Coordinates	39°44′21″N104°59′5″N
Name	Daily Mail
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Foundation	4 May 1896
Owners	Daily Mail and General Trust
Political	Pro-Conservative
Publisher	Associated Newspapers Ltd
Editor	Paul Dacre
Circulation	2,100,855
Language	English
Website	dailymail.co.uk }}

The ''Daily Mail'' is a British, daily middle market tabloid newspaper. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after ''The Sun''. Its sister paper ''The Mail on Sunday'' was launched in 1982. Scottish and Irish editions of the daily paper were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. The ''Daily Mail'' was Britain's first daily newspaper aimed at the newly-literate "lower-middle class market resulting from mass education, combining a low retail price with plenty of competitions, prizes and promotional gimmicks", and the first British paper to sell a million copies a day. It was, from the outset, a newspaper for women, being the first to provide features especially for them, and is still the only British newspaper whose readership is more than 50% female.

Overview

The ''Mail'' was originally a broadsheet but switched to a compact format on 3 May 1971, the 75th anniversary of its founding. On this date it also absorbed the ''Daily Sketch'', which had been published as a tabloid by the same company. The publisher of the ''Mail'', the Daily Mail and General Trust is currently a FTSE 250 company and the paper has a circulation of around two million which is the third-largest circulation of any English language daily newspaper and one of the highest in the world.

Circulation figures according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations in November 2010 show gross sales of 2,100,855 in November 2010 for the ''Daily Mail''. According to a December 2004 survey, 53% of ''Daily Mail'' readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats. The main concern of Viscount Rothermere, the current chairman and main shareholder, is that the circulation be maintained. He testified before a House of Lords select committee that "we need to allow editors the freedom to edit", and therefore the newspaper's editor was free to decide editorial policy, including its political allegiance. The ''Mail'' has been edited by Paul Dacre since 1992.

Under Dacre, the Mail has a reputation for a conservative editorial stance on topics such as immigration, working women and teenage sex.

History

Early history

The ''Daily Mail'', devised by Alfred Harmsworth (later Lord Northcliffe) and his brother Harold (later Lord Rothermere), was first published on 4 May 1896. It was an immediate success. It cost a halfpenny at a time when other London dailies cost one penny, and was more populist in tone and more concise in its coverage than its rivals. The planned issue was 100,000 copies but the print run on the first day was 397,215 and additional printing facilities had to be acquired to sustain a circulation which rose to 500,000 in 1899. Lord Salisbury, 19th-century Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, dismissed the ''Daily Mail'' as "a newspaper produced by office boys for office boys." By 1902, at the end of the Boer War, the circulation was over a million, making it the largest in the world.

With Harold running the business side of the operation and Alfred as Editor, the Mail from the start adopted an imperialist political stance, taking a patriotic line in the Second Boer War, leading to claims that it was not reporting the issues of the day objectively. From the beginning, the Mail also set out to entertain its readers with human interest stories, serials, features and competitions (which were also the main means by which the Harmsworths promoted the paper).

In 1900, the ''Daily Mail'' began printing simultaneously in both Manchester and London, the first national newspaper to do so (in 1899, the ''Daily Mail'' had organised special trains to bring the London-printed papers north). The same production method was adopted in 1909 by the ''Daily Sketch'', in 1927 by the ''Daily Express'' and eventually by virtually all the other national newspapers. Printing of the ''Scottish Daily Mail'' was switched from Edinburgh to the Deansgate plant in Manchester in 1968 and, for a while, ''The People'' was also printed on the Mail presses in Deansgate. In 1987, printing at Deansgate ended and the northern editions were thereafter printed at other Associated Newspapers plants.

In 1906, the paper offered £1,000 for the first flight across the English Channel and £10,000 for the first flight from London to Manchester. ''Punch'' magazine thought the idea preposterous and offered £10,000 for the first flight to Mars, but by 1910 both the Mail's prizes had been won. (For full list see Daily Mail aviation prizes.)

The paper was accused of warmongering before the outbreak of World War I, when it reported that Germany was planning to crush the British Empire. Northcliffe created controversy by advocating conscription when the war broke out. On 21 May 1915, Northcliffe wrote a blistering attack on Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War. Kitchener was considered a national hero, and, overnight, the paper's circulation dropped from 1,386,000 to 238,000. 1,500 members of the London Stock Exchange ceremonially burned the unsold copies and launched a boycott against the Harmsworth Press. Prime Minister H. H. Asquith accused the paper of being disloyal to the country.

When Kitchener died, the Mail reported it as a great stroke of luck for the British Empire. The paper then campaigned against Asquith, who resigned on 5 December 1916. His successor, David Lloyd George, asked Northcliffe to be in his cabinet, hoping it would prevent him from criticising the government. Northcliffe declined.

Inter-war period

As Lord Northcliffe aged, his grip on the paper slackened and he might have nothing to do with it for months at a time. But light-hearted stunts might enliven him, such as the Hat campaign in the winter of 1920. This was a contest with a prize of £100 for new design of hat — a subject in which Northcliffe took a particular interest. There were 40,000 entries and the winner was a cross between a top hat and a bowler christened the ''Daily Mail Sandringham Hat''. The paper subsequently promoted the wearing of it but without much success. In 1922, when Lord Northcliffe died, Lord Rothermere took full control of the paper.

In 1919, Alcock and Brown made the first flight across the Atlantic winning a prize of £10,000 from the ''Daily Mail''. In 1930, the ''Daily Mail'' made a great story of another aviation stunt, awarding another prize of £10,000 to Amy Johnson for making the first solo flight from England to Australia.

The ''Daily Mail'' had begun the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1908. At first, Northcliffe had disdained this as a publicity stunt to sell advertising and he refused to attend. But his wife exerted pressure upon him and he changed his views, becoming more supportive. By 1922, the editorial side of the paper was fully engaged in promoting the benefits of modern appliances and technology to free its female readers from the drudgery of housework. The ''Mail'' maintained the event until selling it to Media 10 in 2009.

On 25 October 1924, the ''Daily Mail'' published the forged Zinoviev Letter, which indicated that British Communists were planning violent revolution. This was a significant factor in the defeat of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party in the 1924 general election, held four days later.

From 1923, Lord Rothermere and the ''Daily Mail'' formed an alliance with the other great press baron, Lord Beaverbrook. Their opponent was the Conservative party politician and leader Stanley Baldwin. By 1929, George Ward Price was writing in the Mail that Baldwin should be deposed and Beaverbrook elected as leader. In early 1930, the two Lords launched the United Empire Party which the ''Daily Mail'' supported enthusiastically.

The rise of the new party dominated the newspaper and, even though Beaverbrook soon withdrew, Rothermere continued to campaign. Vice Admiral Taylor fought the first by-election for the United Empire Party in October, defeating the official Conservative candidate by 941 votes. Baldwin's position was now in doubt but, in 1931, Duff Cooper won the key by-election at St George's, Westminster, beating the United Empire Party candidate, Sir Ernest Petter, supported by Rothermere, and this broke the political power of the press barons.

In 1927, the celebrated picture of the year ''Morning'' by Dod Proctor was bought by the ''Daily Mail'' for the Tate Gallery.

Lord Rothermere was a friend and supporter of both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, which influenced the ''Mail'''s political stance towards them during the 1930s. Rothermere's 1933 leader "Youth Triumphant" praised the new Nazi regime's accomplishments, and was subsequently used as propaganda by them.

Rothermere and the ''Mail'' were also editorially sympathetic to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists. Rothermere wrote an article entitled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" in January 1934, praising Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine". This support ended after violence at a BUF rally in Kensington Olympia later that year.

Post-war history

On 5 May 1946, the ''Daily Mail'' celebrated its Golden Jubilee. Winston Churchill was the chief guest at the banquet and toasted it with a speech,

In reply, Lord Rothermere II had something to say about the newsprint shortages at that time for, while the ''Mail'' of 1896 was 8 pages, the Mail of 1946 was reduced to just 4.

