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This World Over
"This World Over" is a song by the English rock band XTC, written by Andy Partridge, and the second single from their 1984 album ''The Big Express''. It reached number 99 on the UK Singles Chart during a one-week stay. Background and lyrics "This World Over" is a song protesting the use of nuclear weapons as a reaction to recent speeches by Ronald Reagan, which instigated Partridge's fears of another Cold War. According to Partridge, "My first child was on the way and just thought that, if I survived, how terrible it would be to have to tell her what life used to be like, that there was once a place called London and it was a fantastic place but it's not there anymore." It is one of two politically-charged songs on the album, the other being "Reign of Blows". Recording All of the drum sounds are pre-recorded samples. One of the guitar parts is a slew of sustained feedback notes played through a Marshall amplifier. The "high stratospheric squeaking noises in the last verse", Part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Big Express
''The Big Express'' is the seventh studio album by the English rock band XTC, released on 15 October 1984 by Virgin Records. It is an autobiographical concept album inspired by the band's hometown of Swindon and its railway system, the Swindon Works. In comparison to its predecessor ''Mummer'' (1983), which had a modest, pastoral approach to production, the album features a bright, uptempo sound marked by studio experimentation and denser arrangements, setting a template that they further developed on subsequent albums. XTC produced the album with Crescent Studios owner David Lord on a budget exceeding £75,000 (equivalent to £ in ). Like ''Mummer'', the Glitter Band's Pete Phipps was hired as a session drummer for the band. They continued extending their use of exotic colors, incorporating instruments such as LinnDrum, euphonium, and E-mu Emulator for the first time in their work. Much of the album showcased the band's psychedelic influences through its reliance on Mellotron, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. They grew to be a worldwide success over time, with the success of platinum performers Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Devo, Tangerine Dream, Genesis (band), Genesis, Phil Collins, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, OMD, the Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, the Spice Girls, Lenny Kravitz, the Sex Pistols, and Mike Oldfield among others, meaning that by the time it was sold, it was regarded as a major label, alongside other large international independents such as A&M Records, A&M and Island Records. Virgin Records was sold to Thorn EMI in 1992. EMI would later be acquired by Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2012 with UMG creating the Virgin EMI Records division. The Virgin Records name continues to be used by UMG in certain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andy Partridge
Andrew John Partridge (born 11 November 1953) is an English guitarist, singer-songwriter and record producer best known for co-founding the band XTC. He and Colin Moulding each acted as a songwriter and frontman for XTC, with Partridge writing and singing about two-thirds of the group's material. While XTC were a formative British New wave music, new wave group, Partridge's songwriting drew heavily from 1960s pop and Psychedelic music, psychedelia and his style gradually shifted to more traditional pop, often with pastoral themes. The band's only UK top 10 hit, "Senses Working Overtime", was written by Partridge. Partridge is sometimes regarded as the "godfather" of the 1990s Britpop movement. Since the 1980s, he has worked, written with or produced for many other recording artists, including collaborative albums with Peter Blegvad, Harold Budd and Robyn Hitchcock. From 2002 to 2006, Partridge's APE House record label released several volumes of his demo (music), demos and songs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Lord (producer)
David Lord (born 1944) is an English composer and record producer, known for his work with Peter Gabriel, the Korgis and XTC. Career Lord was born in 1944 in Oxford, England and educated at the Royal Academy of Music, under Richard Rodney Bennett. He worked as a producer for BBC Radio early in his career. He worked as a composer; his song‐cycle, '' The Wife of Winter'', was written in 1968, for Janet Baker while ''The History of the Flood'' (1969) has a libretto by John Heath-Stubbs. His 'cantata for children', "The Sea Journey", with a libretto by Michael Dennis Browne, is known to exist in two private pressings: one from the 1969 Farnham Festival, for which it was commissioned; the other recorded in 1982 by children from St. Catherine's British Embassy School, Athens, Greece. He also wrote a piece for Julian Bream and a test piece for a London Symphony Orchestra conductors' competition. In 1981, Lord produced " Suffer the Children", the first single by Tears for Fears. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
All You Pretty Girls
