tagged w/ Elton John
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The New York Times...
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Jim Marshall, Maker of Famed Fuzzy Amplifiers, Dies at 88
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
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Jim Marshall, who made rock ’n’ roll rawer and noisier by inventing the amplifier that helped define guitarists from Jimi Hendrix to members of countless garage bands, died on Thursday at a hospice in London. He was 88.
His death was announced by the company he founded, Marshall Amplification. The Associated Press said the cause was cancer.
Mr. Marshall was part of the English music scene as a drummer, drumming teacher and owner of a store in London that sold drums as the new rock music was gathering momentum in the early 1960s. Musicians urged him to add guitars and amplifiers to his wares. One of them, Pete Townshend of the Who, said he told Mr. Marshall that he wanted something “bigger and louder.”
“I was demanding a more powerful machine gun” to “blow people away all around the world,” Mr. Townshend told NPR in 2002. “I wanted it to be as big as the atomic bomb had been.”
With his sixth prototype, Mr. Marshall and his helpers came up with a harmless-looking black box with a speaker inside and controls on top. It would become the basis for the formidable wall of amplifiers used by Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and almost every other major rock guitarist in the ’60s and ’70s and by the next generation of guitarists as well, including Kurt Cobain, Eddie Van Halen and Slash.
This acoustic artillery came to be called the “wall of Marshalls” or “Marshall stacks.” Mr. Marshall became known as “the father of loud.”
The Marshall amps were cheaper than the ones made by Fender, which produced a more precise sound. But the emerging rockers wanted something rougher and rowdier. In a tribute on Twitter, Mötley Crüe’s bassist, Nikki Sixx, said Mr. Marshall had been “responsible for some of the greatest audio moments in music’s history — and 50 percent responsible for all our hearing loss.”
James Charles Marshall was born in London on July 29, 1923, to parents who owned a fish-and-chips shop. He was stricken with tuberculosis of the bones and spent much of his early youth in a plaster cast from his knees to his armpits. When he was 13, sinking family fortunes forced him to take jobs in a scrap-metal yard, a jam factory and a shoe shop. Having learned to tap dance at 14, he was hired as a dancer and singer with a 16-piece orchestra. He took up drumming and rode his bicycle to performances, pulling his drum kit in a trailer.
During World War II he worked at an engineering firm after failing his draft physical and read engineering books on his own. After the war he taught drumming and eventually had 65 students.
He used his teaching profits to buy his music store. One of the musicians who came into the store regularly was Ken Bran, who visited with his band, Peppy and the New York Twisters. Mr. Marshall hired him as a service engineer.
Mr. Bran suggested that they build their own amplifiers, and brought in a young engineer, Dudley Craven, to help them. They collected ideas from musicians about creating a fuzzier, more rambunctious sound then in demand. The sound became known as “the Marshall crunch.”
The first model, made in 1962, attracted 23 orders the first day. Two years later Mr. Marshall had 16 people in a factory making 20 amplifiers a week. Exports began in 1964 with an order from Roy Orbison. More growth followed as the company supplied mammoth sound systems to acts like Deep Purple and Elton John.
One of Mr. Marshall’s biggest breaks came in 1967 when Hendrix visited his showroom. In just months Hendrix would have a huge hit with his album “Are You Experienced,” but at the time, Mr. Marshall recalled, he thought the guitarist was “just another American chap wanting things for free.” Hendrix assured him that he intended to pay, and ultimately bought four complete stage setups.
“He was our greatest ambassador, without a doubt,” said Mr. Marshall, who considered Hendrix the best guitarist ever.
Mr. Marshall is survived by two children, two stepchildren, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, The A.P. reported.
A connoisseur of Cuban cigars and a single-malt Scotch bottled for him, Mr. Marshall many times refused to sell Marshall Amplification. “You can’t take it with you, you can only live in one house and drive one car at a time,” he said. “It’s the name that means something to me — because it is my name.”
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Jim Marshall, Maker of Famed Fuzzy Amplifiers, Dies... more
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Dylan Shaw 22 months old rocking to Elton John like only a 22 month old can. Who style guitar throw at the end completes the show.Dylan Shaw 22 months old rocking to Elton John like only a 22 month old can. Who style... more
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Scored by Elton John and winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Billy Elliot is based off the smash hit film, and is a heartwarming celebration of a young boy's triumph against the odds, from boxing ring to ballet class. Playing at the Imperial Theatre. Billy Elliot - Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th StreetScored by Elton John and winner of ten 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Billy... more
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"Billy Elliot" playwright Lee Hall says his latest project, a community opera involving 300 children, has collapsed after the school he was working with demanded he cut words spoken by a gay character.
Hall said he refused to remove the lines "I am queer" and "I prefer a lad to a lass" from his opera "Beached" as requested by the primary school involved.
Writing in The Guardian, Hall said he had worked with the school to make other changes but that this request "seemed to come from an entirely different era."
Opera North, which commissioned the piece, confirmed Monday that its July 15 premiere in Bridlington, northeast England, had been scrapped.