The ''Daily Mail'' was transformed by its editor of the seventies and eighties, Sir David English. Sir David began his Fleet Street career in 1951, joining ''The Daily Mirror'' before moving to ''The Daily Sketch'', where he became features editor. It was the ''Sketch'' which brought him his first editorship, from 1969 to 1971. That year the ''Sketch'' was closed and he moved to take over the top job at the ''Mail'', where he was to remain for more than 20 years. English transformed it from a struggling rival selling two million copies fewer than the ''Daily Express'' to a formidable journalistic powerhouse, which soared dramatically in popularity. After 20 years perfecting the Mail, Sir David English became editor-in-chief and chairman of Associated Newspapers in 1992.

The paper enjoyed a period of journalistic success in the 1980s, employing some of the most inventive writers in old Fleet Street including the gossip columnist Nigel Dempster, Lynda Lee Potter and sportswriter Ian Wooldridge (who unlike some of his colleagues — the paper generally did not support sporting boycotts of white-minority-ruled South Africa — strongly opposed Apartheid). In 1982, a Sunday title, the ''Mail on Sunday'', was launched (the ''Sunday Mail'' was already the name of a newspaper in Scotland, owned by the Mirror Group.) There are Scottish editions of both the ''Daily Mail'' and ''Mail on Sunday'', with different articles and columnists. In 1992, the current editor, Paul Dacre, was appointed.

Scottish, Irish, Continental and Indian editions

Scottish ''Daily Mail''

The ''Scottish Daily Mail'' was published as a separate title from Edinburgh, starting in 1947. The circulation was poor though, falling to below 100,000 and the operation was rebased to Manchester in December 1968. In 1995 the ''Scottish Daily Mail'' was relaunched printed in Glasgow. With a circulation in Dec 2009 of 113,771 making it the third highest daily newspaper sale in Scotland.

Irish edition

The Daily Mail officially entered the Irish market with the launch of a local version of the paper on 6 February 2006; free copies of the paper were distributed on that day in some locations to publicise the launch. Its masthead differs from that of UK versions by having a green rectangle with the word "IRISH", instead of the Royal Arms. The Irish version includes stories of Irish interest alongside content from the UK version. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the Irish edition had a circulation of 63,511 for July 2007, falling to an average of 49,090 for the second half of 2009. Since 24 September 2006 ''Ireland on Sunday'', the Irish Sunday newspaper acquired by Associated in 2001, was replaced by an Irish edition of the ''Mail on Sunday'' (the ''Irish Mail on Sunday''), to tie in with the weekday newspaper.

Continental and Overseas Daily Mail

Two foreign editions were begun in 1904 and 1905; the former titled the "Overseas Daily Mail", covering the world, and the latter titled the "Continental Daily Mail", covering Europe and North Africa.

''Mail Today''

The newspaper entered India on 16 November 2007 with the launch of ''Mail Today'', a 48-page compact size newspaper printed in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida with a print run of 110,000 copies. Based around a subscription model, the newspaper has the same fonts and feel as the Daily Mail and was set up with investment from Associated Newspapers and editorial assistance from the ''Daily Mail'' newsroom.

Libel lawsuits

The ''Daily Mail'' has been involved in a number of notable libel suits. Among them are:

2010, July—£47,500 award to Parameswaran Subramanyam for falsely claiming that he secretly sustained himself with hamburgers during a 23-day hunger strike in Parliament Square to draw attention to the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka. 2009, January—£30,000 award to Dr Austen Ivereigh, who had worked for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, following false accusations made by the newspaper concerning abortion. 2006, May—£100,000 damages for Elton John, following false accusations concerning his manners and behaviour. 2003, October—Actress Diana Rigg awarded £30,000 in damages over a story commenting on aspects of her personality. 2001, February—Businessman Alan Sugar was awarded £100,000 in damages following a story commenting on his stewardship of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Editorial stance

In the late 1960s, the paper went through a phase of being liberal on social issues like corporal punishment, but soon returned to its traditional conservative line. In Tony Blair's early years as Labour leader and then Prime Minister, the paper wrote positively about him and his reforms of the party.

The editorial stance changed to become critical of Tony Blair in his later years as Prime Minister, and the ''Mail'' endorsed the Conservative Party in the 2005 general election. Writing for the ''New Statesman'', Johann Hari accused columnist Richard Littlejohn of having a "psychiatric disorder" about homosexuality with a "pornographic imagination."

The paper is generally critical of the BBC, which it says is biased to the left. The ''Mail'' has also opposed the growing of genetically-modified crops in the United Kingdom, a stance it shares with many of its left-wing critics.

On international affairs, the ''Mail'' broke with the establishment media consensus over the 2008 South Ossetia war between Russia and Georgia. The ''Mail'' accused the British government of dragging Britain into an unnecessary confrontation with Russia and of hypocrisy regarding its protests over Russian recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence, citing the British government's own recognition of Kosovo's independence from Russia's ally Serbia.

Melanie Philips, once known as a voice for The Guardian and New Statesman moved to the right in the 1990s, writes for the ''Daily Mail'', covering political and social issues from a conservative perspective. She has defined herself as a liberal who has "been mugged by reality".

Famous stories

''The Daily Mail'''s front page of 8 July 1934, featured the headline "Hurrah for the Blackshirts". The ''Mail'' also referred to Hitler's "sturdy young Nazis".

On 7 January 1967, the ''Mail'' published a story, "The holes in our roads", about potholes, giving the examples of Blackburn where it said there were 4,000 holes. This detail was then immortalised by John Lennon in the Beatles song "A Day in the Life", along with an account of the death of 21-year-old socialite Tara Browne in a car crash on 18 December 1966, which also appeared in the same issue.

On 16 July 1993 the ''Mail'' ran the headline "Abortion hope after 'gay genes' finding"; this headline has been widely criticised in subsequent years, for example as "perhaps the most infamous and disturbing headline of all" (of headlines from tabloid newspapers commenting on the Xq28 gene).

The ''Mail'' campaigned on the case of Stephen Lawrence, a black teenager who was murdered in a racially motivated attack in Eltham, London in April 1993. On 14 February 1997, the ''Mail'' led its front page with a picture of the five men accused of Lawrence's murder and the headline "MURDERERS", stating that it believed that the men had murdered Lawrence and adding "if we are wrong, let them sue us". This attracted praise from Paul Foot and Peter Preston.

On 9 October 2009 the ''Mail'' ran the headline "Hunger striker's £7m Big Mac: Tamil who cost London a fortune in policing was sneaking in fast-food" The article stated that "Scotland Yard surveillance teams using specialist monitoring equipment had watched in disbelief" as Parameswaran Subramaniyan, a Tamil hunger striker protesting outside the Houses of Parliament, covertly broke his fast by secretly eating McDonald's burgers. When a request for an apology and retraction of this story was refused, Mr Subramanyam issued proceedings against the paper. In court, the newspaper's claim was shown to be entirely false; the Met superintendent in charge of the policing operation confirmed there had been no police surveillance team using the "specialist monitoring equipment". As a result, on 29 July 2010, Mr Subramanyam is understood to have accepted damages of £47,500 from the Daily Mail. The newspaper also paid his legal costs, withdrew the allegations and apologised "sincerely and unreservedly" for the distress that had been caused.

A 16 October 2009 Jan Moir article on the death of Stephen Gately, which many people felt was inaccurate, insensitive, and homophobic, generated over 25,000 complaints, the highest number of complaints for a newspaper article in the history of the Press Complaints Commission. Major advertisers such as Marks and Spencer responded to the criticism by asking for their own adverts to be removed from the ''Mail Online'' webpage around Moir's article. The ''Daily Mail'' removed all display ads from the webpage with the Gately column.

Supplements and features

{| |-valign=top |width=50%| ''Daily Mail'' ''City & Finance'' – City & Finance is the business part of the Daily Mail, and the Financial Mail is the business paper free with the Mail on Sunday. City & Finance features City News and the results from the London Stock Exchange, and also has its own website called ''This is Money''.

