People[link]

• Bailey (surname)
• Bailey (given name)

Fictional Characters[link]

• Beetle Bailey, a comic strip created by Mort Walker
• Bailey Pickett, a character on The Suite Life on Deck
• Miranda Bailey, a character Grey's Anatomy
• Bailey, in the television series Cleopatra 2525, a type of large and heavily armed floating bio-mechanical robot whose sole purpose is to collect and/or destroy any human it encounters

Other[link]

• Bailey bridge, a portable pre-fabricated truss bridge
• Bailey (car), a former USA automobile manufacturer using rotary engines in its cars
• Bailey (fortification), an enclosed courtyard adjacent to a motte in a castle.
• Bailey, New Hampshire, a fictional town depicted in the comic book Mister Miracle
• Baileys Irish Cream, a type of alcoholic liqueur
• JUSTIN BAILEY, a famous password from the NES video-game Metroid
• Old Bailey, The Central Criminal Court in London, England.
• Bailey, a South Wales mining valleys term to describe the area immediate to the kitchen and between the neighbour's kitchen wall, usually floored in flagstones, and typically housing the washing utensils including mangle (machine)

See also[link]

• Baily (disambiguation)
• BAILII

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae at Divan du Monde, Paris, January 2009
Background information
Birth name	Corinne Jacqueline Bailey
Born	(1979-02-26) 26 February 1979 (age 33) Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
Genres	Soul, R&B, jazz, blues
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, guitarist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	2005–present
Labels	EMI, Capitol
Website	corinnebaileyrae.net
Notable instruments
Gibson Hummingbird[1]

Corinne Bailey Rae (born Corinne Jacqueline Bailey on 26 February 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist from Leeds, West Yorkshire. Bailey Rae was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2006 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2006.^[2] She released her debut album, Corinne Bailey Rae, in February 2006, and became the fourth female British act in history to have her first album debut at number one.^[3][4] In 2007, Bailey Rae was nominated for three Grammy Awards and three Brit Awards, and won two MOBO Awards. In 2008, she won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year (for her work as a featured artist in Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters).^[5]

Bailey Rae released her second album, The Sea, on 26 January 2010, after a hiatus of almost three years. It was produced by Steve Brown and Steve Chrisanthou (who produced her debut album in 2006).^[6][7] She was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize for Album of the Year. In 2012, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance (for "Is This Love)".^[8] Bailey Rae was married to fellow musician Jason Rae from 2001 until his death in 2008, and as part of the grieving process, she channeled her emotions into her music.^[3][9] Her two albums have together sold over five million copies worldwide.

Early years[link]

Childhood[link]

Bailey Rae was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England to a Kittitian father and an English mother as the oldest of three daughters, including Candice Bailey and actress Rhea Bailey.

Bailey Rae began her musical career at school where she studied classical violin before she turned her attention to singing: "I started off singing in church, I suppose, but people think it must have been a gospel church because of the whole, you know, black assumption," she says in reference to her multiracial background. "But it wasn't gospel at all, it was just your regular Brethren church, very middle-class, where we would sing these harmonies every Sunday. It was always my favourite part of the service, the singing."^[10]

Bailey Rae later transferred to a Baptist church, where the youth leader was coaching rock bands in the local high school. The church young people wrote their own worship songs and sang covers by the likes of Primal Scream. "We changed the words though," Bailey Rae states on her website. "We didn't want to offend the regular churchgoers, now did we?"^[10] She recorded two albums with the youth group under the name of Revive.^[11]

Performing in church broadened Bailey Rae's musical horizons, and her love for making music was solidified after the church youth leader offered to lend her the money for her first guitar. In her mid-teens, she was highly influenced by Lenny Kravitz, and through him she discovered rock legends Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. "I loved that band during my teens; I wanted, somehow, to follow in their footsteps, and to create music of my own."^[10]

Bailey Rae formed an all-female (barring the drummer) indie group called Helen, which was inspired by similar acts such as Veruca Salt and L7. "It was the first time I'd seen women with guitars. They were kinda sexy—but feminist. I wanted to be like that, at the front of something."^[12]

The group raised eyebrows on several fronts; in the white male-dominated world of indie music, they were a mainly female group, fronted by a mixed-race singer from Leeds. The moniker "Helen" also drew attention, albeit for not all the right reasons: "What can I say? We were 15 years old, and thought that Helen was a cheeky, indie kind of thing to do. It seemed clever at the time. Admittedly, it seems less so now".^[10]

The group played many gigs around Leeds and whilst unable to attract offers from any UK labels eventually were approached by US based heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records, home to acts such as Slipknot, in 1998. This deal disappeared before it was even signed however after the bassist became pregnant and the group disbanded. "[Was I] Disappointed? I was gutted! I had no idea what to do next".

