[GreatBriton]

couple of British teenage girls have created an internet video on how to become a chav. Chavs, like punks, is a fashion craze that started in Britain before being spread around the world. They are famous for wearing Burberry, which is a British brand which has a checked pattern, similar to tartan.

Their video has become a huge success around the world, with Americans particularly interested in Britain's chav culture. Chavs usually wear designer labels including the chav favourite 'Burberry', and if they’re girls, very short skirts, large hoop earrings and stilettos.

Chavs see branded baseball caps as a status symbol and wear them at every opportunity. Normally found hanging around shopping centres. They usually have a low level of education.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Internet chav guide a surprise success
By TIM STEWART

16th August 2006




Lucy Whiteside and Kellie Munckton tell foreigners how to become chavs.



Two teenage girls' video guide to being a chav has become a bizarre internet hit.

Tens of thousands of viewers from all over the world have been logging on to watch the 17-year-olds give themselves an hilarious makeover as chavs.

In their step-by-step guide, change their make-up and hairstyles and don tracksuits and hoodies before taking to the streets to show off their new look.

Their video has become one of the hottest topics on trendy website YouTube.com with Americans particularly keen to know more about chav culture.

In the film clip, Kellie and Lucy, friends since school in Somerset, start out in their regular clothes and announce: "This is what we look like normally. This is non-chav."

They promise to create a "perfect chav" and begin by plastering on foundation, blue eyeliner, mascara, blusher and lipstick.

Hair, they tell viewers, must be "scraped back".

As Lucy struggles with her locks, Kellie, tells her: "Chavs must go through this situation.

"If the chavs can do it Lucy you can do it too."

The third stage of their makeover is to put on garish tracksuits, hoodies and boots or trainers before chewing gum, flicking V-signs at the camera and swearing.

Lucy says: "We look like chavs now. Notice the attitude, man. Total attitude, like f*** off."

Finally the pair take to the streets at midnight with Lucy shouting: "Yo, what's up my fellow chavs. I'm feeling well sexy tonight. Look at us strut."

Afterwards she declares: "It has been an enlightening experience to see what a chav has to go through on a daily basis. Hats off to chavs."

Lucy, from Chard in Somerset, said she and Kellie, from nearby Tatworth, had been amazed by the response to their video.

She said: "Kellie and I are just dead normal girls but where we live now in Somerset and where I grew up in Bolton there are a lot of chavs.

"They hang around our area just wanting to cause trouble and harass people. We thought we'd get our own back and have a laugh.

"We shot the film in three hours and I went to bed. When I woke up it had already been watched by 3,000 people.

"It was mostly Americans and they were all asking what an earth a chav is. They seem to be fascinated with English culture."


Chavs in their Burberry.


The film has drawn hundreds of admiring responses. One viewer wrote: "Awesome video girls.

"You nailed the look! The chavs they are taking over. Never knew it took them so long to look so stupid every day."

American viewers (in their typical irritating, annoying and foul-mouthed way) are particularly intrigued. One asked: "What the hell is a chav?" And another told the girls: "Someone send a chav to the US so I can kick his ass (although he wouldn't say that if he met a gang of chavs in a British street on a Saturday night)."

dailymail.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------

What is a Chav?
'chav' (slang) - a young person, often without a high level of education, who follows a particular fashion; Chavs usually wear designer labels including the chav favourite 'Burberry', and if they’re girls, very short skirts, large hoop earrings and stilettos.

Chavs see branded baseball caps as a status symbol and wear them at every opportunity. Normally found hanging around shopping centres. Like the punks, Chavs started off as a British phenomenon.

Also known as Townies, Kevs, Hood Rats, Charvers, Steeks, Stigs, Bazzas, Yarcos, Ratboys, Chorer, Skangers, Scutters, Janners, Kappa Slappers, Scallies, and Spides. Also known as Neds in Scotland, knackers & skangers in Ireland.
----------------------------------------------

Where did the word "Chav" come from? It's a mystery, but it could come from the Romani word "Chavi" meaning "child" and the London slang word "Chavi", which also means "child."



The press in Britain has recently been having fun mocking a group for which pejorative descriptions have been created such as “non-educated delinquents” and “the burgeoning peasant underclass”. The subjects of these derogatory descriptions are said to be set apart by ignorance, fecklessness, mindless violence and bad taste.

To illustrate the last of these, critics point to their style of dress: a love of flashy gold jewellery (hooped earrings, thick neck chains, sovereign rings and heavy bangles, which all may be lumped together under the term bling-bling); the wearing of white trainers (in what is called “prison white”, so clean that they look new); clothes in fashionable brands with very prominent logos; and baseball caps, frequently in Burberry check, a favourite style. The women, the Daily Mail wrote recently in a characteristic burst of maidenly distaste, “pull their shoddily dyed hair back in that ultra-tight bun known as a ‘council-house facelift’, wear skirts too short for their mottled blue thighs, and expose too much of their distressingly flabby midriffs”.

This upsurge of popular distaste towards one group may be evidence for a cultural shift back towards a class-ridden British society—at least the fear that it might be so is causing some alarm in liberal circles. Critics point to the copying of the style by many younger television celebrities as a further dumbing-down of that medium. Much of the attention is due to the experience of a Web site, which was intended to be humorous but which was infiltrated by extremists who threatened to turn it into a hate site.

From a linguistic perspective the most interesting aspect is the wide variety of local names given to the type. Scots call them neds (often said to be an acronym of “non-educated delinquents”, but that’s a folk etymology, given credence by being mentioned as fact during a debate in the Scottish parliament in 2003; it’s actually from an abridged form of the given name Edward, which was attached to this group in the period of the teddy-boys, who dressed in a version of Edwardian costume), while Liverpudlians prefer scallies (a term of long-standing for a boisterous, disruptive or irresponsible young man); Kev is common around London (presumably from the given name Kevin, common among this group and popularised through the portrayal on his television show by the comedian Harry Enfield of an idiotic teenager with that name). Other terms recorded from various parts of the country are smicks, spides, moakes and steeks (all from Belfast), plus bazzas, scuffheads, stigs, skangers, yarcos, and kappa slappers (girls who wear Kappa brand tracksuits, slapper being British slang for a promiscuous or vulgar woman).

