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INSERT INTO `artists` VALUES (79,'Tori Amos','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. She is married to English sound engineer Mark Hawley. Together they have one daughter, Natashya &quot;Tash&quot; Lórien Hawley, born on September 5, 2000.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few music stars to use a piano as her primary instrument. She is known for emotionally intense songs that cover a wide range of subjects including sexuality, religion and personal tragedy. Some of her charting singles include &quot;Crucify&quot;, &quot;Silent All These Years&quot;, &quot;Cornflake Girl&quot;, &quot;Caught a Lite Sneeze&quot;, &quot;Professional Widow&quot;, &quot;Spark&quot; and &quot;A Sorta Fairytale&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos has sold over 12 million records worldwide and has also enjoyed a large cult following. Having a history of making eccentric and at times ribald comments during concerts and interviews, she has earned a reputation for being highly idiosyncratic.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Early Years (1963-1985)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos was the third child born to Rev. Dr. Edison and Mary Ellen Amos in Newton, North Carolina, during a trip from their home in Georgetown (Washington, D.C.) to North Carolina, at the Old Catawba Hospital in Newton. When Amos was 2, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and at nine started to add lyrics to her pieces.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1968, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music. At age five, she was the youngest person ever to attend the school. At age 11, her scholarship was discontinued and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music. Two years later, she began studying at Montgomery College and began playing at piano bars, chaperoned by her father, who was sending tapes of songs she had written to record companies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She first came to local notice by winning a county Teen Talent contest in 1977, singing a song called &quot;More Than Just a Friend&quot;. By the time she reached high school, she was well known in the Washington, D.C. area. During her years at Richard Montgomery High School, she was elected Homecoming Queen, Most Likely to Succeed, Most Talented, and Best All-Around. She also became involved with Black Masquers, the school&apos;s drama group. As a high school senior, Amos co-wrote &quot;Baltimore&quot; with her brother Mike Amos for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. The song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7&quot; single pressed locally for family and friends during 1980 with another Amos-penned composition as a b-side, &quot;Walking With You&quot;. At around this time she adopted the name &quot;Tori&quot; after a friend told her that she looked more like a Tori than a &quot;Myra Ellen&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Even before Amos was eighteen, she had been compared to Kate Bush in regard to singing style and other musical tendencies. However, at that time, Amos didn&apos;t even know who Bush was. Later on she would buy her first Kate Bush album and discover her music.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Y Kant Tori Read (1985-88)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At age 21, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career after several years performing on the piano bar circuit of the East Coast. While there she managed to get several acting jobs, including a Kellogg&apos;s Just Right cereal commercial (for which role she beat out a then-unknown Sarah Jessica Parker). In 1987 she appeared in the courtroom soap opera Trial by Jury as Carrie Hadler, a woman accused of killing her married lover with sex. (Clips would later be shown in the VH1 program &quot;Before They Were Stars&quot;.) In 1985, after playing in a bar one night, she gave a ride home to a regular customer at the establishment who sexually assaulted her, an experience that would later be revisited in her song &quot;Me and a Gun&quot;. She also met Steve Caton, who played guitars on her albums through to To Venus and Back (1999).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1985, Amos formed a music group, Y Kant Tori Read. Tori came up with the name as a reference to her days back at the Peabody conservatory, where she was able to play songs on her piano simply after hearing them once, but was never able to get the hang of reading and playing from sheet music. Besides Amos, the group was composed of the aforementioned Caton, drummer Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and keyboardist Jim Tauber (for a short time). A year later, Atlantic Records gave Amos a six-record contract. In July 1988, the band&apos;s debut album Y Kant Tori Read was released and was widely panned by critics and snubbed by mainstream audiences, leaving Amos dejected and humiliated. After the flop, Amos began working with other artists (including Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo, Sandra Bernhard, and Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist. She also recorded a song called &quot;Distant Storm&quot; for the film China O&apos;Brien; in the credits, the song is attributed to a band called &quot;Tess Makes Good&quot; with &quot;additional vocals by Ellen Amos.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Although Amos often voices embarrassment concerning Y Kant Tori Read, she has performed various songs from the album live in concert. The album is now out of print and original copies are considered quite valuable.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Debut and Rising Fame (1990-1996)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Despite the disappointing reaction to Y Kant Tori Read, Amos still had to comply with her six-record contract with Atlantic Records, who in 1989 wanted a new record by March 1990. When she presented them with her initial recordings, they were rejected on the grounds that the &quot;girl and a piano thing&quot; was not going to sell records in an early-&apos;90s market of grunge, rock, rap, and dance music. Extensively reworked and expanded with the help of Steve Caton, Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor, Carlo Nuccio, and Dan Nebenzal, the record ended up full of raw, emotive songs recounting her religious upbringing, sexual awakening, struggle to establish her identity, and her sexual assault. The Atlantic executives changed their minds upon hearing the edited version, with the plan to promote her as an heir to Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro, or alternatively as a female version of Elton John. Expecting the traditionally more open-minded UK market to warm to Amos and to create a &quot;buzz&quot; with which to return to the US, Atlantic relocated Amos to England in early 1991 to play small clubs in preparation for the launch of the new album, which was released under the title Little Earthquakes.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During this period, Amos befriended author Neil Gaiman, who became a fan after Amos referenced him in the song Tear In Your Hand and also in print interviews. It is often said that the character Delirium from Gaiman&apos;s The Sandman series (or even her sister Death) is based on her; Gaiman has stated that &quot;they steal shamelessly from each other&quot; (the character was actually created before the two met). Gaiman was to become a long-time friend and collaborator. His 2006 tribute album from Ferret Records has an Amos lyric for its title (Where&apos;s Neil When You Need Him?) and contains the Amos track &quot;Sister Named Desire&quot;. She also wrote the introduction to the trade paperback collection of Gaiman&apos;s Death: The High Cost of Living.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After touring throughout 1992 in support of Little Earthquakes (Europe, North America, Australia, &amp; Israel), Amos traveled to New Mexico with personal and professional partner Eric Rosse in 1993 to write and largely record her second solo record, Under the Pink.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The inspiration for the previous album had been the events in Amos&apos;s own life, but for her second album she drew inspiration elsewhere — from the work of Georgia O&apos;Keeffe and Salvador Dalí, the literature of Alice Walker, and the Russian princess Anastasia Romanov. Musically, Amos drew from the style of classical composers she had studied during her childhood, and put more focus on her solo piano rather than band instrumentation. The musical complexity drawn from her classical background is particularly evident in such tracks as Icicle and the sweeping, nine-and-a-half minute, Yes, Anastasia. Tori Amos used a prepared upright piano for Bells for Her on this album. Bells for Her was also played on a prepared piano for the second half of that album&apos;s live tour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In June 1994, Amos co-founded RAINN, The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network. RAINN is a toll-free help line in the US which connects callers with their local rape crisis center. In 1995, Amos, duetting with Robert Plant, contributed the song &quot;Down by the Seaside&quot; to the Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The idea for Amos&apos;s third solo album first originated in August 1994 during a break from the tour to promote the Under the Pink album. Amos had split from Eric Rosse both personally and professionally after a seven-year relationship, and she took a trip to Hawaii where she studied the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele, the &quot;empowering female force&quot; behind Boys for Pele.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album was recorded in an Irish church, in County Wicklow, Ireland in 1995 as well as an old Georgian house, also in Ireland. After two albums of piano-driven pop rock music, Amos took advantage of the church recording setting to create an album ripe with baroque influences, lending it a darker sound and style. She added harpsichord, harmonium, and clavichord to her keyboard repertoire, and also included such anomalies as a gospel choir, bagpipes, church bells, and drum programming.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Boys for Pele was released in January 1996. Substantially longer than the first two albums at around 70 minutes, it garnered mixed reviews; some critics praised its intensity and uniqueness while others bemoaned its comparative impenetrability. It was perhaps the first in a style of which Amos seems to work, as the (comparative) musical and lyrical straightforwardness of Little Earthquakes gave way to an interest in opaque lyrics (often centered in religion and mythology) and a darker, more complex sound. The erratic lyrical content of its songs seemed indecipherable to some fans, and the instrumentation kept it away from mainstream audiences. Nevertheless, Boys for Pele is Amos&apos;s most successful transatlantic chart release, reaching UK #2 and US #2 upon its release at the height of her fame (and as with her first four solo albums, it has been certified platinum for sales of more than a million US copies).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Also in 1996, Amos began her own vanity label called Igloo, internal to Atlantic Records. Her first signing (which she executively produced) was the band Pet, headed by lead singer Lisa Papineau. Their self-titled debut album included the song &quot;Lil&apos; Boots,&quot; which was also featured on the soundtrack for The Crow: City of Angels. Record sales were meager and the subsidiary label was quickly folded.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos performed a highly publicized television concert called &quot;The Concert for RAINN&quot; in early 1997. This coincided with &quot;National RAINN Day&quot;, and during the concert all cable and network television stations aired Amos&apos;s public service announcement about the organization. During this concert Amos performed her song &quot;Muhammad My Friend&quot; with her friend Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool. The concert also introduced a year long campaign in collaboration with Calvin Klein eye wear. Proceeds were collected for RAINN. She also co-wrote/performed a song called &quot;It Might Hurt a Bit&quot; with singer Michael Stipe of the band R.E.M.. It was intended for the soundtrack to the film Don Juan DeMarco, but was not used and has never been released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Miscarriages and Marriage (1997-1999)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During the tour to promote Boys for Pele, Amos and her sound engineer Mark Hawley began a relationship and Amos later discovered she was pregnant. She planned to take 1997 away from the limelight and the recording studio in order to look after her unborn child, however, Amos miscarried two days before Christmas 1996 at three months, plunging her into new emotional depths. During her recovery period at her second home in Florida, Amos unexpectedly began writing new songs.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After writing in &quot;the tropics&quot; of Florida (where she suffered a second miscarriage in May 1997, this time earlier in the pregnancy), Amos returned to Cornwall, England, where she settled with Hawley in 1997. They converted the barn of their new home into a state-of-the-art recording studio, Martian Engineering Studios, and Amos spent the latter part of 1997 recording her new songs there. After three albums of largely acoustic piano-based music, Amos embraced some styles of dance music after the remix of &quot;Professional Widow&quot; became a worldwide hit, and also decided to feature arrangements which expanded considerably on her core piano sound, including elements of electronica and jazz.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Following Amos and Hawley&apos;s marriage on February 22, 1998, Atlantic released Amos&apos; fourth solo album, From the Choirgirl Hotel, in May 1998. Many of the songs on the album (e.g. &quot;Playboy Mommy&quot; and &quot;Spark&quot;) dealt with her two recent miscarriages. Reviews were mostly favourable and praising of Amos&apos; continued artistic originality (it was voted among the best albums of the year by Q magazine), and the album was generally well-received by Amos fans. Amos herself lists the album as her favorite.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After the successful band tour ended, Amos decided to make her next project a double album comprising live material recorded on the tour as well as b-sides, bolstered by two to three new unreleased compositions. Inspired by fan demand for remastered b-sides from her extensive back-catalogue Tori started re-recording classics like &quot;Here, in my Head&quot; and &quot;Honey&quot; but found herself improvising new lyrics and eventually entirely new songs. Thus, the project mutated into a two-disc set comprising live songs from the tour and a new studio disc (plans to release a live video/DVD of the tour were also abandoned) that was released in September 1999 under the title To Venus and Back.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album was supported by a short tour in 1999, the &quot;Five and a Half Weeks Tour&quot;, which Amos co-headlined with Alanis Morissette around a month prior to the release of the double album. Many referred to Amos as the &quot;opening act&quot; for Morissette because she always performed first; however, this was due only to the logistics of setting up a grand piano for performance. An Amos-only stint, the &quot;To Dallas and Back&quot; tour, also took place, but promotional plans were cut when Amos suffered her third miscarriage, again at three months, on November 11, 1999. In her 2005 book Piece by Piece, Amos revealed that Atlantic allowed her only two days before pushing her back into a promotional schedule, one reason that caused her eventual split from the record label in 2002.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Personal and Professional Transitions (2000-2004)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After releasing two albums and embarking on two tours in rapid succession, Amos took a break from both touring and recording in 2000 to devote to another pregnancy. After suffering a total of three miscarriages, Amos became a mother, giving birth to her daughter, Natashya, in September of 2000. Inspired by the songs she heard on the radio while looking after her daughter at her second home in Florida, Amos hatched the idea to produce a covers album, recording songs written by men about women and turning them around to suit the female perspective. In her 2005 book Piece by Piece, Amos revealed that a stimulus for the album was to end her contract with Atlantic Records without giving them new original songs; Amos felt that since 1998, the label had not been properly promoting her and had trapped her in a contract that required her to deliver three more albums and a hits collection. After the double album To Venus and Back, the covers album would satisfy her contractual obligations with Atlantic before a hits package release.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The unique album garnered substantial press attention, as did the packaging featuring Amos in various poses adopting the styles of the different female characters she portrays in each song. Each photograph, featuring make-up by Kevyn Aucoin, was accompanied by text from Neil Gaiman and formed a successful advertising campaign.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos performed her cover of Tom Waits&apos; &quot;Time&quot; on Late Show with David Letterman on 9/18/2001, only one week after the events of 9/11, a time when many artists were leaving New York or unwilling to perform in such a public venue. She also did a public signing at Virgin Megastores in Union Square (New York City) in New York that same week.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With her contract Atlantic fulfilled after a 15-year stint, Amos signed to another major label, Sony/Epic in early 2002. In October, Amos released Scarlet&apos;s Walk, her first album under the new label. Described as a &quot;sonic novel&quot;, the 18-track album proved to be a landmark for a variety of reasons. Stylistically, Amos put drums and bass guitar at the forefront, using her piano playing as an accent rather than a highlight. Thematically, the album explored Amos&apos; alter ego, Scarlet, and her cross-country trip in early 2001. Through the songs, Amos explores the history of America, American people, Native American history, pornography, masochism, homophobia and misogyny, but the political nature of the album is often tempered by the classic production and songwriting style, recalling the likes of Fleetwood Mac.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After scoring her biggest commercial success in five years with her Epic debut, Scarlet&apos;s Walk, Amos still owed Atlantic a retrospective hits package. After given the option to be involved in the project, Amos elected to take a central role in the production of the collection. In November 2003 Tales of a Librarian was released, which Amos described as a &quot;sonic autobiography&quot;, a title derived from her dislike of the term &quot;greatest hits&quot;. Amos revisited the mixing of many of her own favorite songs from her career, focusing on those she thought were not fully realized in their original recordings and those that she felt explained her life story. Recording under the premise that a librarian is a &quot;chronicler&quot;, Amos pieced together the album, adding two new songs and two re-recorded b-sides. The songs were arranged in accordance with the Dewey Decimal System, extending the librarian theme of the album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Under her new contract with Epic Records, Amos appeared in the film Mona Lisa Smile as a big-band singer and contributed two songs, &quot;You Belong to Me&quot; and &quot;Murder, He Says&quot;, to the film&apos;s soundtrack. Stylistically, both songs reflect music and vocal arrangements from the big-band era.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Musically inspired by the tight band sound she afforded during her year-long trek with Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans on the successful Scarlet&apos;s Walk album and tour, Amos&apos; next album project explored the tightness of this band sound. Recorded in the summer of 2004 at her home studio in Cornwall, Amos was conceptually influenced by the ancient art of beekeeping, which she considered a source of female inspiration and empowerment. Through extensive study, Amos also wove in the stories of the Gnostic gospels and the removal of women from a position of power within the Christian church to create an album based largely on religion and politics. Many fans and critics, however, have argued that the concept is unclear and confusing. Following the death of her brother in November 2004, Amos wrote the closing track, &quot;Toast&quot;, for last minute inclusion on the album, also adding the line &quot;take this message to Michael&quot; to the backing vocals on the title track. The album was released in February 2005 as The Beekeeper and it debuted at US #5, placing Amos in an elite group of women to have secured five or more US Top 10 album debuts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos received unsettling news in 2003 when Epic Records President Polly Anthony resigned. Anthony had been one of the main reasons Amos signed with the label. As a result, Amos formed the Bridge Entertainment Group, a company devoted to helping musicians in various ways during a time when the music industry is changing. Amos hinted that those in charge at Epic during the creation of The Beekeeper were interested &quot;only in making money&quot;. Amos&apos; general disenchantment with the commercial side of the music industry was showcased when she did not bother performing the first single from the album in many cities during the accompanying tour; it is usually expected by record companies of a modern musician that they perform their singles or hits regularly.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In conjunction with the album, Amos released an autobiography co-authored by rock music journalist Ann Powers entitled Piece by Piece in February 2005. It delves deeply into Amos’s interest with mythology and religion and explores her songwriting process as well as telling the story of her progression into fame.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos announced in late 2005 that she would be issuing a series of live &quot;official bootlegs&quot;, all recorded during her &quot;Original Sinsuality&quot; tour. A website was established at toriamosbootlegs.com where hard copies of the releases were made exclusively available. The packaging was minimal and featured bird/insect/snake artwork following the theme of The Beekeeper, which had featured elaborate packaging placing the various songs into different metaphorical gardens. The bootlegs were sold for $13.98 each and featured full concerts from her 2005 tour; the bootleg albums were widely acclaimed by both critics and fans and showcased Amos&apos; continued unique performance style. Soon after the hard copies were released online retailers began offering the entire albums for paid download, and in December 2005 all six two-disc sets were issued as a 12-disc box set, The Original Bootlegs.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Summations and &quot;Jumping Ship&quot; (2005-2007)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During 2005, Amos negotiated a contract with the Warner Bros. reissue imprint Rhino to release reissues and compilations. The first release of the deal was the two-disc DVD set Fade To Red: The Video Collection in February 2006, which contained most of Amos&apos; solo music videos as well as behind-the-scenes footage and commentary. The contract continued in September 2006 with the release of the five-disc box set A Piano: The Collection, celebrating Amos&apos; 15-year solo career. The set includes various album songs, singles, remixes, alternate mixes, demos and a string of unreleased songs from album sessions. The collection is packaged to resemble a piano keyboard with extensive liner notes (including Amos&apos; commentary) and a hard-back book. While the contents of the box set are extensive, many b-sides and rarities do not appear in this collection.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In several interviews while promoting A Piano, Amos revealed details about her ninth studio album. The first interview in which Amos commented in-depth on the album was published on the Internet on March 12, on guitarist and journalist Paul Tingen&apos;s site. The interview explained much about the thematic nature of the album and the concepts behind it. With this album Amos stated she was &quot;jumping ship&quot; from her previous work, with A Piano being the summation of her previous work and the end of an era. Amos also hinted that she may bring back both her harpsichord (which she used on Boys for Pele) and Wurlitzer (used on Strange Little Girls and Scarlet&apos;s Walk), yet only the Wurlitzer appeared (on &quot;Dark Side of the Sun&quot;). Amos revealed in a Sound on Sound interview that she has been recording with new microphones and pianos (and will take a new piano on tour), and has also recorded with the Yamaha CS80 synth keyboard for the album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album was released under the title American Doll Posse on May 1, 2007 in the US. The &quot;Posse&quot;, a group of girls who are used as a theme of alter-egos in the album, consists of Amos in a number of guises: Santa, Clyde, Isabel, Tori, and Pip. On March 23, 2007, toriamos.com released an audio clip from Amos, stating that each of the characters from American Doll Posse has her own online blog which she urged fans to find. American Doll Posse was Amos&apos; sixth album that debuted in the Top 10, at #5 in the United States, despite having fewer sales than The Beekeeper.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 16, 2007, Amos announced the release of the Legs &amp; Boots series, digital downloads of several concerts on the North American leg of her American Doll Posse tour. Complete shows will be available in MP3 format for $9.99 a few hours after each show and in CD-quality FLAC files for $14.99 within a week after each show.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On December 7, 2007, filming began for a planned American Doll Posse Tour DVD. It is expected to be a compilation of segments from different shows as well as interviews, based on the nature of the tour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>CD Singles, B-sides and Soundtracks</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Early in her career Amos garnered a reputation for releasing an extensive catalogue of CD singles in conjunction with her albums. This catalogue of music collectables is so vast that a book was published in 1997 entitled &quot;Tori Amos Collectibles&quot; which served as a partial (to that date) photographic journal detailing the variety of world-wide releases, test pressings and bootlegs. One of Amos&apos; best selling early releases was a five track E.P. for her song &quot;Crucify&quot; which was sold at regular album prices. Amos&apos; penchant for including non-album B-sides on each of her singles played a major factor in her initial popularity. In particular her cover of the Nirvana song &quot;Smells Like Teen Spirit&quot; from the Crucify E.P. garnered major press attention and critical lauds. One unusual choice of b-sides on a CD-single were the Chas and Dave compositions &quot;London Girls&quot; and &quot;That&apos;s What I Like Mick (The Sandwich Song)&quot;. Many of Amos&apos; b-sides feature on the A Piano: The Collection box set. In recent years the production of CD-singles has become less common. B-sides for Scarlet&apos;s Walk were released through the internet, while The Beekeeper did not feature any B-sides, but did contain 19 full-length tracks. In 1994, recorded the Anita Ward&apos;s disco classic &quot;Ring My Bell&quot; from a collection organized by New Musical Express.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amos also established herself early-on as a willing contributor to film soundtracks (including Toys, Higher Learning, Mission: Impossible II, Great Expectations and Mona Lisa Smile) as well as to compilation projects and projects by other artists (including Al Stewart, Tom Jones, and Sandra Bernhard). As such she has, to date, accumulated a catalogue of over 100 non-album tracks (not including live versions of album tracks or remixes).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/ToriAmos.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963) is an American pianist and singer-songwriter. She is married to Engli...'),(80,'Suzanne Vega','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California) is an American songwriter and singer known for her highly literate lyrics and eclectic folk-inspired music.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Vega&apos;s mother, Pat Vega, is a computer systems analyst of German-Swedish extraction. Her father, Richard Peck, is of Scottish-English-Irish extraction and works in graphics. Her step-father, Ed Vega, is a writer from Puerto Rico.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">When Vega was two and a half, the family moved to New York City. She grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side. At the age of nine she began to write poems; she wrote her first song at age fourteen. Later she attended New York&apos;s prestigious High School of Performing Arts, now on Amsterdam Avenue between 65th &amp; 66th Street in Manhattan. (This school was seen in the film musical Fame). There she studied modern dance and graduated in 1977.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While majoring in English literature at Barnard College, she performed in small venues in Greenwich Village, where she was a regular contributor to the Monday night songwriters group at the Cornelia Street Cafe. In 1984, she received a major label recording contract.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Vega&apos;s debut album, Suzanne Vega, was released in 1985 and was well received by critics in the U.S.; it reached platinum status in the United Kingdom. Produced by Lenny Kaye and Steve Addabbo, the songs feature Vega&apos;s acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements. Vega&apos;s writing often featured vignettes of characters and even inanimate objects, such as in &quot;Small Blue Thing&quot;. A video was released for the album&apos;s song &quot;Marlene on the Wall&quot;, which went into MTV and VH1&apos;s rotations. During this period Vega also wrote lyrics for two songs on Songs from Liquid Days by composer Phillip Glass.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Her next effort, Solitude Standing (1987), garnered critical and commercial success including two hit singles: &quot;Tom&apos;s Diner&quot;, and &quot;Luka&quot;, which was an international success. &quot;Luka&quot; is written about, and from the point of view, of a battered child—at the time an uncommon subject for a pop hit. While continuing a focus on Vega&apos;s acoustic guitar, the music is more strongly pop-oriented and features fuller, more sensual arrangements. The a cappella &quot;Tom&apos;s Diner&quot; was later a hit again, remixed by two British dance producers under the name DNA, in 1991.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Vega&apos;s third album, Days of Open Hand (1990) signified a change in style: the music became more experimental, and the lyrics expressed greater emotion.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1992 she released the album 99.9F° (&quot;ninety-nine point nine Fahrenheit degrees&quot;). It consists of an eclectic mixture of folk music, dance beats and industrial music.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Her fifth album, Nine Objects of Desire, was released in 1996. The music varies between a frugal, simple style and the industrial production of 99.9F°. This album contains &quot;Caramel&quot;, featured in the movie The Truth About Cats and Dogs and, later, the trailer for the movie Closer. A song not included on that album, &quot;Woman on the Tier,&quot; was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Dead Man Walking.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">September 2001 saw the release of a new album, Songs In Red and Gray. Three songs deal with Vega&apos;s divorce from record producer, Mitchell Froom.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the memorial concert for her brother Timothy Vega in December 2002, she began as the long-term subject of a direct cinema documentary, Some Journey, by director Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003, the twenty-one song greatest hits compilation Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega was released. (The UK version of Retrospective included an eight-song bonus CD as well as a DVD containing twelve songs.) In the same year she was invited by Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist, Bill Frisell, to play at the Century of Song concerts at the famed RuhrTriennale in Germany.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003, she hosted the American Public Media radio series American Mavericks, about 20th century American composers, which received the prestigious Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Vega has a daughter, Ruby Froom (born 8 July 1994). The band Soul Coughing&apos;s Ruby Vroom album took its name from her, with Vega&apos;s approval, though she requested a slight change.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 11 February 2006, Vega married Paul Mills, a lawyer and a poet. They originally met each other at Folk City on West 4th Street in 1981. In their own words, Mr. Mills proposed to Miss Vega in May 1983, and she accepted his proposal on Christmas Day 2005.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 3 August 2006, Vega became the first major recording artist to perform live in the Internet-based virtual world, Second Life. The event was hosted by John Hockenberry of public radio&apos;s The Infinite Mind.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 17 September 2006, she performed in Central Park, as part of a benefit concert for The Save Darfur Coalition. During the concert she highlighted her support for Amnesty International, of which she has been a member for nearly a decade.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early October 2006 Vega took part in the Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) in Olomouc, the Czech Republic, the oldest festival of documentary films in Europe, in which she appeared as a main guest. She was invited there as the subject of the documentary film by director Christopher Seufert, that had a test screening at the festival. At the end of the festival she performed her classical songs, and added one brand new piece called &quot;New York Is a Woman&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Vega is also one of the interviewed persons in the book Everything Is Just a Bet which was published in Czech in October 2006. The book contains twelve interview transcriptions from the talk show called Stage Talks that regularly runs in the Svandovo Theatre in Prague. Vega introduced the book to the audience of the Svandovo Theatre, and together with some other Czech celebrities gave a signing session.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She signed with Blue Note Records in the spring of 2006, and released Beauty &amp; Crime on 17 July 2007. The album was produced by Jimmy Hogarth.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/suzanne_vega_1.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California) is an American songwriter and singer know...'),(81,'The Killers','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers are a American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, most famous for their hit singles &quot;Somebody Told Me,&quot; &quot;Mr. Brightside,&quot; &quot;When You Were Young,&quot; and &quot;Read My Mind.&quot; Formed in 2002 and made up of Brandon Flowers (vocals, keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitar, vocals), Mark Stoermer (bass guitar, vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr., (drums, percussion), they released their debut album, Hot Fuss, in 2004. Their second album, Sam&apos;s Town, was released in early October 2006. The compilation album Sawdust, containing B-sides, rarities, and some new material, was released on November 12, 2007. Their first two albums to date have sold in excess of 11,000,000 copies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Before The Killers</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The future bandmates had diverse occupations before forming The Killers. Brandon Flowers, who had dropped out of college, was a bellhop for a while at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Dave Keuning, who was originally from Pella, Iowa, dropped out of Kirkwood Community College, then the University of Iowa, and finally moved to Las Vegas in January 2002. He worked there at a Banana Republic store with successful indie film director Ivan Shclomovich and Dean (c), stating that it was a terrible job. He finally quit when a new manager was appointed who wouldn&apos;t allow Dave to listen to music in the back room. Mark Stoermer worked as a medical courier, delivering various medical supplies while studying philosophy at UNLV. Ronnie Vannucci was a student of classical percussion at UNLV to become a teacher and worked as a photographer at the Little Chapel of the Flowers and as a pedicab driver at the Desert Passage mall inside the Aladdin Hotel.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Formation and Early Success</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, Flowers was abandoned by the first band that he was in, a synth pop band known as Blush Response, after he declined to move with the rest of them to Los Angeles, California. Shortly thereafter, Flowers attended an Oasis concert, and, realizing that he wanted to make the transition from a keyboard band to a true rock band, began searching for a guitarist. It is said that between then and his first meeting with David Keuning, he was rejected by a potential guitarist who claimed that &quot;this &apos;Duran Duran&apos; crap wasn&apos;t going to go anywhere.&quot; (After gaining his fame, Flowers was waited on by that same guitarist in a Las Vegas restaurant.) He then met Keuning after responding to an ad that Keuning had placed in the paper that listed, among other things, Smashing Pumpkins and Oasis as influences. The two hit it off immediately and began rehearsing. They were joined by a bassist (Keuning&apos;s roommate) and a drummer.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Both bassist and drummer quickly moved on to other things, and the drummer later sued the band, claiming that he wrote &quot;Mr. Brightside.&quot; After their departure, Vannucci and Stoermer (who were both in other bands at the time; Vannucci was drummer in a melodic indierock group called Expert On October, featuring current backup guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Ted Sablay on bass) were approached by Flowers and Keuning with an offer to join &quot;The Killers,&quot; a name which comes from the bass drum of a band in a New Order video for their song &quot;Crystal.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After watching a few of their early shows, Vannucci acknowledged that the group was still green and would need a lot of work to become a polished act. However, Vannucci did eventually join the band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Stoermer was the last to join. He filled the remaining post at least partly because he and Flowers had quickly become friends. They played their first gig as the new band at a club in Vegas called The Junkyard. After Vannucci sold his house, the band found themselves without a garage to rehearse in and took to sneaking into UNLV&apos;s music rooms, where Vannucci was attending college, in order to practice.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Initially, The Killers played at large clubs in Las Vegas, Nevada. With the band&apos;s lineup stable and their repertoire of songs expanding, the band began to attract attention from talent bookers, local agents, major label, scouts — and a UK representative for Warner Bros. Though the Warner Bros rep passed on the band, he took the demo back with him, showing it to a friend who worked at UK indie label Lizard King. The Killers then signed that summer to a British label.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Hot Fuss</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">They released their album Hot Fuss on June 7, 2004 in the United Kingdom on London-based indie record label Lizard King Records, and June 15 in the United States on Island Records. The first 100 albums manufactured by The Control Group, featured a &apos;Red Foil&apos; Killers logo, and were hand numbered out of 100 in silver pen on the reverse of the record. These were only available via mail order and are incredibly rare and sought after items for collectors. Their first single, &quot;Somebody Told Me,&quot; was released on that same year. The band also had chart success with their singles &quot;Mr. Brightside,&quot; which reached the Top 10 in the UK when released, and &quot;All These Things That I&apos;ve Done.&quot; However, their main mainstream success came when they scored a number three chart position with their re-release of Somebody Told Me.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Sam&apos;s Town</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers&apos; second album, Sam&apos;s Town, was released on October 2, 2006, in the UK, and October 3 in the USA, under Island Universal. The album polarised many fans due to its left-field approach in its songwriting and production--many people who enjoyed Hot Fuss were shocked by the band&apos;s new direction. Brandon Flowers said that Sam&apos;s Town will be &quot;one of the most experimental albums of the past twenty years,&quot; though the album has received a mixed response from critics and fans. The first single from Sam&apos;s Town, &quot;When You Were Young,&quot; debuted on radio stations in late July 2006. In late August 2006, it was offered as a downloadable track before the album&apos;s debut. The single then entered the chart on downloads alone at #5, and the following week on its official release went to #2 in the UK. It was unable to knock Scissor Sisters off the top spot. Their single, &quot;Bones,&quot; was the second video from the band, and was directed by Tim Burton.