XTC

XTC were a new wave rock band from Swindon, England, led by songwriters Andy Partridge and Colin Moulding and active between 1976 and 2005. The band enjoyed some chart success, including the UK and Canadian hits "Making Plans for Nigel" (1979) and "Senses Working Overtime" (1982).

XTC were a performing and touring band up until 1982. For the remaining twenty-three years of XTC's existence they were a studio-based project involving session players around a nucleus of Partridge, Moulding and Dave Gregory.

History

Early days: 1972–1976

First coming together in 1972, Colin Moulding (bass & vocals) and Terry Chambers (drums) asked Andy Partridge (guitars & vocals) to join their new band and went through many band names (including The Helium Kidz and Star Park) over the next five years. As the Helium Kidz, they were featured in a small NME article as an up-and-coming band from Swindon. Drawing influence from the New York Dolls, particularly the "Jetboy" single, and the emerging New York punk scene, they played glam rock with homemade costumes and slowly built up a following. Keyboard player Barry Andrews joined in 1976, and the band finally settled on a name: XTC.

XTC (album)

XTC (translated phonetically to Ecstasy) is the debut studio album by American R&B and soul singer-songwriter Anthony Hamilton, released October 29, 1996 on MCA Records in the United States. The album failed to chart on both the Billboard 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts, and subsequently went out of print. Its only single, "Nobody Else", charted at number sixty-three on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Track listing

References

XTC (Elgar)

”XTC” is a song with words and music written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1930. It was his last song.

Elgar's sketches for the accompanying music were written separately from the words. At the end of the sketches he wrote "Fine del songs November 11th 1930".

The song was pieced together by the pianist-musicologist David Owen Norris from sketches he found at the composer's birthplace.

The first performance was on the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, 2 June 2007, at the Royal Academy of Music in London, sung by soprano Amanda Pitt, accompanied by David Owen Norris.

Lyrics

Recordings

References

Zar

Zar may refer to:

Places

People

Zaré

Zaré is a village in the Yaba Department of Nayala Province in north-western Burkina Faso. The village has a population of 600.

References

Zār

Zār or Zaar (Arabic: زار) (Somali:Saar) (Amharic:Zar) is a religious custom apparently originating in Horn of Africa during the 18th century and later spreading throughout East and North Africa. Zār custom involves the possession of an individual (usually female) by a spirit. It is also observed in Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, southern Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East.

A featured musical instrument in the Zār ritual is the tanbura, a six-string lyre (6-stringed "bowl-lyre"), which, like the Zār practice itself, exists in various forms in an area stretching from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. Other instruments include the mangour, a leather belt sewn with many goat hooves, and various percussion instruments.

The Zār cult served as a refuge for women and effeminate men in conservative, Muslim-dominated Sudan.

In Ethiopia, zār also refers to malevolent demons. Many Ethiopian Christians and Muslims believe in these spirits. Among both groups, mental illness is often attributed to zār possession. In Ethiopia, zār possession is more common among women, while among immigrants in the West, men are more commonly afflicted. At the same time, many Ethiopians believe in benevolent, protective spirits, or abdar. While this belief in abdar and zār fits the traditional dualism of good and evil, it is also deeply rooted in superstition.