title: Carbon credit

text: For example, consider a business that owns a factory putting out 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in a year. Its government is an Annex I country that enacts a law to limit the emissions that the business can produce. So the factory is given a quota of say 80,000 tonnes per year. The factory either reduces its emissions to 80,000 tonnes or is required to purchase carbon credits to offset the excess. After costing up alternatives the business may decide that it is uneconomical or infeasible to invest in new machinery for that year. Instead it may choose to buy carbon credits on the open market from organizations that have been approved as being able to sell legitimate carbon credits.


title: Carbon credit

text: We should consider the impact of manufacturing alternative energy sources. For example, the energy consumed and the carbon emitted in the manufacture and transportation of a large wind turbine would prohibit a credit being issued for a predetermined period of time.


title: Carbon credit

text: Carbon credits and carbon taxes each have their advantages and disadvantages. Credits were chosen by the signatories to the Kyoto Protocol as an alternative to carbon taxes. A criticism of tax-raising schemes is that they are frequently not hypothecated, and so some or all of the taxation raised by a government would be applied based on what the particular nation's government deems most fitting. However, some would argue that carbon trading is based around creating a lucrative artificial market, and, handled by free market enterprises as it is, carbon trading is not necessarily a focused or easily regulated solution.


title: Carbon credit

text: By treating emissions as a market commodity some proponents insist it becomes easier for businesses to understand and manage their activities, while economists and traders can attempt to predict future pricing using market theories. Thus the main advantages of a tradeable carbon credit over a carbon tax are argued to be:


title: Carbon credit

text: The principle of supplementarity within the Kyoto Protocol means that internal abatement of emissions should take precedence before a country buys in carbon credits. However it also established the Clean Development Mechanism as a Flexible Mechanism by which capped entities could develop measurable and permanent emissions reductions voluntarily in sectors outside the cap. Many criticisms of carbon credits stem from the fact that establishing that an emission of CO-equivalent greenhouse gas has truly been reduced involves a complex process. This process has evolved as the concept of a carbon project has been refined over the past 10 years.


title: Carbon credit

text: The first step in determining whether or not a carbon project has legitimately led to the reduction of measurable and permanent emissions is understanding the CDM methodology process. This is the process by which project sponsors submit, through a Designated Operational Entity (DOE), their concepts for emissions reduction creation. The CDM Executive Board, with the CDM Methodology Panel and their expert advisors, review each project and decide how and if they do indeed result in reductions that are additional


title: Carbon credit

text: In recent years, software tools have been developed to aid in carbon credit creation, such as in relation to forest conservation, and solid waste or wastewater management.


title: Carbon credit

text: Forests can be used to create credits, often involving the use of geospatial analytical systems to calculate the carbon offset of preserving an area forest or a reforestation initiative. REDD+ is one example of a forest carbon credit initiative. REDD+ carbon credits for individuals and businesses may be purchased through carbon offset retailers like Carbonfund.org Foundation or ACT4.io.


title: Carbon credit

text: It is also important for any carbon credit (offset) to prove a concept called additionality. The concept of additionality addresses the question of whether the project would have happened in the absence of an intervention in the form of the price signal of carbon credits. Only projects with emissions below their baseline level, defined as emissions under a scenario without this price signal (holding all other factors constant), represent a net environmental benefit. Carbon projects that yield strong financial returns even in the absence of revenue from carbon credits; or that are compelled by regulations; or that represent common practice in an industry; are usually not considered additional. A full determination of additionality requires a careful investigation of proposed carbon offset projects.


title: Carbon credit

text: It is generally agreed that voluntary carbon offset projects must demonstrate additionality to ensure the legitimacy of the environmental stewardship claims resulting from the retirement of carbon credits (offsets).


title: Carbon credit

text: The Kyoto mechanism is the only internationally agreed mechanism for regulating carbon credit activities, and crucially, includes checks for additionality and overall effectiveness. Its supporting organisation, the UNFCCC, is the only organisation with a global mandate on the overall effectiveness of emission control systems, although enforcement of decisions relies on national co-operation. The Kyoto trading period only applies for five years between 2008 and 2012. The first phase of the EU ETS system started before then, and is expected to continue in a third phase afterwards, and may co-ordinate with whatever is internationally agreed at but there is general uncertainty as to what will be agreed in Post–Kyoto Protocol negotiations on greenhouse gas emissions. As business investment often operates over decades, this adds risk and uncertainty to their plans. As several countries responsible for a large proportion of global emissions (notably USA, India, China) have avoided mandatory caps, this also means that businesses in capped countries may perceive themselves to be working at a competitive disadvantage against those in uncapped countries as they are now paying for their carbon costs directly.


title: Carbon credit

text: A key concept behind the cap and trade system is that national quotas should be chosen to represent genuine and meaningful reductions in national output of emissions. Not only does this ensure that overall emissions are reduced but also that the costs of emissions trading are carried fairly across all parties to the trading system. However, governments of capped countries may seek to unilaterally weaken their commitments, as evidenced by the 2006 and 2007 National Allocation Plans for several countries in the EU ETS, which were submitted late and then were initially rejected by the European Commission for being too lax.


title: Carbon credit

text: A question has been raised over the grandfathering of allowances. Countries within the EU ETS have granted their incumbent businesses most or all of their allowances for free. This can sometimes be perceived as a protectionist obstacle to new entrants into their markets. There have also been accusations of power generators getting a 'windfall' profit by passing on these emissions 'charges' to their customers. As the EU ETS moves into its second phase and joins up with Kyoto, it seems likely that these problems will be reduced as more allowances will be auctioned.


title: Carbon credit

text: Some sources show that the UK financial service wins a lot from carbon credit trade (which is designed to be profitable). The profit is evident if one checks the statistics: London has secured dominance on the global carbon trading market, with net value $64bn in 2007, according to the report by International Financial Services London. London controlled about 90% of the exchange market (Carbon credit vs money) in 2007. London-based companies made about 59% of the purchases of Carbon credits issued by the UN. And some of the carbon credit's system creators are from the UK, for example, the economist, former Senior Vice-president of the World Bank and government economic advisor in the United Kingdom Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford who has founded a consultancy-trading agency "The Carbon Rating Agency (CRA)" on the Isle-of-Man (controlled by firm IDEAglobal Group where Stern was a Vice Chairman at that time) for carbon credit evaluation and rating.


title: Carbon credit

text: While the carbon credit system can be an effective way to regulate carbon offsets by large institutions in large developed countries, it does not do enough to combat climate change in developing countries. Developing countries would be unlikely to adopt a carbon credit system to curve their emissions. These countries often prioritize economic growth and poverty alleviation over lowering their fossil fuel use and carbon emissions rate.


title: Carbon credit

text: In 2019, a fraud trial began. Eight men were accused of a £7m carbon credit fraud at Southwark Crown Court in England. It was alleged that a fraud had been perpetrated on members of the public who were persuaded to make investments, including the purchase of carbon credits, which were 'effectively worthless'. The trial collapsed because the judge ruled that the prosecution's expert witness 'did not have any relevant qualifications'.


title: Renewable resource

text: A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of time in a human time scale. When the recovery rate of resources is unlikely to ever exceed a human time scale, these are called perpetual resources. Renewable resources are a part of Earth's natural environment and the largest components of its ecosphere. A positive life-cycle assessment is a key indicator of a resource's sustainability.


title: Renewable resource

text: Definitions of renewable resources may also include agricultural production, as in agricultural products and to an extent water resources. In 1962, Paul Alfred Weiss defined renewable resources as: ""The total range of living organisms providing man with life, fibres, etc..."". Another type of renewable resources is renewable energy resources. Common sources of renewable energy include solar, geothermal and wind power, which are all categorized as renewable resources. Fresh water is an example of renewable resources.


title: Renewable resource

text: Water can be considered a "renewable" material when carefully controlled usage and temperature, treatment, and release are followed. If not, it would become a non-renewable resource at that location. For example, as groundwater is usually removed from an aquifer at a rate much greater than its very slow natural recharge, it is a considered non-renewable resource. Removal of water from the pore spaces in aquifers may cause permanent compaction (subsidence) that cannot be renewed. 97.5% of the water on the Earth is salt water, and 3% is fresh water; slightly over two thirds of this is frozen in glaciers and polar ice caps. The remaining unfrozen freshwater is found mainly as groundwater, with only a small fraction (0.008%) present above ground or in the air.


title: Renewable resource

text: Water pollution is one of the main concerns regarding water resources. It is estimated that 22% of worldwide water is used in industry. Major industrial users include hydroelectric dams, thermoelectric power plants (which use water for cooling), ore and oil refineries (which use water in chemical processes) and manufacturing plants (which use water as a solvent),it is also used for dumping garbage.


title: Renewable resource

text: Desalination of seawater is considered a renewable source of water, although reducing its dependence on fossil fuel energy is needed for it to be fully renewable.


title: Renewable resource

text: Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. Most food has its origin in renewable resources. Food is obtained directly from plants and animals.


title: Renewable resource

text: Hunting may not be the first source of meat in the modernised world, but it is still an important and essential source for many rural and remote groups. It is also the sole source of feeding for wild carnivores.


title: Renewable resource

text: The phrase sustainable agriculture was coined by Australian agricultural scientist Gordon McClymont. It has been defined as "an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site-specific application that will last over the long term". Expansion of agricultural land reduces biodiversity and contributes to deforestation. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that in coming decades, cropland will continue to be lost to industrial and urban development, along with reclamation of wetlands, and conversion of forest to cultivation, resulting in the loss of biodiversity and increased soil erosion.