The term that has become especially widely known in recent weeks, at least in southern England, is the one borrowed for the name of the Web site, chav. A writer in the Independent thought it derived from the name of the town of Chatham in Kent, where the term is best known and probably originated. It is also commonly said that it's an acronym, either from “Council House And Violent” or “Cheltenham Average” (the word being widely known in that area). As usual, we must treat supposed acronymic origins with the greatest suspicion; these examples are definitely recent after-the-event inventions as attempts to explain the word, though very widely known and believed.

But it seems that the word is from a much older underclass, the gypsies, many of whom have lived in that area for generations. Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. We know it was being used as a term of address to an adult man a little later in the century, but it hasn’t often been recorded in print since and its derivative chav is new to most people.

Other terms for the class also have Romany connections; another is charver, Romany for prostitute. Yet another is the deeply insulting pikey, presumably from the Kentish dialect term for gypsy that was borrowed from turnpike, so a person who travels the roads.

Did chavi die out, only to be reinvented recently? That seems hardly likely from the written and anecdotal evidence, and many correspondents report that it is well known to them as a spoken term in various parts of the country; what we’re seeing is a term that has been in active but inconspicuous use for the last 150 years suddenly bursting out into wider popular use in a new sense through circumstances we don’t fully understand.

worldwidewords.org

[GreatBriton]

A couple of British teenage girls have created an internet video on how to become a chav. Chavs, like punks, is a fashion craze that started in Britain before being spread around the world. They are famous for wearing Burberry, which is a British brand which has a checked pattern, similar to tartan.

Their video has become a huge success around the world, with Americans particularly interested in Britain's chav culture. Chavs usually wear designer labels including the chav favourite 'Burberry', and if they’re girls, very short skirts, large hoop earrings and stilettos.

Chavs see branded baseball caps as a status symbol and wear them at every opportunity. Normally found hanging around shopping centres. They usually have a low level of education.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Internet chav guide a surprise success
By TIM STEWART

16th August 2006




Lucy Whiteside and Kellie Munckton tell foreigners how to become chavs.



Two teenage girls' video guide to being a chav has become a bizarre internet hit.

Tens of thousands of viewers from all over the world have been logging on to watch the 17-year-olds give themselves an hilarious makeover as chavs.

In their step-by-step guide, change their make-up and hairstyles and don tracksuits and hoodies before taking to the streets to show off their new look.

Their video has become one of the hottest topics on trendy website YouTube.com with Americans particularly keen to know more about chav culture.

In the film clip, Kellie and Lucy, friends since school in Somerset, start out in their regular clothes and announce: "This is what we look like normally. This is non-chav."

They promise to create a "perfect chav" and begin by plastering on foundation, blue eyeliner, mascara, blusher and lipstick.

Hair, they tell viewers, must be "scraped back".

As Lucy struggles with her locks, Kellie, tells her: "Chavs must go through this situation.

"If the chavs can do it Lucy you can do it too."

The third stage of their makeover is to put on garish tracksuits, hoodies and boots or trainers before chewing gum, flicking V-signs at the camera and swearing.

Lucy says: "We look like chavs now. Notice the attitude, man. Total attitude, like f*** off."

Finally the pair take to the streets at midnight with Lucy shouting: "Yo, what's up my fellow chavs. I'm feeling well sexy tonight. Look at us strut."

Afterwards she declares: "It has been an enlightening experience to see what a chav has to go through on a daily basis. Hats off to chavs."

Lucy, from Chard in Somerset, said she and Kellie, from nearby Tatworth, had been amazed by the response to their video.

She said: "Kellie and I are just dead normal girls but where we live now in Somerset and where I grew up in Bolton there are a lot of chavs.

"They hang around our area just wanting to cause trouble and harass people. We thought we'd get our own back and have a laugh.

"We shot the film in three hours and I went to bed. When I woke up it had already been watched by 3,000 people.

"It was mostly Americans and they were all asking what an earth a chav is. They seem to be fascinated with English culture."


Chavs in their Burberry.


The film has drawn hundreds of admiring responses. One viewer wrote: "Awesome video girls.

"You nailed the look! The chavs they are taking over. Never knew it took them so long to look so stupid every day."

American viewers (in their typical irritating, annoying and foul-mouthed way) are particularly intrigued. One asked: "What the hell is a chav?" And another told the girls: "Someone send a chav to the US so I can kick his ass" (although he wouldn't say that if he met a gang of chavs in a British street on a Saturday night).

dailymail.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------

What is a Chav?
'chav' (slang) - a young person, often without a high level of education, who follows a particular fashion; Chavs usually wear designer labels including the chav favourite 'Burberry', and if they’re girls, very short skirts, large hoop earrings and stilettos.

Chavs see branded baseball caps as a status symbol and wear them at every opportunity. Normally found hanging around shopping centres. Like the punks, Chavs started off as a British phenomenon.

Also known as Townies, Kevs, Hood Rats, Charvers, Steeks, Stigs, Bazzas, Yarcos, Ratboys, Chorer, Skangers, Scutters, Janners, Kappa Slappers, Scallies, and Spides. Also known as Neds in Scotland, knackers & skangers in Ireland.
----------------------------------------------

Where did the word "Chav" come from? It's a mystery, but it could come from the Romani word "Chavi" meaning "child" and the London slang word "Chavi", which also means "child."



The press in Britain has recently been having fun mocking a group for which pejorative descriptions have been created such as “non-educated delinquents” and “the burgeoning peasant underclass”. The subjects of these derogatory descriptions are said to be set apart by ignorance, fecklessness, mindless violence and bad taste.

To illustrate the last of these, critics point to their style of dress: a love of flashy gold jewellery (hooped earrings, thick neck chains, sovereign rings and heavy bangles, which all may be lumped together under the term bling-bling); the wearing of white trainers (in what is called “prison white”, so clean that they look new); clothes in fashionable brands with very prominent logos; and baseball caps, frequently in Burberry check, a favourite style. The women, the Daily Mail wrote recently in a characteristic burst of maidenly distaste, “pull their shoddily dyed hair back in that ultra-tight bun known as a ‘council-house facelift’, wear skirts too short for their mottled blue thighs, and expose too much of their distressingly flabby midriffs”.

