The Priestley Riots (also known as the Birmingham Riots of 1791) took place from 14 July to 17 July 1791 in Birmingham, England; the rioters' main targets were religious dissenters, most notably the politically and theologically controversial Joseph Priestley.  Both local and national issues stirred the passions of the rioters, from disagreements over public library book purchases, to controversies over Dissenters' attempts to gain full civil rights and their support of the French Revolution.

The riots started with an attack on the Royal Hotel, Birmingham—the site of a banquet organised in sympathy with the French Revolution.  Then, beginning with Priestley's church and home, the rioters attacked or burned four Dissenting chapels, twenty-seven houses, and several businesses. Many of them became intoxicated by liquor that they found while looting, or with which they were bribed to stop burning homes. A small core could not be bribed, however, and remained sober. The rioters burned not only the homes and chapels of Dissenters, but also the homes of people they associated with Dissenters, such as members of the scientific Lunar Society.

While the riots were not initiated by Prime Minister William Pitt's administration, the national government was slow to respond to the Dissenters' pleas for help. Local officials seem to have been involved in the planning of the riots, and were later reluctant to prosecute ringleaders. Industrialist James Watt wrote that the riots "divided [Birmingham] into two parties who hate one another mortally". Those who had been attacked gradually left, leaving Birmingham a more conservative city than previously.

Historical context

Birmingham
Over the course of the eighteenth century, Birmingham became notorious for its riots, which were sparked by a number of causes. In 1714 and 1715, the townspeople, as part of a "Church-and-King" mob, attacked Dissenters (Protestants who did not adhere to the Church of England or follow its practices) in the Sacheverell riots during the London trial of Henry Sacheverell, and in 1751 and 1759 Quakers and Methodists were assaulted. During the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots in 1780, large crowds assembled in Birmingham. In 1766, 1782, 1795, and 1800 mobs protested about high food prices. One contemporary described Birmingham rioters as the "bunting, beggarly, brass-making, brazen-faced, brazen-hearted, blackguard, bustling, booby Birmingham mob".

Up until the late 1780s, religious divisions did not affect Birmingham's elite. Dissenter and Anglican lived side by side harmoniously: they were on the same town promotional committees; they pursued joint scientific interests in the Lunar Society; and they worked together in local government. They stood united against what they viewed as the threat posed by unruly plebeians. After the riots, however, scientist and clergyman Joseph Priestley argued in his An Appeal to the Public on the Subject of the Birmingham Riots (1791) that this cooperation had not in fact been as amicable as generally believed.  Priestley revealed that disputes over the local library, Sunday Schools, and church attendance had divided Dissenters from Anglicans. In his Narrative of the Riots in Birmingham (1816), stationer and Birmingham historian William Hutton agreed, arguing that five events stoked the fires of religious friction: disagreements over inclusion of Priestley's books in the local public library; concerns over Dissenters' attempts to repeal the Test and Corporation Acts; religious controversy (particularly involving Priestley); an "inflammatory hand-bill"; and a dinner celebrating the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Once Birmingham Dissenters started to agitate for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, which restricted Dissenters' civil rights (preventing them, for instance, from attending the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or from holding public office), the semblance of unity among the town's elite disappeared. Unitarians such as Priestley were at the forefront of the repeal campaign, and orthodox Anglicans grew nervous and angry. After 1787, the emergence of Dissenting groups formed for the sole purpose of overturning these laws began to divide the community; however, the repeal efforts failed in 1787, 1789 and 1790. Priestley's support of the repeal and his heterodox religious views, which were widely published, inflamed the populace. In February 1790, a group of activists came together not only to oppose the interests of the Dissenters but also to counteract what they saw as the undesirable importation of French Revolutionary ideals. Dissenters by and large supported the French Revolution and its efforts to question the role monarchy should play in government.
One month before the riots, Priestley attempted to found a reform society, the Warwickshire Constitutional Society, which would have supported universal suffrage and short Parliaments. Although this effort failed, the efforts to establish such a society increased tensions in Birmingham.

In addition to these religious and political differences, both the lower-class rioters and their upper-class Anglican leaders had economic complaints against the middle-class Dissenters. They envied the ever-increasing prosperity of these industrialists as well as the power that came with that economic success. Historian R. B. Rose refers to these industrialists as belonging to "an inner elite of magnates".  Priestley himself had written a pamphlet, An Account of a Society for Encouraging the Industrious Poor (1787), on how best to extract the most work for the smallest amount of money from the poor. Its emphasis on debt collection did not endear him to the poverty-stricken.

British reaction to the French Revolution

The British public debate over the French Revolution, or the Revolution Controversy, lasted from 1789 through 1795. Initially many on both sides of the Channel thought the French would follow the pattern of the English Glorious Revolution of a century before, and the Revolution was viewed positively by a large portion of the British public.  Most Britons celebrated the storming of the Bastille in 1789, believing that France's absolute monarchy should be replaced by a more democratic form of government. In these heady early days, supporters of the Revolution also believed that Britain's own system would be reformed as well: voting rights would be broadened and redistribution of Parliamentary constituency boundaries would eliminate so-called "rotten boroughs".

After the publication of statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in which he surprisingly broke ranks with his liberal Whig colleagues to support the French aristocracy, a pamphlet war discussing the Revolution began in earnest. Because Burke had supported the American colonists in their rebellion against Great Britain, his views sent a shockwave through the country. While Burke supported aristocracy, monarchy, and the Established Church, liberals such as Charles James Fox supported the Revolution, and a programme of individual liberties, civic virtue and religious toleration, while radicals such as Priestley, William Godwin, Thomas Paine, and Mary Wollstonecraft, argued for a further programme of republicanism, agrarian socialism, and abolition of the "landed interest". Alfred Cobban calls the debate that erupted "perhaps the last real discussion of the fundamentals of politics in [Britain]".

Hints of trouble

On 11 July 1791, a Birmingham newspaper announced that on 14 July, the second anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, there would be a dinner at the local Royal Hotel to commemorate the outbreak of the French Revolution; the invitation encouraged "any Friend to Freedom" to attend:

Alongside this notice was a threat: "an authentic list" of the participants would be published after the dinner. On the same day, "an ultra-revolutionary" handbill, written by James Hobson (although his authorship was not known at the time), entered circulation. Town officials offered 100 guineas for information regarding the publication of the handbill and its author, to no avail. The Dissenters found themselves forced to plead ignorance and decry the "radical" ideas promoted by the handbill. It was becoming clear by 12 July that there would be trouble at the dinner.  On the morning of 14 July graffiti such as "destruction to the Presbyterians" and "Church and King for ever" were scrawled across the town. At this point, Priestley's friends, fearing for his safety, dissuaded him from attending the dinner.

14 July

About 90 hardy sympathisers of the French Revolution came to celebrate on 14 July; the banquet was led by James Keir, an Anglican industrialist who was a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham. When the guests arrived at the hotel at 2 or 3 p.m., they were greeted by 60 or 70 protesters who temporarily dispersed while yelling, rather bizarrely and confusingly, "no popery". By the time the celebrants ended their dinner, around 7 or 8 p.m., a crowd of hundreds had gathered. The rioters, who "were recruited predominantly from the industrial artisans and labourers of Birmingham", threw stones at the departing guests and sacked the hotel. The crowd then moved on to the Quaker meeting-house, until someone yelled that the Quakers "never trouble themselves with anything, neither on one side nor the other" and convinced them instead to attack the New Meeting chapel, where Priestley presided as minister. The New and Old Meeting Houses, two Dissenting chapels, were set alight.

The rioters proceeded to Priestley's home, Fairhill at Sparkbrook. Priestley barely had time to evacuate and he and his wife fled from Dissenting friend to friend during the riots. Writing shortly after the event, Priestley described the first part of the attack, which he witnessed from a distance:

His son, William, stayed behind with others to protect the family home, but they were overcome and the property was eventually looted and razed to the ground. Priestley's valuable library, scientific laboratory, and manuscripts were largely lost in the flames.

15, 16 and 17 July

The Earl of Aylesford attempted to stem the mounting violence on the night of 14 July, but despite having the help of other magistrates, he was unable to control the crowd.  On 15 July, the mob liberated prisoners from the local gaol. Thomas Woodbridge, the Keeper of the Prison, deputised several hundred people to help him quell the mob, but many of these joined in with the rioters themselves. The crowd destroyed John Ryland's home, Baskerville House, and drank the supplies of liquor which they found in the cellar. When the newly appointed constables arrived on the scene, the mob attacked and disarmed them. One man was killed. The local magistrates and law enforcement, such as it was, did nothing further to restrain the mob and did not read the Riot Act until the military arrived on 17 July. Other rioters burned down banker John Taylor's home at Bordesley Park.

On 16 July, the homes of Joseph Jukes, John Coates, John Hobson, Thomas Hawkes, and John Harwood (the latter a blind Baptist minister)  were all ransacked or burned. The Baptist Meeting at Kings Heath, another Dissenting chapel, was also destroyed. William Russell and William Hutton, tried to defend their homes, but to no avail—the men they hired refused to fight the mob. Hutton later wrote a narrative of the events:

When the rioters arrived at John Taylor's other house at Moseley, Moseley Hall, they carefully moved all of the furniture and belongings of its current occupant, the frail Dowager Lady Carhampton, a relative of George III, out of the house before they burned it: they were specifically targeting those who disagreed with the king's policies and who, in not conforming to the Church of England, resisted state control. The homes of George Russell, a Justice of the Peace, Samuel Blyth, one of the ministers of New Meeting, Thomas Lee, and a Mr. Westley all came under attack on the 15th and 16th. The manufacturer, Quaker, and member of the Lunar Society Samuel Galton only saved his own home by bribing the rioters with ale and money.

By 2 p.m. on 16 July, the rioters had left Birmingham and were heading towards Kings Norton and the Kingswood Chapel; it was estimated that one group of the rioters totalled 250 to 300 people. They burned Cox's farm at Warstock and looted and attacked the home of a Mr. Taverner. When they reached Kingswood, Warwickshire, they burned the Dissenting chapel and its manse. By this time, Birmingham had shut down—no business was being conducted.

Contemporary accounts record that the mob's last sustained assault was around 8 p.m. on 17 July. About 30 "hard core" rioters attacked the home of William Withering, an Anglican who attended the Lunar Society with Priestley and Keir. But Withering, aided by a group of hired men, managed to fend them off. When the military finally arrived to restore order on 17 and 18 July, most of the rioters had disbanded, although there were rumours that mobs were destroying property in Alcester and Bromsgrove.

All in all, four Dissenting churches had been severely damaged or burned down and twenty-seven homes had been attacked, many looted and burned.  Having begun by attacking those who attended the Bastille celebration, the "Church-and-King" mob had finished up by extending their targets to include Dissenters of all kinds as well as members of the Lunar Society.