title: Renewable resource

text: Although air and sunlight are available everywhere on Earth, crops also depend on soil nutrients and the availability of water. Monoculture is a method of growing only one crop at a time in a given field, which can damage land and cause it to become either unusable or suffer from reduced yields. Monoculture can also cause the build-up of pathogens and pests that target one specific species. The Great Irish Famine (1845–1849) is a well-known example of the dangers of monoculture.


title: Renewable resource

text: Crop rotation and long-term crop rotations confer the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals and other crops, and can improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. Other methods to combat lost soil nutrients are returning to natural cycles that annually flood cultivated lands (returning lost nutrients indefinitely) such as the Flooding of the Nile, the long-term use of biochar, and use of crop and livestock landraces that are adapted to less than ideal conditions such as pests, drought, or lack of nutrients.


title: Renewable resource

text: Agricultural practices are one of the single greatest contributor to the global increase in soil erosion rates. It is estimated that "more than a thousand million tonnes of southern Africa's soil are eroded every year. Experts predict that crop yields will be halved within thirty to fifty years if erosion continues at present rates." The Dust Bowl phenomenon in the 1930s was caused by severe drought combined with farming methods that did not include crop rotation, fallow fields, cover crops, soil terracing and wind-breaking trees to prevent wind erosion.


title: Renewable resource

text: The tillage of agricultural lands is one of the primary contributing factors to erosion, due to mechanised agricultural equipment that allows for deep plowing, which severely increases the amount of soil that is available for transport by water erosion.


title: Renewable resource

text: The phenomenon called "peak soil" describes how large-scale factory farming techniques are affecting humanity's ability to grow food in the future. Without efforts to improve soil management practices, the availability of arable soil may become increasingly problematic.


title: Renewable resource

text: Methods to combat erosion include no-till farming, using a keyline design, growing wind breaks to hold the soil, and widespread use of compost. Fertilizers and pesticides can also have an effect of soil erosion, which can contribute to soil salinity and prevent other species from growing. Phosphate is a primary component in the chemical fertiliser applied most commonly in modern agricultural production. However, scientists estimate that rock phosphate reserves will be depleted in 50–100 years and that "Peak Phosphate" will occur in about 2030.


title: Renewable resource

text: Industrial processing and logistics also have an effect on agriculture's sustainability. The way and locations crops are sold requires energy for transportation, as well as the energy cost for materials, labour, and transport. Food sold at a local location, such a farmers' market, have reduced energy overheads.


title: Renewable resource

text: Air is a renewable resource. All living organisms need oxygen, nitrogen (directly or indirectly), carbon (directly or indirectly) and many other gases in small quantities for their survival.


title: Renewable resource

text: An important renewable resource is wood provided by means of forestry, which has been used for construction, housing and firewood since ancient times.


title: Renewable resource

text: With regard to pharmacy ingredients and legal and illegal drugs, plants are important sources, however e.g. venom of snakes, frogs and insects has been a valuable renewable source of pharmacological ingredients. Before GMO production set in, insulin and important hormones were based on animal sources. Feathers, an important byproduct of poultry farming for food, is still being used as filler and as base for keratin in general. Same applies for the chitin produced in farming Crustaceans which may be used as base of chitosan. The most important part of the human body used for non-medical purposes is human hair as for artificial hair integrations, which is being traded worldwide.


title: Renewable resource

text: Historically, renewable resources like firewood, latex, guano, charcoal, wood ash, plant colors as indigo, and whale products have been crucial for human needs but failed to supply demand in the beginning of the industrial era. Early modern times faced large problems with overuse of renewable resources as in deforestation, overgrazing or overfishing.


title: Renewable resource

text: In addition to fresh meat and milk, which as food items are not the topic of this section, livestock farmers and artisans used further animal ingredients as tendons, horn, bones, bladders. Complex technical constructions as the composite bow were based on combination of animal and plant based materials. The current distribution conflict between biofuel and food production is being described as Food vs. fuel. Conflicts between food needs and usage, as supposed by fief obligations were in so far common in historical times as well. However, a significant percentage of (middle European) farmers yields went into livestock, which provides as well organic fertiliser. Oxen and horses were important for transportation purposes, drove engines as e.g. in treadmills.


title: Renewable resource

text: Other regions solved the transportation problem with terracing, urban and garden agriculture. Further conflicts as between forestry and herding, or (sheep) herders and cattle farmers led to various solutions. Some confined wool production and sheep to large state and nobility domains or outsourced to professional shepherds with larger wandering herds.


title: Renewable resource

text: The British Agricultural Revolution was mainly based on a new system of crop rotation, the four-field rotation. British agriculturist Charles Townshend recognised the invention in Dutch Waasland and popularised it in the 18th century UK, George Washington Carver in the USA. The system used wheat, turnips and barley and introduced as well clover. Clover is able to fix nitrogen from air, a practically non exhaustive renewable resource, into fertilizing compounds to the soil and allowed to increase yields by large. Farmers opened up a fodder crop and grazing crop. Thus livestock could to be bred year-round and winter culling was avoided. The amount of manure rose and allowed more crops but to refrain from wood pasture.


title: Renewable resource

text: Early modern times and the 19th century saw the previous resource base partially replaced respectively supplemented by large scale chemical synthesis and by the use of fossil and mineral resources respectively. Besides the still central role of wood, there is a sort of renaissance of renewable products based on modern agriculture, genetic research and extraction technology. Besides fears about an upcoming global shortage of fossil fuels, local shortages due to boycotts, war and blockades or just transportation problems in remote regions have contributed to different methods of replacing or substituting fossil resources based on renewables.


title: Renewable resource

text: The use of certain basically renewable products as in TCM endangers various species. Just the black market in rhinoceros horn reduced the world's rhino population by more than 90 percent over the past 40 years.


title: Renewable resource

text: The success of the German chemical industry till World War I was based on the replacement of colonial products. The predecessors of IG Farben dominated the world market for synthetic dyes at the beginning of the 20th century and had an important role in artificial pharmaceuticals, photographic film, agricultural chemicals and electrochemicals.


title: Renewable resource

text: However the former Plant breeding research institutes took a different approach. After the loss of the German colonial empire, important players in the field as Erwin Baur and Konrad Meyer switched to using local crops as base for economic autarky. Meyer as a key agricultural scientist and spatial planner of the Nazi era managed and lead Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft resources and focused about a third of the complete research grants in Nazi Germany on agricultural and genetic research and especially on resources needed in case of a further German war effort. A wide array of agrarian research institutes still existing today and having importance in the field was founded or enlarged in the time.


title: Renewable resource

text: There were some major failures as trying to e.g. grow frost resistant olive species, but some success in the case of hemp, flax, rapeseed, which are still of current importance. During World War 2, German scientists tried to use Russian Taraxacum (dandelion) species to manufacture natural rubber. Rubber dandelions are still of interest, as scientists in the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) announced 2013 to have developed a cultivar that is suitable for commercial production of natural rubber.


title: Renewable resource

text: The UK uses Non-Fossil Fuel Obligations (NFFO), a collection of orders requiring the electricity distribution network operators in England and Wales to purchase electricity from the nuclear power and renewable energy sectors. Similar mechanisms operate in Scotland (the Scottish Renewable Orders under the Scottish Renewables Obligation) and Northern Ireland (the Northern Ireland Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation). In the US, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), use a similar approach. German Energiewende is using feed-in tariffs. An unexpected outcome of the subsidies was the quick increase of pellet byfiring in conventional fossil fuel plants (compare Tilbury power stations) and cement works, making wood respectively biomass accounting for about half of Europe's renewable-energy consumption.


title: Renewable resource

text: Biorenewable chemicals are chemicals created by biological organisms that provide feedstocks for the chemical industry. Biorenewable chemicals can provide solar-energy-powered substitutes for the petroleum-based carbon feedstocks that currently supply the chemical industry. The tremendous diversity of enzymes in biological organisms, and the potential for synthetic biology to alter these enzymes to create yet new chemical functionalities, can drive the chemical industry. A major platform for creation of new chemicals is the polyketide biosynthetic pathway, which generates chemicals containing repeated alkyl chain units with potential for a wide variety of functional groups at the different carbon atoms. Polyurethane research is ongoing that specifically uses renewable resources.


title: Renewable resource

text: Bioplastics are a form of plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, lignin, corn starch, pea starch or microbiota. The most common form of bioplastic is thermoplastic starch. Other forms include Cellulose bioplastics, biopolyester, Polylactic acid, and bio-derived polyethylene.


title: Renewable resource

text: The production and use of bioplastics is generally regarded as a more sustainable activity when compared to plastic production from petroleum (petroplastic); however, manufacturing of bioplastic materials is often still reliant upon petroleum as an energy and materials source. Because of the fragmentation in the market and ambiguous definitions it is difficult to describe the total market size for bioplastics, but the global production capacity is estimated at 327,000 tonnes. In contrast, global consumption of all flexible packaging is estimated at around 12.3 million tonnes.


title: Renewable resource

text: Bioasphalt is an asphalt alternative made from non-petroleum based renewable resources. Manufacturing sources of bioasphalt include sugar, molasses and rice, corn and potato starches, and vegetable oil based waste. Asphalt made with vegetable oil based binders was patented by Colas SA in France in 2004.


title: Renewable resource

text: Renewable energy refers to the provision of energy via renewable resources which are naturally replenished as fast as they are being used. Examples are sunlight, wind, biomass, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. Renewable energy may replace conventional fuels in four distinct markets, namely electricity generation, hot water/space heating, motor fuels, and rural (off-grid) energy services. Manufacturing of renewable energy devices uses non-renewable resources such as mined metals and land surface.


