Absolutely is a British comedy sketch show. The cast and crew are mainly Scottish; the principal writers and performers are Moray Hunter, Jack Docherty, Peter Baikie, Gordon Kennedy (all of whom had performed together as The Bodgers for many years), Morwenna Banks (English) and John Sparkes (Welsh). The original television series, produced by Absolutely Productions, aired on Channel 4 for four series between May 1989 and February 1993. Following an award-winning one-off radio reunion special for BBC Radio 4 in 2013, the show returned for a new four-part radio series with most of the original cast in September 2015. A second Radio 4 series of four programmes was broadcast from 25 June 2017, and a third in July 2019.

Recurring characters
 Stoneybridge Town Council (played by the entire cast) are the council of the fictional small Scottish town of Stoneybridge. Originally meant to be a one-off mocking the plague of promotional videos and adverts done by many British towns during the 1980s and 1990s, the characters proved so popular that they snowballed into a regular parody of small town and village councils run by the parochial minded with jarring grandiose aspirations for themselves and the people they are trying to serve (for example, bidding to host the Olympic Games).
 Frank Hovis (played by Sparkes) is a character described as a club host, who first appeared in series three in a series of monologues, which he self-titled as "On the Lavatory (once replaced by 'The Lavatory Express') with Frank Hovis". These were set in an unpleasant public toilet cubicle with no toilet paper, where Frank would draw upon his own personal experiences in a slurred northern English accent, usually involving toilet humour. Outside of Absolutely, Hovis featured in his own panel game show for BBC Wales entitled Pub Quiz.
 McGlashan (played by Docherty) was an extreme Scottish nationalist and playwright, who frequently espoused anglophobia.
Calum Gilhooley (played by Hunter) is introduced as the most boring man in the world. Well-meaning but extremely dull, he talks endlessly about his anorak ("it has pockets, which is good, 'cos you can keep things in them, and they open and close") and Suzuki motorbikes.
 Denzil and Gwynedd (played by Sparkes and Banks) were a dysfunctional Welsh married couple. Denzil, a DIY enthusiast without the skill to match, is supercilious and dismissive of his wife, whilst Gwynedd is ambitious but simple  - later reappeared post-Absolutely in Barry Welsh is Coming. Some of their TV sketches had Welsh subtitles, and the two characters spoke cod-Welsh or in English with exaggerated Welsh accents (and what in Swansea are going on here?).
 The Little Girl (played by Banks) would enthusiastically describe her understanding of a topic such as death, dentists,going on an aeroplane, or the government in an overexcited bluster. The sketches often ended with her exclaiming, "It is, it's true!" Morwenna would later perform this character after she was hired on Saturday Night Live and again in several episodes of her own comedy sketch show THE MORWENNA BANKS SHOW...
 The Nice Family (played by the entire cast) was a parody of a straight-laced middle-class family, none of whom have names, but are referred to by their titles of "Father" (Docherty), "Mother" (normally Kennedy with his back always to the audience, cleaning), "Eldest son" (Sparkes), "Daughter" (Banks), "First twin" (Baikie) and "Second twin" (Hunter). The Father was the dominant figure of the family, with everyone else looking exactly like him, wearing beige jumpers, white collar shirts, brown ties, brown slacks (except the women who wear brown skirts) and black shoes. A framed photograph of John Major was sometimes seen on their wall.
 George and Donald McDiarmid (played by Docherty and Hunter) were a surreal duo who would appear in almost every episode. George McDiarmid was dressed in a black pinstripe suit and tie, while Don McDiarmid (no relation) was dressed in tweed, a bow tie, and an unusual pair of glasses with one lens at a right angle. The two characters would go on to get their own sit-com Mr Don & Mr George.
 Peter and Jennifer Wells (played by Docherty and Banks) were a well-off couple introduced in series two, who were keen to support charities but often let their own prejudices get in the way.
 Bert Bastard (played by Sparkes) is an old man who was very rude and profane. Bert is very feeble and not able to perform many day-to-day tasks such as cooking and eating.
 The Musical Sections featured in every episode, but by series two Baikie developed a character of a smug piano man - Mr Muzak. The piano player would often be used to link sketches together by playing his piano across the set. Another regular musical character was created in series four - The Laughing Man who had the habit of laughing at not very amusing bumper stickers and signs.
 Gwyn (played by Sparkes) is a Welshman who would often give monologues to camera. Gwyn suffered from a constant nervous twitch which resulted in his body shaking all over the place and whistling while he talked. The character was first performed by Sparkes when he performed stand-up comedy before Absolutely. Gwyn reappeared in Sparkes' post-Absolutely series, Barry Welsh is Coming.