Aftermath and trials

Priestley and other Dissenters blamed the government for the riots, believing that William Pitt and his supporters had instigated them; however, it seems from the evidence that the riots were actually organised by local Birmingham officials. Some of the rioters acted in a co-ordinated fashion and seemed to be led by local officials during the attacks, prompting accusations of premeditation. Some Dissenters discovered that their homes were to be attacked several days before the rioters arrived, leading them to believe that there was a prepared list of victims. The "disciplined nucleus of rioters", which numbered only thirty or so, directed the mob and stayed sober throughout the three to four days of rioting. Unlike the hundreds of others who joined in, they could not be bribed to stop their destructions. Essayist William Hazlitt's first published work was a letter to the Shrewsbury Chronicle, printed later in July 1791, condemning the Priestley riots; Priestley had been one of (then 13-year-old) Hazlitt's teachers.

If a concerted effort had been made by Birmingham's Anglican elite to attack the Dissenters, it was more than likely the work of Benjamin Spencer, a local minister, Joseph Carles, a Justice of the Peace and landowner, and John Brooke (1755-1802), an attorney, coroner, and under-sheriff. Although present at the riot's outbreak, Carles and Spencer made no attempt to stop the rioters, and Brooke seems to have led them to the New Meeting chapel. Witnesses agreed "that the magistrates promised the rioters protection so long as they restricted their attacks to the meeting-houses and left persons and property alone". The magistrates also refused to arrest any of the rioters and released those that had been arrested. Instructed by the national government to prosecute the riot's instigators, these local officials dragged their heels. When finally forced to try the ringleaders, they intimidated witnesses and made a mockery of the trial proceedings. Only seventeen of the fifty rioters who had been charged were ever brought to trial; four were convicted, of whom one was pardoned, two were hanged, and the fourth was transported to Botany Bay. But Priestley and others believed that these men were found guilty not because they were rioters but because "they were infamous characters in other respects".

Although he had been forced to send troops to Birmingham to quell the disturbances, King George III commented, "I cannot but feel better pleased that Priestley is the sufferer for the doctrines he and his party have instilled, and that the people see them in their true light." The national government forced the local residents to pay restitution to those whose property had been damaged: the total eventually amounted to £23,000. However, the process took many years, and most residents received much less than the value of their property.

After the riots, Birmingham was, according to industrialist James Watt, "divided into two parties who hate one another mortally". Initially Priestley wanted to return and deliver a sermon on the Bible verse "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," but he was dissuaded by friends convinced that it was too dangerous. Instead, he wrote his Appeal:

The riots revealed that the Anglican gentry of Birmingham were not averse to using violence against Dissenters whom they viewed as potential revolutionaries. They had no qualms, either, about raising a potentially uncontrollable mob. Many of those attacked left Birmingham; as a result, the town became noticeably more conservative after the riots. The remaining supporters of the French Revolution decided not to hold a dinner celebrating the storming of the Bastille the next year.

See also

Derby Museum and Art Gallery

Notes

Bibliography

—. An Authentic Account of the Riots in Birmingham, also … the trials of the Rioters. Birmingham: n.p., 1791.
—. Views of the Ruins of the Principal Houses Destroyed during the Riots at Birmingham. London: J. Johnson, 1791.
Butler, Marilyn, ed. Burke, Paine, Godwin, and the Revolution Controversy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. .
Hutton, William. "A Narrative of the Riots in Birmingham, July 1791".  The Life of William Hutton. London: Printed for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, Paternoster Row; and Beilby and Knotts, Birmingham, 1816. Google Books. Retrieved on 28 February 2008.
Maddison, R. E. S. and Francis R. Maddison. "Joseph Priestley and the Birmingham Riots." Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 12.1 (August, 1956): 98–113.
Martineau, Dennis. "Playing Detective: The Priestley Riots of 1791." Birmingham Historian 12–13 (1997): 11–18.
 Priestley, Joseph. An Appeal to the Public on the Subject of the Riots in Birmingham. Birmingham: Printed by J. Thompson, 1791.  On line, Internet Archive.
Rose, R. B. "The Priestley Riots of 1791." Past and Present 18 (1960): 68–88.
Schofield, Robert E. The Enlightened Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1773 to 1804. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004. .
Sheps, Arthur. "Public Perception of Joseph Priestley, the Birmingham Dissenters, and the Church-and-King Riots of 1791." Eighteenth-Century Life 13.2 (1989): 46–64.

History of Birmingham, West Midlands
Lunar Society of Birmingham
Religious riots
Religiously motivated violence in England
Riots and civil disorder in the West Midlands
Sectarian violence
1791 riots
1791 in England
Attacks on religious buildings and structures in Europe
Christianity and violence
18th century in Birmingham, West Midlands
English Dissenters

Priestley Riots


Bernese Jura (German:Berner Jura, French: Jura Bernois) is a part of the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is the French speaking part of the canton. It was made after the canton of Jura split from the canton of Bern. The Bernese Jura is made of three districts, Courtelary, La Neuveville and Moutier. The people living there are mainly protestants, they chose to stay with the canton of Bern in 1979.

Canton of Jura
Canton of Bern

Bernese Jura


SS Philip and Jacob Church, () previously referred to as Pip 'n' Jay, is a parish church in central Bristol, England. The church that meets there is now called Central. Its full name since 1934 is St Philip and St Jacob with Emmanuel the Unity, although reference to the original church of St Philip exists in records dating from 1174. Historically the 'Mother church of East Bristol', it serves the area known as The Dings.

The building
St Philip and St Jacob refers to itself as the city's 'oldest place of Christian worship'. The church began as a small priory around AD 900. It was later rebuilt by Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester, who also built the nearby priory of St James'. All that remains of the original church is the font, although parts of the chancel and tower date from at least the 13th Century. The building was extended during the Middle Ages to include the present-day nave, the pillars of which are actually Victorian additions, possibly by William Armstrong.

The tower contains eight bells dating from 1738 and made by William Bilbie of the Bilbie family.

Around 1860 new plans were submitted by John Bindon, Richard Shackleton Pope and Thomas Shackleton Pope and accepted for the rebuilding of the church.

An extension was also added to the south-east corner of the church during the 1980s, comprising meeting rooms, a kitchen and other facilities. The building is an English Heritage Grade II* listed structure.

Archives
Parish records for St Philip & St Jacob church, Bristol are held at Bristol Archives (Ref. P. St P&J) (online catalogue) including baptism, marriage and burial registers. The archive also includes records of the incumbent, churchwardens, overseer of the poor, parochial church council, charities, schools and vestry plus photographs, deeds, pictures, maps and plans.

Closure threats
During the English civil war the demolition of the church was ordered (along with nearby St Peter's) to prevent its use as a fortress for attacking the city of Bristol. However, reinforcements arriving in the city meant that the building was saved.

In the early 1960s, the church was again threatened with closure, but managed to avoid becoming a potato factory due to the vision and determination of its then-small congregation, who adopted both the motto 'Seek First' (from Matthew Chapter 6, verse 33) and, uniquely, the nickname 'Pip 'n' Jay'.

The church today
Since 1963, St Philip and St Jacob has become one of the leading Evangelical churches in Bristol. In the 1970s it was part of the Charismatic revival in the Church of England. Its vicar was the Revd Canon Malcolm Widdecombe (1937-2010, brother of Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe) from 1974 until his retirement in 2009. He died of metastatic oesophageal cancer on 12 October 2010. His son, the Revd Roger Widdecombe, is an Anglican priest. Today, the church supports and sends out many missionaries.

The church changed its name in 2018 to Central and currently is led by the Revd Tim Jones who was appointed Vicar in 2023.

The parish
St Philip and St Jacob is one of the original parishes of Bristol.  It includes the Old Market area, and extended beyond the original city boundaries to include what are now the Bristol districts of Baptist Mills, Barton Hill, Lawrence Hill, Newtown, Russell Town, St Jude's, St Philips Marsh, The Dings and part of Easton.  A growing population in the 19th century led to the building of ten new churches in the east of the parish, seven of which have now closed.  In 1871 Greenbank Cemetery was opened as a burial place for the whole parish.

The ancient parish lay within the hundred of Barton Regis.

See also
 Grade II* listed buildings in Bristol
 Churches in Bristol

References

External links

 SS Philip & Jacob Church, Bristol

13th-century church buildings in England
Saint Philip and Saint Jacob
Saint Philip and Saint Jacob
Grade II* listed churches in Bristol

St Philip and St Jacob, Bristol


Tim McIlrath (born November 3, 1978) an American musician. He is the singer, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter as well as co-founder of the punk rock band Rise Against. McIlrath is known to help animal rights and actively promotes PETA with his band. He follows the straight edge lifestyle, along with Rise Against bassist Joe Principe and guitarist Zach Blair.

Personal life
Tim McIlrath was born November 3, 1979 in Chicago, Illinois. At a young age he read books such as 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, which would inspire his later work. As a child he went to "Our Lady of the Wayside," where he was made fun of for having one brown eye and one blue eye. This is known as heterochromia. As an early teenager, all of Tim's friends were into snowboarding, so Tim saved up money until he had $400 to buy a snowboard. But instead of buying a snowboard, he bought a Gibson SG.

In college, Tim majored in English and Sociology. In his junior year he met Joe Principe at a "Sick of it All" concert show. Joe asked Tim to sing over a few tracks that he and Mr. Precision had taped. That is when Rise Against was formed, and Tim left college.

On the reverse of McIlrath's white Les Paul guitar are the words Out of Step. This is a reference to Minor Threat's album Out of Step. Tim is now married and he and his wife Erin have two daughters, Blythe and Scarlet. They live with him in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Baxter
Tim McIlrath began his musical career in his teenage years. Tim was very active in the Chicago local alternative rock/punk scene. His first band was the post hardcore band Baxter. They formed in 1995 along with future The Lawrence Arms drummer Neil Hennessy and future Killing Tree and Holy Roman Empire bassist Geoff Reu.
Their first release was a full length, self released, cassette, Troy's Bucket, which was released in 1996. Troy's Bucket was met with good reviews from reviewers, and Baxter became a popular band in the Chicago underground scene.

In 1997 they released a 7" EP Lost Voices on Static Station Records. After some local touring, the band split up. Tim played bass and sang backup for The Honor System. He sang on their demo and on some songs on their first album Single File. He and drummer Neil Hennesy could also be found in a brief lineup of the grind band Yellow Road Priest, whose members went on to form Pelican. Following the band's breakup in 1997, Tim formed metalcore band Arma Angelus, along with singer Pete Wentz, who was to become bassist in mainstream pop punk/emo band Fall Out Boy. McIlrath played bass with the band until 1999 when he quit to form Transistor Revolt, which would soon become Rise Against.

Rise Against
In 1999 Tim formed the band that would become Rise Against with former 88 Fingers Louie bassist, Joe Principe, guitarist Dan Precision (Mr. Precision), and drummer Toni Tintari under the name Transistor Revolt. Drummer Brandon Barnes did not come into the picture until 2001 along with the band name Rise Against. They recorded their first album The Unraveling on Fat Wreck Chords in 2001.

