A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclists as well as other object manipulation and stunt-oriented artists. The term circus also describes the field of performance, training and community which has followed various formats through its 250-year modern history. Although not the inventor of the medium, Newcastle-under-Lyme born Philip Astley is credited as the father of the modern circus.
The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Earth. It and its predecessor have run shows from 1871, with a hiatus from 2017 to 2023. They operate as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. The circus started in 1919 when the Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth, a circus created by P. T. Barnum and James Anthony Bailey, was merged with the Ringling Bros. World's Greatest Shows. The Ringling brothers had purchased Barnum & Bailey Ltd. in 1907 following Bailey's death in 1906, but ran the circuses separately until they were merged in 1919.
The Thai Elephant Orchestra is a musical ensemble consisting of as many as fourteen Thai elephants near Lampang in Northern Thailand. The elephants play music, essentially as conducted improvisations, on specially designed heavy-duty musical instruments. The orchestra was co-created by elephant conservationist Richard Lair of the National Elephant Institute and the American musical artist and neuroscientist Dave Soldier. They have released three CDs on the Mulatta Records label with an orchestra ranging in size from six to fourteen elephants.
Julian Koster is an American multidisciplinary artist. As a musician, he is a member of the Elephant 6 Collective, the leader of The Music Tapes, and a member of Neutral Milk Hotel. He is known for writing, directing, and acting in audio fiction The Orbiting Human Circus , and for performing with the theatrical troupe of the same name. He is also known for his heavy use of the musical saw in recordings, even releasing The Singing Saw at Christmastime, his only solo album released under his own name, in 2008.
The Music Tapes is an experimental pop music and performance art project of Elephant 6 member Julian Koster. The Music Tapes is characterized by unusual orchestrations, the use of musique concrète and narrative storytelling, vintage home-recording practices, and musical inventions. They are also known for their unique live performances, such as the Caroling and Lullaby tours that bring them into the homes of fans, and theatrical shows like The Traveling Imaginary, which takes place in a circus tent.
Rory McLeod is a British folk singer-songwriter from London. He grew up in Camberwell before moving to South Ruislip and later West Kilburn. His career has included being a fire eater and circus clown and his performances include storytelling in the tradition of the traveling minstrel or troubadour, and playing a wide range of instruments including guitar, harmonica, trombone and his personally-made stomp box. WoMAD have said: "With Rory McLeod, you get the music of the world in one suitcase.[...] You can hear flamenco, calypso, blues and Celtic influences in his music, all wrapped together in an inimitable style". He has recorded and toured with (then) fellow Cooking Vinyl artist Michelle Shocked.
"Lullaby" is a song by English rock band the Cure from their eighth studio album, Disintegration (1989). Released as a single on 10 April 1989, the song is the band's highest-charting single in their home country, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart. It additionally reached number three in West Germany and Ireland while becoming a top-10 hit in several other European countries and New Zealand. The music video, directed by Tim Pope, won the British Video of the Year at the 1990 Brit Awards.
Cut in Two Island, East and West, are two of the Thimble Islands off Stony Creek, a section of Branford, Connecticut. It is actually two separate islands, but, as the name suggests, it looks like a single island that was cleaved in two.
Send Me a Lullaby is The Go-Betweens' debut album. It was released in November 1981 in Australia on Missing Link as an eight-track mini-album. It was subsequently released in the UK on Rough Trade Records, an independent music record label in February 1982, as a 12-track album.
Songs from the Eye of An Elephant is the first solo album by singer/songwriter Ryan Star. It was first released independently on Stone Crow Records in 2005. The album was re-released with major distribution on September 19, 2006 by KOCH Records shortly after Star's appearance on the CBS reality show Rock Star: Supernova.
Cradle Song is an album by cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. In the U.S., the album was released under the title Lullaby.
Lullabies from the Axis of Evil (2004) is an album collecting traditional lullabies sung by women from Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, as well as Syria, Libya, and Cuba, plus Afghanistan and Palestine, mixed with Western performers singing translated versions of the songs.
Evelyn Evelyn are a fictional musical duo created by Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley. According to the backstory provided by Palmer and Webley, the duo consists of conjoined twin sisters, Evelyn and Evelyn Neville, who were discovered in 2007 by Palmer and Webley. The twins are actually portrayed by Palmer and Webley, dressed in connected garments.
"In My Memory" is a song by Dutch producer DJ Tiësto. It was released in April 2002 as a single from his debut album, In My Memory. The song includes vocals by Nicola Hitchcock of the band Mandalay. The song did not chart in Europe, but being the title track for the album it gained great success in North America.
Western Circus is a Lucky Luke comic written by Goscinny and illustrated by Morris. It was originally published in French by Dargaud in the year 1970. English editions of this French series have been published by Dargaud.
Circus Polka: For a Young Elephant was written by Igor Stravinsky in 1942. He composed it for a ballet production that the choreographer George Balanchine did for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The ballet was performed by fifty elephants and fifty ballerinas. In 1944, Stravinsky published an orchestration of the piece, which is now part of the repertoire of many orchestras.
Cédric "Cede" Dupont is a Swiss musician, currently a guitarist in Swiss modern metal band Silent Circus.
Fred Mollin is an American and Canadian record producer, musician, film and TV composer, music director, music supervisor, and songwriter. He has produced records for Jimmy Webb, Johnny Mathis, Billy Ray Cyrus, Lamont Dozier and America, and has composed music for Beverly Hills, 90210, Friday the 13th, Forever Knight, Hard Copy, and many more. Mollin rose to prominence early in his career by co-producing Dan Hill's international hit record, "Sometimes When We Touch", in 1977.
"You Can't Stop Me" is the first single from the Guano Apes' third album, Walking on a Thin Line. It was released as a single on 13 January 2003, at which point the album it would appear on was still untitled. It reached No. 10 in Germany, also charting in four other European countries, and performing well in Portugal. It was their first single released in the United Kingdom. The song would later also appear on the 2004 greatest hits album, Planet of the Apes.
"Baby Mine" is a song from the 1941 Disney animated feature Dumbo. The music is by Frank Churchill, with lyrics by Ned Washington. Betty Noyes recorded the vocals for the original film version. In the film, Dumbo's mother, Mrs. Jumbo, an elephant locked in a circus wagon, cradles her baby Dumbo with her trunk while this lullaby is sung. It is also the last appearance of the circus animals.
