Emil Otto Hoppé (14 April 1878 – 9 December 1972) was a German-born British portrait, travel, and topographic photographer active between 1907 and 1945. Born to a wealthy family in Munich, he moved to London in 1900 to train as a financier, but took up photography and rapidly achieved great success.

He was the only son of a prominent banker, and was educated in the finest schools of Munich, Paris and Vienna. Upon leaving school he served apprenticeships in German banks for ten years, before accepting a position with the Shanghai Banking Corporation. He never arrived in China. The first leg of his journey took him to England where he met an old school friend. Hoppé married his old school friend's sister, Marion Bliersbach, and stayed in London. While working for the Deutsche Bank, he became increasingly enamored with photography, and, in 1907, jettisoned his commercial career and opened a portrait studio. According to Bill Jay,
"Within a few years, E.O. Hoppé was the undisputed leader of pictorial portraiture in Europe. To say that someone has a "household name" has become a cliché, yet in Hoppé's case the phrase is apt. Rarely in the history of the medium has a photographer been so famous in his own lifetime among the general public. He was as famous as his sitters. It is difficult to think of a prominent name in the fields of politics, art, literature, and the theatre who did not pose for his camera."

Although Hoppé was one of the most important photographic artists of his era and highly celebrated in his time, in 1954, at the age of 76, he sold his body of photographic work to a commercial London picture archive, the Mansell Collection. In the collection, the work was filed by subject in with millions of other stock pictures and no longer accessible by author. Almost all of Hoppé's photographic work—that which gained him the reputation as Britain's most influential international photographer between 1907 and 1939—was accidentally obscured from photo-historians and from photo-history itself. It remained in the collection for over thirty years after Hoppé's death, and was not fully accessible to the public until the collection closed down and was acquired by new owners in the United States.

In 1994 photographic art curator Graham Howe retrieved Hoppé's photographic work from the picture library and rejoined it with the Hoppé family archive of photographs and biographical documents. This was the first time since 1954 that the complete E.O. Hoppé Collection was gathered together. Many years were spent in cataloguing, conservation, and research of the recovered work.

Work

Portraits and typologies

In his life, Hoppé's reputation attracted many important British and North American figures in politics, literature, and the arts. In the era before the first World War, Hoppé photographed many leading literary subjects and figures from the art world, such as Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, John Masefield, Léon Bakst, Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina and other dancers of the Ballets Russes, Violet Hunt, Richard Strauss, Jacob Epstein and William Nicholson, some of whom were included in his 1913 exhibition. In the early 1920s he was invited to photograph Queen Mary, King George, and members of the royal family. Other subjects of the 1920s included Albert Einstein, Benito Mussolini, Robert Frost, Aldous Huxley, George Bernard Shaw and A.A. Milne. In the 1930s Hoppé photographed a number of dancers at the Vic-Wells company including Margot Fonteyn, Ninette de Valois, Hermione Darnborough and Beatrice Appleyard.

In 1925 he contributed female nude portraits to Peter Landow's book Natur und Kultur: Das Weib ("Nature and Culture: Woman").

Working from a studio first in London's Baron's Court at 10 Margravine Gardens (1907–10), he later moved in 1911 to a Baker Street studio. In 1913 he took on a lease of 7 Cromwell Place, occupying all thirty-three rooms of the previous home of Sir John Everett Millais, which later (from 1937) was used by dance photographer Gordon Anthony and subsequently Francis Bacon. Hoppé also made portraits of the street types of London: he photographed English cleaners, maids, and street vendors both in his studio and on the street. He continued this practice of capturing ordinary working men and women throughout his career as he traveled throughout the world.

Travel and landscape
By 1919, Hoppé had begun to travel the world in search of new subjects and landscapes. His journeys brought him to Africa, Germany, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, the United States, Cuba, Jamaica and the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaya, India and Ceylon. The resulting photographs were published in a number of books.A book from his trip to Germany was published in 1930 by Ullstein Verlag under the title "Deutsche Arbeit - Bilder vom Wiederaufstieg Deutschlands."

Publications
 Studies from the Russian Ballet. E. O. Hoppé and Auguste Bert. London: Fine Art Society, 1913.
 New Camera Work by E. O. Hoppé. Introduction by John Galsworthy. London: Goupil Gallery, 1922.
 The Book of Fair Women. New York: Knopf, 1922 and London: Jonathan Cape, 1922.
 Taken From Life. John Davys Beresford, with seven photogravure plates by E. O. Hoppé. London: W. Collins Sons & Co., Ltd., 1922.
 Gods of Modern Grub Street: Impressions of Contemporary Authors. Arthur St. John Adcock, with 32 portraits by E. O. Hoppé. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., 1923.
 In Gipsy Camp and Royal Palace: Wanderings in Rumania. Written and illustrated by E. O. Hoppé, preface by the Queen of Rumania. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1924.
 To Rome on a Sunbeam: With Camera Studies by E. O. Hoppé. Wolverhampton: Sunbeam Motor Car Company Ltd., 1924.
 A Collection of Photographic Masterpieces by E. O. Hoppé. Exhibition Catalogue. Tokyo: Tokyo Asahi Shimbun Hakkojo, 1925.
 London Types: Taken from Life. E. O. Hoppé. Text by W. Pett Ridge. London: Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1926.
 Forty London Statues and Public Monuments. Tancred Borenius, with special photographs by E. O. Hoppé. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1926.
 Fire Under the Andes: A Group of North American Portraits. Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, photographs by E. O. Hoppé. New York: Knopf, 1927.
 Romantic America: Picturesque United States. E. O. Hoppé. New York: B. Westermann Co., Inc., 1927. And Das Romantische Amerika. Berlin: Ernst Wasmuth Verlag AG, 1927.
 The Glory that was Grub Street: Impressions of Contemporary Authors. Text by Arthur St. John Adcock, with 32 portraits by E. O. Hoppé. London: Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., 1928.
 The Story of the Gipsies. Konrad Bercovici, with 8 plates by E. O. Hoppé. London: Cape, 1929.
 Deutsche Arbeit ("German Work"). E. O. Hoppé. Introduction by Bruno H. Burgel. Berlin: Ullstein, 1930.
 The Fifth Continent. E. O. Hoppé. London: Simpkin Marshall Ltd., 1931.
 Romantik der Kleinstadt ("Romantic Towns"). E. O. Hoppé. Munich: Verlag F. Bruckmann, 1932.
 Unterwegs ("In Passing"). E. O. Hoppé. Berlin: Ernst Pollak Verlag, 1932.
 London. E. O. Hoppé. London: Medici Society (Picture Guide Series), 1932.
 The Face of Mother India. Katherine Mayo. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1935.
 The Image of London. E. O. Hoppé. London: Chatto & Windus, 1935.
 A Camera on Unknown London: Sixty Photographs and Descriptive Notes of Curiosities of London to be Seen Today. E. O. Hoppé. London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1936.
 The London of George VI. by E. O. Hoppé. London: J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1937.
 Country Days. Text taken from A.G. Street's BBC Broadcasts, with 8 photographs by E. O. Hoppé. London: Faber, 1940.
 Hundred Thousand Exposures: The Success of a Photographer. E. O. Hoppé. Introduction by Cecil Beaton. London and New York: Focal Press, 1945.
 Rural London in Pictures. E. O. Hoppé. London: Odhams Press Ltd., 1951.
 Blaue Berge von Jamaica ("Blue Mountains of Jamaica"). Karl-Heinz Jaeckel. Berlin: Safari Verlag, 1956.
 Pirates, Buccaneers and Gentlemen Adventurers. E. O. Hoppé. New Jersey: Barnes and London: Yoseloff, 1972.
 Camera Portraits by E. O. Hoppé, 1878-1972. Terence Pepper. Catalogue for an exhibition organized by the National Portrait Gallery, London. London: The National Portrait Gallery, 1978.
 Cities and Industry : Camera Pictures by E. O. Hoppé. Edited by Val Williams and Terence Pepper, with essay by Ian Jeffrey. York: Impressions Gallery, 1978.
 Hoppé's London. Mark Haworth-Booth. London: Guiding Light, 2006.
 E. O. Hoppé's Amerika: Modernist Photographs from the 1920s. Phillip Prodger. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.
 E. O. Hoppé's Australia. Edited by Graham Howe, with essays by Erika Esau and Graham Howe. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2007.
E. O. Hoppé's Santiniketan: Photographs from 1929. With essays by Pratapaditya Pal and Graham Howe. Mumbai: the Marg Foundation and Curatorial Assistance, Inc., 2010.
E. O. Hoppé's Bombay: Photographs from 1929. With essays by Pratapaditya Pal and Graham Howe. Mumbai: the Marg Foundation and Curatorial Assistance, Inc., 2010.
 Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio and Street. Phillip Prodger and Terence Pepper. London: National Portrait Gallery, 2011.
 One Hundred Photographs: E. O. Hoppé and the Ballets Russes. Essays by John Bowlt, Graham Howe and Oleg Minin. Moscow: Art of the XXI Century, (Iskusstvo-XXI), 2012.
 E. O. Hoppé's Indian Subcontinent of the Cusp of Change. Mumbai: Marg Publishing, 2013.
E. O. Hoppé: The German Work, 1925-1938. Phillip Prodger. Göttingen: Steidl Verlag, 2015.
E. O. Hoppé: Photographs of Greater Romania, 1923. Adrian Silvan Ionescu, Graham Howe, Marika Lundeberg and Michelle Dragoo. Pasadena, California: Curatorial Books, 2019.

Exhibitions
 International Exhibition of Photography, Dresden, 1909
 Royal Photographic Society, London, 1910
 Modern Camera Portraits by E.O. Hoppé, Goupil Gallery, London, 1913
 Studies from the Russian Ballet, Ryder Gallery, Conduit Street, London, 1914
 Wanamaker's Gallery, New York, 1921
 New Camera Work by E.O. Hoppé, Goupil Gallery, London, 1922
 Victoria and Albert Museum, Theatre Exhibition, 1922
 Photographic Masterpieces by E.O. Hoppé, staged by Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo and Osaka, 1925
 Dover Gallery, London, 1927
 79 Camera Pictures, David Jones Limited, Sydney, 1930
 A Half Century of Photography, Foyles Art Gallery, London, 1954
 A Half Century of Photography, Lenbachhaus, Munich, 1954
 A Half Century of Photography, traveling exhibition by the British Council in India, 1954–56
 Retrospective, Kodak Gallery, London, 1968
 Camera Portraits by E.O.Hoppe, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1978
 Cities and Industry : Camera Pictures by E.O. Hoppé, Impressions Gallery, York, 1978
 London, Michael Hoppen Gallery, London, 2006
 Amerika, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, 2007
 Australia, Customs House, Sydney, 2007
 Discoveries, Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, 2010
 Hoppé Portraits: Society, Studio & Street, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2011

Collections
 National Portrait Gallery (London)
 Victoria and Albert Museum, London
 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
 National Media Museum, Bradford
 George Eastman House at Rochester
 Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin (Gernsheim Collection)
 New York Public Library
 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
 National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.