History

Television
The original television run of Absolutely ran for four series, with a total of 28 episodes:
 Series 1: Six episodes transmitted between 23 May 1989 and 27 June 1989
 Series 2: Eight episodes transmitted between 22 August 1990 and 10 October 1990
 Series 3: Eight episodes transmitted between 17 May 1991 and 5 July 1991
 Series 4: Six episodes transmitted between 22 January 1993 and 26 February 1993

The characters of Don and George subsequently featured in their own spin-off series Mr. Don and Mr. George, which ran for six episodes.

In 1995, a pilot was shown on BBC2 for a series called Mac, a sitcom based around MacGlashan and his long-suffering brother Finley (played by Gordon Kennedy). Finley ran a small shop selling the sort of stereotypical Scottish kitsch for tourists that inflamed Mac's senses, his assistant Aileen (played by Elaine Collins of City Lights) acted as Mac's love interest, while Nick Hancock played his Londoner love rival Van Webster.

All four series of Absolutely were released as a DVD boxset entitled Absolutely Everything on 5 May 2008.

Radio
A reunion show was aired as part of BBC Radio 4's Sketchorama series, first broadcast on 20 May 2013. An extended version of the show was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2013. A year later, the special won a BBC Audio Drama award for best live scripted comedy.

Absolutely returned as a four-part radio series for BBC Radio 4 in September 2015, again featuring the original cast without Jack Docherty. The new series, a co-production between Absolutely Productions Ltd and The Comedy Unit, was recorded on two evenings in August and September 2015 at Òran Mór in Glasgow. The first episode was broadcast on Sunday 6 September 2015.

A second four-part series aired on BBC Radio 4 during the summer of 2017, with a third following in July 2019.

Live
In the early 1990s, Pete Baikie and Gordon Kennedy briefly toured as comedy band, The Hairstyles.

In the mid-90s, following the success of TV spin-off Mr. Don & Mr. George, Moray Hunter and Jack Docherty toured together as Hunter and Docherty.

See also
 List of Absolutely episodes

References

External links

Absolutely Productions Ltd

1989 British television series debuts
1993 British television series endings
1980s British television sketch shows
1990s British television sketch shows
Channel 4 sketch shows
English-language television shows
British surreal comedy television series

Absolutely (TV series)


Andrew Jennings (3 September 1943 – 8 January 2022) was a British investigative reporter.  He was best known for his work investigating and writing about corruption in the IOC and FIFA.

Early life
Jennings was born in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, on 3 September 1943.  His father worked as a school headmaster; his mother was a housewife.  He was the grandson of a former Clapton Orient player.  His family relocated to London when he was a child.  Jennings attended the University of Hull, and first worked at the Burnley Evening Star.

Career
Jennings became part of the Sunday Times' Insight team during the late 1960s.  He went on to work as an investigative reporter on BBC Radio Four's Checkpoint, probing into cocaine trafficking and murders carried out by the Sicilian Mafia.  In 1986 the BBC refused to broadcast his documentary concerning corruption in Scotland Yard.  Jennings consequently resigned and transposed the material into his first book, Scotland Yard's Cocaine Connection.  The documentary was aired by World in Action.

Jennings subsequently worked for Granada, filming several international investigations and small documentaries.  His investigation of British participation in the Iran–Contra affair won the gold medal at the New York TV Festival in 1989.  He entered Chechnya in 1993 with the first western TV crew ever to enter the country, to investigate Caucasus mafia activity.  He worked with World in Action in 1997, with an investigation on British Olympic swimming coach Hamilton Bland.  One year later, he presented a documentary on rail privatisation.

Panorama
Jennings' first appearance on Panorama, a current affairs documentary television programme, came in June 2006 (episode entitled "The Beautiful Bung: Corruption and the World Cup"): Jennings investigated several allegations of bribery within FIFA, including million-dollar bribes to secure marketing rights for the body's sports marketing company ISL along with vote-buying (to secure the position of FIFA president Sepp Blatter), bribery and graft attributed to CONCACAF president Jack Warner. It was followed up in October 2007 with an episode entitled "FIFA and Coe" exploring the relationship between former British Olympian Sebastian Coe and the FIFA Ethics Committee.

The most prominent programme was FIFA's Dirty Secrets (first aired on 29 November 2010), which was a 30-minute investigation of corruption allegations against some of the FIFA executive committee members who were to vote on the host for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.  Jennings alleged that Ricardo Teixeira, President of Brazil's Football Federation (CBF) and of the 2014 World Cup Organising Committee, Nicolás Léoz of Paraguay, President of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL), and Issa Hayatou from Cameroon, President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) all accepted bribes from a television marketing firm.  In December 2015, he presented a summary of the investigations into FIFA entitled Fifa, Sepp Blatter and Me for BBC's Panorama.