''Travelmail'' – Contains travel articles, advertisements etc.

''Femail'' – Femail is an extensive part of the ''Daily Mail'''s newspaper and website, being one of four main features on Mail Online others being News, TV & Showbiz and Sport. It is designed for women.

''Weekend'' – The ''Daily Mail Weekend'' is a TV guide published by the ''Daily Mail'', included free with the ''Mail'' every Saturday. Weekend magazine, launched in October 1993, is issued free with the Saturday ''Daily Mail''. The guide does not use a magazine-type layout but chooses a newspaper style similar to the ''Daily Mail'' itself. In April 2007, the "Weekend" had a major revamp. A feature changed during the revamp was a dedicated Freeview channel page.

|width=50%|

''Mail on Sunday''

''Financial Mail on Sunday'' – now part of the main paper, this section includes the Financial Mail Enterprise, focusing on small business.

''You'' – ''You'' magazine is a women's magazine featured in the ''Mail on Sunday''. It is a mix of in-depth features plus fashion, beauty advice, practical insights on health and relationships, food recipes and interiors. The ''Mail'' markets it, with ''Live'' magazine, as the only paper to have a magazine for him (''Live'') and for her (''You''). The ''Mail on Sunday'' is read by over six million a week. ''Live'' – this magazine is aimed at men. The main features are columns by well-known people.

''Mail on Sunday 2'' This pullout includes review, featuring articles on the arts, books and culture and it consists of reviews of all media and entertainment forms and interviews with sector personalities, property, travel and health.

''Sportsmail'' – on the back pages of the ''Mail''. It features different sports including an emphasis on alternative sports such as darts and snooker.

''Football Mail on Sunday'' – this reviews Premier League, Championship and Football League games from Saturday as well certain international games.

|}

Regular cartoon strips

''Garfield''

''I Don't Believe It'' (discontinued)

''Odd Streak''

''The Strip Show''

''Chloe and Co.'' (by Knight Features)

''Up and Running'' (by Knight Features)

''The Gambols'' (Sunday, in the Cartoons section)

''Fred Basset''

''Peanuts'' (Sunday, in the Cartoons section)

Current cartoon strips that are in the ''Daily Mail'' include ''Garfield'' which moved from the ''Daily Express'' in 2006 and is also included in ''The Mail on Sunday''. ''I Don't Believe It'' is another 3/4 part strip, written by Dick Millington. ''Odd Streak'' and ''The Strip Show'', which is shown in 3D are one part strips. ''Up and Running'' is a strip distributed by Knight Features and ''Fred Basset'' follows the life of the dog of the same name in a two part strip in the ''Daily Mail'' since 8 July 1963. ''The Gambols'' are another feature in the ''Mail on Sunday''.

The long-running ''Teddy Tail'' cartoon strip, was first published on 5 April 1915 and was the first cartoon strip in a British newspaper. It ran for over 40 years to 1960, spawning the ''Teddy Tail League'' Children's Club and many annuals from 1934 to 1942 and again from 1949 to 1962. Teddy Tail was a mouse, with friends Kitty Puss (a cat), Douglas Duck and Dr. Beetle. Teddy Tail is always shown with a knot in his tail.

Online media

The ''Daily Mail'' and ''The Mail on Sunday'' publish most of their news online in a service called the Mail Online which is viewed daily by nearly 3 million users. Most of the site can be viewed for free and without registration, though some services require users to register.

Contributors

Notable regular contributors (present)

{|width=100% |-valign=top |width=25%| Journalists

Claire Bates

Craig Brown

Alex Brummer

Julie Burchill

Rebecca Camber

Patrick Collins

Derek Draper

Sam Greenhill

Roy Hattersley

Liz Jones

|width=25%|

Des Kelly

Lester Middlehurst

Tom Kelly

Ann Leslie

Quentin Letts

Richard Littlejohn

Edward Lucas

David Mellor

Jan Moir

Julie Moult

|width=25%|

Melanie Phillips

Graham Poll

Paul Sheehan

Norman Tebbit

Michael Winner

Stephen Wright

Janet Street-Porter

|width=25%|

Cartoonists

Alex Graham

Stanley McMurtry

Photographers

Dave Parker

Mark Richards

Jamie Wiseman

|}

Past writers

Paul Callan

William Comyns Beaumont (left in 1903 to create ''The Bystander'')

Anthony Cave Brown (worked from mid-1950s to mid-1960s, won "Reporter of the Year" award in 1958)

Nigel Dempster

Simon Heffer (left in 2005 to join the ''Daily Telegraph'')

Percy Izzard Gardening and country life correspondent for over 50 years.

Ralph Izzard Journalist, author, adventurer and one time Berlin Bureau Chief, Izzard was a staff writer for the ''Mail'' beginning in 1931 and continued contributing until his death in 1992, with the only interruption being his service in British Naval Intelligence during WWII.

Paul Johnson (left the ''Mail'' in 2001)

John Junor

Lynda Lee-Potter (wrote for the ''Mail'' from 1967 until her death in 2004)

William Le Queux A prolific writer of invasion literature in the pre-First World War period. Valentine Williams (1883–1946) General news correspondent and, during the First World War, chief of the ''Daily Mail'' war service. Later a popular mystery novelist.

Keith Waterhouse

Ian Wooldridge, a sportswriter on the paper from 1961 until his death in 2007

Political allegiance

The Daily Mail is a traditional supporter of the Conservative Party, although it did back Tony Blair's "New Labour" in the 2001 general election, where they were re-elected by a landslide.

Editors

:1896: S. J. Pryor :1899: Thomas Marlowe :1922: W. G. Fish :1930: Oscar Pulvermacher :1930: William McWhirter :1931: W. L. Warden :1935: Arthur Cranfield :1939: Bob Prew :1944: Sidney Horniblow :1947: Frank Owen :1950: Guy Schofield :1955: Arthur Wareham :1959: William Hardcastle :1963: Mike Randall :1966: Arthur Brittenden :1971: David English :1992: Paul Dacre

Source: D. Butler and A. Sloman, ''British Political Facts, 1900–1975'' p. 378

See also

''Daily Chronicle'', a newspaper which merged with the ''Daily News'' to become the ''News-Chronicle'' and was finally absorbed by the ''Daily Mail''

1910 London to Manchester air race

Notes

References

External links

''Mail Online''

Category:Daily Mail and General Trust Category:Publications established in 1896 Category:Newspapers published in the United Kingdom Category:British media Category:Edwardian era Category:1896 establishments in the United Kingdom *

af:Daily Mail (Suid-Afrika) ca:Daily Mail cy:Daily Mail da:Daily Mail de:Daily Mail es:Daily Mail eo:Daily Mail fr:Daily Mail it:Daily Mail nl:Daily Mail ja:デイリー・メール no:Daily Mail pms:Daily Mail pl:Daily Mail pt:Daily Mail ro:Daily Mail ru:Daily Mail simple:Daily Mail fi:Daily Mail sv:Daily Mail tl:Daily Mail tr:Daily Mail ur:ڈیلی میل

Coordinates	39°44′21″N104°59′5″N
name	Charlie Brooker
birth name	Charlton Brooker
birth date	March 03, 1971
birth place	Reading, Berkshire, England
nationality	British
occupation	Broadcaster, writer, columnist, comedian, critic
spouse	Konnie Huq (2010–present)
years active	1998–present
alma mater	Polytechnic of Central London }}

Charlton "Charlie" Brooker (born March 03, 1971) is a British journalist, screenwriter and broadcaster. His style of humour is savage and profane, with surreal elements and a consistent satirical pessimism. He presents TV shows ''Screenwipe'', ''Gameswipe'' and ''Newswipe'', wrote a review column for ''The Guardian'' newspaper and currently writes a comment piece each Monday for The Guardian supplement G2, and is one of four creative directors of comedy production company Zeppotron. His five-part horror drama ''Dead Set'' for ''E4'' earned him a nomination for a BAFTA. Brooker won Columnist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards for his column, and the Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards 2009. He is co-presenter of ''10 O'Clock Live'' on Channel 4. He has also presented the documentary series ''How TV Ruined Your Life'' on BBC Two and created the Channel 4 satirical drama trilogy ''Black Mirror'' (writing and co-writing Episodes 1 and 2 respectively).