title: Renewable resource

text: Biomass is referring to biological material from living, or recently living organisms, most often referring to plants or plant-derived materials.


title: Renewable resource

text: Sustainable harvesting and use of renewable resources (i.e., maintaining a positive renewal rate) can reduce air pollution, soil contamination, habitat destruction and land degradation. Biomass energy is derived from six distinct energy sources: garbage, wood, plants, waste, landfill gases, and alcohol fuels. Historically, humans have harnessed biomass-derived energy since the advent of burning wood to make fire, and wood remains the largest biomass energy source today.


title: Renewable resource

text: However, low tech use of biomass, which still amounts for more than 10% of world energy needs may induce indoor air pollution in developing nations and results in between 1.5 million and 2 million deaths in 2000.


title: Renewable resource

text: The biomass used for electricity generation varies by region. Forest by-products, such as wood residues, are common in the United States. Agricultural waste is common in Mauritius (sugar cane residue) and Southeast Asia (rice husks). Animal husbandry residues, such as poultry litter, are common in the UK. The biomass power generating industry in the United States, which consists of approximately 11,000 MW of summer operating capacity actively supplying power to the grid, produces about 1.4 percent of the U.S. electricity supply.


title: Renewable resource

text: A biofuel is a type of fuel whose energy is derived from biological carbon fixation. Biofuels include fuels derived from biomass conversion, as well as solid biomass, liquid fuels and various biogases.


title: Renewable resource

text: Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops such as corn, sugarcane or switchgrass.


title: Renewable resource

text: Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils and animal fats. Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe.


title: Renewable resource

text: Biogas is methane produced by the process of anaerobic digestion of organic material by anaerobes., etc. is also a renewable source of energy.


title: Renewable resource

text: Biogas typically refers to a mixture of gases produced by the breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen. Biogas is produced by anaerobic digestion with anaerobic bacteria or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as manure, sewage, municipal waste, green waste, plant material, and crops. It is primarily methane () and carbon dioxide () and may have small amounts of hydrogen sulphide (), moisture and siloxanes.


title: Renewable resource

text: Natural fibres are a class of hair-like materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to pieces of thread. They can be used as a component of composite materials. They can also be matted into sheets to make products such as paper or felt. Fibres are of two types: natural fibre which consists of animal and plant fibres, and man made fibre which consists of synthetic fibres and regenerated fibres.


title: Renewable resource

text: Renewable resources are endangered by non-regulated industrial developments and growth. They must be carefully managed to avoid exceeding the natural world's capacity to replenish them. A life cycle assessment provides a systematic means of evaluating renewability. This is a matter of sustainability in the natural environment.


title: Renewable resource

text: "National Geographic" has described ocean over fishing as "simply the taking of wildlife from the sea at rates too high for fished species to replace themselves."


title: Renewable resource

text: Tuna meat is driving overfishing as to endanger some species like the bluefin tuna. The European Community and other organisations are trying to regulate fishery as to protect species and to prevent their extinctions. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty deals with aspects of overfishing in articles 61, 62, and 65.


title: Renewable resource

text: Examples of overfishing exist in areas such as the North Sea of Europe, the Grand Banks of North America and the East China Sea of Asia.


title: Renewable resource

text: The decline of penguin population is caused in part by overfishing, caused by human competition over the same renewable resources


title: Renewable resource

text: Besides their role as a resource for fuel and building material, trees protect the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide and by creating oxygen. The destruction of rain forests is one of the critical causes of climate change. Deforestation causes carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. As carbon dioxide accrues, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect.


title: Renewable resource

text: Deforestation also affects the water cycle. It reduces the content of water in the soil and groundwater as well as atmospheric moisture. Deforestation reduces soil cohesion, so that erosion, flooding and landslides ensue.


title: Renewable resource

text: Rain forests house many species and organisms providing people with food and other commodities. In this way biofuels may well be unsustainable if their production contributes to deforestation.


title: Renewable resource

text: Some renewable resources, species and organisms are facing a very high risk of extinction caused by growing human population and over-consumption. It has been estimated that over 40% of all living species on Earth are at risk of going extinct. Many nations have laws to protect hunted species and to restrict the practice of hunting. Other conservation methods include restricting land development or creating preserves. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Internationally, 199 countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened species.


title: Guillermo del Toro filmography

text: The following is the complete filmography of Guillermo del Toro, a Mexican filmmaker, author, and actor.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: John Smith (13 September 1938 – 12 May 1994) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from July 1992 until his death from a heart attack in May 1994. He was also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Monklands East.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith first entered Parliament in 1970 and, following junior ministerial roles as Minister of State for Energy (1975–1976) and Minister of State for the Privy Council Office (1976–1978), he entered the Cabinet towards the end of James Callaghan's tenure as Prime Minister, serving as Secretary of State for Trade and President of the Board of Trade (1978–1979). During Labour's time in Opposition to Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, he rose through the Shadow Cabinet, serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade (1979–1982), Shadow Secretary of State for Energy (1982–1983), Shadow Secretary of State for Employment (1983–1984), Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1984–1987) and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (1987–1992).


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: After Labour leader Neil Kinnock resigned following the Party's surprise loss in the 1992 general election to new Conservative leader John Major, Smith was elected his successor in July 1992. He continued Kinnock's moves to reform Labour, abolishing the trade union block vote at Labour party conferences and replacing it with "one member, one vote" at the 1993 party conference. However, his overall cautious approach to reform, which was dubbed "one more heave", sought to avoid controversy and win the next election by capitalising on the unpopularity of the Conservative government. This frustrated figures on the Labour right, such as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Following Smith's death in 1994, he was succeeded as Leader by Blair, who in turn led the party to win the next general election and became Prime Minister three years later.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith was born at Baddarroch, Dalmally, Argyll, the eldest of three children of Sarah Cameron, née Scott (29 July 1910 – 11 January 1997), and Archibald Leitch Smith (18 June 1907 – 1981). At the time of Smith's birth, his father was schoolmaster at Portnahaven, Islay; however, two years later he became the headmaster of the primary school at Ardrishaig, Argyll, which Smith went on to attend. From September 1952, Smith attended Dunoon Grammar School, lodging in the town with a landlady and going home during the school holidays, before enrolling at the University of Glasgow. He studied History from 1956 to 1959, and then Law, from 1959 to 1962. He joined the Labour Party in 1955.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith became involved in debating with the Glasgow University Dialectic Society and the Glasgow University Union, and in 1962 won "The Observer" Mace debating competition, speaking with Gordon Hunter. In 1995, after his death, the competition was renamed the John Smith Memorial Mace in his honour.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: In 1963, he became a solicitor and then in 1967, an advocate at the Scottish bar, supplementing his income by working as a libel lawyer for the "Daily Record" and the "Sunday Mail".