This upsurge of popular distaste towards one group may be evidence for a cultural shift back towards a class-ridden British society—at least the fear that it might be so is causing some alarm in liberal circles. Critics point to the copying of the style by many younger television celebrities as a further dumbing-down of that medium. Much of the attention is due to the experience of a Web site, which was intended to be humorous but which was infiltrated by extremists who threatened to turn it into a hate site.

From a linguistic perspective the most interesting aspect is the wide variety of local names given to the type. Scots call them neds (often said to be an acronym of “non-educated delinquents”, but that’s a folk etymology, given credence by being mentioned as fact during a debate in the Scottish parliament in 2003; it’s actually from an abridged form of the given name Edward, which was attached to this group in the period of the teddy-boys, who dressed in a version of Edwardian costume), while Liverpudlians prefer scallies (a term of long-standing for a boisterous, disruptive or irresponsible young man); Kev is common around London (presumably from the given name Kevin, common among this group and popularised through the portrayal on his television show by the comedian Harry Enfield of an idiotic teenager with that name). Other terms recorded from various parts of the country are smicks, spides, moakes and steeks (all from Belfast), plus bazzas, scuffheads, stigs, skangers, yarcos, and kappa slappers (girls who wear Kappa brand tracksuits, slapper being British slang for a promiscuous or vulgar woman).

The term that has become especially widely known in recent weeks, at least in southern England, is the one borrowed for the name of the Web site, chav. A writer in the Independent thought it derived from the name of the town of Chatham in Kent, where the term is best known and probably originated. It is also commonly said that it's an acronym, either from “Council House And Violent” or “Cheltenham Average” (the word being widely known in that area). As usual, we must treat supposed acronymic origins with the greatest suspicion; these examples are definitely recent after-the-event inventions as attempts to explain the word, though very widely known and believed.

But it seems that the word is from a much older underclass, the gypsies, many of whom have lived in that area for generations. Chav is almost certainly from the Romany word for a child, chavi, recorded from the middle of the nineteenth century. We know it was being used as a term of address to an adult man a little later in the century, but it hasn’t often been recorded in print since and its derivative chav is new to most people.

Other terms for the class also have Romany connections; another is charver, Romany for prostitute. Yet another is the deeply insulting pikey, presumably from the Kentish dialect term for gypsy that was borrowed from turnpike, so a person who travels the roads.

Did chavi die out, only to be reinvented recently? That seems hardly likely from the written and anecdotal evidence, and many correspondents report that it is well known to them as a spoken term in various parts of the country; what we’re seeing is a term that has been in active but inconspicuous use for the last 150 years suddenly bursting out into wider popular use in a new sense through circumstances we don’t fully understand.

worldwidewords.org

[Calgary123]

WTF??

Do you really think anyone here gives a rats ass about what the latest teenage fashion in GB is???

[GreatBriton]

Britain's biggest heavy metal band, Iron Maiden, release their FOURTEENTH album - A Matter of Life and Death - on 28th August.
--------------------------------------------------------









Bruce Dickinson - vocals


Dave Murray - guitar


Adrian Smith - guitar


Janick Gers - guitar


Steve Harris - bass


Nicko McBrain - drums

A Matter of Life and Death is an Iron Maiden album due to be released on 28 August 2006. It will be the band's fourteenth studio album and third studio album co-produced by Kevin Shirley. The band started to write the songs near the end of 2005 after their hugely successful appearances in the USA and Europe. After Christmas, the songs were done and they started rehearsing at Sarm West Studios in London. The album will not be a concept album [2].

This 71+ minute album is most likely the most progressive approach they have taken since the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album. It is set to be not only the longest Iron Maiden album (exceeding 1995's The X Factor by approximately one minute), but its average song length (7:11.2 per track) will make it the longest Iron Maiden album by song average. It will exceed Brave New World's average song length of 6:41.7, and Somewhere in Time's 6:20.6. It will also be one of the longest heavy metal albums with global release, and its extreme average song length will exceed even Metallica's most recent studio album, St. Anger, widely viewed as excessive in length.

According to the official Iron Maiden website, the album will be available as a normal cd and as a limited edition version which contains a bonus DVD. The DVD contains nearly an hour of documentary footage plus videos and photos all shot whilst the band were making the album. The documentary "The Making of A Matter of Life and Death", directed by Matthew Amos (also director of The Early Days and Death on the Road DVD documentaries), features candid video footage shot largely by Kevin Shirley himself during the recording of the album giving a real behind the scenes look at life in the studio . The bonus DVD also features the full 7:21 minute video promo for "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg", and a special intimate filming of the band recording "Different World" in the studio. The album will also be available as a limited edition double picture disc vinyl in gatefold sleeve, and as a digital download. [3]

The first single to be released from the album is "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg". It was released on 14 August 2006. The video for the single can be streamed from the official Iron Maiden website.

On 10 August 2006, "Different World" was put on the official website for everyone to hear [4]. The following day "Brighter than a Thousand Suns" was also put on the official site for public streaming [5].

The second track on the album, "These Colours Don't Run" is about being a soldier in the war zone. According to lead singer Bruce Dickinson in an interview with Kerrang! magazine; "the song was an effort to put a human face on people who go out and fight wars. They call it 'peacekeeping', but these people put themselves in harm's way, and whether or not you agree with the reasons why they're doing it, they're just doing their job"

"Brighter Than a Thousand Suns" is about the atomic bomb as Dickinson said in an interview with Kerrang!; "The scientist that saw the first bomb go off said it was brighter than a thousand suns. The idea that human beings could bring about their own total destruction totally changed the way people thought". It also is said to be one of Iron Maiden's heaviest tracks to date.

This will be Iron Maiden's fifth studio album that is not named after a specific song on the album. Other similar albums are Piece of Mind, "Somewhere in Time" (In the album there is a song called "Caught Somewhere in Time ) The X Factor and Virtual XI. This will be their third studio album where bassist and founder Steve Harris has been credited in writing all of the songs.