Early life and education

Brooker was born in Reading, Berkshire. He first worked as a writer and cartoonist for ''Oink!'', a comic produced in the late-1980s.

After attending Wallingford School, Brooker attended the Polytechnic of Central London (which became the University of Westminster during his time there) – studying for a BA in Media Studies. He did not graduate because his dissertation was written on video games, which was not an acceptable topic.

Career

''PC Zone''

Brooker wrote for ''PC Zone'' magazine in the mid-1990s. Aside from games reviews, his output included the comic strip "Cybertwats" and a column titled "Sick Notes", where Brooker would insult anyone who wrote in to the magazine and offered a £50 prize to the "best" letter.

In February 1998, one of Brooker's one-shot cartoons caused the magazine to be pulled from the shelves of many British newsagents. The cartoon was titled "Helmut Werstler's Cruelty Zoo" and professed to be an advert for a theme park created by a Teutonic psychologist for children to take out their violent impulses on animals rather than humans. It was accompanied by photoshopped pictures of children smashing the skulls of monkeys with hammers, jumping on a badger with a pitchfork, and chainsawing an orang-utan, among other things. The original joke was supposed to be at the expense of the ''Tomb Raider'' games, known at the time for the number of animals killed, but the original title, "Lara Croft's Cruelty Zoo", was changed for legal reasons.

In October 2008, Brooker and several other ex-writers were invited back to review a game for the 200th issue. Brooker reviewed Euro Truck Simulator.

SuperKaylo

A number of Brooker's artworks were available to the public on his website. This body of work is drawn both from the commissions of his various patrons, and began as a paper comic that was sold to customers at Brooker's former workplace CeX. In addition to its counter presence, Brooker sold issues to mail order customers when they called up to place orders for games.

One aspect of the SuperKaylo site was a series of recorded phone conversations, that had originally started from a commissioned featured for ''PC Zone'' on technical support phonelines. Brooker took things further than this half serious investigation, when in 1999 he called up the then editor of ''Edge'' magazine, Jason Brookes. Pretending to be an angry father, he phoned up enraged by an advert that had appeared in a previous issue for CeX, one that Brooker himself had written and drawn.

TVGoHome

From 1999 to 2003 he wrote the satirical ''TVGoHome'' website, a regular series of mock TV schedules published in a format similar to that of the ''Radio Times'', consisting of a combination of savage satire and surreal humour and featured in technology newsletter Need To Know. A print adaptation of the site was published by Fourth Estate in 2001. A TV sketch show based on the site was broadcast on UK digital station E4 the same year.

Newspaper columns

Brooker began writing a TV review column titled "Screen Burn" for ''The Guardian'' newspaper's Saturday entertainment supplement ''The Guide'' in 2000, a role he continued through to October 2010.

From the autumn of 2005, he wrote a regular series of columns in ''The Guardian'' supplement "G2" on Fridays called "Supposing", in which he free-associated on a set of vague what-if themes. Since late October 2006 this column has been expanded into a full-page section on Mondays, including samples from TVGoHome and Ignopedia, an occasional series of pseudo-articles on topics mostly suggested by readers. The key theme behind Ignopedia was that, while Wikipedia is written and edited by thousands of users, Ignopedia would be written by a single sub-par person with little or no awareness of the facts.

On 24 October 2004, he wrote a column on George W. Bush and the forthcoming 2004 US Presidential Election which concluded:

''The Guardian'' withdrew the article from its website and published and endorsed an apology by Brooker. He has since commented about the remark in the column stating: }}

Brooker left the "Screen Burn" column in 2010. In the final column, he noted how increasingly difficult he found it to reconcile his role in mainstream media and TV production with his writing as a scabrous critic or to objectively criticise those he increasingly works and socialises with. Longtime covering contributor Grace Dent took over the column. He continues to contribute other articles to The Guardian on a regular basis.

Television

From 1999 to 2000, Brooker played hooded expert 'the Pundit' in short-lived show Games Republic hosted by Trevor and Simon on BSkyB.

In 2000, Brooker was one of the writers of the Channel 4 show ''The Eleven O'Clock Show'' and a co-host (with Gia Milinovich) on BBC Knowledge's ''The Kit'', a low-budget programme dedicated to gadgets and technology (1999–2000). In 2001, he was one of several writers on Channel 4's controversial ''Brass Eye'' special on the subject of paedophilia.

In 2003, Brooker wrote an episode entitled "How to Watch Television" for Channel 4's ''The Art Show''. The episode was presented in the style of a public information film and was partly animated, and gave advice on how to view television.

Together with ''Brass Eye'''s Chris Morris, Brooker co-wrote the sitcom ''Nathan Barley'', based on a character from one of TVGoHome's fictional programmes. The show was broadcast in 2005 and focused on the lives of a group of London media 'trendies'. The same year, he was also on the writing team of the Channel 4 sketch show ''Spoons'', produced by Zeppotron.

In 2006, Brooker began writing and presenting his signature television series ''Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe'' on BBC Four, a TV review programme in a similar style to his ''Screen Burn'' columns in ''The Guardian''. After an initial pilot series of three editions in April of that year, the programme returned in the autumn for a second run of four episodes plus Christmas and Review of the Year specials in December 2006. A third series followed in February 2007 with a fourth broadcast in September 2007, followed by a Review of the Year in December 2007. The fifth series started in November 2008 and was followed by another Review of the Year special. This series was also the first to be given a primetime repeat on terrestrial television (BBC Two), in January 2009.

''Screenwipe'''s format mostly consists of two elements. The first is the playing of clips from other television shows – both mainstream and obscure – interspersed with shots of Brooker, sitting in his living room, delivering witty critiques on them. The second is where Brooker explains, again with a slice of barbed humour, the way in which a particular area of the television industry operates. Also occasionally present are animations by David Firth and guest contributions, which have included the poetry of Tim Key, and segments in which a guest explains their fascination with a certain television show or genre.

Brooker has regularly experimented with ''Screenwipe'', with some editions focusing on a specific theme. These themes have included American television, TV news, advertising and children's programmes. (The last of these involved a segment where Brooker joined the cast of ''Toonattik'' for one week, playing the character of "Angry News Guy".) Probably the most radical departure from the norm came with an episode focused on scriptwriting, which saw several of British television's most prominent writers interviewed by Brooker.

As per the development of his career with ''The Guardian'', a similar show called Newswipe, focusing on current affairs reportage by the international news media, began on BBC Four on 25 March 2009. A second series began on 19 January 2010. He has also written and presented the one off special Gameswipe which focused on video games and aired on BBC Four on 29 September 2009.

Brooker has appeared on three episodes and one webisode of the popular BBC current affairs news quiz ''Have I Got News for You''. He appeared on an episode of the Channel 4 panel show ''8 Out of 10 Cats'', ''The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2009'', ''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' and ''Would I Lie To You?''. In December 2006 reviewed two games written by the presenters of ''VideoGaiden'', on their show. He also made a brief appearance in the third and final instalment of the documentary series ''Games Britannia'', discussing the rise and popularity of computer games.

Brooker wrote for the BBC Three sketch show ''Rush Hour''.

In 2009, Brooker began hosting ''You Have Been Watching'', a panel comedy TV quiz on Channel 4 which discusses television. A second series was broadcast the following year.