Galleries
 Craig Krull Gallery, Los Angeles
 Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York
 Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney

See also
 Modernism

References

External links

 Official E. O. Hoppé website
 National Portrait Gallery's Hoppé Collection, London
 Hoppé publications database

1878 births
1972 deaths
British portrait photographers
Travel photographers
Photographers from Munich
People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
Emigrants from the German Empire to the United Kingdom
German bankers
Photographers from London


The North Sea Radio Orchestra (NSRO) is an English contemporary music ensemble and cross-disciplinary chamber orchestra (plus chorus). Formed in 2002, the NSRO was set up mainly as a vehicle for the compositions of its musical director, Craig Fortnam, but has also performed works by William D. Drake and James Larcombe. The ensemble is notable for its post-modern fusion of Romantic music and later twentieth-century forms, and for its bridging of the worlds of contemporary classical music, British folk music, London art rock and poetry (setting music to poems by W.B. Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Daniel Dundas Maitland).

Sound and presentation

The North Sea Radio Orchestra is an ensemble of varying size, drawing on a pool of up to twenty members. It performs compositions which range from single-instrument solos and voice-and-guitar duos up to full chamber-orchestra-and-choir pieces (and all points in between, including assorted trios, quartets, quintets etc.). The instrumentation within the ensemble features woodwind, strings, orchestral and electronic percussion, nylon-string guitar, chamber organ, piano and the human voice. Between six and ten members sing as "the North Sea Chorus".

Compositionally, the NSRO favours original material with elements of the following – tonal/melodic classical composition, English choral and festival music, modern and ancient folk music, and minimalism. Some improvisation is also encouraged. The NSRO themselves cite influences including Benjamin Britten, television composer Vernon Elliott, The Incredible String Band, Vaughan Williams, and more metaphysical influences such as "London clay, water from the Thames and shingle from Bankside". Various critics have also made comparisons to the music of rock/classical/crossover musicians such as Simon Jeffes' Penguin Café Orchestra, Sean O'Hagan's High Llamas, Frank Zappa, Clogs, Sufjan Stevens, Max Richter, Nick Drake, Virginia Astley, Kate St John and Peter Warlock. Since 2010, the band has displayed a stronger influence of Krautrock.

Another frequently-cited compositional influence on the NSRO is Tim Smith, leader of the British psychedelic rock group Cardiacs (which incorporates influences including Early and baroque music). The NSRO is generally regarded as being part of the collection of varied musical groups connected with Cardiacs: it includes in its line-up one former and one current member of Cardiacs, plus at least five other musicians associated with the band.

For much of its existence, the NSRO was nostalgic in presentation and themes. Between 2002 and 2010, the poetry chosen for musical settings tended to be classic 18th /19th/ early 20th century pre-modernist material, chosen for "its natural song-like meter and rhyme". Craig Fortnam has also set modern texts written in the same nostalgic vein. The ensemble's subtler post-modern elements are generally restricted to the musical content. Since 2010, the band's work has focussed on setting Craig Fortnam's original lyrics.

History

Prehistory

While growing up in Kingston upon Thames and playing in psychedelic rock bands as a teenager, Craig Fortnam gravitated towards the cluster of bands surrounding the long-standing British psychedelic band Cardiacs. He went on to study composition and guitar at Dartington College of Arts. Graduating in 1990, he returned to London. During this period he composed material written for a variety of classical genres and ensembles, but also became involved with the London underground rock scene as a guitarist. One of the bands which he played in was the psychedelic acoustic band Lake of Puppies, led by Fortnam's friend (and former Cardiacs keyboard player) William D. Drake. The band gigged infrequently and recorded a few tracks, but never released an album. However, the band also featured singer and bass guitarist Sharron Saddington. The two would also become longtime musical partners, and following their marriage, she would become known as Sharron Fortnam.

In 1995, Craig and Sharron teamed up with two other former Cardiacs (saxophonist/keyboard player Sarah Smith and drummer Dominic Luckman) to form the Shrubbies. This band gigged enthusiastically in London for several years (playing concerts with like-minded bands such as The Monsoon Bassoon, Podsdarapomuk and Delicate AWOL) and released one eponymous EP in 1997 followed by the album Memphis in Texas in 1999. However, Fortnam began to become disillusioned with the poor etiquette and atmosphere he encountered at rock concerts, later recalling "I began to realise that most people were there for a social thing, and people were talking all the way through. That just started annoying me and I thought, 'I'll write music that doesn't have drums, that isn't loud, and we'll play places where people sit down and then they won't talk." The Shrubbies split up in 1998, and the now-married Fortnams opted to pursue a more ambitious and flexible project which could showcase both Craig's contemporary classical compositions and Sharron's unconventional singing voice (which blended elements of classical mezzo-soprano with folk and pop stylings). Recruiting several other musicians, they set up the North Sea Radio Orchestra.

2002–2003: The City Church concerts

The North Sea Radio Orchestra first appeared in public via a series of successful concerts in various antique churches within the square mile of the City of London – St Martin, Ludgate; St Clement Eastcheap and St Olave Hart Street. Taking place during 2002 and 2003, these concerts were publicised mainly by word-of-mouth. They were very much self-motivated occasions with a slightly antique/Edwardian feel (complete with home-made art-deco-styled concert programmes designed by Sharron Fortnam).

Members of NSRO for the first concert included the Fortnams, percussionist Hugh Wilkinson, cellist/composer Harry Escott and organist/composer James Larcombe (of Stars in Battledress), all of whom would continue in the ensemble long-term. Other performers included Nick Hayes (clarinet). Inspired by the success of the first few concerts, the NSRO began to expand (ultimately becoming a twenty-person ensemble). While the instrumentalists were mostly drawn from the classical world, the vocal chorus contained former Shrubbies concert-mates and collaborators from the Fortnams' time on the London art rock circuit. These included current and former members of Stars in Battledress, The Monsoon Bassoon and Sidi Bou Said. Stars in Battledress frontman Richard Larcombe (brother of James) also shared some lead vocal parts with Sharron Fortnam. Later on, the Fortnam's former Lake of Puppies bandmate William D. Drake joined the ensemble as chorus singer and occasional solo pianist.

A few demo CDs were also made available at this time. These included early recordings of Craig Fortnam's settings of Tennyson's "The Flower" and "Every Day Hath Its Night" and the Zappa-esque "Nest of Tables". Early (and very positive) reviews of both the EP and the concerts appeared in underground publications including Organ and Evophonic.

2004–2006: The NSRO gains wider attention

In October 2004 the NSRO played a concert at Bush Hall in West London which was reviewed by John L. Walters in The Guardian. Walters drew attention to the initial difficulties in classifying the ensemble's music but drew positive conclusions: “Is it ironic? Romantic retro? Or post-minimalist post-modernity? Behold the eleven-piece chamber orchestra beneath the chandeliers of Bush Hall, and you realise that Craig Fortnam, their leader and chief composer, is utterly serious in his quest for accessible, intelligent, non-trivial music…. What makes the NSRO special is Fortnam's gift for orchestration, the deft and original way he puts deceptively simple materials in the hands of sophisticated performers. Melody pours from his pen on every page."

In 2005, the NSRO released their first formal EP The Flower (on seven-inch vinyl) on the tiny London independent label Oof! Records. It contained a re-recorded version of "The Flower", plus two more Tennyson settings ("The Lintwhite" and "Move Eastward Happy Earth") and three instrumental pieces ("Music For Two Clarinets And Piano", "Organ Miniature No. 1" and "Nest of Tables"). On 22 October 2005 the NSRO played their first concert at St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square, London.

On 31 July 2006 the North Sea Radio Orchestra performed at the Spitz, East London at a Music Orbit evening (a spin-off of the iF Festival) alongside NEM and Makeshift. The evening was presented as "a combination of gamelan, improvisation, electronica and lyrical chamber music." In September 2006, an NSRO track appeared on the nu-folk compilation album Folk Off: New Folk and Psychedelia from the British Isles and North America – this was the Craig Fortnam solo performance of  “Guitar Miniature”.

The NSRO performed at the Spitz again on 28 October 2006 (supported by William D. Drake). This concert received a five-star review in the Daily Telegraph which nominated the "superbly disciplined chamber ensemble" as "the kind of deserving enterprise the BBC should really be throwing money at," and singled out praise for Sharon Fortnam's voice as possessing "dazzling, pre-industrial clarity." Reviewing the same concert, underground e-zine Bubblejam commented on the intimate quality of the music and the quality of the concert itself – "not unlike being at a church service or a poetry recital – the crowd were completely rapt and utterly silent." The reviewer also concluded "for an all too brief time, they evoke an atmosphere of timeless beauty in the otherwise harsh environs of the East End. If I met an extra-terrestrial and wanted to communicate the concept of Englishness quickly and easily, I could do a lot worse than to play them the music of the North Sea Radio Orchestra."

2006: Release of debut album

In October 2006 the NSRO released their debut album – North Sea Radio Orchestra – on Oof! Records. The album was recorded, engineered and mastered by former Cardiacs member Mark Cawthra and contained much of the ensemble's live set from the past three years. Tracks included Fortnam's settings of Thomas Hardy's "Shelley's Skylark", Yeats' "He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes" and "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven", plus new instrumental "Kingstanding" and the part-instrumental/part-choral "Chimes". Other members also contributed material. William D Drake provided "Bill's March" and "Mimnermus in Church" – the latter a Drake setting of a poem by William Johnson Cory with orchestrations by Craig Fortnam –  and Sharron and Craig Fortnam co-wrote the folk song "Joy For My Heart".

The album received plenty of critical praise. Word Magazine called it  "a beautiful debut.... unreservedly recommended," while Leeds Guide praised "a style of songwriting and a lyricism (nostalgic, pastoral, quaint) which is peculiarly English and suddenly, in their hands, timeless" and their reviewer dubbed the recording "one of the best albums, whatever the genre, that I have heard this year." Playlouder.com claimed that "North Sea Radio Orchestra splash colour into every corner of the speakers with a regal splendour and effervescent celebration of God, Nature or whatever it is you may wish to call it."