Track Listing of the album

1. Different Worlds 4.17
2. These Colours Don’t Run 6.52
3. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns 8.44
4. The Pilgrim 5.07
5. The Longest Day 7.48
6. Out Of the Shadows 5.36
7. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg 7.21
8. For The Greater Good of God 9.24
9. Lord Of Light 7.23
10. The Legacy 9

wikipedia.org

***************************************************************


The single The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg is released on 14th August.



When asked by competition winner "Little Trooper" of the Iron Maiden Bulletin Board as to who exactly the character is, guitarist Janick Gers and drummer Nicko McBrain jokingly said: "We are not the two people to ask. You need to talk to Steve…". The other band members are also keeping this information away from the public. Much speculation and theories have been made but no information has been confirmed. The only (as of July 2006) "official" website is [1], which claims Breeg was a painter who disappeared in 1978. The creator of the site, identifying himself (or herself) as "A. Breeg" makes mention of "a pop band named Iron Maiden" using Benjamin Breeg's name in the title of the song, but is unable to ascertain whether this is coincidental or not. The authenticity of the website is unconfirmed, but it should be noted that the British domain was registered just a few days before the release of the tracklist of the new album[2]. The lyrics of the song seems to be much like the dark and ghastly dreams of B. Breeg, as mentioned on the website. On 28 July 2006, an entry on the site mentions the translated words of an email received from Romania, containing only nine letters: HERE LIES A MAN OF WHOM LITTLE IS KNOWN. The site's author writes, "My first thought was that these were the kind of words that normally adorn gravestones and, knowing that my cousin's first job was the inscribing of headstones, I wonder if the words are his." The cover image for the Iron Maiden single for the song shows a man standing beside a tombstone on which are inscribed the words from the email. On 11 August 2006, a new entry has been made on the site, with a a photo of a painting purportedly by 'B. Breeg'. It contains an image looking suspiciously like the face of Eddie, Iron Maiden's mascot. This painting features in the video for the single for a brief moment, at about 5:14 into the track, and also on the insert of the CD single. On 14 August, the day of the single's release, another entry was made; it talks of the Romanian from whom A. Breeg bought the aforementioned painting from, who apparently has information about Benjamin, maybe even a journal. It ends with:

"He says I will learn the answer to this riddle when we meet. I hope so. As I hope to discover the truth, at last, about Benjamin Breeg.

A. BREEG."

The CD single comes with a B-side of "Hallowed Be Thy Name" from the BBC Radio 1 Legends Session. Due to the overall length of the two songs, the single may not necessarily be eligible for chart inclusion, though manager Rod Smallwood has said on the official website that this will not stop the single being released, even if it is non-chart eligible. The single will also be released on 10" clear vinyl single, which will include BBC Sessions versions of "The Trooper" and "Run to the Hills" on the B-side.[3]

On 17 July 2006, a music video for the song was put up on the band's official website for public viewing. The video was first released only for paid fan club members but it instantly leaked within minutes and was viewed by many fans who posted the link on various Iron Maiden discussion forums. Its "modern edgy with a bit of classic Deep Purple" feel was highly praised by a lot of newer and long time fans and showed how well the production will shine on their forthcoming album. The video displays them currently performing in the studio along with classic photos and clips of the band over their lengthy career.

wikipedia.org

[Calgary123]

Holy Shite! GB... I never thought I'd see the day where I would actually commend you on a post of yours.

Iron Maiden are one of my all-time favorite metal bands. I've seen them in concert half a dozen times (mostly in the 80's), and would go again if Bruce Dickenson had any love at all left for the North American fans. Since I know he thinks the Canada/US fans are "lame" in comparison to Europe and his neck of the woods... hence their not touring much on this side of the ocean.

After having seen Priest, Crue (3X this year and last), Leppard, and many others who have made come-back tours after taking a few years off... I would do what it takes to take in a Maiden concert again. Last year, I was actually considering taking one of the special flight tours that Maiden offerred that included riding in a special chartered jet that he books, and it goes from London to 2 European destinations where they were putting on 2 HUGE outdoor shows. I was close to booking it, but ended up holding back due to a family emergency.

Maybe later this year... when they tour again.

[GreatBriton]

The original cover of Thornography (not this one) has been banned in the US. Presumably, North Americans are shocked more easily.




Left to right: Dave Pybus, Rosie Smith, Charles Hedger, Adrian Erlandsson, Dani Filth, Paul Allender, Sarah Jezebel Deva


Dani Filth - Vocals
Adrian Erlandsson - Drums
Paul Allender - Guitar
Charles Hedger - Guitar
Dave "Herr Pubis" Pybus - Bass
Rosie Smith - Keyboards
Sarah Jezebel Deva - Backing Vocals

CRADLE OF FILTH's upcoming new album, Thornography, will now be released on October 16th through Roadrunner Records. You can view the cover artwork here, and the tracklisting is as follows:

1. Under Pregnant Skies She Comes Alive Like Miss Leviathan
2. Dirge Inferno
3. Tonight in Flames
4. Libertina Grimm
5. Byronic Man
6. I Am The Thorn
7. Cemetery And Sundown
8. Lovesick For Mina
9. The Foetus Of A New Day Kicking
10. Rise Of The Pentagram
11. Under Huntress Moon
12. Temptation

British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH have begun mixing their new album, "Thornography", at Backstage Studios in Derbyshire, England with producer Andy Sneap (MACHINE HEAD, SKINLAB, NEVERMORE). And what would a CRADLE OF FILTHrecord be without a visit from one Doug Bradley — a.k.a. "Hellraiser"'s chief Cenobite, Pinhead? Having already put his narrative stamp on such older CRADLE OF FILTH classics as "Her Ghost in the Fog" and "Swansong for a Raven".

Cradle of Filth will release their next studio album, Thornography, through Roadrunner Records on October 16, 2006. The album is mixed by Andy Sneap, and once again features narration by Doug Bradley (as with Midian and Nymphetamine).

