensive history of the genre, Author Fabrizio Giosue credits Cruachan as being the first real Folk Metal band, he acknowledges that Skyclad did have some folk parts in some songs before Cruachan however he goes on to say Cruachan used folk music as much as they used heavy metal music.
Cruachan used arrangements of known folk songs and melodies, Skyclad wrote folk "sounding" parts. Spanish band Mägo de Oz was among early Folk Metal artists that were influenced by the Celtic folk music; the band introduced folk elements and instruments in their power metal-based music from their 1994 debut album. Another early contributor to folk metal is the Finnish group Amorphis, they formed in 1990 with The Karelian Isthmus, following two years later. Their sophomore effort Tales from the Thousand Lakes was released in 1994 with "plenty of fascinating melodies and song structures that drew from the traditional folk music of their native country." The album received a favorable reception from fans with "its content being exalted across the Metal underground as the pinnacle of atmospheric Death Metal achievement." In the years 1994 and 1995, several distinct variations on folk metal emerged from different regions. The German band Subway to Sally was formed in 1992 as a folk rock band, singing in English and incorporating Irish and Scottish influences in their music.
With their second album MCMXCV released in 1995, the band adopted a "more traditional approach" and started singing in German. Taking Skyclad as an influence, Subway to Sally performs a blend of hard rock and heavy metal "enriched with medieval melodies enmeshed in the songs via bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, mandoline, shalm and flute" and combined with "romantic-symbolic German-speaking poetry" in their lyrics. With chart success in their native Germany, they have since been credited as the band "that set off the wave of what is known as medieval rock."This distinctly German phenomenon has been continued and expanded further by subsequent bands. Formed in 1996, the Berlin based In Extremo has found chart success with their "medieval style stage garb and unashamed usage of such bizarre, sometimes hand made, instruments as the Scottish bagpipes." Another band that has experienced commercial success in Germany is the Bavarian outfit Schandmaul. Describing themselves as the "minstrels of today," the band employs a musical arsenal that includes the bagpipes, barrel organ, shawm
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, with a population of 545,500 as of 2017. It lies within the United Kingdom's second-most populous built-up area, with a population of 3.2 million. It is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, an arc of towns with which it forms a continuous conurbation; the local authority is Manchester City Council. The recorded history of Manchester began with the civilian settlement associated with the Roman fort of Mamucium or Mancunium, established in about AD 79 on a sandstone bluff near the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell, it was a part of Lancashire, although areas of Cheshire south of the River Mersey were incorporated in the 20th century. The first to be included, was added to the city in 1931. Throughout the Middle Ages Manchester remained a manorial township, but began to expand "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century. Manchester's unplanned urbanisation was brought on by a boom in textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution, resulted in it becoming the world's first industrialised city.
Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and directly linking the city to the Irish Sea, 36 miles to the west, its fortune declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation, but the IRA bombing in 1996 led to extensive investment and regeneration. In 2014, the Globalisation 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 after London and Edinburgh, it is notable for its architecture, musical exports, media links and engineering output, social impact, sports clubs and transport connections. Manchester Liverpool Road railway station was the world's first inter-city passenger railway station. Manchester hosted the 2002 Commonwealth Games; the name Manchester originates from the Latin name Mamucium or its variant Mancunium and the citizens are still referred to as Mancunians. These are thought to represent a Latinisation of an original Brittonic name, either from mamm- or from mamma.
Both meanings are preserved in Insular Celtic languages, such as mam meaning "breast" in Irish and "mother" in Welsh. The suffix -chester is a survival of Old English ceaster and from that castra in latin for camp or settlement; the Brigantes were the major Celtic tribe in. Their territory extended across the fertile lowland of what is now Stretford. Following the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century, General Agricola ordered the construction of a fort named Mamucium in the year 79 to ensure that Roman interests in Deva Victrix and Eboracum were protected from the Brigantes. Central Manchester has been permanently settled since this time. A stabilised fragment of foundations of the final version of the Roman fort is visible in Castlefield; the Roman habitation of Manchester ended around the 3rd century. After the Roman withdrawal and Saxon conquest, the focus of settlement shifted to the confluence of the Irwell and Irk sometime before the arrival of the Normans after 1066. Much of the wider area was laid waste in the subsequent Harrying of the North.
Thomas de la Warre, lord of the manor and constructed a collegiate church for the parish in 1421. The church is now Manchester Cathedral; the library, which opened in 1653 and is still 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 region's textile industry. Manchester became an important centre for the manufacture and trade of woollens and linen, by about 1540, had expanded to become, in John Leland's words, "The fairest, best builded and most populous town of all Lancashire." The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester. During the English Civil War Manchester favoured the Parliamentary interest. Although not long-lasting, Cromwell granted it the right to elect its own MP. Charles Worsley, who sat for the city for only a year, was appointed Major General for Lancashire and Staffordshire during the Rule of the Major Generals.