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Promoting Sam&apos;s Town, the band returned as the musical guest for the 32nd season premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 30, 2006. They performed &quot;When You Were Young&quot; and &quot;Bones.&quot; The album sold over 700,000 copies worldwide in the first week of release, with a No. 2 debut on the United World chart. The album has produced four singles in the United Kingdom and United States: &quot;When You Were Young,&quot; &quot;Bones,&quot; &quot;Read My Mind,&quot; and &quot;For Reasons Unknown.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Brandon Flowers announced on August 22, 2007, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the T Vital Festival, that it would be the last time that the album &quot;Sam&apos;s Town&quot; would be played in Europe. The Killers played their last Sam&apos;s Town concert in Melbourne,AU on November 14,2007. The opening band Louis XIV, reportedly dressed up as corn and pigs for Thanksgiving.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Sawdust</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The compilation album called Sawdust, containing B-sides, rarities, and some new material, was released on November 12, 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album&apos;s first single &quot;Tranquilize,&quot; a collaboration with Lou Reed, was released October 12, 2007, in the UK, and on October 22, 2007, in the U.S. The band also released their cover of Joy Division&apos;s &quot;Shadowplay&quot; on the U.S. iTunes Store on October 9, 2007. The band just recently released the video for &quot;Tranquilize&quot; at Yahoo Music. Lou Reed also makes an appearance on the video.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album also contains the songs &quot;Ruby, Don&apos;t Take Your Love to Town,&quot; (a The First Edition cover), &quot;Romeo and Juliet,&quot; (a Dire Straits cover), and a new version of &quot;Move Away,&quot; (previously available on the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack). One of the tracks on Sawdust is &quot;Leave the Bourbon On The Shelf,&quot; the first but previously unreleased part of the so called &quot;Murder Trilogy,&quot; in which it is followed by &quot;Midnight Show,&quot; then &quot;Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers will also release a Christmas single called &quot;Don&apos;t Shoot Me Santa,&quot; on December 1, 2007. The song will, like &quot;A Great Big Sled,&quot; benefit Bono&apos;s Product Red campaign to fight AIDS in Africa. The recording will not be included on Sawdust.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In an interview with Billboard, Flowers said the new sound of the album could be inspired by the dance-inspired Jacques Lu Cont&apos;s Thin White Duke Mix of &quot;Mr. Brightside,&quot; with Flowers hinting that the band could be returning to that sound. In addition, in an interview with Pete Tong on BBC Radio One, Stuart Price confirmed that he would be producing at least part of The Killers&apos; third studio album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Influences</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Much of The Killers&apos; music is based on British influences (indeed, the band is often described as the &quot;Best British band to have come out of America&quot;) and on the music of the 1980s, particularly New Wave. Flowers has also said in interviews that the larger-than-life sound of many of the band&apos;s songs is due to the influence of living in Las Vegas, a city where everything is about flash and who can top whom. They appreciate post-punk bands that sprang up during the 80s such as Joy Division, and they are also avowed fans of New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Dire Straits, David Bowie, The Smiths, Morrissey, Depeche Mode, U2, Queen, Oasis, and The Beatles.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their second album was said to be greatly influenced by Bruce Springsteen&apos;s music and lyrics.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Notable Appearances</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On January 15, 2005, and September 30, 2006, The Killers were the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. In the past, they have appeared as musical guests on: Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O&apos;Brien. In Britain, they have appeared on Top of the Pops, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Later with Jools Holland. They performed for an episode of Austin City Limits that aired on November 5, 2005. The Killers also performed in an episode of The O.C. Famous among Killers fans is the bands skit on Jimmy Kimmel where the band &quot;explains&quot; their name.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers were featured at the Launch Event for the Xbox 360 on May 12, 2005, hosted by actor Elijah Wood on MTV.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers performed at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival on the Pyramid Stage, on Friday night, after they turned down the Sunday headline spot when Kylie Minogue canceled after being diagnosed with breast cancer. They turned down the offer, stating that they didn&apos;t think they had enough songs to fill a headline slot. However, they attracted one of the biggest crowds at the festival. They also performed at the T in the Park festival in Balado, Scotland on July 9, 2005, during which, following The Killers&apos; own set, Flowers performed &quot;Crystal&quot; with New Order. They were due to play in Vienna with U2, in order to support them on the European leg of their Vertigo Tour but were replaced by the Irish band The Thrills. They also appeared at the Carling Weekend as second on the bill to The Pixies.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers performed on the London stage of the Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005. They performed &quot;All These Things That I&apos;ve Done&quot;. To their surprise, Robbie Williams (who performed after them) incorporated the song&apos;s refrain &quot;I&apos;ve got soul but I&apos;m not a soldier&quot; into his own performance. Coldplay and U2 followed suit, and at their separate concerts played in Las Vegas, with The Killers in the crowd, they incorporated that famous line into the songs &quot;God Put a Smile Upon Your Face&quot; and &quot;Beautiful Day&quot;, respectively.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live From Abbey Road on 29th November 2006. They performed an almost totally unplugged set which included a rendition of the Dire Straits&apos; hit Romeo and Juliet. On February 14, 2007, Valentines Day, The Killers attended The BRIT Awards in England, and performed &quot;When You Were Young.&quot; The band were also up for 2 awards- International Group &amp; International Album. The band won both awards, defeating Scissor Sisters and Gnarls Barkley.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers headlined Saturday June 23 festivities at Glastonbury 2007, and at Hovefestivalen in mid-2007, as well as V Festival in August, the Austin City Limits Festival in September 2007, and Brazilian Tim Festival in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Curitiba in October. They were also headliners on the Main stage of T In The Park in Balado, Scotland on 7 July 2007, and at Oxegen 2007 in Ireland on 8 July 2007. Additionally, they headlined day two of Tennents ViTal in Northern Ireland, on August 22, 2007, as well as day two of The Echo Project in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 13, 2007, and lastly, in the Argentinian &quot;Yeah Festival,&quot; made in Buenos Aires the Friday November 2, and in the &quot;Fenix Festival&quot; with Travis and Starsailor in Santiago, Chile November 4, 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers covered the 1979 Joy Division song, &quot;Shadowplay&quot;, on the soundtrack of the 2007 movie Control.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">They have also played at Madison Square Garden (located in New York City, NY) on April 28, 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;When You Were Young&quot;, the first single from Sam&apos;s Town, is featured in both Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On December 9th, 2007, the band was featured at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas in a special unannounced appearance, performing Don&apos;t Shoot Me Santa, along with several other songs.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Controversy</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Since going platinum, the band (and principally Flowers) has incited a few rivalries - most notably with The Bravery and Fall Out Boy, who are both labelmates (Island Records). Flowers has said that these bands, especially The Bravery, are riding on the coattails of the success of The Killers. Additionally, in an article of NME, Flowers claimed Fall Out Boy was hogging the A&amp;R man both bands share, setting off Fall Out Boy&apos;s bassist Pete Wentz. However, after Wentz made a couple of rants on his blog in September 2005, he offered a virtual cease-fire. Flowers has since apologized to The Bravery, Fall Out Boy, and Panic! at the Disco, saying &quot;I&apos;d like to take it all back - these people are just doing what they want to do, just like I am,&quot; and said that he was &quot;not proud of&quot; his occasional jealousy.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Also in NME, Keuning went on record as saying &quot;All those bands, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, they [are] only influenced by each other and Blink-182. How can that be a good thing?&quot;, Panic! at the Disco made an appearance on the November 14, 2006, episode of Total Request Live, and made it appear that they don&apos;t seem to hold a grudge against the Killers, saying that they &quot;love the new album.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Brandon Flowers, in interviews with several music magazines, claimed that the song &quot;Where Is She?&quot; was based on Jodi Jones, a Scottish teenager whose boyfriend, Luke Mitchell, was found guilty of her murder. Many, especially in Scotland, saw this as an insult to her memory, and Flowers (speaking for the band) gave a formal apology, telling the Sunday Herald, &quot;I came across kind of badly. I&apos;d hate to cause offense or further hurt because of it... there&apos;s no way on earth I could ever possibly pretend to know what it must actually feel like to suffer such a thing, and I wouldn&apos;t presume to appropriate any other individual&apos;s feelings for a song.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In February 2006, The Killers&apos; former manager, Braden Merrick, filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract when he was fired in May 2005. Merrick&apos;s contract was to have run through 2007, and the two sides had been negotiating a settlement before the lawsuit was filed.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Flowers has recently gone on record claiming that Green Day&apos;s politically driven concept album American Idiot displays &quot;calculated Anti-Americanism.&quot; He explained that he has problems with the album content itself and also the fact that the band&apos;s recent live DVD, Bullet in a Bible, was filmed overseas. The taping of the concert, featured on Bullet in a Bible, shows thousands of English fans singing along to &quot;American Idiot.&quot; He said, &quot;I just thought it was really cheap. To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren&apos;t taking it the same way that he meant it. And he [Billie Joe Armstrong] knew it.&quot; Stating that he feels Green Day&apos;s DVD is a bit of a stunt, he went on to say that he feels The Killers&apos; most recent release, Sam&apos;s Town, is a much more accurate representation of American culture.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/The%20Killers.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Killers are a American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, most famous for their hit singles &quot;Somebody Told Me,&qu...'),(82,'Yazoo','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) was a short-lived but highly successful English synthpop duo from Basildon, Essex that had a number of top ten hits in the British charts in the early 1980s.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Heavily influenced by earlier bands like Kraftwerk, Yazoo expanded upon the synthpop formula by juxtaposing Alison Moyet&apos;s bluesy and emotional vocals with Vince Clarke&apos;s clinical electronic hooks. Its sound referenced disco but added a more disaffected attitude that disco lacked. Their second album saw greater songwriting input from Moyet, adding a rather more mature and soulful flavour, particularly on the hit single &quot;Nobody&apos;s Diary.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group was formed in 1981, using a moniker that Alison Moyet, veteran of a number of southeast Essex based punk and rock bands, had seen on the labels of old blues albums: Yazoo, although Clarke would later confess that this came from mis-hearing the name of the mouth instrument Kazoo which was popular in the late 1970s. Clarke had been the main songwriter in Depeche Mode, who at that point had recorded one album and three singles for Mute Records, including the hits &quot;New Life&quot; and &quot;Just Can&apos;t Get Enough&quot;. Clarke surprised many by quitting Depeche Mode just as they were beginning to reap success, claiming that they &quot;just weren&apos;t getting on, really&quot;, forming Yazoo with the then relatively unknown Moyet. Mute Records continued to release the output of this new Clarke project. The band was licensed to Sire Records in the United States.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Its debut single &quot;Only You&quot; backed with &quot;Situation,&quot; was released in April 1982 and rose to number two in the UK. Clarke had offered the song as a parting gift to his former bandmates in Depeche Mode, but they declined. Yazoo quickly scored another hit with the next single, &quot;Don&apos;t Go,&quot; which hit number three, and became popular on MTV in the United States thanks to a Frankenstein-themed video. They continued their successful streak with their first album, Upstairs at Eric&apos;s, which went platinum in Britain. The band received favourable reviews for their pioneering sound. Clarke and Moyet toured briefly, while releasing a stopgap single, &quot;The Other Side of Love.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The duo&apos;s second and last album, You and Me Both, yielded more success, hitting the top of the UK charts, and spinning off one single. The album&apos;s success was tainted by Clarke and Moyet announcing they were to go their separate ways shortly before its release.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Moyet decided to venture off on a solo career, signing to Columbia Records, where she would enjoy a great deal of early success. Vince Clarke recorded a single with producer Eric Radcliffe (the same &quot;Eric&quot; from the title of Yazoo&apos;s debut album) and Undertones singer Feargal Sharkey as The Assembly, and another with vocalist Paul Quinn. Clarke then founded the highly successful pop group Erasure with vocalist Andy Bell.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Mute Records released a remixed version of &quot;Situation&quot; as a single in 1990 to moderate success. In 1999, a compilation was released, entitled Only Yazoo - The Best of and was preceded by a re-release of Yazoo&apos;s debut single, &quot;Only You&quot;, featuring a new remix of the title track and several more of &quot;Don&apos;t Go&quot;. The band&apos;s output was bookended with yet another release of &quot;Situation&quot;, accompanied by many remixes.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Clarke was tapped to remix Moyet&apos;s 1994 single, &quot;Whispering Your Name&quot; and with Erasure, Clarke and Moyet tried to record her single &quot;This House&quot; as a duet. This project never came to surface, because Sony Music Entertainment would not permit it.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band&apos;s songs have appeared in a number of films and television shows. &quot;Only You&quot; was used in the Napoleon Dynamite, the BBC television series The Office, and the film Can&apos;t Hardly Wait; a cover version of &quot;Only You&quot; by Joshua Radin was used in 2007 in a JC Penney commercial; &quot;Don&apos;t Go&quot; appeared in the BBC series I&apos;m Alan Partridge, was used in the movie Tango and Cash, and can be heard in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories; the song &quot;Situation&quot; was used in the 1990 TV movie &quot;Exile&quot; and was also used in a Nintendo commercial highlighting the classic edition of the Game Boy Advance SP and the classic NES games ported to it. In 1997, &quot;Bring Your Love Down (Didn&apos;t I)&quot; was used in the Sarah Silverman Program episode, &quot;Not Without My Daughter&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/yazoo.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.) was a short-lived but highly successful English synthpop duo from Basildon, Essex that h...'),(98,'Kyau vs Albert','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Kyau &amp; Albert is the working name for two trance music producers and DJs from Germany named Ralph Kyau and Steven Moebius Albert. They were formerly known as Kyau vs. Albert but changed their working name to Kyau &amp; Albert in 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Ralph Kyau had his first experience with the production of electronic music in 1990 and gained a reputation for DJing as well as Live PA sets at several underground techno parties in Germany before releasing his first record &quot;Modulation Experiments&quot; at the end of 1993.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Together with DJ Shandy he founded the label Harmony Recordings in 1993 and they signed the massive Mirco de Govia as their first act. At the same time, Steven Moebius Albert began to produce his own tracks and in the summer of 1994, Ralph and Steven met for the first time.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">They produced their first tracks together for a live performance realized that they have a common perception of music and decided to try their hands at producing together. The result was their first single &quot;Let me in&quot; released in 1996. From then on they became known under the artist name of Kyau vs Albert. Their two small studios merged and they founded a music production company &quot;Euphonic&quot; in 1997, signing Sonorous aka Rough Mullar as well as Ronski Speed. With such a strong backing of producers, the team began pushing for their sound to be heard.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2000, the guise of Kyau vs Albert became recognized by WEA (part of Warner Music) and a long term contract was put together, forming the start of their journey into dance music, with huge support from DJs such as Paul van Dyk, KayCee, DJ Tiesto and many others.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2002, Sun Decade shone through on the Euphonic label with the massive &quot;I&apos;m Alone&quot; which blew the roof off many house and clubs around the world with its soaring vocals and superb productions, putting Kyau &amp; Albert and their Euphonic Label at the top of the list in the industry.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/kyauvsalbert1.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Kyau &amp; Albert is the working name for two trance music producers and DJs from Germany named Ralph Kyau and Steven Moe...'),(84,'Alcazar','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alcazar is a Swedish pop group who had a string of hit singles during the early 2000&apos;s decade and are continuing successfully today.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group was created in 1998 with three members: Andreas Lundstedt, Tess Merkel (born Therese Merkel, 18 April 1970, Nykoping, Sweden), and Annikafiore Kjaergaard (born 18 May 1971, Bjarnum, Sweden). Their first single, &quot;Shine On&quot;, was successful in Sweden but it was with their second release, &quot;Crying At The Discoteque&quot; (which heavily sampled from Sheila B. Devotion&apos;s 1979 hit, &quot;Spacer&quot;), that they achieved success across Europe. Both singles appeared on their debut album Casino. Later editions of Casino contained a cover of the Human League&apos;s hit &quot;Don&apos;t You Want Me&quot;, which also served as the album&apos;s third single. In the United States, Alcazar gained moderate success. &quot;Crying At The Discoteque&quot; peaked at #44 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play and &quot;Don&apos;t You Want Me&quot; peaked at #30.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In December 2002, Magnus Carlsson joined the group. The second album Alcazarized was released in Sweden in 2003 and became a big hit. It got an international release in 2004.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In Autumn 2004 Alcazar released &quot;This Is The World We Live In&quot;. The track samples Diana Ross&apos;s 1980 number one &quot;Upside Down&quot; and uses lyrics from Genesis&apos; 1986 single &quot;Land Of Confusion&quot;. Their follow-up single was entitled &quot;Physical&quot;. They released the album Dancefloor Deluxe in Sweden in August 2004. In the winter of 2004 they released the Christmas single &quot;Here I Am&quot;. Alcazar enjoyed considerable success in 2004 in their home country Sweden. This Is The World We Live In, Physical, Dancefloor Deluxe and Here I Am all achieved solid sales.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">2005 saw the release of their single &quot;Start The Fire&quot;. During the making of its music video, Kjaergaard had an accident in which she broke her foot.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alcazar are currently taking a break from releasing music as a band, and the boys are launching solo careers. Lundstedt had appeared in Eurovision 2006, as a member of six4one, a multi-national band founded for the sole purpose of representing Switzerland at the contest, whilst Carlsson has taken part in the Swedish Melodifestivalen.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Melodifestivalen</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alcazar have twice taken part in the Melodifestivalen, the competition that selects Sweden&apos;s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2003 Not A Sinner, Nor A Saint came third overall. But it became the biggest hit of all the songs in Melodifestivalen 2003 and won the National Finals Song Contest. It became Alcazar&apos;s first #1 single in Sweden and did sell gold. In 2005 Alcastar failed to qualify for the final automatically, but eventually made it through after a second chance semi-final. However, the group again had to settle for third in the final, which was won by Martin Stenmarck&apos;s song Las Vegas. But the song became a hit and only needed three days in stores to became Alcazar&apos;s second #1 single in Sweden.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Break</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band claimed that they needed a break during the autumn of 2005. Male lead singer, Andreas Lundstedt claimed that the band will be back in the summer of 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alcazar reformed in July 2007 to perform at the London Astoria as part of a celebration of Swedish music. They headlined the G-A-Y event on Saturday 21st July 2007 alongside BWO. They performed three songs, &quot;This Is the World We Live In&quot;, &quot;Start the Fire&quot; and &quot;Crying At The Discoteque&quot;. However when pressed at the end of their set by club proprietor Jeremy Joseph on whether the band would reform, Andreas avoided offering a commitment other than that they would do future one-off appearances at G-A-Y.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Lina Hedlund has been announced as the replacement for (Mi Amore) Annikafiore. Linda Hedlund has previously entered Melodifestivalen on two occasions (2002, with her sister Hanna Hedlund, with the song &apos;Big Time Party&apos; and the 2003 solo effort &apos;Nothing Can Stop Me&apos;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Andreas&apos; &apos;Expressen&apos; blog was recently updated, telling Alcazar fans that the group will now be back together permanently, they will take part in a concert in Sweden in December and will then head into the studio to produce the groups third studio album, with new member, Lina Hedlund. Rumours of the group taking part in Melodifestivalen 2008 were recently aired in the Swedish paper, Aftonbladet.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/alcazar4.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Alcazar is a Swedish pop group who had a string of hit singles during the early 2000&apos;s decade and are continuing suc...'),(85,'Buggles','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Buggles (the official version of the band name, used on their albums, singles, and publicity material, omits the prefix &quot;The&quot;) were a New Wave band formed in 1977 consisting of Trevor Horn, born 1949 in Durham (bass guitar, guitar, percussion, and vocals), Geoff Downes, born 1952 in Stockport, Cheshire (percussion and keyboards) and Bruce Woolley.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Horn and Downes first met in the mid 1970s while members of the backing band of British singer Tina Charles of &quot;I Love to Love&quot; fame, though they did not actually play on that record. After this stint they briefly went their separate ways, Horn playing bass guitar in the house band at Hammersmith Odeon for a while, where he met Bruce Woolley. During this period Horn yearned to become a record producer, but was frustrated by not being able to find ideal songs or artists to work with. As a result he reunited with Geoff Downes, and the trio of Horn, Downes, and Woolley began writing their own songs to record themselves as a studio band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Buggles&apos; sound was characterised by a deliberately synthetic quality in keeping with the technological subject matter of their songs. Two different stories are claimed for the origin of the band&apos;s name. Horn said he chose &quot;Buggles&quot; because &quot;It was the most disgusting name I could think of at that time&quot;, but the booklet for the CD remaster of &quot;The Age of Plastic&quot; says that it arose out of a private joke between Horn and Downes and was actually a pun on &quot;Beatles&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Video Killed the Radio Star</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their first song was &quot;Video Killed the Radio Star,&quot; and in the summer of 1979 a demo recording was submitted to Island Records, who signed them immediately. This demo featured vocals by Tina Charles, who incidentally helped fund the project. Although the song was chiefly a Bruce Woolley composition, he left shortly before its release to form a new band, the Camera Club, which included Thomas Dolby and Hans Zimmer. The Camera Club also released a version of the song. Three months after the demo was sent to Island, &quot;Video Killed the Radio Star&quot; was at number one. The female vocalists on the &quot;proper&quot; recording were Debi Doss and Linda Jardim, now known as Linda Allan.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Video Killed the Radio Star&quot;, released in late 1979, was the 444th number one in the UK charts, spending one week at the top and shooting Buggles to fame. At the time of the single&apos;s original release Buggles did not actually have an album&apos;s worth of material to record, and so they wrote most of the other tracks for their debut album The Age of Plastic (1980) while travelling around Europe promoting &quot;Video Killed The Radio Star&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Being largely a studio creation, Buggles never toured as such. There were a couple of Top of the Pops appearances, and later some performances for promotional purposes in support of the second album, but the first live outing by the original duo came in a low-key appearance in 1998. Later an appearance at a Prince&apos;s Trust concert celebrating Horn&apos;s career as a producer in 2004 was billed as the band&apos;s first-ever live appearance.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The novelty value of the song led to the Buggles&apos; being perceived as being a one-hit wonder (three subsequent singles also charted, although they were largely ignored by radio and did not perform well), but its success was sufficient to launch both members of the band onto successful careers. The video for the song, directed by Russell Mulcahy, was the first video aired on MTV two years later, at midnight on the 1st of August 1981. By this time, the Camera Club had released their version of the song.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As with other songs from The Age of Plastic album, the songs were shortened in their music video versions and &quot;Video Killed the Radio Star&quot; lost the long instrumental coda found on the album. This also applied to their follow-up album, Adventures in Modern Recording — all of their videos were shortened from the length of their original recordings.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Live Performances</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Buggles never performed live in the US; however, in the UK they did on two shows. On the Aplauso they performed Living in the Plastic Age, Clean Clean, and Video Killed the Radio Star. Further live performances came on BBC Radio 1 in 1980: The Plastic Age on July 2, 1980 and Clean Clean on October 4, 1980.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Merger With Yes</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Later in 1980, Horn and Downes began work on a second album, working in a studio next door to progressive rock band Yes, who had recently lost vocalist Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman. Both Buggles, and Horn in particular, had been long-standing fans of Yes, but felt that the quality of their recent music had been slipping. The Buggles offered a song to Yes, &quot;We Can Fly from Here&quot;, but at the suggestion of Brian Lane, manager of both bands, Yes&apos; bassist Chris Squire invited them to actually replace Anderson and Wakeman as fully fledged members of Yes. This they did, in one of rock music&apos;s more surprising shifts of personnel.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The fruit of their labours was the album Drama (1980, UK #2, US #18). A track called &quot;Into the Lens&quot; was released in its full eight and a half minute form, on a limited-edition one-sided 12-inch single. Essentially it was an unfinished Buggles song originally titled &quot;I am a Camera,&quot; re-worked and completed by Yes. &quot;We Can Fly From Here&quot; did not in fact appear on Drama, but the band did perform the song on the Drama tour, and a 1980 performance can be heard on Yes&apos; The Word Is Live CD set (2005), along with another unreleased Yes track from that era, &quot;Go Through This.&quot; As a point of interest, another track from Drama, the somewhat brief &quot;White Car,&quot; was extended in live performance to incorporate sections of &quot;Video Killed the Radio Star,&quot; much to fans&apos; amusement.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On the whole, the team-up of Yes and Buggles was well received by fans both on record (the UK chart position for Drama is testament to that), and on stage. Trevor Horn was the first to admit that he did not have Jon Anderson&apos;s vocal range or style, and many fans missed this, but most were still keen to give the new-look Yes a chance. The critics, however, were far less forgiving, especially in the United Kingdom, and poured scorn on the band. Yes officially disbanded, although temporarily, in early 1981, shortly after the Drama tour came to an end.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Downes After The Buggles</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With the break-up of Yes, Geoff Downes, Chris Squire and drummer Alan White initially embarked on a project with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, ostensibly to be called XYZ (ex-Yes and Zeppelin), but when ex-Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant declined an invitation to come on board the project floundered. As a result Downes reunited with Trevor Horn to resume work on the second Buggles album. However, he left shortly afterwards, citing musical differences, going on to join his former Yes bandmate Steve Howe in &quot;supergroup&quot; Asia, together with John Wetton (ex-King Crimson), and Carl Palmer (ex-Emerson, Lake &amp; Palmer). There he remains to this day, the only member of Asia to have been in the band continually since its beginnings. He has still found time for other projects though, the most notable being a double album (single CD) which he issued in 1986 under the name New Dance Orchestra, titled The Light Programme.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Horn After The Buggles</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Horn continued to work on the second Buggles album, Adventures in Modern Recording, with several new players, the most prominent being Simon Darlow. The album included &quot;I am a Camera,&quot; brought to completion as a Buggles song as originally intended, and under its original title. Adventures in Modern Recording did not chart, nor did four singles released from it—the title track, &quot;I am a Camera&quot;, &quot;On TV&quot;, and lastly &quot;Lenny.&quot; Shortly afterwards Trevor Horn brought the Buggles to an end, and finally embarked on his new career as a record producer, achieving enormous success, with bands like ABC, Dollar, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise, and even a re-formed Yes, with Jon Anderson back on vocals. In 1985, Horn won the Best Producer BRIT Award. More than twenty years on, he is still active, still producing, with Simple Minds, t.A.T.u., Charlotte Church, Captain and most recently Pet Shop Boys among his many credits.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 2006, Trevor Horn formed a new band, The Producers with other musicians and producers. At live performances, they mainly perform songs from each of the band members&apos; pasts, however, they have played some original material, which shall appear on their upcoming debut album entitled &apos;Studio 1&apos; - due for release in September, 2007. At their first gig in Camden Town, November 2006, a clip can be seen on the official website of ZTT Records of Trevor singing lead vocals and playing bass on a performance of Video Killed The Radio Star.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>In The 21st Century</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In June 2005, Geoff Downes faintly hinted on his blog at an arrangement with Trevor Horn for a new Buggles album to coincide with MTV&apos;s 25th birthday, although the blog hasn&apos;t been updated for a while. With the expected worldwide re-release of Adventures in Modern Recording by Horn&apos;s own ZTT Records however, there is still a sign of Buggles activity.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Horn&apos;s current band, The Producers, have covered Video Killed The Radio Star at all of their performances so far. A clip of one of these performances at Camden Town can be seen on the website for ZTT Records.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/buggles.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Buggles (the official version of the band name, used on their albums, singles, and publicity material, omits the prefix &...'),(86,'Spice Girls','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Spice Girls are a British all-female pop group, formed in London in 1994. The Spice Girls, consisting of Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell, signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, &quot;Wannabe&quot;, in 1996. The song went on to spend seven weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart and helped establish the group as an &quot;international phenomenon&quot;. They went on to release three studio albums and ten singles, selling in excess of 55 million records worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Under the guidance of their long time mentor and manager Simon Fuller, the group embraced merchandising and became a regular feature of the British press. Each member of the group was given an alias by Top of the Pops Magazine in 1996, aliases which were adopted by the group and media alike. According to biographer David Sinclair, &quot;Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh and Sporty were the most widely recognised group of individuals since John, Paul, George and Ringo&quot;, and the group was &quot;a social phenomenon that changed the course of popular music and popular culture&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The members went their separate ways at the end of 2000 (although a break-up was never formally announced) to focus on their solo careers. On June 28, 2007 they reformed as a quintet and in November 2007 a Greatest Hits album was released to accompany the group&apos;s current World Tour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Beginning</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early 1990s, father-and-son management team Chris and Bob Herbert set about creating an all female group that could compete with the onslaught of equally popular boy bands that dominated the pop music scene in the early to mid 1990s: &quot;the whole teen-band scene at the time was saturated by boy bands. It was all clones of New Kids on the Block and Take That. That was all a bit of a yawn for me, and only appealed to female audiences...I felt if you could appeal to the boys as well, you&apos;d be laughing&quot;. In February 1994, Heart Management – which comprised the Herberts together with financier Chic Murphy – placed an advertisement in The Stage trade magazine asking &quot;R U 18-23 with the ability to sing/dance? R U streetwise, ambitious, outgoing and dedicated?&quot; Hundreds of girls responded and the applicants were whittled down to a final five that included Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell and Michelle Stephenson. The group was given the name &quot;Touch&quot; and moved into a house together in Maidenhead, Berkshire, (owned by Murphy) where they were subsidised by Heart Management and each was claiming unemployment benefit.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During the first two months the group worked on demos and dance routines at the Trinity Studios in Woking. According to Stephenson, the material the group was given was &quot;very, very young pop&quot; and included the song &quot;We’re Gonna Make It Happen&quot;, a record that never came to light. It soon became apparent that Stephenson did not have the drive and belief that the rest of the group had, so the decision was made to fire her from the group. Bob Herbert stated that &quot;she just wasn&apos;t fitting in...she would never have gelled with it and I had to tell her to go&quot;. However, Stephenson stated it was her decision to leave the group because of the illness of her mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer. Victoria later dismissed this claim saying she &quot;just couldn&apos;t be arsed&quot; to put in the work the rest of the group was doing. The Herberts searched for a replacement and first came across Abigail Kas, who did not impress, and then were led to eighteen-year-old Emma Bunton at the suggestion of vocal coach Pepe Lemer. Bunton instantly impressed the Herberts and was invited to meet the group in July 1994, who welcomed her with open arms: &quot;Straight away I knew she was the one&quot;, stated Halliwell.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After Bunton joined the girls there was growing discontent amongst the group with the management team. The group felt insecure about the lack of a contract and were frustrated by the direction in which Heart Management was steering them. They persuaded Bob Herbert to set up a showcase performance for the group in front of industry writers, producers and A&amp;R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios in Shepherds Bush where they received an &quot;overwhelmingly positive&quot; reaction. Due to the large interest in the group, the Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for the group. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase the five girls delayed signing contracts on the legal advice from, amongst others, Victoria&apos;s father Tony Adams. In March 1995, because of the group&apos;s frustration at their management&apos;s unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas, they parted from Heart Management. In what biographer David Sinclair calls an &quot;incredibly self-serving and underhand&quot; ploy, the group stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices in order to ensure they kept control of their own work. That same day the girls tracked down Sheffield-based producer Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the showcase, and persuaded him to work with the group.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 1994, armed with a catalogue of demos and dance routines, the group began touring management agencies. The group was introduced to record producers Absolute, who in turn brought them to the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Management. The girls began a relationship with Fuller and finally signed with him in March 1995. During the summer of that year the group toured record labels in London and Los Angeles with Fuller and finally signed a deal with Virgin Records in September 1995. From this point up to the summer of 1996 the girls continued to write and record tracks for their debut album while extensively touring the west coast of America, where they had signed a publishing deal with Windswept Pacific.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Spice</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On July 8, 1996 the Spice Girls released their debut single &quot;Wannabe&quot; in the United Kingdom. In the weeks leading up to the release, the video for &quot;Wannabe&quot;, (directed by Johan Camitz and shot in April at St Pancras Chambers in London), had dominated the music channels. In July 1996 the group conducted their first interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of music industry paper Music Week, at Virgin Records&apos; London headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: &quot;Just when boys with guitars threaten to rule pop life, an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group has arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist cherry!!