title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: When a receiver receives a signal that has been transmitted from the different transmitters that are part of an SFN, the signals from the different transmitters will typically have different delays, but to OFDM they will appear to simply be different multipaths of the same signal. Reception difficulties can arise, however, when the relative delay of multipaths exceeds the OFDM guard interval duration, and there are frequent reports of reception difficulties due to this issue when propagation conditions change, such as when there's high pressure, as signals travel farther than usual, and thus the signals are likely to arrive with a relative delay that is greater than the OFDM guard interval.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Low power "gap-filler" transmitters can be added to an SFN as and when desired in order to improve reception quality, although the way SFNs have been implemented in the UK up to now they have tended to consist of higher power transmitters being installed at main transmitter sites in order to keep costs down.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: An ensemble has a maximum bit rate that can be carried, but this depends on which error protection level is used. However, all DAB multiplexes can carry a total of 864 "capacity units". The number of capacity units, or CU, that a certain bit-rate level requires depends on the amount of error correction added to the transmission, as described above. In the UK, most services transmit using 'protection level three', which provides an average ECC code rate of approximately , equating to a maximum bit rate per multiplex of 1,184 kbit/s.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Various different services are embedded into one ensemble (which is also typically called a multiplex). These services can include:


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Traditionally, radio programmes were broadcast on different frequencies via AM and FM, and the radio had to be tuned into each frequency as needed. This used up a comparatively large amount of spectrum for a relatively small number of stations, limiting listening choice. DAB is a digital radio broadcasting system that, through the application of multiplexing and compression, combines multiple audio streams onto a relatively narrow band centred on a single broadcast frequency called a DAB ensemble.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Within an overall target bit rate for the DAB ensemble, individual stations can be allocated different bit rates. The number of channels within a DAB ensemble can be increased by lowering average bit rates, but at the expense of the quality of streams. Error correction under the DAB standard makes the signal more robust but reduces the total bit rate available for streams.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB broadcasts a single multiplex that is approximately 1,500 kilohertz wide (≈1,000 kilobits per second). That multiplex is then subdivided into multiple digital streams of between 9 and 12 programs. In contrast, FM HD Radio adds its digital carriers to the traditional 270 kilohertz-wide analog channels, with capability of up to 300 kbit/s per station (pure digital mode). The full bandwidth of the hybrid mode approaches 400 kHz.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The first generation DAB uses the MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2) audio codec, which has less efficient compression than newer codecs. The typical bitrate for DAB stereo programs is only 128 kbit/s or less and, as a result, most radio stations on DAB have a lower sound quality than FM, prompting a number of complaints among the audiophile community. As with DAB+ or T-DMB in Europe, FM HD Radio uses a codec based upon the MPEG-4 HE-AAC standard.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: HD Radio is a proprietary system from iBiquity Digital Corporation, a subsidiary of DTS, Inc. since 2015, which is itself owned by Xperi Corporation since 2016. DAB is an open standard deposited at ETSI.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB can give substantially higher spectral efficiency, measured in programmes per MHz and per transmitter site, than analogue systems. In many places, this has led to an increase in the number of stations available to listeners, especially outside of the major urban areas. This can be further improved with DAB+ which uses a much more efficient codec, allowing a lower bitrate per channel with little to no loss in quality. If some stations transmit in mono, their bitrate can be reduced compared to stereo broadcasts, further improving the efficiency.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Numerical example: Analog FM requires 0.2 MHz per programme. The frequency reuse factor in most countries is approximately 15 for stereo transmissions (with lesser factors for mono FM networks), meaning (in the case of stereo FM) that only one out of 15 transmitter sites can use the same channel frequency without problems with co-channel interference, i.e. cross-talk. Assuming a total availability of 102 FM channels at a bandwidth of 0.2MHz over the Band II spectrum of 87.5 to 108.0 MHz, an average of 102/15 = 6.8 radio channels are possible on each transmitter site (plus lower-power local transmitters causing less interference). This results in a system spectral efficiency of 1 / 15 / (0.2 MHz) = 0.30 programmes/transmitter/MHz. DAB with 192 kbit/s codec requires 1.536 MHz * 192 kbit/s / 1,136 kbit/s = 0.26 MHz per audio programme. The frequency reuse factor for local programmes and multi-frequency broadcasting networks (MFN) is typically 4 or 5, resulting in 1 / 4 / (0.26 MHz) = 0.96 programmes/transmitter/MHz. This is 3.2 times as efficient as analog FM for local stations. For single frequency network (SFN) transmission, for example of national programmes, the channel re-use factor is 1, resulting in 1/1/0.25 MHz = 3.85 programmes/transmitter/MHz, which is 12.7 times as efficient as FM for national and regional networks.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Note the above capacity improvement may not always be achieved at the L-band frequencies, since these are more sensitive to obstacles than the FM band frequencies, and may cause shadow fading for hilly terrain and for indoor communication. The number of transmitter sites or the transmission power required for full coverage of a country may be rather high at these frequencies, to avoid the system becoming noise limited rather than limited by co-channel interference.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The original objectives of converting to digital transmission were to enable higher fidelity, more stations and more resistance to noise, co-channel interference and multipath than in analogue FM radio. However, many countries in implementing DAB on stereo radio stations use compression to such a degree that it produces lower sound quality than that received from FM broadcasts. This is because of the bit rate levels being too low for the MPEG Layer 2 audio codec to provide high fidelity audio quality.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The BBC Research & Development department states that at least 192 kbit/s is necessary for a high fidelity stereo broadcast:


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: When the BBC in July 2006 reduced the bit-rate of transmission of its classical music station Radio 3 from 192 kbit/s to 160 kbit/s, the resulting degradation of audio quality prompted a number of complaints to the corporation. The BBC later announced that following this testing of new equipment, it would resume the previous practice of transmitting Radio 3 at 192 kbit/s whenever there were no other demands on bandwidth. (For comparison, BBC Radio 3 and all other BBC radio stations are now streamed using AAC at 320 kbit/s, described as 'HD', on BBC Radio iPlayer after a period when it was available at two different bit rates.)


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Despite the above, a survey in 2007 of DAB listeners (including mobile) has shown most find DAB to have equal or better sound quality than FM.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: By 2019 some stations had upgraded to DAB+ but rather than improving sound quality, they instead reduced it to 32 kbit/s or 64 kbit/s, often in mono.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB devices perform band-scans over the entire frequency range, presenting all stations from a single list for the user to select from.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB is capable of providing metadata alongside the audio stream. Metadata allows visual information, text and graphics - such as the station name and logo, presenter, song title and album artwork - to be displayed while a station is playing. Radio stations can provide the metadata to augment the listening experience, particularly on car receivers which have large display panels.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB can carry "radiotext" (in DAB terminology, "Dynamic Label Segment", or DLS) from the station giving real-time information such as song titles, music type and news or traffic updates, of up to 128 characters in length. This is similar to a feature of FM called RDS, which enables a radiotext of up to 64 characters.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The DAB transmission contains a local time of day and so a device may use this to automatically correct its internal clock when travelling between time zones and when changing to or from Daylight Saving.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB is not more bandwidth efficient than analogue measured in programmes per MHz of a specific transmitter (the so-called link spectral efficiency), but it is less susceptible to co-channel interference (cross talk), which makes it possible to reduce the reuse distance, i.e. use the same radio frequency channel more densely. The system spectral efficiency (the average number of radio programmes per MHz and transmitter) is a factor three more efficient than analogue FM for local radio stations. For national and regional radio networks, the efficiency is improved by more than an order of magnitude due to the use of SFNs. In that case, adjacent transmitters use the same frequency.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: In certain areas – particularly rural areas – the introduction of DAB gives radio listeners a greater choice of radio stations. For instance, in Southern Norway, radio listeners experienced an increase in available stations from 6 to 21 when DAB was introduced in November 2006.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The DAB standard integrates features to reduce the negative consequences of multipath fading and signal noise, which afflict existing analogue systems.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Also, as DAB transmits digital audio, there is no hiss with a weak signal, which can happen on FM. However, radios in the fringe of a DAB signal can experience a "bubbling mud" sound interrupting the audio or the audio cutting out altogether.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Due to sensitivity to Doppler shift in combination with multipath propagation, DAB reception range (but not audio quality) is reduced when travelling speeds of more than 120 to 200 km/h, depending on carrier frequency.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The specialised nature, limited spectrum and higher cost of DAB broadcasting equipment provides barriers to unlicensed ("pirate") stations broadcasting on DAB. In cities such as London with large numbers of unlicensed radio stations broadcasting on FM, this means that some stations can be reliably received via DAB in areas where they are regularly difficult or impossible to receive on FM because of interference from unlicensed radio stations.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Mono talk radio, news and weather channels and other non-music programs need significantly less bandwidth than a typical music radio station, which allows DAB to carry these programmes at lower bit rates, leaving more bandwidth to be used for other programs.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: However, this led to the situation where some stations are being broadcast in mono; see "" for more details.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB transmitters are inevitably more expensive than their FM counterparts. DAB uses higher frequencies than FM and therefore there may be a need to compensate with more transmitters to achieve the same coverage as a single FM transmitter. DAB is commonly transmitted by a different company from the broadcaster who then sells the capacity to a number of radio stations. This shared cost can work out cheaper than operating an individual FM transmitter.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: This efficiency originates from the ability a DAB network has in broadcasting more channels per transmitter/network. One network can broadcast 6–10 channels (with MP2 audio codec) or 10–18 channels (with HE AAC codec). Hence, it is thought that the replacement of FM-radios and FM-transmitters with new DAB-radios and DAB-transmitters will not cost any more compared with new FM facilities. It is also argued that the power consumption will be lower for stations transmitted on a single DAB multiplex compared with individual analog transmitters.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Once applied, one operator has claimed that DAB transmission is as low as one-nineteenth of the cost of FM transmission.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The reception quality during the early stage of deployment of DAB was poor even for people who live well within the coverage area. The reason for this is that DAB uses weak error correction coding, so that when there are a lot of errors with the received data not enough of the errors can be corrected and a "bubbling mud" sound occurs. In some cases a complete loss of signal can happen. This situation has been improved upon in the newer DAB+ version that uses stronger error correction coding and as additional transmitters are built.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: As with other digital systems, when the signal is weak or suffers severe interference, it will not work at all. DAB reception may also be a problem for receivers when the wanted signal is adjacent to a stronger one. This was a particular issue for early and low cost receivers.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: A common complaint by listeners is that broadcasters 'squeeze in' more stations per ensemble than recommended by:


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: The nature of a single-frequency network (SFN) is such that the transmitters in a network must broadcast the same signal at the same time. To achieve synchronization, the broadcaster must counter any differences in propagation time incurred by the different methods and distances involved in carrying the signal from the multiplexer to the different transmitters. This is done by applying a delay to the incoming signal at the transmitter based on a timestamp generated at the multiplexer, created taking into account the maximum likely propagation time, with a generous added margin for safety. Delays in the audio encoder and the receiver due to digital processing (e.g. deinterleaving) add to the overall delay perceived by the listener. The signal is delayed, usually by around 1 to 4 seconds and can be considerably longer for DAB+. This has disadvantages:


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Time signals, on the contrary, are not a problem in a well-defined network with a fixed delay. The DAB multiplexer adds the proper offset to the distributed time information. The time information is also independent from the (possibly varying) audio decoding delay in receivers since the time is not embedded inside the audio frames. This means that built in clocks in receivers can be precisely correct.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: DAB can provide savings for networks of several stations. The original development of DAB was driven by national network operators with a number of channels to transmit from multiple sites. However, for individual stations such as small community or local stations which traditionally operate their own FM transmitter on their own building the cost of DAB transmission will be much higher than analog. Operating a DAB transmitter for a single station is not an efficient use of spectrum or power. With that said, this can be solved to some degree by combining multiple local stations in one DAB/DAB+ mux, similar to what is done on DVB-T/DVB-T2 with local TV stations.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Although FM coverage still exceeds DAB coverage in most countries implementing any kind of DAB services, a number of countries moving to digital switchover have undergone significant DAB network rollouts; , the following coverages were given by WorldDAB:


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: In 2006 tests began using the much improved HE-AAC codec for DAB+. Hardly any of the receivers made before 2008 support the newer codec, however, making them partially obsolete once DAB+ broadcasts begin and completely obsolete once all MP2 encoded stations are gone. Most new receivers are both DAB and DAB+ compatible; however, the issue is exacerbated by some manufacturers disabling the DAB+ features on otherwise compatible radios to save on licensing fees when sold in countries without current DAB+ broadcasts.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: As DAB requires digital signal processing techniques to convert from the received digitally encoded signal to the analogue audio content, the complexity of the electronic circuitry required to do this is higher. This translates into needing more power to effect this conversion than compared to an analogue FM to audio conversion, meaning that portable receiving equipment will have a much shorter battery life, and require higher power (and hence more bulk). This means that they use more energy than analogue Band II VHF receivers. However, thanks to increased integration (radio-on-chip), DAB receiver power usage has been reduced dramatically, making portable receivers far more usable.


title: Digital Audio Broadcasting

text: Whilst many countries have expected a shift to digital audio broadcasting, a few have moved in the opposite direction following unsuccessful trials.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined. In terms of population, major communities include Tallahassee, Pensacola, and Panama City.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: As is the case with the other eight U.S. states that have panhandles, the geographic meaning of the term is inexact and elastic. References to the Florida Panhandle always include the ten counties west of the Apalachicola River, a natural geographic boundary, which was the historic dividing line between the British colonies of West Florida and East Florida. These western counties also lie in the Central Time Zone (with the exception of Gulf County, which is divided between the Eastern and Central Time zones), while the rest of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone. References to the Panhandle "may" also include some or all of eleven counties immediately east of the Apalachicola known as the Big Bend region, along the curve of Apalachee Bay.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Like the rest of North Florida, including North Central Florida, the Panhandle is more similar in culture and climate to the Deep South than the rest of the state, particularly to Central Florida and South Florida in the lower peninsula, being known for its conservative politics and "piney woods."


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The largest city in the Panhandle is Tallahassee, the state capital, population 196,169 (2020). However, the largest population grouping is the Pensacola Metropolitan Area with a population of 511,502 (2020), which includes the second and third largest communities in the region, Pensacola and Navarre. The total population of the Panhandle, as of the 2010 Census, was 1,407,925, just under 7.5% of Florida's total population as recorded in the same census. At roughly 70 persons per square mile, its population density is less than one fifth of Florida's as a whole.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: "Emerald Coast", a term coined in 1983, refers in general to the beaches and coastal resorts from Pensacola to Port St. Joe, but is sometimes used to refer, by extension, to the Panhandle as a whole, especially west of the Apalachicola. Earlier designations include "Playground of the Gulfcoast" and the "Miracle Strip", especially for the area between Fort Walton Beach and Panama City. Coastal regions of the following counties (if not the entirety of the counties themselves) are usually included when referring to the Emerald Coast:


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Coastal portions of Escambia County (namely Pensacola Beach) that lie on the western edge, and coastal portions of Bay County that lie on the eastern edge, are also regularly included when referring to the Emerald Coast, but with somewhat less regularity than the three aforementioned counties listed above. However, the agency providing water, sewer, and garbage collection services to unincorporated Escambia County, which is headquartered in Pensacola, is called the "Emerald Coast Utility Authority".


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The "Forgotten Coast" is a trademarked term coined in the early 1990s used to refer to the coastal portion of the Florida Panhandle extending from Mexico Beach or southeastern Bay County on the Gulf of Mexico to St. Marks on Apalachee Bay. It is usually not considered a part of the Emerald Coast, which lies directly adjacent to the west. Coastal regions of the following counties (if not the entirety of the counties themselves) are usually included when referring to the Forgotten Coast:


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The Apalachicola River is the largest river of the Panhandle. It is formed by the junction of several rivers, including the Chattahoochee and the Flint, where the boundaries of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida meet. From there, it flows southward to the town of Apalachicola.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Major estuaries include, from west to east: Perdido Bay, fed by the Perdido River, which forms the western boundary of Florida; Escambia Bay and East Bay, fed by the Escambia River and Blackwater River, respectively; Choctawhatchee Bay, fed by the Choctawhatchee River; and St. Andrews Bay, fed by Econfina Creek. Pensacola Bay, a deepwater port, is formed by the joining of Escambia and East bays. The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, completed in 1949, traverses the lower Panhandle by means of bays, lagoons, sounds, and man-made canals. The barrier islands of Perdido Key and Santa Rosa Island extend from the Pandhandle's western extremity through Fort Walton Beach to Destin.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Throughout the 19th century, the Panhandle was sparsely populated, dotted in places with small farming communities, none of which had as many as a thousand residents. Many Panhandle residents had, in fact, migrated to the area from Alabama and had relatives there; it was also easier to trade with and travel to southern Alabama than to reach East Florida by slow, arduous journey across the thick cypress swamps and dense pine forests of the Panhandle. It was natural for West Floridians to feel that they had more in common with their nearby neighbors in Alabama than with the residents of the peninsula, hundreds of miles away.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: In 1821, Pensacola was the only city (in 19th-century terms) in West Florida, with a population estimated to be about 3,000. In the 1850 census, the enumerated population of Pensacola was 2,164 (including 741 slaves and 350 "free Negroes").


title: Florida Panhandle

text: During the course of the century, proposals for ceding the Florida counties west of the Apalachicola River to Alabama were often raised:


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The building of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad, completed in 1883, finally linked Pensacola and the Panhandle solidly with the rest of the state and ended the region's isolation, although from time to time during the twentieth century there were still occasional calls for annexation that generated some public discussion but no legislative action.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: In the last quarter of the century, hurricanes that directly struck the area and caused significant damage included Hurricane Eloise in 1975, Hurricane Kate in 1985, and Hurricane Erin and Hurricane Opal, both in 1995.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The Panhandle suffered direct hits from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and Hurricane Dennis in 2005. Ivan was the most disastrous, making landfall near Gulf Shores, Alabama, with 120 mile-per-hour (193 km/h) winds and a 14-foot (4.3 m) storm surge that devastated Perdido Key and Santa Rosa Island, wrecked the Interstate 10 bridge across Escambia Bay, and destroyed thousands of homes in the region, some as far away as 20 miles (32 km) inland.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: On June 23, 2010, oil from the "Deepwater Horizon" oil spill landed on Pensacola Beach and Navarre Beach, damaging the fishing and tourism industries, and prompting a massive clean-up effort.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: On October 10, 2018, the Panhandle suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Michael, with winds as high as 160 MPH. Michael was one of only four category 5 hurricanes to ever hit the US mainland. Thousands of homes were destroyed, and apartment rents in Panama City increased, with a $500 apartment renting for $1000 in 2019. Recovery from Hurricane Michael was not complete in June 2019, and disaster relief for the Panhandle remained stalled in Congress.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Historically, the economy of the Panhandle depended mainly on farming, forestry and lumbering, paper mills, import/export shipping at Pensacola and to a lesser extent at Panama City, shipbuilding, and commercial fishing. After World War II, the economy was boosted by the numerous military bases established in the region, as well as the growth of tourism and the hospitality industry.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: In addition to military bases, state and local governments, hospitals, schools, and colleges, major private employers in the second half of the twentieth century included Monsanto and Westinghouse plants at Pensacola, the St. Joe Paper Company in Port St. Joe, and Gulf Power, a major electric utility company.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Unlike central and southern Florida, the Panhandle has never been a producer of citrus crops because the area is subject to regular frosts and freezes in wintertime, which destroy citrus fruits.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Interstate 10 is the only interstate highway in the Panhandle, connecting the extreme west with North Florida and Jacksonville. Other older east–west routes include U.S. Highway 90 and U.S. Highway 98. Important north–south routes west of the Apalachicola River include U.S. Highway 29, U.S. Highway 331, and U.S. Highway 231, all linking to Alabama and Interstate 65. State Road 20 stretches from Niceville to Tallahassee.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Freight service is provided by the Class III Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad, which acquired most of the CSX main line from Pensacola to Jacksonville on June 1, 2019. (For the history of this line, see Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad.)