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith first stood as a Labour parliamentary candidate aged 23 at a by-election in 1961 in the East Fife constituency; he contested that seat again in the 1964 general election. As it was a safe seat for the Unionist Party (who at the time ran in place of the Conservatives), Smith came second by some distance on both occasions. At the 1970 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Lanarkshire, succeeding Peggy Herbison. Smith made his maiden speech on 10 November 1970, opposing the Conservative government's Family Income Supplements Act 1970. On 28 October 1971, Smith defied the Labour whips in joining Labour MPs led by Roy Jenkins to vote in favour of entry to the European Communities. These included Roy Hattersley, Shirley Williams, Bill Rodgers and David Owen, with all of whom he was later to sit in the Callaghan cabinet.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: In February 1974 Smith declined Harold Wilson's offer of the office of Solicitor General for Scotland, not wishing his political career to become sidelined as a law officer. In October, he was made an Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy. In December 1975, he was made a Minister of State. Smith supported James Callaghan in the Labour Party leadership election after Wilson resigned in April 1976. When Callaghan became Prime Minister, Smith became a Minister of State at the Privy Council Office, serving with Labour's Deputy leader, Michael Foot, the Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons. In this position, Smith piloted the highly controversial devolution proposals for Scotland and Wales through the House of Commons. Smith's adroit handling of these proposals impressed Callaghan, and in November 1978, when Edmund Dell retired, Callaghan appointed Smith Secretary of State for Trade. In this post, Smith was the youngest member of the cabinet, and served there until the 1979 general election.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith was voted to the Shadow Cabinet in the elections of June 1979 and would be re-elected every year until 1992. Smith became Shadow Energy Secretary. In the Labour leadership election of November 1980, Smith voted for Denis Healey over Michael Foot. Smith remained in the Labour Party after figures on the right of the party formed the breakaway Social Democratic Party, remarking: "I am comfortable with the unions. They aren't. That's the big difference". Smith voted for Healey in the deputy leadership election of September 1981.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: He became a QC in 1983, the same year that his constituency became Monklands East. During the 1983 general election, Smith concentrated on unemployment, arguing that the Conservatives had caused deindustrialisation and that a Labour government would increase investment, and therefore employment. Smith received over 50 per cent of the vote in Monklands East, but Labour lost badly nationally. Smith then acted as Roy Hattersley's campaign manager in the leadership election and the deputy leadership election. After serving a year as Shadow Employment Secretary, Smith was Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry between late 1984 and 1987.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith was appointed Shadow Chancellor by Neil Kinnock in July 1987 following the Labour Party's general election defeat. Despite a quiet, modest manner and his politically moderate stance, he was a witty, often scathing speaker. Smith was named as Parliamentarian of the Year twice: first in November 1986 for his performances during the Westland controversy during which Leon Brittan resigned, and the second time in November 1989 for taking Nigel Lawson to task over the state of the economy and over his difficult relationship with Sir Alan Walters, the Prime Minister's economic adviser. Smith made two notably witty attacks on Lawson that year. On 7 June 1989, he sang the theme tune for the soap "Neighbours" at the dispatch box, lampooning the differences between Lawson and Walters, who was critical of Lawson's policies but whom Thatcher refused to sack. Then, on 24 October, he made another scathing attack on the differences. Two days later, Lawson resigned, followed shortly afterwards by Walters.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith suffered a heart attack on 9 October 1988, and was forced to spend three months away from Westminster to recover. On that occasion, he had complained of chest pains the night before and had to be persuaded to cancel a flight to London so he could go to hospital for a check-up. He was examined at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary by an ECG. The doctor who examined him said, "Whatever it is, we don't think it is your heart". Then, Smith suddenly collapsed and was briefly unconscious before coming around. He spent three days in intensive care before leaving hospital on 20 October 1988 and made a full recovery.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith made modifications to his lifestyle by going on a diet of 1,000 calories, cutting down on rich foods and fine wines, giving up smoking and taking up Munro bagging. By the time of his death, he had succeeded in climbing 108 of the 277 Scottish Munros (mountains over 3,000 feet above sea level at the summit). His weight dropped from at the time of the first heart attack, to when he returned to Parliament on 23 January 1989.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Following Labour's fourth consecutive defeat at the general election of April 1992, Neil Kinnock resigned as leader and Smith was elected Labour leader.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Although Labour had now been out of power for 13 years, their performance in the 1992 election had been much better than in the previous three. They had cut the Conservative majority from 88 seats to 21, and for most of the three years leading up to the election, opinion polls had indicated that Labour were more likely to win the election than the Conservatives. The resignation of long-serving but increasingly unpopular Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the well-received election of John Major as her successor, had seen the comfortable Labour lead in the opinion polls wiped out and in the 17 months leading up to the election, its outcome had become much harder to predict. Much of the blame had been placed on Labour's "shadow budget" drawn up by Smith, which included raising the top rate of income tax from 40p in the pound to 50p, and the Conservative election campaign was centred on warning voters that they would face higher taxes under a Labour government.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: In September 1992, Smith made his maiden Commons speech as party leader, in which he attacked the government's ERM debacle eight days earlier – an event which was seen by many observers as playing a large part in determining the outcome of the next general election, long before it was even on the political horizon, as from that point onwards the Labour Party was ascendant in the opinion polls, winning several seats from the Conservatives in by-elections (eventually even attracting a Conservative MP to defect to Labour) and trouncing them in local council elections.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: In this speech, he referred to John Major as "the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government". At Labour's party conference, Smith branded Major and Norman Lamont the "Laurel and Hardy of British politics". This echoed his attacks on Major's government made before the 1992 election (while he was still shadow chancellor), most memorably when he labelled "irresponsible" Conservative plans for cutting income tax to 20 per cent, and joked at a Labour Party rally in Sheffield that the Conservatives would have a box-office disaster with "Honey, I Shrunk the Economy" – in reference to the recent Disney motion picture "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" – mocking the recession which was plaguing the British economy at the time.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: In a June 1993 debate, Smith again savaged the Conservative government, saying that under John Major's premiership, "the man with the non-Midas touch is in charge. It is no wonder that we live in a country where the Grand National does not start and hotels fall into the sea" (in reference to the 1993 Grand National, which was cancelled after a false start, and to Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, which had recently collapsed off a cliff).


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: During the same debate, Smith commented on a recent government defeat in the Newbury by-election to the Liberal Democrats, a poor showing in the local elections and a subsequent Cabinet reshuffle by saying that "if we were to offer that tale of events to the BBC Light Entertainment Department as a script for a programme, I think that the producers of "Yes Minister" would have turned it down as hopelessly over the top. It might have even been too much for "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em"". In the same speech, Smith also attacked the Conservatives' broken election promises (in particular Lamont's recent Budget decision to impose VAT on domestic energy bills) – claiming he possessed the last copy of a 1992 policy document "to escape the Central Office shredder". He also performed very well in the July 1993 motion of confidence debate on the Conservative government.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Despite his dispatch box successes (Smith was always more effective in the House of Commons than on platforms or at Prime Minister's Questions, though he began to improve at the latter towards the end of his life), Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were, under Smith's leadership, restless and privately anxious that the party had adopted a "One more heave" approach and had become over-cautious in tackling the legacy of "tax and spend".


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Despite this, during his time as leader of the Labour Party, Smith abolished the trade union block vote at Labour party conferences and replaced it with "One member, one vote" at the 1993 party conference. He also committed a future Labour government to establishing a Scottish Parliament, an aim fulfilled by his successors after his death (most notably his close friend Donald Dewar). Smith was also a committed British Unionist. During Smith's tenure as leader the Labour Party gained a significant lead in the polls over the Conservatives; on 5 May 1994, one week before Smith's death, the Conservatives suffered a major defeat in the British council elections, their worst in over 30 years. This happened in spite of the strong economic recovery and reduction of unemployment which had followed the declaration of the recession's end in April 1993. In May 1994, a poll estimated that the Labour Party was on average 23 points ahead of the Conservative Party.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: On the evening of 11 May 1994, with around 500 people present, Smith made a speech at a fundraising dinner at Park Lane Hotel, London, saying "The opportunity to serve our country—that is all we ask". At 8:05 a.m. the following morning, whilst in his Barbican flat, Smith suffered a fatal heart attack. His wife phoned an ambulance and he was taken to St Bartholomew's Hospital where he died at 9:15 a.m., having never regained consciousness. On 28 April, a fortnight before his death, Smith had visited the same accident and emergency department to campaign against its proposed closure. The doctor who had served as his tour guide, Professor Mike Besser, tried unsuccessfully to save Smith's life, and announced his death at a press conference hours later.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: In response to his death, Prime Minister John Major paid tribute in the House of Commons to Smith, including the line that he and Smith "would share a drink: sometimes tea, sometimes not tea". It was reported that there was weeping in the chamber.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: On the day of his death, the "BBC Nine O'Clock News" was extended to an hour as opposed to the usual half-hour. This replaced the medical drama which was due to follow at 9:30, coincidentally entitled "Cardiac Arrest". During "Question Time" that evening, panellists paid tribute to Smith instead of debating. George Robertson and Menzies Campbell were among the participants.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: On 20 May 1994, following a public funeral service in Cluny Parish Church, Edinburgh, which was attended by almost 1,000 people, Smith was buried in a private family service on the island of Iona, at the sacred burial ground of Reilig Odhráin, where many early Scottish and Norse kings are said to be buried. His grave is marked with an epitaph quoting the Fourth Epistle of "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope: "An honest man's the noblest work of God". His close friend Donald Dewar acted as one of Smith's pallbearers. On 14 July 1994, a memorial service for Smith took place at Westminster Abbey and was attended by over 2,000 people. The Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey gave an address.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Following Smith's death, the Labour Party renamed its Walworth Road headquarters John Smith House in his memory.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Tony Blair, Smith's successor as Leader of the Labour Party, was an effective campaigner who capitalised on public mistrust of the Conservative Party to win a landslide victory at the 1997 general election. Smith's biographer, Mark Stuart, claimed that Smith could have won Labour a victory on a scale similar to that achieved by Blair because of the combination of the Black Wednesday debacle and internal Conservative Party divisions over Europe since 1992. Stuart argues that the lack of a "Blair effect" would have meant that the Conservative Party would have held slightly over 200 seats (rather than the 165 it actually won) in the House of Commons, leaving the Conservatives in a position similar to that of Labour following the 1983 general election.


title: John Smith (Labour Party leader)

text: Smith was married to Elizabeth Bennett from 5 July 1967 until his death. Elizabeth Smith was created Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill in 1995. They had three daughters, one of whom, Sarah Smith, later served as the Washington correspondent for "Channel 4 News" and has worked for the BBC since 2014. Their other daughters are Jane, a costume designer, and Catherine, a lawyer.


title: Let's Get It Started

text: "Let's Get It Started" is a song by American musical group Black Eyed Peas, released as a single on June 14, 2004. The track was the fourth single released from the band's third studio album, "Elephunk" (2003), and is a re-worked version of the album's third track, "Let's Get Retarded". The newer version was included as a bonus track on the 2004 re-issue of the album. In early 2022, the original track "Let's Get Retarded" was replaced with "Let's Get It Started" on the track listing of "Elephunk" on all digital and streaming platforms, and the original version became unavailable. It was remixed for the Black Eyed Peas' fifth studio album, "The E.N.D." as "Let's Get Re-Started", available on expanded versions of the album. It was also featured on their remix album "".


title: Let's Get It Started

text: The album version was originally only re-worked for its use in promotion for the 2004 NBA Playoffs on ABC in April 2004; however, the new version was so well-received that it was given an official single release two months later. "Let's Get It Started" became a commercial hit and won Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group at the 2005 Grammy Awards, and it was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Rap Song.


title: Let's Get It Started

text: The music video takes place in a nighttime setting on a Los Angeles street. It features the Black Eyed Peas, particularly will.i.am, performing energetic dances while singing the song, while varying objects in the background (including a grand piano) smash against the ground in real-time, slow and fast motion, and in reverse. The choruses feature the band on stage singing to a large crowd.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Noddy is an English character created by English children's author Enid Blyton. Noddy first appeared in a book series published between 1949 and 1963, illustrated by the Dutch artist Harmsen van der Beek from 1949 until his death in 1953, after which the work was continued by Peter Wienk. Television shows based on the character have run on British television since 1955.