In 2003 guitarist Mr. Precision left, and Todd Mohney filled in. Later that year they released their second album Revolutions Per Minute which was greeted with great success. They toured the United States a lot that year, though by the end of it, Todd left. In order to replace him, former Reach the Sky guitarist Chris Chasse joined in 2004 and they released their first album on Geffen records, Siren Song of the Counter Culture.

With the release of the singles "Give it All", "Swing Life Away", and "Life Less Frightening", Rise Against became more popular with fans, but still kept their underground feeling. After more touring (like a European tour and spots on the Vans Warped tour), the band went back to the studio and recorded their fourth album The Sufferer & the Witness, which had eight singles ("Ready to Fall, "Prayer of the Refugee", "The Good Left Undone", "Behind Closed Doors", "Drones", "Survive", "Injection", and "Under the Knife".)

They had ended their tour and were back in the studio in the process of making their next album, when Chris Chasse left the band to start a family life.

Rise Against recorded their latest album Appeal to Reason with the help of guitarist Zach Blair, who is now a member and has known the band for many years. Appeal to Reason was released on October 7, 2008. The band recorded it at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colorado with Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, who helped make Revolutions Per Minute and The Sufferer & the Witness.

References

Rise Against
American guitarists
Singers from Chicago
American composers
Musicians from Chicago
American punk musicians
1979 births
Living people
People from Arlington Heights, Illinois

Tim McIlrath


Karmapa is Tibetan buddhist teacher or lama. He is the first one from Tibetan lamas, who consciously incarnates in subsequent order of Buddhist masters. Karmapa is the head of Karma Kagyu- the biggest subschool or lineage of Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The first Karmapa Dusum Khyenpa (1204—1283) is student of Gampopa(1079-1153) .

Karmapa


Yuwen Tai () (505/7 – 21 November 556), nickname Heita (黑獺), formally Duke Wen of Anding (安定文公), later further posthumously honored by Northern Zhou initially as Prince Wen (文王) then as Emperor Wen (文皇帝) with the temple name Taizu (太祖), was the de facto ruler and paramount general of the Xianbei-led Chinese Western Wei dynasty, a branch successor state of the Northern Wei. In 534, Emperor Xiaowu of Northern Wei, seeking to assert power independent of the paramount general Gao Huan, fled to Yuwen's domain, and when Gao subsequently proclaimed Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei emperor, a split of Northern Wei was effected, and when Yuwen subsequently poisoned Emperor Xiaowu to death around the new year 535 and declared his cousin Yuan Baoju emperor (as Emperor Wen), the split was formalized, with the part under Gao's and Emperor Xiaojing's control known as Eastern Wei and the part under Yuwen's and Emperor Wen's control known as Western Wei. For the rest of his life, Yuwen endeavored to make Western Wei, then much weaker than its eastern counterpart, a strong state, and after his death, his son Yuwen Jue seized the throne from Emperor Gong of Western Wei, establishing the Northern Zhou dynasty.

Early career
Yuwen Tai was born in 505, and was a descendant of the last chieftain of the Xianbei Yuwen tribe Yuwen Yidougui, whose tribe was destroyed by Murong Huang, the founding ruler of Former Yan. Yuwen Yidougui's descendants served as generals during Former Yan and its successor state Later Yan. Later, when Emperor Daowu of Northern Wei defeated the Later Yan emperor Murong Bao (Emperor Huimin), Yuwen Tai's great-great-grandfather Yuwen Ling (宇文陵) surrendered to Northern Wei, and was relocated to Wuchuan (武川, in modern Hohhot, Inner Mongolia). Yuwen Tai's father Yuwen Gong (宇文肱) was known for his ability in battle. In 524, with Northern Wei's northern provinces overrun by agrarian rebels, Wuchuan was being held by one of the major rebels, Poliuhan Baling (破六韓拔陵). Yuwen Gong and another local leader, Heba Duba (賀拔度拔), ambushed Poliuhan's general Wei Kegu (衛可孤) and killed Wei, temporarily restoring order. It was probably at this time that Yuwen Tai met and befriended Heba Duba's son Heba Yue (賀拔岳). Sometime after this incident, Yuwen Gong and his sons fled to Zhongshan (中山, in modern Baoding, Hebei), and were forced to join the army of another rebel general, Xianyu Xiuli (鮮于修禮). Yuwen Gong died in a battle between Xianyu's troops and Northern Wei troops, but Yuwen Tai continued to serve in Xianyu's troops. After Xianyu was killed by his general Yuan Hongye (元洪業) in 526, another Xianyu general, Ge Rong (葛榮), in turn killed Yuan and took over Xianyu's troops, and Yuwen continued to serve Ge. However, he saw that Ge was not a competent leader and considered fleeing with his brothers, but before he could carry out his plans, Ge was defeated by the Northern Wei general Erzhu Rong in 528, and Erzhu forcibly moved Ge's troops to his power base at Jinyang (晉陽, in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi). Suspicious of the Yuwen brothers, Erzhu killed Yuwen Tai's older brother Yuwen Luosheng (宇文洛生), but Yuwen Tai pleaded his case with Erzhu and was spared.

In 529, the Northern Wei prince Yuan Hao, under support from the Liang Dynasty, attacked Emperor Xiaozhuang and seized the capital Luoyang, declaring himself emperor. Emperor Xiaozhuang fled north of the Yellow River, and Erzhu advanced south to aid him, sending Heba Yue, who was then serving under Erzhu, to lead his forward troops. Heba made Yuwen Tai his assistant, and later on, after Erzhu defeated Yuan Hao, allowing Emperor Xiaozhuang to return to Luoyang, Yuwen was created the Viscount of Ningdu.

In 530, Erzhu Rong sent his nephew Erzhu Tianguang, with Heba and Houmochen Yue (侯莫陳悅) as assistants, to attack the rebel general Moqi Chounu (万俟醜奴), who then occupied the western provinces. Yuwen continued to serve under Heba. After Erzhu Tianguang defeated Moqi, Yuwen, who contributed in the campaign, was made the governor of Yuan Province (原州, roughly modern Guyuan, Ningxia), and he was said to have ruled the province with such kindness and faith that the people of the province proclaimed, "Had we had Governor Yuwen as our governor earlier, how would we have joined the rebellion?"

Late in 530, apprehensive that Erzhu Rong would eventually seize the throne, Emperor Xiaozhuang ambushed him and killed him in the palace. Subsequently, Erzhu Rong's clan members, led by his nephew Erzhu Zhao and cousin Erzhu Shilong, defeated and killed Emperor Xiaozhuang, first making Yuan Ye the Prince of Changguang emperor, and then further replaced Yuan Ye with Emperor Jiemin. In 531, the general Gao Huan rebelled against the Erzhus. Erzhu Tianguang was initially not particularly interested in aiding his Erzhu clan members, but felt compelled to, and he departed Chang'an to head east. While Erzhu Tianguang was away, Yuwen advised Heba to rise against the Erzhus, and Heba did, defeating Erzhu Tianguang's brother Erzhu Xianshou (爾朱顯壽), whom Yuwen subsequently captured, dividing control of the territory with Houmochen. By 532, Gao had defeated the Erzhus and seized power, deposing Emperor Jiemin and making Emperor Xiaowu emperor instead. When Gao subsequently tried to intimidate Heba into giving up his territory and reporting to Luoyang, but under the advice of Xue Xiaotong (薛孝通), Heba refused. He made Yuwen his lieutenant, and consulted him on most important matters. In 533, Yuwen volunteered to serve as messenger to Gao in order to observe Gao's abilities, and Heba agreed. When Gao met Yuwen, Gao was impressed by the answers Yuwen had to his questions and wanted to detain Yuwen, but Yuwen left Gao's domain before Gao could seize him. Subsequently, Heba sent Yuwen to confer with Emperor Xiaowu, who was not happy about Gao's hold on power, and Emperor Xiaowu and Heba were able to enter into a secret alliance against Gao. Heba made Yuwen the governor of the key Xia Province (夏州, roughly modern Yulin, Shaanxi).

Taking control over western provinces
By this point, Heba Yue, in alliance with Houmochen Yue, controlled almost all of the western provinces. However, one provincial governor, Cao Ni (曹泥), the governor of Ling Province (靈州, roughly modern Yinchuan, Ningxia), was aligned with Gao Huan and refused to follow Heba's orders. Heba Yue sent his assistant Zhao Gui (趙貴) to Xia Province to request Yuwen's opinions, and Yuwen, believing that Houmochen was unreliable, advised against an attack on Cao and suggested instead that Houmochen be attacked. Heba refused—not realizing that by this point, Gao's messengers had persuaded Houmochen to act against him. Heba and Houmochen rendezvoused at Gaoping (高平, in modern Guyuan, Ningxia), and then headed north against Cao—but as they advanced, Houmochen tricked Heba into coming to his camp for discussions, and then had his son-in-law Yuan Hongjing (元洪景) assassinate Heba. Initially, Heba's army was surprised and intimidated, but Houmochen, instead of taking over Heba's army, panicked and fled to Shuiluo (水洛, in modern Pingliang, Gansu), while Heba's army, without a central commander, withdrew to Pingliang (平涼, also in modern Pingliang). After some internal discussions, the army commanders decided to offer the command to Yuwen Tai, and they sent Du Shuozhou (杜朔周, later changed his name to Helian Da (赫連達)) to Xia Province to summon Yuwen Tai. Yuwen agreed, and Du and he quickly headed back toward Heba's army. (On the way, they encountered Gao's general Hou Jing, whom Gao had sent to try to take over Heba's army; Hou, surprised, withdrew to Gao's territory quickly.)

Emperor Xiaowu, hearing of Heba's death, sent Yuan Pi (元毗) to summon both Yuwen and Houmochen to  Luoyang. Houmochen outright refused, and Yuwen persuaded Emperor Xiaowu to allow him to remain in command. Emperor Xiaowu agreed. Yuwen next sent a letter to Houmochen to rebuke him, and when Houmochen did not answer, prepared to launch an attack on Houmochen. He advanced quickly on Shuiluo, and Houmochen withdrew to Lüeyang (略陽, in modern Tianshui, Gansu), and then to Shanggui (上邽, also in modern Tianshui). He then further withdrew from Shanggui, and Shanggui surrendered to Yuwen. He decided to try to flee to Cao's territory, but on the way, believing that Yuwen's forces were close, committed suicide.

Alliance with Emperor Xiaowu
Gao Huan made an overture of alliance to Yuwen Tai, but Yuwen refused, instead arresting Gao's messengers and delivering them to Emperor Xiaowu. Emperor Xiaowu authorized him to take over Heba's authorities in the west and created him the Duke of Lüeyang.