University life[link]

Bailey Rae studied English Literature at the University of Leeds where she graduated in 2000. While at University, she began work as a hat check girl on an evening in her local jazz club. Permitted to sing on stage with the jazz band when business was slow, it was there that she discovered a different type of music that sent her on a different musical path: "I kept hearing this jazz and soul stuff and I realised I loved music too".^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Corinne Bailey met Scottish-born Jason Rae in a jazz club in Leeds where she had a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant.^[13] She married him in 2001 at the age of twenty-two and changed her name to Bailey Rae.^[14] Jason Rae (born in 1976), a musician, played saxophone for the eight-piece group called Haggis Horns,^[15] and had recorded with Bailey Rae, The New Mastersounds and Martina Topley-Bird (Quixotic) albums. On 22 March 2008, Jason Rae was found dead in a flat in the Hyde Park area of Leeds.^{[16][17][18][19]} In December 2008, Leeds Coroner's Court gave a verdict of death by misadventure, and stated that Rae had died of an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol.^[20]

Music career[link]

[edit] 2004–2008: Career music development and Corinne Bailey Rae

Corinne Bailey Rae performing live at the V Festival on 18 August 2007

In the three years after she got married, Bailey Rae began working on solo material—this time steering away from her indie past and embarking on a more "soulful" path. She collaborated with Leeds-based funk group The New Mastersounds on the track "Your Love Is Mine," featured on their 2003 album Be Yourself, released via One Note Records. The following year she again worked with another Leeds-based group, Homecut Directive, on the song "Come the Revolution", which was the first single from the group's debut album.

In 2004, Bailey Rae got a breakthrough when she was signed by Global Talent Publishing and then approached by Craig David's mentor Mark Hill, from the duo The Artful Dodger, to appear on his new album better luck next time under his new alias, The stiX. The resulting collaboration, "Young and Foolish", was released in April 2005 and brought Bailey Rae to the attention of the major record label bosses.

Bailey Rae released her debut single, "Like a Star", in November 2005 and her first album, Corinne Bailey Rae, in February 2006. It debuted at number one in the UK and entered the top ten of the U.S.Billboard 200, peaking at number four and spending 71 weeks in the chart from 2006 to 2008. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album sold 1.9 million copies in the United States alone.^[21]

The lead single, "Like a Star" became a hit in the UK and US, and sold over 327,000 US downloads. Follow-up single "Put Your Records On", her biggest hit to date, rose to number two in the UK, and sold over 945,000 US downloads. "Trouble Sleeping" made the top forty, and "I'd Like To", the top seventy. In the middle of 2006, Bailey Rae embarked on her first international tour through Europe and North America with R&B singer John Legend, playing 55 shows including the festivals Rock in Rio Lisboa 2 and Live Earth. In early April 2006, Corinne Bailey Rae was certified 2x platinum by the BPI^[22] and platinum by the RIAA in December.^[23] In September 2006, Bailey Rae scooped two awards at the UK's MOBO Awards: "Best UK Newcomer" and "Best UK Female". Bailey Rae recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios in July 2006 for Live from Abbey Road.

Bailey Rae was the musical guest in a 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live with the host being Jaime Pressly. She performed "Put Your Records On" and "Like a Star". She also appeared on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on the episode "B-12", which aired in November 2006, with Howie Mandel. She performed "Like a Star" and "Trouble Sleeping". Also in 2006, Bailey Rae performed on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge with the songs "Like a Star", a cover version of Editors' "Munich", and a cover version of Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack".^[24]

Bailey Rae also received three nominations at the 2007 Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year (both for "Put Your Records On"), and Best New Artist. During the ceremony, she performed "Like a Star" and joined John Legend and John Mayer in a collaborative performance, providing accompanying vocals to Legend's "Coming Home" and Mayer's "Gravity".^[25]

Also in 2007, Bailey Rae accepted an invitation to participate Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard Records), where she contributed her version of Domino's "One Night (of Sin)". She also recorded John Lennon's "I'm Losing You" for Make Some Noise, Amnesty International's music venture. The song was also released on the 2007 John Lennon tribute album, "Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur". In July of that year, Bailey Rae performed at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London.