title: Noddy (character)

text: The first book explains Noddy's origins. He is made by a woodcarver in a toy store but runs away after the man begins to make a wooden lion, which scares Noddy. As he wanders through the woods naked, penniless, and homeless, he meets Big Ears, a friendly brownie. Big Ears decides that Noddy is a toy and takes him to live in Toyland. He generously provides Noddy with a set of clothing and a house. While Noddy is quite happy to be a toy, the citizens of Toyland are not sure that he actually is one. They put Noddy on trial and examine whether he is a toy or an ornament. Eventually, Noddy is declared a toy, but still has to convince the court that he is a good toy. The judge accepts that Noddy is good after a doll tells the court that he saved her little girl from a lion, and he is allowed to stay in Toyland. Noddy gets his car in the second book. It is given to him after he helps solve a local mystery.


title: Noddy (character)

text: The other toys can hear him coming by the distinctive "Parp Parp" sound of his car's horn and the jingle of the bell on his blue hat. Often he uses his car to visit all of the places in Toyland. When his taxi business is not doing so well, or when he needs help, Noddy turns to Big Ears. Big Ears will often lend him what he needs. On occasion, Noddy will allow people to make his head nod, in exchange for small items such as his morning milk.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Noddy is kind and honest, but he often gets into trouble, either through his own misunderstandings or because someone, usually one of the naughty goblins Sly or Gobbo, has played a trick on him. He is very childlike in his understanding of the world and often becomes confused as a result. For example, in the first Noddy book, Noddy and Big Ears are building Noddy's house for one. Noddy suggests that they build the roof first, in case it rains. With no understanding of gravity or of the need for roof supports, this is perfectly logical to him. As the series continues, Noddy becomes wiser but without losing his charm and lovable naivety.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Noddy's best friends are Big Ears, Tessie Bear, Bumpy Dog, and the Tubby Bears. Big Ears, who brought Noddy to Toyland, is the most important figure in his life. Whenever he faces serious peril, it tends to be Big Ears who comes to the rescue, one way or another, and it is invariably Big Ears to whom Noddy turns for support and reassurance. Big Ears is not so much a parental figure, but more like a guardian, or perhaps Noddy's attorney. While kind to Noddy, Big Ears has an intimidating presence and voice that makes him feared by goblins. He is capable of facing down wizards with his own spells, and is able to plead Noddy's case to Mr. Plod, the local policeman, when Noddy finds himself in legal peril. On rare occasions, however, Big Ears finds himself in trouble, in which case Noddy comes to his aid. Big Ears and Noddy have rarely quarreled seriously. Examples of such quarrels are when Big Ears harshly scolded the very sensitive Tessie Bear for failing to control her dog and when Noddy ran his car into Big Ears's clothes post and then drove away, dragging Big Ears's clean washing behind him.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Tessie is a gentle-hearted, gold bear who often wears a bonnet with flowers and a skirt. She is young like Noddy, and very loving towards all of her friends and neighbours. Bumpy Dog is Tessie's pet. He loves to run up and "bump" people over. Noddy frequently gets annoyed with Bumpy but still likes him. Whenever Noddy threatens Bumpy, Tessie gets upset, and sometimes even begins to cry. The Tubby Bears live next door to Noddy. They are gold and chubby teddy bears. Mr. and Mrs. Tubby Bear frequently help Noddy. It is clear that Mr. and Mrs. Tubby Bear are the superiors of Noddy, as if he were a child. Their first names are never mentioned and Noddy always refers to them as Mr. and Mrs. They have one son, also named Tubby, who is occasionally referred to as Master Tubby. Tubby is naughty and is usually in trouble for breaking rules, being rude, or doing something wrong. Noddy often attempts to scold or punish Tubby, with little result. On one occasion, Tubby gets tired of always being bossed around and being punished and decides to run away to sea. Noddy and Bumpy accidentally join with him. By the end of the journey, Tubby misses his parents and brings them back presents from his trip, as an apology.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Noddy has many run-ins with Mr. Plod. Some are caused by Noddy's lack of understanding of how Toyland works. Other times it is because of a case of mistaken identity, Mr. Plod is generally long-suffering towards Noddy and Noddy likes Mr. Plod and frequently goes out of his way to help him. Mr. Plod often catches the mischief makers on his police bicycle, by blowing his whistle and shouting "Halt in the name of Plod!!" before locking the culprits up in his jail.


title: Noddy (character)

text: It is said that Enid Blyton took inspiration for Noddy from the village of Studland in Dorset where she would holiday virtually every summer. A small copse nearby was said to be Noddy's Wood. PC Christopher Rhone whom Blyton met while he was on the beat came to be immortalised as PC Plod in the Noddy books, and the national archetype of a flatfooted copper.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Early Noddy books have become collectibles, along with other Blytons. The total number is hard to count: the "Noddy Library" (Sampson Low) of two dozen titles, which became the "New Noddy Library" when revised, was just part of a big production in the 1950s, with "Big Noddy Books" of larger format, and strip books. There were numerous spin-offs, also. Widely differing estimates can be found.


title: Noddy (character)

text: The 24 original Noddy books by Enid Blyton were published between 1949 and 1963. Harmsen Van der Beek illustrated the first 7 Noddy books. After Beek's death in 1953 the original style was maintained by illustrators Robert Tyndall, Peter Wienk, Mary Brooks and Robert Lee.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Sales of Noddy books are large, with an estimated 600,000 annual sales in France alone, and growing popularity in India, a large market for Blyton books. The Noddy character was formerly owned by Chorion, who sold the rights on to DreamWorks Classics (a part of DreamWorks Animation which now a subsidiary of NBCUniversal) in 2012.


title: Noddy (character)

text: On 17 November 2008, it was announced that Enid Blyton's granddaughter, Sophie Smallwood, was to write a new Noddy book to celebrate the character's 60th birthday. "Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle" (2009) was illustrated by Robert Tyndall, who has drawn the characters in the Noddy books since 1953, ever since the death of the original illustrator, Harmsen van der Beek.


title: Noddy (character)

text: In the 1990s and early 2000s TV series adaptation, as well as a new series of books, Noddy has been updated, with the original Golliwog characters replaced by other sorts of toys. For example, Mr. Golly who ran the Toyland garage was replaced by Frenchman Monsieur Polly in the 1975 series, and, during the 1992–1999 series, by Mr. Sparks. Dinah Doll, described as "a black, assertive minority female", was added to the franchise by then.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Noddy first appeared on stage at the 2660-seat Stoll Theatre in Kingsway, London, in 1954. The very large cast were all children or teenagers, mostly from the Italia Conti acting school. There was a full theatre orchestra. The finale was a scene at the "Faraway Tree", with many of the children dressed as fairies, flying on wires. It ran for several years, but the Stoll was knocked down and replaced by an office block in the late 1950s. The Peacock Theatre was built in the basement of the new building, but Noddy did not return.


title: Noddy (character)

text: In 1963, Noddy was featured in the animated short film "Noddy Goes to Toyland", it was produced by Arthur Humberstone for Enid Blyton.


title: Noddy (character)

text: In 1993, a stage production of Noddy opened at Wimbledon Theatre, followed by a long UK national tour, including a Christmas season in London at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and was released on home video in 1994. The production was presented by Clarion Productions. The production was written and directed by David Wood with scene and costume designs by Susie Calcutt. The original cast included Eric Potts as Big Ears and Karen Briffett as Noddy. The show was very well received among critics, audiences and even Enid Blyton's daughter Gillian Baverstock. David Wood adapted a successful sequel to the play entitled "Noddy and the Tootle" which opened at the Wimbledon Theatre and endured on a long UK National Tour in 1995–1996. Karen Briffett reprised her role as Noddy and Big Ears was played by Jonathan Broxholme. This production was too presented by Clarion Productions.


title: Noddy (character)

text: The characters returned during September 2002 for a computer-animated series, which was named "Make Way for Noddy". This was created by Chorion, in association with SD Entertainment and the 100 episodes were produced in 2001 externally.


title: Noddy (character)

text: In 2005, a set of 100 new two-minute TV interstitials were created by Chorion. These interstitials, entitled "Say it with Noddy", feature Noddy learning words in a variety of foreign languages. They also introduced Noddy's new friend Whizz from Robot Village, who presses a button on his chest to play recordings of native speakers saying the new foreign words Noddy was to learn. The interstitials were featured on commercial breaks on Five and featured as segments for the American release of the show on PBS and Sprout.


title: Noddy (character)

text: A CG animated series, called "Noddy in Toyland", was made in 2009 by Chorion and produced by Brown Bag Films in Ireland. This series incorporates Whizz from "Say it with Noddy" as a full-time character. Sly and Gobbo's cousins, Sneaky and Stealth, are introduced and usually work alongside them. The full series is available digitally on iTunes.


title: Noddy (character)

text: In 2012, Chorion sold the Noddy character to ClassicMedia, which in turn was bought out by DreamWorks Animation, leading to another CG animated series, named "Noddy, Toyland Detective" was produced by French producer/distributor Gaumont Animation, in association with DreamWorks Animation Television, and in partnership with France Télévisions. It premiered on Channel Five's preschool block Milkshake! on 18 April 2016.


title: Noddy (character)

text: There was a spoof page of "Noddy-ana" in "Hot Rod" magazine (U.K.), in about 1976–1978; Noddy had a hot rod, and Big Ears smoked, and was very disrespectful to Mr. Plod.


title: Noddy (character)

text: In the book "Seven Deadly Wonders" by Matthew Reilly, a character is nicknamed Noddy, while his best friend's nickname is Big Ears.


title: Noddy (character)

text: IDW's "The Transformers" introduced the character of "Tappet", a robot who is based on Noddy visually and clearly transforms into Noddy's classic car.