Personal life
Jennings was married to Janeen Weir until her death in 1974.  They had one daughter together and two children from Janeen's previous marriage.  He was subsequently in a domestic partnership with Clare Sambrook until his death.  They had two children together.

Jennings suffered a stroke in 2015 during a visit to New York.  He died on 8 January 2022 at a hospital in Carlisle.  He was 78, and suffered an aortic aneurysm prior to his death.

Books
 Scotland Yard's Cocaine Connection, 1989
 The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money and Drugs in the Modern Olympics, 1992
 The New Lords of the Rings, 1996
 The Great Olympic Swindle, 2000
 FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals, 2006
 Omertà: Sepp Blatter's FIFA Organised Crime Family, 2014.
 The Dirty Game: Uncovering the Scandal at FIFA, 2015

Awards
 The Play the Game Award (shared with Jens Weinreich), 2011. In recognition of his "tireless work documenting and bringing mismanagement and corruption in the world's leading sports organisations into public view.
 Royal Television Society Award for his Channel 4 News investigation on Olympic corruption, 2000.
 The first "Integrity in Journalism" award given by OATH, 1999.

 "Best International Documentary", New York TV Festival, 1992

References

External links
Transparency in Sport (His Personal website)

1943 births
2022 deaths
Alumni of the University of Hull
BBC newsreaders and journalists
British investigative journalists
British non-fiction crime writers
British sportswriters
Deaths from aortic aneurysm
FIFA
The Times journalists
People from Kirkcaldy

Andrew Jennings


Cigarettes and Valentines was going to be an album by Green Day. It was recorded in the summer of 2003, but after making 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band was upset so decided not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead started on a new album that they vowed would be even better than before. The new album was American Idiot.

The Cigarettes and Valentines album was rumoured to have been secretly released as Money Money 2020 by The Network. The Network is a band that contains all the Green Day members under different names. Billie Joe (a member of Green Day) has gone on record admitting that The Network is Green Day's side project. However he also said that Money Money 2020 is not Cigarettes and Valentines.

References

Green Day albums

Cigarettes and Valentines


John Marrant (June 15, 1755 – April 15, 1791) was an American Methodist preacher and missionary and one of the first black preachers in North America. Born free in New York City, he moved as a child with his family to Charleston, South Carolina. His father died when he was young, and he and his mother also lived in Florida and Georgia. After escaping to the Cherokee, with whom he lived for two years, he allied with the British during the American Revolutionary War and resettled afterward in London. There he became involved with the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion and ordained as a preacher.

Marrant was supported to travel in 1785 as a preacher and missionary to Nova Scotia, where he founded a Methodist church in Birchtown. He married there before settling in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1790 he returned to London. He wrote a memoir about his life, published in 1785 in London as A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant, a black; also published were a 1789 sermon, and a journal in 1790 covering the previous five years of his life.

Early life

Marrant was born free in New York City on June 15, 1755, the second youngest child in his family; he had two older sisters and an older brother, and a younger sister. Their father died in 1759 when Marrant was four.

His mother moved the family to St. Augustine, Florida, where Marrant started school, which was unique for black children. After 18 months in Florida and during the Seven Years' War, Marrant's mother moved the family to Georgia, which was a British colony at that time. He continued in school until the age of 11, learning to read and write. (His mother remarried at some time, and an older sister married in Charleston.) After they moved to Charleston, South Carolina, Marrant became interested in music and learned to play the French horn and violin. He frequently entertained the local gentry at balls and social gatherings. He studied music for  two years, & then was an apprentice carpenter for more than one year.

Religious journey

At the age of 13, about 1768, Marrant and a friend went to hear Methodist preacher George Whitefield, who was active in the South during the Great Awakening. He experienced a dramatic conversion, falling to the floor in a faint or illness. Unable to move or speak for half an hour, he was carried from the meeting to his home. Doctors were called, but he refused medicine. He got better by studying the Bible, but his steadfastness to Biblical study was troubling to his family. It was about this time that his family became concerned about some bizarre behavior by Marrant. They treated him as if he was mentally unstable. After disagreements with his family about religion, he left home, and wandered into a forest outside the city, relying on God to feed and protect him.

He was found by a Cherokee hunter who knew his family but whom he persuaded not to take him back to town. Marrant traveled and hunted with the Cherokee for more than two months to gather furs for trade. They went to the man's fortified Cherokee town, where Marrant was stopped from entry. Told he did not have sufficient reason to be there, he was sentenced to death. Marrant's prayers to Jesus appeared to convert the executioner, who argued with the sentencing judge and arranged for Marrant to meet the king, who spared his life. They all heard him pray in English and Cherokee.

