Closer

Closer or Closers may refer to:

Print media

Film, television and theater

Film

Television

Theater

Sports and games

Music

Closer (band)

Closer is an acoustic indie pop band from The Netherlands. Its band members are Roel Kessels as guitarist and lead vocalist, and Thomas van Geelen as cello player and backing vocalist. The band was formed in September 2006 by Kessels who had been performing as a singer/songwriter under the same artistic name.

History

Closer started out as a dream of singer/songwriter Roel Kessels. Inspired by many great artists like Damien Rice and Elliott Smith he already wrote and recorded songs on his own. This filled him with much satisfaction, but he also felt there was something missing. After seeing the movie Closer (film), with Damien Rice's song 'The Blower's Daughter' accompanying the ending, he got inspired to enhance his music with bowed strings.

A couple of years later he met Thomas on the train. Thomas played the cello, and it wouldn't be long before they started playing together and planned their first gig.

Closer is now Roel Kessels as guitarist and lead vocalist, and Thomas van Geelen on the cello, singing an occasional second. They had their first gig together with Lotte, who plays the violin. Lotte still plays with them every now and then, but most of the time you'll find them playing by twos. They started performing at small venues in Tilburg and Breda, and even on some small festivals in Breda (Troubadourfestival and Bluesfestival). In 2007 Closer won the Amsterdam Student Festival (Amsterdamsstudentenfestival.nl).

Closer (Travis song)

"Closer" is a song by Scottish band Travis, released as the first single from their fifth studio album, The Boy with No Name, on 23 April 2007. The single peaked at #10 on the UK Singles Chart.

The song is featured in sports video game FIFA 08.

Music video

The music video features the band as clerks in a supermarket with Healy as the mascot. When fed up with his job, he goes inside and starts singing on the speaker system. Payne, who was working at the register completely bored, takes out his bass and Dunlop and Primrose are dancing with the customers. When their boss, Ben Stiller in a cameo, hears music, he tries to find out where it comes from but it stops as soon as he looks out of his office. The music then resumes when Stiller goes back to his office. The video ends with the band leaving the supermarket together. The only instrument that appears is Payne's bass, whilst the rest of the band have nothing. Fran Healy is seen wearing a Radio Clyde t-shirt that reads "Radio Clyde 261". The video was directed by Michael Baldwin, who has also directed videos for Gabriella Cilmi, Dave Matthews Band, and Melanie C, among others. The t-shirt actually originated from Frank Zappa who wore a red version of the shirt previously.

Electronic Frontier Finland

Electronic Frontier Finland (Effi) is a Finnish on-line civil rights organization founded in 2001 by Herkko Hietanen, Ville Oksanen and Mikko Välimäki. It had about 1 600 members at the end of 2014. While not formally affiliated with the U.S.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, the two organizations share many of their goals. Effi is a member of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign and a founding member of European Digital Rights (EDRi).

Effi's stated aim is to protect and promote freedom of speech and privacy on the Internet as well as in Finnish society in general. Among other things, Effi has lobbied for effective anti-spam legislation and against software patents. Effi has also assumed a leading role on certain consumer rights issues such as CD copy protection, in part due to the reluctance of traditional Finnish consumer protection agencies to address them.

Effi presents the annual Finnish Big Brother Awards in cooperation with Privacy International.

Board members include Tapani Tarvainen, Leena Romppainen and Timo Karjalainen as chairman.