Meanwhile, Emperor Xiaowu prepared for an attack on Gao, but meanwhile claimed to Gao that he was preparing to attack Yuwen and Heba Yue's brother Heba Sheng (賀拔勝), who controlled the southern provinces. Gao saw through Emperor Xiaowu's trick, and in summer 534, he instead advanced south toward Luoyang. Emperor Xiaowu's associate Wang Sizheng (王思政), believing that imperial forces would not be able to withstand an attack from Gao, suggested fleeing to Yuwen's domain—despite his own reservations about Yuwen's intentions. Emperor Xiaowu agreed, but at the same time summoned Heba Sheng. However, Heba Sheng did not arrive at Luoyang, while Yuwen sent forces east, commanded by Li Xian (李賢), to welcome Emperor Xiaowu. In fall 534, before Gao's forces arrived, Emperor Xiaowu fled west, meeting Li on the way. Li escorted Emperor Xiaowu back to Yuwen's headquarters at Chang'an, and Emperor Xiaowu reestablished the imperial government there. He made Yuwen his commander in chief, and married his sister Princess Pingyi (冯翊公主) to Yuwen.

After Gao entered Luoyang, he sent messengers to request Emperor Xiaowu to return to Luoyang. When Emperor Xiaowu ignored his request, Gao made his distant nephew, Yuan Shanjian, emperor (as Emperor Xiaojing), dividing Northern Wei into two, with Eastern Wei recognizing Emperor Xiaojing, and Western Wei recognizing Emperor Xiaowu.

Yuwen's relationship with Emperor Xiaowu, however, soon deteriorated. Emperor Xiaowu had engaged in incestuous relationships with three of his cousins, at least one of whom, Yuan Mingyue (元明月) the Princess Pingyuan, followed him to Chang'an. Yuwen disapproved of the relationship, and he persuaded the imperial princes to arrest Yuan Mingyue and put her to death. Emperor Xiaowu became angry, and he often showed his displeasure by tightening his bow or by pounding his table in the palace. Around the new year 535, Yuwen poisoned him to death and made his cousin Yuan Baoju the Prince of Nanyang (Yuan Mingyue's brother) emperor (as Emperor Wen).

During Emperor Wen's reign
Western Wei was, initially, the smaller and the weaker of the two successor states of Northern Wei, and early in its existence, there were questions on whether it would survive at all. Yuwen Tai spent much of his effort on preserving existence of Western Wei against repeated attacks led by Gao Huan. He also gradually began to show a trend of following both ancient Chinese customs, as largely encapsulated by the governmental structures of the  Zhou Dynasty, and restoring Xianbei customs that had largely been abolished by Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei. In this, he was assisted by the official Su Chuo (蘇綽). He also worked on earning the respect of other officials and generals, including Emperor Xiaowu's confidant Wang Sizheng and Pei Xia (裴俠), both of whom had initially been suspicious of Yuwen and yet later became important and faithful generals serving under him.

In spring 537, Gao Huan and his generals Dou Tai (竇泰) and Gao Aocao (高敖曹) launched a major attack on Western Wei. Yuwen, correctly judging that Gao Huan was trying to draw Yuwen toward him while allowing Dou to penetrate Western Wei defenses, announced that he was going to lead a withdraw to modern eastern Gansu but instead made a surprise attack on Dou's army at Xiaoguan (小關, in modern Sanmenxia, Henan), crushing Dou's forces. Dou committed suicide in shame. Gao Huan and Gao Aocao were forced to withdraw. In fall 537, Yuwen led an attack on Eastern Wei and captured Hengnong (恆農, in modern Sanmenxia as well). With Western Wei's capital region Guanzhong suffering from a famine, Yuwen remained in Hengnong to collect food from the area, but then heard that Gao Huan was again launching another attack from the northeast, forcing him to return to the Guanzhong region. The forces engaged at the Battle of Shayuan (沙苑, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi), after Gao rejected advice from his general Hulü Qiangju (斛律羌舉) to directly attack the Western Wei capital Chang'an. Despite Eastern Wei's numerical superiority, Yuwen's forces crushed Gao's forces, and Gao was forced to withdraw. In winter 537, the Western Wei general Dugu Xin captured the former Northern Wei capital Luoyang, and several other nearby provinces also surrendered to Western Wei.

In spring 538, in order to create an alliance with Rouran, Yuwen first had Emperor Wen bestow the title of Princess Huazheng to Yuan Yi (元翌), the daughter of a member of the imperial clan, to marry her to Yujiulü Tahan (郁久閭塔寒), the brother of Rouran's Chiliantoubingdoufa Khan Yujiulü Anagui. But Yuwen, believing that to be insufficient, requested Emperor Wen divorce his wife Empress Yifu and marry Yujiulü Anagui's daughter. Emperor Wen was forced to agree, and he deposed Empress Yifu, ordering her to become a Buddhist nun, and married Yujiulü Anagui's daughter as empress. (In 540, under Rouran pressure, Empress Yifu would be forced to commit suicide.)

By summer 538, however, Eastern Wei generals Hou Jing and Gao Aocao had surrounded Luoyang. Yuwen and Emperor Wen proceeded to Luoyang to try to lift the siege. When Yuwen arrived, Hou and Gao initially lifted the siege on Luoyang, but when Yuwen chased after them, his horse was shot by an arrow, and he fell off his horse and was nearly captured, but both he and his general Li Mu (李穆) pretended to be common soldiers and were able to escape. Once Yuwen returned to Western Wei camp, Western Wei forces again attacked and killed Gao. Later that day, however, an Eastern Wei counterattack inflicted major losses on Western Wei forces, forcing Yuwen to withdraw and rendezvous with Emperor Wen at Hengnong. Meanwhile, however, Eastern Wei captives in Chang'an heard of the Western Wei defeat and rebelled within the city, led by the general Zhao Qingque (趙青雀), forcing the official Zhou Huida (周惠達), who had been left in charge of Chang'an, to flee the city with the crown prince Yuan Qin. Under the advice of Lu Tong (陸通), Yuwen quickly returned west and defeated Zhao, suppressing his rebellion. Around this time, Yuwen also started setting up his headquarters at Hua Province (華州, roughly modern Weinan), not far from Chang'an but maintaining some distance from the capital, incorporate many talented officials and generals into his staff. He further established a night school for the junior officers and officials in his administration at Hua Province.

In 541, under Su's suggestion, Yuwen had Emperor Wen issue an edict outlining six principles of government, intending to reduce corruption and wastefulness and strengthen the economy:

Qingxinsi (清心思) -- ordering the officials to clean their hearts and not desire many things.
Dunjiaohua (敦教化) -- instituting a regime of moral education.
Jindili (盡地利) -- the concept of encouraging agriculture and maximizing the utility of the land.
Zhuoxianliang (擢賢良) -- finding capable individuals to promote, regardless of their family backgrounds.
Xuyusong (恤獄訟) -- forbidding torture and instituting the concept that it would be preferable to let the guilty go than to punish an innocent.
Junfuyi (均賦役) -- the concept that tax and labor burdens must be fair, and that powerful families may not avoid them.

Yuwen ordered that all of the officials of the state must study the six principles and further be able to balance budgets, at the pain of being relieved from their offices.

In spring 543, the Eastern Wei official Gao Zhongmi (高仲密), the governor of North Yu Province (北豫州, roughly modern Zhengzhou, Henan), angry that Gao Huan's son Gao Cheng had tried to rape his second wife, and in a dispute with Gao Cheng's assistant Cui Xian (崔暹) over his having divorced Cui's sister, rebelled and surrendered his headquarters of Hulao (虎牢, in modern Zhengzhou) to Western Wei. Yuwen personally led troops to try to save Gao Zhongmi. At Luoyang, however, he was defeated by the Eastern Wei general Peng Le (彭樂) and was nearly captured, only managing to elude capture by throwing gold at Peng to bribe him and persuade him that if he captured Yuwen, he would be no longer be any use to Gao Huan. The next day, a Western Wei counterattack in turn almost killed Gao Huan, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Yuwen was forced to withdraw, but against advice from Feng Zihui (封子繪) and Chen Yuankang (陳元康), Gao Huan failed to chase Yuwen and allowed him to escape. The defeat was considered so major that Yuwen offered to have his rank reduced, but Emperor Wen did not accept the request.

In 545, Yuwen, seeing that one of Rouran's vassals, Tujue, was growing in strength, sent a messenger, Annuo Pantuo (安諾槃陀) to Tujue to greet its chief Ashina Tumen, to try to establish friendly relations.

In 546, Gao Huan launched another major attack on Western Wei, putting Yubi (玉壁, in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi) under siege, intending to draw Western Wei forces to try to save Yubi, but Yuwen took no reaction to it, instead leaving Yubi's defense to the general Wei Xiaokuan. Wei ably defended Yubi, draining the strength of the Eastern Wei forces, and as Gao grew ill, Eastern Wei forces were forced to withdraw with major losses.

Later in 546, Su died. Yuwen mourned him greatly, and personally attended Su's burial, crying bitterly.

In spring 547, the Eastern Wei general Hou Jing, who was in charge of Eastern Wei provinces south of the Yellow River, believing that Gao Huan had died (indeed, Gao had, although his son Gao Cheng was keeping the death a secret) and not willing to submit to Gao Cheng, surrendered the provinces initially to Western Wei and then to Liang. Yuwen conferred honorary titles on Hou, but was initially unwilling to send relief troops. With Wang Sizheng advocating taking four provinces that Hou offered in exchange for aid, however, Yuwen sent Li Bi (李弼) and Zhao Gui to assist Wang, initially forcing Eastern Wei forces attacking Hou to withdraw. Soon, however, Western Wei generals and Hou began to suspect each other, and after Yuwen ordered Hou to proceed to Chang'an to greet Emperor Wen and Hou refused, the sides officially broke, and the Western Wei generals held onto the four provinces without rendering further aid to Hou, who from that point on depended solely on Liang aid. (Later that year, however, the Eastern Wei general Murong Shaozong (慕容紹宗) would crush Liang forces commanded by Xiao Yuanming, the nephew of Emperor Wu of Liang, capturing Xiao Yuanming, and then in early 548 defeat Hou and force him to flee to Liang, taking all of the provinces back except the four that Western Wei had taken.)

In summer 548, Yuwen and Yuan Qin the Crown Prince carried out a tour of Western Wei's border provinces, but upon hearing that Emperor Wen was ill, cut their tour short and returned to Chang'an. However, when they did, Emperor Wen had already been healed, and Yuwen thereafter returned to his headquarters at Hua Province.