In the underground press, Art Rocker praised the NSRO for "doing something really quite special.....in their ability to ebb and sway and permeate through styles without erring away from the constant series of lush orchestrations", and hailed the record as "the most beautiful album of the year… could surely sway even the most ardent distortion-pedal freak to step back and open their minds and hearts to this." Foggy Notions called it "an everchanging trip, blooming with melody and twinkling beauty from start to finish," while Subba Cultcha commented that the ensemble's music was "stepping easily between genres, sometimes classical, sometimes indie; inspired and compelling and often magical, like the soundtrack to a film that hasn't been made yet. It's a thoughtful, melodic and calming record that is sure to attract fans way beyond its classical base." A review in Boomkat (while drawing attention to the NSRO's "idiosyncratic bombast", "cartoonishly baroque melodies" and "unbridled eccentricity") praised the orchestra's "considerable performance skills and elegant arrangements", and concluded that the album was "a fairly surreal experience all round."

2007–2008: Further afield

On 26 January 2007 the North Sea Radio Orchestra returned to Bush Hall for another concert (supported again by William D. Drake). On 3 March they played their first concert outside London, at St Michael's Church, Blewsbury, Berkshire. This was followed by another appearance at St Giles in the Fields in London on 27 April. On 2 July the NSRO released the 7-inch vinyl-only EP End of Chimes. This featured an edit of the album centrepiece "Chimes" plus three entirely new tracks ("Guitar Miniature No2", "Hurdy Gurdy Miniature", "The Tide Rises the Tide Falls") and was hailed as "a highly entertaining discovery" by Drowned in Sound and as "gentle, lush and frankly beguiling" by SoundsXP.

Later in the year, the NSRO performed two of their highest profile concerts to date – the first being a slot at the Green Man Festival in August, and the second being a performance at the Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London, on 19 November. In December 2007 the NSRO version of the hymn "O Come O Come Emanuel" appeared on the compilation album The Arctic Circle Presents: That Fuzzy Feeling ( a collection of Christmas songs). The NSRO played live to promote the album at a concert at the Union Chapel, London on 5 December 2007 (alongside Ellis Island Sound, Mara Carlyle, David Julyan and The Dollboy Windpipe Arkestra).

2008 saw the North Sea Radio Orchestra performing more concerts outside London. During the first half of the year they made an appearance at the Jacqueline Du Pre Music Rooms in Oxford in January 2008, and performed at the Friends Meeting House, Brighton on 16 March 2008 supported by Crayola Lectern.

The Brighton concert was notably in that (despite a very positive audience response) it generated the first negative press for the ensemble. The Stool Pigeon criticised the nostalgic quality of the NSRO's music commenting that "it's frequently a fine and lovely thing. But in some ways it can't help feeling like a retreat… Certainly there are moments of beauty, but ultimately it's like stepping back into an alternate, pre-war England where rock'n’roll – not to mention mass industrialisation and immigration – never happened. Which is fine for a night, but I wouldn't want to stay."

Notorious underground music commentator Everett True was considerably more scornful in his Hugs And Kisses blog (reprinted in The Village Voice), castigating the band for "po-faced snobbery" and "baroque warbling" and comparing them unfavourably to their more post-rock inclined support act: “Crayola Lectern tick the same high musicality boxes as the band that followed, sure: but possess one crucial factor that the North Sea Radio Malarkey just don’t, just don’t get. They have heart.”  Conversely, Chris Anderson of Crayola Lectern – in his own blogged review of the same concert – described the NSRO as "perfectly formed and rather marvellous... a magnificent creation."

The NSRO played in Malvern in July 2008 (although with only a two-person line-up) and returned in full strength to the Green Man Festival in August.  On 27 September 2008 the NSRO performed an "open rehearsal" at the Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London in a double bill with Ted Barnes. This was part of the Open Weekend event (itself part of the 2008 Cultural Oympiad).

2008: Release of second album Birds

A second North Sea Radio Orchestra album – Birds – was released on 1 December 2008 on Oof! Records (with the band performing a concert at St Martin in the Fields on 18 November 2008, to promote it). The album contained a version of previous EP lead track "The Flower" and another long-standing NSRO Tennyson setting, "Move Eastward Happy Earth", plus further settings of poems by Geoffrey Chaucer ("Now Welcom Somer") and William Blake ("The Angel", "A Poison Tree" and "Golden Cage").

Reviews of the album were generally positive. Isle of Man Today described Birds as "effortlessly beautiful to listen to… NSRO manage to take you back centuries to an ancient form of music while retaining an eerie ability to remain thoroughly modern… Birds has a distinctly non-conformist sound but nevertheless achieves its aim with quiet, reserved gusto. NSRO aren't about to go on a media rampage shouting about how good they are; the whole project is far too middle-class for that. But by putting out Birds they are giving their audience a knowing wink. They realise they've created a fine piece of work and you can feel the confidence growing from track to track."

Cambridgeshire Times called the album "an intriguing proposition (which) feels at times like it's just been unearthed from an archaeological dig alongside some ancient flagstones. Organ, violins, clarinet, bassoon and oboe feature heavily alongside acoustic guitar, drum, percussion and choral parts, conjuring up images of royal court musicians… (The album) straddles the less crowded end of 60s folk and revives traditional chamber music, managing to sound timeless and refreshing rather than hopelessly outdated. A calming record of quality musicianship and carefully woven melodies." The review also praised Sharron Fortnam as being "a beguiling embodiment of a cut-glass English Rose singer, delicate, classical, strong and capable."

Reviewing Birds in issue 181, Mojo described the album as sounding like "Tortoise reworked by Howard Goodall" and suggested "there's charm and melody aplenty, but the churchier excursions suggest bourgeois smugness – Blake would not approve." In the underground music press, the Name Someone That's Not A Parasite music blog hailed the NSRO as "(the) band British Sea Power wish they could be! These guys are like a latter day Incredible String Band mess of uniquely Anglican eccentricity." Describing the NSRO's music as "kitchen-sink folk" Subba Cultcha commented that Birds was "something quite magical, but at times cringingly twee and fluffy, but in terms of artistic endeavour, it's a tour-de-force in no uncertain terms. Part classical, part folk, part something entirely new, if you fancy dipping your toe in something a bit different, then this is a great rock pool to do it in."

Organ lavishly praised the album, saying that "North Sea Radio Orchestra are blossoming in a rather fine way now with their inviting mix of delicate English prog and 20th century classical pastoral folk. Harmonically rich and fluid in a Henry Cow, Art Bears, Incredible String Band kind of way... A fine mix of delicate English folk and something that has evolved out of fine traditions of chamber music… Birds is an album pulling gently in two distinct ways.  One direction; nice, simple, sitting in a sunny field, female-voiced acoustic folk, the other towards a rarer thing, this fusion of English medieval progressive classical, chamber orchestral music, via Vaughan Williams, Cardiacs, Vernon Elliott, Henry Cow. In the end, it all works as a melodic spirited integral classical whole. Always more than just decorating modern music with classical instrumentation, at its core a real orchestra, this is something that's both timeless and enchantingly beautiful  – a very fine, very enjoyable rather magical album."

2009–2010: Selective gigging, Arch Garrison, Vernon Elliott and Leader of the Starry Skies

Following the release of Birds, NSRO appearances and activity became rarer, partly due to Craig Fortnam's concentration on a smaller-scale project called Arch Garrison, the live line-up of which also featured Sharron Fortnam and James Larcombe. (The project's debut album was released on Double Six/Domino Records in February 2010.)

Despite this, North Sea Radio Orchestra performed several concerts in 2009. On 29 May they performed a free concert in Brixton Library, London, as part of Lambeth Readers and Writers Festival. On 11 July they performed at the 'Les Tombees de la Nuit' Festival in the Opera House in Rennes, Brittany. On 22 October they played at the Union Chapel, London, as part of the Marginalise Concert Series organised by the Arctic Circle label, performing the music of one of their leading influences, Vernon Elliot (arranged by Craig Fortnam and fellow composer Laura Rossi). The playlist featured music from the animated television series The Clangers, Ivor the Engine and Pogles Wood.

In December 2010, an NSRO cover version of the Cardiacs song "March" appeared on Leader of the Starry Skies: A Tribute To Tim Smith, Songbook 1, a fundraising compilation album to benefit the hospitalised Cardiacs leader Tim Smith.

2011–present: Third album I a Moon, fourth album Dronne

The third North Sea Radio Orchestra album, I a Moon, was released on 4 July 2011. Craig Fortnam composed the music for the album during the winter of 2010/2011, and the album was recorded at various locations in southern England on his laptop computer.

Prior to release, the band announced a number of changes in approach. Firstly, the album would have a "darker, less pastoral sound" with new influences including Krautrock and experimental indie band Deerhoof (and with more emphasis on synthesizer and percussion than previously). Secondly, that there would be a move away from setting poetry in favour of setting self-written lyrics.  The band also announced that 'I a Moon' would be released on their own new label, called The Household Mark, on 4 July 2011.

The band also announced a series of live dates for summer 2011, including a repeat performance of the Vernon Elliot music at Kings Place, London, on 10 June, further visits to the Quaker Meeting House in Brighton (10 July) and St Martin-in-the-Fields (15 July) and appearances accompanying indie-folk band Stornoway at the Eastleigh Festival (8 July) and at London's Somerset House (9 July).

In September 2016, the ensemble released its fourth album, Dronne. On 2 January 2019, the band released Gap Species, a collection of recordings from 1998 to 2006, through Bandcamp.

Craig was invited to arrange for the NSRO Robert Wyatt's immortal masterpiece Rock Bottom. Eventually in 2017 performed in Lyon live with John Greaves. The Henry Cow founder asked his label based in Italy, Dark Companion Records, if they could be interested in produce a show and an album. So Max Marchini of Dark Companion eventually produced the critically acclaimed "Folly Bololey" with Greaves and Annie Barbazza as lead singer.
The album has liner noted by Robert Wyatt and Jonathan Coe.