&quot; The song entered the charts at number 3 before moving up to number 1 the following week and staying there for seven weeks. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number 1 in 31 countries and becoming not only the biggest selling debut single by an all-female group but also the biggest-selling single by an all-female group of all time. &quot;Wannabe&quot; also proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the notoriously difficult U.S. market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number 11. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a British (or non-American) act in the US, beating the previous record held by The Beatles for &quot;I Want to Hold Your Hand&quot;. &quot;Wannabe&quot; reached number one in the US four weeks later.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 1996 the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania due to the sheer volume of interest in the group. In just seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest selling British act since The Beatles. In total, the album sold 3 million copies in Britain and peaked at number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the biggest-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8x Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies. In the United States Spice became the biggest-selling album of 1997, peaking at number one and being certified 7x Platinum by the RIAA.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles, &quot;Say You&apos;ll Be There&quot; and &quot;2 Become 1(the Christmas Number 1)&quot;, in October and December respectively. The two tracks continued the group&apos;s remarkable sales by topping the charts in over fifty-three countries and cementing the group&apos;s reputation as the biggest pop act in the world.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The last release from Spice was a double A-side of &quot;Mama&quot;/&quot;Who Do You Think You Are&quot;, which once again saw them at number one.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Spiceworld</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 1997 the Spice Girls released their second album, Spiceworld. Preceded by the single &quot;Spice Up Your Life&quot;, the album proved to be an instant global best seller. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album over two weeks when it shipped 7 million copies. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined. Criticised in America for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. The group was criticised for the number of sponsorship deals signed – over twenty in total – and they began to witness diminishing international chart positions. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the biggest-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998. Further singles released from the album included &quot;Too Much&quot;, &quot;Stop&quot; and &quot;Viva Forever&quot; – with &quot;Stop&quot; being the only track not to hit number one in Britain (it entered and peaked at number two). The track remains their only single not to go to number one in the UK.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In June 1997 the group began filming their movie debut, Spiceworld: The Movie, with Absolutely Fabulous and Fawlty Towers director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany the album, the comical style and content of the movie was in the same vein as The Beatles&apos; films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day&apos;s Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Roger Moore, Elton John, Jennifer Saunders, Richard E. Grant, Michael Barrymore and Meat Loaf. Released in December 1997, Spiceworld: The Movie proved to be a hit in revenue taking in over 100 million dollars in the box office and DVD sales. The movie received a lukewarm reception from critics; however it was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where they won the award for &quot;Worst Actress&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On November 7, 1997 the Spice Girls fired Simon Fuller. It was reported on the front page of The Sun newspaper and around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the true mastermind behind the group, and that this was the moment when the band lost their impetus and direction. According to their various autobiographies, it was mainly Geri and Melanie B who pushed for Fuller’s dismissal. They cited that he had become too controlling by restricting their personal and artistic freedom. The group quickly found the burden of managing themselves time consuming, so they assigned various responsibilities to each member of the group, Melanie B&apos;s: Tour Control, Geri&apos;s: Sponsorship, Emma&apos;s: Personnel, Schedule and Charities, Victoria&apos;s: Merchandising and Finance, Melanie C&apos;s: Record Company, Singles and Formats. They later built their own team, headed by Nancy Phillips, to deal with their affairs. Two of the Spice Girls Emma Bunton and Victoria Adams, later returned to Fuller&apos;s stable once it was clear the impetus behind the group was starting to disappear.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early 1998 the Spice Girls embarked upon the world tour that Fuller had set up for them covering Europe and North America. The Spiceworld Tour kicked off in Dublin, Ireland on February 24, 1998 before moving on to mainland Europe and then returning to Britain for fourteen gigs at Wembley Arena and Birmingham’s NEC Arena. It was here that recordings were made for a planned live album, which was confirmed by the group: &quot;We&apos;ve shown everyone we can do the business on stage, so now we want to do a live album for fans&quot;. Despite masters of the recording being made, the idea was eventually dropped.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Goodbye</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On May 31, 1998 Geri Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls. Through her solicitor she issued the following statement: &quot;Sadly I would like to confirm that I have left the Spice Girls. This is because of differences between us. I&apos;m sure the group will continue to be successful and I wish them all the best&quot;. Halliwell claimed that she was suffering from exhaustion and wanted to take time out. However rumours persisted that she had fallen out with one of the other girls (reportedly Melanie B; ironically, she physically left a day before Melanie B&apos;s birthday, though she announced her departure two days later, the fact she abruptly left while on tour fuels this rumour more). Geri’s departure from the group shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news headlines the world over. The four remaining girls were adamant though that the group would carry on and that their approaching North American tour would continue as normal. Geri Halliwell&apos;s departure threw most of the group&apos;s plans into disarray. It was cited as the reason the planned live album was cancelled. It also meant that most of the material the girls had recorded throughout the first half of 1998 at Dublin&apos;s Windmill Lane Studios with long-time collaborators Richard Stannard and Matt Rowe was eventually scrapped. A rumoured animated venture by Disney also failed to materialise.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Viva Forever&quot;, was the last single taken off Spiceworld. The video for the single was made before Geri&apos;s departure and features the girls in animated form – a decision made because there was no time to produce a video due to the heavy world tour schedule. Originally planned as a double A-side with &quot;Never Give Up On The Good Times&quot;, the idea was dropped for several reasons, mainly due to time restraints (since there was no time to re-record and edit out Geri&apos;s vocals or make a video for the track). While on tour in America the group continued to record new material and they released a new song, &quot;Goodbye&quot;, in Christmas 1998. Although written before her departure, the song was nevertheless seen as a tribute to Geri and when it topped the British chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number one – equalling the record previously set by The Beatles. The song also became one of the most successful songs of the 1990s in Canada, where it stayed at number one for sixteen weeks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Forever</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">1999 was dedicated to solo projects with the release of Melanie C&apos;s solo debut album and two singles were released by Emma Bunton and Melanie B.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the end of 1999 they performed live for a UK-only Christmas tour, named Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 2000 the group released Forever. Sporting a new edgier R&amp;B sound, the album received a lukewarm response and achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors. In the US it peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK the album was released the same week as Westlife’s Coast To Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, Westlife won the battle reaching number one in the UK, leaving the Spice Girls at number 2. The lead single from &quot;Forever&quot;, the double A-side &quot;Holler&quot; / &quot;Let Love Lead The Way&quot;, did enjoy some success – it became the group&apos;s ninth number one single in the UK. However the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under chart. &quot;Holler&quot; did peak at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play in 2001.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The only major performance of the lead single came at the MTV Europe Music Awards in November 2000 and, a few TV performances aside, the group did little meaningful promotion, their last performance was in December 2000. The Spice Girls came back at the 2000 Brits, and it was announced that they had received the Lifetime Achievement Award. In an attempt to cover more ground, the girls split up and covered different countries separately; for example Victoria and Emma headed to North America while Melanie B and C concentrated on Europe. Further planned single releases off the album never materialised. Promo singles of &quot;Tell Me Why&quot;, &quot;Weekend Love&quot; and &quot;If You Wanna Have Some Fun&quot; came into circulation but to fans&apos; dismay the &quot;Forever&quot; project was abandoned as the girls each began to concentrate on solo careers, rumours of Melanie C quitting the band began to spread as she said that she no longer felt comfortable in the band and doesn&apos;t intend to do any more work with them. In February 2001, the group announced that, despite only coming back in late 2000, they were having a break and going apart for the foreseeable future, concentrating on their solo careers. Though saying in March 2001 that they will still be together, they parted ways with their manager Nancy Phillips in October 2001, confirming that the band has in fact broken up.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Reunion</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On June 28, 2007 the group held a press conference at The O2 in London, formally announcing their intention to reunite. The plan to reform had long been speculated by the media, but the group now confirmed their intention to embark upon a world wide concert tour, starting in Vancouver on December 2, 2007. The tour was intended to support the November release of their Greatest Hits. In addition, filmmaker Bob Smeaton will direct an official documentary on the reunion. It is entitled Spice Girls: Giving You Everything and will be aired on BBC One.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Ticket sales for the first London date of &quot;The Return of the Spice Girls&quot; World Tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band&apos;s official website. Sixteen additional dates in London had been added and have since sold out. In America, the Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit(Auburn Hills) &amp; Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Along with the current tour sell-out, the Spice Girls have licensed their name and image to Tesco&apos;s UK supermarket chain. The band have reportedly been paid £5 million for their appearances in Tesco advertisements.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group&apos;s comeback single, &quot;Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)&quot;, was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls was made at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, where the group performed at the Victoria&apos;s Secret Fashion Show. They performed two songs, 1998 single &quot;Stop&quot; and the lead single off their greatest hits album, &quot;Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)&quot;. The show was filmed by CBS on November 15, 2007 for broadcast on December 4, 2007. They also performed the song live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on November 16, 2007 from Los Angeles, in elegant Roberto Cavalli gowns. The release peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the groups lowest charting British single to date. However the album faired better, peaking at number two on the UK Albums Chart behind Leona Lewis&apos; record breaking debut. Australia was the only country for the album to debut and reach number 1. This is the first Spice Girls album to reach number 1 in Australia. To date, their Greatest Hits album has been declared platinum in Australia and the UK, and Gold in New Zealand.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The British Music Scene</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After being shut out by the Brit Pop revolution that occurred in the early 1990s when bands like Oasis, Pulp and Blur dominated the charts, pop music found a voice again. The image of the Spice Girls was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential; reinforcing the range of appeal within the target demographic were the bandmates&apos; five distinctive personalities, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This marketing was helped in no small way by the aliases assigned to each member of the group. Shortly after Wannabe’s release, the group appeared in &quot;Top Of The Pops&quot; magazine where each member was given a nickname based upon their image: Victoria became &quot;Posh Spice&quot;, Emma became &quot;Baby Spice,&quot; Melanie B was named &quot;Scary Spice&quot;, Geri was named &quot;Sexy Spice&quot; (quickly changed to &quot;Ginger Spice&quot; due to issues with the word &quot;sexy&quot; on children&apos;s television), and Melanie C became &quot;Sporty Spice&quot;. These nicknames quickly caught the imagination of the tabloids and they stuck with the girls throughout their careers.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>&quot;Girl Power&quot;</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The &quot;Girl Power&quot; slogan was met with varied reactions, both positive and negative. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world; both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks, and the phrase was most likely first coined by Welsh indie band Helen Love in 1993 and made famous by British pop duo Shampoo in 1995. However, the Spice Girls&apos; version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasized the importance of strong, loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of &quot;girl power&quot; formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, &quot;The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>&quot;Cool Britannia&quot;</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The term &quot;Cool Britannia&quot; became prominent in the media and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and very appealing, a main driving force in making Britain look fashionable again. Although by no means responsible for the onset of &quot;Cool Britannia&quot;, the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than U.S., pop music. This fact was underlined at the BRIT Awards in 1997. The group won two awards but it was Geri Halliwell&apos;s Union Jack dress that appeared in media coverage the world over and eventually became a symbol of &quot;Cool Britannia&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Icons of the 1990s</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Union Jack dress Geri wore has acquired something of an iconic status, and sold at a cancer charity auction for for £36,000 after interest from a frenzy of bidders. The dress was one of many items of Spice Girls memorabilia sold at the auction, where total sales reached £146,511 for charity.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The &quot;Spice Girls&quot; are revered as Gay Icons, especially in the UK. They had something which fitted perfectly with the Gay Community and which put out a big part of their success. They embodied glamor and self-confidence. Geri joked at the Video Music Awards in 1998 about her appearance as a Ginger &quot;As you have noted, I am no longer dressed like a Drag queen&quot;. Emma Bunton, during an interview, explained why the Spice Girls have so many gay fans: &quot;We were really flattered with having such a huge gay fan base because they know about fashion and they know about songs that. I&apos;m so flattered that we&apos;ve got such a huge gay following, it&apos;s amazing.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Ten years after the release of their debut single The Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s by 80% in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that &quot;Girl Power&quot; defined the decade.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/spice%20girls.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Spice Girls are a British all-female pop group, formed in London in 1994. The Spice Girls, consisting of Victoria Bec...'),(87,'Milk Inc','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Milk Inc. (Milk Incorporated) started as a studio-project of 3 young Belgian producers: Regi Penxten, Philip Vandueren and Ivo Donckers. All three were already active in the commercial house-scene in Belgium, doing succesfull things under various names, such as K-Lab (for Dance Opera), Regg &amp; Arkin, Karnak-X, some of the &quot;Illusion&quot;-compilations and remixes for different dance-projects.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their first release La Vache under the name Milk Inc got a vocal remix by Praga Khan and this one took a flying start. The vocals were done by Nikki Van Lier (aka Nikki Mono aka Jade4U). The tune became a huge hit in France. After a while, Reggie had to look for a new stage act because Jade4U was way to busy with Praga Khan when Praga Khan got successful in the US.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">He found Sofie Winters which was present only on the second single &apos;Free your mind&apos;. From the third single on (Inside of me), An Vervoort was the frontstage girl and singer. (Regi being the frontstage boy). She was a dancer for Pat Krimson and graphic designer.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 15th 2000 she anounced her departure from Milk Inc. She had decided to leave for Ibiza to start a dance-label Benimusa with her husband Patrick Claesen alias Pat Krimson (who has/had projects such as Nunca, 2 Fabiola). Linda Mertens became the new singer and face of the group.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">It has been confirmed from various sources that Ann didn&apos;t really sing live and the real singer was actually Karine Boelaerts (also the studio singer of projects like 2 Fabiola and Maurizzio). Ann could sing but for some parts her voice was not good enough.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/MilkInc2.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Milk Inc. (Milk Incorporated) started as a studio-project of 3 young Belgian producers: Regi Penxten, Philip Vandueren an...'),(88,'The Village People','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Village People is a concept disco group formed in the late 1970s. The group is as well known for their on-stage costumes as for their catchy tunes and suggestive lyrics. Original members were: police officer (Victor Willis), American Indian chief (Felipe Rose), cowboy (Randy Jones), construction worker (David Hodo), leatherman (Glenn Hughes) and military man (Alex Briley). For the release of &quot;In the Navy&quot;, both Willis and Briley appeared temporarily as sailors.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Village People scored a number of disco and dance hits, including their trademark &quot;Macho Man&quot;, &quot;Go West&quot;, the classic club medley of &quot;San Francisco (You&apos;ve Got Me) / In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)&quot;, &quot;In the Navy&quot;, &quot;Can&apos;t Stop the Music&quot;, &quot;Sex Over the Phone&quot; and their biggest hit, &quot;Y.M.C.A.&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Collectively, the Village People have sold 85 million albums and singles. The group also recorded new materials under the name &quot;The Amazing Veepers&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1977-1979</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The famous group was created by Jacques Morali, who was a French musical composer. He had written a few songs when he heard Victor Willis singing background vocals in a studio. Morali approached Willis and told him, &quot;I had a dream that you sang lead on my album and it went very, very big.&quot; Willis agreed to sing on the first album, &quot;Village People.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">It was a success, so Morali and his business partner, Henri Belolo, (under the collaboration Can&apos;t Stop Productions), decided to build a real group around Willis for a stage act to showcase and perform their disco music creations. They took out an ad in a trade magazine band which read: &quot;Macho Types Wanted: Must Have Moustache.&quot; Leatherman Hughes was a toll collector at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Cowboy Jones and construction worker Hodo were both actors/singers/dancers. Soldierman Briley was a friend of Willis&apos; and Morali literally bumped into Indian Rose on the streets of Greenwich Village.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Much like Frank Farian&apos;s Boney M or The Spice Girls, the group was manufactured. Despite the French songwriters, the songs lyrics were all in English as Morali and Belolo used American lyricists. On the first album, they brought in songwriting legends Phil Hurtt and Peter Whitehead. For the next three albums (and on other Can&apos;t Stop Productions such as Ritchie Family and Patrick Juvet) lead singer Willis was the lyricist.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band&apos;s name references New York City&apos;s Greenwich Village neighborhood, at the time known for having a substantial gay population. Morali and Belolo got the inspiration for creating an assembly of American man archetypes based on the gay men of The Village who frequently dressed in various fantasy attire.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While the song &quot;Macho Man&quot; put them on the map, their 1978 anthem &quot;Y.M.C.A.&quot; made them one of the most successful disco groups.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1979, the United States Navy considered using &quot;In the Navy,&quot; another Village People hit, in a recruiting advertising campaign on television and radio. They contacted Belolo, who decided to give the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, Village People arrived at the San Diego Naval base. The Navy provided them with a warship, several aircraft, and hundreds of Navy men. When the video started showing and the Navy started the planned ad campaign, some newspapers protested using taxpayers&apos; money to fund music videos (especially for a group considered by some to be &quot;morally dubious&quot;). The Navy quickly cancelled the campaign. The scandal tremendously boosted the popularity of the song.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their fame reached its peak in 1979. The Village People were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone, Vol. 289, April 19, 1979.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Willis left the group at the end of 1979, and the group&apos;s downfall began. It is debated why he left the group (though his drug use at that time was well known). However, in a recent interview for Willis&apos; forthcoming autobiography, Belolo insists that Willis was not fired. Rather, he and Morali had big plans for Willis to go solo and that Willis did not care to participate in the movie, Can&apos;t Stop the Music. They convinced Willis to at least write a few songs for the movie, which he did before officially leaving the group. Willis&apos; website concurs with Henri Belolo&apos;s recollection.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1980-1985</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Ray Simpson, brother of Valerie Simpson (of Ashford &amp; Simpson}, stepped into Willis&apos; shoes in time for the group&apos;s highly anticipated 1980 feature film Can&apos;t Stop the Music, directed by Nancy Walker, written by Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard, music and lyrics by Jacques Morali (altho Willis penned the lyrics to &quot;Milk Shake&quot; and &quot;Magic Night&quot;) and starring Steve Guttenberg, Valerie Perrine, Jean-Claude Billmaer, Bruce Jenner, and the Village People. By the time it was released, however, disco was waning and the movie &quot;won&quot; the Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay prizes at the 1980 Golden Raspberry Awards in March 1981 and was nominated in almost all the other categories. Despite that, the song, &quot;Can&apos;t Stop The Music&quot; became a Club Play chart hit and moderate radio hit. The soundtrack also featured the talents of &quot;David London,&quot; who under his real name Dennis &quot;Fergie&quot; Frederiksen went on to become the future lead singer of Toto and one of the main contributors to the Village People&apos;s next album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1981, with the popularity of disco gone and New Wave music on the rise, Village People replaced its on-stage costumes with a new look inspired by the New Romantic movement, and released the New Wave album Renaissance; it was a minor success.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Victor Willis returned to the group in late 1981 to record the albums Fox on the Box and In the Street.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Although their last album containing new material, the 1985 dance/Hi-NRG release Sex Over The Phone, was not a huge commercial success, it fared better in sales and club play than their &quot;Renaissance&quot; album. The &quot;Sex Over The Phone&quot; music video, due to the rise of video on the Internet, has become a viral video phenomenon.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1985 to Present</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Village People took a leave of absence in 1986. They reunited the following year with the line-up of Randy Jones, David Hodo, Felipe Rose, Glenn Hughes, Alex Briley, and Ray Simpson.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A now rare remix album of their 1970s &amp; early 1980s hits was released in 1989.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On November 15, 1991, Village People founder Jacques Morali succombs to AIDS in Paris, France.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Village People had a comeback and toured in 1993.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1994, Village People joined the German national football team to sing its official World Cup &apos;94 theme Far Away In America.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">From July 18 to July 20, 2004, Village People performed in Berlin for three shows as an opening act for the German punk band Die Ärzte.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1994, the indie punk rock label Go Kart Records wanted the Village People to release an all Sex Pistols cover album. The group declined. Instead, Cowboy Randy Jones sang Greg Brady&apos;s part on a punk cover of The Brady Bunch classic &apos;Time To Change&apos;.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On March 4, 2001, original member Glenn Hughes (Leatherman) passes away from lung cancer in New York City.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Starting in 2004, Village People performed as the opening act for Cher on her Farewell Tour until it ended in April 2005. It was a highly successful tour for both artists.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On June 6, 2006 Village People were scheduled to be the headline act at Asbury Park&apos;s famous Gay Pride parade and festival.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On June 20, 2006, Victor Willis, original lead singer, made his first direct statement to the media in over 25 years indicating that the &quot;nightmare of drug abuse&quot; is being lifted from his life and that he looked forward to being released into a residential drug treatment program. Moreover, he apologized to Village People fans for refusing to perform live concerts since leaving Village People. In that same press statement, Victor Willis revealed that a book based on his life as lead singer of Village People is due for release in 2008 and he will embark on an international tour to coincide with its release.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 5, 2006, Willis was ordered released from custody and into the Betty Ford Center. He was given 3 years probation and ordered to abstain from further use of drugs.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On July 4, 2006 Village People opened for Los Lonely Boys at the Chevy Freedom Over Texas Fourth of July extravaganza.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 4, 2006, Village People performed at The 2006 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 30, 2006, Village People performed at Hard Rock Cafe in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On August 31, 2007, Victor Willis gave his first live concert in 28 years, in Las Vegas.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 8, 2007, Village People performed at Toyota in Torrance, CA.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 23, 2007, Village People performed on the NBC game show The Singing Bee.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 31, 2007, Victor Willis took the stage in Albuquerque, New Mexico.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On November 17, 2007, Victor Willis wed his long-time love Karen, a lawyer and executive.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Cultural References</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Due to their easily recognizable characters, the group have frequently been imitated or parodied in films, TV-series, video games and music. Numerous covers and homages of their songs have been recorded. The stereotypical masculine characters, particularly the leather-clad biker character with handlebar moustaches, have also become a widespread pop culture icons associated with male gay culture and YMCA has become something of an anthem of the LGBT movement.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/VILLAGE_PEOPLE_1.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Village People is a concept disco group formed in the late 1970s. The group is as well known for their on-stage costumes ...'),(89,'Garbage','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Garbage is a Scottish/American rock group formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994. The band members are Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Garbage released a string of increasingly successful singles in 1995–1996, culminating in the hit &quot;Stupid Girl&quot;. The debut album, Garbage, was an unexpected smash, selling over 5 million copies and reaching double platinum status in the UK, USA and Australia. Garbage spent two years working on a follow-up album, Version 2.0, which topped the charts in the UK and peaked at #13 in the US. The album was nominated for two Grammy Awards, Album of the Year and Best Rock Album, and sold over 5 million copies. In 1999, the band performed the theme song to the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough. That year, they also contributed the song &quot;When I Grow Up&quot; for the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band struggled to sustain their initial success, and the band&apos;s 2001 third album beautifulgarbage failed to match the commercial success achieved by its predecessors. The band struggled to remain together and almost split in 2003, before returning with Bleed Like Me in 2005, peaking at a career-high #4 in the United States.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band cut short a 2005 world tour, and announced an indefinite hiatus, but emphasized the stoppage was not a break-up. Garbage reunited in early 2007 to record new tracks for the greatest hits album, Absolute Garbage, that was released in July 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Vig, the producer of such influential albums as Nirvana&apos;s Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins&apos; Siamese Dream, decided he wanted to play in a band again. He asked fellow producers Marker and Erikson, with whom he had played in Spooner and Firetown, to join him. After Steve Marker saw Manson on MTV (in the music video &quot;Suffocate Me&quot; with her band Angelfish), they invited her to audition for (and after two auditions, asked her to join) the band. Early auditions saw former Pigface vocalists, Lesley Rankine and Meg Lee Chin try out. According to Vig, Garbage was named before Manson joined the band, after Pauli Ryan walked in while Vig was working on a remix for Nine Inch Nails and said it sounded like garbage. A longstanding rumor attributes the statement to Trent Reznor.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Garbage&apos;s angry, emotional lyrics contrasted with the band&apos;s catchy, pop alternative rock music. Garbage utilized samples, electronic loops, grungy guitars, and various other effects to produce haunting and melodic tracks, made distinctive by Scottish singer Shirley Manson&apos;s sultry vocals. The fact that Garbage is composed of three music producers is made obvious by the high production quality, with many layers and a &quot;wall of sound&quot; production aesthetic.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Garbage released a string of increasingly successful singles from 1995 to 1996, culminating in the hit &quot;Stupid Girl&quot;. They released the debut album, Garbage, later that year, on the Mushroom Records label, signed by Gary Ashley. It went top 20 in the United States and top 10 in the United Kingdom. During this time, the band toured as the opening act for The Smashing Pumpkins&apos; Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness tour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Garbage spent two years working on a follow-up album, during which time Manson became well-known by the technologically savvy by being one of the first artists to maintain a blog. &quot;Push It&quot; was released and became a summer hit in 1998, reaching #9 in the UK and #52 in the U.S. The second album, Version 2.0, topped the charts in the UK and reached #13 in the US. It was nominated for two Grammy Awards, Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. In 1999, they performed the theme song to the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After again retreating into the studio for several years, Garbage released beautifulgarbage in 2001. While it represented the band&apos;s most eclectic and mature sound to date, it contained no standout commercial singles. Hence, no songs charted in the US, and the four singles released in the UK only reached the top 30. Still, the album managed to reach #6 in the UK and #13 in the US, though it quickly slid down the charts. Garbage followed the album with a successful tour of the US and Europe.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2005, Garbage signed to Warner Bros. Records outside North America, and to Geffen Records in North America - all the ironic given that Geffen started as an independent label distributed by WBR before being sold to MCA in 1990.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Garbage&apos;s newest album, Bleed Like Me, was released on April 11, 2005. It hit the charts in many countries, including a #4 peak in the United States and a radio rock hit single, &quot;Why Do You Love Me&quot;. It originally had the working title &quot;Hands on a Hard Body&quot;, but Manson announced the band had come up with a new title, Bleed Like Me, that better fits the band&apos;s improved dynamic following a period of tension and crisis in October 2003. Manson has also said Bleed Like Me is more hard rock and a return to Garbage&apos;s roots after the eclectic experiment of beautifulgarbage, an announcement that resonated with most fans.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 2005, rumors swirled that the band would break up, and Manson was reported to have said on stage that this was the last time they would &quot;do this&quot; together. In September 2005, the band&apos;s official Web site refuted the rumors of a breakup but confirmed an indefinite hiatus.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In May 2006, the band also confirmed that a Greatest Hits album, a B-Sides album, a live DVD from the Bleed Like Me tour, and a video compilation DVD are set to be released if all goes right with their label-related legal issues. The greatest hits album, Absolute Garbage was released in one and two-disc &quot;Special Edition&quot; (with the second disc comprised of remixes of their songs by other artists) formats on July 24th, 2007 in North America and July 23 outside of it. The Absolute Garbage music video collection containing 15 music videos (but not a complete overview of their videos, missing &quot;Androgyny&quot;, &quot;Breaking Up the Girl&quot;, &quot;Run Baby, Run&quot;, &quot;Sex Is Not The Enemy&quot;, &quot;Sleep&quot;, &quot;The Trick is to Keep Breathing&quot;, and the new single released on the Absolute Garbage, &quot;Tell Me Where It Hurts&quot;) as well as almost an hour of never-before-seen footage backstage and behind-the-scenes, live performances and interviews spanning the band&apos;s entire career was released on the same dates.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Having been making records for over a decade, Garbage has to date sold in excess of 14 million albums worldwide, including more than 4.7 million in the United states and 500,000 in Australia alone.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Hiatus</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Fans had speculated on whether or not Manson would record a solo album following Garbage&apos;s hiatus announcement. By the beginning of the year it had been confirmed that Manson was indeed writing new tracks. In March James Bond composer David Arnold&apos;s official website stated that the singer had been booked in for sessions. It was later confirmed that the pair had written and recorded a song together.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">By mid-March 2006 Manson had finally confirmed she was indeed recording a solo record in a Billboard magazine interview, stating that she has no timetable for completing the project, and above all wants to have fun and enjoy herself at that point in time. In an interview with the Sunday Times in July 2006 she revealed she&apos;d enlisted Blue Nile singer Paul Buchanan to co-write with. &quot;I thought he’d be very moody and introverted, but he’s not like that at all. He’s quite outgoing and charming. Neither of us has ever written with anybody else before. It’s going to be strange. We’ll see how it goes — it could be a complete unmitigated disaster.” On October 29, 2006, The Sunday Mail reported that in addition to Paul Buchanan and David Arnold, Shirley Manson is working with Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins) &amp; Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs) on her new solo album. They also report that her debut solo album will be issued in 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Manson has also been involved in tribute appearances to both Blondie and The Pretenders, and appeared in the promotional video for She Wants Revenge&apos;s single &quot;These Things&quot; and in Wendy Schneider&apos;s self-abuse documentary &quot;CUT: Teens and Self Injury&quot; The men from Garbage have been reported to be remaining active outside of Garbage. Butch Vig has produced records for Jimmy Eat World and Against Me!, and has written the music for two films that are currently in pre-production with the completion of post-production due early in 2007. According to a blog posted in Jan 2006 by Manson, Duke Erikson has been busy putting the finishing touches to an American folk music anthology, whilst Steve Marker has also been involved with a film score.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On May 19, 2007, a video for &quot;Tell Me Where It Hurts&quot; began airing on Teleport Music in the UK. Directed by Sophie Muller, the video is for the first new track from Absolute Garbage. The single was released on July 9, two weeks before the album was. In addition to the regular edition of Absolute Garbage, special edition containing a bonus disc with remixes from Unkle, Massive Attack, Felix Da Housecat and others and a DVD holding 15 videos next to interviews, backstage footage and live performances were released as well.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In a recent interview with Billboard.com, Butch Vig has stated that Garbage is considering mid-2008 to begin making a fifth album, saying, &quot;We&apos;re thinking about it...I think we&apos;re more interested in making something that&apos;s much more primal and stripped down. Absolute Garbage is the postscript to chapter one. Whatever we do next will definitely be chapter two.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Garbage.