Around the same time, the Eastern Wei general Gao Yue (高岳, Gao Huan's cousin) launched an attack on Yingchuan (潁川, in modern Xuchang, Henan), one of the major cities that Western Wei took from Hou. Wang, defending Yingchuan, initially repelled Eastern Wei's attacks, but with Eastern Wei diverting Wei River (洧水) to flood Yingchuan, it was in the danger of falling. Yuwen sent Zhao to try to lift the siege, but Zhao was impeded by the water and was unable to proceed to Yingchuan. A counterattack by Wang, however, killed Murong Shaozong and Liu Fengsheng (劉豐生), temporarily relieving the pressure on Yingchuan. Gao Cheng himself reinforced Gao Yue's army, and by summer 549 captured Yingchuan, taking Wang captive. With Yingchuan having fallen, Yuwen ordered a general withdrawal from the area, and the provinces taken from Hou were retaken by Eastern Wei.

Meanwhile, with Hou having rebelled against Liang's Emperor Wu in 548 and captured the Liang capital Jiankang in 549, Liang was in disarray, with Hou and the various imperial princes and governors fighting for control. By winter 549, one of the Liang princes, Xiao Cha the Prince of Yueyang (Emperor Wu's grandson), fearing an attack from his uncle Xiao Yi the Prince of Xiangdong (Emperor Wu's son), surrendered his domain around the city Xiangyang (襄陽, in modern Xiangfan, Hubei) to Western Wei, requesting protection. Yuwen sent the general Yang Zhong (楊忠) to aid Xiao Cha, and after Yang defeated and captured Xiao Yi's general Liu Zhongli (柳仲禮) in spring 550, Western Wei made peace with Xiao Yi, setting the borders in such a way to put Xiao Cha under Western Wei's protection. Yuwen created Xiao Cha the title "Prince of Liang," preparing to have him claim the Liang throne as Western Wei's vassal.

In summer 550, Gao Cheng's brother Gao Yang, who had controlled the Eastern Wei government after Gao Cheng's death in 549, forced Eastern Wei's Emperor Xiaojing to yield the throne to him, ending Eastern Wei and starting Northern Qi (as its Emperor Wenxuan). In response, Yuwen launched a major attack on the newly established Northern Qi, reaching Jian Province (建州, roughly modern Jincheng, Shanxi). However, Gao Yang himself led a strong army to defend against Yuwen's attack, and Yuwen, upon hearing that Gao Yang's army was well-run, made the comment, "Alas, Gao Huan is not dead." Meanwhile, due to rains, the livestock that Western Wei forces relied on were dying in large numbers, and so Yuwen was forced to retreat. While there appeared to be few casualties, Northern Qi was in turn able to make minor border gains in light of Yuwen's withdrawal.

Around the new year 550, another son of Liang's Emperor Wu, Xiao Guan (蕭綸) the Prince of Shaoling, attempted to recapture Anlu (安陸, in modern Xiaogan, Hubei), which Yang had earlier captured from Xiao Yi. Yuwen sent Yang to relieve Anlu, and Yang not only did so, but proceeded to siege Xiao Guan's headquarters at Ru'nan (汝南, in modern Jingmen, Hubei), capturing it and then executing Xiao Guan.

In spring 551, Emperor Wen died, and Yuan Qin succeeded him (as Emperor Fei).

During Emperors Fei's reign
Yuwen Tai appeared to hold an even firmer grip on power after Emperor Wen's death. Emperor Fei's wife Empress Yuwen was Yuwen Tai's daughter, and while it was recorded that he did not have any concubines because he loved her greatly, it could have also been that he feared Yuwen's power and therefore did not have any concubines.

In summer 551, the Tiele were launching an attack on Rouran, when Tujue's chieftain Ashina Tumen intercepted the Tiele and captured a large number of the Tiele people. Ashina Tumen, after his victory, sought a marriage with a daughter of Yujiulü Anagui. Yujiulü Anagui felt insulted and refused, viewing the Tujue as inferior; in response, Ashina Tumen cut off relations with Rouran. Yuwen took this opportunity to create an alliance with Tujue, sending the Princess Changle to Tujue to marry Ashina Tumen.

In summer 552, with Xiao Yi and Hou Jing battling each other, Xiao Yi sought help from Western Wei and agreed to cede Nanzheng (南鄭, in modern Hanzhong, Shaanxi) to Western Wei, but the order was declined by Xiao Yi's cousin, Xiao Xun (蕭循). Yuwen and his general Daxi Wu (達奚武) thus attacked Hanzhong. Xiao Xun instead turned to another brother of Xiao Yi, Xiao Ji the Prince of Wuling for aid, and Xiao Ji sent reinforcements commanded by the general Yang Qianyun (楊乾運). Yuwen and Daxi put Nanzheng under siege, and due to the length of the siege, Yuwen and Daxi became angry and ordered that the city be slaughtered when it falls, but at the intercession of Xiao Xun's chief of staff Liu Fan (劉璠), whom Western Wei forces captured during the siege and whose talent Yuwen respected, Yuwen rescinded the order. Soon thereafter, Xiao Xun surrendered, and Nanzheng was in Western Wei hands. Yuwen initially agreed to allow Xiao Xun to return to Liang, but instead detained him, releasing him only after Liu again persuaded him to do so, reminding him of his promise. (During the conversation Liu had with Yuwen, Liu commented that he initially thought of Yuwen as Tang of Shang and King Wu of Zhou, but because of his failure to follow his promise, found him to be less than Duke Huan of Qi and Duke Wen of Jin. Yuwen instead compared himself to Yi Yin (伊尹, a legendary regent of Shang Dynasty) and Duke of Zhou, apparently disavowing intentions on the throne for the time being.)

In spring 553, with Xiao Ji and Xiao Yi, both of whom having claimed Liang's imperial title after Hou's fall, battling each other, Xiao Yi sought aid from Western Wei, requesting Western Wei to attack Xiao Ji's home base of Chengdu (成都, in modern Chengdu, Sichuan) from the rear. Yuwen sent his nephew Yuchi Jiong to attack Xiao Ji's domain (modern Sichuan and Chongqing). Most of Xiao Ji's domain fell into Western Wei hands, and subsequently, Xiao Ji was defeated and captured by Xiao Yi.

In winter 553, the imperial official Yuan Lie (元烈) formed a conspiracy to kill Yuwen, but the news leaked. Yuwen killed him. Following Yuan Lie's death, Emperor Fei himself was angry and wanted to kill Yuwen, despite advise from his cousins Yuan Yu (元育) the Prince of Huaiai and Yuan Zan (元贊) the Prince of Guangping. However, Emperor Fei's apparent attempt to court the imperial guards became known by the commanders, several of whom were Yuwen's sons-in-law, and Yuwen put Emperor Fei under house arrest and then deposed him, replacing him with his younger brother Yuan Kuo the Prince of Qi (as Emperor Gong). Yuwen took this opportunity to change the Han names for the Xianbei that Emperor Xiaowen had instituted back to the original Xianbei names, including changing the imperial surname Yuan back to Tuoba. Further, because Xianbei legends indicated that originally, the Tuoba tribe had 36 subtribes and 99 subclans, Yuwen chose 36 key Han generals and 99 commanders and changed their names to Xianbei names, to fill out the original names. Yuwen subsequently put the former emperor to death. It was recorded that Empress Yuwen, Yuwen Tai's daughter, also "suffered death because of her loyalty to Wei," but it is not known exactly whether Yuwen killed her.

During Emperor Gong's reign
In spring 554, while on a diplomatic mission to Liang (now with Xiao Yi as its undisputed emperor—as Emperor Yuan), the Western Wei official Yuwen Renshu (宇文仁恕, probably Yuwen Tai's relative but relationship is unclear) was slighted by Emperor Yuan, who treated Northern Qi's ambassador with far greater respect. Emperor Yuan then further aggravated the situation by sending an impolite letter to Yuwen Tai demanding that the borders be redrawn in accordance with old borders. Yuwen made the comment, "Xiao Yi is the type of person that, as said in proverbs, 'One who has been abandoned by heaven cannot be revived by anyone else.'" Yuwen Tai therefore began to prepare attacking Emperor Yuan at his headquarters of Jiangling (江陵, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei), as Emperor Yuan had made Jiangling his capital and declined to move back to the old capital Jiankang. The Western Wei general Ma Bofu (馬伯符), formerly a Liang general, secretly revealed the attack plans to Emperor Yuan, but Emperor Yuan did not believe Ma and took minimal precautions.

In winter 554, under Yuwen Tai's orders, Western Wei forces, commanded by Yu Jin (于謹), who was assisted by Yuwen Tai's nephew Yuwen Hu and Yang Zhong, launched a major attack on Liang. Emperor Yuan initially did not take reports of the Western Wei attack seriously, and while he summoned his major generals Wang Sengbian and Wang Lin from afar, he himself took little defensive or evasive actions. Yu quickly descended on Jiangling and put it under siege. Soon, Emperor Yuan surrendered, and Western Wei forces gave him to Xiao Cha to be executed. Western Wei created Xiao Cha the Emperor of Liang (as Emperor Xuan) and gave him the Jiangling area (known in history as Western Liang) in exchange for his old domain of Xiangyang area, which Western Wei took control directly. (However, the rest of Liang did not recognize Emperor Xuan, and soon recognized a rival candidate for the throne supported by Northern Qi, Emperor Yuan's cousin Xiao Yuanming.) Most residents of Jiangling were seized as slaves, although eventually most of them were released by Yuwen after he was persuaded to do so by one of the captives, the Liang official Yu Jicai (庾季才).

Around the near year 556, after Tujue's Mugan Khan Ashina Qijin thoroughly crushed Rouran's last khan Yujiulü Dengshuzi, Yujiulü Dengshuzi fled to Western Wei. Ashina Qijin demanded the execution of Yujiulü Dengshuzi, and Yuwen Tai, fearing a Tujue attack, turned Yujiulü Dengshuzi and 3000 of his followers to the Tujue ambassadors, who slaughtered them.

Also around the new year 556, Yuwen Tai promulgated a new government structure, dividing the government into six ministries, based on the Zhou Dynasty model. (This structure was initially devised by Su Chuo, and after Su Chuo's death, Yuwen had it further revised by Lu Bian (盧辯).) He also had Tuoba Yu the Prince of Huai'an submit a request, and then have Emperor Gong formally approve the request, to have all imperial princes reduced in rank to dukes, in accordance with the Zhou tradition.

In spring 556, Yuwen was pondering the issue of succession. His wife Princess Pingyi had one son, Yuwen Jue, but his oldest son, Yuwen Yu, was born of his concubine Lady Yao, and was married to the daughter of one of his chief generals, Dugu Xin. On the advice of Li Yuan (李遠), who argued that the son of a wife always had precedence over the son of a concubine, Yuwen Tai made Yuwen Jue his heir apparent.

in fall 556, while Yuwen Tai was on a tour of the norther provinces, he became ill at Qiantun Mountain (牽屯山, in modern Guyuan, Ningxia). He summoned his nephew Yuwen Hu to Qiantun and entrusted the affairs of the state as well as his sons to Yuwen Hu. He soon died, and Yuwen Jue took over his titles, while Yuwen Hu took the reins of the state, and under Yuwen Hu's tutelage, Yuwen Jue soon took the throne from Emperor Gong, ending Western Wei and establishing Northern Zhou.