Marrant lived with the Cherokee for two years during which he had visited with other tribes of the area, including Catawa, Housaw, and Creek people. He converted a number of Native Americans and is thought to have been an influence in creating lasting bonds between black and Cherokee people.

He wore Native American style clothing made of animal skins. He had no pants, but wore a sash around his middle, and a long pendant that went down his back. When he returned to Charleston,  his family did not initially recognize him. Marrant was deeply relieved when his sister recognized him. He stated in his journal: "thus the dead was brought to life again; thus the lost was found." His experience is related to that of Lazarus and Joseph, both of whom were important figures among black Christians who were enslaved or held captive and longed for freedom and a rebirth. He sought work on plantations as a free carpenter, and conducted missionary work with slaves until the start of the American Revolution. Although some owners objected, others allowed slaves to become Christianized.

American Revolutionary War
During the American Revolutionary War, Marrant was impressed into the Royal Navy, serving as a musician for more than six years before being discharged in 1782.  In 1780, he was at the Siege of Charleston. One year later, he was wounded in the Battle of Dogger Bank. He described battles in his Narrative, but official records do not document him as having served with the Navy.

During the war, blacks slaves were told that if they served the British Crown, they would gain their freedom. There were 3,000 people who took the agreement and were called Black Loyalists. In 1783, they were transported to Nova Scotia after their names were recorded in the Book of Negroes, also called the New York City Inspection Roll of Negroes. The Black Loyalists were interested in learning about Christianity. Marrant's brother sent him a letter asking for him to come to Nova Scotia.

Ministry
Marrant worked for a clothing or cotton merchant in London after he was discharged from the Navy. While in London, he met Rev. Whitehead and told him of his dramatic conversion. Whitehead introduced him to Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, who encouraged him to become a minister. He thus joined the ministry of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, which was a sect that practiced a combination of Calvinism and Methodism. It separated from the Church of England in 1783. After he was ordained as a preacher on May 15, 1785, in Bath, Marrant left for Nova Scotia. After an eleven-week journey from England, he arrived in Nova Scotia in November 1785.

He lived at Birchtown, Nova Scotia, the largest new black community, where he founded a Huntingdonian church. Marrant served the black people in the Birchtown area and developed a strong Christian community there. He travelled throughout Nova Scotia to other towns where Black Loyalists settled, such as Jordan River and Cape Negro. He also spoke to white congregations and First Nation people, the Miꞌkmaqs. When he delivered sermons, he used specific Bible verses to infer that he was a prophet sent to Nova Scotia to help raise up the Black Loyalists that listen to him. Further, he said that those who did not listen to him would perish. These kinds of messages were threatening to white residents. Speaking to the hardships that blacks endured, he said that lessons from God where often hidden: "God often hides the sensible signs of his favor from his dearest friends… real Christians, whilst they are among fiery serpents are awaiting with desire, and holy expectations, for the good of the promise."

He had difficulty among other churches, particularly other Methodist churches. White ministers were especially upset when members of their congregations attended Marrant's services. He inspired the creation of Christian faith among black communities, including religious leaders Boston King, John Ball, and Moses Wilkinson, who were Methodists. Another was David George, a Baptist.

He did not receive the monies he expected from the Countess for his missionary work in Nova Scotia and suffered a six-month bout of smallpox. In 1787, Marrant traveled to Boston, Massachusetts. The next year, he became the chaplain of the African Masonic Lodge in Boston, a group active in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States. This was one of the first American organizations to have the name "African" in its title, representing the emerging identity of people of African descent in the United States after the Revolution. In a speech at the Lodge, published in 1789, Marrant described the black people as "an essentially distinct nation within a Christian universalist family of mankind."

Author
In 1785, with the help of Rev. William Aldridge, he published A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant, A Black, with the assistance of William Aldridge, who transcribed it. The narrative told of his time living with Cherokee people, and became one of the most popular stories of that kind. It also told of his conversion to Christianity and his observances of the condition and experiences of blacks in the Colonial period.

Critics have noted that the narrative has a very different tone to his later publications. Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has argued in The Signifying Monkey that many early African-American narratives were transcribed by white editors, who sometimes influenced the style of such narratives.

Marrant delivered a sermon A Sermon Preached on the 24th Day of June 1789...at the Request of the Right Worshipful the Grand Master Prince Hall, and the Rest of the Brethren of the African Lodge of the Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons in Boston in 1789 noting the equality of men before God; it was published. His final published work was a 1790 journal, A Journal of the Rev. John Marrant, from August the 18th, 1785, to the 16th of March, 1790.