On 6 May 2010, Brooker was a co-host of the Channel 4 alternative election night, along with David Mitchell, Jimmy Carr and Lauren Laverne. The telethon was interspersed with contributions from Brooker, some live in the studio but mostly pre-recorded. Notably, an "Election Special" of ''You Have Been Watching'' and two smaller segments in an almost identical style to ''Screenwipe'' (the only noticeable difference being that Brooker was sitting in a different room). Brooker described the experience of live television as being so nerve-wracking he "did a piss" during the broadcast. A spin-off series, ''10 O'Clock Live'', started in January 2011 with the same four hosts.

Brooker's "2010 Wipe", a review of 2010 in the style of Screenwipe/Newswipe/Gameswipe, was broadcast on BBC2 on 27 December 2010, and a new documentary series ''How TV Ruined Your Life'' started on BBC 2 on 25 January 2011. He has co-written a feature-length spoof crime drama along with Daniel Maier for Sky1 called A Touch Of Cloth (due early 2012).

In December 2011, Brooker's new darkly satirical 3-part series Black Mirror aired on Channel 4 to largely positive reviews. As well as creating the show, Brooker wrote the first episode and co-wrote the second with his wife Konnie Huq.

''Charlie Brooker's 2011 Wipe'', an hour-long review show of 2011, was broadcast on BBC Four on 30 December 2011. It was repeated on BBC Two on 3 January 2012.

Dead Set

Brooker wrote ''Dead Set'', a five part zombie horror thriller for E4 set in the Big Brother house. The show was broadcast in October 2008 to coincide with Halloween and was repeated on Channel 4 in January 2009 to coincide with Celebrity Big Brother, and again for Halloween later that year. It was produced by Zeppotron, which also produced Screenwipe.

Brooker told MediaGuardian.co.uk it comprised a "mixture of known and less well known faces" and "Dead Set is very different to anything I've done before, and I hope the end result will surprise, entertain and appall people in equal measure." He added that he has long been a fan of horror films and that his new series "could not be described as a comedy". "I couldn't really describe what it is but it will probably surprise people," Brooker said, adding that he plans to "continue as normal" with his print journalism.

Jaime Winstone starred as a runner on the TV programme, and ''Big Brother'' presenter Davina McCall guest starred as herself. Dead Set received a BAFTA nomination for ''Best Drama Serial''.

Radio

Beginning on 11 May 2010, Brooker presented a 5-part BBC Radio 4 series celebrating failure titled ''So Wrong It's Right'', in which guests compete to pitch the worst possible ideas for new franchises and give the 'most wrong' answer to a question. Also featured are guests' recollections about their own personal life failures and their complaints about life in general in a round called 'This Putrid Modern Hell'. Guests have included David Mitchell, Lee Mack, Josie Long, Frank Skinner and Richard Herring. A second series was confirmed, and it began airing on 10 March 2011. In common with ''Screenwipe's'' use of a Grandaddy track (''A.M. 180'') from the album ''Under The Western Freeway'' as its theme tune, ''So Wrong It's Right'' uses another track from the same album, ''Summer Here Kids''.

Personal life

Brooker became engaged to former ''Blue Peter'' presenter Konnie Huq after dating for 9 months, having met whilst filming an episode of Screenwipe. They married on 26 July 2010 at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. On 15 December 2011, Huq's agent announced a baby boy is expected early in April 2012.

Brooker is an atheist and contributed to The Atheist's Guide to Christmas.

Brooker has become an avid running enthusiast, running for up to an hour every day.

Awards

Brooker won Columnist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards for his ''Guardian'' column, where the judges described Brooker as "edgy, entertaining and wonderfully surreal, he has the explosive writing skills that can turn your thinking upside down. A definite destination read and a jewel of a column. Acerbic, nasty, spiteful, yet clearly in love with every subject he writes about at the same time. Must read stuff". He won Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards 2009 and the Royal Television Society award 2010 for Best Entertainment Programme (''Newswipe''), beating ''The X Factor'' and ''Britain's Got Talent''. His show (''Newswipe'') won Best Comedy Entertainment Show at the 2011 British Comedy Awards.

Publications

''TV Go Home'', 2001 (rescanned reprint in 2010) (ISBN 1-84115-675-2)

''Unnovations'', 2002 (rescanned reprint in 2011) (ISBN 1-84115-730-9)

''Screen Burn'', 2004 (ISBN 0-571-22755-4)

''Dawn of the Dumb: Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline'', 2007 (ISBN 9780571238415)

''The Hell of it All'', Charlie Brooker, 2009 (ISBN 9780571229574)

References

External links

Charlie Brooker's Official Biography Page on zeppotron.com

Charlie Brooker's Agents and Production Company – zeppotron.com

TV Go Home

Charlie Brooker's Guardian columns

Shuffle's Cue & Ehh? with Charlie Brooker

Charlie Brooker's made-up film awards

Charlie Brooker Interview about You Have Been Watching

Charlie Brooker's page, Conville and Walsh literary agents

Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century writers Category:21st-century writers Category:Alumni of the University of Westminster Category:British television critics Category:English atheists Category:English comedians Category:English comedy writers Category:English satirists Category:English television presenters Category:English television producers Category:English television writers Category:People from Reading, Berkshire Category:The Guardian journalists

Coordinates	39°44′21″N104°59′5″N
name	Thom Yorke
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Edward Yorke
Alias	Tchock, Tchocky, Dr. Tchock
born	October 07, 1968Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England
Alma mater	University of Exeter
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards, bass guitar, sampler, programming, laptop, percussion, organ, drums
genre	Alternative rock, electronic music
occupation	Musician, singer, songwriter
years active	1985–present
label	XL
associated acts	Radiohead, Atoms for Peace, Unkle, Björk, Flying Lotus, PJ Harvey, Drugstore
notable instruments	Fender TelecasterGibson ES-335Gibson SGFender JazzmasterEpiphone CasinoRickenbacker 330Gibson HummingbirdTaylor Big BabyRhodes piano }}

Thomas Edward "Thom" Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the alternative rock band Radiohead. He mainly plays guitar and piano, but he has also played drums and bass guitar (notably during the ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' sessions). In July 2006, he released his debut solo album, ''The Eraser''.

Yorke has been cited among the most influential figures in the music industry: in 2002, ''Q Magazine'' named Yorke the most powerful British musician and in 2005, Radiohead was ranked #73 in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list. Yorke has also been cited among the greatest singers in the history of popular music: in 2005, a poll organised by ''Blender'' and MTV2 saw Yorke voted the 18th greatest singer of all time, and in 2008, he was ranked 66th in ''Rolling Stone's'' "100 Greatest Singers of all Time". Allmusic wrote: "Few rock singers of the '90s were as original and instantly unforgettable as Thom Yorke."

Life and career

Early years

Yorke was born in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. At birth, his left eye was fixed shut; his doctors believed that the eye was paralyzed, and that the condition would be permanent. Yorke's parents took him to an eye specialist, who suggested a muscle graft. Yorke underwent five eye operations before he was six years old. Yorke's father, a chemical equipment salesman, was hired by a firm in Scotland shortly after his son's birth and the family lived there until Yorke was seven. During this time Yorke had to wear a patch over his eye. He has stated that the last surgery was "botched", leaving him with a drooping eyelid.

Yorke's family moved frequently; Yorke would move from school to school, where classmates teased him because of his eye problems. The family finally settled in Oxfordshire in 1978. He attended the all boys public school Abingdon where he met future band members Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway, Colin Greenwood and Colin's younger brother, Jonny. Yorke and his friends formed a band named On A Friday, as Friday was the only day on which the members were allowed to rehearse. Yorke, in this early line up, played guitar and provided vocals because "Nobody else would do it", and was already developing his songwriting and lyrical skills. Yorke, speaking about music's influence on him as a schoolboy, said, "School was bearable for me because the music department was separate from the rest of the school. It had pianos in tiny booths, and I used to spend a lot of time hanging around there after school."

