Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green. Green recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood, guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after their first public appearance. Guitarist and singer Danny Kirwan joined the band in 1968. Christine Perfect, who contributed as a session musician starting with the band's second album, married McVie and joined Fleetwood Mac as an official member in July 1970 on vocals and keyboards, two months after Green left the band; she became known as Christine McVie.
Neil Ellwood Peart was a Canadian and American musician, known as the drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. He was known to fans by the nickname 'The Professor', derived from the Gilligan's Island character of the same name. His drumming was renowned for its technical proficiency and his live performances for their exacting nature and stamina. Peart earned numerous awards for his musical performances, including an induction into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983 at the age of thirty, making him the youngest person ever so honoured.
Nada Surf is a New York City-based American alternative rock band formed in the 1990s, consisting of Matthew Caws, Ira Elliot (drums), Doug Gillard, and Daniel Lorca.
uMkhonto we Sizwe ( was the paramilitary wing of the African National Congress, and was founded by Nelson Mandela in the wake of the Sharpeville massacre. Its mission was to fight against the South African government.
Govan Archibald Mvunyelwa Mbeki was a South African politician, military commander, Communist leader who served as the Secretary of Umkhonto we Sizwe, at its inception in 1961. He was also the son of Chief Sikelewu Mbeki and Johanna Mahala and also the father of the former South African president Thabo Mbeki and political economist Moeletsi Mbeki. He was a leader of the South African Communist Party and the African National Congress. After the Rivonia Trial, he was imprisoned (1963–1987) on charges of terrorism and treason, together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Raymond Mhlaba, Ahmed Kathrada and other eminent ANC leaders, for their role in the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). He was sometimes mentioned by his nickname "Oom Gov".
The Dears are a Canadian indie rock band from Montreal, Quebec. The band is led by the husband-and-wife duo of singer-guitarist Murray Lightburn and keyboardist Natalia Yanchak.
Khwārezmian is an extinct East Iranian language closely related to Sogdian. The language was spoken in the area of Khwarezm (Chorasmia), centered in the lower Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea.
54-40 is a Canadian rock band from Tsawwassen, British Columbia. The band take their name from the slogan "54-40 or Fight!", coined to express the successful expansionist agenda of James K. Polk's presidency, which was intent upon controlling a contested U.S.-Canada border area in the Oregon boundary dispute. 54-40 has had a successful career, with four of their albums being certified platinum in Canada. The band has been nominated for eight Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, 54-40 were among the top 150 best-selling Canadian artists in Canada and among the top 50 best-selling Canadian bands in Canada.
Your Sinclair, or YS as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993.
Hella is an American English slang term originating in and often associated with San Francisco's East Bay area in northern California, possibly specifically emerging in the 1970s African-American vernacular of Oakland. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good". It was eventually added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002, citing a 1987 first use in the Toronto Star. It is possibly a contraction of the phrase "hell of a" or "hell of a lot [of]", in turn reduced to "hell of", though some scholars doubt this etymology since its grammatical usage does not align with those phrases; or of "hellacious". It often appears in place of the words "really", "a lot", "totally", "very", and in some cases, "yes". Whereas hell of a is generally used with a noun, according to linguist Pamela Munro, hella is primarily used to modify an adjective such as "good".
Neil Reid is a Scottish former child singing star, winner of ITV's Opportunity Knocks, and the youngest person to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.
Lukas Daniel Barnard, known as Niël Barnard, is a former head of South Africa's National Intelligence Service and was notable for his behind-the-scenes role in preparing former president Nelson Mandela and former South African presidents P.W. Botha and F. W. de Klerk for Mandela's eventual and, as he saw it, inevitable, release from prison and rise to political power.
Derek Forbes is a Scottish bassist, vocalist, and occasional guitarist. He is mostly associated with the Scottish band Simple Minds, having joined in time to record their early demos in 1978 and stayed with the band during their rise to mainstream success and their first six albums, until leaving shortly after their 1985 hit "Don't You ". He has also played with Big Country, Propaganda, Oblivion Dust, Spear of Destiny, 10:51 and The Alarm, as well as leading his own projects.
Beverley Naidoo is a South African author of children's books who lives in the UK. Her first three novels featured life in South Africa where she lived until her twenties. She has also written a biography of the trade unionist Neil Aggett.
Zebra & Giraffe is an alternative rock band from South Africa. The band's debut album, Collected Memories, was released on 5 May 2008.
Straight No Chaser (SNC) is a professional American a cappella group that originated in 1996 at Indiana University. Originally a student group at Indiana University, they recorded a video in 1998 of a comical version of "The 12 Days of Christmas". The founding members all graduated, to be replaced by other students, in 1999. In 2007, the 1998 video went viral on YouTube, and subsequently led to a reunion of the founding members and a five-album record deal with Atlantic Records in 2008. The YouTube video has been viewed over 24 million times.
Ramona Falls is an indie rock project founded by Brent Knopf and based in Portland, Oregon. The band name is taken from a waterfall located near Mount Hood, a place where Knopf used to hike as a child. Brent Knopf co-founded Menomena before departing in 2011, and is also one-half of EL VY, a collaboration with The National's Matt Berninger.
Matthew van der Want is a South African singer, songwriter and recording artist.
Pastures of the Blue Crane is an Australian novel by Hesba Fay Brinsmead, published in 1964. The novel won the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers in 1965. It was adapted for television in 1969. It has recently been reprinted due to renewed interest by University of Queensland Press in 2018.
The 2017 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 18, 2017.