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Garbage is a Scottish/American rock group formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994. The band members are Duke Erikson, Shirl...'),(90,'All Saints','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">All Saints is an English Pop girl band that released their debut self-titled album in 1997. The band consists of founding members Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis, and sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Both Melanie and Shaznay started their career by singing backing vocals at Sarm West Studios, the ZTT recording studios near All Saints Road, London. In 1993, Mel, Shaznay, and the original third member Simone Rainford decided to record together. According to Simone, they thought of Spice as a name of their group, but they decided that it wasn&apos;t good enough, and decided to call themselves All Saints 1.9.7.5. after the street where they met and their year of birth. They were signed to ZTT Records.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1994, All Saints 1.9.7.5. performed for their first time at the Touch Magazine stage at the Notting Hill Carnival. They recorded three songs together, but they were not successful. Additionally, Rainford and Blatt had conflicting visions of the bands musical direction which caused tensions in the band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the summer of 1995, Rainford left the band and ZTT Records dropped the band from their label. Regardless, Blatt and Lewis set out to find a replacement for Rainford. Conducting many auditions, Blatt&apos;s father met Nicole Appleton whom Blatt knew from her days at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. Lewis encouraged Appleton to join the band. Her sister Natalie Appleton was reluctant to join the band, since she had given birth to her daughter Rachel two years prior and did not want to abandon motherhood. However, Nicole and Natalie&apos;s parents offered to help raise the baby, enabling Natalie to pursue a career as a popstar.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>All Saints</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After being united as a newly formed group in May 1996, the four met with Karl Gordon, a former band member of Outlaw Posse, who recorded a demo for &quot;I Know Where It&apos;s At&quot;. The next task was searching for a new record deal, but most record labels wanted to turn them into a Spice Girls duplicate. Fortunately, the demo made its way to London Records, where John Benson finalised the recording deal in November 1996.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1997, I Know Where It&apos;s At, their debut single, went to #4 on the UK Single Charts. The next single, &quot;Never Ever&quot;, launched their career as stars, selling a million copies in the UK. The song won them two BRIT Awards in 1998, for Best Single and Best Video. Many others included: Breakthrough Artist at the MTV Europe Music Awards and &quot;Pure Shores&quot;, their chart-topping collaboration with William Orbit from the Leonardo DiCaprio feature film The Beach, becoming the second best-selling single of 2000.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A low point for Melanie, Nicole and Natalie was their performance in the universally panned film, Honest, directed by former Eurythmics member Dave Stewart, which featured nude scenes by both Appleton sisters.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In their five year career, the band scored a total of five #1 singles. They split acrimoniously in 2001 after much speculation and rumour. Nicole and Natalie went on to form duo Appleton, whilst Melanie and Shaznay enjoyed a modicum of solo success.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Reunion</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On January 24, 2006 it was announced that the band had reformed. All Saints signed a deal with Parlophone, and they released their third studio album titled Studio 1 on November 13, 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The first single, Rock Steady was released on November 6, 2006. The song was given its first ever radio airplay on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 on 21 September 2006. NME announced that the newly re-formed band will be launching an extensive UK wide tour in 2007, to promote their new album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">For their first performance since splitting up, the group performed the song Rock Steady on ITV&apos;s reformed , Ant &amp; Dec&apos;s Saturday Night Takeaway on 21 October, 2006. They also participated in Mobile Phone company 3&apos;s &quot;3FrontRoom&quot;, a series of intimate gigs with well-known bands.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Following the #3 charting of Rock Steady, it had been hoped that the album would follow suit and it was widely thought that it would make the Top 10. However, upon its release it only just made it into the Top 40 (at #40), before falling to #74. The second single from the album, Chick Fit, was scheduled to be released on February 26, but it was soon revealed that the release would be download-only. It failed to make the top 200. It was subsequently confirmed that All Saints and Parlophone Records had parted ways. Nevertheless they say they&apos;ll continue to remain together as group and they&apos;re looking for a new record deal.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At a recent event in September 2007 (Kraken Arsenal Opus at the Emirates stadium) Nicole, Natalie and Mel announced that The All Saints will be recording a new album together. No further information was revealed about another Record Label, but they said it is definitely in the works.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/all-saints.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">All Saints is an English Pop girl band that released their debut self-titled album in 1997. The band consists of founding...'),(91,'Mysterio','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"18\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"><B>TUvé</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"14\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"14\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Please check back later for more information.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Mysterio.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"18\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"><B>TUvÃ©</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"14\" COLOR=...'),(92,'E Nomine','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Dune is a German Rave/Techno/progressive trance band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band formed in 1995 and divided with the departure of Verena von Strenge, their lead singer, in 2000, before they could release their album Reunion (the album was never released due to a court order that stopped the single &quot;Heaven&quot;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After a short break Dune announced not only the new single &quot;Dark Side Of The Moon&quot; but also the return of Verena von Strenge - from now on next to Dune&apos;s front man Oliver Froning again.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.ubixonline.com/images/UbixCube.swf',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Dune is a German Rave/Techno/progressive trance band.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\">...'),(93,'Anime Music Video','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">An anime music video (abbreviated AMV) is a music video consisting of clips from one or more anime series or movies set to songs; the term usually refers to fan-made unofficial videos.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Most are not official music videos released by the musicians, but rather amateur fan compositions which synchronize clips with an audio track. AMVs are most commonly informally released, often over the Internet. Anime conventions frequently run AMV contests or AMV exhibitions. While AMVs traditionally use footage taken from anime, video game cut-scene footage is also a popular option. Music used in AMVs is extremely diverse, using such genres as J-Pop, rock, hip hop, pop, R&amp;B, country, and many others.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">AMVs should not be confused with professional and original animated films produced as music videos for such groups as Daft Punk, or with such short music video films as Japanese musical duo Chage and Aska&apos;s song &quot;On Your Mark&quot; by Studio Ghibli. AMVs should also not be confused with fan-made &quot;general animation&quot; videos using non-Japanese video sources such as western cartoons. &quot;Anime music videos&quot; are a sub-genre of the more general &quot;animated music videos&quot;. Parallels can be drawn between AMVs and Songvids, non-animated fan-made videos using footage from movies, television series, or other sources.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"><B>AMV Creation</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">The creation of an AMV centers on using various video editing techniques to create a feeling of synchronization and unity. Several techniques are available to achieve this:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Editing: Using different clips from the video source and changing between them at specific times is the most important tool the AMV creator has. Often both the events in the video and the transitions between the clips are synchronized with events in the music.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Digital effects: Using video editing software (commonly a non-linear editing system) the video source can be modified in various ways. Some effects are designed to be imperceptible (such as modifying a scene to stop a character&apos;s mouth from moving) whereas others are intended to increase synchronism with the audio, or possibly create a unique visual style for the video.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Lip-sync: the synchronization of the lip movements of a character in the original video source to the lyrics of the audio, to make it appear as if the character were singing the song, often the purpose is comedic. Lip-syncing is also commonly used in parody AMVs. These are created to poke fun at the characters in the anime that is being used. One very popular song in such AMVs is If You Were Gay from the Broadway musical Avenue Q.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Some editors use original and manipulated animation, both two-dimensional and three-dimensional, in AMV works. Such additions are often used for visual effect or to convey a story that is otherwise incommunicable using only the original video source.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Rubber-bands, Keyframe manipulation or Dissolves: These are techniques in which the editor makes points in a video source on the timeline of the non-linear editing program, that they can drag to different positions which makes the video either fade in or fade out. This can be to another video clip, or to a different color, most commonly solid black or solid white.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"><B>Publicly Available AMVs</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">There are a number of sources through which one can both view the works of other AMV editors and post their own creations for others to download and view.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">YouTube: Many AMV editors submitted their works to the video-sharing site YouTube as it allows for simple and straightforward uploading and viewing processes. Due to the popularity and large user base of the site, YouTube is an option for an editor whose goal is heavy non-traditional AMV viewership and wide proliferation of their work. However, some creators have expressed an aversion to using the site to host their works due to the high level of video stream compression applied by YouTube. Google Video is in the same category as YouTube, and the sites share many of the same advantages, drawbacks, and characteristics.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Animemusicvideos.org AMV Aggregation Site: This is a site that has a community-based approach to the creation and dissemination of AMV material. It has a more extensive rating, feedback, categorization, and search system than YouTube or Google Video. The site also a discussion forum with boards designated for the discussion of specific topics in AMV creation. Concerns regarding the Animemusicvideos.org site are those of stricter requirements for uploaded videos (limiting uploads to only anime-derived content) and the fact that the site is under the control of a single administrator. Many users were upset when the site received a copyright violation notice from Wind-up Records and the administrator issued a unilateral decision to disable access to all videos containing Wind-Up&apos;s copyrighted content. In some instances, the site held the only available copies of some editors&apos; work and they had to contact the site administrator to reacquire their own videos if the video creator had no other backup copy of their works.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Azureus Vuze: A BitTorrent-based video sharing service integrated into the Azureus 3 BitTorrent client. The service focuses on HD and high-quality SD video with higher resolutions and less compression than that found on YouTube or Google Video, and file transfers are coordinated via the BitTorrent protocol to make more efficient use of available bandwidth. Currently, however, the service does not have the volume of content available on Google Video, YouTube, or the Animemusicvideos.org index site. This is due in part to the service being younger than the aforementioned sites and also potentially due to its requiring additional protocols in order to operate, whereas the aforementioned sites can be accessed by means of only a web browser.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Other: In addition to the channels detailed above, AMVs are also commonly available on editors&apos; personal websites, and also on various Peer-to-Peer networks including but not limited to BitTorrent trackers, Direct Connect hubs, and public and private FTP servers.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"><B>AMV Webcomics</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Some webcomics have begun featuring AMVs as source material for satire. For example, Hookie Dookie Panic! is one of the most outspoken comics to be involved with the AMV community. The comic is produced by Brian Wilson and Shawn Lieske, and, along with AMVs, uses many facets of anime conventions — such as cosplay, anime, and games — as comedic material.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"><B>AMV Competitions, Evaluations, and Rankings</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Iron Editor competitions: Two or more editors compete directly with one another, editing videos on the fly in a real-time contest in the style of Iron Chef. Most commonly these bouts go for the length of one or two hours and they are held either in person, at an anime convention, or over the Internet. In both cases there are designated judges who compare the videos, either by the theme, the timing or overall production quality of the videos made during the competition. Judges will declare a winner and most commonly this winner goes on to compete against other editors who have won previous parts of the competition. The other alternative is an individual Iron Editor competitions, in which there is only one part to the competition and most commonly only two editors, only one of whom wins.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">AMV Viewer Choice competition: The editors submit videos to competitions that are held either at anime conventions or on Internet websites. In both cases the winners are decided by the viewers and sometimes the editors themselves are allowed to vote. In conventions AMVs are usually judged by the category they are competing in, for example an action video would compete with other action videos. Viewers watch the videos and they submit votes at the end of the viewing portion of the competition. The other way that this competition is held, is through an Internet website. Some websites have a similar way of judging the AMVs, by the category they are in. While on other websites the videos compete against other videos of the same or different categories and are judged on which is a better AMV overall, not solely on the theme of the video.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">The AMV website Animemusicvideos.org is used to compare AMVs, as the site implements a review and rating system whereby viewers and other creators can comment on and rate the AMVs using a 1–10 scale for each of the aspects of AMV creation (see above), and for creativity. AMVs that are on the website are ranked in assorted categories, including a top 10% list (based on viewer evaluation), a top rating list (scores on a 1–5 scale), a top favorites list (based on the number of users who consider a music video among their favorites), top commented list (based on most comments or reviews received, regardless of rating), and various other criteria.<FONT KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"><B>AMV and Copyright Infringement</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">In certain jurisdictions, the making of AMVs may be permissible under fair use provisions. Distribution of AMVs is not likely to be protected by fair use provisions as any distribution is likely to constitute public use, whereas fair use is generally restricted to personal use.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">AMVs inherently consist entirely of copyrighted and unlicensed material, including entire songs and substantial portions of television series or motion pictures. Thus, legal concerns vary depending on several factors. As a general rule of thumb AMVs can be seen as illegal in the de jure sense, however, legalities concerning copyrights are subject to variation based on the copyright holders&apos; consent. Many AMVs have so far been viewed as acceptable under fair use provisions or have otherwise gone legally unmolested, implying (albeit potentially falsely) a de facto legal validity.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">The Japanese culture is generally permissive with regard to the appropriation of ideas. Works such as doujinshi, unauthorized comics continuing the story of an official comic series, are actually encouraged by many anime makers. These doujinshi take an original copyrighted work and expand upon the story, allowing the characters to continue on after, before, or during the original story. Most anime makers encourage this practice, as it expands their series. Some see it as a tribute, others see it from a business viewpoint, that it draws in more support for the anime than it would have had otherwise. Some mangaka create their own doujinshi, such as Maki Murakami&apos;s &quot;circle&quot; Crocadile Ave (Gravitation (manga)).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Comiket, a convention that occurs twice a year in Tokyo, manages to pull in a crowd of 350,000 fans and artists, most of whom buy, sell, and trade doujinshi. Lessig has stated, &quot;This market exists in parallel to the mainstream commercial manga market.&quot; Furthermore, cosplay (costume-play) conventions persist across Japan. These are conventions in which people will dress up in homemade costumes made to match specific characters; this practice is not discouraged or prosecuted in any way under Japanese copyright or trademark law. Many notable anime and manga authors will attend both of these types of conventions themselves, and convention participants have historically taken this as a sign of the authors&apos; approval. In a similar sense, several original anime cartoonists have flown to various places in the U.S. to attend AMV conventions, especially the larger ones such as Anime Expo and Otakon. Many of these animators have also expressed approval of the making of AMVs.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">The question has been raised of how such works can continue to exist, or such organizations to flourish, when they do so in legally muddy waters. The answer is that many of the Japanese authors encourage it - several of these authors began their careers with the same kinds of projects they witness anime fans working on today (e.g. Clamp).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">While some believe that many U.S. vendors who have acquired anime series or motion pictures have expressed disapproval of AMV works or have insisted said videos be withdrawn from distribution, such is typically untrue. These concerns may be attributed to the way anime conventions who show AMVs as part of their video programming have taken exceptional measures to safeguard themselves against possible liability issues. A prime example of such extreme measures can be seen in the waiver used by Otakon&apos;s AMV Contest, which utilizes heavy legal wording.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">In actuality U.S. vendors are known for their willingness to overlook such use of their properties much in the same way the Japanese industry has, however the reasons are not entirely the same. The unofficial stance of U.S. vendors is that AMVs are seen as a form of unpaid advertising for said properties (creating interest in a particular series, and promoting sales) and the relationship between U.S. vendors and AMV creators is commonly considered mutually beneficial. However, U.S. vendors are often legally bound to officially and/or publicly oppose such use as they typically have a contracted responsibility to protect said properties from illegal use. In general, though, they will not aggressively take action as long as they are not explicitly confronted about it. An adage exists in the AMV community that states &quot;the industry knows, but they don&apos;t know&quot;, meaning that U.S. vendors are aware AMVs exist but officially cannot acknowledge them, lest they be required to take potentially-expensive legal action.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">In recent years there has been an increased demand, primarily on the part of the record industry, for the removal of AMVs from sites like YouTube, Google Video, or the Animemusicvideos.org aggregation site, with particular regard to YouTube due to its hyper-popularity as compared to other AMV sources, as well as its for-profit status. Musical performers and their representative record labels have been requesting the removal of some music videos from websites where they are made available for download. Public discussions and perspectives give varying accounts of exactly how widespread these actions have become. In November of 2005, the administrator of Animemusicvideos.org was contacted by Wind-Up Records, requesting the removal of content featuring the work of the bands Evanescence, Creed, and Seether. This action, along with a perceived lack of contest from the Animemusicvideos.org site administrator, generated tremendous ill will, among fans of both the bands and AMVs, toward the label and the site alike, and rumors have posited that the label threatened legal action against the site that would likely have resulted in the cessation of operations at the site.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">With regard to legality, as has been previously stated, AMVs exist in a legal &quot;gray area&quot; that encompasses a wide range of current copyright-related matters.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/AMV.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">An anime music video (abbreviated AMV) is a music video consisting of clips from one or more anime series or movies set t...'),(94,'Dannii Minogue','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Dannii Minogue</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','',11,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Dannii Minogue</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>...'),(95,'Martika','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marta Marrero (born May 18, 1969), better known as Martika, is an American pop singer and actress.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Born in Whittier, California, U.S., Marrero entered mainstream show business as one of the orphan girls (an uncredited role) in the 1982 motion picture Annie. This led to her being cast as “Gloria” on the Disney Channel kids show Kids Incorporated about a group of neighbourhood kids who rose to local fame by singing staged productions at a corner malt shop. At around the same time, Martika and many fellow cast members from Kids Incorporated starred in the musical numbers from the Mr. T motivational video Be Somebody... or Be Somebody&apos;s Fool!, which also aired in 1984. Shanice as well as future Black Eyed Peas member Stacy Ferguson also had singing parts in the video.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Following her role in Kids Incorporated and Be Somebody, Martika was quickly snagged by CBS Records as a potential Madonna-like pop star. Her first album, 1988&apos;s Martika, spawned the anti-drug abuse song “Toy Soldiers”, which became a #1 U.S. Top 40 single. “More Than You Know” (#18) and “I Feel The Earth Move” (a remake of Carole King’s Tapestry album classic; #25) were also U.S. Top 40 hits. Her first solo release was, however, a song called &quot;WE ARE MUSIC&quot; recorded for use in Japan to promote sony cassette tapes. The song was only released in Japan on 12&quot;, 7&quot; and CD formats.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She was encouraged by her agent to combine her love of film and music by scoring soundtracks and in 1990 she wrote and recorded the song “Blue Eyes are Sensitive to the Light” for the soundtrack to the film Arachnophobia. Unfortunately the producers of the album did not like her vocals and so the song was re-recorded by Sara Hickman for the film, though Martika retained her writing credit. &quot;Eyes are Sensitive to the Light&quot; was re-recorded by Deborah Blando, an &quot;Italian-Brazilian-diva&quot; , and by Elba Ramalho for her first album &quot;A Different Story&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1991, she was approached by Prince and became one of the so-called “Prince Protégées.” Her second album, Martika&apos;s Kitchen, was an American flop (except for the minor radio favorite “Love…Thy Will Be Done,” her second and final U.S. Top 10 single, which is almost a modern &apos;spiritual&apos; number, and the title track). However, the album was again a huge success abroad, though on a lesser scale, spawning hits with the songs “Coloured Kisses” and “Temptation.” However, it faded fast on the charts and went out of print.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Martika attempted to revitalize her acting career by playing lounge singer/undercover cop Dahlia Mendez on the early 1990s cop show Wiseguy, but the role was a temporary one and eventually she faded from the public eye around 1993.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1997 a greatest hits album entitled The Best of Martika: More Than You Know was released. It achieved sales figures of over 500,000 copies internationally.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During the 2000 explosion of Latin pop music, Martika attempted to regain interest by singing backing vocals on various projects and contributing lyrics, but she failed to grab any major label attention. Instead she built martika.net, a website in 2001 for her fans, and released a remix of a newly self-recorded song called &quot;The Journey&quot;. She also recorded a track titled “Monday,” as part of a direction she was heading for a new solo album the website promised was on its way. However, “The Journey” garnered only 5,000 hits as a free download on mp3.com’s music service. Eventually her website was shut down, and Martika seemingly faded once again into Hollywood oblivion.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003 Martika joined forces with her musician husband, Michael Mozart to form the band Oppera. Changing her sound to that of goth pop, she and Mozart released Oppera’s debut album Violince in 2004. Also in the same year, Eminem used a sample of her “Toy Soldiers” song for “Like Toy Soldiers” (a track on his album Encore) which entered the UK Singles chart at No. 1. In response, Martika’s UK Greatest Hits album was repackaged with its title altered to Toy Soldiers: The Best of Martika. This reflected the fact that the song was her biggest hit in the U.S.; a biography was added to the album insert reflecting the new Eminem sample, though it mistakenly asserted that she had not released any albums since Martika&apos;s Kitchen.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Oppera released a self-titled second album in 2005. Martika promoted Oppera&apos;s album release with a Borders tour. Oppera is currently working on its third release which should see a 2007 release and is apparently going to have a dancier sound.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Martika.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Marta Marrero (born May 18, 1969), better known as Martika, is an American pop singer and actress.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT...'),(96,'Angel City','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Angel City is a Zentveld &amp; Oomen Dance project fronted by female singer Lara McAllen. The majority of their songs are dance covers or remakes. Their hit &quot;Do You Know (I Go Crazy)&quot; samples the instrumental track &quot;Children&quot; by Robert Miles as well as the lyrics from &quot;Do You Know&quot; by Michelle Gayle. Singer Lara McAllen left the group in 2005 to pursue a solo career. However, Lara re-joined Angel City in late 2006 and features in the band&apos;s 2007 single 24/7 which is awaiting release. There is news of a 2008 album being released which shall feature the vocals of Lara McAllen. There were rumors that a new member will join and perform the vocals for the song &quot;Hold On (For my Love)&quot;, although this seems unlikely as Lara McAllen has so far been the main identity of the act.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Angel%20City.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Angel City is a Zentveld &amp; Oomen Dance project fronted by female singer Lara McAllen. The majority of their songs are...'),(97,'Bonnie Tyler','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bonnie Tyler (born June 8, 1951 in Skewen, Wales, United Kingdom) is a Welsh pop/rock singer. Born Gaynor Hopkins, she is widely recognizable by her highly distinctive, husky voice.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Following the Top 10 success of her 1976 song &quot;Lost in France&quot;, Tyler released her first album in 1977 entitled The World Starts Tonight. The album met with only modest success, though Tyler did embark on a tour throughout Europe. A further single from the album, &quot;More Than a Lover,&quot; made the UK Top 30. In 1977, Tyler was diagnosed with nodules on her vocal cords that were so severe that surgery was mandatory. She was then ordered by doctors to never speak for six weeks. One day in the middle of her healing process, she accidentally screamed, causing her voice to carry a distinctive rasp. At first, this made her believe that her singing career was at an end. But to her surprise, her next single made her an international star. &quot;It&apos;s a Heartache&quot; made #3 on the US chart and had become a hit worldwide, topping the charts in France and Australia, peaking at #2 in Germany and at #4 in the UK. The Natural Force album was also retitled It&apos;s a Heartbreak for the U.S. market. Though further success was elusive during this era, Tyler did have a minor UK top 40 hit with &quot;Married Men&quot; in 1979, the theme to the film The World is Full of Married Men based on the novel by British author Jackie Collins. Tyler released the albums Diamond Cut (1979) and Goodbye to the Island (1981), but these met with little success in the UK or the U.S. However, the track &quot;Sitting on the Edge of the Ocean&quot; (featured on her Goodbye To The Island album) was the Grand Prix winner of the 1979 Yamaha World Song Festival held in Tokyo.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tyler released four albums for the RCA label between 1977-81. During that time Tyler became dissatisfied with her management, who were trying to lean her closer to the country music market. When her contract with RCA ran out, she sought help from songwriter Jim Steinman to give her music a rock style and signed with CBS Records in 1982. Her next album, Faster Than the Speed of Night, was released in Spring 1983 and spawned the single &quot;Total Eclipse of the Heart&quot;, written by Jim Steinman. The song was a worldwide smash and reached no.1 in no less than 18 countries including the UK, France, Australia, Japan, Germany, Canada, and the United States (where it remained at the top for 4 weeks). Faster Than the Speed of Night entered the UK album chart at No.1, making Tyler a Guinness Record holder as the first ever British female artist to have an album enter the UK chart straight at no.1.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Total Eclipse of the Heart&quot; also brought Tyler a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 1984, she performed the track at the Grammy Awards, and received another Grammy nomination as Best Rock Female Vocalist for &quot;Here She Comes&quot;, a song that was part of the soundtrack for the 1984 restoration of the film Metropolis. She also released the singles &quot;A Rockin&apos; Good Way&quot; (a duet with fellow Welshman Shakin&apos; Stevens) which made #5 in the UK, and &quot;Holding Out for a Hero&quot; from the film soundtrack Footloose which made #34 in the U.S., #1 in Ireland and #2 in UK (in the summer of 1985). The track was also used as the main theme for the 1984 US television series Cover Up, though the version heard on the TV series was not sung by her but by a Bonnie Tyler sound-a-like. The albums Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire and Hide Your Heart (called Notes From America in the U.S.) followed later in the 1980s.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1990s - Present</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the early 1990s, Tyler switched to BMG German label Hansa. Her first album on her new label was &quot;Bitterblue&quot; in late 1991. This album went quadruple-platinum in Norway, platinum in Austria, and gold in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden. Tyler followed up with a new album, Angel Heart, which repeated the success of Bitterblue. The following album Silhouette in Red saw her win Best International Female Vocalist in the ECHO Awards.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1995, Tyler released the album Free Spirit, featuring the single &quot;Making Love out of Nothing at All&quot; which reached #2 on the European charts. 1998 saw the release of All in One Voice.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2002, Tyler released a collection of classic rock covers called Heart Strings (aka &quot;Heart &amp; Soul - 13 Rock Classics&quot;). The album enjoyed mild success in Germany and other parts of Europe. Tyler&apos;s follow-up album, Simply Believe, was released in 2004 and contained the #1 hit duet with Kareen Antonn, &quot;Si demain... (Turn Around)&quot; (a French language remake of &quot;Total Eclipse of the Heart&quot;) which became a huge hit in France (where it was no.1 for ten weeks), as well as Belgium and Poland, eventually selling 2 million copies worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">2005 saw Tyler release her third album in four years, Wings (aka Celebrate). The album contained two remakes: &quot;It&apos;s a Heartache&quot; and &quot;Total Eclipse of the Heart&quot;. Two singles were released - &quot;Celebrate&quot; (released as a promo single), and the track &quot;Louise&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In September 2006, Tyler made her first appearance on U.S. television in many years, as she sang a duet of &quot;Total Eclipse of the Heart&quot; with actress and now singer Lucy Lawless on the American show Celebrity Duets.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2007, a new Bonnie Tyler best-of collection, From The Heart, was released. Also in 2007, Tyler contributed with a track, &quot;I Don&apos;t Know How to Love Him&quot;, for the charity record Over the Rainbow</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At a recent concert in Niagara Falls, Tyler stated that she will be recording a new album with friend and long-term collaborator Jim Steinman.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/bonnietyler.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bonnie Tyler (born June 8, 1951 in Skewen, Wales, United Kingdom) is a Welsh pop/rock singer. Born Gaynor Hopkins, she is...'),(99,'Beyonce','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Beyoncé Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) is an American R&amp;B singer, songwriter, record producer, music video director, actress, dancer, and fashion designer. Knowles rose to fame as the creative force and lead singer of the R&amp;B girl group Destiny&apos;s Child, the world&apos;s best-selling female group of all time.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After a series of commercially successful releases with the group, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love, in June 2003. The album became one of the biggest commercial successes of the year, topping the albums charts in the U.S. and the UK. It also spawned the number-one singles &quot;Crazy in Love&quot; and &quot;Baby Boy&quot; and earned Knowles five Grammy Awards in a single night in 2004. Knowles&apos; second album B&apos;Day was released worldwide on September 4, 2006, coinciding with her twenty-fifth birthday. The album spawned the UK number-one singles &quot;Déjà Vu&quot; and &quot;Beautiful Liar&quot;, as well as the worldwide hit &quot;Irreplaceable&quot;. It also earned Knowles her seventh solo Grammy Award (she has won ten in total). As of 2007, Knowles has sold over twenty million albums worldwide and forty-five million records as an solo artist.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles also achieved success in the film industry, starring in such Hollywood films as the 2006 comedy The Pink Panther and the 2006 musical film Dreamgirls, which earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations—one for acting and other for the song &quot;Listen&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles is the elder of two daughters born to Mathew and Tina Knowles in Houston, Texas. Her parents decided on her first name as a tribute to her mother&apos;s maiden name. Her maternal grandparents, Lumis Beyincé and Agnéz Deréon (a seamstress), were French-speaking Louisiana Creoles. She is the older sister of Solange Knowles, cousin to Angela Beyincé (her personal assistant and song co-writer), and aunt to Solange&apos;s son Daniel Julez Smith, Jr. By age seven, she was attending dance school and was a soloist in her church&apos;s choir. Her dance instructor took an interest in Knowles and took her star student to various competitions. Knowles went on to win over thirty local singing and dancing competitions.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As a teenager, Knowles attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, where she showed her musical talents. She later went to Alief Elsik High School, in the Alief neighborhood of Houston.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Destiny&apos;s Child</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles and her childhood best friends LaTavia Roberson and Kelly Rowland along with LeToya Luckett formed a quartet that would perform in their backyards and at Tina Knowles&apos; hair salon. After singing at local events, they got their break when they entered Star Search. The group, then named Girl&apos;s Tyme, were disappointed after losing the competition. Mathew Knowles, Knowles&apos; father and Rowland&apos;s legal guardian, decided to help the girls reach their dreams of becoming singers. He quit his six-figure salary job as a multi-million dollar equipment salesman at Xerox to manage the group. This decision by Mathew eventually affected the whole family. Their income had been cut in half, causing the family to move into two different apartments. When the group was signed to Columbia Records in late 1996, it gave the entire family a second chance at making things work.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group underwent several name changes—Girl&apos;s Tyme, The Dolls, Something Fresh, and Cliché—before sticking with Destiny&apos;s Child, based on a passage from the Book of Isaiah in the Bible. Knowles&apos; mother Tina had found the word &quot;Destiny&quot;, but since that name was already taken, they settled for Destiny&apos;s Child. After making their recording debut with &quot;Killing Time&quot; for the soundtrack to the 1997 film Men in Black, the group rose to fame in 1998 with the Billboard Hot 100 top five, R&amp;B number-one single &quot;No, No, No Part 2&quot;. Even after much-publicized turmoil involving the departure of LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson, Destiny&apos;s Child (eventually a trio) became one of the most successful R&amp;B/pop acts of the early 2000s, charting four Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, several top ten hits, and two number-one albums.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their platinum-selling debut album, Destiny&apos;s Child, released in 1998, was produced by Wyclef Jean and Jermaine Dupri and featured the double platinum number-one single &quot;No, No, No Part 2&quot;. The group&apos;s second album, The Writing&apos;s on the Wall, released in 1999, featured the number-one hits &quot;Bills, Bills, Bills&quot; and &quot;Say My Name&quot;, besides the popular singles &quot;Bug a Boo&quot; and &quot;Jumpin&apos; Jumpin&apos;&quot;. It went on to sell eight million in the U.S. and twelve million copies worldwide. Furthermore, &quot;Say My Name&quot; won two awards at the 2001 Grammy Awards: &quot;Best R&amp;B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals&quot; and &quot;Best R&amp;B Song&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Their following album, Survivor, proved to be another big success, going to number one on both the U.S. Billboard 200 and the Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums, as well as the Canadian and the UK Albums Charts. Two singles from the album went to the top of the Hot 100: &quot;Independent Women Part I&quot; and &quot;Bootylicious&quot;, while &quot;Survivor&quot;, the album&apos;s title track, reached number two and &quot;Nasty Girl&quot;, the final single, missed the chart. In the United Kingdom, the first two tracks released reached number one consecutively. &quot;Independent Women Part I&quot; had been the theme song for the 2000 film Charlie&apos;s Angels, before the album&apos;s release. The title track, &quot;Survivor&quot;, earned the group their third Grammy Award, &quot;Best R&amp;B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals&quot;. The album has sold over ten million copies worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, Knowles won the &quot;Songwriter of the Year&quot; award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Pop Music Awards, becoming the first African-American female and second overall female songwriter of all time to accomplish this.