After leaving school, Yorke postponed going to university for a year. During that time he worked in a few jobs and was involved in a car accident that made him wary of any kind of mechanised transport. Yorke left Oxford to study at the University of Exeter in late 1988, which as a result put On a Friday on hiatus aside from holiday break rehearsals. While at Exeter, Yorke worked as a DJ at Guild nights in the Lemon Grove and played briefly with the band Headless Chickens. Yorke also met Rachel Owen, whom he began dating.

Radiohead

On A Friday resumed activity in 1991 as the members were finishing their degree courses. Now relocated to Oxford, they signed to Parlophone and changed their name to Radiohead. Around this time, Yorke said he "hit the self-destruct button pretty quickly"; he drank heavily, which resulted in him randomly cutting his hair off and being too drunk to perform onstage.

Radiohead first gained notice with the worldwide hit single "Creep", which later appeared on the band's 1993 debut album ''Pablo Honey''. Yorke admitted later that the success had fed his ego; he tried to project himself as a rock star, which included bleaching his hair and wearing extensions. He said, "When I got back to Oxford I was unbearable . . . [A]s soon as you get any success you disappear up your own arse and lost it forever."

By the time of their second album, ''The Bends'' (1995), the band, through frequent touring and greater attention to detail in the recording studio, had picked up a large cult fan base and had begun to receive wider critical acclaim. After the album's release, the American group R.E.M. picked Radiohead as its opening act for the European leg of their tour. While on tour Yorke and R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe became close friends; in particular, Stipe gave him advice on how to deal with the demands of being in a rock band. During the production of the band's third album, ''OK Computer'' (1997), all five members had differing opinions and equal production roles, with Yorke having "the loudest voice", according to guitarist Ed O'Brien. After the album was finished, Yorke and Jonny Greenwood contributed to the ''Velvet Goldmine'' soundtrack along with other musicians under the moniker Venus in Furs. Upon release, ''OK Computer'' was heralded as a landmark album by nearly every publication that reviewed it, establishing Radiohead as one of the leading alternative rock acts of the 1990s. But Yorke was ambivalent about this success. Some of these concerns were voiced in the documentary film ''Meeting People Is Easy'', which focused on the period. Yorke has explained in various interviews that he dislikes the "mythology" within the rock genre, and hates the media's obsession with celebrities.

Yorke and the band adopted a more radical approach on 2000's ''Kid A'' and 2001's ''Amnesiac'', processing vocals, obscuring lyrics, and departing from rock for a more varied musical landscape including electronic, jazz and avant-garde classical influences. The albums expanded Radiohead's sales while earning acclaim for experimentation, but also divided fans and critics. In 2003, Radiohead released their sixth album, ''Hail to the Thief'', a blend of rock and electronica that Yorke described as a reaction to the events of the early 2000s and newfound fears for his children's future, though he denied a specific political intent. The band continued to tour, and in 2005 they undertook recording sessions for a seventh album, ''In Rainbows'', released as a DRM-free download in October 2007. In February 2011, the band released their eighth studio album, ''The King of Limbs'', via digital download.

Solo work

Yorke released his solo album, ''The Eraser'', in 2006. Produced by Nigel Godrich and featuring cover art by Stanley Donwood, it was released on the independent label XL Recordings. Yorke described the album as "more beats and electronics" and denied that it meant he was leaving Radiohead, saying, "I want no crap about me being a traitor or whatever splitting up blah blah... this was all done with their blessing." ''The Eraser'' reached number 3 in the UK in its first week and number 2 in the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as number 9 on the Irish charts. The album was on the prestigious Mercury Prize shortlist and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.

Yorke rarely plays as a solo act, having never embarked on a solo tour. He has sometimes played short acoustic sets of Radiohead songs in the band's webcasts and television appearances, and occasionally on his own at rallies. However, he did play solo sets at the 2002 Bridge School Benefit concerts organised by Neil Young. In 2006, he performed stripped-down versions of several songs from ''The Eraser'' ("Analyse", "The Clock", "Skip Divided" and "Cymbal Rush") on radio and TV programmes, and since then he has played and sung "Cymbal Rush" as an encore at some Radiohead concerts. In July 2009, Yorke played a rare solo performance at the Latitude Festival in England. In February 2010, Yorke played a solo show for the Green Party at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, where he played select Radiohead songs and songs from ''The Eraser'', as well as five entirely new songs: "The Daily Mail", "Lotus Flower", "Give Up The Ghost", "I Froze Up", and "Mouse, Dog, Bird".

On 21 September 2009 Yorke released a new double-A side single, "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses / The Hollow Earth". It was later announced that he has established an unnamed band with Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Joey Waronker of R.E.M. and Beck, Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark and producer Nigel Godrich. They played two sold out shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles on 4 and 5 October 2009. Two days before, Yorke also played a "warm-up" show at the Echoplex in Los Angeles. On 25 February 2010, Yorke officially gave the band the name Atoms for Peace.

In June 2010, Yorke attracted some notoriety when he stated in an interview that "It will be only a matter of time - months rather than years - before the music business establishment completely folds" and that such an event will be of "no great loss to the world". Yorke's quote quickly caused a stir of buzz on the blogosphere, with critics both praising and criticising his frankness.

Collaborations

Aside from his own solo work, Yorke has collaborated with several artists. He sang backing vocals on PJ Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning 2000 album ''Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea'' and sung a duet with Harvey on one of her songs, "This Mess We're In". In the same year, he also appeared on Björk's soundtrack album ''Selmasongs'', singing "I've Seen It All" with her. The Oscar-nominated song was written for ''Dancer in the Dark'', a film starring Björk, and Yorke's part is sung in the film by actor Peter Stormare; due to time constraints, Björk performed it alone at the 2001 Academy Awards. The two worked together again in 2008 on a charity single called "Náttúra".

Yorke also sang covers of the Roxy Music songs "2HB", "Ladytron" and "Bitter-Sweet" for the 1998 film ''Velvet Goldmine'', as part of Venus in Furs. The band existed solely for the film's soundtrack and also consisted of Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood, Suede's Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music's Andy Mackay. Yorke was duplicating Bryan Ferry's original vocals. Two other cover songs were performed by Venus in Furs, with vocals by actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the film; Yorke never appeared onscreen.

Examples of Yorke's other collaborations are the 1998 single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", which he sang and co-wrote with DJ Shadow and which closes ''Psyence Fiction'', the debut album by the group UNKLE; "El President", a 1998 duet with Isabel Monteiro of the band Drugstore, which was also released as a single; and vocals on the 2007 track "The White Flash", by the electronic music group Modeselektor, from their album ''Happy Birthday''. Yorke has also collaborated with Stanley Donwood on a picture book entitled ''Dead Children Playing''. Yorke also covered lead vocal duties on "...And the World Laughs with You" from the 2010 Flying Lotus album ''Cosmogramma''.

In 2010, Yorke worked with Bryan Ferry, Mark Ronson, Bob Hoskins, Andy Murray, and David Cameron to release the charity single "2 Minute Silence"—a track composed entirely of silence—to raise money for the families of British troops released on Remembrance Day, 7 November. The song peaked in the UK Singles Chart at number 20.

In 2011, Yorke lent vocals to two tracks, "Ego" and "Mirror", created through a collaboration between Burial and Four Tet. The songs were debuted on the radio station, Rinse FM, before being released on vinyl.

Atoms for Peace

On 25 February 2010 Yorke revealed the name of his new band—"Atoms for Peace"—and announced a series of U.S. tour dates. Yorke first introduced the band late in 2009. It includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass, R.E.M. all-round session drummer Joey Waronker, percussionist Mauro Refosco of the musical collective Forro in the Dark and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on keyboards and treatments. When the band officially debuted in Los Angeles last October, it was billed with question marks due to it being unnamed. In a note on Radiohead's website, Yorke wrote; "It has been decided that we call ourselves Atoms For Peace. hope you like the name. it seemed bleedin' obvious." Atoms for Peace is a track on Yorke's 2006 solo album ''The Eraser''. Yorke said the band would play eight dates starting in New York on 5 April before hitting the three-day 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California on 18 April. Radiohead recently took a break from recording, but performed a Haiti relief fund-raising concert in Los Angeles in January.