Dani Filth has explained the album's title thus: "This title represents mankind's obsession with sin and self. The thorn combines images of that which troubled Christ, the crown of thorns, thus intimating man's seeming desire to hurt God and also, of the protecting thorn and the need to enclose a secret place or the soul from attack. An addiction to self-punishment or something equally poisonous. A mania. Twisted desires. Barbed dreams. A fetish. An obsession with cruelty. Savage nature. Paganism over Christianity. The title can also represent a sexual attraction to religious iconography as in the case of the 'possessed' Lourdon nuns. I like the title because to me it invokes images of a darker, sexier pre-Raphaelite scene wherein Sleeping Beauty's castle is won and she is awoken by a poisonous kiss. A darker adult faerytale."[1]

Paul Allender told Terrorizer magazine, "There are quite a few guitar solos on this album. To be honest, I've never really classed myself as a lead player as such, but this is the first time I've sat down and seriously practiced lead work. I've been so involved in actually writing new material and coming up with song structures that I haven't had time to practice all the frilly things that go on top of it. Up 'till now, there hasn't really been much room for guitar solos as such. The riffs we write, they're not riffs that are meant to be soloed on top of. They're melodic within themselves. But I'm a great believer than less is definitely more. I love listening to all the shreddy, widdly stuff, but I have no interest in playing it. This new album is quite guitar-orientated. The last album was, but this is definitely more melodic. Dare I say it, there are quite a lot of typical Maiden-esque harmonies in there."

In news posted on the official Cradle Of Filth website in mid May 2006, it was revealed that the planned artwork for Thornography had been banned by Roadrunner Records. A second album cover has now been released (see box), although numerous CD booklets had already been printed with the original image. The "banned" cover has not yet been revealed. Charles Hedger told Gothtronic.com that the new cover "is practically the same; the first one was a bit more sinister. A lot of Americans are really religious and Roadrunner were basically saying that Wal-Mart was not going to take Cradle albums with that on the cover. But Wal-Mart never takes Cradle albums anyhow, so it doesn’t make any difference."

Two cover versions were recorded during the album's sessions, namely Shakespears Sister's "Stay" (featuring Liv Kristine, as did the title track on Nymphetamine) and Heaven 17's "Temptation". "Temptation" seems to be part of the album's finalised track listing, but "Stay" has yet to surface.

wikipedia.org

[Hardy]

I have to admit that I'm not the biggest metal fan, but I did find this video based on Finnish metal band Nightwish's song Wishmaster to be pretty good entertainment.

[web]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg5_mlQOsUQ&NR[/web]

[Snorkmaiden]

Hardy Hardy:

I have to admit that I'm not the biggest metal fan, but I did find this video based on Finnish metal band Nightwish's song Wishmaster to be pretty good entertainment.

Hamster...Steven Seagull...haha!

[Indelible]

hooray for '80s speeed metal

thatg vid is hilarious!

[GreatBriton]

55,000 rockets smash fireworks world record
17th August 2006




Organisers of an attempt to launch 55,000 fireworks simultaneously believe they have smashed the world record.




Thousands of people flocked to the UK Fireworks Championships in Plymouth, Devon, last night to see the bid to set off the most ever rockets at once and cheered as the explosions illuminated the night sky.

Unofficial reports suggest the record was achieved as all of the rockets were launched successfully.

Nevertheless, it is understood the Guinness Book of Records team may take a week to study the footage and verify the new record.

A spokesman for the fireworks team said: "It looks like we've smashed it but we'll have to wait and see, we're really pleased."

The record attempt was by Plymouth University professor Roy Lowry, who tried to launch all the rockets in five seconds at 9.45pm.

The current world record of 39,210 rockets has stood for nine years and was set by Terry McDonald in Jersey, the Channel Islands, at the Battle of Flowers Moonlight Parade in 1997.

To try and break it, Professor Lowry used 15 specially constructed frames laced with pyrotechnic fuse that were ignited electrically.

It was the tenth anniversary of the firework championships being held in Plymouth and the spectacle has become a familiar summer fixture on the city's seafront.

It is estimated more than 200,000 people watched the displays which took place over the last two days.


The sky above Plymouth, Devon, lit up with a bang overnight as people flocked to watch a world record attempt to launch the most number of fireworks at the same time.
---------------------


The attempt was being made by Prof Roy Lowry who is confident that he smashed the previous record. He is still waiting on official confirmation.
---------------------


A young girl raises her arms in glee as she watches a brilliant glow of light explode over Plymouth.
-----------------------


Prof Lowry was trying to launch 55,000 fireworks within five seconds to beat the previous record of 39,210.
------------------------


A spectator is illuminated as they watch on as sparks of bright light fly in the background.

dailymail.co.uk

[GreatBriton]

When it comes to handing out prison sentences, Britain is much harsher than any other European country. The UK has the European Union's biggest prison population, and has more people serving life sentences than the rest of Europe COMBINED. England and Wales have a prison capacity of 79,600, and the current number of prisoners is 79,000. Within a few weeks, the capacity will be reached. And that's not including the thousands of prisoners in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Britain imprisons 139 of every 100,000 people, compared with 126 in Spain, 96 in Germany and just 85 in France.

Because of the overcrowding problem, the Government was thinking about letting some prisoners free early.

But The Sun newspaper has an even better idea. Stick cons into ex-military bases..........




Turn MoD camps into jails






By ANDREW PORTER
Deputy Political Editor


Lock them up here: the disused barracks at RAF Bentwaters, which closed in 1993, could be used to hold prisoners.



BRITAIN’S prison overcrowding crisis could be solved by putting lags in disused Ministry of Defence camps.

The step would provide a rapid boost to a system currently close to breaking point.

The Sun has found 16 suitable places and calls on the Government to use them — and to ABANDON its plan to ease the problem by releasing up to 50,000 convicts early.

The sites — in thousands of acres of land — are mostly part of the Ministry of Defence estate so already Government owned.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has long said that the country’s bulging prisons needed urgent attention.

DISUSED military bases already have buildings and perimeter fencing which could form the basis of minimum security jails. And such transformations have been a success in other parts of the world. The Sun has identified 16 such sites in Britain. Not all may be suitable. Others might be even better. But the list proves the land and facilities DO exist.