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After the three-year journey that involved concentration on individual solo projects, Knowles rejoined Rowland and Williams for Destiny&apos;s Child&apos;s fourth (and so far final) studio album, Destiny Fulfilled, released in November 2004. The album hit number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned the hits &quot;Lose My Breath&quot;, &quot;Soldier&quot;, &quot;Girl&quot;, and &quot;Cater 2 U&quot;. It has sold seven million copies worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2005, Destiny&apos;s Child embarked on a world tour sponsored by McDonald&apos;s titled Destiny Fulfilled ... And Lovin&apos; It, visiting over seventy cities throughout Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America from April to September. On June 13, 2005, it was announced that the group would disband after their world tour ended in September 2005. In October 2005, the group released their final album, entitled #1&apos;s, including all of Destiny&apos;s Child&apos;s number-one hits and most of their well-known songs. The greatest hits collection also includes three new tracks, including &quot;Stand up for Love&quot;. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and number seven on the UK Albums Chart. #1&apos;s went on to sell three million copies worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Solo career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early July 2000, Knowles released her debut solo single &quot;I Got That&quot; along with rapper Amil, but it failed to chart or sell noticebly, topping the Bubbling Under R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Singles. Two years later, Knowles was a featured vocalist on rapper Jay-Z&apos;s hit single, &quot;&apos;03 Bonnie &amp; Clyde&quot;. In the spring of 2003, Knowles remade a duet with Luther Vandross, &quot;The Closer I Get to You&quot;, originally recorded and made famous by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway in 1977. In this version, the vocal parts are switched, with Vandross taking Flack&apos;s part and Knowles taking Hathaway&apos;s. The song made both her debut solo album and Vandross&apos; Dance with My Father album, and the two shared the Grammy Award for &quot;Best R&amp;B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals&quot; the following year. She has collaborated with Jay-Z on his eight studio album, Kingdom Come, providing vocals and the hook for the track entitled &quot;Hollywood&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Dangerously in Love (2003)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003, Knowles released her debut solo album, Dangerously in Love. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number one selling 317,000 copies in its first week, and was certified platinum three weeks later on June 22, 2003. In addition, it went on to chart atop the albums charts in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Greece, and the Philippines. The album&apos;s lead single, &quot;Crazy in Love&quot;, was a funky track constructed around a propulsive riff sampled from The Chi-Lites&apos; 1970 &quot;Are You My Woman (Tell Me So)&quot;, and featured a guest rap from Jay-Z. It rapidly became one of the biggest hits of that summer, staying at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight consecutive weeks and topping the singles charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe, and worldwide, among others. Also, &quot;Crazy in Love&quot; eventually became the fourth best-selling single on the U.S. Billboard Year-End of 2003 and the world&apos;s second best-selling single of 2003. Dangerously in Love has sold over four million copies in the U.S. and over twelve million copies worldwide. When her single and album simultaneously topped the main charts in both the U.S. and the UK in July 2003, she became the first act to achieve this feat since Men at Work in 1983 and The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and Rod Stewart in the 1960s and 1970s; she is the first and so far the only female artist to do this. Knowles was consequently one of the biggest-selling artists of 2003.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Towards the end of the summer, &quot;Baby Boy&quot;, the second single from Dangerously in Love, which featured dancehall artist Sean Paul, began to climb the charts. It went on to become one of the biggest hits of 2003, dominating radio airplay in the autumn of 2003, and spending nine weeks at number one—one week longer than &quot;Crazy in Love&quot;. Afterwards, Knowles released her third solo single, &quot;Me, Myself and I&quot;; Dangerously in Love&apos;s fourth and final single, &quot;Naughty Girl&quot;, came out in mid-2004. Both made the top five of the Billboard Hot 100.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the 2004 Grammy Awards ceremony, Knowles won five Grammy Awards for her solo effort, which included &quot;Best Female R&amp;B Vocal Performance&quot; for &quot;Dangerously in Love 2&quot;, &quot;Best R&amp;B Song&quot; for &quot;Crazy in Love&quot;, and &quot;Best Contemporary R&amp;B Album&quot;. Three other female artists hold this record: Lauryn Hill (1999), Alicia Keys (2002), and Norah Jones (2003). She also won a BRIT Award in 2004 for &quot;International Female Solo Artist&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In December 2005, Knowles released &quot;Check on It&quot;, featuring rappers Slim Thug and (on the official remix) Bun B. The song was from the Destiny&apos;s Child&apos;s greatest hits compilation, #1&apos;s, and the soundtrack to the 2006 film The Pink Panther. It was Knowles&apos; sixth top five hit and third number one in the U.S.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the 2006 Grammy Awards, Knowles won a Grammy in the category of &quot;Best R&amp;B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals&quot; for the song &quot;So Amazing&quot;, a duet with Stevie Wonder from the Luther Vandross tribute album So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>B&apos;Day (2006)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles&apos; second studio album, B&apos;Day, was released worldwide on September 4, 2006 and on September 5, 2006 in the U.S. to coincide with the celebration of Knowles&apos; twenty-fifth birthday. In its first week, the album sold more than 541,000 copies in the U.S., immediately coming in at number one, making it her highest first-week sales as a solo artist. This is also the highest first-week sales of any solo female artist in 2006, a record which used to be held by pop singer Christina Aguilera whose album Back to Basics sold 346,000 copies in its first week. In the UK, it debuted at number three with sales of 45,000 copies, and, with combined sales with the deluxe edition, has sold 497,000 copies and has been certified double platinum. &quot;Déjà Vu&quot;, the album&apos;s first single, features Jay-Z and co-production by Rodney Jerkins. Other co-producers on B&apos;Day included Rich Harrison, The Neptunes, and Swizz Beatz. Currently, the album has been certified triple platinum in the U.S. for shipments of over three million copies. The album has had global success, selling over seven million copies worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The album&apos;s lead single &quot;Déjà Vu&quot; became a top five hit in the United States and a number-one hit on the U.S. R&amp;B chart and the UK chart, making it Knowles&apos; second UK number-one single, when it climbed twenty spots to take the top spot over Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean&apos;s &quot;Hips Don&apos;t Lie&quot; in the week of August 27, 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The second single, &quot;Ring the Alarm&quot;, was leaked to the Internet on August 8, 2006. The video for &quot;Ring the Alarm&quot; was released on August 16, 2006 on Yahoo.com and peaked at number one on the website&apos;s videos chart. &quot;Ring the Alarm&quot; became Knowles&apos; highest-charting single debut, when it debuted at number twelve on the singles chart but only peaked at number eleven.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Outside North America, &quot;Irreplaceable&quot; was released as the album&apos;s second international single in October 2006. The single debuted at number eighty-seven on the Hot 100—where it would later spend ten consecutive weeks at number one—and number forty-two on the Hot R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It was the longest-running number-one single of the year as a result of its ten-week stay atop the Billboard Hot 100. The song peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart and number one on the Australian Singles Chart. It also took over on the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at number one in its second week. &quot;Irreplaceable&quot; is her fourth number one and her eighth top ten hit as a solo artist on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as her fourth number-one hit on the Billboard Hot R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Songs. In December 2006, a Spanish-language version of &quot;Irreplaceable&quot;, called &quot;Imprescindible&quot;, was released.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On December 6, 2006, the nominations for the 2007 Grammy Awards were announced, and Knowles received five, of which she won &quot;Best Contemporary R&amp;B Album&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles received two nominations for the 2008 Grammy Awards: &quot;Record of the Year&quot; for &quot;Irreplaceable&quot; and &quot;Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals&quot; for &quot;Beautiful Liar&quot;, as announced on December 6, 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Deluxe Edition and B&apos;Day Anthology Video Album</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles re-released B&apos;Day as a deluxe edition on April 3, 2007. It features new tracks—including &quot;Beautiful Liar&quot;, which made Billboard history when it jumped from number ninety-four to number three on the Hot 100 in one week on April 7, 2007, and &quot;Amor Gitano&quot;, a duet with Mexican singer Alejandro Fernández used as the theme song for the Colombian telenovela Zorro: La Espada y la Rosa. Also included are Spanish-language versions of &quot;Irreplaceable&quot;, &quot;Listen&quot;, and &quot;Beautiful Liar&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On April 2, full-length videos for &quot;Get Me Bodied&quot;, &quot;Green Light&quot;, and &quot;Suga Mama&quot; premiered on BET to promote B&apos;Day Anthology Video Album released on the following day. A fifty-seven-second preview of &quot;Kitty Kat&quot; was included also, appearing as an intro in the video for &quot;Green Light&quot;. Sony BMG has released all of the videos (with the exception of &quot;Still in Love (Kissing You)&quot;) from the DVD to their official music video website, Musicbox.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In Australia, the deluxe edition of B&apos;Day was released on April 16, 2007. Unlike the U.S. release, the Australian edition comes packaged in a CD/DVD combo featuring nineteen tracks on the CD and twelve music videos on the DVD. The Australian release does not feature the track &quot;Still in Love (Kissing You)&quot; on either the CD or DVD. However, the CD does feature the tracks &quot;If&quot; and &quot;Check on It&quot;, which are not featured on the U.S. release. Additionally, &quot;World Wide Woman&quot; appears as a hidden track on the U.S. release while it is an officially-listed track on the Australian disc. Finally, apart from the track &quot;Amor Gitano&quot;, the Australian disc does not feature any of the Spanish tracks. The European and the Asian edition of B&apos;Day are the same as the Australian release.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the week of April 22, the deluxe edition of B&apos;Day and the B&apos;Day Anthology Video Album that include the song &quot;Still in Love (Kissing You)&quot; were pulled from distribution due to a lawsuit filed by English singer Des&apos;ree. The lawsuit is over Knowles&apos; cover of Des&apos;ree&apos;s 1998 &quot;I&apos;m Kissing You&quot;, which was granted permission—within certain limits. For one thing, they would allow use of the song, but not in video form. They would also allow use of the song only if the title was not changed. Despite follow-ups, they didn&apos;t hear back from Knowles&apos; camp. On March 27, according to the complaint, they discovered that Knowles and her record label planned to proceed with their plans to include the song on the re-release anyway which they changed the title to the song and made a video from which they didn&apos;t follow copyrighted laws. In a letter they wrote to Knowles&apos; lawyer and her distribution group Sony, the Royalty Network called the move &quot;completely unacceptable. Des&apos;ree is apparently seeking $150,000 in damages&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Additional singles released from B&apos;Day include &quot;Upgrade U&quot; (Knowles&apos; fifth collaboration with Jay-Z), &quot;Get Me Bodied&quot; (as the fifth North American single), the Freemasons remix of &quot;Green Light&quot; (as the fifth British single), and the deluxe edition&apos;s &quot;Amor Gitano&quot;, which was released as a CD single in South America and other countries such as Mexico.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles has embarked on her lengthy The Beyoncé Experience concert tour which has sold out every show worldwide. Opening acts included Robin Thicke (in North America), Lemar (in Europe), Katy Shotter (in North America and the UK), and Chris Brown (in Australia). She is touring from April 10 to November 12, 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles&apos; new deluxe live DVD, The Beyoncé Experience Live!, which was recorded on September 2, 2007 at Los Angeles&apos; Staples Center, is slated for a November 20, 2007 release.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Third Studio Album (2008)</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In an interview, Knowles stated that she is going into studio in December to begin official work on her third studio album although she is in the studio all the time. As reported by Scratch magazine, producer Timbaland was recently signed on to produce the majority of the album. In the interview, Timbaland stated that the outcome of the album will be &quot;huger than life&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles is switching musical direction on her third solo album. Apparently, Knowles&apos; R&amp;B sound will be terminated in favor of a dance floor-orientated album. She has hired English dance/house/electronica production duo The Freemasons to work on several songs for the record. Knowles&apos; team approached James Wiltshire and his musical partner Russell Small after they heard the pair&apos;s official remixes of Knowles&apos; hit singles &quot;Déjà Vu&quot; and &quot;Beautiful Liar&quot;. Wiltshire recently told the Daily Star, &quot;The album is going to be huge. It will rival anything the likes of Britney and Rihanna have done recently. Beyoncé and her team can see where mistakes were made on the last album. It was very American, very R&apos;n&apos;B and stripped back. They want to go for a more international sound this time. Normally big stars don&apos;t take any notice of smaller acts like ours, so her decision to work with us shows just where she is going with this album&quot;. Wiltshire also added, &quot;Her management have been in almost daily contact with us ever since. It is exciting getting to work on a new tune for her, as we get to be really creative&quot;. They even put both Britney Spears and Donna Summer on hold to work with Knowles.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Film Career</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, Knowles turned to acting, starring alongside actor Mekhi Phifer in the MTV made-for-television film Carmen: A Hip Hopera.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the summer of 2002, Knowles co-starred in the film Austin Powers in Goldmember, playing Foxxy Cleopatra opposite Mike Myers and Michael Caine. Knowles also recorded the song &quot;Work It Out&quot; for the film&apos;s soundtrack. &quot;Work It Out&quot; was a top ten hit in the UK and a top forty hit in the Netherlands, Australia, and Ireland, despite being Knowles&apos; biggest commercial disappointment to date in the U.S., where radio stations barely played the song and the video received very minor exposure, playing only on digital video channels, MTV Jams, and VH1 Soul.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003, Knowles starred opposite Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the film The Fighting Temptations, and recorded a song for it called &quot;Fighting Temptation&quot;, alongside female rappers Missy Elliott, MC Lyte, and Free. Unlike Knowles&apos; own singles, the song did not become a hit, although the film was a moderate success at the box office.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles co-starred in the film The Pink Panther, playing the role of Xania, an international pop star, opposite Steve Martin, who plays Inspector Clouseau. The film was released on February 10, 2006, and was number one at the box office on its opening weekend. &quot;Check on It&quot;, which was recorded for the film, became a huge success and gave Knowles her first number-one hit from a soundtrack. With Austin Powers in Goldmember and The Pink Panther, Knowles appeared in two films that opened at number one at the box office; the two films have grossed over $481M worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles&apos; latest film work is Dreamgirls, the film adaptation of the 1981 hit Broadway musical about a 1960s singing group loosely based on Motown all-female group The Supremes, as the Diana Ross-based character Deena Jones. The film received a limited release on December 15, 2006 and a wider release on December 25, 2006. On December 14, 2006, Knowles was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards for the film Dreamgirls—&quot;Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy&quot; and &quot;Best Original Song&quot; for &quot;Listen&quot;. The film opened at number three at the box office with an eight-million-dollar opening weekend. Knowles was quoted to say this was her first real acting film. Dreamgirls was nominated for eight 2007 Academy Awards—including &quot;Best Original Song&quot; for &quot;Listen&quot;—, of which it won two. The film has passed the $100 million dollar gross mark in the United States.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Philanthropy</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles, music producer David Foster, and his daughter, Amy Foster Gillies, wrote Destiny&apos;s Child&apos;s single &quot;Stand up for Love&quot; for World Children&apos;s Day, an event which takes place annually around the world on November 20 to raise awareness and funds for children&apos;s causes worldwide. Destiny&apos;s Child lent their voices and support as global ambassadors for the 2005 World Children&apos;s Day program.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles and Kelly Rowland, along with Mathew Knowles, Tina Knowles, and sister Solange Knowles announced the formation of the Survivor Foundation, a charitable entity set up for the purpose of providing transitional housing for 2005 Hurricane Katrina victims and storm evacuees in the Houston, Texas area. The Survivor Foundation extends the philanthropic mission of the Knowles-Rowland Center for Youth, a multi-purpose community outreach facility in downtown Houston.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Knowles had food drives during her The Beyoncé Experience tour in Houston on July 14, Atlanta on July 20, Washington, D.C. on August 9, Toronto on August 15, Chicago on August 18, and Los Angeles on September 2. &quot;I want my tour and Survivor Foundation to encourage people to get involved in the fight against domestic hunger, Pastor Rudy&apos;s ongoing mission to help the least among us, and the work of America&apos;s Second Harvest. Any help—donating time, money or food—will make an enormous difference&quot;, she stressed.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Survivor Foundation announced a new project called &quot;Knowles-Rowland Temenos Place Apartments&quot;, in support of St. John&apos;s Downtown and Temenos Community Development Corporation. The housing development is the result of a collaboration with House of Deréon founders Tina Knowles and Beyoncé Knowles, Survivor Foundation, Inc., the City of Houston, and St. John&apos;s Downtown (church home of the Knowles family). The project was designed to provide permanent living accommodations for women and men who are taking significant steps in improving their lives after the traumatic effects of personal and natural disasters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 20, Knowles performed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia as part of the nation&apos;s millennium anniversary celebrations. While there, she was welcomed by President Girma Wolde-Giorgis, who gave Knowles a brief cultural and history lesson. Knowles responded by saying that, in the future, she will return to Ethiopia with a focus on humanitarian efforts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Controversy</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have criticized Knowles for wearing and using fur in her clothing line, House of Deréon. After winning an online eBay auction, offered by VH1 for the Save the Music Foundation, to dine with Knowles in June 2006, two PETA members confronted her at a restaurant in New York City because of their disapproval of her usage of fur. Knowles did not respond, and the PETA members were escorted out. PETA also wrote a letter of concern to Knowles about the treatment of baby alligators in a photoshoot for B&apos;Day.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In July 2005, Minnesota-based singer Jennifer Armour filed a lawsuit after accusing that Knowles copied lines and hooks from the former&apos;s song &quot;Got a Little Bit of Love for You&quot; to use them in her 2003 hit single &quot;Baby Boy&quot;. However, the case was dismissed in 2006 after a federal judge in Houston found a substantial dissimilarity between the two songs. On October 4, 2007, Armour&apos;s attorney Dana Kirk told a three-judge appellate panel that the case should be resurrected since a jury hearing was not conducted.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/beyonce003.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">BeyoncÃ© Giselle Knowles (born September 4, 1981) is an American R&amp;B singer, songwriter, record producer, music video...'),(100,'KLF','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), The Timelords and other names) were one of the seminal bands of the British acid house movement during the late 1980s and early 1990s.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Beginning in 1987, Bill Drummond (alias King Boy D) and Jimmy Cauty (alias Rockman Rock) released hip hop-inspired and sample-heavy records as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, and on one occasion (the British number one hit single &quot;Doctorin&apos; the Tardis&quot;) as The Timelords. As The KLF, Drummond and Cauty pioneered the genres &quot;stadium house&quot; (rave music with a pop-rock production and sampled crowd noise) and &quot;ambient house&quot;. The KLF released a series of international top-ten hits on their own KLF Communications record label, and became the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991. The duo also published a book, The Manual, and worked on a road movie called The White Room.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">From the outset, they adopted the philosophy espoused by esoteric novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy, gaining notoriety for various anarchic situationist manifestations, including the defacement of billboard adverts, the posting of prominent cryptic advertisements in NME magazine and the mainstream press, and highly distinctive and unusual performances on Top of the Pops. Their most notorious performance was at the February 1992 BRIT Awards, where they fired machine gun blanks into the audience and dumped a dead sheep at the aftershow party. This performance announced The KLF&apos;s departure from the music business, and in May 1992 the duo deleted their entire back catalogue.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">With The KLF&apos;s profits, Drummond and Cauty established the K Foundation and sought to subvert the art world, staging an alternative art award for the worst artist of the year and burning a million pounds sterling in The K Foundation burn a million quid. Although Drummond and Cauty remained true to their word of May 1992—the KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted—they have released a small number of new tracks since then, as the K Foundation, The One World Orchestra and most recently, in 1997, as 2K.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1986, Bill Drummond was an established figure within the British music industry, having co-founded Zoo Records, played guitar in the Liverpool band Big in Japan, and worked as manager of Echo &amp; the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes. On 21 July of that year, he resigned from his position as an A&amp;R man at record label WEA, citing that he was nearly 33⅓ years old (33⅓ revolutions per minute being significant to Drummond as the speed at which a vinyl LP revolves), and that it was &quot;time for a revolution in my life. There is a mountain to climb the hard way, and I want to see the world from the top&quot;. He released a well-received solo LP, The Man, judged by reviewers as &quot;tastefully understated,&quot; a &quot;touching if idiosyncratic biographical statement&quot; encapsulating &quot;his bizarrely sage ruminations&quot;, and &quot;a work of humble genius: the best kind&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Artist and musician Jimmy Cauty was, in 1986, the guitarist in the commercially unsuccessful three-piece band Brilliant — an act that Drummond had signed to WEA Records and managed. Cauty and Drummond shared an interest in the esoteric conspiracy novels The Illuminatus! Trilogy, and, in particular, their theme of Discordianism, a form of post-modern anarchism. As an art student in Liverpool, Drummond had been involved with the set design for the first stage production of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a 12-hour performance which opened in Liverpool on 23 November 1976.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Re-reading Illuminatus! in late 1986, and influenced by hip-hop, Drummond felt inspired to react against what he perceived to be the stagnant soundscape of popular music. Recalling that moment in a later radio interview, Drummond said that the plan came to him in an instant: he would form a hip-hop band with former colleague Jimmy Cauty, and they would be called The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">“ 	It was New Year&apos;s Day ... 1987. I was at home with my parents, I was going for a walk in the morning, it was, like, bright blue sky, and I thought &quot;I&apos;m going to make a hip-hop record. Who can I make a hip-hop record with?&quot;. I wasn&apos;t brave enough to go and do it myself, &apos;cause, although I can play the guitar, and I can knock out a few things on the piano, I knew nothing, personally, about the technology. And, I thought, I knew [Jimmy], I knew he was a like spirit, we share similar tastes and backgrounds in music and things. So I phoned him up that day and said &quot;Let&apos;s form a band called The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu&quot;. And he knew exactly, to coin a phrase, &quot;where I was coming from&quot;. And within a week we had recorded our first single which was called &quot;All You Need Is Love&quot;.            ”</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Early in 1987, Drummond and Cauty&apos;s collaborations began. They assumed alter egos - King Boy D and Rockman Rock respectively - and they adopted the name The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), after the fictional conspiratorial group &quot;The Justified Ancients of Mummu&quot; from The Illuminatus! Trilogy. In those novels, the JAMs are what the Illuminati (a political organisation which seeks to impose order and control upon society) call a group of Discordians who have infiltrated the Illuminati in order to feed them false information. As The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, Drummond and Cauty chose to interpret the principles of the fictional JAMs in the context of music production in the corporate music world. Shrouded in the mystique provided by their disguised identities and the cultish Illuminatus!, they mirrored the Discordians&apos; gleeful political tactics of causing chaos and confusion by bringing a direct, humorous but nevertheless revolutionary approach to making records, often attracting attention in unconventional ways. The JAMs&apos; primary instrument was the digital sampler with which they would plagiarise the history of popular music, cutting chunks from existing works and pasting them into new contexts, underpinned by rudimentary beatbox rhythms and overlayed with Drummond&apos;s raps, of social commentary, esoteric metaphors and mockery.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The JAMs&apos; debut single &quot;All You Need Is Love&quot; (sample (help·info)) dealt with the media coverage given to AIDS, sampling heavily from The Beatles&apos; &quot;All You Need Is Love&quot; and Samantha Fox&apos;s &quot;Touch Me (I Want Your Body)&quot;. Although it was declined by distributors fearful of prosecution, and threatened with lawsuits, copies of the one-sided white label 12&quot; were sent to the music press, receiving positive reviews and being made &quot;single of the week&quot; in Sounds. A later piece in the same magazine called The JAMs &quot;the hottest, most exhilarating band this year.... It&apos;s hard to understand what it feels like to come across something you believe to be totally new; I have never been so wholeheartedly convinced that a band are so good and exciting.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The JAMs re-edited and re-released &quot;All You Need Is Love&quot; in May 1987, removing or doctoring the most antagonistic samples; lyrics from the song appeared as promotional graffiti, defacing selected billboards. The re-release rewarded The JAMs not just with further praise (including NME´s &quot;single of the week&quot;,) but also with the funds necessary to record their debut album. The album, 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?), was released in June 1987. Included was a song called &quot;The Queen and I&quot;), which sampled large portions of the ABBA single &quot;Dancing Queen&quot;. The recording came to the attention of ABBA&apos;s management and, after a legal showdown with ABBA and the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, the 1987 album was forcibly withdrawn from sale. Drummond and Cauty travelled to Sweden in hope of meeting ABBA and coming to some agreement, taking an NME journalist and photographer with them, along with most of the remaining copies of the LP. They failed to meet ABBA, so disposed of the copies by burning most of them in a field and throwing the rest overboard on the North Sea ferry trip home. In a December 1987 interview, Cauty maintained that they &quot;felt that what [they]&apos;d done was artistically justified.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Two new singles followed 1987, on The JAMs&apos; &quot;KLF Communications&quot; independent record label. Both reflected a shift towards house rhythms. According to NME, The JAMs&apos; choice of samples for the first of these, &quot;Whitney Joins The JAMs&quot; saw them leaving behind their strategy of &quot;collision course&quot; to &quot;move straight onto the art of super selective theft&quot;. The song uses samples of the Mission: Impossible theme alongside Whitney Houston&apos;s &quot;I Wanna Dance With Somebody&quot;. Ironically, Drummond has claimed that The KLF were later offered the job of producing or remixing a new Whitney Houston album as an inducement from her record label boss (Clive Davis of Arista Records) to sign with them. Drummond turned the job down, but nonetheless The KLF signed with Arista as their American distributors. The second single in this sequence—Drummond and Cauty&apos;s third and final single of 1987—was &quot;Down Town&quot;, a dance record built around a gospel choir and &quot;Downtown&quot; by 1960s star Petula Clark. These early works were later collected on the compilation album Shag Times.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A second album, Who Killed The JAMs?, was released in early 1988. Who Killed The JAMs? was a rather less haphazard affair than 1987, earning the duo at least one five-star review (from Sounds Magazine, who called it &quot;a masterpiece of pathos&quot;.)</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Timelords</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1988, Drummond and Cauty became &quot;Time Boy&quot; and &quot;Lord Rock&quot;, and released a &apos;novelty&apos; pop single, &quot;Doctorin&apos; the Tardis&quot; as The Timelords. The song is predominantly a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme music and Gary Glitter&apos;s &quot;Rock and Roll (Part Two)&quot;, with sparse vocals inspired by The Daleks and Harry Enfield&apos;s &quot;Loadsamoney&quot; character. &quot;Doctorin&apos; the Tardis&quot; reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 12 June, and charted highly in Australia and New Zealand.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Also credited on the record was &quot;Ford Timelord&quot;, Cauty&apos;s 1968 Ford Galaxie American police car (claimed to have been used in the film Superman IV filmed in the UK). Drummond and Cauty declared that the car had spoken to them, giving its name as Ford Timelord, and advising the duo to become &quot;The Timelords&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Drummond and Cauty would later portray the song as the result of a deliberate effort to write a number one hit single. However, in interviews with Snub TV and BBC Radio 1, Drummond said that the truth was that they had intended to make a house record using the Dr Who theme. After Cauty had laid down a basic track, Drummond observed that their house idea wasn&apos;t working and what they actually had was a Glitter beat. Sensing the opportunity to make a commercial pop record they abandoned all notions of underground credibility and went instead for the lowest common denominator. According to the British music press, the result was &quot;rancid&quot;, &quot;pure, unadulterated agony&quot; and &quot;excruciating&quot; and—in something of a backhanded compliment from the normally supportive Sounds Magazine—&quot;a record so noxious that a top ten place can be its only destiny&quot;. They were right: the record went on to sell over one million copies. A single of The Timelords&apos; remixes of the song was released: &quot;Gary Joins The JAMs&quot; featured original vocal contributions from Glitter himself, who also appeared on Top of the Pops to promote the song with The Timelords.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Timelords released one other product, a 1989 book called The Manual (How to Have a Number One the Easy Way), a tongue-in-cheek but nonetheless insightful step-by-step guide to achieving a number one hit single with little money or talent.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The KLF</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">By the time the JAMs&apos; single &quot;Whitney Joins The JAMs&quot; was released in September 1987, their record label had been renamed &quot;KLF Communications&quot; (from the earlier &quot;The Sound of Mu(sic)&quot;). However, the duo&apos;s first release as The KLF was not until March 1988, with the single &quot;Burn the Bastards&quot;/&quot;Burn the Beat&quot; (KLF 002). Although the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu name was not yet retired, most future Drummond and Cauty releases would go under the name &quot;The KLF&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The name change accompanied a change in Drummond and Cauty&apos;s musical direction. Said Drummond (as &apos;King Boy D&apos;) in January 1988, &quot;We might put out a couple of 12&quot; records under the name The K.L.F., these will be rap free just pure dance music, so don&apos;t expect to see them reviewed in the music papers&quot;. King Boy D also claimed that he and Rockman Rock were &quot;pissed off at [them]selves&quot; for letting &quot;people expect us to lead some sort of crusade for sampling&quot;. In 1990 he recalled that &quot;We wanted to make [as The KLF] something that was ... pure dance music, without any reference points, without any nod to the history of rock and roll. It was the type of music that by early &apos;87 was really exciting me ... [although] we weren&apos;t able to get our first KLF records out until late &apos;88&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The 12&quot; records subsequently released in 1988 and 1989 by The KLF were indeed rap free and house-oriented; remixes of some of The JAMs tracks, and new singles, the largely instrumental acid house anthems &quot;What Time Is Love?&quot; and &quot;3 a.m. Eternal&quot;, the first incarnations of later international chart successes. The KLF described the sound of these new tracks as &quot;Pure Trance&quot;. In 1989, The KLF appeared at the Helter Skelter rave in Oxfordshire. &quot;They wooed the crowd&quot;, wrote Scotland on Sunday some years later, &quot;by pelting them with... £1,000 worth of Scottish pound notes which each bore the message &quot;Children we love you&quot;&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Also in 1989, The KLF embarked upon the creation of a road movie and soundtrack album, both titled The White Room, funded by the profits of &quot;Doctorin&apos; The Tardis&quot;. Neither the film nor its soundtrack were formally released, although bootleg copies of both exist. The soundtrack album contained pop-house versions of some of the &quot;pure trance&quot; singles, as well as new songs, most of which would appear (albeit in radically reworked form) on the version of the album which was eventually released to mainstream success. A single from the original album was released, however: &quot;Kylie Said To Jason&quot;, an electropop record featuring references to Todd Terry, Rolf Harris, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and BBC comedy programme The Good Life. In reference to that song, Drummond and Cauty noted that they had worn &quot;Pet Shop Boys infatuations brazenly on [their] sleeves&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The film project was fraught with difficulties and setbacks, including dwindling funds. &quot;Kylie Said To Jason&quot;, which Drummond and Cauty were hoping could &quot;rescue them from the jaws of bankruptcy&quot;, flopped commercially, failing even to make the UK top 100. In consequence, The White Room film project was put on hold, and The KLF abandoned the musical direction of the soundtrack and single.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Meanwhile, &quot;What Time Is Love?&quot; was generating acclaim within the underground clubs of continental Europe; according to KLF Communications, &quot;The KLF were being feted by all the &apos;right&apos; DJs&quot;. This prompted Drummond and Cauty to pursue the acid house tone of their Pure Trance series. A further Pure Trance release, &quot;Last Train to Trancentral&quot;, followed. At this time, Cauty had co-founded The Orb as an ambient side-project with Alex Paterson. Cauty and Paterson DJ-ed at the monthly &quot;Land Of Oz&quot; house night in London, and The KLF&apos;s seminal 1990 &quot;ambient house&quot; LP Chill Out was born partly from these sessions. The ambient album Space and The KLF&apos;s ambient video Waiting were also released in 1990, as was a heavier, more industrial sounding dance track, &quot;It&apos;s Grim Up North&quot;, under The JAMs&apos; moniker.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 1990 The KLF launched a series of singles with an upbeat pop-house sound which they dubbed &quot;Stadium House&quot;. Songs from The White Room soundtrack were re-recorded with rap and more vocals (by guests labelled &quot;Additional Communicators&quot;), a sample-heavy pop-rock production and crowd noise samples. The results brought The KLF international recognition and acclaim. The first &quot;Stadium House&quot; single, &quot;What Time Is Love?&quot;, released in October 1990, reached #5 in the UK Singles Chart and hit the top-ten internationally. The follow-up, &quot;3 a.m. Eternal&quot;, was an international top-five hit in January 1991, reaching #1 in the UK and #5 in the US Billboard Hot 100. The album The White Room followed in March 1991, reaching #3 in the UK. A substantial reworking of the aborted soundtrack, the album featured a segued series of &quot;Stadium House&quot; songs followed by downtempo tracks.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The KLF&apos;s chart success continued with the single &quot;Last Train to Trancentral&quot; (UK #2, #3 in the Eurochart Hot 100). In December 1991, a re-working of a song from 1987, &quot;Justified and Ancient&quot; was released, featuring the vocals of American country star Tammy Wynette. It was another international hit (UK #2, US #11), as was &quot;America: What Time Is Love?&quot; (UK #4), a hard, guitar-laden reworking of &quot;What Time Is Love?&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1990 and 1991, The KLF also remixed tracks by Depeche Mode (&quot;Policy of Truth&quot;), The Moody Boys (&quot;What Is Dub?