In 2008, Like a Star was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year. Bailey Rae won in two categories for Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Jazz Album for her collaboration on River: The Joni Letters. Also in 2008, she recorded a live session of "River" with Hancock at Abbey Road Studios in for Live from Abbey Road for Channel 4 which was broadcast on Series 2.^[26]

During the American and European tour, Bailey Rae recorded her first DVD with the title Live in London & New York. The DVD was filmed in London and the bonus CD was recorded in New York.

[edit] 2009–2011: The Sea and The Love EP

Rae performing at Le Divan du Monde, 2010

Corinne Bailey Rae performing live in 2006

Corinne Bailey Rae released her new album titled The Sea on 26 January 2010.^[27] -- 4 years after the release of her first album and almost two years following the death of her husband Jason Rae.^[28] Lead single I'd Do It All Again premiered on 25 November in 2009 on the Jools Holland program Later.^[29] Follow up single "Closer" was added to Smooth Jazz Radio on 25 January, Urban AC on 1 February and AC radio in late February. The album's second single "Paris Nights and New York Mornings" went to Triple A radio on 15 February.^[30][31] Around the release of the second album, Corinne did a run of promotional shows in the UK, Europe and US, she embarked on her second world tour, The Sea Tour, with 82 concerts, and had a gross profit of $ 19 million. The tour visited UK, Europe, US (Spring and Summer) Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Middle East. The tour began on 27 February 2010 in London and his last show on 10 March 2011 in Korea. Her summer concert in London at Somerset House sold out, and she returned to London again in October to perform in Royal Festival Hall with Pete Lawrie as a supporting act.

In December 2009, Bailey Rae recorded a live performance in New York City that was broadcast in the summer of 2010 on the US television program Live From the Artists Den.^[32]

On 2 June 2010, Bailey Rae appeared with Herbie Hancock, singing "Blackbird" in a concert honouring Paul McCartney in the East Room of the White House.^[33]

On 25 January 2011, Bailey released an EP, The Love EP, with five recordings of love songs, including Prince's "I Wanna Be Your Lover", Bob Marley's "Is This Love" and Paul McCartney & Wings' "My Love". The EP debuted at number eighty-six in the Billboard 200 and still managed the Top 20 in Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The EP has sold 15,000 copies in the U.S. The first single, "Is This Love", won Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance at 54th Grammy Awards.

Bailey Rae made an appearance as a musical guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 28 October 2010, covering the Bob Marley song "Is This Love".

On 14 July 2011, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Leeds where she had studied as an undergraduate.

During an interview for the 2011 Mercury Awards, Corinne revealed she is writing a follow-up album to her critically acclaimed "The Sea".

Soundtrack inclusions[link]

"Like a Star" is part of the soundtracks of several films, series and soap operas, such as Cashmere Mafia, 27 Dresses, Men in Trees, Nancy Drew, Perfect Stranger, Medium, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Venus, Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds and Sete Pecados.

In the film Venus, six songs from the debut album were included on the soundtrack of the film, which are "I'd Like To", "Another Rainy Day", "Choux Pastry Heart", "Put Your Records On", " Like a Star", " Breathless".

The song "I'd Like To", from Bailey Rae's debut album, was also featured in the soundtrack for the movie He's Just Not That Into You (2009). It can also be heard on an episode of CSI:NY.

Public service[link]

Bailey Rae is the special ambassador for the charity CORD.^[34] She is also the central ambassador for the international water and sanitation charity Pump Aid.

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

Rae at the 2009 MOJO Awards

The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Bailey Rae has won two awards from six nominations. She won Album of the Year as a featured artist on Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters.^[5]

Others awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Corinne Bailey Rae

	Book: Corinne Bailey Rae
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Main reference sites[link]

• Corinne Bailey Rae — official website
• Corinne Bailey Rae at Allmusic
• Corinne Bailey Rae at the Internet Movie Database
• Corinne Bailey Rae discography at Discogs
• Corinne Bailey Rae discography at Musicbrainz
• Works by or about Corinne Bailey Rae in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

Interviews and others[link]

• Corinne Bailey Rae interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' February 2010
• musicOMH.com interview
• The Guardian interview 2005
• The Guardian interview 2009
• HiphopRnbSoul.com Audio Interview
• aol.co.uk videos from AOL Sessions, live performances, official releases and interviews
• theartsdesk.com interview 2010

Bill Bailey
Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008
Birth name	Mark Bailey[1]
Born	(1964-01-13) 13 January 1964 (age 48)[2] Bath, Somerset, England
Years active	1989–present
Genres	Surreal humour, Musical comedy, Satire
Spouse	Kristin Bailey[3] (1998–present)
Notable works and roles	Black Books Never Mind the Buzzcocks Hot Fuzz
Website	billbailey.co.uk

Bill Bailey (born Mark Bailey;^[1] 13 January^[2] 1964) is an English comedian, musician and actor. As well as his extensive stand-up work, Bailey is well known for his role in Black Books and his appearances on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Have I Got News for You, and QI.