Ensemble members

Current ensemble members

 Craig Fortnam – composer, arranger, conductor, nylon-string acoustic guitar, piano, chamber organ, laptop computer, voice
 Sharron Fortnam – solo voice
 James Larcombe – composer, chamber organ, piano, monosynth,
 Hugh Wilkinson – percussion
 Harry Escott – cello
 Brian Wright – violin
 Luke Crookes – bassoon
 Nicola Baigent – clarinet

Previous ensemble members

 Nick Hayes – clarinet
 Nick Homes – clarinet
 Richard Larcombe – solo voice, acoustic guitar
 Marit Lyngra – violin
 Dan Hewson – trombone
 Katja Mervola – viola
 Jen Underhill – violin
 Geraldine Peach – oboe, North Sea Chorus
 William D. Drake – composer, piano, North Sea Chorus
 Suzi Kirby – North Sea Chorus
 Louise Harrison – North Sea Chorus
 Gideon Miller – North Sea Chorus
 Kavus Torabi – North Sea Chorus
 Melanie Woods – North Sea Chorus
 Dug Parker – solo voice, North Sea Chorus
 Luke Albery – solo voice, North Sea Chorus acoustic guitar
 Ben Davies – piano, chamber organ, North Sea Chorus
 Jez Wiles – percussion
 Sara Longe – violin

Musical connections

 Craig Fortnam also plays in Arch Garrison with NSRO bandmate James Larcombe (and sometimes Sharron Fortnam). Craig and Sharron Fortnam occasionally play acoustic alternative pop with William D. Drake under the name of The fFortingtons.
 William D. Drake is a former member of Cardiacs, Nervous, and Wood, and maintains a solo career as both songwriter and underground classical pianist
 Harry Escott is a composer who has had pieces commissioned by Westminster Cathedral Choir, The Fitzwilliam String Quartet and The Chamber Ensemble of London, in addition to his work in film, TV and theatre. In collaboration with Molly Nyman, he has composed music for (among others) Hard Candy, Channel 4's Poppy Shakespeare and Michael Winterbottom's A Mighty Heart and Road To Guantanamo. His film music is performed by his own group, The Samphire Band, in which Craig Fortnam plays guitar.
 Richard and James Larcombe work together as Stars in Battledress and are frequent collaborators with William D. Drake. Richard has also worked as Defeat The Young and Lost Crowns, and is the former frontman of Magnilda.
 Kavus Torabi is the leader of Knifeworld (in which Craig Fortnam previously played bass), the current guitarist for both Guapo and Gong, and a former member of The Monsoon Bassoon and Cardiacs. He has also worked with Spider Stacy (The Pogues), Chrome Hoof and Mediaeval Baebes.
 Kavus Torabi and Richard and James Larcombe are all members of sea shanty band Admirals Hard.
 Melanie Woods is a member of Sidi Bou Said and also sings in Knifeworld.
 Luke Albery is also the frontman of the rock band Footsteps And Voices.
 Luke Crookes works with the Philharmonia Orchestra (London) and has recorded for Olympia Records: he is also a music educator and animator.
 Sara Longe is also a member of the Ebony Ensemble.
 Brian Wright is a member of Instrumental, a string sextet who perform extensively at contemporary music festivals in Europe, covering the music of electronic acts such as Orbital, Brian Eno, and Moby.
 Sara Longe, Suzy Kirby, Harry Escott, Ben Davies and Sharron Fortnam have all worked with Wildhearts songwriter Ginger (on the Yoni album).

Discography

Albums

 North Sea Radio Orchestra (2006, Oof! Records)
 Birds (2008, Oof! Records)
 I a Moon (2011, The Household Mark)
 Dronne (2016, The Household Mark)
 Folly Bololey - The Music Of Robert Wyatt NSRO/Greaves/Barbazza (2019, Dark Companion)
Gap Species (2019, The Household Mark)

Singles and EPs

 "North Sea Radio Orchestra" (2003, private release)
 "The Flower" (2005, Oof! Records)
 "The End of Chimes" (2007, Oof! Records)

Compilation appearances

 Folk Off: New Folk and Psychedelia from the British Isles and North America (2006, Sunday Best Recordings – NSRO contributes “Guitar Miniature”)
 The Arctic Circle Presents: That Fuzzy Feeling (2007, Arctic Circle Records – NSRO contributes “O Come O Come Emanuel”)
 Leader of the Starry Skies: A Tribute to Tim Smith, Songbook 1 (2011 – Believer's Roast – NSRO contributes 'March')

References

External links

 North Sea Radio Orchestra homepage
 North Sea Radio Orchestra @ MySpace
 North Sea Radio Orchestra page @ Oof! Records
 North Sea Radio Orchestra “End Of Chimes” video on YouTube
 "Interview: North Sea Radio Orchestra" (interview with Craig Fortnam by Ben Graham), The Stool Pigeon, 22 June 2011
 NSRO member Luke Crookes analyses Beethoven's Ninth Symphony  – video on YouTube

2002 establishments in England
British instrumental musical groups
British orchestras
Chamber music groups
Contemporary classical music ensembles
Crossover (music)
Musical groups established in 2002


A Great Rebuilding is a period in which a heightened level of construction work, architectural change, or rebuilding occurred.

More specifically, W. G. Hoskins defined the term "The Great Rebuilding" in England as the period from the mid-16th century until 1640. Hoskins' initial theory held that during this period, improved economic conditions in England led to the expansion, rebuilding or architectural improvement of a large number of rural buildings.

The precise time period, extent and impact of "The Great Rebuilding" is contested. Ronald Brunskill accepts that in much of England it spanned the period 1570–1640, but that the period varied both by region and by social class. It was earliest in South East England, later in South West England and Cornwall, about 1670–1720 in Northern England and later still in Wales. In each region it affected higher-income social classes first and then progressed to lower-income classes.

References

Sources and further reading

Architectural history
Vernacular architecture


William the Outlaw is the seventh book in the Just William series by Richmal Crompton. It was first published in 1927.

Stories
William the Outlaw—The Outlaws receive an unwanted lecture on geology.
The Terrible Magician—The Outlaws believe that Mr. Galileo Simkins, a harmless amateur scientist, is really an evil sorcerer.
Georgie and the Outlaws—The Outlaws' parents discover there is such a thing as a perfect child.
William Plays Santa Claus—William is given the task of distributing Christmas presents at two separate parties.
William and the White Elephants—The literal-minded William is thrilled to be put in charge of a white elephant stall - until he learns what a "white elephant" actually is.
Finding a School for William—Horrified that Mr Cranthorpe-Cranborough, a headmaster, intends to send him away to his boarding school, William sets out to sabotage the plan.
The Stolen Whistle—William annoys the entire neighborhood with his new dog-whistle.
William Finds a Job—Robert has fallen in love with the daughter of an artist—a fact which William ruthlessly exploits.
William's Busy Day—A caving expedition leads William into strange territory.
William is Hypnotised—William takes revenge on the school sneak.

References

1927 short story collections
Just William
Short story collections by Richmal Crompton
Children's short story collections
1927 children's books
George Newnes Ltd books


The first Wahneta (YT-1) was a United States Navy yard tug in serving from 1892 to 1920.

Wahneta (Yard Tug No. 1) was laid down in April 1891 at Boston, Massachusetts, by the City Point Iron Works. She was launched on 3 March 1892 and subsequently was placed in service and assigned to the 5th Naval District. Stationed at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia, she engaged in unglamorous but vital tug, tow, and general harbor duties.

In February 1893, Wahneta served as a seagoing observation platform off Port Royal, South Carolina. From her deck, observers watched test firings of the 15-inch (381-millimeter) pneumatic rifles of the unique "dynamite gun cruiser" USS Vesuvius.

Returning to her routine work soon thereafter, Wahneta remained based at Norfolk from 1893 to 1922, through both the Spanish–American War and World War I. On 17 July 1920, as the U.S. Navy established its modern hull classification system, Wahneta was designated YT-1.

Subsequently placed out of service at Norfolk on 4 August 1920, the venerable Wahneta was sold on 6 December 1922 to the Norfolk Lighterage Company.

See also
YT-1 is also cryptonym for 2-phenylquinolone.

References

External links
 Photo gallery at navsource.org

Tugs of the United States Navy
Ships built in Boston
1892 ships
World War I auxiliary ships of the United States
Spanish–American War auxiliary ships of the United States


West of the Pesos is a 1960 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on January 23, 1960, and stars Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester.

In this film, Speedy interrupts his vacation in order to rescue laboratory mice from captivity.

Plot
At the ACME Laboratorio por Experimento, captured mice are imprisoned in cages, worrying about their fates in scientific experiments. As the mice engage in various activities such as card games and playing the harmonica, Sylvester marches outside as the guard cat, discouraging any mouse that would dare escape. In the village, the señorita mice are crying about family members and boyfriends having gone missing (the name of one of the missing mice also happens to be that of one of the animators, Manuel Perez---although not an animator on this short).

The mayor of the village attempts to recruit volunteers to help rescue their villagers, but realize the situation is hopeless because Sylvester is too fast and smart for them. Then, one of the mice suggests calling on Speedy Gonzales to help with the rescue effort. After realizing that he is on vacation in Guadalajara, another mouse comments that Speedy "would come all the way from Guadalajara to visit my seester Carmela." With that, Carmela is recruited to place a long-distance call to Speedy; seconds after the call is placed, Speedy races to the village to begin the rescue effort.

Speedy walks into the patio to great fanfare, much like a bullfighter before his fight, drawing Sylvester's attention. The mouse directly taunts the "gringo pussy gato," and Sylvester—perhaps thinking Speedy is the latest attempted would-be rescuer in an apparent long line of hapless victims—sarcastically obliges. Speedy instantly races past Sylvester and rescues Manuel (nicknamed Manuelito); the cat's attempt to snare them in a rope trap fails, as Speedy's quick pace pulls Sylvester through the knothole of the wall he is hiding behind.

Sylvester's other encounters with Speedy include:
 The cat's attempt to crush Speedy with a large rock (Speedy yells "Yee-haw!" causing Sylvester to drop the rock on himself). Speedy then smuggles out several more mice in a tin can and hides behind another rock and in between three cans. Sylvester looks under all three cans, the final one concealing a dynamite stick that explodes in his face as the mice make their getaway.
 Speedy sneaking out several more mice using a dachshund costume. One of the mice briefly is separated from the group, but is able to catch up, and Sylvester crashes into the fence.
 Speedy using a set of train tracks and cars to bring the rest of the mice home. Sylvester tries to hide behind a tunnel along the tracks, but the train simply goes through the cat's body and exits through his tail. The cat cries in frustration. Here, Speedy refers to the escape as like "Atchison, Tabasco, and Santa Fe", a pun on the song On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.

In the closing scene, Speedy is hailed as a hero and gets a big kiss from Carmela. Speedy goes wild and blasts into outer space. The other mice laugh, commenting that he is now a "loco satellite."

See also
 List of American films of 1960

References

External links

1960 animated films
1960 short films
Merrie Melodies short films
Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films
Speedy Gonzales films
Sylvester the Cat films
Films directed by Robert McKimson
Films scored by Milt Franklyn
1960 films
Animated films about mice
Animated films about cats
Films set in Mexico
1960s Warner Bros. animated short films
1960s English-language films
Films about animal testing


John Constantine, Hellblazer: All His Engines is an original graphic novel featuring the DC Comics character John Constantine, written by Mike Carey, with art by Leonardo Manco. The graphic novel is a spin-off of the long-running series Hellblazer, published by the DC Comics imprint Vertigo. It was first published in January 2005. The graphic novel follows John Constantine's investigation into a worldwide phenomenon that is placing innocent people into comas. All His Engines was loosely adapted into the animated series (later compiled as a direct-to-DVD film) titled Constantine: City of Demons, an installment of the DC Animated Movie Universe.