title: Noddy (character)

text: The puppet of Big Ears from the 1955–1963 Noddy television series appeared as a member of the "Puppet Government" in "The Goodies" episode "The Goodies Rule – O.K.?".


title: Noddy (character)

text: In Alan Moore's series "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", Toyland is a real nation located in the Arctic Circle. The King and Queen of Toyland are Frankenstein's Monster and Olympia, the automaton from "The Tales of Hoffmann".


title: Noddy (character)

text: Noddy, Big Ears and PC Plod are referred to in the "Two Ronnies" crossword sketch where Ronnie Corbett thinks their names are "Roddy, Big Ears, and PC Plop!"


title: Noddy (character)

text: In an episode of "Last of the Summer Wine", all of the characters are dressed up as fairy tale characters for a parade. Smiler is dressed as Noddy complete with a smaller version of his car in order to tow a bouncy castle with the rest of the characters on it, but it deflated while they were taking part.


title: Noddy (character)

text: Noddy being associated with small children's reading has led to "Noddy" being sometimes used as an adjective meaning "petty or trivial" (compare with "Mickey Mouse"), for example, in computer programming: ""This simultaneous linear equation subroutine crashes out on the Noddy case when n = 1, but otherwise it works."" or ""Remember to check all the Noddy cases.""


title: Noddy (character)

text: In Britain the word plod became a derogatory term to describe a police officer due to the success of the Noddy franchise, and its character PC Plod. For example somebody could say, “I’m not having a good morning, I was driving to work this morning and got pulled over by the plod for driving too fast”


title: Noddy (character)

text: "Toytown" was a BBC radio series for children, broadcast for Children's Hour on the Home Service from 1929. It featured Larry The Lamb as its chief character.


title: Navy bean

text: The navy bean, haricot, pearl haricot bean, Boston bean, white pea bean, or pea bean is a variety of the common bean ("Phaseolus vulgaris") native to the Americas, where it was first domesticated. It is a dry white bean that is smaller than many other types of white beans, and has an oval, slightly flattened shape. It features in such dishes as baked beans, various soups such as Senate bean soup, and even pies.


title: Navy bean

text: The green bean plants that produce navy beans may be either of the bush type or vining type, depending on which cultivar they are.


title: Navy bean

text: The name "Navy bean" is an American term coined because the US Navy has served the beans as a staple to its sailors since the mid-1800s.


title: Navy bean

text: In Australia, navy bean production began during World War II when it became necessary to find an economical way of supplying a nutritious food to the many troops—especially American troops—based in Queensland. The United States military maintained a large base in Kingaroy and had many bases and camps throughout south-east Queensland. It actively encouraged the widespread planting of the beans. Kingaroy is known as the Baked Bean Capital of Australia. Another popular name for the bean during this time was "the Yankee bean".


title: Navy bean

text: White beans are the most abundant plant-based source of phosphatidylserine (PS) yet known. It contains notably high levels of apigenin, , which vary widely among legumes.


title: Navy bean

text: Consumption of baked beans has been shown to lower total cholesterol levels and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. This might be at least partly explained by the high saponin content of navy beans. Saponins also exhibit antibacterial and anti-fungal activity, and have been found to inhibit cancer cell growth. Furthermore, navy beans are the richest source of ferulic acid and p-coumaric acid among the common bean varieties.


title: Navy bean

text: Dried and canned beans stay fresh longer by storing them in a pantry or other cool, dark place under . With normal seed storage, seeds should last from one to four years for replanting, with a very large timetable for cooking for well-kept seeds, nearing on indefinite. Avoid beans that are discolored from the pure white color of these beans, as they may have been poorly handled while they dried.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" is the debut single by English girl group the Spice Girls. Written and composed by the group members in collaboration with Matt Rowe and Richard "Biff" Stannard during the group's first professional songwriting session, it was produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album, "Spice", released in November 1996. The song was written, composed, and recorded very quickly but the result was considered lacklustre by their label and was sent to be mixed by Dave Way. The group was not pleased with the result, and the recording was mixed again, this time by Mark "Spike" Stent.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" is a moderately paced dance-pop song which features Mel B and Geri Halliwell rapping. The lyrics, which address the value of female friendship over heterosexual relationships, became an iconic symbol of female empowerment and the most emblematic song of the group's Girl Power philosophy. Despite receiving mixed reviews from music critics, the song won for Best British-Written Single at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards and for British Single of the Year at the 1997 Brit Awards.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" was heavily promoted by the group. Its music video, directed by Johan Camitz, became a big success on the British cable network The Box, which sparked press interest in the group. Subsequently, the song had intensive radio airplay across England, while the group performed it on television programmes and started doing interviews and photo shoots for teen magazines.


title: Wannabe

text: Responding to the wave of public interest in the group, Virgin released the song as the group's debut single in the United Kingdom in July 1996, well ahead of the planned release date of the "Spice" album. "Wannabe" topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks and has received a double Platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The song was released in the United States in January 1997, topping the "Billboard" Hot 100 for four weeks. It was the group's only number-one single in that country. By the end of 1996, "Wannabe" had topped the charts in 22 nations, and by March 1997 this number had climbed to 37. "Wannabe" became the best-selling single by a girl group in the world, with 1,385,211 and 2,910,000 copies sold in United Kingdom (by 2017) and United States (by 2014), respectively, and over 7 million copies worldwide by the end of 1997. In a 2014 study, it was found to be the most easily recognisable pop song of the last 60 years. An EP titled "Wannabe 25" was released in 2021 to mark the single's 25th anniversary.


title: Wannabe

text: In March 1994, father-and-son team Bob and Chris Herbert, together with financer Chic Murphy, working under the business name of Heart Management, placed an advertisement in "The Stage", which asked the question: "Are you street smart, extrovert, ambitious, and able to sing and dance?" After receiving hundreds of replies, the management had narrowed their search to a group of five girls: Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, and Michelle Stephenson. The group moved to a house in Maidenhead and received the name "Touch". Stephenson was eventually fired because she lacked the drive of the other group members. She was replaced by Emma Bunton. In November, the group—now named "Spice"—persuaded their managers to set up a showcase in front of industry writers, producers, and A&R men at the Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, London. Producer Richard Stannard, at the studio for a meeting with pop star Jason Donovan, attended the showcase after hearing Brown, as she went charging across the corridor. Stannard recalls:


title: Wannabe

text: More than anything, they just made me laugh. I couldn't believe I'd walked into this situation. You didn't care if they were in time with the dance steps or whether one was overweight or one wasn't as good as the others. It was something more. It just made you feel happy. Like great pop records.


title: Wannabe

text: Stannard stayed behind after the showcase to talk to the group. He then reported to his songwriter partner, Matt Rowe, that he had found "the pop group of their dreams". Chris Herbert booked the group's first professional songwriting session with the producers at the Strongroom in Curtain Road, East London, in January 1995. Rowe recalls feelings similar to Stannard's: "I love them. Immediately. [...] They were like no one I'd met before, really." The session was productive; Stannard and Rowe discussed the songwriting process with the group and talked about what the group wanted to do on the record. In her autobiography, Brown recalls that the duo instinctively understood their point of view and knew how to incorporate "the spirit of five loud girls into great pop music".


title: Wannabe

text: The first song the Spice Girls wrote with Stannard and Rowe was called "Feed Your Love", a slow and soulful song that was recorded and mastered for the group's debut album; the song was not used because it was considered too sexually explicit for the target audience. The group next proposed to write a track with an uptempo dance-pop rhythm. Rowe set up a drum loop on his MPC3000 drum machine. Its fast rhythm reminded Stannard of the scene in "Grease". Stannard commented that the only pre-planned concept for the song was that it should represent the essence of what they were. The group then added their own contributions to the song, Rowe recalls:


title: Wannabe

text: They made all these different bits up, not thinking in terms of verse, chorus, bridge or what was going to go where, just coming up with all these sections of chanting, rapping and singing, which we recorded all higgledy-piggledy. And then we just sewed it together. It was rather like the way we'd been working on the dance remixes we'd been doing before. Kind of a cut-and-paste method.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" was completed in thirty minutes—mainly because the group had written and composed parts of the song beforehand—in what Brown describes as a "sudden creative frenzy". During the session, Brown and Bunton came up with the idea of including a rap near the end of the song. At this point the group got very motivated, and incorporated the word "zigazig-ah" into the lyrics. Chisholm told "Billboard" magazine: "You know when you're in a gang and you're having a laugh and you make up silly words? Well we were having a giggle and we made up this silly word, zigazig-ah. We were in the studio and it all came together in this song."


title: Wannabe

text: While most of the other songs on the "Spice" album required two or three days of studio time, "Wannabe" was recorded in less than an hour. The solo parts were divided between Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and Halliwell. Adams missed most of the writing session and communicated with the rest of the group on a mobile phone. In her autobiography, she wrote: "I just couldn't bear not being there. Because whatever they said about how it didn't matter, it did matter. Saying 'Yes, I like that' or 'Not sure about that' down the phone is not the same." She contributed backing vocals and sings during the chorus. Rowe stayed up all night working on the song, and it was finished by morning, the only later addition was the sound of Brown's footsteps as she ran to the microphone.


title: Wannabe

text: The group parted with Heart Management in March 1995 because of their frustration with the management company's unwillingness to listen to their visions and ideas. The girls met with artist manager Simon Fuller, who signed them with 19 Entertainment. The group considered a variety of record labels, and signed a deal with Virgin Records in July. The original mix of "Wannabe" was considered lacklustre by Virgin executives. Ashley Newton, who was in charge of A&R, sent the song to American producer Dave Way for remixing; the result was not what the group had hoped to achieve. As Halliwell later described it, "the result was bloody awful". She elaborated in her second autobiography, "Just for the Record:" "Right at the beginning of the Spice Girls, [...] Ashley Newton had tried to turn us into an R&B group ... He brought us jungle versions and hip-hop mixes and I hated them all. Although Mel B was a big fan of R&B, she agreed with me that these versions just didn't work so we exercised our Spice veto!" Fuller gave the song to audio engineer Mark "Spike" Stent, who thought that it was a "weird pop record". Stent remixed it in six hours, in what he described as "tightening it up" and "getting the vocals sounding really good."