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Passenger service ended with the creation of Amtrak in 1971, but was revived with the extension of the "Sunset Limited" to Orlando beginning in 1993; however, passenger service was discontinued after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Other regional short-line railroads serving the Panhandle are the Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway (formerly BNSF Railway, ex-Frisco Railway), the Bay Line Railroad, and the AN Railway.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The politics of the Florida Panhandle vary considerably depending on location. The western Panhandle, particularly the Emerald Coast, was one of the earliest areas to shake off its Yellow Dog Democrat roots, and since the 1990s has become the most Republican part of Florida. Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, Destin and Panama City regularly give Republicans close to or over 70% margins in state and national elections. However, Tallahassee and Gadsden County tend to be strongly Democratic. In the 2008 Presidential election, John McCain received 421,287 votes (60.1%) in the Panhandle, while Barack Obama received 279,206 votes (39.9%).


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The following counties west of the Apalachicola River are "always" included in references to the Panhandle:


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Some or all of the following counties east of the Apalachicola, in the Big Bend subregion, are "sometimes" considered part of the Panhandle:


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Places marked with an asterisk (*) lie east of the Apalachicola River, and may not be considered part of the Panhandle by some residents or writers.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The Panhandle is renowned for the white sand beaches and blue-green waters of its barrier islands fronting the Gulf of Mexico. According to the National Park Service:


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The stunning sugar-white beaches of Gulf Islands National Seashore are composed of fine quartz eroded from granite in the Appalachian Mountains. The sand is carried seaward by rivers and creeks and deposited by currents along the shore.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The beach towns in the Panhandle, many of which play host to college students during spring break, are sometimes derisively called "the Redneck Riviera". The term was used as the title of a song by country music artist Tom T. Hall on his 1996 album "Songs from Sopchoppy". The album takes its name from a town in rural Wakulla County, near Tallahassee.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Tourists have been drawn to the Panhandle since the building of the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad in the 1880s. Pensacola Beach has been a major tourist attraction since the building of bridges between the mainland and Santa Rosa Island in 1931. After World War II, an increase in both tourism and population of the area led to a proliferation of motels, restaurants, bars, tourist attractions, and amusement parks along the coast, concentrated in Pensacola Beach, Fort Walton Beach, and Panama City Beach. Examples include the Gulfarium marine park and aquarium in Fort Walton Beach, and the former Miracle Strip Amusement Park (1963–2004) in Panama City Beach.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: In 1971, the federal government acquired many acres of the coastal islands in Escambia, Santa Rosa, and Okaloosa counties, preserving them from commercial development by establishing the Gulf Islands National Seashore, which also covers some islands off the Mississippi coast. Other beach areas protected by the state of Florida include


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Both state and federal parks offer facilities for camping, picnicking, and other recreational pursuits. In addition, some parts of the coastline are federal property belonging to Pensacola Naval Air Station, Eglin Air Force Base, and Tyndall Air Force Base, and so are likewise protected from commercial development.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: In addition, seven state aquatic preserves, covering thousands of acres of submerged lands in coastal areas, are located in the Panhandle. A number of other state parks, preserves, and forests are located inland.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The 1970s also saw the beginnings of a number of upscale beach resorts, condominium towers, vacation homes, and planned communities, such as Seaside and Sandestin, so that most of the privately owned areas of the coastline are now heavily developed.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: Major military bases include the Pensacola Naval Air Station (the home of Naval Aviation in the United States), Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field near Ft. Walton Beach, Naval Support Activity Panama City in Panama City Beach, and Tyndall Air Force Base near Panama City. Smaller military bases in the Florida panhandle include the Center for Information Warfare Training in Pensacola, Naval Air Station Whiting Field near Milton and Duke Field near Crestview.


title: Florida Panhandle

text: The 1983-84 television show "Emerald Point N.A.S." was set in a naval air station somewhere in the American South, similar to Pensacola NAS. The 1997-2000 action/adventure series "" was explicitly set there.


title: Steve Gibb

text: Stephen Thadeus Crompton Gibb (born 1 December 1973) is a British-American guitarist. He has been a member of numerous hard rock and metal bands including 58, Black Label Society, Crowbar, Kingdom of Sorrow, The Underbellys, SkilletHead, and Saigon Kick. He is the son of Barry Gibb and is currently playing guitar as part of his father's band.


title: Steve Gibb

text: Gibb was born in London, England, and raised in Miami, Florida, the first-born son of Barry Gibb and Linda Gibb. At the age of three, he began playing piano, but when he was about thirteen he decided he would like to play guitar. After attending a Van Halen gig he was inspired to work harder at the instrument.


title: Steve Gibb

text: On 14 October 1988, Gibb and nine other students at The Lear School in Miami performed their first concert. The students performed at lunchtimes and for special events at the school.


title: Steve Gibb

text: That same year Gibb and friends formed their own band, which was indecisively christened NNY for No Name Yet. Later they would settle on the name ZEX, and in February of that year they landed a gig at Woody's, a Miami club owned by the Rolling Stones' guitarist Ronnie Wood. Later in the year Gibb would work as a guitar technician on the Bee Gees "One For All" tour.


title: Steve Gibb

text: In 1991, after being his father's guitar technician for two years, Gibb enrolled in a music school in Miami where he got his degree. He began writing songs, the first of which was a solo effort, "Whiskey Jam". Other songs penned during this time were "Shadow of Your Dreams" with Emerson Forth and Deniz Kose. "Hole in My Soul" was also co-written with Kose. The song "Ren and Stevie" was co-written with Middle Ear Studio engineer, Scott Glasel and his girlfriend, Amanda Green. This song was a take off on the Nickelodeon cartoon series "Ren and Stimpy".


title: Steve Gibb

text: In 1992, Gibb and others including Forth, formed a metal band, SkilletHead, which performed the club circuit in and around Miami. That year Gibb also made occasional appearances as a guitarist backing the Bee Gees. In February 1997, Gibb joined The Underbellys. This five piece band included Billy Velvet (lead vocals), Joel Dasilva (guitarist), Sean 'Evil' Gerovitz (bass), Randy Blitz (drums) and Gibb on guitar. The band played venues including the Viper Room in Los Angeles and Don Hills in Greenwich Village. The Underbelly's, including Gibb, recorded for Columbia Records with Pat DiNizio of The Smithereens as their record producer. This did not result in a recording contract, and the band split up. In November 1997, Gibb performed live with his father and uncles for their 'One Night Only' concert in Las Vegas. He also toured with the Smithereens between 1997 and 98.


title: Steve Gibb

text: Gibb joined Nikki Sixx, Bucket Baker and Dave Darling in 58. The concept Sixx had in mind when he formed 58 was of a non-touring, internet promoted entity, that would feature on his new record label, Americoma Records. The name of the band stemmed from the year 1958, in which both Sixx and Darling were born. Their sound, as exemplified on the band's one and only album released in early 2000, was a self-described mixture of "glam, hip hop, rock, pop, funk and a car crash". Gibb co-wrote "Who We Are", which featured on "Diet for a New America".


title: Steve Gibb

text: The same year, Gibb appeared in the music video for Black Label Society's "Counterfeit God" from their 2000 release "Stronger than Death", as the skulls and chains guy. The band did not have a permanent bassist at the time (for the video Mark Wahlberg was stand-in) Gibb joined Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society as bass player in the spring 2000. "Alcohol Fueled Brewtality," Black Label Society's live album was recorded in October 2000 and released on 16 January 2001. Gibb's backing vocals can be heard on tracks like "Stronger Than Death". The "" album included the track "Superterrorizer" recorded at Alpine Valley Music Theatre, East Troy, Wisconsin on 9 June. Shortly after this, just weeks into the American Ozzfest schedule, Gibb left the band for personal reasons.


title: Steve Gibb

text: In early 2004, Kirk Windstein (founder of Crowbar) planned a rebirth for Crowbar and rebuilt the band with Gibb as guitarist, Pat Bruders on bass and Tommy Buckley on drums. Their European tour of 2004 was a success, the highlight of which was their performance at the With Full Force Festival in Leipzig, Germany. This became the core of the 2007 released DVD "Crowbar: Live With Full Force" Gibb, assisting John-Martin Vogel, produced a mix of live footage, backstage capers and interview pieces. The band has consistently toured Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. The band's 2005 album, "Lifesblood for the Downtrodden", was mastered at Middle Ear Studios (owned by Gibb's father).


title: Steve Gibb

text: In 2005, Windstein teamed up with Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed to form a new side venture called Kingdom of Sorrow. The band's self-titled debut album was released on 19 February 2008 by Relapse Records. It debuted at No. 131 on the US Billboard charts and sold 6,000 records in its first week of release. The album was recorded at Planet Z with producer Zeuss, known for his work with Shadows Fall and many others. Gibb performed some solos and leads on a few tracks on this album and also went on the initial promotional tour I late February early March 2008. In 2007, Gibb played on his father's single "Drown On the River".


title: Steve Gibb

text: When his father Barry Gibb put together a show band to take around the world on his first solo tour, called the Mythology Tour, Steve joined as guitar lead as he had for numerous annual Love & Hope Balls (see below).