Bailey was listed by the Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy in 2003. In 2007 and again in 2010, he was voted the 7th greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.^[4]

Personal life[link]

Bailey was born in Bath, Somerset and spent most of his childhood in Keynsham, a town situated between Bath and Bristol in the West of England. His father was a medical practitioner and his mother was a hospital ward sister. His maternal grandparents lived in an annexe, built on the side of the house by his maternal grandfather who was a stonemason and builder. Two rooms at the front of the family house were for his father's surgery.^[5]

Bailey was educated at King Edward's School, an independent school in Bath^[6] where he was initially a highly academic pupil winning most of the prizes. However, at about the age of 15 years, he started to become distracted from school work when he realised the thrill of performance as a member of a school band called Behind Closed Doors, which played mostly original work. He was the only pupil at his school to study A-level music and he passed with an A grade. He also claims to have been good at sport (captain of KES 2nd XI cricket team 1982), which often surprised his teachers. He would often combine music and sport by leading the singing on the long coach trip back from away rugby fixtures. It was here that he was given his nickname Bill by his music teacher, Ian Phipps, for being able to play the song "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey" so well on the guitar.^[5]

He started studies for an English degree at Westfield College of the University of London but left after a year.^[7]

He spent his final years listening to Monty Python records, and rehearsing with a band called the "Famous Five",^[8] who he confesses were very bad but still much better than him and who actually had six members.^[9] However, he is a classically trained musician and received an Associateship Diploma from the London College of Music as well as being made an honorary member of the Society of Crematorium Organists. Despite this, he has said that he always had the temptation to be silly with music, a trait that influences his stand-up shows.

Bailey often mythologises his early years in his stand-up. In his show Bewilderness, he claims to have attended Bovington Gurney School of Performing Arts and Owl Sanctuary. He talks about a succession of jobs he had before becoming a comedian, including lounge pianist, crematorium organist, door-to-door door-salesman and accompanist for a mind-reading dog. A clip of Bailey's appearance in the dog's routine was shown during his Room 101 appearance. He also is self-deprecating about his appearance, suggesting he is so hairy that he is part troll, or that his hair or beard is a small animal named Lionel whom he has trained to sit 'very very still.'

Bailey also talks about his role as a "Disenfranchised Owl" in an experimental Welsh theatre troupe.^[10] Other acting roles included a part in a Workers' Revolutionary Party stage production called The Printers, which also featured Vanessa Redgrave and Frances de la Tour. His trivia page on IMDb also claims that he was awarded Best Actor in the 1986 Institut Français awards.

Bailey married Kristin in 1998. An avid Star Trek fan, he named his son (born 2003) not after the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine character Dax as is often reported, but after a childhood friend,^[3] and often refers to himself as a Klingon (once claiming during his "Part Troll" tour that his ear-mounted microphone made him resemble "a wizard in a call centre" and "a Klingon motivational speaker").

He currently lives in Hammersmith and supports Queens Park Rangers.^[11] In 2010, Bailey endorsed the Labour Party in the upcoming General Election, appearing in the party's fifth party election broadcast of the 2010 campaign.^[12] He is also an outspoken feminist and supporter of the Fawcett Society.^[13][14] Bailey is a patron of International Animal Rescue and has been instrumental in the organisation's campaign to capture dancing bears.^[15][16]

Career[link]

Early stand-up[link]

Bailey began touring the country with other comedians such as Mark Lamarr. In 1984 he formed a double act, the Rubber Bishops, with Toby Longworth (a former fellow pupil at King Edward's, Bath). They achieved a certain amount of success on the club circuit, partly due to their rigorous schedule – sometimes as many as three or four gigs a night. It was here that Bailey began developing his own unique style, mixing in musical parodies with deconstructions of or variations on traditional jokes ("How many amoebas does it take to change a lightbulb? One, no two! No four! No eight..."). According to comedy folklore, after a reviewer once criticised his act for its lack of jokes, Bailey returned the following night, at Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, to perform a set composed entirely of punchlines. Longworth left to join the RSC in 1989 and was replaced by Martin Stubbs.