Last night he gave heavyweight backing to our campaign.

He said: “The Government has failed to address the chronic lack of prison places.

“They need to get a grip on this as a matter of urgency.

“While the use of MoD camps is not the most ideal option as it could prove difficult to provide adequate security and rehabilitation arrangements, it is much better than simply releasing dangerous criminals on to our streets.”

At current rates, jails in England and Wales will run out of room for criminals within a fortnight. The capacity is 79,600 and there are already more than 79,000 cons inside.

Prison numbers have been swelled by the huge increase in foreign criminals being caged in recent years.

There has been a furious row in Whitehall over why new prisons have not been built.

The Home Secretary has been promised money to build more jails but the Home Office has, in the past, failed to act even when the cash is there. A multi-million pound prison scheme failed to take-off two years ago. The Home Office received £30million to buy land.

It was then supposed to kick-start the planning process for two new jails.

But the land has still not been purchased.

Over the same period the Home Office has underspent on capital projects by £370million.

That could have been used to extend EXISTING prisons. Earlier this year, The Sun revealed that an extra 8,000 prisoners would be caged in new jails and additional cell blocks at currently used prisons.

But they will not be ready for FIVE YEARS.

Home Secretary John Reid is now under increasing pressure to get more spaces — quickly.

Some estimates say that the total prison capacity needs to be raised to 100,000.

Mr Reid has promised tougher sentences in response to The Sun’s campaign against lenient judges. But the courts have nowhere to send either young or adult criminals.

Police cells are having to be used and some young offenders are being freed early.

In many cases, the disused military bases already have buildings on the sites which could be re-developed.

Extensive grounds could be used to put in Portakabin-style “prefab prison” blocks.

Prefabricated buildings are already planned for use in existing prisons to increase the number of cells. New jails housing up to 500 inmates can cost up to £300million and it can take years to win local planning permission and then build them.

But the military land — and the facilities — are freely available and the Government has already splashed out money looking at the possibility of using some of them.

It spent millions of pounds on feasibility studies when it was intending to build four, 750-bed centres to accommodate asylum-seekers. The proposed cost for each centre was £60million — one fifth of the expenditure needed for a new prison.

In most cases, however, local residents were horrified at the thought of hundreds of immigrants roaming in small rural communities.

But would there be a problem when it involved captive inmates?

The desperate situation with prison overcrowding demands, at least, that ALL possibilities are considered.

Controversy surrounded the use by America of the Guantanamo Bay military base to house prisoners from the Middle East and Afghanistan.

But the military proved the logistic possibility of quickly transforming an army site into a prison.

Lock 'em
up here

DISUSED military bases already have buildings and perimeter fencing which could form the basis of minimum security jails. And such transformations have been a success in other parts of the world. The Sun has identified 16 such sites in Britain. Not all may be suitable. Others might be even better. But the list proves the land and facilities DO exist.



DRAKELOW TUNNELS, WORCESTERSHIRE: This 53-acre underground complex at Wolverley, near Kidderminster, is privately owned. There were plans for it to be a job training centre.

RAF NEATISHEAD, NORFOLK: The 40-acre former radar station, due to be sold by the MoD by the end of March 2007, was once set to be turned into a worm farm.

RAF LOCKING, SOMERSET: The 200-acre former Weston-super-Mare training school was closed in 1998 and still no decisions have been made about its future.

RAF COLTISHALL, NORFOLK: The 750-acre base will not close completely until later this year. But operational flying has ended after 66 years, draining £20million from the local economy.

HMS DAEDALUS, LEE-ON-SOLENT, HAMPSHIRE: The 483-acre Royal Naval Air Station contains a million square feet of buildings, some currently used by coastguards and police.

RAF ST MAWGAN, CORNWALL: The 840-acre airfield near Newquay was doomed when it was overlooked in 2005 as a future base for the Joint Combat Aircraft.

CULTYBRAGGAN CAMP, PERTHSHIRE: The 64-acre base is a former prisoner of war camp and SAS training centre. Its 1940s Nissen huts were in use until 2004.

RAF WEST RAYHAM, NORFOLK: The 684-acre site, which closed a decade ago, was recently acquired by a consortium in a multi-million pound deal, but no plans have been submitted.

RAF THROCKMORTON, WORCESTERSHIRE: The 150-acre former airfield, which was owned by the MoD, was considered for use as an asylum seekers’ centre during 2002. It is still derelict.

RAF NEWTON, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: The Government failed to get permission to use this 560-acre site for an accommodation centre for asylum-seekers.

RAF SEALAND, FLINTSHIRE: The 400-acre base, a civil airfield until taken over in 1916, closed amid defence cost-cutting in 2004.

RAF BICESTER, OXFORDSHIRE: The 580-acre site was the only one of four ex-bases given the go-ahead as a centre for asylum-seekers in 2004. Some £24million was spent on it until plans changed.

RAF YATESBURY, WILTSHIRE: The former home of a Radar and Wireless training school in Marlborough has lain derelict for more than 40 years.

CONNAUGHT BARRACKS, KENT: The last 85 soldiers left the 80 acre-site in April. The Parachute Regiment’s departure ended 1,000 years of Dover being a stronghold protecting Britain from invasion from the Continent.

BROUGHTON MOOR, CUMBRIA: The vast 1,740-acre site was earmarked in 2004 as the venue for the UK’s first endurance sports village. But the £80million scheme has stalled.

RAF HULLAVINGTON, WILTSHIRE: This vast Chippenham site has not been fully operational since 1965 and is now only partly used by the Army for glider training.


********************************************************

We have the biggest prison population in Europe, and that's could be why Britain has been more successful than it's European counterparts when it comes to fighting crime -



Total recorded crime rose by 1% in the EU but fell by 8% in England and Wales.

Violent crime rose by 14% in the EU, and by 15% in England and Wales.

England and Wales has one of the lowest homicide rates in Western Europe.

Domestic burglaries fell by 15% in the EU but by 31% in England and Wales.

Thefts of motor vehicles fell by 2% in the EU but by 27% in England and Wales.