title: Steve Gibb

text: The first leg of the tour took in Australia and New Zealand in February 2013. Gibb performed as a solo the bluegrass track written by Maurice Gibb "On Time", and took second vocals on the Bee Gees hit "I've Gotta Get a Message to You". The second leg went to England and Northern Ireland in September 2013. The track "Fight (No Matter How Long)" was added as Gibb's second solo. The track had been written in 1986 as part of the Bunbury Tails. The third leg was six US dates in May 2014. As part of the promotion, Gibb performed with his father on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon", 21 May 2014.


title: Steve Gibb

text: Gibb joined the line-up of Saigon Kick at the Broward County, Florida centenary celebrations, the free street festival in Fort Lauderdale on 3 October 2015.


title: Steve Gibb

text: The Outkast Talent Agency in Miami were asked to find numerous extras for the Michael Bay film "Bad Boys II", released in 2003. Gibb appeared briefly in the opening scenes as a klansman.


title: Steve Gibb

text: The track "Stormy" performed by 58 was used in "The Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Rock n' Roll Musical" in 2003. It was nominated for Best Film Score at Europe's Fennec Awards.


title: Steve Gibb

text: In September 2006, Gibb, his father, and brother Ashley wrote "Drown on the River", which is included in the 2007 Burt Reynolds film "Deal".


title: Steve Gibb

text: The Oliver Schmitz film "Shepherds and Butchers" (2016) featured the track "Angels" during the closing credits that was co-written by Gibb with his father and brother Ashley


title: Steve Gibb

text: For many years, Gibb's parents have been international chairpersons of the Love and Hope Committee for the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation based in Miami, Florida. Annually, a black tie gala is held to raise funds for research and frequently Barry Gibb performs. In 2009, 2012 and 2014, Gibb accompanied his father. In 2009, he performed his own composition "Living in the Rain", dedicating this debut performance of the song to his wife Gloria.


title: Steve Gibb

text: At the 34th Love and Hope Ball, held at the Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in 2008, Gibb, his siblings and their partners were inducted as the first Young Society Honourees.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Batman and Harley Quinn is a 2017 American animated superhero film produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. It is the 29th film of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies, and is directed by Sam Liu and written by Jim Krieg and Bruce Timm. It premiered on July 21, 2017 at San Diego Comic-Con and was released into participating theaters for one night only on August 14, 2017. The film was released on digital on August 15, 2017 and on DVD and Blu-ray on August 29. According to Timm, it is part of the DC Animated Universe continuity and is set after "The New Batman Adventures" and around the time period of "Justice League Unlimited".


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Nightwing (Dick Grayson) discover that Poison Ivy (Pamela L. Isley) and the Floronic Man (Jason Woodrue) have teamed up, and that the criminals stole information (from S.T.A.R. Labs) about "Bio-Restorative Project" and Alec Holland who changed into Swamp Thing. Much to their reluctance, they decide to look for Harley Quinn (Dr. Harleen F. Quinzel; Poison Ivy's best friend and the Joker's usual sidekick and girlfriend) to find out where the duo is hiding; however, Harley has gone off the grid since getting paroled. Batman leaves finding Harley to Nightwing, while Batman figures out what the criminal duo are up to.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: At A.R.G.U.S. HQ, Batman asks Sarge Steel about the kidnapping of a scientist named Dr. Harold Goldblum (with a background in chemistry, botany, and biological warfare). Sarge says they do not have any viable leads on who did the kidnapping.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Nightwing finds Harley working as a waitress at Superbabes restaurant where waitresses are dressed as superheroes and supervillains. Tailing her, Nightwing asks where he can find Ivy, Harley says she is done with superheroes & supervillains and wants to live a normal life. Nightwing asks her why she is in skimpy outfits for minimum wage instead of using her psychiatric training. He angers her saying she has not reported to her parole officer in months, and that he could drag her to jail. They fight, until she knocks him out.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Sarge shows Batman the home of Goldblum (where Goldblum was kidnapped), and Batman finds evidence that Floronic Man had been there.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Nightwing wakes up and finds he has been tied to a bed. Harley shows him a pile of rejection letters, showing her past as a super-criminal prevents her from getting rehired as a psychiatrist. Eventually, the two sleep together.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Ivy is kissing Goldblum every 6 hours so she can use her mind-controlling pheromones to keep him under control. The criminal duo complain about negative environmental impacts of humans, and Floronic says once their virus is activated every person on the planet "will have a vested interest in going green".


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Nightwing and Harley are tickling each other – until Batman walks in on them – with the result being that Harley decides to help. Batman has concluded the criminal duo are using Goldblum to replicate the process (that turned Holland into Swamp Thing), but a virus version that will turn everyone into animal-plant hybrids.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Harley leads them to a popular hangout for henchmen, where she gets the location of Ivy from one of her old minions named Shrubby as Min and Max do a cover of Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds' "Don't Pull Your Love". The trio head to Blüdhaven, where Ivy is saddened to see her friend helping Batman. Woodrue fatally wounds Dr. Goldblum to keep him quiet before he and Ivy escape as their lab catches fire. However, the dying Dr. Goldblum reveals that the duo is heading to Wainwright Swamp in Louisiana, where the correct swamp chemicals are.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Contacting A.R.G.U.S., Batman, Nightwing and Harley head after them to convince Ivy to stop her mad plans, realizing that even the slightest miscalculation could result in the extinction of all life on Earth. Harley resorts to crying to convince Ivy, who is finally swayed by their relationship. Swamp Thing appears, informing Woodrue that he would threaten the Green with his concoction. However, he will not interfere. Batman and Nightwing wonder how to stop Woodrue until Harley points out he is a plant and asks if they have a match. Grateful, they both give her a kiss on the cheek and Batman just sets Woodrue on fire.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: In a post-credits scene, Harley Quinn goes back to being Harleen Quinzel and she now has a reality television game show, where she makes contestants run an elaborate obstacle course to win a year of therapy from a professional, in a scathing indictment of the American insurance system.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: The director is Sam Liu, who has directed prior DC animated films. The film is an original story written by Bruce Timm partnered with Jim Krieg. Kevin Conroy voices Batman and Loren Lester voices Nightwing, both of whom voiced those same roles in "" and in "The New Batman Adventures". It is designed in the classic style similar to "The New Batman Adventures", with Bruce Timm stating that the film is essentially a ""48 Hrs.""-style antics version of Batman and Harley Quinn teaming up. Notably, the film is much more comedic than the original series, with co-writer Jim Krieg stating "This is kind of a strange, red-headed nephew of "Batman: The Animated Series", but don't show it to your kids thinking that it's "Batman: The Animated Series", it is its own thing, kind of extrapolated."


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: When asked by fans if the film is a part of the DC Animated Universe, owing to its animation style and presence of Conroy and Lester as the voices of their characters in the franchise. Timm stated he believed "it was canon" and was always intended to be part of the "Batman: The Animated Series" universe although he was not sure whether it was technically so.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: The score was composed by Michael McCuistion, Kristopher Carter and Lolita Ritmanis, which was released on CD by WaterTower Records as an exclusive with FYE.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: On July 31, a five-issue prequel miniseries called "Harley Quinn and Batman" was released on a bi-weekly basis via digital download. Written by Ty Templeton and drawn by Rick Burchett, the plot follows Harley as she looks to separate herself from the Joker and become a full-fledged supervillain in her own right. Afterwards, a seven-issue miniseries (which shares the same title as the film) was released on a weekly basis (also via digital download) starting on October 23. This serves as an anthology series that takes place after the events of the film and was worked on by various writers. Both miniseries were collected into a trade paperback which was released on March 7, 2019.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Due to the financial success of "", the film was released in theaters for one night only through Fathom Events in the United States on August 14, 2017. The next week, a combo set with a Blu-ray copy, a DVD copy, and a digital copy was released.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: "Batman and Harley Quinn"s theatrical release grossed $32,671 in Australia and $6,420 in the Netherlands, bringing its international total to $39,091. The film earned $971,323 from domestic DVD sales and $1,182,647 from domestic Blu-ray sales, bringing its total domestic home video earnings to $2,153,970.


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: The film received mixed reviews from critics with some praise towards the voice performances of Conroy and Lester, and throwbacks to the DC Animated Universe, but criticizing the script, Rauch's performance as Harley Quinn and the more adult humor and risqué content which was never present in "Batman: The Animated Series". On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of .


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: Collider criticized the film's inconsistent tone, as well as its lack of resolution. Tyler Smith of "Battleship Pretension" criticized the more explicit sexual elements, writing, "As "Batman and Harley Quinn" attempts to incorporate more explicit sexuality – what could be considered 'adult content' – into the story, the film takes on the tone of a couple of 13-year-olds constantly high-fiving each other as they take turns writing risqué Harley Quinn fan fiction. I'm not exactly sure what the filmmakers were trying to achieve by treating the audience to gratuitous upskirt shots of Harley, but it certainly wasn't an attempt to make her a more well-rounded character. In fact, it's actually pretty dehumanizing."


title: Batman and Harley Quinn

text: IGN's review of the film was more positive, citing the throwback elements, aesthetics and fight choreography, but commented that the film is "self-indulgent" in its humor and "unbalanced between comedy and drama".


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Mark Edward Smith (5 March 1957 – 24 January 2018) was an English singer, who was the lead singer, lyricist and only constant member of the post-punk group the Fall. Smith formed the band after attending the June 1976 Sex Pistols gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester and was its leader until his death. During their 42-year existence, the Fall's line-up included some 60 musicians with whom Smith released 31 studio albums and numerous singles and EPs.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith had a difficult and complex personality and was a long-term alcoholic. He was known for his biting and targeted wit, evident in interviews, for which he was much in demand by music journalists throughout his career. He was suspicious of the trappings of fame and largely avoided socialising with people associated with the music scene, including other Fall members. The dark and sardonic aspect of his personality often appears in his lyrics; he especially derided music industry people. Smith's approach to music was unconventional and he did not have high regard for musicianship, stating that "rock & roll isn’t even music really. It's a mistreating of instruments to get feelings over".


title: Mark E. Smith

text: The Fall are regarded as one of the most important and influential post-punk bands of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. Although Smith was difficult to work with, he was revered by fans and critics, and on his death was described as a "strange kind of antimatter national treasure".