Publication history
All His Engines was only published in graphic novel format ().

Plot
In 2004, mysterious plague begins putting its victims into unexplained comas, including Chas Chandler's granddaughter Tricia. Chas' best friend John Constantine takes up the case in London, using his acquaintance Fennel to communicate with Tricia's soul, but the ceremony is hijacked by a third party who kills Fennel and instructs Constantine to travel to an address in Los Angeles. Constantine and Chas find the address and discover that a demon named Beroul is responsible for the coma. He blackmails Constantine into working for him in return for Tricia's soul. He commands Constantine to hunt down a list of demons who are interfering with his work. Constantine summons the Aztec god Mictlantecuhtli for a favor. Constantine summons Beroul's enemies in a church and Mictlantecuhtli, immune to the effects of Christian holy paraphernalia, effortlessly slaughters them. Beroul doesn't keep his end of the bargain and makes a business pact with Mictlantecuhtli. John then makes another deal with Mictlantecuhtli, who has the ability to knit souls and bodies back together. In a final confrontation with Beroul, Mictlantecuhtli does so and restored Tricia, possessing her body. Constantine then feigns a gamble with Tricia's life, and Mictlantecuhtli leaves her. Chas and Tricia leave for England while Constantine decides to stay in Los Angeles for a while.

Reception
Stephen Holland of Comics Bulletin wrote in his review of the graphic novel that "Carey is on the toppest form I've known of him" and felt that the style evoked earlier periods of the long running series as the "script felt like Ennis, the art like a moodier, more solid John Ridgway."

In other media
The tenth episode of the NBC television series Constantine, "Quid Pro Quo", is a loose adaptation of All His Engines with the demon Beroul replaced with DC Universe supervillain Felix Faust and Chas's daughter being the victim of the curse instead of his granddaughter. The episode also takes the creative liberty of providing an origin for supernatural healing powers for Chas.
The CW Seed/DC Animated Universe series Constantine: City of Demons is loosely based on the graphic novel. While initially following the plot of the comic, the plot diverges into material not covered in the comic and features some unique elements such as Beroul being a disguise for the demon Nergal, and a variation of the Newcastle incident from Constantine's origin.

Notes

References

2005 graphic novels
2005 comics debuts
Hellblazer
Horror comics
Fantasy comics
Vertigo Comics graphic novels
Comics by Mike Carey (writer)


William Derek Drake (born 7 February 1962) is an English musician, keyboardist, pianist, composer and singer-songwriter. He is best known as a former member of the cult English rock band Cardiacs, whom he played with for nine years between 1983 and 1992. He has also been a member of the Sea Nymphs, North Sea Radio Orchestra, Nervous, Wood, Lake of Puppies and The Grown-Ups, as well as pursuing a career as a solo artist. He is a distant cousin of the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake.

Biography and career

Early years
William Derek Drake began playing the harmonium as soon as he was able to stand. He began learning the piano at the age of five, training by playing duets with his grandmother before taking formal lessons. He went on to play with numerous bands during his schooldays

On leaving art college, Drake took a telesales job where he met punk singer/trumpet player Little Sue. He played a gig with her band Honour Our Trumpet at The Grey Horse in Kingston-upon-Thames in 1983. The sound engineer for the concert was Tim Smith, otherwise known as the leader of the Kingston-based band Cardiacs, a rapidly developing cult act with a taste for complex compositions. Intrigued by Drake's skills, Smith immediately wrote out a complicated piece for Drake, who performed it with ease. Smith then immediately recruited Drake into Cardiacs, apparently by telling him that he was now a member of the band whether he liked it or not.

Work with Cardiacs, The Sea Nymphs & The Grown-Ups (1983–1992, 1998)
Drake's first gig with Cardiacs was at The Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London in August 1983, supporting Here & Now. He joined the band towards the end of the recording sessions for their album The Seaside (released in 1984) and consequently only performed on "a couple of tracks".

Meanwhile, Drake, Tim Smith and Sarah Smith formed a new band in parallel to Cardiacs, initially simply called Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake. Whilst the Cardiacs sound was clearly at the core of the new band, the rock guitars and drums were stripped away, replaced with atmospheric soaring string sounds, faintly wintery chiming and tinkling effects and angelic vocals, with Drake's piano as the central instrument. Astonishingly all this was recorded on four-track, for the eponymous 1984 cassette album Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake. It was initially available from the fan club and at Cardiacs gigs, and was eventually released on CD in 2002 by Tim Smith's label All My Eye and Betty Martin Music.

Drake was a fully fledged recording member of Cardiacs by the 1985 Cardiacs EP "Seaside Treats", and also played on the 1986 Big Ship mini-album and the 1986 Rude Bootleg live album. In 1987, he performed on two Cardiacs 12-inch singles, "There's Too Many Irons in the Fire" and "Is This the Life". Drake also played a major part on the next Cardiacs album, 1988's A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window for which he co-composed the songs "I'm Eating in Bed" and "The Whole World Window". 1988 also saw the release of another single – the Kinks cover "Susannah's Still Alive", released in 7" & 12" versions – and a BBC Radio 1 sessions EP (Night Tracks (The Janice Long Session)), as well as a second live album called Cardiacs Live.

Drake's compositional role in Cardiacs had increased by the time of the recording of the On Land and in the Sea album in 1989, for which he co-composed four songs – "I Hold My Love in My Arms" (featuring music he'd originally written at the age of fifteen), "The Duck and Roger the Horse", "Mares Nest" and "The Everso Closely Guarded Line". He also appeared on the accompanying  "Baby Heart Dirt" 7-and-12" single. In 1990, Cardiacs recorded a live concert in Salisbury in which Drake was part of a seven-piece band. This was released as the Maresnest live video in 1992 and as the live album All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest in 1995. The 1991 Songs for Ships and Irons compilation collected together various EP tracks originally released between 1986 and 1987 (including two songs co-written by Drake, "Tarred and Feathered" and "Blind in Safety and Leafy in Love").

Circa 1990 – while still with Cardiacs – Drake formed The Grown-Ups with himself on keyboards and vocals. This was a short-lived project notable for being the first time Drake worked with guitarist/composer Craig Fortnam (whom he'd later work with in Lake of Puppies and North Sea Radio Orchestra). The other band members were the then-current Cardiacs drummer Dominic Luckman and two other former Cardiacs members (keyboard player and co-singer Mark Cawthra and bass player Jon Bastable (from The Trudy and who'd been a backup Cardiac during Cawthra's tenure in the band). The Grown-Ups recorded five songs, which have never been released.

In May 1991, Drake left Cardiacs, believing that he needed a change. He has, however, maintained his links with the band, playing support slots and guesting at various live performances as well as appearing as a guest player on two albums released by Cardiacs after his departure (Heaven Born and Ever Bright and Sing to God).

Despite leaving Cardiacs, Drake remained a member of the "Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake" project, which by 1991 had been renamed the Sea Nymphs and had recorded enough material for a new album. A 7" Sea Nymphs single called "Appealing to Venus" was released in 1991, given away free with the first 500 copies of Cardiacs 12" single "Day Is Gone" (it was later made available from the fan-club, and was eventually re-released on CD in 1998 by Org Records with additional material added). The band's eponymous album The Sea Nymphs was initially released on cassette in 1992 and was only available from the Cardiacs fan-club (it was not released on CD until 1995). The Sea Nymphs supported All About Eve on their "Ultraviolet" tour of 1992.

The Sea Nymphs were briefly reactivated in 1998 and reissued their "Appealing to Venus" single on CD. The band played a Radio 1 John Peel Session on 4 October 1998 (performing "Eating A Heart Out", "Lilly White's Party", "The Sea Ritual" and "Sea Snake Beware"), which was re-broadcast as a "classic Peel Session" on BBC Radio 6 on 4 May 2009. Drake had claimed that material for at least one more Sea Nymphs album had been recorded, but that the trio had not yet got round to finishing it off and releasing it, but second album On The Dry Land finally saw a release at the end of 2016.

Work with Nervous, Wood and Lake of Puppies (1992–1999)
Soon after leaving Cardiacs Drake teamed up with Dean Gainsburgh-Watkins (bass guitar, formerly of Here & Now), Justin Travis (vocals), Richard "Dicky" Cripps (acoustic guitar), Keith Holden (harmonica), Bernie Holden (clarinet), Oscar O'Lachlainn (electric guitar and drums), Barney Crockford (drums) and Melvin Duffy (pedal steel guitar) to form the folk/country/rock band Nervous. Compared to Cardiacs, Nervous provided a rootsier songwriting style with opportunities for improvisation which appealed to Drake, who took the opportunity to familiarise himself with the Hammond organ and Fender Rhodes electric piano in addition to the pianos, harmoniums and synthesizers which he'd played previously. The band gigged in London regularly (with notable shows at the Royal Albert Hall and Ronnie Scott's) and released an album called Son of the Great Outdoors on Grapevine Records in 1996. Some of the album was recorded in Paul McCartney's Hoghill Studio in Sussex (reportedly, Richard Cripps was in a relationship with Paul's daughter at the time).

Circa 1994 (and while still working with Nervous), Drake formed the band Lake of Puppies. This featured himself on keyboards and vocals, with Sharron Saddington on bass guitar and vocals, Craig Fortnam on nylon-string acoustic guitar and vocals, and Chin Keeler on drums. Drake has professed "great affection" for this band, which gigged frequently (especially in clubs around the Camden area of London), and recorded three songs which remain unreleased. A fourth Lake of Puppies track, "Large Life", appears on the Cardiacs and Affectionate Friends compilation album of 2001. (Sharron Saddington and Craig Fortnam were later to marry and to form the cross-disciplinary chamber music ensemble North Sea Radio Orchestra, to which Drake would contribute.)

On leaving Nervous in 1997 Drake joined country-rockers Wood (a country rock band led by singer-songwriter James Maddock). He remained with the band for two years, playing on six tours of the United States. He also appeared on Wood's only album, 2001's Songs from Stamford Hill (albeit as a guest musician playing keyboards on only one track, "Could I Be").

Solo career (2001–present)
By the late 1990s Drake had composed a very large number of original piano pieces, which Tim Smith then encouraged him to write lyrics for. Smith went on to produce sessions for Drake over the next few years, resulting in the release of the "Melancholy World" single in 2002, followed by Drake's debut solo album William D.Drake which was released on Smith's label All My Eye and Betty Martin Music in 2003. (The song "Fiery Pyre" from this album had also found its way onto the Cardiacs and Affectionate Friends compilation album in 2001.) As gig offers came in Drake put together a live band with a somewhat shifting line-up, the set list depending on which musicians were available. He played at various points over the next five years while working on new material and various projects.