"All You Pretty Girls" is a song written by Andy Partridge of the English rock band XTC, released on their 1984 album ''The Big Express''. It peaked at number 55 on the UK Singles Chart, and its music video cost £33,000 to make. Partridge remembers that song came about while he was "dicking around, playing some Hendrix. ... I was just playing this little two-note, quasi-Hendrix thing, and I liked the inherent melody in it." With the exception of the opening, all the drum sounds in the recording were made with a LinnDrum. The choir sounds were a Mellotron sample played out of a speaker inside a fire bucket. Song style and content The song's lyrics tell the story of a sailor asking a shipmate to — if the sailor should die — write a note and throw it overboard, with a message thanking all the women who wait at the docks for the sailor's return. The song's chorus, listing the types of women waiting, is deliberately performed in the style of a sea shanty, which turns into a ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wake Up (XTC Song)
"Wake Up" is a song written by Colin Moulding of the English rock band XTC, released as the opening track on their seventh studio album ''The Big Express'' (1984). It was the third and last single issued from the album, following "All You Pretty Girls" and "This World Over", and peaked at number 92 on the UK singles chart. Overview "Wake Up" opens the album with guitars and piano followed by a chorus lyric that proclaims "who cares, you might be dead". Colin Moulding explained: To write the song, Moulding started with a three-note piano figure, which he then overdubbed with two guitar riffs. He said: "The track didn't really happen until roducer David Lord got hold of it. A local girl came in and sang the 'choir', tracked up a load of times." Guitarist Andy Partridge said of Lord's embellishments: "He blew it up like one of those hot air balloons in the shape of a palace." Guitarist Dave Gregory commented: "We love confusing intros: records that start with a naked riff wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. Nuclear bombs have had yields between 10 tons (the W54) and 50 megatons for the Tsar Bomba (see TNT equivalent). Yields in the low kilotons can devastate cities. A thermonuclear weapon weighing as little as can release energy equal to more than 1.2 megatons of TNT (5.0 PJ). Apart from the blast, effects of nuclear weapons include firestorms, extreme heat and ionizing radiation, radioactive nuclear fallout, an electromagnetic pulse, and a radar blackout. The first nuclear weapons were developed by the Allied Manhattan Project during World War II. Their production continues to require a large scientific and industrial complex, pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party and became an important figure in the American conservative movement. Presidency of Ronald Reagan, His presidency is known as the Reagan era. Born in Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and was hired the next year as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California where he became a well-known film actor. During his acting career, Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild twice from 1947 to 1952 and from 1959 to 1960. In the 1950s, he hosted ''General Electric Theater'' and worked as a motivational speaker for General Electric. During the 1964 United States presidential election, 1964 presidential election, Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech launched his rise as a leading conservative figure. After b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The term ''Cold war (term), cold war'' is used because there was no direct fighting between the two superpowers, though each supported opposing sides in regional conflicts known as proxy wars. In addition to the struggle for ideological and economic influence and an arms race in both conventional and Nuclear arms race, nuclear weapons, the Cold War was expressed through technological rivalries such as the Space Race, espionage, propaganda campaigns, Economic sanctions, embargoes, and sports diplomacy. After the end of World War II in 1945, during which the US and USSR had been allies, the USSR installed satellite state, satellite governments in its occupied territories in Eastern Europe and N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viola
The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the violin family, between the violin (which is tuned a perfect fifth higher) and the cello (which is tuned an octave lower). The strings from low to high are typically tuned to C3, G3, D4, and A4. In the past, the viola varied in size and style, as did its names. The word ''viola'' originates from the Italian language. The Italians often used the term '' viola da braccio'', meaning, literally, 'of the arm'. "Brazzo" was another Italian word for the viola, which the Germans adopted as ''Bratsche''. The French had their own names: ''cinquiesme'' was a small viola, ''haute contre'' was a large viola, and ''taile'' was a tenor. Today, the French use the term ''alto'', a reference to its range. The viola was popular in the heyday of five-part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smash Hits
''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand for a spin-off digital television channel, which was later renamed Box Hits, and website. A digital radio station was also available but closed on 5 August 2013. Overview ''Smash Hits'' featured the lyrics of latest hits and interviews with big names in music. It was initially published monthly, then went fortnightly. The style of the magazine was initially serious, but from the mid-1980s became increasingly irreverent. Its interviewing technique was novel at the time and, rather than looking up to the big names, it often made fun of them, asking strange questions rather than talking about their music. Created by journalist Nick Logan, the title was launched in 1978 and appeared monthly for its first few issues. He based the idea on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