Personal life
He married Elizabeth Herries, whose parents were Black Loyalists, on August 15, 1788, at Birchtown, Nova Scotia and returned with her to Boston. In a letter to Marrant, Margaret Blucke (wife of Stephen Blucke), asked about Marrant's children. He may have been previously married or adopted children. There is also boy that travelled with him. His name is not mentioned in the Journal, but he may have been Anthony Elliot from Birchtown who was an assistant.

Marrant traveled to London in 1789 or 1790, where the journal of the previous five years was published. He preached in chapels in London, including the Whitechapel area. He died on April 15, 1791, in Islington and was buried at the chapel graveyard on Church Street.

Legacy
Marrant did not live a long life, but he influenced black people in the United States and Canada, including the Black Loyalists who settled in Sierra Leone in Africa in 1792. He inspired future generations through his narrative. He shared a message of perseverance and faith.

Notes

References

External links

1755 births
1791 deaths
Converts to Methodism
American evangelicals
African-American writers
American writers
African-American Methodist clergy
American Methodist clergy
Clergy of historically African-American Christian denominations
Writers from New York City
American Methodist missionaries
African-American musicians
Methodist missionaries in the United States
African-American missionaries

John Marrant


Jennifer Marie Ruiz Brown (born 9 August 1983), known in the United States as Jenny Ruiz-Williams, is a US-born Mexican football coach and former professional player who played as a defender. She is currently the head coach of the UNLV Rebels women's soccer team. As a player, Ruiz-Williams played for Seattle Reign FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) and the Mexico women's national football team.

Early life
Ruiz-Williams was born in Anaheim, California and attended Corona High School in Corona, California. At Corona, she was a Mountain View All-League selection and three-time MVP. In 1998, she was selected to the 1998 Mountain View First Team. She played with the Olympic Development Program district and state team in 1998 and 1999. In 2001, she was named Citrus Belt 2001 Athlete of the Year and 2001 Corona-NorCo District Athlete of the Year.

In 2000, Ruiz-Williams played with the Southern California Blues U-16 and helped the team win a national title. She helped the Southern California Blues U-17 team place second at the National Championship.

College career
Ruiz-Williams attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and played for its women's soccer team from 2001 to 2004. During her freshman year in 2001, she played in 20 games of the season with one start against Kansas in which she scored two goals. She scored a last-minute goal against league rival BYU in the Mountain West Conference championship game.

In 2003, as part of the team's defense that allowed just 27 goals the entire season, Ruiz-Williams helped the team tie the school record. She was named to both the All-MWC Second Team, and to the MWC All-Tournament Team.

In 2004, Ruiz-Williams started 18 of 18 games (missing one game due to a red card) and led a defense that only allowed 15 goals all season (0.76 per game). She was named to the Soccer Buzz Team All-Region, First Team All Mountain West Conference, and First Team Mountain West Conference Tournament teams.

Club career

Bay Area Breeze
From 2011 to 2012, Ruiz-Williams played for the Bay Area Breeze in the Women's Premier Soccer League. As captain of the 2012 team, she scored four goals and started all 10 games in the WPSL season and all 4 games during the UK tour. Ruiz-Williams led an offense from the attacking midfield position that went 4–0 on the UK tour. She scored a goal and had an assist in the team's 2–0 victory over Liverpool L.F.C.

During the 2011 season with the Breeze, Ruiz-Williams signed for the last game of the season and playoffs and helped the team win the WPSL Pacific North Division Championship.

Seattle Reign FC
In 2013, as part of the NWSL Player Allocation, Ruiz-Williams joined Seattle Reign FC in the NWSL. She made seven appearances for the club during the inaugural season, tallying 386 minutes on the defensive line.

International career
As of December 2012, Ruiz-Williams has 22 caps with the Mexico women's national football team and three goals. She began training with the Mexico women's national football team in 2003 and played in the 2003 Australia Cup. She had seven full international caps for the team that qualified for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

In 2011, after a seven-year hiatus from soccer, Ruiz-Williams returned to the national team and scored the game-winning goal against Colombia in the Pan American Games, resulting in the team winning the bronze medal. This was Mexico's second bronze medal for women's soccer at the Pan American Games.

In January 2012, Ruiz-Williams represented Mexico at the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifiers in Vancouver, British Columbia, scoring two goals and providing one assist.

Coaching career
In June 2012, Ruiz-Williams was a guest coach at the Julie Foudy Leadership Academy. She also coached for the Palo Alto Soccer Club, until she moved to Tennessee.

Ruiz-Williams became the head coach at her alma mater in December 2019. She previously served as assistant coach at Oregon State Beavers and CSUN Matadors.

Personal
Ruiz-Williams is married to Kevin Williams and together they are parents of two children.