In February 2007, Drake recorded a session for BBC Radio 6 to promote the next stage of his solo career. This consisted of not one but two albums, released simultaneously on two different record labels, both appearing on 5 February 2007.

Briny Hooves (released on sheBear Records) was a more lushly-arranged and orchestrated song-based follow up to William D.Drake, recorded with a multitude of musicians and singers and meeting with considerable critical success. Hi-Fi World called it "a beautifully crafted album of mature, powerful and moody pop songs", while Q Magazine's Tom Doyle commented "(Drake's) frenetic piano-playing inspired Blur, and here the ex-Cardiacs keyboardist turns his own '60s-refracted take on British art-pop: one part Robyn Hitchcock, one part a deeper-voiced Robert Wyatt."

Yews Paw (released on the Onomatopoeia label) was an album of thirteen unaccompanied acoustic piano pieces. All of these were original Drake compositions, although inspirations included classical composers such as Debussy, Rachmaninov, Paderewski, Prokofiev and Hindemith as well as jazz, Walt Disney films and Edward Lear. As with Briny Hooves, the album was well received. John L. Walters reviewed Yews Paw  in The Guardian, describing it as "piano miniatures whose 'light classical' veneer peels back to reveal a tough musical heart."

In December 2010, a William D. Drake cover version of the Tim Smith song "Savour" appeared as the opening track on Leader of the Starry Skies: A Tribute To Tim Smith, Songbook 1, a fundraising compilation album to benefit the hospitalised Smith.
(The original version of the song appeared on Tim Smith's Extra Special OceanLandWorld.)

Drake's fourth album The Rising of the Lights was released in spring 2011. It features yet another band line-up as well as instrumentation including hurdy-gurdy, clarinet, saxophone and an array of vintage keyboards alongside more traditional rock instruments. A couple of songs were written whilst Drake was still in Cardiacs and he has commented "There's a spice of that time on this album."

In 2023, Drake contributed a piano ballad titled "Where Do You Go", produced by Mieko Shimizu, for the collaborative EP Write to Be.

Work with North Sea Radio Orchestra & The fFortingtons (2004–present)
Since 2004, Drake has been involved with North Sea Radio Orchestra, the chamber ensemble led by his former Lake of Puppies colleagues Craig and Sharon Fortnam. The ensemble has performed songs and compositions written or co-written by Drake (including his setting of "Mimnermus in Church") and Drake has performed with them as both pianist and member of the vocal chorus. He has also played as part of an occasional acoustic trio with the Fortnams, under the name of The fFortingtons.

Sessions work
William D. Drake played keyboards with prog-goth band Lefaye during their support tour with The Cure in 1995. He also played keyboards for Slowdive/Mojave 3 singer Rachel Goswell on her debut solo album Waves Are Universal and the accompanying tour, as well as working with The Loose Salute (another Mojave 3 spin-off project). Most recently, he played organ on the track "Orange Drop" on Funki Porcini's 2009 album Plod.

Musical style

Drake's music draws on a wide variety of sources including psychedelic rock (such as the work of Syd Barrett and Peter Hammill), sea shanties, Early Music (such as madrigals), and both classical and modernist solo piano music (including that of Dmitri Shostakovich). He has also displayed a taste for composing poetry settings featuring Jacobean and Romantic sources.

Discography

Solo

Albums
William D. Drake (2003, All My Eye And Betty Martin Music)
Briny Hooves (2007, sheBear Records)
Yew's Paw (2007, Onomatopoeia Records)
The Rising of the Lights (2011, Onomatopoeia Records)
Revere Reach (2015, Onomatopoeia Records)

Singles/EPs
"Melancholy World" (2002) CD single – Super 8 Recordings
"Earthy Shrine" (2007) 7" single – Onomatopoeia Records
"Lawrence" (2012) digital single – Self-released

Compilation appearances
Various Artists, Leader of the Starry Skies: A Tribute To Tim Smith, Songbook 1 (2010) album of cover versions of songs by Tim Smith – contributes cover version of "Savour"
Various Artists, Cardiacs and Affectionate Friends (2001) album – contributes "Fiery Pyre"
Various Artists, The Central Element (2011) album – contributes "Bond of the Herd"
Various Artists, The Box album – contributes "One Armed Bandits".
Various Artists, A Letter A Day - ATONA triple album - contributes "Serendipity Doodah" https://atona.bandcamp.com/album/atona-a-letter-a-day-hear-no-evil
Various Artists, Write to Be (2023) EP – contributes "Where Do You Go"

With Cardiacs
According to Eric Benac:

Albums
 The Seaside (1983)
 Big Ship (1987)
 A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (1988)
 On Land and in the Sea (1989)
 Songs for Ships and Irons (1991)
 Heaven Born and Ever Bright (1992, television organ on track 6)

Singles
 "Seaside Treats" (1985)
 "There's Too Many Irons in the Fire" (1987)
 "Is This the Life" (1988)
 "Susannah's Still Alive" (1988)
 "Night Tracks (The Janice Long Sessions)" (1988)
 "Baby Heart Dirt" (1989)

Live albums
 Rude Bootleg (1986)
 Cardiacs Live (1988)
 All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest (1995)

With Nervous
Son of the Great Outdoors (1996) album

With Lake of Puppies
Various Artists, Cardiacs and Affectionate Friends (2001) album – contributes "Large Life"

As session/guest musician
Rachel Goswell, Waves Are Universal, (2004) album
Rachel Goswell, The Sleep Shelter EP, (2003) CD EP
Wood, Songs from Stamford Hill, (2001) album
Silver Ginger 5, 'Black Leather Mojo' (2001) album
Funki Porcini, Plod, (2009) album

References

External links

William D. Drake homepage
William D. Drake blog
William D. Drake @ MySpace
Onomatopoeia Records

Living people
English rock keyboardists
English rock pianists
English rock musicians
English male songwriters
Psychedelic musicians
1962 births
21st-century British pianists
Cardiacs members
North Sea Radio Orchestra members
The Sea Nymphs (band) members


Still William is the fifth book in the Just William series by Richmal Crompton. It was first published in 1925.

The stories
The Bishop's Handkerchief – There is a craze for silk handkerchiefs in the village, and William will stop at nothing to get one.
Henri Learns the Language – A young Frenchman arrives in the village, intent upon learning colloquial English. William's attempts to teach him lead to chaos.
The Sweet Little Girl in White – William is forced to play at "fairies" with an odious and domineering little girl. Little does he know what effect this will have. (This was the first ever story to feature Violet Elizabeth Bott, who appears frequently in later tales.)
William Turns Over a New Leaf – William's attempts to aid his brother Robert's romantic activities are undermined by Robert's failure to include surnames in his love poetry.
A Bit of Blackmail – The Outlaws use underhand methods to force the stout Mr. Bott to change his mind about whether to fire Bob Andrews.
William the Money-Maker – William and his friends organize an exhibition, but Violet Elizabeth is determined to get in on the act.
The Haunted House – The Outlaws' midnight feast lead to rumors of the supernatural among the Society for the Encouragement of Higher Thought.
William the Match-Maker – William chooses village eccentric Mr. March as a potential suitor for his sister Ethel.
William's Truthful Christmas – Following the vicar's advice, William decides to "cast aside deceit and hypocrisy" and speak the truth. He soon finds that "the truth" is the last thing anyone wants to hear.
An Afternoon with William – William and Ginger believe they have found an undiscovered tribe of savages.
William Spoils the Party – The Outlaws kidnap a politician about whom William's father has been complaining.
The Cat and the Mouse – Having been victimized by the new chemistry master, William finds a way to get even.
William and Uncle George – William acquires a pair of horn-rim spectacles.
William and Saint Valentine – William falls for an "older woman".

References

1925 short story collections
Just William
Short story collections by Richmal Crompton
Children's short story collections
1925 children's books
British children's books
George Newnes Ltd books


The 61st Pennsylvania House of Representatives District is located in southeast Pennsylvania and has been represented by Liz Hanbidge since 2019.

District Profile
The 61st  District is located in Montgomery County and includes the following areas:

 Lower Gwynedd Township
 North Wales
 Towamencin Township
 Upper Gwynedd Township
 Whitpain Township (part)
District 01
District 02
District 03
District 04
District 05
District 06
District 07
District 12

Representatives

Recent election results

References

External links

 District map from the United States Census Bureau
 Pennsylvania House Legislative District Maps from the Pennsylvania Redistricting Commission.
 Population Data for District 61 from the Pennsylvania Redistricting Commission.

Government of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
61


The ladies' individual skating event was held as part of the figure skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics. It was the fourth appearance of the event, which had previously been held at the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920 and was also part of the first Winter Games in 1924. The competition was held from Thursday, 16 February to Saturday, 18 February 1928. Twenty figure skaters from eight nations competed.

Results

Referee:
  Walter Jakobsson

Judges:
  Oscar Kolderup
  Francis Pigueron
  Thomas D. Richardson
  Fernand de Montigny
  Henry W. Howe
  Otto Schöning
  Walter Muller

References

External links
 Official Olympic Report
 sports-reference

Figure skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics
1928 in figure skating
Alp
Oly


The Davis DA-1 was a light aircraft designed in the United States in the 1950s which never progressed beyond the prototype stage. Davis tried to bring the plane to market as a certified aircraft (his goal was a selling price of under $10,000), but was not successful.

Design and development
Davis constructed his DA-1 starting on 24 April 1957. It was a strut-braced high-wing single-engine all-aluminum airplane designed around the new Lycoming O-360 engine.  The fixed-nosegear-equipped piston-engine DA-1 was of otherwise conventional configuration, but its V-tail was similar to that of the contemporary Beechcraft Bonanza, whose high cruise speed was attributed partly to its use of that empennage type.

Wings and tail surfaces of the DA-1 used external heat treated ribs; those surfaces were non-tapered (i.e. of constant chord).

Power for the DA-1 was a horizontally-opposed Lycoming O-360 of 180 hp (134 kW), which gave a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h).

Operational history
Initial test flights showed that there was not enough elevator authority with full flaps, and the plane was very loud. Soundproofing, and aerodynamic modifications were applied.

Specifications

References

1950s United States civil utility aircraft
Davis aircraft
Single-engined tractor aircraft
High-wing aircraft
V-tail aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1958


Gustavo Venturi (4 February 1830, in Rovereto – 5 June 1898) was an Italian bryologist.