Opera North said it had tried to mediate between Hall and the school and regretted that "both sides have been unable to move forward."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/04/beach-canceled-over-gay-c_n_889658.html"Billy Elliot" playwright Lee Hall says his latest project, a community... more
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During the course of his artistic career, David LaChapelle was hired by Andy Warhol, fired by Madonna, photographed Pamela Anderson, Lady Gaga, and Hillary Clinton, and made a star of the transgender personality Amanda Lepore. He earned millions and spent much of that on his self-financed movie about an urban dance form created in the rough neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles. When the film, “Rize,” failed to attract a large audience, the weary LaChapelle packed up his career and disappeared.
Now, many years later, LaChapelle is back in New York briefly, overseeing his one-man show at a Madison Avenue art gallery and a separate commissioned installation that is opening in the lobby of the Lever House on Park Avenue. With their erotic gloss, their sizzling aesthetics and their slick production values, the photographs at Michelman Fine Art are recognizably the work of a man who in his editorial work for “Vanity Fair,” “Interview,” “Rolling Stone” and others photographed David Duchovny dressed in Lycra bondage trousers, Kanye West as Black Jesus, a turbaned Elizabeth Taylor looking like a $5 fortune teller, Eminem naked but for a well-placed prop and other stars like Tupac Shakur (wearing soap bubbles), Angelina Jolie and Lady Gaga baring their souls for the camera, along with a good deal more.
At the Lever House, however, the artist has returned to techniques he employed when, at the very beginning of his career, long before he became the go-to video director for pop music divas, he used naïve, childlike forms like linked paper chains to make his work. In the space that in the past has presented exhibitions of works by artists such as Barbara Kruger and Damien Hirst, Mr. LaChapelle has hung the chains from walls and ceiling in looping festoons. At first glance, the stapled links only look like colorful decorations for a children’s party, but when viewed more closely they reveal images of naked bodies, as an allegory for human connection.
This piece includes a number of high-resolution color photographs, a photo-gallery and two music-videos with artwork by LaChapelle.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/david-lachapelle-the-fellini-of-photography-returns-to-fine-art/During the course of his artistic career, David LaChapelle was hired by Andy Warhol,... more
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"We just celebrated Presidents Day. We should have a Vice Presidents Day. That way, instead of shooting off fireworks we'd get to shoot someone in the face." Stand-up comedian Chris Martin has one of those nights March 9, 2011 at McCormack's Irish Pub in Richmond, VA. Pitshou Kafuku is the MC.
http://chrismartincomedy.com"We just celebrated Presidents Day. We should have a Vice Presidents Day. That... more
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"Bill Murray saw his shadow on Groundhog Day. That means we're in for another year of artsy-fartsy movies." Stand-up comedian Chris Martin is ready for spring February 28, 2011 at Cafe Diem Comedy Night in Richmond, VA. Andrew Pauley is the MC.
http://chrismartincomedy.com"Bill Murray saw his shadow on Groundhog Day. That means we're in for... more
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"He puts the 'ha' in 'Stendhal Syndrome.'" MC Gradt Mutge introduces stand-up comedian Chris Martin at the Midnight Suggestion, presented by Johnny Hugel and Steady Sounds February 24, 2011 in Richmond, VA.
http://chrismartincomedy.com"He puts the 'ha' in 'Stendhal Syndrome.'" MC Gradt... more
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"I'm going to read the fictional memoirs of a lovable alcoholic. I haven't decided whether it's going to be Snooki or George W. Bush." Stand-up comedian Chris Martin eases into 2011 in this set February 23 at Strange Matter in Richmond, VA.
http://chrismartincomedy.com"I'm going to read the fictional memoirs of a lovable alcoholic. I... more
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Not invited to the Royal Wedding? Don't worry, neither were Brock-Cody Stewart Thomas (Bryan Safi) and Becky Lake (Erin Gibson). But that hasn't stopped the dopey duo from bringing you "The Real Scoop" on Will and Kate's big day from their perch atop a carpark (that's a parking lot to you Yanks) a mere 35 miles from Westminster Abbey.
infoMania is a half-hour comedy show that airs weekly on Current TV. Picture the ultimate office water-cooler, only with funnier co-workers who willingly stay up late imbibing all forms of media so you don't have to. Caveat: Bring your own water. Hosted by Brett Erlich and co-starring Sergio Cilli, Erin Gibson, Ben Hoffman and Bryan Safi, infoMania airs on Thursdays at 11/10c on Current TV.
Go to http://current.com/infomania for more, and make sure to check out our Facebook profile for special features at http://facebook.com/infomania.
Current Media, the Peabody-and Emmy Award-winning television and online network founded in 2005 by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, engages viewers with smart, provocative and timely programming -stories that no one else is telling in ways that no one else is telling them. Current's programming shines a light where others won't dare and boldly explores important subjects -- opening minds, sparking conversations and forming deep connections with its viewers. The channel's audience is comprised of affluent, curious, social and connected adults who crave the kind of entertaining, enlightening, witty and informative programming found on Current's TV and online properties. Current is now available via cable and satellite TV in 75 million households worldwide - 60 million households in the US - through distribution partners Comcast (Channel 107); Time Warner ; DirecTV (Channel 358 nationwide); Dish Network (Channel 196 nationwide); Verizon and AT&T. In the UK and Ireland, Current is available on BSkyB (Channel 183) and Virgin Media (Channel 155), and in Italy, Current is available on Sky Italia (Channel 130). Viewers can also find Current online at www.current.com.Not invited to the Royal Wedding? Don't worry, neither were Brock-Cody Stewart... more
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