Family
Primary Consort
 Empress Wen, formerly Princess Pingyi of the Yuan clan of Henan (; d. 551)
 Yuwen Jue, Emperor Xiaomin (; 542–557), third son
Royal Concubines
 Empress Xuan, of the Chinu clan (; d. 574)
 Yuwen Yong, Emperor Wu (; 543–578), fourth son
 Yuwen Zhi, Prince Weila (; d. 574), sixth son
 Furen, of the Yao clan ()
 Yuwen Yu, Emperor Ming (; 534–560), first son
 Fei, of the Dabugan clan ()
 Yuwen Xian, Prince Qiyang (; 545–578), fifth son
 Furen, of the Quan clan ()
 Yuwen Jian, Prince Qiaoxiao (; 551–578), eighth son
 Furen, of the Wuliuhun clan (), personal name Xianyu ()
 Yuwen Tong, Prince Jikang (; 555–571), 12th son
 Lady, of the Wang clan ()
 Yuwen Zhao, Prince Zhaojian (; d. 581), seventh son
 Lady, of the Zhang clan (), personal name Nübi ()
 Yuwen Da, Prince Daibi (; d. 581), 11th son
 Unknown
 Yuwen Zhen, Duke Songxian (; d. 550), second son
 Yuwen Chun, Prince Chenhuo (; d. 581), ninth son
 Yuwen Sheng, Prince Yueye (; d. 581), tenth son
 Yuwen You, Prince Tengwen (; 556–581), 13th son
 Lady Wang, first daughter (d. 554)
 Married Yuan Qin of Henan (; 525–554)
 Princess Xiangyang (), fifth daughter
 Married Dou Yi of Henan, Duke Shenwu (; 519–583), and had issue (two sons, two daughters), their daughter Lady Dou would later become  the wife of Li Yuan, the founding Emperor of the Tang Dynasty
 Princess Yi'an ()
 Married Li Hui of Liaodong, Duke Wei ()
 Princess Shunyang ()
 Married Yang Zan (; 550–591)
 Princess Pingyuan ()
 Married Yu Yi of Henan, Duke Ren (; d. 583), and had issue (three sons)
 Princess Yongfu ()
 Married Shi Xiong ()
 Princess Xihe ()
 Married Liu Chang, Duke Peng (; d. 597)
 Princess Yigui ()
 Married Li Ji, Duke Qinghe (; 531–561), and had issue (one son)
 Princess Yidu ()
 Married Liang Rui, Duke Jiang (; 531–595)
 Princess Deguang ()
 Married Zhao Yongguo of Tianshui (; d. 557)
 A daughter who married Heba Wei, Duke Huo ()
 A daughter who married Ruogan Feng, Duke Xu ()

Ancestry

References

 Book of Zhou, vols. 1, 2 .
 History of Northern Dynasties, vol. 9 .
 Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 152, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166.

507 births
556 deaths
Northern Wei generals
Northern Wei regents
Tai

Yuwen Tai


Ulaanbaatar (/ˌuːlɑːn ˈbɑːtər/; Mongolian: Улаанбаатар, pronounced [ʊˌɮaːm‿ˈpaːʰtə̆r] lit. "Red Hero"), or Ulan Bator, is the capital and largest city of Mongolia. The city is an independent municipality not part of any provinces. About half the population of Mongolia, about 1.5 million people, live in the city.

Located in the north central part of the country, the city is at an elevation of about 1310 m in a valley on the Tuul River. The city is the country's center for culture, industry and finance, and since it is more than 13 times bigger than the second largest city in Mongolia, Erdenet, it is the country's primate city. Ulaanbaatar is connected by highway to all the major towns in Mongolia and by rail to the Trans-Siberian Railway and Chinese railroad network. The city was founded in 1639 as a Buddhist monastery center and, in the 20th century, grew into a major manufacturing center.

Names
Ulaanbaatar has had many names in its history. From 1639 to 1706, it was known as Örgöö (Mongolian: Өргөө, residence), and from 1706 to 1911 as Ikh Khüree (Mongolian: Их = "great", Хүрээ = "camp"), Da Khüree or simply Khüree. Upon independence in 1911,the city's name changed to Niislel Khüree (Mongolian: Нийслэл = "capital", Хүрээ = "camp"). When the city became the capital of the new Mongolian People's Republic in 1924, its name was changed to Ulaanbaatar, literally "red hero", in honour of Mongolia's national hero Damdin Sükhbaatar, that liberated Mongolia from Ungern von Sternberg's troops and Chinese occupation with the Soviet Red Army. In Europe and North America, Ulaanbaatar was generally known as Urga (from Örgöö) or sometimes Kuren (from Khüree) or Kulun (from 庫倫, the Chinese transcription of Khüree) before 1924.

Geography
Ulaanbaatar is at about 1350 meters (4430 ft) above sea level. For this high elevation, and for the high latitude, and location hundreds of kilometres from any coast, Ulaanbaatar is the coldest national capital in the world, with a subarctic climate.

History
Most important events:

- 1639: The city was Founded.

- 1778: the city settled for good at its current location, near the confluence of the Selbe and Tuul rivers and beneath Bogd Khan Uul, back then also on the caravan route from Beijing to Kyakhta.

- 1911: Mongolian leaders in Ikh Khüree for Naadam met in secret and resolved upon independence from China for their country. On December 29, 1911, the Bogd Khan was declared ruler of an independent Mongolia.

- 1919: the city was occupied by Chinese troops

- 1921: the city has been controlled first by Baron Ungern's Whites Soldateska, and in July to the Soviet-supported Mongolian troops controlled by Sükhbaatar.

- October 29, 1924: the town was renamed to Ulaanbaatar ("red hero") in honour of Sükhbaatar.

- 1956: The Transmongolian Railway, connecting Ulaanbaatar with Moscow and Beijing, was completed.

- Many of the temples and monasteries of pre-socialist were destroyed following the anti-religious purges of the late 1930s.

- After the growth of 1990 many buildings as, cinemas, shops were built. Now the biggest cinema is Urguu and Tengis cinema. Main shopping district is 3rd and 4th distirict.

- 2008, Ulaanbaatar was the scene of riots after the opposition Mongolian Democratic Party protested its defeat by the MPRP in parliamentary elections.

Administration and subdivisions

Ulaanbaatar is divided into nine districts (Düüregs): Baganuur, Bagakhangai, Bayangol, Bayanzürkh, Chingeltei, Khan Uul, Nalaikh, Songino Khairkhan, and Sükhbaatar. Each district is subdivided into Khoroos. The capital is governed by a city council (the Citizen's Representatives Hural) with forty members, elected every four years. The city council appoints the mayor. Ulaanbaatar is governed as an independent first-level subdivision of Mongolia, separate from Töv Aimag, the province that surrounds Ulaanbaatar.

Education
Ulaanbaatar has several major universities:
 National University of Mongolia
 Science and Technological University of Mongolia
 Mongolian University of Life Sciences
 University of Health and Medical Science
 Pedagogical University
 University of Art and Culture.

And a big library, The National Library of Mongolia.

Important places

Most important places in Ulaanbaatar:
 The Choijin Lama Monastery, a Buddhist monastery that was completed in 1908. It escaped the destruction of Mongolian monasteries when it was turned into a museum in 1942.
 The Gandantegchinlen Khiid Monastery, which dates to the 19th century. Its most famous attraction is a 26.5-meter-high golden statue of Migjid Janraisig.

Choijin Lama Monastery and Gandantegchinlen Khiid Monastery are two of the very few in Mongolia to escape the destruction of Mongolian monasteries under Khorloogiin Choibalsan.

Ulaanbaatar has several museums dedicated to Mongolian history and culture.
 The Natural History Museum features many dinosaur fossils and meteorites found in Mongolia.
 The National Museum of Mongolian History.
 The Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts contains a large collection of Mongolian art, including works of the 17th century sculptor/artist Zanabazar, as well as Mongolia's most famous painting, One Day In Mongolia by B. Sharav.
 The Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan remains as a museum of the last king of Mongolia (1911-1924).
 The Ulaanbaatar Opera House hosts concerts and musical performances.
 Sükhbaatar Square, in the government district, is the center of Ulaanbaatar. In the middle of Sükhbaatar Square, there is a statue of Damdin Sükhbaatar on horseback.
 The Zaisan Memorial, a memorial to Russian soldiers killed in World War II, sits on a hill south of the city.
 National Sports Stadium is the main sporting venue. The Naadam festival is held here every July.
 The Gorkhi-Terelj National Park.

Symbols

The official symbol of Ulaanbaatar is the , a mythical bird in both Buddhist and Hindu mythology called Khan Garuda or Khangar'd by Mongols.

Flag
The city's flag is sky blue with the  arms in the center.

Sister cities
  Seoul, South Korea
  Moscow, Russian Federation
  Denver, Colorado, USA
  Sapporo, Japan
  Taipei, Taiwan
  Hohhot, People's Republic of China

References

1639 establishments
17th-century establishments in Asia
Establishments in Mongolia

Ulaanbaatar


Dietrich Buxtehude (or Dieterich according to Danish spelling) (born about 1637; died May 9, 1707) was a German (or Danish) composer and organist.  He is one of the most important composers of the mid-Baroque period.  He is best known for his organ works which are very often heard at recitals and church services. He also wrote a lot of excellent choral music and music for instruments, including the viola da gamba, an instrument which he played.  He had a very important influence on Johann Sebastian Bach.  When Bach was a very young man he walked over 200 miles to hear Buxtehude play the organ.

Life

Early years in Denmark

Very little is known of Buxtehude's earliest years.  We cannot be sure where he was born.  His family came from the town of Buxtehude in North Germany but had moved to Oldesloe which is now in Germany but at that time it was part of Denmark.  His father was organist in Oldesloe, but around the time of Dietrich's birth the family moved to Helsingborg which is now called Hälsingborg  and is in Sweden, but at that time Helsingborg, too, was part of Denmark.

In 1641 the family moved to Helsingør which was just across the water, in Denmark.  Dietrich Buxtehude probably went to school in Helsingør and learned music from his father.  When he was 20 he got his first job at Helsingborg in the Marienkirche (St Mary's Church) where his father had been organist some years before.  Sweden and Denmark were at war at the time, fighting about which country Helsingborg should be in.  This must have made things rather difficult for the young Buxtehude.  The people who went to the Marienkirche were German-speaking.

Lübeck years

In 1668 Buxtehude got the job of organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck in Germany.  This was a very important job at one of the biggest churches in Germany.  The organist before him had been a man called Franz Tunder.  He had a daughter, Anna Margarethe, and Buxtehude married her. His job was not only to play the organ, but also to tune it and do a lot of administration in the church.  He composed many cantatas for the services and organized five evening musical performances every year.  These concerts were called  "Abendmusik" ("Evening Music") and were held at 4.00pm after the Evening Service.  Unfortunately we do not know what music was performed at these concerts.