Personal life

Yorke currently lives in Oxford with his long-time girlfriend, Rachel Owen, who obtained a Ph.D. from the University of London for research on the illustrations to Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', having previously studied fine art printmaking at the University of Exeter and painted at the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Florence. They have two children, Noah, born in 2001, and Agnes, born 2004. He has one brother, Andy, ex-vocalist of the band Unbelievable Truth.

In 2005, Yorke became a spokesman for Friends of the Earth and their campaign to reduce carbon emissions, The Big Ask.

Yorke often pays tribute to his children while performing live; during songs at the 2006 Bonnaroo Festival, Yorke played with guitar picks imprinted with Agnes' fingerprints.

Musical approach

Vocal characteristics

As a singer, Yorke is recognisable by his distinctive tenor voice, vibrato, frequent use of falsetto, and ability to reach and sustain notes over a wide vocal range. During the recording sessions for ''The Bends'' in 1994, Radiohead watched Jeff Buckley in concert; Yorke later said the concert directly influenced his vocal delivery on "Fake Plastic Trees". However, Yorke has said, "It annoys me how pretty my voice is... how polite it can sound when perhaps what I'm singing is deeply acidic." He has explored other styles of singing, such as the aggressive shouting in "Paranoid Android" and semi-spoken vocals in "Myxomatosis" and "A Wolf at the Door".

Musicianship

Aside from vocal duties and writing lyrics, Yorke's musical contributions to Radiohead include guitar and piano. He also plays bass guitar on occasion (the bass line for "The National Anthem" was recorded by him) as well as drums; during the 2006 and 2008–2009 tours he performed percussion on stage in tandem with drummer Phil Selway on the track "Bangers & Mash".

Yorke, unlike the other members of Radiohead, has never learned how to read music. He said, "If someone lays the notes on a page in front of me, it's meaningless... because to me you can't express the rhythms properly like that. It's a very ineffective way of doing it, so I've never really bothered picking it up."

Since ''Kid A,'' Radiohead, and in particular Yorke, have incorporated elements of electronic music into their work. As a result, Yorke has taken an increased role in programming beats and samples and has been credited with playing "laptop" on recent albums. On a radio show in 2003 to publicise the release of ''Hail to the Thief'', Yorke remarked that he would rather make a record just with a computer than with only an acoustic guitar. His solo effort ''The Eraser'' featured piano, bass and guitar, but was built primarily around electronics.

In interviews Yorke has cited a variety of personal musical heroes and influences, including jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus, Neil Young, Miracle Legion, singer Scott Walker, electronic acts Aphex Twin and Autechre, and Krautrock band Can. Talking Heads, Queen, Joy Division, Magazine, Elvis Costello, The Smiths and Sonic Youth were early influences on Radiohead and Yorke. In 2004, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Yorke mentioned to the crowd, "When I was in college, the Pixies and R.E.M. changed my life.".

Activism

Yorke has spoken out on various political and social issues. Radiohead had read ''No Logo'' by Naomi Klein during the ''Kid A'' sessions ("No Logo" was also briefly considered as the album title) and all the members were reportedly heavily influenced by it, though Yorke said it "didn't teach him anything he didn't already know". Yorke's activism in support of fair trade practices, with an anti-WTO and anti-globalisation stance, garnered significant attention in the early 2000s. Yorke had previously referenced maquiladoras in the title of a Radiohead B-side in 1995, and decried the IMF in 1997's "Electioneering". Yorke is also a professed fan of Noam Chomsky's political writings, and is a vegan.

Yorke is also notable as a political activist on behalf of other causes, including human rights and anti-war movements such as Jubilee 2000, Amnesty International and CND, and Friends of the Earth's Big Ask campaign. Radiohead played at the Free Tibet concert in both 1998 and 1999, and at an Amnesty International concert in 1998. In 2005, Yorke performed at an all-night vigil for the Trade Justice Movement. In 2006, Jonny Greenwood and Yorke performed a special benefit concert for Friends of the Earth. Yorke made headlines the same year for refusing Prime Minister Tony Blair's request to meet with him to discuss climate change, declaring Blair had "no environmental credentials". Yorke has subsequently been critical of his own energy use. He has said the music industry's use of air transport is dangerous and unsustainable, and that he would consider not touring if new carbon emissions standards do not force the situation to improve. Radiohead commissioned a study by the group ''Best Foot Forward'' which the band claims helped them choose venues and transport methods that will greatly reduce the carbon expended on their 2008 tour. The band also made use of a new low-energy LED lighting system and encouraged festivals to offer reusable plastics.

Thom Yorke supported the climate change documentary, The Age of Stupid. He donated Radiohead's song "Reckoner" for the end credits of the film and performed the track live via satellite linkup for The Age of Stupid's Global Premiere. During the live satellite linkup, Yorke spoke out about the problems of economic growth, saying, "I think Ed Miliband probably knows this but won't admit it, as most politicians won't: that the concept of limitless economic growth is now dead."

In December 2009, Yorke gained access to the COP 15 climate change talks in Copenhagen, posing as a member of the media. Whilst at the conference he took part in Spanner Films 'Stupid Show' - short films shot at the conference each day with the aim of making the talks comprehensible for ordinary people. He appeared alongside Tony Juniper, debating the barriers to a global deal on emissions reduction and the issue of media representation of the climate change debate - he called the BBC a "bunch of monkeys"

Relationship with celebrities and the media

Yorke has had an uneasy relationship with other celebrities and the media. Following Radiohead's 1993 ''Pablo Honey'' tour of America, Yorke became disenchanted at being "right at the sharp end of the sexy, sassy, MTV eye-candy lifestyle" he felt he was helping to sell to the world. The 1998 documentary film ''Meeting People is Easy'' portrays Yorke's disaffection with the music industry and press during the 1997-8 "Against Demons" world tour.

A number of celebrities have been upset by Yorke's public persona. In 2001, Kelly Jones, the lead singer of the Welsh band Stereophonics, referred to Thom Yorke as a "miserable twat" (a comment he later retracted). In 2002, Jack Black claimed to have approached Yorke to congratulate him on his solo show at the Bridge School Benefit concert in San Francisco, only for Yorke to ignore him and walk away. Referring to the incident, Black stated in an interview: "I heard later that he's famously cold, and it wasn't just me that he despises, but the whole world." After completing a trek of Kilimanjaro in 2009, Ronan Keating was asked by an interviewer which celebrity he would most like to throw off a mountain. Keating named Yorke, and referred to him as a "muppet", stating that Yorke was once rude to him. In the same year, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West also complained about Yorke's alleged rudeness. In a response to these complaints, Yorke wrote on Radiohead's Dead Air Space website, "wish us all a safe journey if you still like us and you're not one of those people I have managed to offend by doing nothing."

Discography

Notes

References

External links

The Eraser: Official website for Yorke's solo album release

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1968 births Category:English activists Category:English environmentalists Category:Anti-globalization activists Category:English male singers Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English tenors Category:English vegans Category:Friends of the Earth Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Living people Category:People from Wellingborough Category:Radiohead members Category:Alumni of the University of Exeter Category:Music from Oxford Category:Old Abingdonians Category:Rhythm guitarists Category:XL Recordings artists

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Coordinates	39°44′21″N104°59′5″N
Name	Gerard Way
Nationality	American
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Gerard Arthur Way
Born	April 09, 1977Summit, New Jersey, United States
Origin	Belleville, New Jersey
Genre	Alternative rock, post-hardcore
Occupation	Musician, comic book writer
Years active	2001–present
Instrument	Vocals, guitar
Associated acts	My Chemical Romance
Label	Reprise, Warner Bros., Eyeball
notable instruments	}}

Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977) is an American musician and comic book writer who has served as lead vocalist and co-founder of the band My Chemical Romance since its formation in 2001. He is also the writer of the Eisner Award-winning comic book ''The Umbrella Academy''.