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" is a dance-pop song with influences of hip hop and rap. Written in the key of B major, it is set in the time signature of common time and moves at a moderate tempo of 110 beats per minute. It uses the sequence B–D–E–A–A♯ as a bass line during the refrain, the chorus, and the bridge, and uses a chord progression of F♯–G♯m–E–B for the verses. The song is constructed in a verse-pre-chorus-chorus form, with a rapped bridge before the third and final chorus. Musically, it is "energised" by a highly syncopated synthesised riff, and by the way the repetitive lyrics and rhythm are highlighted during the bridge. "Wannabe" presents a different version of the traditional pop love song performed by females; its energetic, self-assertive style expresses a confident independence that is not reliant on the male figure for its continuance.


title: Wannabe

text: The song opens with Halliwell's laugh, followed by "undislodgeable piano notes" inspired by the "Grease" "Summer Nights" bassline. The first lines of the refrain are rapped in a call and response interaction between Brown and Halliwell. The words "tell", "really" and "I wanna" are repeated, so that the vocal tone and lyrics build up an image of female self-assertion. The refrain ends with the word "zigazig-ah", which musicologist Sheila Whiteley compared to the neologisms created by Lewis Carroll; other writers have considered it a euphemism for female sexual desire, which is ambiguously sexualised or broadly economic. The first verse follows; Chisholm, Bunton, Brown, and Halliwell sing one line individually, in that order. In this part, the lyrics have a pragmatic sense of control of the situation; they begin, "If you want my future, forget my past." This, according to Whiteley, taps directly into the emotions of the young teenage audience.


title: Wannabe

text: During the chorus, the lyrics—"If you wanna be my lover/You gotta get with my friends"—address the value of female friendship over heterosexual relationships, while the ascending group of chords and the number of voices creates a sense of power that adds to the song's level of excitement. The same pattern occurs, leading to the second chorus. Towards the end, Brown and Halliwell rap the bridge, which serves as a presentation to each of the girls' personalities. The group repeats the chorus for the last time, ending the song with energetic refrains— "Slam your body down and wind it all around"—and the word "zigazig-ah".


title: Wannabe

text: After signing the group, Virgin Records launched a major campaign for their debut song to promote them as the new high-profile act. There was a period of indecision about what song would be released as the first single; the label wanted to get everything right for the campaign, because the all-girl group format was untested. The group, led by Brown and Halliwell, was adamant that the debut song should be "Wannabe", they felt it served as an introduction to their personalities and the Girl Power statement. Virgin's executives believed that the first single should either be "Say You'll Be There", which they considered a much "cooler" track, or "Love Thing". At the beginning of 1996 the impasse between the group and their record label about the release of the single was temporarily solved. In March, Fuller announced that he agreed with Virgin in that "Wannabe" should not be the first single. The label wanted a song that appealed to the mainstream market, and nothing considered too radical. Halliwell was shocked and furious; she told Fuller, "It's not negotiable as far as we're concerned. 'Wannabe' is our first single." Fuller and the executives at Virgin relented, and the song was chosen as their first single.


title: Wannabe

text: The trigger for the Spice Girls' launch was the release of the "Wannabe" music video in May 1996. Its quick success on the British cable network The Box sparked press interest, despite initial resistance to the all-girl group idea. The same month, their first music press interviews appeared in "Music Week", "Top of the Pops", and "Smash Hits", and their first live TV slot was broadcast on LWT's "Surprise Surprise". A month after the video's release, the song was receiving intensive airplay on the main radio stations across the UK, while the group started to appear on television—mainly on kid's programmes such as "Live & Kicking"—and doing interviews and photo shoots for teen magazines. A full-page advertisement appeared in the July issue of "Smash Hits", saying: "Wanted: Anyone with a sense of fun, freedom and adventure. Hold tight, get ready! Girl Power is comin' at you". The group appeared on the television programme "This Morning with Richard and Judy", and performed at their first Radio One road show in Birmingham.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" was released in the United Kingdom on 8 July 1996 in two single versions. The first one, released in two formats—a standard CD single and a cassette single—included the radio edit of the track, the Motiv 8 vocal slam remix, and the B-side, "Bumper to Bumper". The group wrote "Bumper to Bumper" with Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins—the songwriter-production duo known as Absolute—and British singer-songwriter Cathy Dennis. The second version, released on maxi single format, featured the radio edit, an instrumental version, the Motiv 8 dub slam remix, and the Dave Way alternative mix. This version came with a fold-out postcard inlay and a stickered case.


title: Wannabe

text: During the weeks following the UK release, the group began promotional visits abroad. They did three trips to Japan and brief visits to Germany and the Netherlands. On a trip to the Far East, they visited Hong Kong, Thailand, and South Korea. In January 1997 they travelled to North America to do a promotional campaign that Phil Quartararo, president of Virgin Records America, described as "absolutely massive". In Canada, the group did interviews for newspapers and radio stations, appeared in television programmes such as "Hit List", and "MusiquePlus", and attended an autograph signing at Montreal's HMV Megastore. During their visit to the US, the group met with influential radio programmers, TV networks, and magazines. In addition, the music video was placed into heavy rotation by MTV.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" received mixed reviews from UK music critics. Paul Gorman of "Music Week" called the group "smart, witty, abrasive and downright fun". He described the song as a "R&B-lite debut single", and noted influences from Neneh Cherry in it. In a review conducted by the British pop band Deuce for "Smash Hits" magazine, the group described "Wannabe" as "limp", "awful", and "not strong enough for a debut single." Kate Thornton, editor of "Top of the Pops" magazine, commented that the all-girl group idea was "not going to happen;" she considered it too threatening. In her review for "The Guardian", Caroline Sullivan called it a combination of "cute hip pop and a vaguely feminist lyric", she was also surprised that "considering the slightness of 'Wannabe,'" the group had an overwhelming amount of offers from record companies. The magazine "NME" characterised the song as "a combined force of Bananarama, Betty Boo and Shampoo rolled into one." Dele Fadele of the same magazine called the rap during the song's bridge "annoying", and added, writing of the group's music: "It's not good. It's not clever. But it's fun." The magazine named "Wannabe" the worst single of the year at the 1997 NME Awards. Conversely, it won for Best Single at the 1997 BRIT Awards, and for International Hit of the Year and Best British-Written Single at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards presented by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. The song was ranked at number 33 in VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s", and at number 111 on NME's 2011 list of "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".


title: Wannabe

text: In the United States, reaction to the song was also mixed. In a review of the group's debut album, Edna Gundersen of "USA Today" said that "Wannabe" is "a melodious but disposable tune that typifies this debut's tart bubblegum and packaged sexiness." Greg Kot of the "Chicago Tribune" called it "insidiously snappy, [...] [that] is shaping up as this year's 'Macarena.'" Karla Peterson of "The San Diego Union-Tribune" said that "'Wannabe' has UGH written all over it," adding that it was "relentlessly catchy and horrifyingly hummable". "The Buffalo News"s Anthony Violanti called it "irresistible". Sarah Rodman of "The Boston Globe" described it as a "maniacally zippy single", and Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com referred to it as an "unapologetically sassy dance hit". Melissa Ruggieri of the "Richmond Times-Dispatch" commented that "based on their efficacious American debut single, [...] the Spice Girls might be expected to deliver more of that zingy pop on their debut album," but she felt that "aside from 'Wannabe,' the album's dance tracks are color-by-numbers bland." Larry Flick of "Billboard" magazine said that "fans of the more edgy girl-group [...] may find this single too fluffy," but added that "everyone else with a love of tasty pop hooks, lyrical positivity, and jaunty rhythms is going to be humming this single for months to come."


title: Wannabe

text: Some reviewers noticed the combination of musical genres. Christina Kelly from "Rolling Stone" magazine criticised the group's image, and added that their songs, including "Wannabe", were "a watered-down mix of hip-hop and cheesy pop balladry, brought together by a manager with a marketing concept." Matt Diehl of "Entertainment Weekly" said that it was "more a compendium of music styles (from ABBA-style choruses to unconvincing hip hop) than an actual song," and Sara Scribner of the "Los Angeles Times" described it as "a bubblegum hip-hop confection of rapping lifted off Neneh Cherry and Monie Love albums." Charles Aaron of "Spin" magazine called it "a quickie, mid-'80s teen paperback come to life [...] so gooey it melts in your hands, not in your mouth" (an apparent reference to the M&M's slogan "melts in your mouth, not in your hands"). The song ranked at fifteenth in the American Pazz & Jop, a nationwide critics poll published by "The Village Voice" and conducted by its music editor Robert Christgau, who called it "a classic".


title: Wannabe

text: Present-day reviews from critics, however, are mostly positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic said that "none of the girls have great voices, but they do exude personality and charisma, which is what drives bouncy dance-pop like 'Wannabe,' with its ridiculous 'zig-a-zig-ahhh' hook, into pure pop guilty pleasure." Dan Cairns of "The Sunday Times" said that the song "leaves a bad taste in the mouth: [because] the true legacy of Girl Power is, arguably, a preteen clothing industry selling crop tops and other minimal garments to young girls," but added that it "remains the same two minutes and 53 seconds of pop perfection that it ever was." In a review of their "Greatest Hits" album, IGN said that after ten years it "still sound reasonably fresh", while Digital Spy's Nick Levine said that "Wannabe" still remained an "exuberant calling card". "Billboard" named the song #5 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time and the Best Pop Song of 1997.


title: Wannabe

text: As part of Virgin's strategy to make the group an international act, "Wannabe" was released in Japan and Southeast Asia two weeks before its British release. After the song was placed into heavy rotation on FM stations in Japan, the Spice Girls made promotional tours in May, July, and September 1996. The group received major press and TV exposure, appearing in programmes such as "Space Shower". The single was released by Toshiba EMI on 26 June 1996, and sold 100,000 copies by October 1996.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number three, six days after its physical release, with sales of 73,000 copies. It climbed to number one the next week, and spent seven weeks at the top, the second-longest stay by an all-female group, only behind Shakespears Sister's "Stay". With eighteen weeks in the top forty and twenty-six weeks in the top seventy-five, it became the second-biggest selling single of the year, and as of November 2012 has sold over 1.38 million copies, the biggest-selling single by a female group in the UK.