Buxtehude stayed in this job for the rest of his life.  He never travelled very far.  Nicolaus Bruhns was one of his pupils, and Pachelbel wrote a piece of music called Hexachordum Apollonis for him.   In 1706, when Johann Sebastian Bach was 21, he got permission for four weeks holiday so that he could go to Lübeck to hear Buxtehude play.  He stayed in Lübeck for four months and so he got into trouble when he went back to his job at Arnstadt.

In 1707 Buxtehude wanted to retire.  Whoever took his job would have to marry Buxtehude's daughter, Anna.   Bach and Mattheson were interested in the job but decided not to take it.  Probably they did not want to marry Anna Buxtehude.  Buxtehude died, and the man who had been his assistant got the job and married Anna shortly afterwards.

His Music
The organs that Buxtehude played were very large instruments with bright sounds (bright mixtures, reeds and a "Zimbalstern" which was a star which went round and round, making a tinkling sound).  His music is very grand and impressive.  Many of his organ pieces have several sections, each one at a different speed.  They often sound like a free improvisation.  Some of the sections are fugues. At least 128 vocal works survive, they are nearly all church music.  He wrote instrumental works, chamber music and pieces for harpsichord.

1630s births
1707 deaths
Baroque composers
Danish composers
17th-century German composers
German organists

Dietrich Buxtehude


Underworld are a British electronic music group formed in 1987 in Cardiff, Wales and the principal collaborative project of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith. Prominent former members include Darren Emerson, from 1990 to 2000, and Darren Price, as part of the live band from 2005 to 2016.

After briefly performing as a funk and synth-pop outfit, resulting in two albums between 1988 and 1989, Underworld gained prominence after reshaping into a dance and techno band, releasing albums including Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994), Second Toughest in the Infants (1996) and Beaucoup Fish (1999), as well as singles  "Born Slippy .NUXX" and "Dark & Long (Dark Train)". Known for their atmospheric, progressive compositions, Hyde's cryptic and stream of consciousness lyrics, and dynamic live performances, Underworld have influenced a wide range of artists and have been featured in soundtracks and scores for films, television, and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

History

The Screen Gemz, Freur, and Underworld Mk1
In the late 1970s, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith formed a band in Cardiff called the Screen Gemz, which was influenced by Kraftwerk and reggae. They were joined by bassist Alfie Thomas, drummer Bryn Burrows, and keyboardist John Warwicker in forming Freur. The band signed to CBS Records and released Doot-Doot (1983). They disbanded in 1986 after followup Get Us Out of Here was withheld.

In 1987, Hyde, Smith, Thomas, Burrows and bassist Baz Allen formed Underworld, named after the 1985 horror film Underworld, which was scored by Freur. Underworld signed to Sire Records and released the album Underneath the Radar in 1988. Following the departure of Burrows, they released another album, Change the Weather, in 1989. This lineup, referred to by the group as "Underworld Mk1", disbanded in 1990.

Emerson's arrival and Underworld Mk2

After a break—to concentrate on, among other things, art/design project Tomato—Hyde and Smith recruited DJ Darren Emerson and signed to Steven Hall's Junior Boys Own label. After several releases and remixes as Lemon Interupt and Steppin' Razor, they readopted the Underworld moniker. They produced danceable techno as a trio ("Underworld Mk2").

The addition of Emerson completed Underworld's techno/rock fusion and seemed to eliminate the pop elements in the original duo's work. Their first album, Dubnobasswithmyheadman, was considered more accessible than the group's earlier material and crossed a large spectrum of dance music. The signature Hyde lyrics were in place: poetic, hypnotic and whispered; mixing conventional song writing with the use of found material from overheard conversations, answering machine recordings and the like. Hyde had been the lead singer in Underworld Mk1 but the original Hyde/Smith dance material was lyric-free as was most of the electronic music emerging from the aftermath of acid house.

Trainspotting and breakthrough
The band's 1996 album, Second Toughest in the Infants, was their second studio album with Emerson and achieved a degree of commercial success, due in part to its release coinciding with that of the film Trainspotting. The film featured "Dark & Long (Dark Train)", as well as the band's most commercially successful track to date, "Born Slippy.NUXX", which was originally released only as a B-side of a single and does not appear on the Second Toughest album. The single and the album showed Underworld maturing as a trio, mixing elements of techno, house, drum and bass and experimental music. "Born Slippy.NUXX" is one of Underworld's best-known tracks and is celebrated as one of the greatest dance tracks of the decade. The track has since sold over a million copies and appeared on countless compilations, mashups and remixes.

Beaucoup Fish era
After the release of fifth studio album Beaucoup Fish in 1999, Hyde declared in his interviews that he had sorted out earlier problems with alcoholism but all the members admitted that the sessions had been fraught with problems, with the individual members working in their own studios and only communicating via mixes of the raw material passed back and forth on DAT. After the release of the album a large number of mixes of the album tracks seemed to surface on singles, magazine promotional CDs and similar ephemeral formats perhaps indicating the number of revisions the tracks had gone through to get to the point where they were acceptable to all three. The album's name derives from a sample of a Cajun fisherman in Louisiana on the track "Jumbo". The band originally wanted to call the album Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be Underworld (a catchphrase used by contestants on the UK ITV programme Stars in Their Eyes) but were convinced by their record company, Junior Boy's Own, that the name would not be easily understood outside the UK. Finally, after all the singles had been released, a box set, Beaucoup Fish Singles, which was a retrospective of all 4 singles came out.

Underworld embarked on a well-received tour in 1999, which resulted in a live CD and DVD drawn from several dates on the tour. Called Everything, Everything, the project captured the live Underworld experience very faithfully. A companion DVD was released separately soon after the album's release. The DVD features live footage of the band mixed with videography and artistic effects by the design group Tomato. The DVD also features several songs not on the album: "Moaner", "Puppies", "Kittens" and "Rowla". The disco scene in Vanilla Sky features Underworld's 1993 hit "Rez". Their tour was also documented by Danish film director Helene Moltke-Leth and shown on The Danish National Broadcasting Corporation (DR).

Emerson's departure and back to a duo
After the release and promotion of Everything, Everything, Emerson decided to leave Underworld to focus on his solo projects and record label. Hyde and Smith decided to continue as a duo. They recorded a new album, A Hundred Days Off, released to general approval. Despite its status as the band's first studio album since Emerson's departure, its general sound and feel was, perhaps surprisingly for many Underworld fans, not dissimilar to the previous albums on which Emerson had had input. In 2003, a 2-disc anthology entitled 1992–2002 was released. This was the first appearance on an album of previously unavailable single tracks and B-sides, such as "Bigmouth", "Spikee", "Dirty" and "8 Ball". While touring in the summer and autumn of 2005, the duo was joined on stage by Darren Price, a DJ and producer who had remixed Underworld releases in the past.

During their tour, they released a 3-CD set Live in Tokyo, which was sold after the concert in Japan and later sold online. In late 2005, they released two compilations of new songs with accompanying photographs on Underworld Live, in a series entitled Riverrun. These were only released online, with no physical release (except for a promo CD). On 5 June 2006, they released their third installment, and on 10 July 2006, they released The Misterons Mix, a special retrospective mix composed of Riverrun tracks, as an exclusive free download for customers that had purchased all three Riverrun releases.

In September 2006, Underworld released five limited edition (10,000 copies each) 12" vinyl releases, containing remixes of various Riverrun tracks. These tracks were also made available for purchase by digital download on the Beatport website. Later in 2006, the band teamed up with Gabriel Yared to compose the music score to Anthony Minghella's film Breaking and Entering. The soundtrack was released in the UK on 6 November, and in the USA on 5 December.

Oblivion with Bells

Underworld's seventh studio album, Oblivion with Bells, was released on 16 October 2007. The first single from the new album, "Crocodile", was released on 5 September 2007. U2's drummer Larry Mullen Jr helped out on the track "Boy, Boy, Boy". Underworld completed the soundtrack to the Danny Boyle film, Sunshine, in late 2006. Well over a year after the film's release, the official soundtrack was released on iTunes on 25 November 2008. The soundtrack is a collaboration with composer John Murphy.

On 16 June 2007, Underworld were forced to cancel their show at the Ejekt Festival in Athens, Greece. Approximately 30 masked Greek anarchists stormed the stadium while the Beastie Boys were performing. Rick Smith was one of the people injured in the ensuing violence and he was taken to a nearby Athens hospital for treatment. On 19 October 2007, Underworld cancelled the remaining dates of their European tour due to illness in the band. The tour was picked up again on 28 January 2008, with a concert in Cologne, followed by 16 dates in Europe, including some festivals.

On 8 August 2008, Underworld appeared at the All Points West Music & Arts Festival in Liberty State Park, New Jersey. Karl Hyde appeared with Brian Eno on the final day of the Eno-curated Luminous Festival at Sydney Opera House. "Pure Scenius" consisted of three live improvised performances on the same day, featuring Eno, Hyde, Australian improv trio the Necks, electronic artist Jon Hopkins and guitarist Leo Abrahams.

Underworld has released two new series via their underworldlive.com site, in mp3 and WAV formats. The tracks are 020202, and the phonestrap/autotrader series. On 3 July 2009, Underworld debuted a new song tentatively titled "Between Stars" at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Shortly before that, a post was made on the band's diary page showing a piece of paper with the song's first verse on it. On 8 August 2009, a show at Los Angeles' Forum was cancelled in circumstances similar to those that led to the group cancelling the show in Athens two years prior. Some of the crowd were climbing down the seats and onto the main floor, a potential safety hazard. The group apologized on their website for having the show called off.

On 8 March 2010, Mark Knight and D. Ramirez released the single "Downpipe", which featured vocal contributions from Underworld's Karl Hyde. The song, released on Mark Knight's Toolroom Records label, has a music video featuring the "Playhouse", a lighting setup on Liberty Hall, the tallest building in Dublin.

Barking
On 13 May 2010, the band released a track called "Scribble" for download on the band's site. The track shares elements with "You Do Scribble", an unreleased song which they featured many times since 2005 in their live performance shows. The track is a collaboration with High Contrast, a drum and bass DJ also from Cardiff. On 14 May, the full version of "Scribble" was featured on Pete Tong's Radio 1 radio show, declaring it as Essential New Tune of the week. The group also released a video clip for "Scribble" on YouTube. It has been commercially released on 28 June as the lead single from their latest album.

On 7 June 2010, Underworld announced the details of their eighth studio album, Barking, which was released on 13 September 2010 in the UK. The album features collaborations with German trance producer Paul van Dyk and British house artists Mark Knight and D. Ramirez, among others.