During a hiatus from soccer after graduating from UNLV, Ruiz-Williams taught two years in the inner-city of Los Angeles, California with Teach for America (AmeriCorps). She later moved to Brazil, where her second child was born, and worked alongside her husband as Christian missionaries in the interior of the country.

See also

 List of Mexican Fútbol (soccer) athletes
 List of 2011 Pan American Games medal winners
 List of University of Nevada, Las Vegas alumni

References

External links

 Profile  at Mexican Football Federation

 UNLV player profile

1983 births
Living people
Mexican women's footballers
Mexico women's international footballers
Footballers at the 2011 Pan American Games
2015 FIFA Women's World Cup players
National Women's Soccer League players
OL Reign players
American women's soccer players
UNLV Rebels women's soccer players
Soccer players from Anaheim, California
American sportspeople of Mexican descent
Women's association football midfielders
Women's association football defenders
Footballers at the 2015 Pan American Games
Pan American Games medalists in football
Pan American Games bronze medalists for Mexico
Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games
Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games

Jenny Ruiz-Williams


Norway has produced a number of famous rock bands, including Titanic, a-ha and Kaizers Orchestra.

1950s and 1960s
The most known rock and roll performers in the 1950s were Per Granberg, Per Hartvig (Rocke-Pelle), Jan Rohde and Odd Gisløy (Smiling Tommy). Gisløy even penned his own rock and roll composition: "Dancing with My Rockin' Shoes".

In the early 1960s the so-called Shadow bands (named after the British instrumental group The Shadows) were popular. Among the most notable were The Beatniks and The Vanguards. In the mid-1960s The Pussycats recorded two albums: one in Great Britain and one in West Germany, both produced by Sven-Erik Børja. Most of the songs were composed by group member Trond Graff.

1970s and 1980s
Titanic reached # 5 on the UK singles chart in 1971. Norway also has a notable progressive rock scene, which began in 1971 with the release of Junipher Greene's Friendship, the country's first double album.  Later, more progressive bands like Folque incorporated elements of traditional Norwegian folk music in their recordings.  Other bands include Ruphus,  Aunt Mary and Høst. This scene was in large part fueled by the success Frank Zappa had in Norway.

In the 80s Norway had A-Ha, Artch, Return, Stage Dolls and TNT, the first Norwegian band to be featured on the American Billboard charts. In the latter years of this decade a new generation of bands started to gain popularity. These were bands who sang in Norwegian. Here Norway got the "4 great ones": DumDum Boys, DeLillos, Raga Rockers and Jokke & Valentinerne. All these bands except Jokke (Joachim "Jokke" Nielsen died in 2000) are still active.

Since 1990
More recently, the Norwegian rock-scene has been dominated internationally by bands such as Turbonegro, Gluecifer and Madrugada, but several bands (like BigBang, Euroboys and Span) concentrate on the domestic market. The Stavanger hard rock band Kvelertak has been touring around the world with Purified in Blood among others since the release of their self-titled debut album in 2010.

In the 1990s, Norway saw the growing of the underground black metal scene, with bands including Mayhem, Immortal, Enslaved, Darkthrone, Burzum, Gorgoroth, Satyricon and Dimmu Borgir. Industrial rock band Zeromancer was formed in 1999. A few members were formerly in the band Seigmen.

Since 2001, Kaizers Orchestra has been among the most important rock bands in Norway. The band employs a variety of unusual instruments including a pump organ and an accordion. They are known for their use of oil barrels, car wheels, and garbage cans as percussion instruments.

Norwegian music
Rock music by country

Rock music in Norway


Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre (; 21 January 1895 – 23 March 1972) was a Spanish fashion designer, and the founder of the Balenciaga clothing brand. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior and as "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word" by Coco Chanel, who continued, "The others are simply fashion designers". On the day of his death, in 1972, Women's Wear Daily ran the headline "The King is Dead".

Since 2011 the purpose-built Museo Balenciaga has exhibited examples of his work in his birth town Getaria. Many of the 1,200 pieces in the collection were supplied by his pupil Hubert de Givenchy and clients such as Grace Kelly.

Life and career

Balenciaga was born in the Basque town Getaria, province of Gipuzkoa, Spain on 21 January 1895. His father was a fisherman who died when Cristobal was a boy, and his mother a seamstress. As a child Balenciaga often spent time with his mother as she worked.  At the age of twelve, he began work as the apprentice of a tailor. When he was a teenager, the Marchioness de Casa Torres, the foremost noblewoman in his town, became his customer and patron. She sent him to Madrid, where he was formally trained in tailoring.