Drug trafficking offences fell on average by 5% in the EU but by 10% in England and Wales.

www.crimeinfo.org.uk

[GreatBriton]

When it comes to handing out prison sentences, Britain is much harsher than any other European country. The UK has the European Union's biggest prison population, and has more people serving life sentences than the rest of Europe COMBINED. England and Wales have a prison capacity of 79,600, and the current number of prisoners is 79,000. Within a few weeks, the capacity will be reached. And that's not including the thousands of prisoners in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Britain imprisons 139 of every 100,000 people, compared with 126 in Spain, 96 in Germany and just 85 in France.

Because of the overcrowding problem, the Government was thinking about letting some prisoners free early.

But The Sun newspaper has an even better idea. Stick cons into ex-military bases..........




Turn MoD camps into jails






By ANDREW PORTER
Deputy Political Editor


Lock them up here: the disused barracks at RAF Bentwaters, which closed in 1993, could be used to hold prisoners.



BRITAIN’S prison overcrowding crisis could be solved by putting lags in disused Ministry of Defence camps.

The step would provide a rapid boost to a system currently close to breaking point.

The Sun has found 16 suitable places and calls on the Government to use them — and to ABANDON its plan to ease the problem by releasing up to 50,000 convicts early.

The sites — in thousands of acres of land — are mostly part of the Ministry of Defence estate so already Government owned.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has long said that the country’s bulging prisons needed urgent attention.

Last night he gave heavyweight backing to our campaign.

He said: “The Government has failed to address the chronic lack of prison places.

“They need to get a grip on this as a matter of urgency.

“While the use of MoD camps is not the most ideal option as it could prove difficult to provide adequate security and rehabilitation arrangements, it is much better than simply releasing dangerous criminals on to our streets.”

At current rates, jails in England and Wales will run out of room for criminals within a fortnight. The capacity is 79,600 and there are already more than 79,000 cons inside.

Prison numbers have been swelled by the huge increase in foreign criminals being caged in recent years.

There has been a furious row in Whitehall over why new prisons have not been built.

The Home Secretary has been promised money to build more jails but the Home Office has, in the past, failed to act even when the cash is there. A multi-million pound prison scheme failed to take-off two years ago. The Home Office received £30million to buy land.

It was then supposed to kick-start the planning process for two new jails.

But the land has still not been purchased.

Over the same period the Home Office has underspent on capital projects by £370million.

That could have been used to extend EXISTING prisons. Earlier this year, The Sun revealed that an extra 8,000 prisoners would be caged in new jails and additional cell blocks at currently used prisons.

But they will not be ready for FIVE YEARS.

Home Secretary John Reid is now under increasing pressure to get more spaces — quickly.

Some estimates say that the total prison capacity needs to be raised to 100,000.

Mr Reid has promised tougher sentences in response to The Sun’s campaign against lenient judges. But the courts have nowhere to send either young or adult criminals.

Police cells are having to be used and some young offenders are being freed early.

In many cases, the disused military bases already have buildings on the sites which could be re-developed.

Extensive grounds could be used to put in Portakabin-style “prefab prison” blocks.

Prefabricated buildings are already planned for use in existing prisons to increase the number of cells. New jails housing up to 500 inmates can cost up to £300million and it can take years to win local planning permission and then build them.

But the military land — and the facilities — are freely available and the Government has already splashed out money looking at the possibility of using some of them.

It spent millions of pounds on feasibility studies when it was intending to build four, 750-bed centres to accommodate asylum-seekers. The proposed cost for each centre was £60million — one fifth of the expenditure needed for a new prison.

In most cases, however, local residents were horrified at the thought of hundreds of immigrants roaming in small rural communities.

But would there be a problem when it involved captive inmates?

The desperate situation with prison overcrowding demands, at least, that ALL possibilities are considered.

Controversy surrounded the use by America of the Guantanamo Bay military base to house prisoners from the Middle East and Afghanistan.

But the military proved the logistic possibility of quickly transforming an army site into a prison.

Lock 'em
up here

DISUSED military bases already have buildings and perimeter fencing which could form the basis of minimum security jails. And such transformations have been a success in other parts of the world. The Sun has identified 16 such sites in Britain. Not all may be suitable. Others might be even better. But the list proves the land and facilities DO exist.



DRAKELOW TUNNELS, WORCESTERSHIRE: This 53-acre underground complex at Wolverley, near Kidderminster, is privately owned. There were plans for it to be a job training centre.

RAF NEATISHEAD, NORFOLK: The 40-acre former radar station, due to be sold by the MoD by the end of March 2007, was once set to be turned into a worm farm.

RAF LOCKING, SOMERSET: The 200-acre former Weston-super-Mare training school was closed in 1998 and still no decisions have been made about its future.

RAF COLTISHALL, NORFOLK: The 750-acre base will not close completely until later this year. But operational flying has ended after 66 years, draining £20million from the local economy.

HMS DAEDALUS, LEE-ON-SOLENT, HAMPSHIRE: The 483-acre Royal Naval Air Station contains a million square feet of buildings, some currently used by coastguards and police.

RAF ST MAWGAN, CORNWALL: The 840-acre airfield near Newquay was doomed when it was overlooked in 2005 as a future base for the Joint Combat Aircraft.

CULTYBRAGGAN CAMP, PERTHSHIRE: The 64-acre base is a former prisoner of war camp and SAS training centre. Its 1940s Nissen huts were in use until 2004.

RAF WEST RAYHAM, NORFOLK: The 684-acre site, which closed a decade ago, was recently acquired by a consortium in a multi-million pound deal, but no plans have been submitted.

RAF THROCKMORTON, WORCESTERSHIRE: The 150-acre former airfield, which was owned by the MoD, was considered for use as an asylum seekers’ centre during 2002. It is still derelict.

RAF NEWTON, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE: The Government failed to get permission to use this 560-acre site for an accommodation centre for asylum-seekers.

RAF SEALAND, FLINTSHIRE: The 400-acre base, a civil airfield until taken over in 1916, closed amid defence cost-cutting in 2004.

RAF BICESTER, OXFORDSHIRE: The 580-acre site was the only one of four ex-bases given the go-ahead as a centre for asylum-seekers in 2004. Some £24million was spent on it until plans changed.