&quot;), and the Pet Shop Boys (&quot;So Hard&quot; from the Behaviour album, and &quot;It Must Be Obvious&quot;). Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant described the process: &quot;When they did the remix of &apos;So Hard&apos;, they didn&apos;t do a remix at all, they re-wrote the record ... I had to go and sing the vocals again, they did it in a different way. I was impressed that Bill Drummond had written all the chords out and played it on an acoustic guitar, very thorough.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After successive name changes and a plethora of highly influential dance records, Drummond and Cauty ultimately became, as The KLF, the biggest-selling singles act in the world for 1991, still incorporating the work of other artists but in less gratuitous ways and predominantly without legal problems.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Retirement</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 12 February 1992, The KLF and hardcore heavy metal group Extreme Noise Terror performed a live version of &quot;3 a.m. Eternal&quot; at the BRIT Awards, the British Phonographic Industry&apos;s annual awards show; a &quot;violently antagonistic performance&quot; in front of &quot;a stunned music-business audience&quot;. Drummond and Cauty had planned to throw buckets of sheep&apos;s blood over the audience, but were prevented from doing so due to opposition from BBC lawyers and &quot;hardcore vegans&quot; Extreme Noise Terror. The performance was instead garnished by a limping, kilted, cigar-chomping Drummond firing blanks from an automatic weapon over the heads of the crowd. As the band left the stage, The KLF&apos;s promoter and narrator Scott Piering announced over the PA system that &quot;The KLF have now left the music business&quot;. Later in the evening the band dumped a dead sheep with the message &quot;I died for ewe—bon appetit&quot; tied around its waist at the entrance to one of the post-ceremony parties.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Reactions were mixed. Piers Morgan, writing in The Sun, under the headline &quot;KLF&apos;s Sick Gun Stunt Fails To Hit The Target&quot;, called The KLF &quot;pop&apos;s biggest wallies&quot; and producer Trevor Horn is reported to have called their antics &quot;disgusting&quot;. NME, on the other hand, said that The KLF &quot;stormed&quot; the show and that after their performance the BRITs show went &quot;downhill all the way&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Scott Piering&apos;s PA announcement of The KLF&apos;s retirement was largely ignored at the time. NME, for example, assured their readers that the tensions and contradictions would continue to &quot;push and spark&quot; The KLF and that more &quot;musical treasure&quot; would be the result, but they noted: &quot;[Drummond has] himself nicely skewered on the horns of an almighty dilemma. He has taken over pop music and it has been a piece of piss to do so. And he hates that. He wants to be separate from a music industry that clasps him ever closer to its bosom. He loves being in the very belly of the beast, yet he wishes he was something that&apos;d cause it to throw up too. He wants not only to bite the hand that feeds but to shove it into an industrial mincer and stomp the resultant pulp into the dirt, yet pop, as long as you continue to make it money, would let you sexually abuse its grandmother. There is, Bill old boy, no sensible way out.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the weeks following the BRITs performance, The KLF continued working with Extreme Noise Terror on the album The Black Room, but it was never finished. On 14 May 1992, The KLF announced their immediate retirement from the music industry and the deletion of their entire back catalogue:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">“ 	We have been following a wild and wounded, glum and glorious, shit but shining path these past five years. The last two of which has [sic] led us up onto the commercial high ground—we are at a point where the path is about to take a sharp turn from these sunny uplands down into a netherworld of we know not what. For the foreseeable future there will be no further record releases from The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, The Timelords, The KLF and any other past, present and future name attached to our activities. As of now all our past releases are deleted.... If we meet further along be prepared...our disguise may be complete. 	”</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In a comprehensive examination of The KLF&apos;s announcement and its context, Select called it &quot;the last grand gesture, the most heroic act of public self destruction in the history of pop. And it&apos;s also Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty&apos;s final extravagant howl of self disgust, defiance and contempt for a music world gone foul and corrupt.&quot; Many of The KLF&apos;s friends and collaborators gave their reactions in the magazine. Movie director Bill Butt said that &quot;Like everything, they&apos;re dealing with it in a very realistic way, a fresh, unbitter way, which is very often not the case. A lot of bands disappear with such a terrible loss of dignity&quot;. Scott Piering said that &quot;They&apos;ve got a huge buzz off this, that&apos;s for sure, because it&apos;s something that&apos;s finally thrilling. It&apos;s scary to have thrown away a fortune which I know they have. Just the idea of starting over is exciting. Starting over on what? Well, they have such great ideas, like buying submarines&quot;. Even Kenny Gates, who as a director of The KLF&apos;s distributors APT stood to lose financially from the move, called it &quot;Conceptually and philosophically ... absolutely brilliant&quot;. Mark Stent reported the doubts of many when he said that &quot;I [have] had so many people who I know, heads of record companies, A&amp;R men saying, &apos;Come on, It&apos;s a big scam.&apos; But I firmly believe it&apos;s over&quot;. &quot;For the very last spectacularly insane time&quot;, the magazine concluded, &quot;The KLF have done what was least expected of them&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The final KLF Info sheet discussed the retirement in a typically offbeat fashion, and asked &quot;What happens to &apos;Footnotes in rock legend&apos;? Do they gather dust with Ashton Gardner and Dyke, The Vapors, and the Utah Saints, or does their influence live on in unseen ways, permeating future cultures? A passing general of a private army has the answer. &apos;No&apos;, he whispers &apos;but the dust they gather is of the rarest quality. Each speck a universe awaiting creation, Big Bang just a dawn away&apos;.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">There have been numerous suggestions that in 1992 Drummond was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Drummond himself said that he was on the edge of the &quot;abyss&quot;. BRIT Awards organiser Jonathan King had publicly endorsed The KLF&apos;s live performance, a response which Scott Piering cited as &quot;the real low point&quot;. The KLF&apos;s BRITs statuette for &quot;Best British Group&quot; of 1992 was later &quot;found&quot; buried in a field near Stonehenge.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>K Foundation and Post-Retirement Projects</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The K Foundation was an arts foundation established by Drummond and Cauty in 1993 following their &apos;retirement&apos; from the music industry. From 1993 to 1995 they engaged in a number of art projects and media campaigns, including the high-profile K Foundation art award (for the &quot;worst artist of the year&quot;). Most notoriously, they burnt what was left of their KLF earnings—a million pounds in cash—and filmed the &quot;performance&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1995, Drummond and Cauty contributed a song to The Help Album as The One World Orchestra (&quot;featuring The Massed Pipes and Drums of the Children&apos;s Free Revolutionary Volunteer Guards&quot;). &quot;The Magnificent&quot; is a drum&apos;n&apos;bass version of the theme tune from The Magnificent Seven, with vocal samples from DJ Fleka of Serbian radio station B92: &quot;Humans against killing... that sounds like a junkie against dope&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On 17 September 1997, ten years after their debut album 1987, Drummond and Cauty re-emerged briefly as 2K. 2K made a one-off performance at London&apos;s Barbican Arts Centre with Mark Manning, Acid Brass, the Liverpool Dockers and Gimpo; a performance at which &quot;Two elderly gentlemen, reeking of Dettol, caused havoc in their motorised wheelchairs. These old reprobates, bearing a grandfatherly resemblance to messrs Cauty and Drummond, claimed to have just been asked along.&quot; The song performed at the Barbican – &quot;Fuck the Millennium&quot; (a remix of &quot;What Time Is Love?&quot; featuring Acid Brass and incorporating elements of the hymn &quot;Eternal Father, Strong to Save&quot;) – was also released as single. These activities were accompanied by the usual full page press adverts, this time asking readers &quot;***k The Millennium: Yes/No?&quot; with a telephone number provided for voting. At the same time, Drummond and Cauty were also K2 Plant Hire, with plans to build a &quot;People&apos;s Pyramid&quot; from used house bricks; this plan never reached fruition.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Bill Drummond continues to work as a writer and conceptual artist. Jimmy Cauty has been involved in several post-KLF projects including the music and conceptual art collective Blacksmoke and the electronic music group the Transit Kings, which saw him reunited with his former partner from The Orb, Alex Paterson.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The KLF Communications catalogue remains deleted in the United Kingdom.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Themes</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Several threads and themes unify the many incarnations of Drummond and Cauty&apos;s creative partnership. Mostly these are esoteric or opaque in nature, which has led some people to compare Drummond and Cauty&apos;s incarnations to The Residents for their antics, if not their music. Drummond and Cauty have also been compared to Stewart Home and the Neoists. Home himself said that the duo&apos;s work &quot;has much more in common with the Neoist, Plagiarist and Art Strike movements of the nineteen-eighties than with [the Situationists] the avant-garde of the fifties and sixties.&quot; Drummond and Cauty &quot;represent a vital and innovative strand within contemporary culture&quot;, he added.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Illuminatus!</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Drummond and Cauty made heavy references to Discordianism, a modern chaos-based religion originally described by Malaclypse the Younger in Principia Discordia, but popularised by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson in the Illuminatus! books, written between 1969 and 1971. The attitude and tactics of Drummond and Cauty&apos;s partnership matched that of the fictional cult whose name they had adopted. Throughout the partnership, these tactics were often interpreted by media commentators as &quot;pranks&quot; or &quot;publicity stunts&quot;. However, according to Drummond, &quot;That&apos;s just the way it was interpreted. We&apos;ve always loathed the word scam. I know no-one&apos;s ever going to believe us, but we never felt we went out and did things to get reactions. Everything we&apos;ve done has just been on a gut level instinct.&quot; Cauty has expressed similar feelings, saying of The KLF, &quot;I think it worked because we really meant it&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In addition to resembling the fictional JAMs attitudinally and tactically, references to themes of Discordianism and Illuminatus! also manifested Drummond and Cauty&apos;s musical, visual and written work, meticulously and often covertly.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The JAMs&apos; debut single &quot;All You Need Is Love&quot; includes the words &quot;Immanentize the Eschaton!&quot;, in reference to the opening line of Illuminatus!, &quot;They immanentized the Eschaton&quot;, interpreted as &quot;they brought about the end of the world&quot; or &quot;they brought heaven to Earth&quot;. In The JAMs&apos; &quot;The Porpoise Song&quot;, from the album Who Killed The JAMs?, King Boy D and a talking porpoise converse, referencing Howard, the talking porpoise in Illuminatus!. The KLF&apos;s single version of &quot;Last Train to Trancentral&quot; opens with the demand &quot;Okay, everybody lie down on the floor and keep calm&quot;, which is also taken from Illuminatus!.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The refrain &quot;All bound for Mu Mu land&quot;, from The KLF&apos;s &quot;Justified and Ancient (Stand by The JAMs)&quot; is a reference to the Lost Continent of Mu, which Shea and Wilson identify with the fictional land Lemuria in Illuminatus!. Some research suggests that archeological remains located in waters off the coast of Japan may be Mu; at the end of the &quot;Justified and Ancient&quot; music video, The KLF exit in a submarine.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Drummond and Cauty&apos;s output is also highly self-referential, in common with Illuminatus!. In particular, original vocal samples are reused in a variety of musical contexts. For example, the ring modulated &quot;Mu Mu!&quot; sample that first appeared on &quot;Burn the Bastards&quot; is also to be found on &quot;What Time Is Love? (Live at Trancentral), &quot;Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the Lost Continent)&quot; and &quot;Fuck the Millennium&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The number 23, significant within numerology, is a theme of Illuminatus!, where instances of the number are both overtly and surreptitiously placed. Similarly, an abundance of such occurrences were deposited throughout Drummond and Cauty&apos;s collective output, for example:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In lyrics to the song &quot;Next&quot; from the album 1987: &quot;23 years is a mighty long time&quot;.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In periods of time: for instance, they reportedly signed a contract preventing either of them from publicly discussing the burning of a million pounds for a period of 23 years; their 1997 return as 2K was &quot;for 23 minutes only&quot;.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In numbering schemes: for instance, the debut single &quot;All You Need Is Love&quot; took the catalogue number JAMS 23, while the final KLF Communications Information Sheet was numbered 23; and Cauty&apos;s Ford Galaxie police car had on its roof the identification mark 23.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In significant dates during their work: for instance, a rare public appearance by The KLF, at the Liverpool Festival of Comedy, was on 23 June 1991; they announced the winner of the K Foundation award on 23 November 1993; and they burned one million pounds on 23 August 1994.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">When questioned on the importance that he attaches to this number, Drummond has been evasive, responding enigmatically &quot;I know. But I&apos;m not going to tell, because then other people would have to stop having to wonder and the thing about beauty is for other people to wonder at it. It&apos;s not very beautiful once you know&quot;. Drummond&apos;s penchant for living by numbers has also been observed in his choosing to align the ages at which he undertook creative projects The Man and 45 with the standard revolution speeds of a turntable (33.3 and 45 rpm).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The &quot;Pyramid Blaster&quot; is a logo and icon frequently and prominently depicted within the duo&apos;s collective work: a pyramid, in front of which is suspended a ghetto blaster displaying the word &quot;Justified&quot;. This references the All-Seeing Eye icon, often depicted as an eye within a triangle or pyramid, a significant symbol of Illuminatus!. The pyramid was also a theme of the duo&apos;s 1997 re-emergence, with the proposed building by K2 Plant Hire of &quot;a massive pyramid containing one brick for every person born in the UK during the 20th century&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">There is no definitive explanation of The KLF&apos;s name, nor of the origin of &apos;K&apos; in the names of the K Foundation and 2K. KLF has been variously reported as being an acronym for &quot;Kopyright Liberation Front&quot;, &quot;Kallisti Liberation Front&quot; and &quot;Kings of the Low Frequencies&quot;. This mirrors Illuminatus!, where the fictional JAMs are in alliance with The LDD—who regularly change the origins of their name—and The ELF (&quot;Erisian Liberation Front&quot;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Although Drummond accounted for the adoption of The JAMs name in the first KLF Communications Info Sheet, the reasoning behind Drummond and Cauty&apos;s decision to reference the Illuminatus! mythology with such consistent intricacy is unknown. Indeed, it has been suggested by journalist Steven Poole that the public&apos;s inability to fully understand The KLF results in all their subsequent activities (as a partnership or otherwise) being absorbed into The KLF&apos;s mystique. In a review of Drummond&apos;s 1999 book, 45, and an appraisal of The KLF&apos;s career, Poole stated that &quot;[Bill Drummond] and collaborator Jimmy Cauty are the only true conceptual artists of the [1990s]. And for all the eldritch beauty of their art, their most successful creation is the myth they have built around themselves.&quot; He concluded,</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">“ 	A myth like The KLF&apos;s is peculiarly omnivorous. Just as there can never be any evidence to disprove a conspiracy theory because the fabrication of such evidence—don&apos;t you see?—is itself part of the conspiracy, so the pop myth of The KLF can never be blown apart by anything they do, no matter how dumb or embarrassing. The myth will suck it up, like a black hole. 	”</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Trancentral, eternity, sheep</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Trancentral (aka the Benio) was the operations centre of The KLF, their mythological home, and their studios. Despite the grandiose lyrics of &quot;Last Train to Trancentral&quot;, Trancentral was in fact Cauty&apos;s residence in Stockwell, South London, &quot;a large and rather grotty squat&quot; according to Melody Maker&apos;s David Stubbs: &quot;Jimmy has lived [there] for 12 years. (&apos;I hate the place. I&apos;ve no alternative but to live here.&apos;) There&apos;s little evidence of fame or fortune. The kitchen is heated by means of leaving the three functioning gas rings on at full blast until the fumes make us all feel stoned.... And, pinned just above a working top cluttered with chipped mugs is a letter from a five-year-old fan, featuring a crayon drawing of the band.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Eternity is a recurring theme in song titles (&quot;3 a.m. Eternal&quot;, &quot;Madrugada Eterna&quot;) and lyrics. Drummond and Cauty also asserted that &apos;Eternity&apos; was the author of an ambiguous, far-reaching contract offered to The JAMs.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Following the February 1990 release of Chill Out, sheep had recurring roles in the duo&apos;s output until their 1992 retirement. Drummond has claimed that the use of sheep on the Chill Out cover was intended to evoke contemporary rural raves, and insisted that the dead sheep gesture at the BRIT Awards was a compromise, replacing his earlier intention to literally cut off his hand at the ceremony. Sheep feature in The KLF ambient video Waiting, and some sheep were guests of honour at the first screening of The KLF&apos;s ultimately unreleased film The White Room. It is unclear whether the theme of sheep had any particular artistic meaning. Indeed, the inner sleeve of The White Room CD pictured Drummond and Cauty each holding a sheep, with the caption &quot;Why sheep?&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Ceremonies and journeys</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Drummond and Cauty&apos;s work often involved notions of ceremony and journey. Journeys are the subject of the KLF Communications recordings Chill Out, Space, &quot;Last Train to Trancentral&quot;, &quot;Justified and Ancient&quot; and &quot;America: What Time Is Love?&quot;, as well as the aborted film project The White Room. The Chill Out album depicts a journey across the U.S. Gulf Coast. In his book 45, Drummond expressed his admiration for the work of artist Richard Long, who incorporates physical journeys into his art.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Fire and sacrifice were recurring ceremonial themes: Drummond and Cauty made fires to dispose of their illegal debut album and to sacrifice The KLF&apos;s profits; their dead sheep gesture of 1992 carried a sacrificial message. The KLF&apos;s short film The Rites of Mu depicts their celebration of the 1991 summer solstice on the Hebridean island of Jura: a 60-foot tall wicker man was burnt at a ceremony in which journalists were asked to wear yellow and grey robes and join a chant. Chanting also featured in &quot;3 a.m. Eternal&quot;, Chill Out and—aggressively—&quot;Fuck the Millennium&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Promotion</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Drummond and Cauty&apos;s promotional tactics were unconventional. The duo were renowned for their distinctive and humorous public appearances (including several on Top of the Pops), at which they were often costumed. They granted few interviews, communicating instead via semi-regular newsletters, or cryptically phrased full-page adverts in UK national newspapers and the music press. Such adverts were typically stark, comprising large white lettering on black. A single typeface became characteristic of all KLF Communications&apos; and K Foundation output, being used almost exclusively on sleevenotes and record labels, merchandise and adverts.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">From the outset of their collaborations, Drummond and Cauty practised the guerrilla communication tactic that they described as &quot;illegal but effective use of graffiti on billboards and public buildings&quot; in which &quot;the original meaning of the advert would be totally subverted&quot;. Much as The JAMs&apos; early recordings carried messages on the back of existing musical works, their promotional graffiti often derived its potency from the context in which it was placed. For instance, The JAMs&apos; &quot;SHAG SHAG SHAG&quot; graffiti, coinciding with their release of &quot;All You Need Is Love&quot;, was drawn over the &quot;HALO HALO HALO&quot; slogan of a Today billboard that depicted Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable James Anderton, who had decried homosexuals amidst the UK media&apos;s AIDS furore.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Music press journalists were occasionally invited to witness the defacements. In December 1987, a Melody Maker reporter was in attendance to see Cauty reverse his car Ford Timelord alongside a billboard and stand on its roof to graffiti a Christmas message from The JAMs. In February 1991, another Melody Maker journalist watched The KLF deface a billboard advertising The Sunday Times, doctoring the slogan &quot;THE GULF: the coverage, the analysis, the facts&quot; by painting a &apos;K&apos; over the &apos;GU&apos;. Drummond and Cauty were, on this occasion, caught at the scene by police and arrested, later to be released without charge.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 1991, the slogan &quot;It&apos;s Grim Up North&quot; appeared as graffiti on the junction of London&apos;s M25 orbital motorway with the M1, which runs to Northern England. The graffiti, for which The JAMs denied responsibility, led to a House of Commons motion being timetabled by Member of Parliament Joe Ashton regarding regional imbalance. In September 1997, on the day after Drummond and Cauty&apos;s brief remergence as 2K, the graffiti &quot;1997: What The Fuck&apos;s Going On?&quot; appeared on the outside wall of London&apos;s National Theatre, ten years after the slogan &quot;1987: What The Fuck&apos;s Going On?&quot; had been similarly placed to mark the release of The JAMs&apos; debut album.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Legacy</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Despite their protestations of 1988 about not wishing to be seen as crusaders for sampling,[30] The JAMs continue to be associated with the cultural movement which retrospectively bundles together those literary and artistic works that make use of &apos;creative plagiarism&apos;. 1987: What the Fuck Is Going On? is considered a landmark work in the early history of sampling music in the United Kingdom. (See mashup.)</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Similarly, Chill Out is cited as &quot;one of the essential ambient albums&quot;. In 1996, Mixmag named Chill Out the fifth best &quot;dance&quot; album of all time, describing Cauty&apos;s DJ sets with The Orb&apos;s Alex Paterson as &quot;seminal&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Guardian has credited The KLF with inventing &quot;stadium house&quot; and NME named The KLF&apos;s stadium house album The White Room the 81st best album of all time. Elements of The KLF&apos;s stadium house concept (sampled crowd noise, and signatory vocal samples reused on different songs) were adopted by several less successful rave acts of the early 1990s, including Utah Saints, N-Joi and Messiah.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Sound on Sound magazine credited The KLF with &quot;set[ting] the trend for a new approach to mixing&quot;. Engineer Mark Stent is quoted as saying:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">“ 	It was in working with Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty that things really started to happen in a new way, using mixing as a work-in-progress, rather than an end stage. We were running everything live in the studio, from sequencers and samplers. Obviously there was also stuff on tape, but they would come in with their Ataris and Akai samplers, and we would end up rearranging the whole song whilst mixing things. They would then take away what we did, work on it again, and come back a while later, and I&apos;d mix stuff again. My KLF work put me in the picture, and after that the phone never stopped ringing. 	”</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Opinions of Contemporaries</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/The%20KLF.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The KLF (also known as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), The Timelords and other names) were one of the seminal...'),(101,'Groove Coverage','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Groove Coverage is a German Euro-trance band. The Groove Coverage project consists of Axel Konrad, DJ Novus, Melanie Munch better known as Mell (lead singer), and Verena Rehm (former stage performer, backing singer, occasional lead singer). The band has had hits around the world, especially in Germany, and have had radio play in North America, especially with the song Poison. They have produced popular remixes of several songs, including &quot;Love is an Angel&quot; by Sylver, &quot;Come With Me&quot; by Special D, and &quot;Ass Up!&quot; by Baracuda.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Groove Coverage has published three official albums in Germany, Covergirl (2002), 7 Years and 50 Days (2004) and 21st Century (2006). They have also published a Best Of album (2005), and a special Canadian SPG Music release entitled Groove Coverage, which includes their greatest hits in Canada. In the United States, they have an album called Groove Coverage: Greatest Hits.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Several of the band&apos;s songs have been cover versions, or reimagined conversions of other songs. Groove Coverage released a cover version of Mike Oldfield&apos;s &quot;Moonlight Shadow&quot;, as well as a dance cover of Alice Cooper&apos;s &quot;Poison&quot;. In their most recent album, 21st Century, they released a version of Bad Religion&apos;s 21st Century Digital Boy, titled 21st Century Digital Girl. This used the same basic format of the previous version, but changed the lyrics to reflect the difference in the eponymous subject of the song (referring to things like breast implants and Botox injections).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The group released three singles prior to their most recent album 21st Century:</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;Holy Virgin&quot;, an English cover-version of the song &quot;Fata Morgana&quot;, originally performed by the Austrian Group Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung in 1986</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">&quot;On The Radio&quot;, a cover of &quot;Mann im Mond&quot; by Die Prinzen</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">21st Century Digital Girl, a replica to Bad Religion&apos;s 21st Century Digital Boy.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Before the release of the first single, another Groove Coverage-track named &quot;On the Radio&quot; was leaked to internet file sharing platforms in several different versions. This song was not the track of the same name from the album. This was an attempt to hinder file sharing of the actual single by &quot;poisoning&quot; the networks with a different song of the same name. The decoy track appears on the album under the title of &quot;Let it Be&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Groove%20Coverage1.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Groove Coverage is a German Euro-trance band. The Groove Coverage project consists of Axel Konrad, DJ Novus, Melanie Munc...'),(102,'Paul Mazzolini','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Paul Mazzolini (born February 18, 1960, Beirut, Lebanon, stage name Gazebo), is an Italian musician. He has a legend status among the fans of the &quot;italo-disco&quot; music style, a variation of 80s eurodance a.k.a. eurodisco.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">He was born in Lebanon, the son of an Italian diplomat and an American singer. According to legend, he learned to play the guitar aged 10 to impress a German girl in his class.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As a rather cosmopolitan teenager Mazzolini began a career in a variety of jazz, rock and punk bands before meeting Rome based producer Paul Micioni. The first release, Masterpiece, was a minor hit in 1982.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">His footnote in charts history is his 1983 release &quot;I Like Chopin&quot; (popular opinion notwithstanding, the piano motif herein is not a Chopin composition).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The follow-up song &quot;Lunatic&quot; and the eponymous album also entered the Top 20 across Europe.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Since then Mazzolini has released more albums, not counting the occasional hit compilation with all his best track called &quot;Portrait &amp; Viewpoint&quot;. In autumn 2006 he released a new single called &quot;Tears for Galileo&quot;, which achieved constant radio airplay on Italian RAI Radio2 and peaked at #1 in the Euro dance chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Has just released a new single, &quot;Ladies!&quot;, from his upcoming new album &quot;The Syndrome&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/gazebo.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Paul Mazzolini (born February 18, 1960, Beirut, Lebanon, stage name Gazebo), is an Italian musician. He has a legend stat...'),(103,'Circ','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Circ are producer Alexander Perls and vocalist Madelin Lane. The two met at a Sonic Youth concert on The Bowery in New York City during the summer of 2001. Perls had been living in NYC since 1998, working for the American video artist Matthew Barney. Madelin had moved to NYC six months earlier, and was working for a midtown talent agent as a talent scout for the daytime soap operas. After some conversation, somehow it turned out that Perls was looking for a vocalist for a track he was producing and Madelin wanted to try some singing. He said he had a song called &quot;Destroy She Said&quot; which needed a vocalist. Perls and Madelin first recorded in Perls&apos; basement studio in Chinatown, right near the East River in Lower Manhattan. The vocal tracks for &quot;Destroy She Said&quot; were all recorded during one very hot night during the summer of 2001, four months before the September 11th attacks. The lyrical reference to &quot;the towers&quot; is merely coincidental.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/circ.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Circ are producer Alexander Perls and vocalist Madelin Lane. The two met at a Sonic Youth concert on The Bowery in New Yo...'),(105,'Add N To (X)','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Add N to (X) were a three-piece British band specializing in electronic music performed on analogue synthesizers, formed in London in 1994.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">The band&apos;s members were Barry Smith (aka Barry 7), Ann Shenton and Steven Claydon and the in 1996 band member Andrew Aveling who is now still playing in Littl&apos;ans.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">After several releases on small labels, they turned down offers from major labels and signed to large independent label Mute Records in 1998, and achieved a modest commercial success before splitting in 2003.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Most of their songs and video clips have been adult/sex-related; &quot;Metal Fingers in My Body&quot; a cartoon where a female&apos;s having sex with a robot and their video &quot;Plug Me In&quot; is famous for featuring porn actresses playing with sextoys.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Former Radio Prague DJ Smith met Shenton in 1993, and discovered a shared affinity for vintage synthesizers. Original bandmate Andrew Aveling joined them for the group&apos;s debut release, Vero Electronics (1996). Steven Claydon replaced Aveling sometime thereafter, and remained with the group until its dissolution.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">1997 saw the band twice awarded Single of the Week by the NME (for The Black Regent and King Wasp).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">The group performed live regularly, often augmenting their core three-piece line up with either one or two acoustic drummers, and sometimes additional musicians playing extra synths and/or electric guitar.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">They often utilized distinctive artwork for the videos and record sleeves, a fetishistic collage of sexual imagery with analogue electronic equipment, based in part on the movie and book Demon Seed</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">The band released four more albums, On The Wires of Our Nerves, Avant Hard, Add Insult to Injury, and Loud Like Nature. They also released the single Little Black Rocks In The Sun, which was issued on 10 inch hexagonal vinyl. Shenton was reportedly overwhelmed by the pressures of the Loud Like Nature tour, and either left the group or was kicked out. In 2003 Smith and Claydon continued touring the United States without Shenton. The band broke up shortly thereafter. Barry Smith runs the Horseglue Records store and label with his partner Ethan Reid. Ann Shenton has formed a new group, Large Number. Steven Claydon is now known for his artwork and in 2006 was included in a group show at Tate Modern.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/n2x.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"1\">Add N to (X) were a three-piece British band specializing in electronic music performed on analogue synthesizers, formed ...'),(106,'Amber','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber (born Marie-Claire Cremers on May 9, 1969) is a Dutch-born and Germany-raised singer/songwriter, label owner and executive producer. Her biggest hits include &quot;This Is Your Night,&quot; &quot;One More Night,&quot; &quot;If You Could Read My Mind,&quot; &quot;Sexual (Li Da Di),&quot; &quot;Yes!&quot; and &quot;You Move Me.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber&apos;s music in its original form can be accurately categorized as Eurodance, Hi-NRG, House music, Dance-pop, Pop/Rock, and Electronica mingled with some Urban contemporary slow jams and Adult Contemporary ballads. Amber&apos;s club mixes have run the gamut from House in its various styles to vocal Trance.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber is played extensively on Rhythmic format stations and the newly formed &quot;Rhythmic AC&quot; format which plays Disco, Hi-NRG, House, 1980s and 1990s mainstream Dance and Dance-pop hits and Quiet Storm, Adult Contemporary and Urban contemporary.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>This Is Your Night</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber&apos;s debut album This Is Your Night was released in late 1996, following the success of the single of the same name. Amber became the first Euro-NRG artist to be signed directly to a label as a solo artist. The album was a mainstream European hit, but did not fare as successfully in America where dance musicians&apos; singles are usually far more commercially successful than their entire albums. The album featured mostly Hi-NRG, Eurodance and House music songs with a few romantically- or sensually-toned Urban contemporary ballads such as &quot;Let It Rain,&quot; &quot;Are You The One&quot; and &quot;Losing Myself In Your Love.&quot; Those songs also proved she was as capable of tackling ballads like any other pop artist. Still the album sold well on the album chart for club/dance music. Standout tracks include &quot;Hold My Body Tight,&quot; &quot;Being With You,&quot; &quot;Can You Feel The Love,&quot; &quot;This Is The Right Time&quot; and &quot;Push It to the Limit.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Amber</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber&apos;s second album, released in 1999 on Tommy Boy Records, featured an alluring array of soulful Dance-pop, Hi-NRG and House music song with a few Urban contemporary songs such as &quot;Object of Desire.&quot; The song &quot;Above the Clouds&quot; was prominently featured on the final episode of Season Three of television series, &quot;Sex and The City.&quot; So far, it is her most well-received album by the American Pop mainstream. This album allowed Amber to songwrite with top songwriters/producers Rick Nowels and Billy Steinberg on &quot;Sexual (Li Da Di),&quot; &quot;Above the Clouds,&quot; and &quot;Love One Another.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Remixed</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2000, Amber released the album Remixed, which contained remixes of all her previous singles, including &quot;If You Could Read My Mind.&quot; It also included a popular non-album track called &quot;Taste The Tears.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Naked</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber&apos;s third album was released in early 2002 and displayed a more stripped-down Amber. It was her first album not produced mainly by the Berman Brothers. Musically, Amber continued the path she had started with its predecessor: she continued to write more of her own lyrics and attempted even more of a departure from her original Eurodance sound. This album would be considered more of a Dance-pop album with a few Adult Contemporary songs and some House music songs on it. However, it still features her trademark Eurodance and Hi-NRG styled songs. Standout tracks include &quot;Sex Without Sex,&quot; &quot;Heavenly Proximity,&quot; &quot;Sex and The City,&quot; &quot;The Smile of My Child,&quot; and &quot;Sexual (Li Da Di) (Afterlife Chillout Remix).&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>My Kind of World</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 2004, Amber released her fourth studio album, &quot;My Kind of World.&quot; This was her first release on her own label, JMCA Enterprises, as well as her first album to stylistically break free of her dance classification (although the album&apos;s singles have been released on CD-Single with several dance remixes). Its first single, &quot;You Move Me,&quot; was released to radio and nightclubs in late August.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2006-Present</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber&apos;s new single &quot;Melt With the Sun&quot; features mixes by a stellar list of producers including Tracy Young and Hex Hector among others. &quot;Melt With the Sun&quot; charted in January 2007. It has hit the Top 10 or #1 on several Rhythmic/Dance format radio stations. Amber is also working on her fifth album. Undanced II is out now with 12 digital downloads or the physical CD with 17 unreleased tracks/remixes plus the &quot;Melt With the Sun&quot; extended video. The album is available for purchase now from Amber&apos;s official website.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/Amber.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Amber (born Marie-Claire Cremers on May 9, 1969) is a Dutch-born and Germany-raised singer/songwriter, label owner and ex...'),(107,'Christina Aguilera','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American pop singer, songwriter and record producer. She was signed to RCA Records after recording &quot;Reflection&quot; for the film Mulan. She came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera (1999), which was a critical and commercial success.