Balenciaga was successful during his early career as a designer in Spain.  He opened a boutique in San Sebastián in 1919, which expanded to include branches in Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy wore his designs, but when the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his stores, Balenciaga moved to Paris. He opened his Paris couture house on Avenue George V in August 1937.

However, it was not until the post-war years that the full scale of the inventiveness of his highly original designs became evident. In 1951, he totally transformed the silhouette, broadening the shoulders and removing the waist. In 1955, he designed the tunic dress, which later developed into the chemise dress of 1957. In 1959, his work culminated in the Empire line, with high-waisted dresses and coats cut like kimono.

In 1960 he made the wedding dress for Fabiola de Mora y Aragón when she married King Baudouin I of Belgium. The Queen later donated her wedding dress to the Cristóbal Balenciaga Foundation. He created many designs for socialite Aline Griffith, diplomat Margarita Salaverría Galárraga, and designer Meye Allende de Maier, considering them his muses. He taught fashion design classes, inspiring other designers including Oscar de la Renta, André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro, Mila Schön and Hubert de Givenchy. His often spare, sculptural creations were considered masterworks of haute couture in the 1950s and 1960s.

Balenciaga closed his house in 1968 at the age of 74 after working in Paris for 30 years. He decided to retire and closed his fashion houses in Paris, Barcelona and Madrid, one after the other. Balenciaga died on 23 March 1972 in Xàbia, Spain.

Today the Balenciaga fashion house continues under the direction of Demna Gvasalia and under the ownership of the Kering group.

Work

During the 1950s, designers like Christian Dior, Pierre Balmain, and Coco Chanel emerged, creating pieces very representative to their fashion houses and to their own styles. An important protagonist for this period was Cristobal Balenciaga. This Spanish fashion designer was known as "The King of Fashion" and was one of the great masterminds of the period. Balenciaga was born and raised in Spain, where he worked for the Spanish royalty, but because of the Spanish Civil War he moved to Paris where he became the King of Fashion.

The most eye-catching designer of this period was Balenciaga because of his structural designs, which had never before been seen in the fashion world. He was a master of tailoring, and he was able to translate his illustrations from paper to real life. His advanced tailoring skills gave him an advantage over designers all over the world, making him a major target for customers. "He reshaped women's silhouette in the 1950s, so that clothes we think as typical of that decade are mostly dilutions of his work." (Irvine, 2013) Compared to some work like the New Look from Christian Dior, which featured full skirts and a tiny waist, Balenciaga changed these to look like the one-seam Yoki coat, or to voluminous looks. These looks caused customers to travel from all over the world for his outfits.

Personal life

Balenciaga was gay, although he kept his sexuality private throughout his life. The love of his life and his long time partner was Franco-Polish millionaire Władzio Jaworowski d'Attainville, who had helped set him up and fund him. When d'Attainville died in 1948, Balenciaga was so broken he considered closing the business. His next collection after d'Attainville's death was designed entirely in black to mourn his loss.

Expositions

On 24 March 2011, San Francisco's M. H. de Young Museum celebrated the opening of "Balenciaga and Spain", a 120-piece fashion retrospective of his career. "You can't even measure it", said Rodarte designer Laura Mulleavy, of Balenciaga's influence. The $2,500-a-ticket fund-raiser for the museum drew 350 guests, including Marissa Mayer, Jamie Tisch, Gwyneth Paltrow, Orlando Bloom, Balthazar Getty, Maggie Rizer, Connie Nielsen, Maria Bello and Mia Wasikowska.

On 7 June 2011, the Balenciaga Museum was inaugurated in his hometown of Getaria by Queen Sofía and with the presence of Hubert de Givenchy, who is honorific president of the Balenciaga Foundation. The museum has a collection of more than 1,200 pieces designed by Balenciaga, some of them donations by disciples, like Givenchy, or clients, like Queen Fabiola of Belgium and the heirs of Grace Kelly.

His most famous clients were Mona von Bismarck, Gloria Guinness, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy.

Retirement and death
Balenciaga retired from the high fashion world in 1968. First, he decided to retire from active life in May 1968 and, a few months later, on July 1, the newspapers broke the news of his headquarters in Paris and his studios in Madrid closing. The closing down of his business was by surprise, like a bombshell; not even his employees knew.

Balenciaga justified the closing with his habitual clinical brevity: "High fashion is mortally wounded". On one hand, the intense imposing burden of the French taxes blew through the largest part of the profits and, on the other, the Americans stopped buying French high fashion, largely because of General De Gaulle's Anti-American politics. The Americans had succeeded in signifying close to 70 percent of the Balenciaga clientele.

Balenciaga returned to Spain. He ended his days living in his Altea house, where he enjoyed painting, talking, and eating in the company of some of his Spanish assistants.