After graduating with a law degree, Venturi worked as an attorney in Trento, from where he researched bryology as a hobby. He was the author of 20 articles on the taxonomy of the moss genus Orthotrichum. In 1884, with Antonio Bottini, he published Enumerazione critica dei muschi italiani ("Enumeration of Italian mosses"). Shortly after his death, his treatise on bryophytes of Trentino, titled Le Muscinee del Trentino, was published. His herbarium is now kept at the Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali in Trento.

Taxa
 Neoventuria (Syd. ex P. Syd., 1919).
 Venturia (Sacc., 1882).

References
 International Association of Plant Taxonomy, Typification of Venturi's Orthotricha

1830 births
1898 deaths
People from Rovereto
19th-century Italian botanists
Bryologists


Bienvenida is a Spanish municipality in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura. It has a population of 2,343  (2007) and an area of 92.2 km².

It is the Spanish town that is a member of the Charter of European Rural Communities, a town twinning association across the European Union.

This was also the town where, until his death in 2018, the oldest man in Spain and the World lived. His name was Francisco Núñez Olivera and lived 113 years (1904-2018).

It is the birthplace of CE Sabadell football player David Astals.

References

Municipalities in the Province of Badajoz


For similarly named United States Navy ships, see USS Waneta.

The second USS Wahneta (YT-134), later YTM-134, was a United States Navy yard tug in commission from 1939 to 1946.Wahneta was laid down on 29 September 1938 at Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California. She was launched at midnight on 3 May 1939 — as tide conditions were most favorable then — via an "aerial route:" Large cranes hoisted her up from her building way, swung her out over the water, and then gently lowered her into the channel.

Completed on 23 June 1939, and subsequently commissioned, Wahneta performed towing and fire-fighting duties in the busy 12th Naval District throughout World War II. During this service, she was reclassified as a medium harbor tug and redesignated YTM-134 on 15 May 1944.

After the close of World War II, Wahneta'' was declared surplus to Navy needs and was struck from the Navy List on 30 December 1946. She was transferred to the Maritime Commission on 2 June 1947 for disposal.

References

External links
Wahneta (YTM-134) ex Wahneta (YT-134) (1939 - 1944)

Tugs of the United States Navy
Ships built in Vallejo, California
1939 ships
World War II auxiliary ships of the United States


Greensleeves Rhythm Album #3: Doorslam is an album in Greensleeves Records' rhythm album series.  It was released in June 2000 on CD and LP.  The album features various artists recorded over the "Doorslam" riddim, produced by Harvel Hart for Annex Productions.

Track listing
"Bust It" - Capleton
"Cool Bwoy" - Beenie Man
"Heard Of Dem" - Sizzla
"No One Cares" - Bounty Killer & Merciless
"Blank" - Lexxus
"This Means War" - Ward 21
"One" - Elephant Man
"More Gun" - Mr. Vegas
"Who Dem A Send" - Harry Toddler
"Ganja Man" - Hawkeye
"Screechie Pon Mi Toe" - Danny English
"Fleety Flighty" - Chico
"Rubbers" - Goofy
"20 Weed Commandments" - General B
"More Bun" - Mr. Vegas
"Good" - Zaro
"Load Up" - Alozade
"Badness" - Kiprich
"Lose Dem Way" - Fargo Voice
"Living Years" - Ghost

2000 compilation albums
Reggae compilation albums
Greensleeves Records albums


William And The Brains Trust is the twenty-fifth book in the Just William series by Richmal Crompton. It was first published in 1945. It was republished as a paperback (abridged) under the title "William the Hero."

Stories
"William And The Brains Trust"
"Mrs Bott's Birthday Present"
"William And The Mock Invasion"
"William's War-Time Fun Fair"
"William and the Tea-Cake"
"Entertainment Provided"
"The Outlaws' Report"
"Soldiers For Sale"
"Youth On The Prow"
"Aunt Florence, Toy-Maker"
"Feasts For Heroes"
"William Goes Fruit-Picking"

References

1945 short story collections
Just William
Short story collections by Richmal Crompton
Children's short story collections
1945 children's books


USS Wahneta has been the name of more than United States Navy ship, and may refer to:

 , a yard tug in commission from 1893 to 1920
 , later YTM-134, a yard tug in commission from 1939 to 1946

See also

United States Navy ship names


Lyon & Lyon LLP was a Los Angeles-based law firm that specialized in domestic and international intellectual property law matters, with over 100 patent lawyers in six offices in California, New York City, and Washington D.C.

History
The firm was founded in 1901 when Frederick Saxton Lyon began practicing patent law in Los Angeles. The firm acquired its full name in 1919, when Frederick's son, Leonard, became his partner.

In its heyday, Lyon & Lyon LLP was one of the largest, oldest and most pre-eminent intellectual property firms in the nation, and had expertise in patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, in all principal areas of technology, in prosecution (both domestic and international), in licensing and in litigation. The firm obtained thousands upon thousands of patents, trademark registrations and copyright registrations and compiled an exceptional winning record in both jury and non-jury trials.

Clients
The firm handled a number of large intellectual property portfolios worldwide, and had long-established relationships with intellectual property firms in every part of the world. The firm represented clients ranging from individual inventors to large, multi-national companies.

Among the notable patents written by Lyon & Lyon was Philo T. Farnsworth's patent on electronic television. The firm's clients included Disney, Honda, Gucci, K-Mart, Taco Bell and Mitsubishi.

Dissolution
In 2002, Lyon & Lyon filed for bankruptcy and dissolved.

References

Criminal Defense Attorney

Defunct law firms of the United States
Law firms based in Los Angeles
Law firms established in 1901
1901 establishments in California
2002 disestablishments in California
Law firms disestablished in 2002


Tarebia granifera, common name (in the aquarium industry) the quilted melania, is a species of freshwater snail with an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Thiaridae.

This snail is native to south-eastern Asia, but it has become established as an invasive species in numerous other areas.

Subspecies
Subspecies of Tarebia granifera include:
 Tarebia granifera granifera (Lamarck, 1822)
 Tarebia granifera mauiensis Brot, 1877

Description

A detailed account of the anatomy of Tarebia granifera was given by R. Tucker Abbott in 1952 together with notes on its biology and bionomics. A dissection guide was provided by Malek (1962).

The maximum height of adult shells of this species from South Africa is from 18.5 mm to 25.1 mm, while in Puerto Rico they can reach up to 35 mm.

Two color forms of Tarebia granifera exist, one has a pale brown body whorl and a dark spire (see photo on the right) and in the other the shell is entirely dark brown to almost black (see photo on the left). Intermediate forms exist.

Distribution

Indigenous distribution
The indigenous distribution of this species includes the general area of these countries: India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Hawaii, southern Japan, Society Islands, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand.

Nonidigenous distribution
Tarebia granifera has become invasive on at least three continents: North and South America and Africa. Initial introductions were presumably via the aquarium trade.

Americas:
 This species occurs in several southern states of the U.S.: Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas and Idaho
 Hawaii
 Many Caribbean islands:
 Cuba – along with Physella acuta it is the most common freshwater snail in Cuba
 The Dominican Republic
 Saint Lucia
 Martinique since 1991
 Central America: Mexico
 El Hatillo Municipality, Miranda, Venezuela

Africa:
 South Africa The Tarebia granifera was reported from South Africa (and Africa) for the first time in 1999 in northern KwaZulu-Natal though it was probably introduced sometime prior to 1996. In the 10 years since its discovery it has spread rapidly, particularly northwards, into Mpumalanga province, the Kruger National Park and Eswatini.

This spread will doubtless continue into northern South Africa, Moçambique, Zimbabwe and beyond. It has not been possible to calculate the rate of dispersal.

Asia:
 Israel (non-indigenous)

Ecology

Habitat
In the South Africa, the snail has colonized different types of habitat, from rivers, lakes and irrigation canals to concrete lined reservoirs and ornamental ponds. It reaches very high densities, up to 21 000 m², and is likely to impact on the entire indigenous benthos of the natural waterbodies of the region – more so than any other invasive freshwater invertebrate known from the South Africa. The South African indigenous thiarids Thiara amarula, Melanoides tuberculata, and Cleopatra ferruginea are considered particularly vulnerable.

Most localities in South Africa (93%) lie below an altitude of 300 m above sea level where an estimated area of 39 500 km2 has been colonized. The only known localities outside this area are the Umsinduzi River in Pietermaritzburg and its confluence with the Umgeni River which lie closer to 500 m. R. Tucker Abbott (1952) noted that on Guam Island, Tarebia granifera occurred in streams and rivers at 983 m altitude but that these watercourses were consistently above 24 °C indicating that temperature may be an important determinant of distribution.

Tarebia granifera also occurs in several estuaries along the KwaZulu-Natal coast. Prominent among these is the dense population (±6038 m2) found at a salinity of 9.98‰ (28.5% sea water) in Catalina Bay, Lake St Lucia, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu-Natal. These records show that Tarebia granifera is able to colonize brackish and moderately saline habitats and reach high densities there. From observations in Puerto Rico it was suggested that snails could survive temporarily saline conditions for several weeks by burying themselves in the substratum, emerging when fresh water returned.

In common with other Thiaridae, Tarebia granifera is primarily a benthic species and in South Africa has been collected on a variety of substrata in both natural and artificial waterbodies, e.g. sand, mud, rock, concrete bridge foundations and the concrete walls and bottoms of reservoirs, irrigation canals and ornamental ponds. Many of these habitats were vegetated and the associated vegetation included many types of emergent monocotyledons (e.g. Cyperus papyrus, Scirpus sp., Typha sp., Phragmites sp.) and dicotyledons (e.g. Ceratophyllum demersum, Potamogeton crispus, Nymphaea nouchali). Where densities are high, Tarebia granifera may also occur on marginal, trailing vegetation and the floating Common Water Hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes as well. It favours turbulent water and tolerates current speeds up to 1.2m.s−1 and possibly greater. This habitat range is similar to that recorded for Tarebia granifera in Puerto Rico.

The major interest in Tarebia granifera outside Asia today is its invasive ability and its impact on indigenous benthic communities in colonized waterbodies. The pollution tolerance value is 3 (on scale 0–10; 0 is the best water quality, 10 is the worst water quality).

Typically half or more of these snails were buried in the sediments and were not visible from the surface. This was also noticed in aquaria where they actively buried themselves in sand. Exact proportion of population of Tarebia granifera that is buried at any time is not known. There is also not known how long can snails remain buried.

Tarebia granifera will die at the temperature 7 °C in aquaria, but they do not live in water temperature under 10 °C in the wild.