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith was born to working-class parents Irene ("née" Brownhill) and Jack Smith, in Broughton, Salford, the eldest of four siblings. He had three sisters: Suzanne (who later painted the front sleeve for the 1980 Fall album "Grotesque (After the Gramme)"), Caroline, and Barbara. His grandfather, James Brownhill, had been involved at the Dunkirk evacuation and fought in France during the Second World War. Jack was too young to have fought in the war, but joined the army as soon as he was old enough. Smith's parents had moved to nearby Sedgley Park, Prestwich after their marriage in 1955. Smith's father died suddenly in 1989 of a heart attack.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: According to Simon Ford, Smith didn't become interested in music until he was about 14, when his father "allowed a record player into the house". The first single he bought was "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, and his first gig was the Groundhogs at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. He attended Sedgley Park Primary School, and later Stand Grammar School for Boys before quitting aged 16. That year, he left home and moved in with his girlfriend and future Fall keyboardist, Una Baines, later of the Blue Orchids. He subsequently took an evening class in A-level Literature. His first job was in a meat factory before he became a shipping clerk on Salford docks.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: The Fall were named after the novel by Albert Camus, and initially consisted of Smith and his friends Martin Bramah, Una Baines and Tony Friel. By this time, Smith was unemployed, having dropped out of college at the age of 19. He gave up his job as a shipping clerk at Salford docks shortly afterward to focus on the band. Their early line-up was formed from early members of the punk rock movement. However, their music underwent numerous stylistic changes, often concurrently with changes in the group's line-up. The Fall's 40-year career can be broken into five broad periods, based on the band's membership. These include their early late 1970s line-up, the classic Fall period of Hanley and dual drummers, the Brix years of 1984-89, their early 1990s revival, and everything after the on-stage fight in New York, after which Hanley quit and Smith was arrested (see below).


title: Mark E. Smith

text: He married American guitarist and Fall member Brix Smith on 19 July 1983, after they met in April 1983 in Chicago during a Fall American tour. She joined the group on guitar and vocals for the album "Perverted by Language" and co-wrote some of the best-regarded Fall tracks from the period, and is widely credited for introducing a more mainstream, pop-oriented element to the group's sound. She remained with the Fall until the couple divorced in 1989.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith remarried twice after this. His second marriage to Saffron Prior, who had worked for The Fall's fan club, ended in divorce in 1995. He married Eleni Poulou, also called Elenor or Elena, in 2001. Poulou joined the band in September 2002 and left in July 2016. Smith and Poulou divorced in 2016, and Smith's partner at the time of his death was his manager Pamela Vander.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Referring to the Fall's 60-odd former members, Smith claimed that he had "only" fired around half the number of people he is said to have dismissed, and that some left of their own free will. He would fire musicians for seemingly trivial reasons; he once dismissed a sound engineer for eating a salad, later explaining that "the salad was the last straw". Marc Riley was fired for dancing to a Clash song during their Australian tour, although the two had had many arguments beforehand. Smith said that he often changed musicians so that they would not become lazy or complacent.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: When the influential British DJ and Fall supporter John Peel died in 2004, Smith made a notorious appearance on the BBC's "Newsnight" show in which he seemed stunned and incoherent, and which he afterwards put down to a rare incidence of stage fright.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: While the Fall never achieved widespread success beyond minor hit singles in the mid and late 1980s, they maintained a loyal cult following throughout their career. Steve Hanley is regarded by some as one of the most talented bassists of his generation, equal to Peter Hook, Andy Rourke or Gary Mounfield.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Alongside his work with The Fall, Smith released two spoken-word solo albums, "The Post-Nearly Man" (1998) and "Pander! Panda! Panzer!" (2002). Both feature readings of Fall lyrics set to electronic sound collages and samples of Fall songs, as well as contributions from members of The Fall. Smith appeared as a guest vocalist for Edwyn Collins, Elastica, Gorillaz, Long Fin Killie, Mouse on Mars, Coldcut and Ghostigital. His contribution to Inspiral Carpets' 1994 song "I Want You" won UK top 20 recognition, topped John Peel's influential Festive Fifty and resulted in Smith's first appearance on the UK TV show "Top of the Pops". He worked with Mouse on Mars on the project Von Südenfed, whose first album, "Tromatic Reflexxions", was released in May 2007. Smith provided guest vocals on the song "Glitter Freeze" from the 2010 Gorillaz album "Plastic Beach", and joined the group Shuttleworth to record the World Cup song "England's Heartbeat".


title: Mark E. Smith

text: In 1986, he wrote the play "Hey, Luciani", based on the short reign of Pope John Paul I. Smith made a cameo appearance in the Michael Winterbottom film "24 Hour Party People" (2002), while his younger self was portrayed by Sam Riley in a section that did not make the final cut of the film, but appears as a deleted scene on the DVD. Smith made an appearance in the BBC Three sitcom "Ideal" in May 2007, playing a foulmouthed, chain-smoking Jesus. A fuzzy, muted version of Fall song "Hip Priest" (1982) appeared in the 1991 film "The Silence of the Lambs".


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith sang with a heavy Mancunian accent, and wrote in a cryptic style. His abstruse song titles, often derived from cutting out words and phrases from books and newspapers, reflect the same tendency, with a notable example being "To Nkroachment: Yarbles" (1985). His vocal style was similarly unusual, and his delivery is known for his tendency to end phrases with an "ah"-sound. He often speak-sang or sing-slurred his lyrics, especially from the mid-1990s. His singing voice, particularly when playing live, has been described as "rambling", and he often interjected improvised rants between verses. He tended to write lyrics as free form prose into one of his many notebooks, and only later set them to pieces of music composed by Fall musicians. He was a prolific writer who often wrote in dense continuous prose, which he would later edit down into lyrics.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: A number of his vocal tracks were recorded spontaneously at his home, when he sang into a dictaphone or cassette recorder, most notably sections of "Paintwork" from the Fall's 1985 album "This Nation's Saving Grace", which also includes the voice of Alan Cooper discussing main sequence stars, from a documentary Smith happened to be watching at the time. He later adapted the resulting sound effect in the studio; examples include for the intro to "Bad News Girl" (1988).


title: Mark E. Smith

text: His ability as a prose writer is evident in songs that abandon the verse/chorus format in favour of a long continuous narrative. Examples include "Spectre Vs Rector" (1979), "The North Will Rise Again" (1980), "Winter (Hostel-Maxi)" and "Winter 2" (1982), and "Wings" (1983). Fall songs written in this style are often not concerned with character or story development, more establishing a sense of place and atmosphere. By the late 1980s, Smith had largely given up this format. Some early songs concern one of his assumed alter-egos, though always from a third person point of view. Examples include Roman Totale XVII, "the bastard offspring of Charles I and the Great God Pan", who appears in "The N.W.R.A" (1980), the live album "Totale's Turns", "2nd Dark Age" (one of the b-sides to the "Fiery Jack" single), and the sleeve credits for "Dragnet", as well as the characters in "Fiery Jack" (1980), "Hip Priest" (1982), "The Man Whose Head Expanded" (1983), and "Riddler" (1986). Rare first person narratives include "Frenz" and "Carry Bag Man", both from 1988's "The Frenz Experiment", as well as "Bill Is Dead" (1990) and "Edinburgh Man" (1991). He did not respond to requests to explain the meaning or sources behind his lyrics. When asked by a journalist as to how much of his self could be found in the song's characters, he replied "dunno, you're the one sitting there in your round glasses and leather jacket. You tell me what you think it's an extension of...for every bloke pulling a pint, there's about ten thousand journalists writing an article about it."


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Fragments of his lyrics often appeared as handwritten scribbles on early Fall album and single covers, coupled with collages he had put together. In a 1983 interview with "Sounds", Smith said that he liked artwork to reflect the album content and explained how his graphic choices reflected his attitude to music. He mentioned how he was drawn to cheap and misspelled posters, amateur layouts of local papers and printed cash and carry signs with "inverted commas where you don't need them". His technique was often imitated, for example on Pavement's early releases, which heavily resemble the artwork for "Hex Enduction Hour" (1982), and whom Smith described as "mere Fall copyists".


