Oasis

         


OASIS were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991 formed by Liam Gallagher (vocals and tambourine), Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (guitar), Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan (bass guitar) and Tony McCarroll (drums, percussion), who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher (lead guitar and vocals).

They have had eight UK number-one singles and eight UK number-one albums, and won fifteen NME Awards, nine Q Awards, four MTV Europe Music Awards and six Brit Awards, including one in 2007 for Outstanding Contribution to Music and one for the Best Album of the Last 30 Years as voted by BBC Radio 2 listeners. They have been nominated for three Grammy Awards.

The band were listed in the Guinness World Records book in 2010 for “Longest Top 10 UK Chart Run by a Group” after an unprecedented run of 22 top 10 hits in the UK and they hold the Guinness World Record for being the most successful act in the UK between the years 1995 and 2005, spending 765 weeks in the Top 75 singles and albums charts.

Adam Franklin wrote to us about the origin of the band's name, Oasis.

Oasis Leisure Centre

They originated as ‘The Rain’ then Noel told Liam to let him in the band. Noel was a roadie for Inspiral Carpets and they had a gig at the Oasis Leisure Centre in Swindon.  

Yes, that's right, the world of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll wouldn't be the same without a space-age looking leisure centre in central Swindon - our very own Oasis. 

The story goes back to 1991, when one Noel Gallagher visited Swindon while working as a roadie for indie band Inspiral Carpets, the front-man confirmed during an interview on Radio One.
Brother Liam, who had come along to the gig, was taken with the name "Oasis", and he suggested to Noel that it would make a good name for their own band, which was then called The Rain. 

Noel, not surprisingly, wasn't immediately convinced by the idea because he thought it sounded more like the name of a reggae band. But the brothers, famous for their backstage fighting and on tour feuding, made the best decision of their lives and eventually agreed to give the name 'a go' when they returned to Manchester. 

Now described as the 'Kings of Britpop' after selling well over 25 million albums since changing their name, the two brothers can look back (not in anger) and say a big 'cheers, pal' to Swindon for making such a difference in their pursuit of musical fame. Ironically, they've never played a gig here, which for some is a shame and others a blessing! 

So that's the story, morning glory.

Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis performing in San Diego on September 18, 2005

Eurythmics

Eurythmics was a British music duo consisting of members Annie Lennox and David A. Stewart, now disbanded but known to reunite from time to time.

Their musical style ranged from new wave and synthpop to pop rock and soft rock. Eurythmics originally came together in 1980 and disbanded in 1990, but reunited in 1999 and split again in 2005.

The duo released their first album, In The Garden, in 1981 but really hit it big with their second album Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), released in 1983. The title track from the album was a worldwide hit, topping the chart in various countries including the US.  Eurythmics went on to release a string of hit singles and albums before they split in 1990.


They called the group Eurythmics after the pedagogical exercise system that Lennox had encountered as a child. Dalcroze Eurhythmics (note spelling difference) is also known as the The Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze or simply Eurhythmics and is a system of interpreting musical rhythms through one's body. It was invented by Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze to express the "symmetry and spirit" of music. Similarly, if something is eurhythmic, it is harmonious, or pleasing to the ear.

It is one of several developmental approaches including the Kodaly Method, Orff Schulwerk and Suzuki Method used to teach music education to students. Eurhythmics teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement, and is the concept for which Dalcroze is best known. It focuses on allowing the student to gain physical awareness and experience of music through training that takes place through all of the senses, particularly kinesthetic.

Styx

Styx is an American rock band popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s and known for its prog-rock with hard rock guitar, strong ballads, and a theatrical stage show. The band is best known for the hit songs "Lady", "Come Sail Away", "Babe", "The Best of Times", "Too Much Time on My Hands", and "Mr. Roboto". The band had four consecutive albums certified multi-platinum.