RAF YATESBURY, WILTSHIRE: The former home of a Radar and Wireless training school in Marlborough has lain derelict for more than 40 years.

CONNAUGHT BARRACKS, KENT: The last 85 soldiers left the 80 acre-site in April. The Parachute Regiment’s departure ended 1,000 years of Dover being a stronghold protecting Britain from invasion from the Continent.

BROUGHTON MOOR, CUMBRIA: The vast 1,740-acre site was earmarked in 2004 as the venue for the UK’s first endurance sports village. But the £80million scheme has stalled.

RAF HULLAVINGTON, WILTSHIRE: This vast Chippenham site has not been fully operational since 1965 and is now only partly used by the Army for glider training.


********************************************************

We have the biggest prison population in Europe, and that's could be why Britain has been more successful than it's European counterparts when it comes to fighting crime -



Total recorded crime rose by 1% in the EU but fell by 8% in England and Wales.

Violent crime rose by 14% in the EU, and by 15% in England and Wales.

England and Wales has one of the lowest homicide rates in Western Europe.

Domestic burglaries fell by 15% in the EU but by 31% in England and Wales.

Thefts of motor vehicles fell by 2% in the EU but by 27% in England and Wales.

Drug trafficking offences fell on average by 5% in the EU but by 10% in England and Wales.

www.crimeinfo.org.uk

[twister]

hmm let's see... do we really care about prisioners in english jails and whether or not they Bloody well should be released early or confined on closed Military bases.......WHO really cares in Canada... 1 vote No.. I don't care....

[GreatBriton]

Prescott in 'four letter insult to Bush'
By KIRSTY WALKER

17th August 2006




Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.



John Prescott was plunged into further controversy last night after a Labour MP claimed he had branded George Bush's administration 'crap'.

The Deputy Prime Minister was said to have condemned the U.S. President's handling of the Middle East crisis during a private meeting with Labour backbenchers.

The report will embarrass Tony Blair - Mr Prescott is supposedly standing in for the Prime Minister while he is on holiday in the Caribbean - and could trigger a diplomatic row.

Mr Prescott's office denied he made the comments but Labour MP Harry Cohen insisted he had.

The attack on Mr Bush was seen as a desperate attempt to appease Labour MPs, furious about Mr Blair's backing of America and Israel over the bombing of Lebanon.

It will raise further questions about Mr Prescott's ability to continue as Deputy Prime Minister.

The remarks are said to have been made at a private meeting in Mr Prescott's Whitehall office with Muslim MPs and other Labour MPs whose constituencies include large Muslim communities.

Muslim MPs wanted to press home their objections to British foreign policy and discuss ways of improving relations with their communities.

Mr Cohen's constituency includes Walthamstow, where police carried out several raids over the alleged aircraft bomb plot last week.

He said Mr Prescott was talking in the context of the 'road map' setting our progress to peace in the Middle East.

Mr Cohen went on: 'He said he only gave support to the war on Iraq because they were promised the road map.

'But he said the Bush administration had been crap on that. We all laughed and he said to an official "Don't minute that".'

Mr Cohen told the Independent: 'We also had a laugh when he said old Bush is just a cowboy with his Stetson on.

'But then he said "I can hardly talk about that can I?".'

That was a reference to Mr Prescott being given a cowboy outfit on a controversial visit to the Colorado ranch of gambling tycoon Philip Anschutz, the man who wants to open a super-casino in the Millennium Dome.

Gaffe-prone Mr Prescott has been at pains to avoid breaking ranks with Mr Blair in public, although he is believed to have raised concern about the bombing of Lebanon at a private Cabinet meeting.

Last night his office insisted the reports were wrong.

A spokesman said: 'This is an inaccurate report of a private conversation and it is not his view.

'He does not believe that George Bush is crap.'

This denial seemed to be backed up by some of the MPs present at the meeting, who said yesterday they could not remember Mr Prescott making the remark.

But whatever his exact words, reports of the meeting threatened a diplomatic row.

Many Labour MPs have been infuriated by the spectacle of Mr Bush and Mr Blair jointly supporting the Israeli action. The MPs went to see Mr Prescott to lodge their criticism of the Government's foreign policy.

The row comes only days after Mr Prescott was criticised for avoiding angry passengers at the airports worst affected by disruption in the wake of the bomb-plot arrests.

The Deputy Prime Minister has reeled from crisis to crisis over the last few months.

Following the revelations of his affair with his diary secretary Tracey Temple, Mr Prescott has been stripped of his department, has been forced to give up his grace and favour home and was engulfed in a sleaze row over his links to Mr Anschutz.

Mr Prescott's affair with Miss Temple is to be the subject of an ITV drama, it emerged last night.

A script is being finalised for the television movie, entitled Prezza, and the project is due to go into production over the next few months.

It is being put together by the team behind A Very Social Secretary - the satire on former Cabinet colleague David Blunkett and his liaisons with publisher Kimberly Quinn.

An ITV source said the 90-minute film would offer a 'full and frank' look at the affair.

A spokesman for production company Mentorn said: 'It has just been commissioned by ITV. Prescott is not going to get off lightly.'

Mr Prescott, 68, was stripped of most of his ministerial responsibilities in a Cabinet reshuffle in May after revelations of the affair.

Miss Temple sold her story - including photos of them at a party.

The drama is being written by Tony Basgallop, author of the successful Hotel Babylon series.

It is likely to be broadcast some time next year.

ITV's drama controller Laura Mackie and director of television Simon Shaps had promised greater ambition in their output and Prezza could be seen as the first sign of this.

Miss Mackie said: 'The John Prescott story is a very engaging way into the corridors of power and will offer the ITV audience an innovative and entertaining look at the upstairs downstairs world of Westminster.'

The Mentorn spokesman added: 'There is no casting information yet.'

Mr Prescott's spokesman said he would not comment.

The programme is likely to be another bitter blow for his wife of 44 years, Pauline.

When news of the two-year affair with Miss Temple broke in April, Mr Prescott admitted she was devastated.

k. walker@dailymail.co.uk

dailymail.co.uk