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera&apos;s work has earned her numerous awards including five Grammy Awards amongst eighteen nominations. She has sold 30 million albums worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera was born in Staten Island, New York, to Fausto Wagner Xavier Aguilera, a Sergeant in the U.S. Army at the time and Shelly Loraine Fidler, a Spanish teacher. Aguilera&apos;s father was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, while her mother is of Irish descent (Christina&apos;s maternal grandmother emigrated from County Clare). Her father, Fausto, was stationed at Earnest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland, Canada and Japan. Aguilera lived with her father and mother until she was seven years old. When Aguilera&apos;s parents divorced, her mother took her, and her younger sister Rachel, to her grandmother&apos;s home in Wexford, Pennsylvania, a blue-collar suburb outside of Pittsburgh. According to both Aguilera and Fidler, her father was very controlling, as well as physically and emotionally abusive. She later wrote about her difficult childhood in the songs &quot;I&apos;m OK&quot; in Stripped, and &quot;Oh Mother&quot; in Back to Basics. Although her father has written to Aguilera, she has ruled out any chance to reunite with him. Since then, Fidler has married a paramedic named Jim Kearns, and has changed her name to Shelly Kearns.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As a child, Aguilera aspired to be a singer. Her musical influences included Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, and Madonna. She also cites the musical The Sound of Music as an early inspiration for singing and performing. As a child, she was known locally as &quot;the little girl with the big voice&quot;, singing in local talent shows and competitions.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">According to VH1&apos;s Driven, whenever competitors learned they would be up against her in any given week, they would immediately withdraw, prompting insiders to claim it was &quot;like sending a lamb to the slaughter.&quot; Her peers soon became jealous of her and would frequently subject her to ridicule, ostracism, and, in one gym class, attempted assault. Acts of vandalism around her house included the slashing of the tires on the family car. Eventually, the family relocated to another suburb in the Pittsburgh area and took to secrecy about Aguilera&apos;s talent lest another backlash occur.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On March 15, 1990, she appeared on Star Search singing Etta James&apos; &quot;A Sunday Kind of Love&quot;, but lost the competition. Soon after losing on Star Search, she returned home and appeared on Pittsburgh&apos;s KDKA-TV&apos;s Wake Up with Larry Richert to perform the same song. People remarked that the then ten-year-old &quot;sounded 20&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Throughout her youth in Pittsburgh, Aguilera sang &quot;The Star-Spangled Banner&quot; before Pittsburgh Penguins hockey, Pittsburgh Steelers football and Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games. Her first major role in entertainment came in 1993 when she joined the Disney Channel&apos;s variety show The New Mickey Mouse Club. Her co-stars included Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Rhona Bennett (who later became a member of En Vogue), Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, and Keri Russell. According to the documentary Driven, Aguilera&apos;s Mickey Mouse Club co-stars called her &quot;the Diva&quot;. One of her most notable performances was of Whitney Houston&apos;s &quot;I Have Nothing&quot;. When the show was canceled 1994, Aguilera began recording demos in an attempt to get signed to a record label.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the age of fourteen, Aguilera recorded her first song, &quot;All I Wanna Do&quot;, a hit duet with Japanese singer Keizo Nakanishi. In 1997, she represented the United States at the &quot;Golden Stag&quot; International Festival with a two-song set which included Sheryl Crow and Diana Ross.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>1998-2001: Pop Music Beginnings and Christina Aguilera</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1998, she sang the High &quot;E&quot; in full voice (E6) on a cover of Whitney Houston&apos;s &quot;Run to You&quot; which she recorded with a tape recorder in her bathroom. She was then selected to record the song &quot;Reflection&quot; for the Disney production of Mulan (1998). Recording &quot;Reflection&quot; led to Aguilera earning a contract with RCA Records the same week. &quot;Reflection&quot; peaked within the top twenty on the Adult Contemporary Singles Chart, and it was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for &quot;Best Original Song&quot; in 1998.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Under the exclusive representation of Steve Kurtz, Aguilera&apos;s self-titled debut album Christina Aguilera was released on August 24, 1999. It reached the top of the Billboard 200 and Canadian album charts, selling eight million copies in the U.S. and over 13 million copies worldwide. The album is also included in the Top 100 Album of All Time list of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on album sales in the US.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Her singles &quot;Genie in a Bottle&quot;, &quot;What a Girl Wants&quot; and &quot;Come on Over Baby (All I Want Is You)&quot; topped the Billboard Hot 100 during 1999 and 2000, and &quot;I Turn to You&quot; reached #3. According to the album&apos;s songwriters who appeared on the documentary Driven, Aguilera wanted to display the range and audacity in her voice during the promotion of the album, and performed acoustic sets and appeared on television shows accompanied only by a piano. She ended the year on MTV&apos;s 2 Large New Year&apos;s Special, as she performed and was MTV&apos;s first artist of the millennium. Aguilera won the &quot;Best New Artist&quot; award at the 2000 Grammys, and she was nominated for &quot;Best Female Pop Vocal Performance&quot; for &quot;Genie in a Bottle&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Later in 2000, Aguilera first emphasized her Latin heritage by releasing her first Spanish album, Mi Reflejo on September 12, 2000. This album contained Spanish versions of songs from her English debut as well as new Spanish tracks. Though some criticized Aguilera for trying to &quot;cash in&quot; on a Latin-music boom that included Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, and Marc Anthony, the album still managed to peak at #27 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Latin album charts. In 2001, it won Aguilera a Latin Grammy Award for &quot;Best Female Pop Vocal Album&quot;. The Album has sold 3 million copies worldwide and has been certified Gold (500,000) in the USA and 3x Platinum (600,000* Latin album) under the RIAA&apos;s Los Premios de Oro y Platino program. She also won the World Music Award as the best selling Latin artist that year. Aguilera also released a Christmas album on October 24, 2000 called My Kind of Christmas. It peaked at #28 on the Billboard 200, has sold over 3 million copies worldwide, and has been certified Platinum (1 million) in the USA. Ricky Martin asked her to duet with him on the track &quot;Nobody Wants to Be Lonely&quot; from his album Sound Loaded; released in 2001 as the album&apos;s second single, which reached #1 on the World Chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2001, Aguilera, Lil&apos; Kim, Mya, and Pink were chosen to remake Patti LaBelle&apos;s 1975 single &quot;Lady Marmalade&quot; for the film Moulin Rouge! and its soundtrack. The Missy Elliott produced single hit number one on the Hot 100 for five weeks and reached number one in eleven other countries, and it earned all four performers a Grammy Award for &quot;Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals&quot;. Aguilera&apos;s appearance in the music video was compared to that of Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider. The video won two MTV Video Music Awards including Video of the Year in 2001, where Aguilera accepted the award saying, &quot;I guess the big hair paid off.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">That year a single emerged into record stores called &quot;Just Be Free&quot;, one of the demos Aguilera recorded when she was around fifteen years old. When RCA Records discovered the single, they advised fans not to purchase it and had German authorities pull the single off shelves. Months later, Warlock Records was set to release Just Be Free, an album which contains the demo tracks. Aguilera filed a breach of contract and unfair-competition suit against Warlock and the album&apos;s producers to block the release. Instead, the two parties came to a settlement to release the album. Aguilera lent out her name, likeness and image for an unspecified amount of damages. Many of the details of the lawsuit remain confidential. When the album was released in August 2001, it had a photograph of Aguilera when she was fifteen years old.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Although Aguilera&apos;s debut album was very well received, she was dissatisfied with the music and image her management had created for her. Aguilera was marketed as a bubblegum pop singer because of the genre&apos;s upward financial trend. She mentioned plans of her next album to have much more depth, both musically and lyrically. Aguilera&apos;s views of Steve Kurtz&apos;s influence in matters of the singer&apos;s creative direction, the role of being her exclusive personal manager and overscheduling had in part caused her to seek legal means of terminating their management contract.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 2000, Aguilera filed a Breach of Fiduciary Duty lawsuit against Kurtz for improper, undue and inappropriate influence over her professional activities, as well as fraud. According to legal documents, Kurtz did not protect her rights and interests. Instead, he took action that was for his own interest, at the cost of hers. The lawsuit came about when Aguilera discovered Kurtz used more of her commissionable income than he was allotted, and had paid other managers to assist him. She also petitioned the California State Labor Commission to nullify the contract. After terminating Kurtz&apos;s services, Irving Azoff was hired as her new manager.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Kurtz countersued later that month for breach of contract, claiming that the singer violated the same agreement she had sued to void. In the lawsuit, he included others close to Aguilera, alleging their intent to sabotage his business relationship with her. He also singled out Azoff for being in violation of the terms of Kurtz&apos;s contract. During this time, while she was also working on her second album, she later revealed that she was betrayed by several friends, and hit rock bottom. She used her then-upcoming album as therapy, saying &quot;this record saved me from insanity.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2002–2003: Stripped era</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 29, 2002, after much delay, Aguilera&apos;s second full-length English album, Stripped, was released, selling more than 330,000 copies in the first week and peaking at #2 on the Billboard 200. Unlike previous work, the album showcased Aguilera&apos;s raunchier side. The majority of Stripped was co-written by Aguilera (who had recently signed a global music publishing contract with BMG Music Publishing), and was influenced by many different subjects and music styles, including rhythm and blues, gospel, soul, balladry, pop rock, hip-hop and jazz. Upon initial release, the album was very well-received by critics, although Aguilera&apos;s vocals were overlooked as she began to cultivate a more sexually provocative image.  After the release of the album, she took part in photoshoots for magazines such as Maxim, Rolling Stone, and CosmoGirl!. Many of these photographs featured her nude or semi-nude. It was during this time Aguilera referred to herself as &quot;Xtina&quot;, even getting a tattoo of her nickname on the back of her neck and several piercings.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Initially, the raunchy image had a negative effect on Aguilera in the U.S., especially after the release of her controversial &quot;Dirrty&quot; music video. She denied that this change was a matter of publicity, claiming that the image better reflected her true personality than did the image she cultivated back in 1999. While the video for &quot;Dirrty&quot; became very popular on MTV, it disappointed on the U.S. singles chart. However, the single was a hit worldwide, reaching number one in the UK and Ireland. The album reached the top five on the U.K., U.S. and Canadian album charts, though it was initially considered a &quot;sophomore slump.&quot; The second single, &quot;Beautiful&quot;, became highly successful on the radio and earned her another Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Three more singles from the album (&quot;Fighter&quot;, &quot;Can&apos;t Hold Us Down&quot; featuring Lil&apos; Kim, &quot;The Voice Within&quot;) were released in the following two years and were hits that helped the album stay on the charts for the next two years - &quot;Infatuation&quot; was only released as single in Spain instead of &quot;The Voice Within&quot;. Stripped stayed on the U.S. and UK album charts well into 2004, and went on to be certified four-times platinum in the U.S. with over 10 million copies sold worldwide. It appeared at number ten on Billboard&apos;s year-end album chart. Kelly Clarkson&apos;s second single &quot;Miss Independent&quot; was co-written by Aguilera, having been half-finished for Stripped.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera joined Justin Timberlake that June on the final leg of his international Justified tour, held in the U.S. This portion of the tour became a co-headliner called the Justified &amp; Stripped Tour. In August, an overhead lighting grid collapsed from the ceiling of the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, causing major damage to the sound and video equipment below. Because the collapse occurred hours before the show, only a few stagehands were injured, but a few shows were cancelled or postponed. In the fourth quarter of that year, Aguilera continued to tour internationally without Timberlake, and changed the name of the tour to the Stripped World Tour. She also dyed her hair black. It was one of the top-grossing tours of that year, and sold out most of its venues. Rolling Stone readers named it the best tour of the year. She became the muse and model for fashion house Versace. She also topped Maxim&apos;s Hot 100 list, setting record sales for the issue later saying, &quot;We had fun working with certain clothes, or the lack thereof&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In light of the tour&apos;s success, another U.S. tour was scheduled to begin in mid 2004 with a new theme. The tour however was scrapped because of the vocal cord injuries Aguilera suffered shortly before the tour&apos;s opening date. In a tribute to Madonna&apos;s performance at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, Aguilera performed a kiss with the singer-actress at the 2003 edition of the ceremony in August. The incident occurred during the opening performance of Madonna&apos;s songs &quot;Like a Virgin&quot; and &quot;Hollywood&quot; with fellow popstar Britney Spears.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2004–2005: Post-Stripped Activities</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera later decided to embrace a more mature image; this move was met with more praise than criticism, with articles using punch lines such as &quot;From Crass to Class&quot;. She eventually dyed her hair cherry blonde and recorded a jingle, &quot;Hello&quot;, for a Mercedes-Benz ad, becoming the new face of Mercedes-Benz. However, the jingle was never completed, as Aguilera has already started working on new material. Shortly after, she dyed her hair blonde and cut it short, and took on a Marilyn Monroe look; many of her fans believe she is one of the main proponents (along with Dita Von Teese, Gwen Stefani, the Puppini Sisters and Ashley Judd) in bringing back the 1920s-1940s Hollywood glamour look.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the run-up to the 2004 United States presidential election, Aguilera was featured on billboards for the &quot;Only You Can Silence Yourself&quot; online voter registration drive run by the nonpartisan, non-profit campaign &quot;Declare Yourself&quot;. In these political advertisements, shot by David LaChapelle, Aguilera was shown with her mouth sewn shut, to symbolize the effects of not voting. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss the importance of voting.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late summer 2004 Aguilera released two singles. The first, &quot;Car Wash&quot;, was a remake of the Rose Royce disco song recorded as a collaboration with rapper Missy Elliott for the soundtrack to the film Shark Tale. The second song was also a collaboration, but this time as a second single from one of Nelly&apos;s double-release albums, Sweat, titled &quot;Tilt Ya Head Back&quot;. Both singles failed commercially in the U.S., but did considerably better in other parts of the world. After much delay, Aguilera&apos;s first DVD live-recording from a concert tour, Stripped Live in the UK, was released in November 2004. In late December she officially released a fragrance, Xpose, which has only been available in a few European countries.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera collaborated with jazz artist Herbie Hancock on a cover of Leon Russell&apos;s &quot;A Song for You&quot; recorded for Hancock&apos;s album Possibilities, released in August 2005. Aguilera and Hancock were later nominated for the Grammy Award for &quot;Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals&quot;. Aguilera went back to her Mickey Mouse Club roots when she helped open the 50th Anniversary for Disneyland by performing &quot;When You Wish Upon a Star&quot;, and she also collaborated with Andrea Bocelli on the song &quot;Somos Novios&quot; for his album Amore, released in early 2006. In late 2005, she performed at &quot;Unite of the Stars&quot;, a charity banquet in aid of Unite Against Hunger in Johannesburg, South Africa, with stars such as Diana Ross and Westlife. She also performed at the Nelson Mandela Children&apos;s Fund at the Coca-Cola Dome in November.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2006–2007: Back to Basics</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In March 2006, Aguilera signed a contract with European cell phone operator Orange to promote the new Sony Ericsson Walkman phone. She was featured in a Pepsi commercial alongside Lebanese singer Elissa, as well as Korean pop singer Rain in May. The spot aired during the 2006 World Cup.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She posed nude for a Marilyn Monroe-inspired photoshoot in the May 2006 issue of GQ magazine. In the issue she expressed disappointment in fellow singer Mariah Carey, saying, &quot;She was never cool to me... to the point that one time we were at a party, and I think she got really drunk, and she had just really derogatory things to say to me.&quot; In response, Carey issued a press release saying, &quot;It is sad yet predictable that she would use my name at this time to reinvent past incidents for her promotional gain.&quot; Aguilera then released her own statement claiming, &quot;My intentions were not to upset Mariah with any statements that were published or taken out of context. I have all the respect in the world for her.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera&apos;s third English studio album, Back to Basics, released August 15, 2006, went to #1 in thirteen countries. The critically-acclaimed lead single &quot;Ain&apos;t No Other Man&quot; was a substantial success, reaching #2 on the United World Chart, #6 in the U.S., and the top 5 in Europe. Aguilera described the double CD as &quot;a throwback to the 20s, 30s, and 40s-style jazz, blues, and feel-good soul music, but with a modern twist.&quot; Producers on the album included DJ Premier, Kwamé, Linda Perry, and Mark Ronson. One track, &quot;F.U.S.S.&quot;, was written as a response to the animosity between Aguilera and Scott Storch during the recording of Stripped. In the interview with Maxim, she said, &quot;That’s a way of burying my experience with him. We did great work on Stripped... When I tried to work with him again, he made uncalled-for demands. It was disappointing that someone would get affected like that.&quot; She received writing credit for every track and was the executive producer for the album, which debuted at number one in the U.S. and the U.K. The follow-up singles did very well in different regions, &quot;Hurt&quot; in Europe and &quot;Candyman&quot; in the Pacific. She co-directed both music videos, the former with Floria Sigismondi who directed her &quot;Fighter&quot; video, and the latter, &quot;Candyman&quot;, with director/photographer Matthew Rolston which was inspired by The Andrews Sisters. The Back To Basics album has sold 4.3 million copies around the world as of 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 2006 Aguilera collaborated with Sean &quot;Diddy&quot; Combs on a track, titled &quot;Tell Me&quot;, from his album &quot;Press Play&quot;. The single reached the top 10 in the UK and peaked at #47 in the U.S.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The &quot;Back to Basics Tour&quot; began late 2006 in Europe followed by a 41-date North American tour in early 2007. After this, she toured Asia and Australia, where it was supposed to end on August 3, however she canceled her dates in Melbourne and her final two in Auckland due to an illness. Her extravagant arena tour included cabaret, three-ring circus and juke joint sets with her 10 piece costumes designed by Roberto Cavalli. It was the most successful US tour by a female in 2007.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the 49th Grammy Awards, Aguilera again won the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for &quot;Ain&apos;t No Other Man&quot;. She made a noteworthy performance at the ceremony paying tribute to James Brown with her rendition of his song &quot;It&apos;s a Man&apos;s Man&apos;s Man&apos;s World&quot;. In January 2007, she was named the 19th richest woman in entertainment by Forbes, with a net worth of US$60 million.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera performed Steppin&apos; Out With My Baby with Tony Bennett on the 59th Primetime Emmy Awards. That same evening, Bennett won 2 Emmys for Tony Bennett: An American Classic, which Aguilera was a part of. In addition, the Saturday Night Live episode in which Aguilera was the musical guest won an Emmy. &quot;Steppin&apos; Out&quot; is nominated for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, along with a Best Female Pop Vocal Performance nomination for her third single &quot;Candyman&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2007-Present Future: Fourth Album</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant, announced that in 2008, Aguilera will get a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In June 2007, Aguilera said that she was gathering inspiration for her next album, which she said would be &quot;short and sweet&quot; and &quot;completely different&quot; from Back to Basics, although she did not elaborate on what the style of the album would be.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In an interview with Blender magazine Aguilera stated that recording a song with her once rival Eminem is on her agenda. She will appear in the upcoming Martin Scorsese documentary Shine A Light from a Rolling Stones concert performance where she performed with Mick Jagger.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Also, a duet with Aretha Franklin is to appear on the 4th album. Other upcoming duets are with Timbaland on is second album, Shock Value II, a duet with Pussycat Dolls and a duet with Whitney (a cover of Toto&apos;s &apos;Africa&apos;).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera has stated that she intends this album to be &quot;short and sweet&quot;, and very different from Back to Basics.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Film and Television</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aside from being a cast member of The New Mickey Mouse Club Aguilera has done numerous television appearances and guest appearances. She made a cameo appearance performing on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, and hosted a Saturday Night Live episode in 2004. The episode included a Sex &amp; The City skit where she portrayed Samantha Jones revealing to everyone she was a man the entire time. She&apos;s mentioned in several interviews that she intends to pursue edgy acting roles similar to Angelina Jolie. She voiced a small singing part in the animated film Shark Tale playing a rastafarian jellyfish in the film&apos;s closing musical number. The film&apos;s stars included, among others, Jolie herself. Musically she included herself in soundtracks for several Hollywood films including Mulan, What Women Want and the musical Moulin Rouge! More recently, she is reported to play the notorious burlesque stripper Tempest Storm in a new film biopic.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Perfume</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On October 1, 2007, Aguilera released her own perfume through Procter and Gamble. The decorative design of the packaging and bottle is inspired by 1930&apos;s Hollywood glamour. Aguilera said, &quot;I love trying new things in my music and in fashion. To have a perfume of my own is the beginning of an exciting adventure. To me jasmine has always been synonymous with old movie star glamour. It is such a beautiful scent and has great heritage in traditional perfumery, which I love. The blackcurrant tea note for me captures the vibrancy and happiness of my honeymoon. Its fruity, mouth watering scent reminds me of sitting on our Bali veranda in the heat, looking out over the most gorgeous sunset while sipping a cool, refreshing cocktail&quot;. The perfume went on to became the 2nd Best-Selling Celebrity Perfume Launch of 2007 in Europe though she didn&apos;t promote it.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Philanthropy</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Throughout her career, Aguilera has been involved with certain charities. She signed a letter from PETA to the South Korean government asking that the country stop its alleged killing of dogs for food. Her involvement in supporting the Defenders of Wildlife have also added to her donations with charities.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera is still a major contributor in her hometown of Pittsburgh contributing regularly to the Women&apos;s Center &amp; Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. According to her official website, she toured the center and donated $200,000 to the shelter. She also has auctioned off front row seats and back stage passes for the Pittsburgh-based charity. She has continued her donations and visits to the shelter, and plans to open an additional one. She also supports the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Refuge UK. Since then she has worked with Lifetime Television&apos;s &apos;End violence against women&apos; campaign. Her work there included a public service announcement which aired on the network and during her 2007 tour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera contributes in the fight against AIDS, by participating in AIDS Project Los Angeles&apos; Artists Against AIDS &quot;What&apos;s Going On?&quot; cover project. In 2004, Aguilera became the new face for cosmetic company M·A·C and spokesperson for M·A·C AIDS Fund. Aguilera appeared in advertisements of the M·A·C&apos;s Viva Glam V lipstick and lipgloss, and was featured on Vanity Fair in recognition of her campaign work. In addition, Aguilera contributed to YouthAIDS by posing for a joint YouthAIDS and Aldo Shoes campaign for &quot;Empowerment Tags&quot; in Canada, the U.S. and the UK. She was featured with one of three ubiquitous slogans, &quot;Speak No Evil?&quot; and stated, &quot;HIV is something that people don’t want to talk about, hear about, or face.&quot; Singer Elton John featured Aguilera in his charity book titled &quot;Four Inches&quot; benefiting the Elton John AIDS Foundation. Elton also hand-picked Aguilera, among others, for his &quot;Fashion Rocks&quot; charity concert. The show, which accompanies music and fashion to benefit the fight against AIDS/HIV, is televised annually and aired in September of 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In November 2005, all of her wedding gifts were submitted to various charities around the nation in support of Hurricane Katrina victims. In March 2007 Aguilera took take part in a charity album (remaking Lennon&apos;s &quot;Mother&quot;), proceeds benefit Amnesty International&apos;s efforts to end genocide in Darfur. The album titled, &quot;Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur&quot;, has been released June 12, 2007, featuring John Lennon covers sung by several artists. Later that year she hosted a party alongside voting advocacy group Rock the Vote to raise awareness amongst young voters.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Personal Life</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2000, Aguilera was rumored to have dated MTV VJ Carson Daly. The relationship was the subject of much discussion after the release of Eminem&apos;s song &quot;The Real Slim Shady&quot;, in which Eminem satirically suggests that Aguilera had performed fellatio on both Daly and Fred Durst, the lead singer of Limp Bizkit, and had given the rapper himself a venereal disease. Aguilera called the song&apos;s innuendo &quot;disgusting&quot; and &quot;untrue.&quot; Aguilera and Eminem reportedly resolved the issue three years later backstage at the MTV Video Music Awards.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">She dated Puerto Rican-born dancer Jorge Santos, he appeared on her tour and music videos throughout 2000. They dated for nearly two years until the relationship ended in September 2001. He remained her dancer well into 2002.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In early 2002, Aguilera began dating music marketing executive Jordan Bratman. Their engagement was announced in February 2005, and they married on November 19, 2005, in the Napa Valley. The couple celebrated their one year anniversary in Dublin, Ireland where she was on tour at the time. E! News reported that they are expecting their first child together. Producer Dallas Austin alleged in a video interview with SOHO Magazine that Aguilera had sex with him and several of his friends. He also alleged details about Bratman, who Dallas referred to as his old best friend. Several days following the incident, Dallas issued an apology stating, &quot;My statement about Christina Aguilera was a reaction to an incident I care not to discuss in any forum - I do owe an apology to Christina.&quot; Aguilera&apos;s rep responded with, &quot;She&apos;s not commenting on such ridiculous statements, and we are consulting a lawyer to explore her options.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 9, 2007, Paris Hilton confirmed that the singer is currently pregnant, saying, &quot;Congratulations to the most beautiful pregnant woman in the world.&quot; Aguilera, however, had not yet publicly confirmed her pregnancy at the time. On November 4, 2007, Aguilera confirmed her pregnancy in an interview with &quot;Glamour&quot; magazine by saying &quot;That&apos;ll be about the time I enter into mommyhood, so... I&apos;m hoping to have started a beautiful family with my husband!.&quot; She said about her husband&apos;s feeling on the pregnancy, &quot;Oh, he&apos;s thrilled! He&apos;s just great.&quot; She also appeared on the January 2008 cover of &quot;Marie Claire&quot; magazine pregnant and nude with only a crop jacket.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Vocal Ability</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Aguilera, a soprano, known for her strong vocals and powerful voice and ability to sing in the whistle register, has rivaled many of her other contemporaries and has been referred to as the &quot;voice of her generation.&quot; In the MTV special All Eyes on Christina, John Norris said that Aguilera &quot;has a four-octave vocal range.&quot; Aguilera also topped COVE&apos;s list of the 100 Best Pop Vocalists with a score of 50 and came fifth in MTV&apos;s 22 Greatest Voices in Music. A review in an Entertainment Weekly article mentions her &quot;tackling that dog-whistle high note&quot; at the 3:20 mark in the song &quot;Soar&quot; from her album Stripped. Additionally, Axl Rose (of Guns N&apos; Roses fame) has described Aguilera as &quot;one of the greatest vocalists of our time.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/ChristinaAguilera.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Christina MarÃ­a Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American pop singer, songwriter and record producer. She was sig...'),(108,'2 Live Crew','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">2 Live Crew was created by David &quot;Treach DJ Mr.Mixx&quot; Hobbs in Riverside, California, with fellow rappers Chris (Fresh Kid Ice) Wongwon, and Yuri (Amazing Vee) Vielot. The 3 met at March AFB Riverside,CA,as they were enlisted in the Air Force.Along with giving local parties on and off base,They recorded their first singles through Macola Records Distribution in Los Angeles, CA. They released &quot;Revelation&quot; in 1984; the single sold well in Florida encouraging the group to release What I Like. In 1986,due to the popularity of the new single Throw the D**k, the group (along with new member Mark &quot;Brother Marquis&quot; Ross replacing Amazing Vee due to military commitments), relocated to Miami and teamed up with Ghetto Style DJ&apos;s and soon to be manager and eventual performer Luther Campbell, who used the nickname &quot;Luke Skyywalker&quot; (and were subsequently sued by George Lucas).</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The song Throw The D**k, with it&apos;s fast dance tempo, turntable scratching explicit phrases from comedy albums, stuttering voice samples, and the Roland TR-808 boom sound drum machine, brought in a new sound, penned as THE MIAMI BASS SOUND. All credit and creation to this style of music production is inexplicably due to David &quot;Treach DJ Mr. Mixx&quot; Hobbs</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The year 1987 saw the release of The 2 Live Crew Is What We Are, featuring profane and sexually graphic lyrics. Rudy Ray Moore&apos;s Comedy albums and other XXX assorted comedy albums provided the material for all of those XXX Scratch Samples that &quot;Mr Mixx&quot; cut up. The album was also produced by Mr.Mixx. Bob Rosenberg of Will to Power did trick edits on Beat Box and was billed &quot;King of the edits&quot;. The record went gold. Though the controversy did not rise to the levels the group would reach in the future, a Florida store clerk was charged and acquitted of felony charges for selling the album to a fourteen-year-old girl in 1987.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>As Nasty As They Wanna Be</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As Nasty As They Wanna Be (1989) became the group&apos;s biggest hit, largely because of the single &quot;Me So Horny&quot;, which was popular in spite of little radio play, thanks, in part, to prevalent play on MTV. The song was based on a quote from a Vietnamese prostitute in Stanley Kubrick&apos;s Full Metal Jacket and took a sample from Mass Production&apos;s Firecracker. This album was also musically produced by Mr.Mixx</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The American Family Association did not think the presence of a &quot;Parental Advisory&quot; sticker was enough to adequately warn listeners of what was inside the case. Jack Thompson, a lawyer affiliated with the AFA, met with Florida Governor Bob Martinez and convinced him to look into the album to see if it met the legal classification of &quot;obscene.&quot; It was decided in 1990 that action should be taken at the local level and Nick Navarro, Broward County sheriff received a ruling from Judge Mel Grossman that probable cause for obscenity violations existed. Navarro warned record store owners that selling the album may be prosecutable. 2 Live Crew filed a suit against Navarro. That June, Judge Jose Gonzalez ruled against the album, declaring it obscene and illegal to sell. Charles Freeman, a local retailer, was arrested two days later, after selling a copy to an undercover police officer. This was followed by the arrest of three members of 2 Live Crew after they performed some material from the album at a live performance. They were acquitted soon after. In 1992, a Court of Appeals overturned the obscenity ruling from Jose Gonzales, and the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear Broward County&apos;s appeal. A notable feature of the case was the distinguished literary critic and now Harvard University professor, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as an &quot;expert witness&quot; on behalf of the defendants. He argued that the material that the county alleged was profane, actually had important roots in African-American vernacular, games, and literary traditions and should be protected.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">As a result of the controversy, As Nasty As They Wanna Be sold over two million copies. It peaked at #29 on The Billboard 200 and #3 on the Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. A few other retailers were later arrested for selling it as well. The publicity then continued when George Lucas, owner of the Star Wars universe, sued Campbell for appropriating the name from his franchise. Campbell changed his stage name to Luke (and changed the record label&apos;s name to Luke Records) and then released an extremely political solo album, Banned in the USA after obtaining permission to use an interpolation of Bruce Springsteen&apos;s Born in the U.S.A. 2 Live Crew paraphernalia with the Luke Skyywalker or Skyywalker logos are usually sought after as collector&apos;s items.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1991, 2 Live Crew released the very first live rap album, Live in Concert, and Sports Weekend, a full-length studio original. It peaked at #22 on The Billboard 200 and #19 on the Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. It did not gain the same sales level that they experienced with As Nasty As They Wanna Be. The 2 Live Crew members went their separate ways after this. Luke pursued his solo music career and other projects.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1992, Fresh Kid Ice released unreleased tracks from pre-Luke 2 Live Crew Deal With This under the name Rock on Crew, while Luke and Ice also released new solo albums, I Got Shit on My Mind and The Chinaman, respectively.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Mark &quot;Brother Marquis&quot; Ross co-starred alongside Fred Williamson in the film South Beach and started a new group with Aldrin &quot;DJ Toomp&quot; Davis, a former member of Poison Clan, which was also signed to Campbell&apos;s label. They named the group 2 Nazty, and released the album &quot;Indecent Exposure&quot; on Attitude Records in 1993. The single was called &quot;Can&apos;t Say I Love You,&quot; but it did not chart, and the group never released a second album. The single was a departure from the typical 2 Live nasty rhymes, and focuses on what a deep emotion love is, and how it should not be said to anyone lightly. The rest of the album sounds like a 2 Live Crew record, and focuses on sexual exploits of the members.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The hard feelings over the split of the 2 Live Crew is apparent on the album, as Marquis is heard on the track &quot;Interview&quot; saying he was fired from the group, and that the other members had no love for him. DJ Toomp also has a line in &quot;Be My Bxtch&quot; comparing signing a deal with Skyywalker Records to signing your life away.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The New 2 Live Crew</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">1994 saw Luke, Fresh Kid Ice and a new addition to the group, Verb, regrouping as The New 2 Live Crew, issuing Back at Your Ass for the Nine-4. This album peaked at #52 on The Billboard 200 and #9 on the Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. The New 2 Live Crew broke up in 1995.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>&quot;Oh, Pretty Woman&quot; Lawsuit</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">During this time the lawsuit brought about by the estate of Roy Orbison, the copyright owners of &quot;Oh, Pretty Woman,&quot; went to the Supreme Court. The Crew had parodied the original on the album As Clean As They Wanna Be without permission. The Supreme Court adopted a rule from an earlier Ninth Circuit case Fisher v. Dees. 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986) involving Rick Dees, and ruled that 2 Live Crew&apos;s parody was fair use.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Reunions</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Luke, Fresh Kid Ice, Brother Marquis and Mr. Mixx re-formed again, to record &quot;Hoochie Mama&quot; for the soundtrack to the movie Friday. The Crew was to reunite for an album but the reunion was short-lived, as Fresh Kid Ice, Mr. Mixx and Brother Marquis left Luke and Luke Records to go to Lil&apos; Joe Records and recorded/released Shake a Lil&apos; Somethin&apos; (1996). This album was their last album to make The Billboard 200 peaking at #145. It peaked at #33 on the Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Mr. Mixx left soon after leaving Fresh Kid Ice and Brother Marquis to record The Real One in 1998. It peaked at #59 on the Top R&amp;B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. In 1998, Brother Marquis became a born-again Christian, quit the group, and began devoting himself to combating what he sees as the &quot;evils&quot; that he as a member of 2 Live Crew portrayed and glorified. His born again status/views on music changed back to his roots as he worked with a LA rock/rap group called the Shake Joint and released a solo album that contained explicit lyrics.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The 2 Live Crew talked about reuniting in 2004 for a final 2 Live Crew album and tour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>2005 To Present</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The 2 Live Crew did perform at the 2005 Gathering of the Juggalos. Still, the 2 Live Crew continues to have a devoted fanbase. All the members (past and present) are still popular within the Miami Bass community and Dancehall goers.