Twin brothers Chuck and John Panozzo got together with their neighbor Dennis DeYoung in 1961 in Chicago to form "The Tradewinds". The band never made it to the recording stage and in 1966, the Panozzo brothers had joined DeYoung at Chicago State College and kept the group together doing gigs at high schools and frat parties while studying to be teachers. In 1969 they added a college buddy, John Curulewski, on guitar and in 1972 the band members decided to choose a new name when they signed to Wooden Nickel Records. According to DeYoung, the name Styx was chosen mostly because it was "the only one that none of us hated".

Styx is a mythical river in classical Greek mythology. It is the river in the underworld over which the souls of the dead are ferried.

Crossing the Styx, illustration by Gustave Doré, 1861.

The word is a cognate of the Greek stygos meaning "hatred" and stygnos meaning "gloomy." The river formed the boundary between Earth and the Underworld (Hades). The rivers Styx, Phlegethon, Acheron, and Cocytus all converge at the center of the underworld on a great marsh, which is also sometimes called the Styx.

Red Sox, White Sox and Red Stockings

The first openly all-professional team was the famous Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869-1870. They began as an amateur organization in 1866. But after the American Civil War, interest in baseball returned and the Red Stockings gained popularity as they went on road tour, known as "barnstorming." During their 1869 - 1870 "season" they went undefeated.

Nevertheless, they weren't making a profit and they were disbanded. But when the first professional league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, began in 1871, the Cincinnati Red Stockings regrouped in Boston, joined the new National Association and formed the Boston Red Stockings. (They eventually evolved into the Atlanta Braves.)

The influence of the Red Stockings is still felt in that nearly every professional team in Cincinnati since then has worn red as their primary trim color.

The National Association folded with the better teams and some new additions regrouping as the National League in 1876. One new teams was the Cincinnati Red Stockings who later was expelled from the league in 1880 for selling beer at games and playing games on Sundays.

A separate American Association was created to challenge (but not play against) the National League. The AA was considered the low class version because it had cheaper admission prices, offered alcoholic beverages, and had teams in working class "river towns" like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville and St. Louis.

A resurrected Cincinnati Red Stockings eventually shortened to the Cincinnati Reds and won the first American Association pennant. In 1890, the Reds were readmitted to the National League, and continue to play in Cincinnati to this day.

In the 1950s, "Reds" became a synonym for "Communist"and  they officially changed their name to the "Cincinnati Redlegs" with the logo altered from 1956 to 1960 to remove the term "REDS" from the inside of the C symbol. "Reds" came back in 1961 uniforms.

Cincinnati Reds Fan Shop

When Charles Comiskey brought his St. Paul Saints team into Chicago in 1900, an older team name of the White Stockings which was quickly shortened to White Sox by the press. In 1912, the team started wearing the first incarnation of its "SOX" logo on the shirts.

The team is often called the "Chisox" in headlines to distinguish from the other sox - the "Bosox" of Boston (although within their own hometowns they are often just "the Sox."

Chicago White Sox Fan Shop




In 1901, the American League club in Boston spent 7 seasons wearing blue stockings and was just known as "Boston", the "Americans" or the "Boston Americans" (because they were in the American League and there was another National League Boston team).

For the 1908 season,  the AL team shirts featured a red stocking across the front labeled "BOSTON" along with red stockings and white caps. Confusingly, the NL team also wore red stockings and  red caps with an old-English "B".

The now familiar "RED SOX" first appeared in 1912, coincident with the opening of Fenway Park.

Boston Red Sox Fan Shop

boston.redsox.mlb.com

cincinnati.reds.mlb.com 

chicago.whitesox.mlb.com

 

Urge Overkill

   

Urge Overkill is an alternative rock band, formed in Chicago, United States, consisting of Nash Kato (vocals/guitar), and Eddie "King" Roeser (vocals/guitar/bass guitar). Their cover of Neil Diamond's song "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack became a hit in 1994.

Their first album since 1995, Rock & Roll Submarine, was released in 2011.

The name Urge Overkill comes from a line in the Parliament song "Funkentelechy" that says “from the makers of Mr. Prolong, better known as Urge Overkill.”