title: Mark E. Smith

text: His lyrics were described by critic Simon Reynolds as "a kind of Northern English magic realism that mixed industrial grime with the unearthly and uncanny, voiced through a unique, one-note delivery somewhere between amphetamine-spiked rant and alcohol-addled yarn." He described his approach as wanting to combine "primitive music with intelligent lyrics". Thematically, his frequently densely layered words often centre around descriptions of urban grotesques, gloomy landscapes, "crackpot history", and are infused with regional slang. In interviews, Smith cited Colin Wilson, Arthur Machen, Wyndham Lewis, Thomas Hardy, M. R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Clark Ashton Smith, and Philip K. Dick as influences, as well as Edgar Allan Poe, Ezra Pound, Raymond Chandler, and H. P. Lovecraft.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith had a difficult and often reactionary personality, and was defiantly Northern English in outlook. Brix said that he carried "a chip on both shoulders. I remember him talking about fucking southern bastards a lot and not wanting to come to London. He hated London intensely. He’s quite contrarian as a person and as a writer, which is what gives him his edge." Throughout his career, he clashed with musicians, record producers, sound engineers, record label heads and fellow Manchester scene alumni such as Tony Wilson, Peter Hook, Shaun Ryder and Morrissey, whom he disparagingly referred to as "Steven". Smith had a working class and anti-intellectual outlook, but a strong interest in literature. As the journalist Andrew Harrison observed, although he wished that a majority of his audience were miners and postmen, a great many were students or "Guardian" readers.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: According to biographer Simon Ford, Smith often treated musicians as would "[a] bad tempered despot". He was highly charismatic and cultivated a wiry and misanthropic personality during interviews and live performances. As an interviewee, his dry and caustic wit was very quotable, especially when he was critiquing other contemporary bands and "music personalities", a favoured pastime. He became a mainstay of the English music press throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and his sharp tongue often turned on the journalists themselves; many reported being nervous before meeting him, and published "war stories" afterwards.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: During his later career performances he would often walk off stage or interfere with the musicians' instruments. During a 1998 gig at Brownies in New York, at a low point in his life when he was drinking heavily and band morale was at its lowest, he became involved in an onstage fight with the other musicians, which led to three Fall members, including long-term bassist Steve Hanley and drummer Karl Burns, quitting the band, and ended with Smith's arrest for assaulting his girlfriend and Fall keyboardist Julia Nagle. Smith was ordered to undergo treatment for alcohol abuse and anger management. After a period of good behaviour, the charges were dropped.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith said that his favourite things in life were "Scottish people, cats, "Coronation Street", and Can". He was a passionate football fan and lifelong Manchester City follower: even appearing on the BBC's "Final Score" to read the classified football results. He admired mavericks such as George Best, whom he met and drank with, and observed how if Best could have drawn a crowd of 40,000 people a week he should have been able to "do what he liked".


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Originally a Labour supporter, Smith left the party during the Falklands War (which he supported), then became further disillusioned with Labour during the Tony Blair era. In the 1997 election, he voted for the Conservative Party in opposition to Blair. Asked during a mid-1980s interview with "Smash Hits" as to what policies he would adopt if he became Prime Minister, he said "I'd halve the price of cigarettes, double the tax on health food, then I'd declare war on France." In a 2012 interview, Smith jokingly stated he would put the Queen in charge of Britain when asked the same question. Smith also expressed support for Brexit and Britain's withdrawal from the European Union. Although a longstanding member of the Musicians Union, he criticised their political outlook, stating “all they say is vote Corbyn and stay in the European Union."


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith died on 24 January 2018 after a long illness with lung and kidney cancer, aged 60 years. His health had been particularly bad during 2017, which led to performances in a wheelchair. A heavy smoker, Smith had long suffered from throat and respiratory problems. His work ethic and output, however, never declined and throughout his illness he continued to release a new album close to once a year.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Tributes to Smith included Brix Smith, Tim Burgess, Liam Gallagher, Andy Bell, Mat Osman, Billy Bragg, Win Butler, Cat Power, Edgar Wright, Pixies, Garbage, Stuart Murdoch, Terry Christian, Graham Coxon, Irvine Welsh and Gorillaz.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Smith was both resigned and ambivalent about his legacy, especially in the terms of the fad-orientated music industry of which he was often harshly critical in his lyrics. He noted, somewhat bitterly, how "every artist wants credibility. A couple of years ago, I read a poll on the hundred best artists of all time. The Fall was in there between Mozart and Puccini. I was very proud of that. Of course, the next day I can pick up a paper and be the guy with no teeth who beats everybody up." Despite this, he was widely influential and critically acclaimed throughout his career, in part because he did not seek to capitalise on current trends which might have dated the band. He was particularly dismissive of the Madchester scene, as well as the post-punk revival bands of the 2000s who cited him and The Fall as an influence, whom he personally felt owed more to Talking Heads.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: Similarly, he refused to look backwards; when recording he was adamant that the Fall not repeat themselves stylistically, and when playing live he refused to play old songs. The approach is further seen in his strategy of frequently replacing band members. Long-term fan John Peel said that "The Fall are the group against which all others must measure themselves", and when asked which Fall albums he would recommend to newcomers, he replied "all of them". In January 2005, Smith was the subject of "The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E. Smith", a BBC Four television documentary.


title: Mark E. Smith

text: A number of alternative rock artists have mentioned Smith in their songs. The Jazz Butcher released "Southern Mark Smith" in 1983. German rock band Tocotronic mentioned him in their song ""Ich habe geträumt, ich wäre Pizza essen mit Mark E. Smith"" ("I dreamt I went to eat pizza with Mark E. Smith") on their 1996 album "Wir kommen um uns zu beschweren" ("We come to complain"). Elastica released the track "How He Wrote Elastica Man" in 2000, a reference to the 1980 Fall song "How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'", while in 2014 the Fat White Family released an EP titled "I Am Mark E Smith". Sonic Youth covered three Fall songs, as well as the Kinks' "Victoria", which they released in 1990 as the "4 Tunna Brix" EP. Cedric Bixler-Zavala, singer for the American groups At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta, described Smith as "one of the pillars of influence for me as lyricist and trouble maker."


title: Jedward

text: John and Edward Grimes (born 16 October 1991), collectively known as Jedward (a portmanteau of their first names), are an Irish singing and television presenting duo. They are identical twins who first appeared as John & Edward in the sixth series of "The X Factor" in 2009, generating a phenomenon of ironic popularity described as "the Jedward paradox". They finished in sixth place and were managed by Louis Walsh, who was their mentor during "The X Factor".


title: Jedward

text: Jedward have released four studio albums: "Planet Jedward" (2010), "Victory" (2011), "Young Love" (2012), and "Voice of a Rebel" (2019). Their first two albums went double platinum in Ireland. They have released several singles, including "Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)", "Bad Behaviour", "Lipstick", with which they represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, and "Waterline", with which they represented Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku.


title: Jedward

text: Jedward are also known for their television work, including starring in the documentary series "" (2010), presenting the children's series "OMG! Jedward's Dream Factory" (2011 –2013) and "Jedward's Big Adventure" (2012–2014)"," and participating in the reality series "Celebrity Big Brother 8" (2011), "Celebrity Big Brother 19" (2017)"," in which they finished as runners-up, and "Celebrity Coach Trip 4" (2019). Jedwards's combined net worth was estimated at €6m in September 2013, and they have been ranked as the fifth most financially successful former "X Factor" UK contestants.


title: Jedward

text: Identical twin brothers John Paul Henry Daniel Richard Grimes and Edward Peter Anthony Kevin Patrick Grimes were born in Dublin. John and Edward's first school was Scoil Bhríde National School in Rathangan. They then attended King's Hospital School for four years before being moved to the Dublin Institute of Education.


title: Jedward

text: The twins competed in school talent shows during their school years and were inspired by Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. They were also members of the Lucan Harriers Athletic Club and Dundrum South Dublin athletics club and have competed in several Irish athletic tournaments.


title: Jedward

text: In addition, they briefly worked as games testers for Xbox 360 format holder Microsoft and support football clubs Newcastle United and Celtic.


title: Jedward

text: In 2008, John and Edward formed a duo and the following year they auditioned in Glasgow as a group for the sixth series of "The X Factor", under the name John & Edward. Despite being described by judge Simon Cowell as "not very good and incredibly annoying", John & Edward were put through to bootcamp, then made it to judges' houses, where Louis Walsh selected them for the live shows. John & Edward became known for their unpolished but enthusiastic performances, famously including a version of Britney Spears' "Oops!... I Did It Again", during which they reenacted the "Titanic" monologue. After their departure from "The X Factor", Jedward were signed to Modest! Management, however it was later announced that Louis Walsh had reached "an amicable agreement", which allowed him to take the twins on.


title: Jedward

text: From February until April 2010, they performed on the "X Factor" Live tour, where they were credited with the boost in demand for tickets, that led to an extension in the tour run. Their debut single "Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)" was a mashup of "Under Pressure" and "Ice Ice Baby", with Vanilla Ice contributing guest vocals. In March Jedward's Sony contract ended, but the following day Universal Music Ireland signed them on a three-album contract. In April 2010, Jedward began their first solo tour, a 27-date tour of Ireland called the Planet Jedward Tour. Due to popular demand, it was extended with a second 43-date leg in the UK and Ireland. The "Irish Independent" rated the tour positively, saying that "Jedwardmania is right up there with Beatlemania." Jedward's second single, a cover of the Blink-182 song "All the Small Things", was released in July 2010 and peaked at number 21 on the Irish charts and number 6 on the UK Indie Chart. The same week, Jedward released their debut album "Planet Jedward", consisting of cover versions. It which went straight to number one on the Irish Albums Chart and number 17 on the UK Albums Chart. In August 2010, Jedward appeared in their own ITV2 documentary, entitled "", a three-part series in which they moved out of their home for ten days.


title: Jedward

text: On 12 February 2011, Jedward released their third single and Eurovision Song Contest entry "Lipstick", which peaked at number one in Ireland. Jedward successfully qualified from the second Eurovision Song Contest semi-final, eventually finishing in eighth place. After the Eurovision Song Contest, "Lipstick" was released digitally across Europe, where it charted in many countries such as Belgium, Sweden, Germany and most notably Austria where it peaked at number three. The song also peaked at number 8 in the South Korea's international artists' chart. "Lipstick" had featured in a Hyundai advertising campaign in South East Asia. Shortly after the Eurovision Song Contest, on 23 May, Jedward performed in front of an audience of 60,000 people at College Green in Dublin City ahead of a speech by visiting U.S. President Barack Obama. In April 2011, Jedward began their second tour, the Bad Behaviour Tour, with a series of dates across Ireland.