On 25 August 2010, Rick Smith released a limited edition solo album Bungalow With Stairs 1, music to accompany "What's Going on in Your Head When You're Dancing" an exhibition of paintings by Karl Hyde at the Laforet Museum, Harajuku, Tokyo during 2010. The album was available from the band's website and was packaged with the exhibition catalogue. In December 2010 it was announced that Underworld would reunite with Trainspotting director Danny Boyle to write the musical score for his production of Frankenstein at the Royal National Theatre. The production was broadcast as a part of National Theatre Live on 17 March 2011, with a soundtrack release on Underworld's website in March 2011.

Anthology, the Olympics and solo projects
In November 2011, Underworld announced two new compilations, A Collection and 1992–2012 Anthology. A Collection features many of the band's biggest tracks alongside recent collaborations with High Contrast featuring Tiësto & Underworld ("The First Note Is Silent"), Mark Knight & D. Ramirez ("Downpipe") and Brian Eno ("Beebop Hurry"). 1992–2012 Anthology is a 3-disc set and is a refreshed and revisited version of 1992–2002 with more material, unreleased tracks and rarities to go some way to completing the picture of the first two decades of Underworld.

In December 2011, Underworld were chosen to direct the music for the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, reprising their partnership with filmmaker and ceremony director Danny Boyle. The band also contributed two original tracks for the opening ceremony: "And I Will Kiss" (featuring Dame Evelyn Glennie with the Pandemonium Drummers) and "Caliban's Dream" in collaboration with the Dockhead Choir, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Only Men Aloud, Elizabeth Roberts, Esme Smith (band member Rick Smith's daughter) and Alex Trimble. Underworld contributed 11 of the 36 tracks on the soundtrack, Isles of Wonder. For their work on the Olympics, Underworld won the 2012 Q Award for Innovation in Sound.

On 22 April 2013, Karl Hyde released his debut solo album Edgeland. In 2014, he went on to release two collaborative albums with Brian Eno titled Someday World on 5 May and High Life on 30 June. Rick Smith went on to do some solo work, with two of his musical works being for projects by frequent collaborator director Danny Boyle. His first work was the soundtrack to Boyle's 2013 film Trance and the score for the 2014 British drama television series Babylon which Boyle co-created and directed the 90 minute pilot.

Reissues and Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future
In 2014, the group announced their intention to release remastered and expanded editions of all of their studio albums "in the next few years". An expanded edition of Dubnobasswithmyheadman was released on 6 October 2014 and the group toured in support of the album. An expanded edition of Second Toughest in the Infants was released on 20 November 2015. Just four days after the re-release of Second Toughest, on 24 November, Underworld announced a new album (their first studio album in six years) titled Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future, released on 18 March 2016. The album earned a 2017 Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album. They embarked on a brief European tour in support of the album. The tour was later expanded to include the United States, Japan and Australia. In 2017, joining once again with frequent collaborator Danny Boyle, Smith wrote the musical score and produced the soundtrack for T2 Trainspotting. On 25 August 2017, they released an expanded, remastered edition of Beaucoup Fish.

The World of Underworld and Drift
On 21 May 2018, Underworld announced a new project called the World of Underworld. Part of the project involves reflecting on and sometimes reimagining their nearly 30 year body of work. But it also serves as an outlet for experimentation, new releases, and spontaneous creativity. The first new song released as part of the World of Underworld, "Brilliant Yes That Would Be", was recorded and mixed just days before it was released. Another new song, "Bells & Circles", was a collaboration with Iggy Pop that came out of sessions recorded a couple years earlier for possible inclusion on the T2 Trainspotting soundtrack. The remaining songs from that collaboration formed a joint four-track EP Teatime Dub Encounters, released on 27 July 2018.

On 1 November 2018, Underworld started a year-long experimental music-and-video project named Drift, which aimed to release the band's new and previously unreleased material on a weekly basis. The full album titled Drift Series 1 was released on 1 November 2019, and concluded the band's 52 week Drift project. Drift Series 1 received critical acclaim. On Metacritic, a review aggregator that assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 86, based on 6 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Influence on video game composers
Underworld have been mentioned as an influence by a number of video game composers, such as Nobuyoshi Sano, Andrew Sega, Jesper Kyd, Michiel van den Bos, and Rom Di Prisco.

Charity
In 2008, the band participated in an album called Songs for Tibet, "to express our support for the Tibetan people... at a time when the eyes of the world are on China" (referring to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing). The album was issued on 5 August via iTunes and on 19 August in music stores around the world.

Discography

Studio albums
 Underneath the Radar (1988)
 Change the Weather (1989)
 Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994)
 Second Toughest in the Infants (1996)
 Beaucoup Fish (1999)
 A Hundred Days Off (2002)
 Oblivion with Bells (2007)
 Barking (2010)
 Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future (2016)
 Drift Series 1 (2019)
EPs

 2005 – Lovely Broken Thing
 2005 – Pizza for Eggs
 2006 – I'm a Big Sister, and I'm a Girl, and I'm a Princess, and This Is My Horse
 2006 – The Misterons Mix

Band members
Current members
 Karl Hyde – vocals, guitars (1987–present)
 Rick Smith – keyboards and mixing, backing vocals (1987–present)

Former members
 Bryn Burrows – drums (1987–1988)
 Alfie Thomas – guitars, keyboards, bass (1987–1990)
 Baz Allen – bass (1987–1990)
 Pascal Consoli – drums (1989–1990)
 Darren Emerson – keyboards and mixing (1990-2000)

Touring members
 Darren Price – keyboards and mixing (2005–2016)

References

External links

 Discography: Freur/Underworld/Lemon Interupt – Detailed discography to 1999
 The Underworld Gigography
 Underworld at Rolling Stone

 Karl Hyde interviewed in Chaos Control Digizin (2007)

1987 establishments in the United Kingdom
Ableton Live users
English house music groups
English synth-pop groups
English techno music groups
British trance music groups
TVT Records artists
Remixers
Musical groups established in 1987
Musical groups from Cardiff
Wax Trax! Records artists
Alternative dance musical groups
20th-century Welsh male musicians
21st-century Welsh male musicians
Welsh electronic music groups

Underworld (band)


A Jack-o'-lantern is a carved pumpkin, turnip, beet, or potato. In the 19th and 20th centuries people in Scotland and Ireland carved Halloween lanterns from large yellow turnips. This custom has become less prevalent in recent years as supermarkets have begun selling the larger and easier-to-carve American pumpkins.

In Irish lore, the Jack-o'-lantern is from the story of Stingy Jack. Jack was a clever man who cheated the devil several times. Once when Jack was leaving hell, the devil threw him a glowing coal to light his way. Jack put the coal in a hollowed-out turnip to make the first "Jack-o'-lantern". Lore says Jack can still be seen wandering the world with his turnip lantern, especially around All Saints Day, November 1.

In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween. In 1900, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended a lit Jack-o'-lantern as part of the festivities.

To make a Jack-o'-lantern, the top of the pumpkin surrounding the stump of the vine is cut off. This top will be used as a "lid" when the Jack-o'-lantern is completed. The seeds and pulp inside the pumpkin are scooped out using a spoon or one's hands. The seeds may be roasted in a hot oven, and then salted to make a snack.

Once the inside of the pumpkin is clean, a face is carved into one side of the pumpkin. The eyes and nose are usually triangles. The mouth is usually filled with jagged teeth. A candle, devotional candle in a candle-holder, or a flashlight is put inside the Jack-o'-lantern and lit. The "lid" is replaced. The lid may be placed slightly askew to keep the candle alit.

In the United States, a completely carved and lit Jack-o'-lantern is put on the porch, the porch steps, or in a window to welcome trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Once the pumpkin is carved, it is good for nothing else and lasts only a day or two before it starts to rot. Pumpkins used to make Jack-o'-lanterns are inedible. In the United States, mischief-makers steal the Jack-o'-lanterns of their neighbors. The pumpkins are smashed in the street, dropped from a bridge, or otherwise destroyed.

References

Cucurbitaceae

Jack-o'-lantern


A learner's permit can also be called a driver's permit, learner's license, or provisional license.  It is given to those who are learning to drive a car but do not meet the requirements for a driver's license.  Many countries require drivers to have a learner's permit for some time before they can be given a driver's license.

Getting a learner's permit usually means a person has to take a written test about the rules of the road, such as traffic signs and road safety.  There is also a minimum age.  Depending on the area, the minimum age can range from 14 to 19 years.

For example, in Victoria, Australia, a person must be 16 years old and pass a written road rules test to get a Learner's permit. The written test consists of 32 questions on road rules; and 25 must be answered correctly. The person must also pass an eyesight test. There are restrictions on what a person with a Victorian learner's permit can do. They must have a sign with the letter "L" (called an L plate) on both the front and back of the car. They must have a fully licenced driver with them at all times. They are not allowed to drive if they have drunk any alcohol. They are not allowed to tow anything behind the car. They must have the learner's permit for 12 months, and completed 120 hours before they allowed to be tested for a full licence.

References

Road transport law

Learner's permit


Khalid Hameed, Baron Hameed, CBE, DL (born 1 July 1941) is the chairman of Alpha Hospital Group, and chairman and chief executive officer of the London International Hospital. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer of the Cromwell Hospital in London. He hails from Lucknow, India.

He chairs the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council. He is a board member of the British Muslim Research Centre, and also the Ethnic Minorities Foundation. He is an executive member of the Maimonides Foundation and a trustee of The Little Foundation. He received a CBE in the 2004 New Year's Honours. Dr Hameed supports various charities and was awarded the Sternberg Award for 2005 for his contribution to further Christian - Muslim - Jewish Relations. He has received several national and international honours from various countries including the United Kingdom. He is a governor of International Students House; president of The Little Foundation; chairman of The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths, and is a vice-president of the Friends of the British Library.

He is involved with inter-religious matters and lectures on this subject.

He was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as the first Asian High Sheriff of Greater London for the year 2006–2007. The office of High sheriff is 1,000 years old and is the second oldest office in the country after the monarchy.

In February 2007, it was announced by the House of Lords Appointments Commission that he will be made a life peer and will sit as a Crossbencher. The peerage was gazetted on 27 March 2007 as Baron Hameed, of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden.
He was also named British Asian of the year 2007.

He was awarded Padma Shri in 1992 and the Padma Bhushan, "third in hierarchy of civilian awards", by the Government of India in 2009. He was the chief guest at Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas 2010 held in New Delhi.

He is married to Dr Ghazala Afzal, who was appointed High Sheriff of Greater London for 2015–16.

Arms

Notes

References

Living people
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
People's peers
Deputy Lieutenants of Greater London
Scientists from Lucknow
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in medicine
Indian emigrants to England
High Sheriffs of Greater London
Crossbench life peers
Recipients of the Padma Shri in medicine
1941 births
20th-century Indian medical doctors
Businesspeople from Lucknow
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
Life peers created by Elizabeth II

Khalid Hameed, Baron Hameed