He was a diligent puritan, banning the celebration of Christmas. Significant quantities of cotton began to be used after about 1600, firstly in linen/cotton fustians, but by around 1750 pure cotton fabrics were being produced and cotton had overtaken wool in importance; the Irwell and Mersey were made navigable by 1736, opening a route from Manchester to the sea docks on the Mersey. The Bridgewater Canal, Britain's first wholly artificial waterway, was opened in 1761, bringing coal from mines at Worsley to central Manchester; the canal was extended to the Mersey at Runcorn by 1776. The combination of competition and improved efficiency halved th
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American bassist and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. He has worked with musicians in many genres. Like Jaco Pastorius, Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence. Clarke was born in Philadelphia, his mother sang opera around the house, belonged to a church choir, encouraged him to study music. He started on accordion tried violin, but he felt awkward holding such a small instrument in his big hands when he was twelve years old and over six feet tall. No one wanted the acoustic bass in the corner, so he picked it up, he took lessons on double bass at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, beginning with five years of classical music. He picked up bass guitar in his teens so that he could perform at parties and imitate the rock and pop bands that girls liked. Clarke attended the Philadelphia Musical Academy and after graduating moved to New York City in 1971, his recording debut was with Curtis Fuller. He worked with Joe Henderson and Pharoah Sanders in 1972 with Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, followed by Gil Evans, Mel Lewis, Horace Silver.
He intended to become the first black musician in the Philadelphia Orchestra until he met jazz pianist Chick Corea. In 1973, he and Corea founded the band Return to Forever; the first edition of Return to Forever performed Latin-oriented music. This band consisted of singer Flora Purim, her husband Airto Moreira on drums and percussion, Corea's longtime musical co-worker Joe Farrell on saxophone and flute, Clarke on bass, their first album, titled Return to Forever, was recorded for ECM Records in 1972. Their second album, Light as a Feather, was released by Polydor and included the song "Spain". After the second album, Farrell and Moreira left the group to form their own band, guitarist Bill Connors, drummer Steve Gadd and percussionist Mingo Lewis were added. Lenny White replaced Gadd and Lewis on drums and percussion, the group's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, was rerecorded. Fusion was a combination of jazz which they helped develop in the early 1970s. Like Jaco Pastorius, Clarke was playing a new kind of music, using new techniques, giving the bass guitar a prominence it lacked.
He drew attention to the bass guitar as a solo instrument that could be melodic and dominant in addition to being part of the rhythm section. For helping to bring the bass guitar to the front of the band, Clarke cites Pastorius, Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, Larry Graham. After Return to Forever's second album, Light as a Feather, Clarke received job offers from Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Ray Manzarek of the Doors, but he remained with Return to Forever until 1977. During the early 1980s, he toured with Corea and Return to Forever worked with Bobby Lyle, Eliane Elias, David Benoit and Michel Petrucciani, he toured in a band with Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter in 1991. In 1998 he founded Superband with Lenny White, Larry Carlton, Jeff Lorber. Corea produced Clarke's first solo album, Children of Forever, played keyboards on it with guitarist Pat Martino, drummer Lenny White, flautist Art Webb, vocalists Andy Bey and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Clarke played bass guitar. Clarke's second self-titled album Stanley Clarke featured Tony Williams on Drums, Bill Connors - Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Jan Hammer - Synthesizer, Electric Piano, Piano.
While on tour, British guitarist Jeff Beck was performing the song "Power" from that album, this was the impetus for their meeting and Beck's introduction to Hammer. They toured together, Beck appeared on some of Clarke's albums, including Journey to Love and Modern Man; the album School Days praise he had received so far. With its memorable riff, the title song became so revered that fans called out for it during concerts. Clarke has spent much of his career outside jazz. In 1979, Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones formed the New Barbarians with Keith Richards. Two years Clarke and keyboardist George Duke formed the Clarke/Duke Project, which combined pop, funk, R&B, they met in 1971 in Finland. They recorded together for the first time on Clarke's album Journey to Love; the first Clark/Duke Project album contained the single "Sweet Baby". They reunited for tours during the 2000s. In 1988, Clarke and drummer Stewart Copeland of the rock band the Police formed Animal Logic with singer-songwriter Deborah Holland.
He and Copeland were friends. Copeland appeared on Clark's album Up. In 2005 Clarke toured as Trio! with Béla Fleck and Jean-Luc Ponty. Clarke and Ponty had worked in a trio with guitarist Al Di Meola in 1995 and recorded the album The Rite of Strings, they worked in a trio again in 2012 with guitarist Biréli Lagrène and two years recorded D-Stringz. In 2008, Clarke formed SMV with bassists Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten and recorded the album Thunder. In 2009 he released Jazz in the Garden, featuring the Stanley Clarke Trio with pianist Hiromi Uehara and drummer Lenny White; the following year he released the Stanley Clarke Band, with Ruslan Sirota on keyboards and Ronald Bruner, Jr. on drums.