title: Jedward

text: Jedward's next single "Bad Behaviour" was released in July and reached number one in the Irish charts. This was followed two weeks later by their second album "Victory", consisting entirely of original tracks. A new version of "Planet Jedward" was released by the German branch of Universal Music in July, featuring a mix of tracks from "Planet Jedward" and new songs from "Victory". On 31 July, the twins began the first leg of their third tour, The Carnival Tour, with 12 shows across Ireland and Northern Ireland. In September Jedward played their first European tour, with dates in Sweden and Germany, followed by a UK tour. Three days after the first leg finished, Jedward entered the "Celebrity Big Brother 8" house. They made it to the final, eventually finishing in third place. The third single from "Victory", "Wow Oh Wow" was released in August 2011, with a music video featuring their "Celebrity Big Brother" housemate Tara Reid. In December, Jedward starred in the pantomime "Jedward and the Beanstalk", a musical comedy version of the fairytale "Jack and the Beanstalk".


title: Jedward

text: 2012 saw Jedward again win the Irish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, this time with their song "Waterline". In May, Jedward performed "Waterline" at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. After qualifying from their semi-final, they eventually came in 19th place in the grand final. "Waterline" was also the lead single on the twins' third album "Young Love", released in June. The tracks "Young Love" and "Luminous" were also released as singles. Jedward released the charity single and "unofficial" Irish UEFA Euro 2012 song "Put the Green Cape On", a reworking of "Lipstick". The duo embarked on the European leg of their Victory Tour in January, playing in Austria, Germany, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. This was followed by the "Young Love Tour" in Ireland in August. They also visited Singapore, where the new album had enjoyed popular success.


title: Jedward

text: In June they ran as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics torch relay in Dublin on day 19 of the relay. The twins starred in their own TV series "Jedward's Weird Wild World" on UK TV channel 5*, with John and Edward humorously presenting a selection of popular internet videos. Over the Christmas and New Year period RTÉ broadcast the second series of their show "OMG! Jedward's Dream Factory", and the second season of their BBC series "Jedward's Big Adventure" screened in early 2013. Over the festive season, Jedward starred in their third annual pantomime, "Jedward & the Magic Lamp". In January 2013, the twins made a promotional visit to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, appearing twice on MuchMusic's "New Music Live" show and also made an appearance on Canada AM. While in Toronto, Jedward also filmed a promotional video for the "Young Love" album track "Happens in the Dark" and previewed a clip from the video on "New Music Live". Later in the month, it was announced that Jedward's three-album contract with Universal Music Ireland would not be renewed.


title: Jedward

text: The music video for "Happens in the Dark" was premiered on Much Music in March, with the video having been shot in Toronto earlier in the year. In April the twins filmed a video for the song "What's Your Number?" in New York City. Later in the month they made a promotional visit to Australia, including radio and television appearances. In June, Jedward joined the line-up of A Night for Christy, a gala concert in aid of Aslan frontman Christy Dignam. The twins performed Aslan's song "She's So Beautiful" with the band. In July the twins performed live shows in Cork and Limerick, with a UK live tour scheduled for September. In November the twins toured Australia, with performances in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. While in Australia they also released the music video for "Young Love" album track "Can't Forget You". The video for "Can't Forget You" was shot at and around El Mirage Lake, in San Bernardino County, Los Angeles, California, United States..


title: Jedward

text: In January 2014, the third series of their CBBC television programme "Jedward's Big Adventure" was broadcast. Due to its popularity, the series run was doubled to 10 episodes. They also provided weekly style commentary of the contestants in Sweden's Melodifestivalen competition and made a guest performance at the Melodifestivalen Second Chance show in early March. In April 2014, Jedward debuted their new single "Free Spirit" on Australian radio station KIIS 106.5. This was followed by news of the duo's fourth studio album to be released later in the year. The album will contain songs written and produced by Jedward. The duo's follow-up single "Ferocious" was released in November 2014, charting at No.15 on the Irish singles chart. In November 2014 it was announced that John and Edward would join the cast of ITV's new circus reality show "Get Your Act Together" in 2015.


title: Jedward

text: Between 2014 and 2018, they released several new self-penned singles and directed the accompanying music videos. The twins appeared on "The Ray D'arcy Show" in February 2017 and confirmed that they were working on their fourth studio album. They signed to Universal Music Singapore in April 2019, and released their fourth studio album, and first with UMSG, "Voice of a Rebel" on 20 June 2019 across Asia, followed by the rest of the world on 27 June. The album is available both digitally and on CD (the latter via their official website).


title: Jedward

text: Jedward are involved with many charity projects, and were one of the highest rated charity ambassadors in Ireland for 2011. Jedward are ambassadors for the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) and have fronted an ISPCC poster campaign. The proceeds of their Euro 2012 charity single "Put The Green Cape On" also went to the ISPCC. From 2010 to 2013 Jedward performed annually at the ChildLine Concert, which benefits the ISPCC's ChildLine service. Also in Ireland, Jedward have been involved with the ISPCA's My Dog Ate It campaign, and promote the Concern Worldwide Fast fundraiser. Jedward have also been involved with Comic Relief, Sport Relief and Children in Need, in the UK, as well as giving their time to visit children in hospitals.


title: Jedward

text: Jedward have been involved with many advertising campaigns in the UK and Ireland. In 2009, agreed to be the subject of a Tourism Ireland radio campaign, which made a tongue-in-cheek apology to the UK for Jedward's antics on "The X Factor". In 2010, Jedward fronted an advertising campaign for Irish fast food chain Abrakebabra. Jedward have also fronted advertising campaigns for East Midlands Trains, Rowntree's Randoms, Disney Universe and a Travel Supermarket commercial with comedian Omid Djalili. The last was later banned after the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the advert was misleading. In 2011, they fronted an advertising campaign for mobile network 3 Ireland, including their own Jedward-branded mobile phone.


title: Jedward

text: Between 2010 and 2013, Jedward performed in an annual pantomime over the Christmas and New Year period. Based at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, the pantomimes also starred Linda Martin. John and Edward played themselves and the shows featured Jedward songs. The twins' first show was "Cinderella" in 2010, where they played the fairy godbrothers. They returned in 2011 with a sell-out season of "Jedward and the Beanstalk", and again in 2012 with "Jedward and the Magic Lamp". In 2013 their fourth and last pantomime was "Jedward in Beauty and the Beast".


title: Jedward

text: Jedward have been signed to Next Models and appeared in fashion magazines "i-D", "Esquire" and "Grazia".


title: Jedward

text: Whilst on "The X Factor", Jedward's fans included Pixie Lott and Robbie Williams. Taoiseach Brian Cowen also backed the singers, while Leona Lewis said that she worried about them. Two leading British political parties, Labour and the Conservatives, each released campaign posters parodying the twins. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown came under fire in November 2009 for describing Jedward as "not very good" and later apologised for doing so. Following this, Walsh stated "So Gordon Brown and Simon Cowell both have something in common: neither of them know what the public want." Brown's successor, David Cameron, admitted that he enjoyed watching "The X Factor" and that Jedward were his favourite act. Cameron also bought a T-shirt with their faces on it.<ref name="rte2009/1105"></ref> "The Irish Independent" called Jedward "tone-deaf twins", even though the pair were voted more popular than The Beatles in a teenage poll. Comedian Oliver Callan has parodied them on his RTÉ 2 show "Nob Nation". Their 2017 court case was later the subject of a stage musical starring comedians Kevin McGahern and Tony Cantwell.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Local Hero is a 1983 Scottish comedy-drama film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Peter Riegert, Denis Lawson, Fulton Mackay and Burt Lancaster. Produced by David Puttnam, the film is about an American oil company representative who is sent to the fictional village of Ferness on the west coast of Scotland to purchase the town and surrounding property for his company. For his work on the film, Forsyth won the 1984 BAFTA Award for Best Direction.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: A stage musical adaptation received its world premiere in 2019. In the same year a Criterion Collection DVD/Blu-ray was released in September.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: "Mac" MacIntyre is a typical 1980s hot-shot executive working for Knox Oil and Gas in Houston, Texas. The eccentric head of the company, Felix Happer, sends him (largely because his surname sounds Scottish) to acquire the village of Ferness in the Scottish Highlands to make way for a refinery. Mac (who is actually of Hungarian extraction) is a little apprehensive about his assignment, complaining to a co-worker that he would much rather take care of business over the phone and via telex machines. Happer, an avid astronomy buff, tells Mac to watch the sky and to notify him immediately if he sees anything unusual.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Upon arriving in Scotland, Mac teams up with local Knox representative Danny Oldsen. During a visit to a Knox research facility in Aberdeen, Dr. Geddes and his assistant Watt inform them about the scope of the company's plans, which entail replacing Ferness with the refinery. They also meet (and admire) marine researcher Marina.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Mac ultimately spends several weeks in Ferness, gradually adapting to the slower-paced life and getting to know the eccentric residents, most notably hotel owner and accountant Gordon Urquhart, and his wife Stella. As time passes, Mac becomes more and more conflicted as he presses to close the deal that will spell the end of the quaint little village he has come to love. Unbeknownst to him, however, the villagers are tired of their hard life and are more than eager to sell, though they feign indifference to induce a larger offer. Mac receives encouragement from an unlikely source: Victor, a capitalistic Soviet fishing boat captain who periodically visits his friends in Ferness (and checks on his investment portfolio, managed by Gordon).