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" was commercially successful in the rest of Europe. On 4 September 1996 the song reached the top of the Eurochart Hot 100, where it stayed for nine consecutive weeks, when it was replaced by the group's second single, "Say You'll Be There". "Wannabe" topped the singles charts in Belgium (both the Flemish and French charts), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, and peaked inside the top five in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Italy. The song was a success in Oceania. In Australia, it debuted at number sixty-four, reached the top of the ARIA Charts for eleven weeks, and ended at number five on the 1996 year-end chart. In New Zealand, it debuted on 1 September 1996 at number thirty-eight, reaching the top position ten weeks later. It spent one week at the top and seventeen consecutive weeks inside the top ten. "Wannabe" also topped the singles charts in Hong Kong and Israel.


title: Wannabe

text: In Canada, it debuted at the eighty-ninth position of the "RPM" singles chart on the week beginning 16 December 1996, a full month before it hit the US charts. It peaked at nine in its eighth week, and ended at number sixty-eight on the year-end chart. The song performed better on the dance chart, where it reached the top for three weeks, and ended at the top of the year-end chart. In the US, the song debuted on 25 January 1997 at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a British act, beating the record previously held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at number twelve. It reached the top of the chart in its fifth week, and stayed there for four consecutive weeks simultaneously with the group's fourth single ("Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are") being at number one in the UK. "Wannabe" reached the sixth position of the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and topped the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart for four consecutive weeks, selling over 1.8 million copies as of January 1998. It peaked at four on the Mainstream Top 40, and was a crossover success, topping the Rhythmic Top 40, peaking at twenty on the Hot Dance Club Play and at nine on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. New remixes of the song were produced in 2007 in conjunction with the release of their Greatest Hits CD and these rose to number 15 on the Billboard Dance Charts. "Wannabe" also remains the best selling song by a female group in the United States with 2,910,000 physical singles and downloads combined, according to Nielsen SoundScan in 2014.


title: Wannabe

text: The music video for "Wannabe" was the first for director Johan Camitz. Camitz was hired on Fuller's recommendation because of his commercials for Volkswagen, Diesel, and Nike. His original concept for the video was a one-take shoot of the group arriving at an exotic building in Barcelona, taking over the place, and running riot—the same way they did when they were looking for a manager and a record company. A few days before the shoot on 19 April 1996, Camitz was unable to get permission to use the building, and the shoot was relocated to the Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras, London.


title: Wannabe

text: The video features the group running, singing, dancing, and creating mischief at an eccentric bohemian party. Among their antics is Chisholm's back handspring on one of the tables. Because the video was intended to be taken in one shot, the group rehearsed the routine several times through the night, while a Steadicam operator followed them. The final video has the appearance of one continuous shot, but the footage was cut together from two takes. About the experience, Halliwell wrote: "The video I remember as being very chaotic and cold. It wasn't very controlled—we didn't want it to be. We wanted the camera to capture the madness of the Spice Girls". Virgin's executives were horrified with the final result: "the girls were freezing cold, which showed itself in various different ways", Ashley Newton recalled. The video was later banned in some parts of Asia because of Brown's erect nipples. Additionally, the lighting was considered too dark and gloomy; the best takes showed the girls bumping with the furniture and looking behind them. Virgin was concerned that old people appeared on the video; the part when they jump up on the table, and Halliwell's showgirl outfit would be considered too threatening by music channels. Virgin immediately opened discussions about a re-shoot of the video or creating an alternate one for the US, but the group refused. The video was sent for trial airing in its original form in January 1997.


title: Wannabe

text: When the music video first appeared on the British cable network The Box, it was selected so frequently that it reached the top of the viewers' chart within two hours of going on air, and stayed at number one for thirteen weeks until it was replaced by the group's next music video for "Say You'll Be There". At its peak, up to fifteen percent of the 250,000 weekly telephone requests to the Box were for "Wannabe", and it was aired up to seventy times a week, becoming the most requested track in the channel's history. "Wannabe" won Best Dance Video at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards, and Best Video at the 1997 Comet Media Awards. It was also nominated for Best British Video at the 1997 BRIT Awards and was ranked at number forty-one in The 100 Greatest Pop Videos of all time by Channel 4.


title: Wannabe

text: In 2015, "Billboard" included the video for "Wannabe" in their list of the Top Ten Most Iconic Girl Group Music Videos of All Time, noting: "They were basically unknown to U.S. audiences when the video for debut single 'Wannabe' -- a riotous, one-shot stroll through the Girls gleefully messing up some posh U.K. soiree -- premiered, but by the end of the four-minute clip, we knew absolutely everything we needed to know about the Spice Girls. You get the individual personalities of all five members, the infectious togetherness of the group at large, and most importantly, the sense that they were coming to absolutely blast through American pop music and mess up everything we previously thought we knew."


title: Wannabe

text: To coincide with the Spice25 release on 29 October 2021, the Spice Girls released a lyric video for “Wannabe”, set inside the Midland Grand Hotel.


title: Wannabe

text: The Spice Girls were in Japan when "Wannabe" went to number one in the UK. The group made their first appearance on "Top of the Pops" by satellite link from Tokyo, where they used a local temple as a backdrop for their mimed performance. They have performed the song several more times on the show, including the programme's 1996 Christmas special. It was performed many times on television, in both Europe and the US, including "An Audience with...", the "Bravo Supershow", "Sorpresa¡ Sorpresa!", "Fully Booked", "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee", "The Oprah Winfrey Show", and "Saturday Night Live". The performance at "Saturday Night Live" on 12 April 1997 was featured in the 5-part TV musical special "SNL: 25 Years of Music", and was the first time the group ever performed "Wannabe" with a live band—their previous performances had all been either lip-synched or sung to a recorded backing track.


title: Wannabe

text: The group performed it at awards ceremonies such as the 1996 Smash Hits! Awards, the 1996 Irish Music Awards, the 1997 BRIT Awards, and the 1997 Channel V Music Awards held in New Delhi, where they wore Indian costumes and entered the stage in auto rickshaws. In October 1997 the group performed "Wannabe" as the last song of their first live concert at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey. The performance was broadcast on Showtime in a pay-per-view event titled "Spice Girls in Concert Wild!", and was later included in the VHS and DVD release "Girl Power! Live in Istanbul".


title: Wannabe

text: The Spice Girls have performed the song on their four tours, the Spiceworld Tour, the Christmas in Spiceworld Tour, the Return of the Spice Girls Tour and the Spice World - 2019 Tour. After a breast-cancer scare led Geri Halliwell to leave the team at the end of the European leg of the Spiceworld Tour, her parts were replaced by Melanie Chisholm (refrain), Victoria Adams (verses), and Bunton (bridge). The performance at the tour's final concert can be found on the video "Spice Girls Live at Wembley Stadium", filmed in London, on 20 September 1998. The group performed the song on 12 August 2012 at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London as part of a medley with the song "Spice Up Your Life". It was also performed as the closing song on the Spice World - 2019 Tour.


title: Wannabe

text: An EP titled "Wannabe 25" was released on 9 July 2021 to mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe". The EP included the previously unreleased demos of "Wannabe" and "Feed Your Love".


title: Wannabe

text: As the Spice Girls' debut single, "Wannabe" has been credited for catapulting the band to global stardom and ushering in "Spicemania" in the late 1990s. Commentators have noted that the song and its accompanying video, both now considered modern pop classics, served as a wonderful introduction to the band. The "Metro's" Jon O’Brien concluded that: "From its lyrical themes of female solidarity to its insanely catchy pop hooks and mischief-making promo, the worldwide chart-topper encapsulated everything that made the group so spellbinding in the space of just two minutes and 52 seconds." "Digital Spy's" Lewis Corner agreed, adding: "It's hard to imagine any other pop act managing to make this much of an impact so quickly and effortlessly ever again."


title: Wannabe

text: "Wannabe" has also been credited with changing the mid-1990s pop music landscape, pioneering the teen pop boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Robert Copsey, editor at the UK's "Official Charts Company" explained: "There was nothing else quite like Wannabe on the radio back in summer 1996. Rock and dance music had been dominating the airwaves and charts for quite some time by that point. The Spice Girls struck at just the right moment with Wannabe; a gutsy, enthusiastic and unashamed pop song we'd all been craving without even realising it."