Dispersal
It is probable that dispersal of Tarebia granifera from one waterbody or river catchment to another occurs passively via birds, notably waterfowl, which eat them and void them later, perhaps in another habitat. Evidence for this comes from the finding of many small Tarebia granifera 5–7 mm in height and still containing the soft parts in unidentified bird droppings from the bank of the Mhlali River, South Africa. Even though the shell of Tarebia granifera is thick, most of these juveniles had been partially crushed with only a few still intact. Both the intact and damaged specimens could have been alive when passed and perhaps survived had they been deposited in water. None was large enough to have been reproductively mature (see below) and would have needed to survive in any new habitat for several months before reproducing.

Passive dispersal may also occur via weed on boats and boat trailers and via water pumped from one waterbody to another for industrial and irrigation purposes. In the Nseleni River juvenile Tarebia granifera were commonly found with another invasive snail, Pseudosuccinea columella, on floating clumps of water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes which provide a vehicle for rapid downstream dispersal.

Once established in a particular waterbody Tarebia granifera is likely to disperse actively, both up and downstream in the case of flowing systems, as far as environmental factors like current speed and food availability will allow. The snail's tolerance of turbulent, flowing water was demonstrated by Prentice (1983) who reported it migrating upstream on the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia at a rate of 100 m month−1 in streams discharging up to 50 L.s−1. In KwaZulu-Natal it has been collected in water flowing at up to 1.2 m.s−1 which is likely to exceed the current speeds of at least the lower and middle reaches of many rivers and streams in South Africa making these watercourses open to colonization.

The sole of Tarebia granifera is proportionally small when compared to other thiarids and smaller snails with their higher coefficients were less able to grip the substratum in the face of moving water and so did not disperse as effectively as larger ones.

Density
In Florida, Tucker Abbott (1952) recorded a density of Tarebia granifera 4444 m−2 which falls within the range of densities measured with a Van Veen grab in a number of sites in northern KwaZulu-Natal, where densities were measured from 843.6 ±320.2 m−2 to 20764.4 ±13828.1 m−2. The site with such high density was non-flowing, devoid of rooted vegetation but it was shaded by trees (Barringtonia racemosa) and by floating Eichhornia crassipes. This between-site variability may be positively correlated to habitat heterogeneity and food availability. Despite the very high densities recorded in the Nseleni River, indigenous invertebrates were still present in the sediments including: bivalve Chambardia wahlbergi, chironomids, oligochaetes (tubificids) and burrowing polychaetes were also found but in very low numbers.

The low densities of Tarebia granifera reported for the Mhlatuze River, South Africa may have been influenced by nearby sand mining activities or, more likely, high flows and mobile sediments, but they nevertheless approach those recorded by Dudgeon (1980) for Tarebia granifera in its native Hong Kong (18–193 m−2).

Little is known of the long term population fluctuations of Tarebia granifera and findings seem to be contradictory. Studies in Cuba (Yong et al. (1987), Ferrer López et al. (1989), Fernández et al. (1992)) indicate that the snail lives for more than a year though maximum densities were recorded at different times of the year in different habitats. Using a catch per unit effort netting technique, Yong et al. (1987) and Ferrer López et al. (1989) found highest densities in summer when temperatures reached their maximum whereas Fernández et al. (1992) found highest densities in November (late autumn) when temperatures reached their minimum. Fernández et al. (1992) also suggested that Tarebia granifera density was positively correlated with Ca2+ concentrations and negatively with NH4 concentrations.

Recent surveys by Vázquez et al. (2010) of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba have reported population densities of Tarebia granifera of 85 individuals/m2, well above those of its endemic relatives (5 individuals/m2).

Feeding habits
Tarebia granifera feeds on algae, diatoms and detritus.

Life cycle
Tarebia granifera is both parthenogenetic and ovoviviparous, although males have been reported. These are characteristics which are undoubtedly key to its success as an invader. For example, no males have been found amongst hundreds dissected from KwaZulu-Natal, it is probable that a few are present. Males were found in most (6/7) populations examined in Puerto Rico but were generally uncommon at up to 22.7% of the population (mean 4.6%). Live sperm were present in the testes of these males but the genitalia were apparently non-functional. R. Tucker Abbott (1952) failed to find sperm in the gonads of male Tarebia granifera from Florida. Most Tarebia granifera are therefore clones of the female parent.

Embryos develop in a brood pouch. This pouch is a compartmentalized structure lying immediately above the oesophagus and develops only after the snail has reached maturity. Its size expands as the number of embryos increases. Tarebia granifera has 1–77 embryos in its brood pouch.

Tucker Abbott (1952), Chaniotis et al. (1980) and WHO (1981) cite the same statistic that females can give birth to one juvenile every 12 hours. Young snails emerge through a birth pore on the right side of the head. The newborn shell is <1–2 mm in height with between 1.5 and 4.8 whorls. The size of juveniles at birth is 0.7–2.1 mm. According to Chen (2003) these newborns have a high survival rate in the field.

Attainment of sexual maturity in Tarebia granifera is generally indicated by the size of the smallest snail observed to give birth rather than a histological assessment of the development of the gonad and associated reproductive structures. Appleton & Nadasan (2002) estimated onset of maturity at 10–12 mm shell height but unpublished data suggest a height closer to 8 mm in line with other published studies. Tucker Abbott (1952) estimated sexual maturity at between 5.5 and 8.0 mm at different stations over a short stretch of river in Florida. Chaniotis et al. (1980) gave a similar estimate of 6.0–7.0 mm from a cohort of laboratory-bred snails in Puerto Rico.

Appleton et al. (2009) extrapolated data by Yong et al. (1987), Ferrer López et al. (1989) and by Fernández et al. (1992) and they resulted that sexual maturity is reached at an age of about five months. Reported variation in maturation period varies from 97–143 days (3.2–4.8 months) under the laboratory conditions to 6–12 months, also from laboratory data. It is difficult to relate shell size at the onset of maturity to age since the size structure of populations vary over time and from one locality to another.

Dissection of Tarebia granifera showed blastula stage embryos in the brood pouches of snails as small as 8 mm shell height. Small numbers of shelled embryos, including veligers, were found in snails of 10–14 mm but became more plentiful in snails >14 mm and especially those >20 mm. Importantly, unshelled embryos (blastula, gastrula and trochophore stages) were not found in snails >16 mm and the numbers of shelled embryos themselves decreased in the largest snails, >24 mm. This suggests that differentiation of germinal cells in the ovary and their subsequent arrival in the brood pouch as blastulae is not a continuous process over a breeding season but occurs as one or more 'cohorts' or 'pulses' which stop before the birth rate of young snails reaches its maximum. So it seems that while the first birth may occur in snails as small as 8 mm, these are few and most juveniles are born to snails >14 mm. The size of the shell of the parent at peak release of juveniles is 24.0 mm.

The reproductive biology of Tarebia granifera needs to be investigated in detail before its population dynamics can be properly interpreted from quantitative sampling.

Parasites
Tarebia granifera serves as the first intermediate host for a variety of trematodes in its native south east Asia. Amongst these are several species of the family Heterophyidae some of which have been reported as opportunistic infections in people, and another, Centrocestus formosanus (Nishigori, 1924), is an important gill parasite of fish. Tarebia granifera also serves as intermediate host for the philopthalmid eyefluke Philopthalmus gralli Mathis & Ledger, 1910 which has recently (2005) been reported affecting ostriches Struthio camelus on farms in Zimbabwe. The snail host implicated in this outbreak was Melanoides tuberculata but the rapid spread and high population densities achieved by Tarebia granifera, which appears to be replacing Melanoides tuberculata in South Africa, may exacerbate the problem in the future.

For many years Tarebia granifera was believed to be an intermediate host for the Asian lungfluke Paragonimus westermani (Kerbert, 1878), but Michelson showed in 1992 that this was erroneous.

Other interspecific relationships
Tarebia granifera have been associated with the disappearance of two indigenous benthic gastropod species from rivers in Puerto Rico and have displaced the vegetation-associated pulmonate Biomphalaria glabrata from streams and ponds on several Caribbean islands. Although the responsible mechanism is not understood, this has led to suggestions that it could be useful as a biocontrol agent in snail control operations within integrated schistosomiasis control programmes. They probably also compete for space and resources (e.g. food) with indigenous infaunal and epifaunal invertebrates, especially where its densities are high. Under such conditions it is likely to alter the structure and biodiversity of the entire benthic communities of invaded habitats and perhaps the vegetation-associated communities as well.

Anecdotal reports and observations suggest that in KwaZulu-Natal the indigenous thiarid Melanoides tuberculata is becoming less common and pressure from the spread of Tarebia granifera, particularly at high densities, is a possible explanation. Like Tarebia granifera, Melanoides tuberculata is parthenogenetic and ovoviviparous, grows to a similar size, are similar in size at first birth and juvenile output. Data from several habitats where the species occur sympatrically show however that in all such situations Tarebia granifera becomes numerically dominant.

Tarebia granifera is likely to impact on another South-African indigenous thiarid, the poorly known Thiara amarula in the saline St. Lucia estuary system.

Studies on the ecological impact of Tarebia granifera are urgently needed.

Human importance
In addition to its role as intermediate host for several economically important trematode species, Tarebia granifera has colonized water reservoirs, dams and ponds on the premises of three large industrial plants in northern KwaZulu-Natal and been pumped out of at least one of them, blocking water pipes and damaging equipment. This generally happens when snail densities are high and the damage is due to individuals being crushed so that pieces of shell and soft tissue are carried into machinery. Details of the nature and extent of this damage and the costs incurred are not available. There is no doubt that Tarebia granifera is able to pass unharmed through pumps, probably as juveniles.

References
This article incorporates CC-BY-3.0 text from references.

Further reading
 Butler J. M., Ferguson F. F., Palmer J. R. & Jobin W. R. (1980). "Displacement of a colony of Biomphalaria glabrata by an invading population of Tarebia granifera in a small stream in Puerto Rico". Caribbean Journal of Science 16: 73–79. PDF.
 Chaniotis B. N., Butler J. M., Ferguson F. F. & Jobin W. R. (1980). "Thermal limits, desiccation tolerance, and humidity reactions of Thiara (Tarebia) granifera mauiensis (Gastropoda: Thiaridae) host of the asiatic lung fluke disease". Caribbean Journal of Science 16: 91–93. PDF.
 Ferguson et al. (1958). "Potential for Biological Control of Australorbis Glabratus, the Intermediate Host of Puerto Rican Schistosomiasis". The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 7: 491–493.
 .
 .
 Miranda N. A. F. & Perissinotto R. (2012) "Stable Isotope Evidence for Dietary Overlap between Alien and Native Gastropods in Coastal Lakes of Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa". PLoS ONE 7(2): e31897. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0031897.

External links

Thiaridae
Gastropods described in 1822
Freshwater molluscs of Oceania