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Campbell decided to sell a separate clean version in addition to the explicit version of the next album, Move Somethin&apos; (1988) also produced by Mr.Mixx. A record store clerk in the smalltown of Alexander City Alabama was cited for selling a copy to an undercover cop in 1988. It was the first time in the United States that a record store owner was held liable for obscenity over music. The charges were dropped after a jury found the record store not guilty.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/2%20Live%20Crew.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">2 Live Crew was created by David &quot;Treach DJ Mr.Mixx&quot; Hobbs in Riverside, California, with fellow rappers Chris ...'),(109,'2 Pac','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli, or simply Pac, was an American rapper. In addition to his status as a top-selling recording artist, Shakur was a successful film actor and a prominent social activist. He is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-selling rap artist, with over 75,000,000 albums sold worldwide, including over 50,000,000 in the United States alone. Most of Shakur&apos;s songs are about growing up around violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, problems in society, and sometimes conflicts with other rappers. Shakur&apos;s work is known for advocating political, economic, social, and racial equality as well as his raw descriptions of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and conflicts with the law. Many fans, critics, and industry insiders rank him as the greatest rapper ever.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur was initially a roadie and backup dancer for the alternative hip hop group Digital Underground. Shakur&apos;s debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, gained critical recognition and backlash for its controversial lyrics. Shakur became the target of lawsuits and experienced other legal problems. Later, he was shot five times and robbed in a recording studio lobby in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Following the occurrence, Shakur grew suspicious that other figures in the rap industry had prior knowledge of the incident and did not warn him; the controversy helped spark the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry. After serving eleven months of his sentence for sexual abuse, Shakur was released from prison on an appeal financed by Marion &quot;Suge&quot; Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records. In exchange for Knight&apos;s assistance, Shakur agreed to release three records under the Death Row label. Shakur&apos;s fifth record, the first double-disc release in hip hop history All Eyez on Me, counted as two albums.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, and died six days later of respiratory failure and cardiac arrest at the University Medical Center.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tupac Amaru Shakur was born in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City, New York. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, an Incan revolutionary who led an indigenous uprising against Spain and subsequently received capital punishment. His mother, Afeni Shakur, was an active member of the Black Panther Party in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s; Shakur was born just one month after her acquittal on more than 100 charges of &quot;Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks&quot; in the New York Panther 21 court case. Although officially unconfirmed by the Shakur family, several sources list his birth name as either &quot;Parish Lesane Crooks&quot; or &quot;Lesane Parish Crooks&quot;. Afeni feared her enemies would attack her son, and disguised their relation using a different last name, only to change it three months or a year later, following her marriage to Mutulu Shakur.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Struggle and incarceration surrounded Shakur from an early age. His godfather, Elmer &quot;Geronimo&quot; Pratt, a high ranking Black Panther, was convicted of murdering a school teacher during a 1968 robbery, although his sentence was later overturned. His stepfather, Mutulu Shakur, spent four years at large on the FBI&apos;s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list beginning in 1982, when Shakur was a pre-teen. Mutulu was wanted in part for having helped his sister Assata Shakur (also known as Joanne Chesimard), Tupac&apos;s godmother, to escape from a penitentiary in New Jersey, where she had been incarcerated for allegedly shooting a state trooper to death in 1973. Mutulu was caught in 1986 and imprisoned for an attempted robbery of a Brinks armored car in which two police officers and a guard were killed. Tupac had a half-sister, Sekyiwa, two years his junior, and an older stepbrother, Mopreme &quot;Komani&quot; Shakur, who appeared on many of his recordings.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the age of twelve, Shakur enrolled in Harlem&apos;s famous &quot;127th Street Ensemble.&quot; His first major role with this acting troupe was as Travis in A Raisin in the Sun. In 1984, his family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, After completing his second year at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School he transferred to the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studied acting, poetry, jazz, and ballet. He performed in Shakespeare plays, and in the role of the Mouse King in The Nutcracker. Shakur, accompanied by one of his friends, Dana &quot;Mouse&quot; Smith, as his beatbox, won most of the many rap competitions that he participated in and was considered to be the best rapper in his school. Although he lacked trendy clothing, he was one of the most popular kids in his school because of his sense of humor, superior rapping skills, and ability to mix in with all crowds. He developed a close friendship with a young Jada Pinkett (later Jada Pinkett Smith) that lasted until Shakur&apos;s death. In the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur says, &quot;Jada is my heart. She will be my friend for my whole life,&quot; and Smith calls Shakur &quot;one of my best friends. He was like a brother. It was beyond friendship for us. The type of relationship we had, you only get that once in a lifetime.&quot; A poem written by Shakur titled &quot;Jada&quot; appears in his book, The Rose That Grew From Concrete, which also includes a poem dedicated to Smith called &quot;The Tears in Cupid&apos;s Eyes&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In June 1988, Shakur and his family moved once again, this time to Marin City, California, where he attended Tamalpais High School. He joined the Ensemble Theater Company (ETC) to pursue his career in entertainment. His mother&apos;s crack addiction led him to move into Leila Steinberg&apos;s home with his friend Ray Luv at the age of seventeen and he eventually dropped out of high school. Leila Steinberg acted as a literary mentor to Shakur, an avid reader. Steinberg has kept copies of the books that he read, which include J.D. Salinger&apos;s Catcher in the Rye, Jamaica Kincaid&apos;s At the Bottom of the River, Herman Melville&apos;s Moby Dick, Eileen Southern&apos;s Music of Black Americans, and the feminist writings of Alice Walker and Robin Morgan. Most of these books were read before the age of twenty. It has been said that Shakur was, in fact, more well-read and intellectually well-rounded at that age than the average student in the first year class of most Ivy League institutions. In 1989, Leila Steinberg organized a concert with Shakur&apos;s group, Strictly Dope. The concert lead to him being signed with Atron Gregory who set him up with Digital Underground. In 1990, he was hired as a back-up dancer and roadie for up-and-coming rap group Digital Underground.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Rapping Career</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur&apos;s professional entertainment career began in the early 1990s, when he debuted his rapping skills on &quot;Same Song&quot; from the Digital Underground album This is an EP Release. He first appeared in the music video for &quot;Same Song&quot;. After his rap debut, Shakur performed with Digital Underground again on the album Sons Of The P. Later, he released his first solo album, 2Pacalypse Now. Initially he had trouble marketing his solo debut, but Interscope Records&apos; executives Ted Field and Tom Whalley eventually agreed to distribute the record.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur claimed his first album was aimed at the problems facing young black males, but it was publicly criticized for its graphic language and images of violence by and against law enforcement. In one instance, a young man claimed his killing of a Texas-based trooper was influenced by the album. Former Vice President Dan Quayle publicly denounced the album as having &quot;no place in our society&quot;. 2Pacalypse Now did not do as well on the charts as future albums, spawning no top ten hits. His second record, Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z., was released in 1993. The album, produced mostly in part by Randy &quot;Stretch&quot; Walker (Shakur&apos;s closest friend and associate at the time) and the Live Squad, generated two hits, &quot;Keep Ya Head Up&quot; and &quot;I Get Around&quot;, the latter featuring guest appearances by Shock G and Money-B of the Digital Underground.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Thug Life</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 1993, Shakur formed the group Thug Life with a number of his friends, including Big Syke, Macadoshis, his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, and Rated R. The group released their first and only record album Thug Life Vol. 1 on September 26, 1994. The group usually performed their concerts without Shakur.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The concept of &quot;Thug Life&quot; was viewed by Shakur as a philosophy for life. He developed the word into a backronym standing for &quot;The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody&quot;. He declared that the dictionary definition of a &quot;thug&quot; as being a rogue or criminal was not how he used the term, but rather he meant someone who came from oppressive or squalid background and little opportunity but still made a life for themselves and were proud.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Legal Issues</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Even as he garnered attention as a rapper and actor, Shakur gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law. In October 1991, he filed a $10 million civil suit against the law enforcement of the Oakland Police Department, alleging they brutally beat him for jaywalking. The suit was later settled for $42,000.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 1993, in Atlanta, Georgia, Shakur shot two off-duty police officers (one in the leg, one in the buttocks) who were harassing a black motorist. Charges against Shakur were dismissed when it was discovered that both officers were intoxicated and were in possession of stolen weapons from an evidence locker during the occasion.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In December 1993, Shakur and others were charged with sexually abusing a woman in a hotel room. According to the complaint, Shakur sodomized the woman and then encouraged his friends to sexually abuse her. Shakur vehemently denied the charges. He had prior relations days earlier with the woman who was pressing the charges against him. She performed oral sex on him on a club dance floor and the two later had consensual sex in his hotel room. The allegations were made after she revisited his hotel room for the second time where she engaged in sexual activity with his friends and alleged that Shakur and his entourage had gang-raped her, saying to him while leaving, &quot;How could you do this to me?&quot; Shakur stated he had fallen asleep shortly after she arrived and later awoke to her accusations and legal threats. He later said he felt guilty for leaving her alone and did not want anyone else to go to jail, but at the same time he did not want to go to jail for a crime he didn&apos;t commit. Shakur was convicted of sexual abuse. In sentencing Shakur to one-and-a-half years in a correctional facility, the judge described the crime as &quot;an act of brutal violence against a helpless woman&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 1994, he was convicted of attacking a former employer while on a music video set. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail with additional days on a highway work crew, community service, and a $2000 fine. In 1995, a wrongful death was brought against Shakur for a 1992 shooting that killed Qa&apos;id Walker-Teal, a six-year old of Marin City, California. The child had been the victim of a stray bullet in a shootout between Shakur&apos;s entourage and a rival group, though the ballistics tests proved the bullet was not from Shakur or any members of his entourage&apos;s guns. Criminal charges were not sought, and Shakur settled with the family for an amount estimated between $300,000 and $500,000. After serving part of his sentence upon a conviction, he was released on bail pending his appeal. On April 5, 1996, a judge sentenced him to serve 120 days in jail for violating terms of probation.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>November 1994 Shooting</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On the night of November 30, 1994, the day before the verdict in his sexual abuse trial was to be announced, Shakur was shot five times and robbed after entering the lobby of the Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan, New York City, New York, by two armed men in army fatigues. He would later accuse Sean Combs, Andre Harrell, and Biggie Smalls — whom he saw after the shooting — of setting him up. Shakur also suspected his close friend and associate, Randy &quot;Stretch&quot; Walker, of being involved in the attempt. According to the doctors at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted immediately following the incident, Shakur had received five bullet wounds; twice in the head, twice in the groin and once through the arm and thigh. He checked out of the hospital, against doctor&apos;s orders, three hours after surgery. In the day that followed, Shakur entered the courthouse in a wheelchair and was found guilty of three counts of molestation, but innocent of six others, including sodomy.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On November 30, 1995, exactly one year to the day of the shooting, Stretch was killed in an execution-style murder in Queens.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Prison sentence</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur began serving his prison sentence at Clinton Correctional Facility on February 14, 1995. Shortly afterwards, he released his multi-platinum album Me Against the World. Shakur is the only artist ever to have an album at number one on the Billboard 200 while serving a prison sentence. The album made its debut on the Billboard 200 and stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks. The record album sold 240,000 copies in its first week, setting a record for highest first week sales for a solo male rap artist at the time. He married his long-time girlfriend, Keisha Morris, while serving his sentence. This marriage was later annulled. While imprisoned, Shakur read many books by Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu&apos;s The Art of War and other works of political philosophy and strategy. He also wrote a screenplay titled Live 2 Tell while incarcerated, a story about an adolescent who becomes a drug baron.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In October 1995, Shakur&apos;s case was on appeal but due to all of his legal fees he could not raise the $1.4 million bail. After serving eleven months of his one-and-a-half year to four-and-a-half year sentence, Shakur was released from the penitentiary, due in large part to the help and influence of Marion &quot;Suge&quot; Knight, CEO of Death Row Records. Knight posted $1.4 million bail pending appeal of the conviction, in exchange for which Shakur was obligated to release three albums for the Death Row label.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Life on Death Row Records</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Upon his release from Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur immediately went back to song recording. He began a new group, Outlawz, and with them released the diss track &quot;Hit &apos;Em Up&quot;, a scathing lyrical assault on Biggie Smalls and others associated with him. In the track, Shakur claimed to have had intercourse with Faith Evans, Biggie&apos;s wife at the time, and attacks Bad Boy&apos;s street credibility. Though no hard evidence suggests so, Shakur was convinced that some members associated with Bad Boy had known about the shooting beforehand due to their behavior that night and what his sources told him. Shakur aligned himself with Death Row&apos;s CEO Suge Knight, who was already bitter toward Sean Combs and his successful Bad Boy label; this added fuel to building an East Coast-West Coast conflict. Both sides remained bitter enemies until Shakur&apos;s death.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In February 1996, Shakur released his fourth solo album, All Eyez on Me. This double album was the first and second of his three-album commitment to Death Row Records. It sold over nine million copies. The record was a general departure from the introspective subject matter of Me Against the World, being more oriented toward a thug and gangsta mentality. Shakur continued his recordings despite increasing problems at the Death Row label. Dr. Dre left his post as house producer to form his own label, Aftermath. Shakur continued to produce hundreds of tracks during his time at Death Row, most of which would be released on posthumous albums such as Better Dayz and Until the End of Time. He also began the process of recording an album with the Boot Camp Clik and their label Duck Down Records, both New York-based, entitled One Nation.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">While incarcerated in Clinton Correctional Facility, Shakur read and studied Niccolò Machiavelli and other published works, which inspired his pseudonym &quot;Makaveli&quot; under which he released the record album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. The album presents a stark contrast to previous works. Throughout the album, Shakur continues to focus on the themes of pain and aggression, making this album one of the emotionally darker works of his career. Shakur wrote and recorded all the lyrics in only three days and the production took another four days, combining for a total of seven days to complete the album (hence the name). The album was completely finished before Shakur died and Shakur had complete creative input on the album from the name of the album to the cover, which Shakur chose to symbolize how the media had crucified him. The record debuted at number one and sold 663,000 copies in the first week. Shakur had plans of starting Makaveli Records which would have included the Outlawz, Wu-Tang Clan, Big Daddy Kane, Big Syke, and Gang Starr.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>September 1996 Shooting</B></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur attended the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. After leaving the match, one of Suge Knight&apos;s associates spotted 21 year-old Orlando &quot;Baby Lane&quot; Anderson, a member of the Southside Crips, in the MGM Grand lobby and had Shakur aware. Shakur immediately rushed Anderson and knocked him to the ground. Shakur&apos;s entourage, as well as Knight and his followers assisted in beating down Anderson. The fight was captured on the hotel&apos;s video surveillance. A few weeks earlier, Anderson and a group of Crips robbed a member of Death Row&apos;s entourage in a Foot Locker store, precipitating Shakur&apos;s onset. After the brawl, Shakur went to rendezvous with Knight to go to Death Row-owned Club 662 (now known as restaurant/club Seven). He rode in Knight&apos;s 1996 black BMW 750i sedan as part of a larger convoy with some of Shakur&apos;s friends, Outlawz, and bodyguards.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At 10:55 p.m., while paused at a red light, Shakur rolled down his window and a photographer took their photo. At around 11:00-11:05 p.m., they were halted on Las Vegas Blvd. by Metro bicycle cops for playing the car stereo too loud and not having license plates. The plates were then found in the trunk of Knight&apos;s vehicle; they were released without being fined a few minutes later. At about 11:10 p.m., while stopped at a red light at Flamingo Road near the intersection of Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel, a vehicle occupied by two women pulled up on their right side. Shakur, who was standing up through the sunroof, exchanged words with the two women, and invited them to go to Club 662. At approximately 11:15 p.m., a white, four-door, late-model, Cadillac driven by unknown person(s) pulled up to the sedan&apos;s right side, rolled down one of the windows, and rapidly fired around twelve to thirteen shots at Shakur. He was struck by four rounds; one hit him in the chest, the pelvis, and his right hand and thigh. One of the rounds apparently ricocheted into Shakur&apos;s right lung. Knight was hit in the head by shrapnel, though it is thought that a bullet grazed him. According to Knight, a bullet from the gunfire had been lodged in his skull, however, medical reports later contradicted this statement.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the time of the drive-by, Shakur was riding alongside Knight, with his bodyguard following behind in a vehicle belonging to Kidada Jones, Shakur&apos;s then-fiancée. The bodyguard, Frank Alexander, stated that when he was about to ride along with the rapper in Knight&apos;s car, Shakur asked him to drive Kidada Jones&apos; car instead just in case they were too drunk and needed additional vehicles from Club 662 back to the hotel. Shortly after the assault, the bodyguard reported in his documentary, Before I Wake, that one of the convoy&apos;s cars drove off after the assailant but he never heard back from the occupants.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">After arriving on the scene, police and paramedics took Knight and a fatally wounded Shakur to the University Medical Center. According to an interview with one of Shakur&apos;s closest friends and music video director Gobi, while at the hospital, he received news from a Death Row marketing employee that the shooters had called the record label and were sending death threats aimed at Shakur, claiming that they were going there to &quot;finish him off&quot;. Upon hearing this, Gobi immediately alerted the Las Vegas police, but the police claimed they were understaffed and no one could be sent. Nonetheless, the shooters never arrived. At the hospital, Shakur was in and out of consciousness; heavily sedated, breathed through a ventilator and respirator, was placed on life support machines, and was ultimately put under a barbiturate-induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of the bed.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Despite having been resuscitated in a trauma center and surviving a multitude of surgeries (as well the removal of a failed right lung), Shakur had gotten through the critical phase of the medical therapy and had a 50% chance of pulling through. Gobi left the medical center after being informed that Shakur made a 13% recovery on the sixth night. While in Critical Care Unit on the afternoon of September 13, 1996, Shakur died of internal bleeding; doctors attempted to revive him but could not stop his hemorrhaging. His mother, Afeni Shakur, made the decision to tell the doctors to stop. He was pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. (PDT). The official cause of death was respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest in connection with multiple gunshot wounds. Afterwards, Shakur&apos;s body was cremated; Shakur&apos;s ashes were spread over L.A., the Pacific Ocean, his aunt&apos;s land, and his mother&apos;s land in North Carolina, and some was mixed with cannabis and smoked by Outlawz.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Murder case</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Due largely to the perceived lack of progress on the case by law enforcement, many independent investigations and theories of the murder have emerged. Because of the acrimony between him and rapper Biggie Smalls, there was speculation from the outset about the possibility of Biggie&apos;s collaboration in the murder. He, as well his family, relatives, and associates, have vehemently denied the accusation. In a notable 2002 investigation by the Los Angeles Times, writer Chuck Phillips claimed to have uncovered evidence implicating Biggie, in addition to Orlando Anderson and the Southside Crips, in the attack. In the article, Phillips quoted unnamed gang-member sources who claimed Biggie had ties to the Crips, often hiring them for security during West Coast appearances. Phillips&apos; informants also state that Biggie gave the gang members one of his own guns for use in the slaying of Shakur, and that he set out a $1,000,000 contract on Shakur&apos;s life. By the time Phillips&apos; specific allegations were published, Biggie himself had been murdered.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In support of their claims, Biggie&apos;s family submitted documentation to MTV insinuating that he was working in a New York-based recording studio the night of the drive-by shooting. His manager Wayne Barrow and fellow rapper James &quot;Lil&apos; Cease&quot; Lloyd made public announcements denying Biggie&apos;s partaking in the crime and claimed further that they were both with him in the recording studio during the night of the event.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The high profile nature of the killing and ensuing gang violence caught the attention of British filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who made the documentary film Biggie &amp; Tupac which examines the lack of progress in the case by speaking to those close to the two slain rappers and the investigation. Shakur&apos;s close childhood friend and member of Outlawz, Yafeu &quot;Yaki Kadafi&quot; Fula, was in the convoy when the drive-by occurred and indicated to police that he might be able to identify the assailants, however, he was shot and killed shortly thereafter in a housing project in Irvington, New Jersey.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In the first few seconds of the song &quot;Intro/Bomb First (My Second Reply)&quot; on the record album The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Shakur can be heard saying &quot;Shoulda shot me&quot;. While some believed that Suge Knight may have orchestrated Shakur&apos;s murder, theorists mistook the statement in the song as &quot;Suge shot me&quot; or &quot;Suge shot &apos;em&quot; until confirmation by multiple audio tests and confirmation from members of Outlawz. This, along with reports of Knight&apos;s strong-arm tactics with artists and other illegal business tactics including involvement with the Mob Piru Bloods street gang gave rise to a theory that Knight was complicit in the homicide, as it was supposedly reported that Knight owed Shakur up to $17,000,000 in back royalties, but no evidence has been provided to support this theory.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Other theories have been put forth, including a conspiracy theory that Shakur is alive and well, but in hiding. Supporters of these theories point to the symbolism in Shakur&apos;s The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory album and in the music video for &quot;I Ain&apos;t Mad at Cha&quot;. Efforts exposing these conspiracy theories include 2Pac Lives The Death of Makaveli / The Resurrection of Tupac Amaru (Volume 1) released in 2005.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A DVD titled Tupac Revelation was released on October 23, 2007, more than eleven years after Shakur&apos;s murder. It explores aspects circulating the event and provides new insight about the cold case with details by Shakur&apos;s bodyguard, Frank Alexander.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Influences</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur&apos;s music and philosophy is rooted in many American, African-American, and World entities, including the Black Panther Party, Black nationalism, egalitarianism, and liberty. His debut album, 2Pacalypse Now, revealed the socially conscious side of Shakur. On this album, Shakur attacked social injustice, poverty and police brutality on songs &quot;Brenda&apos;s Got a Baby&quot;, &quot;Trapped&quot; and &quot;Part Time Mutha&quot;. His style on this album was highly influenced by the social consciousness and Afrocentrism pervading hip hop in the late 1980s and early 1990s. On this initial release, Shakur helped extend the success of such rap groups as Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, X-Clan, and Grandmaster Flash, as he became one of the first major socially conscious rappers from the West Coast.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">On his second record, Shakur continued to rap about the social ills facing African-Americans, with songs like &quot;The Streetz R Deathrow&quot; and &quot;Last Wordz.&quot; He also showed his compassionate side with the inspirational anthem &quot;Keep Ya Head Up&quot;, while simultaneously putting his legendary aggressiveness on display with the title track from the album Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. he added a salute to his former group Digital Underground by including them on the playful track &quot;I Get Around&quot;. Throughout his career, an increasingly aggressive attitude can be seen pervading Shakur&apos;s subsequent albums.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The contradictory themes of social inequality and injustice, unbridled aggression, compassion, playfulness, and hope all continued to shape Shakur&apos;s work, as witnessed with the release of his incendiary 1995 album Me Against the World. In 1996, Shakur released All Eyez on Me. Many of these tracks are considered by many critics to be classics, including &quot;Ambitionz Az a Ridah&quot;, &quot;I Ain&apos;t Mad at Cha&quot;, &quot;California Love&quot;, &quot;Life Goes On&quot; and &quot;Picture Me Rollin&apos;&quot;.; All Eyez on Me was a change of style from his earlier works. While still containing conscious songs and themes, Shakur&apos;s album was heavily influenced by party tracks and tended to have a more &quot;feel good&quot; vibe than his first albums. Shakur described it as a celebration of life. Nonetheless, the record was critically and commercially successful.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur was a voracious reader. He was inspired by a wide variety of writers, including Niccolò Machiavelli, Donald Goines, Sun Tzu, Kurt Vonnegut, Mikhail Bakunin, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Khalil Gibran. In his book, Dyson describes the experience of visiting the home of Shakur&apos;s friend and promoter Leila Sternberg to find &quot;the sea of books&quot; once owned by Shakur.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Legacy</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur has one of the largest personal legacies of any music artist in the history of music. The music and messages in his work pervaded the styles of the following generations and his music had great impact all over the nation and world. At a Mobb Deep concert following the death of the famed icon and release of The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory, Cormega recalled in an interview that the fans were all shouting &quot;Makaveli&quot;, and emphasized the influence of the The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory and of Shakur himself even in New York at the height of the media-dubbed &apos;intercoastal rivalry&apos;. About.com named Shakur the most influential rapper ever.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">To preserve Shakur&apos;s legacy, his mother founded the Shakur Family Foundation (later re-named the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation or TASF) in 1997. The TASF&apos;s stated mission is to &quot;provide training and support for students who aspire to enhance their creative talents.&quot; The TASF sponsors essay contests, charity events, a performing arts day camp for teenagers and undergraduate scholarships. The Foundation officially opened the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts (TASCA) in Stone Mountain, Georgia, on June 11, 2005. On November 14, 2003, a documentary about Shakur entitled Tupac: Resurrection was released under the supervision of his mother and narrated entirely in his voice. It was nominated for Best Documentary in the 2005 Academy Awards. Proceeds will go to a charity set up by his mother, Afeni Shakur. On April 17, 2003, Harvard University co-sponsored an academic symposium entitled &quot;All Eyez on Me: Tupac Shakur and the Search for the Modern Folk Hero.&quot; The speakers discussed a wide range of topics dealing with Shakur&apos;s impact on everything from entertainment to sociology.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Many of the speakers discussed Shakur&apos;s status and public persona, including State University of New York English professor Mark Anthony Neal who gave the talk &quot;Thug Nigga Intellectual: Tupac as Celebrity Gramscian&quot; in which he argued that Shakur was an example of the &quot;organic intellectual&quot; expressing the concerns of a larger group. Professor Neal has also indicated in his writings that the death of Shakur has left a &quot;leadership void amongst hip-hop artists.&quot; Neal further describes Tupac as a &quot;walking contradiction&quot;, a status that allowed him to &quot;make being an intellectual accessible to ordinary people&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Professor of Communications Murray Forman, of Northeastern University, spoke of the mythical status surrounding Shakur&apos;s life and death. He addressed the symbolism and mythology surrounding Shakur&apos;s death in his talk entitled &quot;Tupac Shakur: O.G. (Ostensibly Gone)&quot;. Among his findings were that Shakur&apos;s fans have &quot;succeeded in resurrecting Tupac as an ethereal life force&quot;. In &quot;From Thug Life to Legend: Realization of a Black Folk Hero&quot;, Professor of Music at Northeastern University, Emmett Price, compared Shakur&apos;s public image to that of the trickster-figures of African-American folklore which gave rise to the urban &quot;bad-man&quot; persona of the post-slavery period. He ultimately described Shakur as a &quot;prolific artist&quot; who was &quot;driven by a terrible sense of urgency&quot; in a quest to &quot;unify mind, body, and spirit&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Michael Dyson, University of Pennsylvania Avalon Professor of Humanities and African American Studies and author of the book Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac Shakur indicated that Shakur &quot;spoke with brilliance and insight as someone who bears witness to the pain of those who would never have his platform. He told the truth, even as he struggled with the fragments of his identity.&quot; At one Harvard Conference the theme was Shakur&apos;s impact on entertainment, race relations, politics and the &quot;hero/martyr&quot;. In late 1997, the University of California, Berkeley offered a student-led course entitled &quot;History 98: Poetry and History of Tupac Shakur.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In late 2003, the Makaveli Branded Clothing line was launched by Afeni Shakur. In 2005, Death Row released Tupac: Live at the House of Blues. The DVD was the final recorded performance of Shakur&apos;s career, which took place in July 4, 1996, and features a plethora of Death Row artists. In August 2006, Tupac Shakur Legacy was released. The interactive biography was written by Jamal Joseph. It features unseen family photographs, intimate stories, and over 20 removable reproductions of his handwritten song lyrics, contracts, scripts, poetry, and other personal papers. Shakur&apos;s sixth posthumous studio album, Pac&apos;s Life, was released on November 21, 2006. It commemorates the 10th anniversary of Shakur&apos;s death. He is still considered one of the most popular artists in the music industry as of 2006.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Honors</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame in 2002.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2003, MTV&apos;s &quot;22 Greatest MCs&quot; countdown listed Shakur as the &quot;number 1 MC&quot;, as voted by the viewers.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">In 2004, at the VH1 Hip Hop Honors Shakur was honored along with DJ Hollywood, Kool DJ Herc, KRS-One, Public Enemy, Run-D.M.C., Rock Steady Crew, and Sugarhill Gang.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">A Vibe magazine poll in 2004 rated Shakur &quot;the greatest rapper of all time&quot; as voted by fans.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><LI><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">At the First Annual Turks &amp; Caicos International Film Festival held on Tuesday, October 17, 2006, Shakur was honored for his undeniable voice and talent and as a performer who crossed racial, ethnic, cultural and medium lines; his mother, Afeni Shakur, accepted the award on his behalf.</FONT></LI></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/2Pac.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Tupac Amaru Shakur (June 16, 1971 â€“ September 13, 1996), also known by his stage names 2Pac, Makaveli, or simply Pac, w...'),(110,'3 Doors Down','<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">3 Doors Down is an American post-grunge band formed in Escatawpa, Mississippi in 1994 by Brad Arnold (vocals and drums), Matt Roberts (guitar) and Todd Harrell (bass). The band signed to Universal Records after the success of their song &quot;Kryptonite&quot;. The band has since sold well over 12 million albums since their debut album, The Better Life, was released in 2000. They also perform more than 300 concerts a year and have performed with other well-known artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Staind, Alter Bridge, and Shinedown on several occasions.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>The Better Life (2000-2001)</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Brad Arnold is the vocalist for the band and played the drums on their debut album The Better Life. He started singing full time for the band after a concert where no one else would sing except for him and he ended up enjoying it.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The Better Life was released in 2000 and has since been certified 6x Platinum thanks to the international hit singles, &quot;Kryptonite&quot;, &quot;Loser&quot;, and &quot;Duck and Run&quot;. The song &quot;Be Like That&quot; was rerecorded for the 2001 film American Pie 2, with alternate lyrics for the first 2 lines. This version is known as &quot;The American Pie 2 Edit&quot;.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Away From The Sun (2002-2004)</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band&apos;s second studio album, Away from the Sun, was released in 2002 and since been certified 4x Platinum in the United States and Platinum in Australia. &quot;Here without You&quot; and &quot;When I&apos;m Gone&quot; proved to be the most successful singles from that album. &quot;The Road I&apos;m On&quot; and &quot;Away from the Sun&quot; also charted with less success.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Session drummer Josh Freese contributed drums for Away from the Sun. Also, Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson produced and played on 3 tracks for the record, &quot;Dangerous Game&quot;, &quot;Dead Love&quot;, and &quot;Wasted Me&quot; (only &quot;Dangerous Game&quot; appeared on the album). Daniel Adair was the drummer on Seventeen Days and during the Away from the Sun tour.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Another 700 Miles</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Since 2003, the band has held a &quot;3 Doors Down and Friends&quot; benefit concert, through the band&apos;s own charity The Better Life Foundation. In 2006, the event was held Dec. 2, at the Mobile Convention Center, with proceeds to benefit Hurricane Katrina survivors.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band released a live EP in 2003 which consists of part of a live performance by the band on their Away from the Sun tour in Chicago. Another 700 Miles has since been certified Gold in the US.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>Seventeen Days (2005-2006)</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">The band&apos;s latest release, 2005&apos;s Seventeen Days, has since been certified Platinum. &quot;Let Me Go&quot; and &quot;Behind Those Eyes&quot; charted with the most success. &quot;Live for Today&quot;, &quot;Landing in London&quot; (on which Bob Seger provided back-up vocals and guitar), and &quot;Here by Me&quot; were also released as singles. During the Seventeen Days tour, the band appeared alongside the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Also in 2005, the band released a live DVD titled &quot;Away from the Sun Live from Houston, Texas&quot;. The DVD was produced and directed by Academy Award nominated Alex Gibney and Doug Biro.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">Greg Upchurch, formerly of Puddle of Mudd, is the drummer who replaced Daniel Adair in 2005. Adair left to be the drummer for Nickelback.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"11\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"><B>3 Doors Down (2007-Present)</B><FONT SIZE=\"10\"></FONT></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">According to the band&apos;s website, they have completed recording a new studio album that is self titled, and is expected to be released in early 2008 around Valentines Day or Easter. This was confirmed in an interview with the band conducted on December 28, 2007 by the the Las Vegas Sun.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>','http://www.monstersoft.com/tuve/3%20Doors%20Down.jpg',12,'<TEXTFORMAT LEADING=\"2\"><P ALIGN=\"LEFT\"><FONT FACE=\"Verdana\" SIZE=\"10\" COLOR=\"#0B333C\" LETTERSPACING=\"0\" KERNING=\"0\">3 Doors Down is an American post-grunge band formed in Escatawpa, Mississippi in 1994 by Brad Arnold (vocals and drums), ...'),