As an exception, four years after his retirement, he accepted the job of designing a gown for the wedding of Carmen Martínez-Bordiú, the daughter of one of his most important clients, Carmen Franco y Polo, and hence, the granddaughter of dictator Francisco Franco, to Prince Alphonse, Duke of Bourbon, a grandson of the Spanish king-in-exile, Alfonso XIII. The wedding was celebrated on March 8th, 1972, Martínez-Bordiu's dress being Balenciaga's last work.

That same month of March 1972, Balenciaga was going to go on a few vacations to Jávea's National Parador of Tourism, in Alicante. He was not sick, nor known of any serious ailment, but unexpectedly on March 23rd, he suffered a heart attack, followed by heart failure. Balenciaga was 77 years old at the time of his death. He was buried in Getaria, his birthplace.

Legacy
The closing of Balenciaga's high fashion house in 1968 did not signify the extinction of "Balenciaga's brand". The brand was inactive until 1986 when Jacques Konckier of Jacques Bogart bought the Balenciaga company.

Although separate from the big name of its creator, Balenciaga has actively kept up in the fashion world since then as far as relevance. The reason behind his relevance still today is "his sense of proportion and measurement, and his vision and interpretation of the female body have anointed him as one of the more influential designers of all time". Balenciaga comprises products of high fashion, ready-to-wear, perfumery, jewels, and other accessories. The Balenciaga business has mainly kept active in the perfumery and accessories spectrum. In the news, the Balenciaga bags are some of the more desired by fashion victims. Other objects of desire from the Balenciaga business are their shoes, for their great originality in design. In the historic collections of the Museum of Textile and Clothing in Barcelona, Balenciaga's hats and headdresses stand out, for their great variety of shapes.

In the studio of Cristóbal Balenciaga, many couturiers formed, some of which would reach international fame and would get to have their own business. Among these include Paco Rabanne, André Courreges, Emanuel Ungaro, Hubert de Givenchy, or Óscar de la Renta.

His work has been an object of numerous museum study expositions, starting with an anthology exposition that the New York Metropolitan Museum provided in 1973 (The World of Balenciaga), which exhibited for six months, with 180 models on display. Balenciaga's garments accompanied the paintings of Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, Zuloaga, Miró or Picasso, in which they had inspired the designs of the Basque couturier. It was the first time that an art museum of the ranking of the New York Metropolitan Museum added dresses to the category of works of art. In Spain, a namesake exposition was also celebrated, The World of Balenciaga, which was installed in the noble living rooms of the Palace of Library and National Museums in Madrid.

In his birthplace, a foundation was established with the objective of creating a museum dedicated to his big name. After numerous problems and the avoided judicial process about alleged inconsistencies in its management, The Balenciaga Museum finally opened in Getaria on June 10, 2011. The museum has 1200 pieces, although only one part displays simultaneously. The works are displayed on invisible mannequins.

His friend, the sculptor Eduardo Chillida, made a sculpture-tribute called Homage to Balenciaga.

The city, San Sebastián, also pays homage with a promenade, that is situated in the neighborhood of Igueldo, where Balenciaga had a house.

Presence in Museums
The Balenciaga Museum, open to the public in Getaria, has a collection of 1200 pieces. The Museum of Textile and Clothing of Disseny Hub Barcelona has an extensive collection of Balenciaga dresses and accessories (especially hats). The Madrid Garment Museum also has a fashion collection that includes Balenciaga dresses. Within these exhibitions and pieces, people can find, like seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, "sculptural silhouettes that the forms of architecture drink from, in the geometric lines of their patterns and also in the set with the volumes that allowed to go without saying as far as unthinkable in 1958, with his babydoll model: inspired in children clothing, the dress left in flotation without pressure to the figure and with total freedom of movement to the user".

References

Bibliography

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 Menkes, Suzy. "Museum to Open in Basque Designer's Birthplace : Temple to a Monk of Fashion." The New York Times, 2000, www.nytimes.com/2000/05/23/style/IHT-museum-to-open-in-basque-designers-birthplace-temple-to-a-monk-of.html.
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External links

 Official website - Balenciaga house
 Balenciaga Museum
 Cristóbal Balenciaga at Chicago History Museum Digital Collections
 Balenciaga

 Balenciaga library collection at the BelMal Malletier Fashion Library (Belgium)
 Charleston, Beth Duncuff. "Cristobal Balenciaga (1895–1972)." In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (October 2004)

1895 births
1972 deaths
Basque artists
LGBT fashion designers
Spanish gay artists
Spanish fashion designers
People from Urola Kosta
Gucci people
20th-century Spanish LGBT people

Cristóbal Balenciaga