Early life

Gerard Way was born April 9, 1977 in Summit, New Jersey to Donna Lee (née Rush) and Donald Way. He has Italian ancestry on his mother's side and Scottish ancestry on his father's. He was raised in Belleville, New Jersey and first began singing publicly in the fourth grade, when he played the role of Peter Pan in a school musical production. His maternal grandmother, Elena Lee Rush, was a great creative influence who taught him to sing, paint, and perform from a young age; he has said that "she has taught me everything I know". Also, while in elementary school, the glam metal band Bon Jovi was instrumental in forming his love of music.

At the age of 15, Way was held at gunpoint, as he said in an April 2008 ''Rolling Stone'' interview: "I got held up with a .357 Magnum, had a gun pointed to my head and put on the floor, execution-style." He went on to say that "no matter how ugly the world gets or how stupid it shows me it is, I always have faith."

Way attended Belleville High School until he graduated in 1995. Deciding to pursue a career in the comic-book industry, he attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1999.

Career

Music

As teenagers Gerard and his brother Mikey Way, who later became the bassist of My Chemical Romance, were influenced by the bands Iron Maiden and The Misfits as well as British artists such as Pulp, Blur and Morrissey and The Smiths. Way originally wanted to be a guitarist. His grandmother bought him his first guitar at the age of eight and he played in short-lived bands such as Ray Gun Jones and Nancy Drew with future bandmate Ray Toro, but when he was not successful (one band kicking him out due to his lack of skill with the guitar), he chose to concentrate on his art career.

Way was working as an intern for Cartoon Network in New York City during the September 11, 2001 attacks. Seeing the effects of the attacks first-hand prompted Way to change his views on life in the following weeks. He told ''Spin'' magazine, "I literally said to myself, 'Fuck art. I’ve gotta get out of the basement. I’ve gotta see the world. I’ve gotta make a difference.'" To help deal with the emotional effects the attacks had on him, Way wrote the lyrics to the song "Skylines and Turnstiles", which has since been identified as the first song by ''My Chemical Romance''. Soon after, My Chemical Romance began to assemble as a band.

Way has contributed vocally to bands such as Every Time I Die's 'Kill The Music', Head Automatica's 'Graduation Day', Say Anything's "In Defense Of The Genre", and The Oval Portrait's "From My Cold Dead Hands" and "Barnabus Collins Has More Skeletons In His Closet Than Vincent Price".

In many interviews Way has stated that music turned out to be an effective outlet to deal with his longtime battles against depression, alcoholism and prescription drug use. The use of music as a way to resolve personal battles has caused Way to create deeply personal songs such as "Helena," which was written in memory of his late grandmother.

In 2008, Way and musical project Julien-K remixed a version of the song Sleep When I'm Dead by The Cure for their EP 'Hypnagogic States'. All profits gained from the sales of the EP go to funding the International Red Cross.

In early 2009, Way and Japanese singer Kyosuke Himuro co-produced the new theme song for ''Advent Children Complete'', the Blu-Ray director's cut of the movie sequel to the popular video game franchise, ''Compilation of Final Fantasy VII''. He is also credited with writing the lyrics, and singing alongside Himuro. The song is entitled "Safe and Sound" and was released on iTunes on April 29, 2009. "Safe and Sound" is only heard on the Japanese release of the film; the English release uses Himuro's "Calling" (the original ending theme for ''Advent Children'') in place of it.

Writing

Gerard Way's first attempt at writing a comic was at the age of 16, writing a short-lived comic series called 'On Raven's Wings', which was cancelled after Issue 2 due to losing the art team; he was credited as Garry Way.

In 2007, Way began writing the comic-book miniseries ''The Umbrella Academy''. Way wrote the story and illustrated the original version, but cartoonist Gabriel Ba recreated all of Way's original drawings in the final version. A few of Way's first drawings of the characters can be seen in the last few pages of the first book in the series, "The Apocalypse Suite".

''The Apocalypse Suite'' was first released by Dark Horse Comics in their Free Comic Book Day issue on May 5, 2007. Since then, an eight-page story has been published on MySpace, entitled "Safe & Sound". The first official issue was released on September 19, 2007. The first issue to sell out and consequently there was a second printing released on October 17, 2007. The next installment was released on November 26, 2008.

He and fellow artists Shaun Simon and Becky Cloonan are currently in the process of developing and creating a new comic-book series titled "The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys" (based on his fourth album ''Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys''), which Way announced at Comic Con 2009. In 2011 My Chemical Romance confirmed the comic's connection with their music, and they also stated that they are working on another comic book project which they have kept under wraps as of mid-2011.

Cartoons

In 2001 Way co-created a cartoon with Joe Boyle called ''The Breakfast Monkey''. They pitched it to Cartoon Network, but the network declined to pick up the concept on the grounds that it was too similar to the existing property ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force''.

Personal life

Way has struggled with alcoholism and prescription drug addiction for many years and has now been sober since August 2004. In a recent issue of Spin magazine, he said that, having become a happier person and feeling more in control, he has been able to enjoy the occasional recreational drink.

On September 3, 2007 after a concert in Colorado, Way married LynZ of Mindless Self Indulgence backstage on the final date of the Projekt Revolution tour. A member of Live Nation's touring staff that was also an ordained minister performed the low-key ceremony. He currently lives with his wife in Los Angeles, California. Their daughter, Bandit Lee Way, was born in California on May 27, 2009.

Discography

My Chemical Romance

{|class="wikitable" style="width:79.5%" ! rowspan="2" width="30" | Year ! rowspan="2" width="280" | Album details ! colspan="11" | Chart peaks ! rowspan="2" width="140" | Certifications(sales thresholds) |- ! width="30" | US ! width="30" | AUS ! width="30" | AUT ! width="30" | CAN ! width="30" | GER ! width="30" | IRL ! width="30" | JPN ! width="30" | MEX ! width="30" | NZL ! width="30" | SWE ! width="30" | UK |- | 2002 | ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love''

Released: July 23, 2002

Label: Eyeball Records

Format: CD, CS, DD, Enhanced CD, LP

| align="center" | — | align="center" | — | align="center" | — | align="center" | — | align="center" | — | align="center" | — | align="center" | 250 | align="center" | — | align="center" | — | align="center" | — | align="center" | 129 | UK: Gold |- | 2004 | ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge''

Released: June 8, 2004

Label: Reprise Records

Format: CD, CD+DVD, CS, DD, LP

| align="center" | 28 | align="center" | 38 | align="center" | 73 | align="center" | — | align="center" | 57 | align="center" | 36 | align="center" | 73 | align="center" | — | align="center" | 30 | align="center" | — | align="center" | 34 | |- | 2006 | ''The Black Parade''

Released: October 23, 2006

Label: Reprise Records

Format: CD, CS, DD, Enhanced CD, 2×LP

| align="center" | 2 | align="center" | 3 | align="center" | 4 | align="center" | 2 | align="center" | 11 | align="center" | 5 | align="center" | 10 | align="center" | 35 | align="center" | 1 | align="center" | 4 | align="center" | 2 | |- | 2010 | ''Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys''

Released: November 22, 2010

Label: Reprise Records

Format: CD, DD

| align="center" | 8 | align="center" | 10 | align="center" | 15 | align="center" | 13 | align="center" | 18 | align="center" | 14 | align="center" | 8 | align="center" | 9 | align="center" | 4 | align="center" | — | align="center" | 14 | |- ! colspan="15" | "—" denotes a release that did not chart |}

References

Notes

#"Teen Titans" — ''Rolling Stone'' (2005-07-14)

External links

My Chemical Romance Official Website

Category:1977 births Category:American comics writers Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:American musicians of Scottish descent Category:American rock musicians Category:The Black Parade (rock opera) Category:Living people Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:My Chemical Romance members Category:People from Belleville, New Jersey Category:People from West New York, New Jersey Category:School of Visual Arts alumni

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