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Meanwhile, Danny befriends Marina, who is under the impression that the company is planning to build a research centre at Ferness. During a date, he discovers that Marina, who seems more at home in the water than on land, has webbed toes. While watching some grey seals, Danny mentions that sailors used to believe they were mermaids. Marina tells him the sailors were wrong.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: As the deal nears completion, Gordon discovers that Ben Knox, an old beachcomber who lives in a driftwood shack on the shore, owns the beach through a grant from the Lord of the Isles to his ancestor. MacIntyre tries everything to entice Ben to sell, even offering enough money to buy any other beach in the world, but the owner is content with what he has. Ben picks up some sand and offers to sell for the same number of pound notes as he has grains of sand in his hand. A suspicious MacIntyre declines, only to be told there could not have been more than ten thousand grains.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Happer finally arrives on site, just in time to unknowingly forestall a potential confrontation between some of the villagers and Ben. When Mac informs him of the snag in the proceedings, he decides to negotiate personally with Ben and, in the process, discovers a kindred spirit. Happer opts to locate the refinery offshore and set up an astronomical observatory instead. He sends MacIntyre home to implement the changes. Danny brings up Marina's dream of an oceanographic research facility and suggests combining the two into the "Happer Institute", an idea that Happer likes. A sombre MacIntyre returns to his apartment in Houston. He pulls from his pocket pebbles and shells and spreads them out on the work surface. The local phone box in Ferness starts ringing.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: When producer David Puttnam approached his regular backers Warner Bros. and Goldcrest Films to fund "Local Hero", they initially turned him down. When Puttnam won a BAFTA for "Chariots of Fire" in 1982 this convinced Goldcrest executives to finance the entire film. Warner Bros. agreed to pay $1.5 million for US rights.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Puttnam always wanted Burt Lancaster to play Happer but the casting proved problematic because the Hollywood star wanted his $2 million salary, which was almost a third of the film's entire budget. However, upon learning of Lancaster's potential involvement in the project, Warner Bros. offered Puttnam a US distribution deal and provided the additional funding to secure Lancaster. After negotiations, Puttnam ended up having an additional $200,000 in the film's budget. He later remarked in an interview that "big stars are not a liability, they are an asset!".


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Michael Douglas and Henry Winkler were both actively pursued by Bill Forsyth for the role of MacIntyre (which ultimately went to Peter Riegert).


title: Local Hero (film)

text: "Local Hero" was filmed in several locations around Scotland. Most of the Ferness village scenes were filmed in Pennan on the Aberdeenshire coast, and most of the beach scenes at Morar and Arisaig on the west coast.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: The film's soundtrack was written and produced by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. This has led to the popularity of the film with fans of the band. Knopfler has since performed an arrangement of "Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero)" as an encore at many of his concerts. This tune borrows some melodic riffs from traditional songs. In his review of the album for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann wrote:


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Gerry Rafferty provided the vocals for "The Way It Always Starts" on the soundtrack. The album was certified a BPI silver record.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: In his "Chicago Sun-Times" review, Roger Ebert gave the film his highest four stars, calling it "a small film to treasure". He gave particular praise to writer-director Bill Forsyth for his abilities as a storyteller.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: James Berardinelli gave the film three and a half stars out of four, calling it "a fragment of cinematic whimsy—a genial dramatic comedy that defies both our expectations and those of the characters". Berardinelli also focused on Forsyth's abilities as a storyteller, noting that the director "finds the perfect tone for this not-quite-a-fairy-tale set in a quaint seaside Scottish village named Ferness. By injecting a little (but not too much) magical realism into the mix, Forsyth leavens his pro-environmental message to the point that those not looking for it might not be conscious of its presence." Berardinelli concluded that "Local Hero" represents "the best kind of light fare: a motion picture that offers a helping of substance to go along with an otherwise frothy and undemanding main course".


title: Local Hero (film)

text: "The New York Times" critic Janet Maslin wrote, "Genuine fairy tales are rare; so is film-making that is thoroughly original in an unobtrusive way. Bill Forsyth's quirky disarming "Local Hero" is both." Maslin concluded:


title: Local Hero (film)

text: In "Variety" magazine, film critic Todd McCarthy wrote, "After making the grade internationally with the sleeper hit, "Gregory's Girl", Scottish writer-director Bill Forsyth has broken the sophomore sesh jinx the only way he could, by making an even better film ... Given a larger canvas, director Forsyth has in no way attempted to overreach himself or the material, keeping things modest and intimate throughout, but displaying a very acute sense of comic insight."


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Almar Haflidason called "Local Hero" "a wry film that slowly slips under the skin to surprising effect" in "BBC Home". Haflidason concludes, "Once over, the mood of the film hits home and a longing develops to visit once again the characters of this warm and deceptively slight comedy."


title: Local Hero (film)

text: For "Movie Gazette", Gary Panton described the film as a "magical, intelligent comedy". Panton praised the cinematography as "little short of amazing" and that "Local Hero" was "Bill Forsyth's finest work of all, this is a perfect film."


title: Local Hero (film)

text: During his 2000 campaign for the presidency, U.S. Vice President Al Gore told Oprah Winfrey in an interview that "Local Hero" was his favorite film.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a rare 100% positive rating based on 36 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.80/10. The site's consensus reads: "A charmingly low-key character study brought to life by a tremendously talented cast, "Local Hero" is as humorous as it is heartwarming". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 82 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: Some Scottish critics were less enthusiastic about the film, pointing out that it repeated and reinforced long-established cinematic representations of Scotland and the Scots and perpetuated a comforting but misleading narrative about Scotland's relationship with international capitalism. The Glasgow Women and Film Collective questioned what it saw as the film's male-oriented narrative about innocence and power and the marginal roles it accorded to women.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: "Local Hero" earned $5,895,761 in total gross sales in the United States. Goldcrest Films invested £2,551,000 in the film and received £3,290,000, earning them a profit of £739,000.


title: Local Hero (film)

text: A stage musical based on the film premiered at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh in spring 2019. The musical featured music and lyrics by Mark Knopfler (writer of the film soundtrack) and a book by Bill Forsyth (original film screenwriter and director) and David Greig, and was directed by John Crowley. The musical was due to transfer to The Old Vic in London in summer 2020, however due to the COVID-19 pandemic the run was cancelled. A new production directed by Daniel Evans will open in summer 2022 at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: Sanyika Shakur (born Kody Dejohn Scott; November 13, 1963 – June 6, 2021), also known by his former street moniker Monster or Monster Kody, was an American author and former gang member. He was a member of the Los Angeles-based Eight Tray Gangster Crips. He got his nickname as a 13-year-old gang member when he beat and stomped a robbery victim until he was disfigured. Shakur claimed to have reformed in prison, joined the Republic of New Afrika movement, and wrote a 1993 memoir called "".


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: "Monster" describes how Shakur was drawn into gang life, his experiences as a gangster both on the street and in prisons, and eventually his transformation into a Black nationalist.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: Shakur spent 36 months at San Quentin State Prison and five years at Pelican Bay State Prison, most of which was spent in solitary confinement, where he converted to Islam.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: In March 2007, Shakur, already sought by police for parole violations and named on the city's most-wanted gang members list, was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for allegedly breaking into the home of an acquaintance and beating him in order to steal his car. The charges represent a possible third strike that could send Shakur back to prison for life. In May 2008, Shakur pleaded no contest to carjacking and robbery charges, and was sentenced to six years in state prison. Also in 2008, Shakur made his fiction debut with the publication of "T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E." (Grove Atlantic Books). He was released from Pelican Bay after serving two thirds of his 6-year sentence in August 2012.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: Shakur was born Kody Dejohn Scott in Los Angeles, California, on November 13, 1963, to Ernest Scott and Birdie Canada, both from Houston, Texas. Kody was the fifth of six children, including four brothers and two sisters (Kevin, Kim, Kerwin, Kershaun, Kody, and Kendis). Shakur believed it was probable that he was the son of former Los Angeles Rams running back Dick Bass and that he was conceived during an adulterous affair that his mother was having with the football star, a claim for which there is no compelling evidence. Ernest Scott held a bitter resentment toward Birdie's affair and physically abused his wife regularly throughout Shakur's early childhood.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: Ernest Scott physically and emotionally abused Kody, routinely beating him and showing deliberate favoritism toward his biological children over Shakur, which included taking the other children out to dinners, movies, and trips to his hometown of Houston and intentionally leaving Shakur behind. In 1970, Ernest and Birdie Scott divorced, and, for the next five years, Ernest Scott would visit the family on weekends but still openly displayed contempt for young Shakur.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: In 1972, Birdie Scott moved her family into a house on West 69th Street and Denker Avenue in a very rough and gang-infested neighborhood on the west side of South Central Los Angeles. According to Shakur, his first encounter with street gangs occurred at age ten when he was assaulted by two 13-year-olds who stole his money. Because Birdie Scott worked several jobs to support her large family as well as the neglect that he received from Ernest Scott, young Shakur would often hang out on the streets of his new neighborhood. It was around this time that he began hanging around his neighbor Stanley Tookie Williams, the leader of the West Side Crips street gang.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: In his memoir "Blue Rage, Black Redemption", Tookie Williams recalled the occasions in which he and other adult members of the Crips would smoke PCP and lift weights at Williams's house. According to Williams, Shakur was always present at the house and would watch in awe as the gang members would lift weights and tell stories about gang fights and shootings that they had committed. In the book, Williams also expressed his regret regarding his behavior around the impressionable young Shakur, and he held himself personally responsible for exposing Shakur to drugs, as Shakur himself would later become a frequent PCP user.


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: In 1975, a member of the West Side Crips nicknamed Sidewinder formed a set called the Eight Tray Gangster Crips (also known as 83GC, ETG or ETGC) in Shakur's neighborhood. On the evening of June 15, 1975, the day of his sixth-grade graduation, Kody was initiated into the ETGs. Shakur was courted into the gang (also known as being jumped in: in which gang members beat up the new recruit to see if he or she is brave enough to fight back and defend himself or herself).


title: Sanyika Shakur

text: Shakur and another gang member then hotwired a stolen car after which he and several members of the ETGs, all armed with revolvers and shotguns, tracked down members of the Brims street gang (a set of the Bloods), which had been hanging out in the Crips' neighborhood. The ETGs opened fire on a group of approximately 15 Brims, shooting several of them. Shakur, armed with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun and instructed not to return to the car unless he used all eight rounds of the weapon, shot several Brims gang members that evening.