Stubbs later quit to pursue a more serious career, and in 1994 Bailey performed Rock at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Sean Lock, a show about an ageing rockstar and his roadie, script-edited by comedy writer Jim Miller. It was later serialised for the Mark Radcliffe show on BBC Radio 1. However, the show's attendances were not impressive and on one occasion the only person in the audience was comedian Dominic Holland. Bailey almost gave up comedy to take up a telesales job.^[17]

He persevered, however, and went solo the next year with the one man show Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam. The show was very well received and led to a recording at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London which was broadcast in 1997 on Channel 4 as a one-hour special called Bill Bailey Live. It was not until 2005 that this was released in DVD uncut and under its original title. It marked the first time that Bailey had been able to tie together his music and post-modern gags with the whimsical rambling style he is now known for.

After supporting Donna McPhail in 1995 and winning a Time Out award, he returned to Edinburgh in 1996 with a critically acclaimed show that was nominated for the Perrier Comedy Award. Amongst the other nominees was future Black Books co-star Dylan Moran, who narrowly beat him in the closest vote in the award's history.

Bailey won the Best Live Stand-Up award at the British Comedy Awards, 1999.

Television[link]

Though he didn't win the Perrier in 1996, the nomination was enough to get him noticed, and in 1998 the BBC gave him his own television show, Is It Bill Bailey?

This was not Bailey's first foray into television. His debut was on the children's TV show Motormouth in the late 1980s, playing piano for a mind-reading dog. The trick went hilariously wrong, and Bailey reminisced about the experience on the BBC show Room 101 with Paul Merton in 2000. In 1991, he was appearing in stand-up shows such as The Happening, Packing Them In, The Stand Up Show, and The Comedy Store. He also appeared as captain on two panel games, an ITV music quiz pilot called Pop Dogs, and the poorly received Channel 4 science fiction quiz show, Space Cadets. However Is it Bill Bailey? was the first time he had written and presented his own show.

With his star on the rise and gaining public recognition, over the next few years, Bailey made well received guest appearances on shows such as Have I Got News For You, World Cup Comedy, Room 101, Des O'Connor Tonight, Coast to Coast and three episodes of off-beat Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, in which he played comic-shop manager Bilbo Bagshot.

In 1998, Dylan Moran approached him with the pilot script for Black Books, a Channel 4 sitcom about a grumpy bookshop owner, his put-upon assistant, and their neurotic female friend. It was commissioned in 2000, and Bailey took the part of the assistant Manny Bianco, with Moran playing the owner Bernard, and Tamsin Greig the friend, Fran. Three series of six episodes were made, building up a large cult fanbase, providing the public awareness on which Bailey would build a successful national tour in 2001.

When Sean Hughes left his long-term role as a team captain on Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 2002, Bailey became his successor. His style quickly blended into the show, possibly helped by his background in music. He soon developed a rapport of sorts with host Mark Lamarr, who continually teased him about his looks and his pre-occupation with woodland animals. It was announced on 18 September 2008 that Bailey would be leaving the series and be replaced by a series of guest captains including Jack Dee and Dermot O'Leary.^[18] Whilst touring in 2009, Bailey joked that his main reason for leaving the show was a lack of desire to continue humming Britney Spears' "Toxic" to little known figures in the indie music scene. It was during this time that he also left his position as "curator" of the Museum of Curiosity, and declared his intention to "retire" from panel games, although he has since appeared on QI many more times and hosted Have I Got News For You.

Bailey has appeared frequently on the intellectual panel game QI since it began in 2003, appearing alongside host Stephen Fry and regular panellist Alan Davies. Other television appearances include a cameo role in Alan Davies' drama series Jonathan Creek as failing street magician Kenny Starkiss and obsessed guitar teacher in the "Holiday" episode of Sean Lock's Fifteen Storeys High. He later appeared with Lock again as a guest on his show TV Heaven, Telly Hell. He has also appeared twice on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross. Bailey also hosted his own show Comic's Choice, which aired in 2011.

Bailey also presented Wild Thing I Love You which began on Channel 4 on 15 October 2006. The series focuses on the protection of Britain's wild animals, and has included rehoming badgers, owls and water voles.

Bailey has most recently appeared in the second series of the E4 teenage "dramedy" Skins playing Maxxie's dad, Walter Oliver. In episode 1, Walter struggles with his son's desire to be a dancer, instead wishing him to become a builder, which is what he himself does for a living. Walter is married to Jackie, played by Fiona Allen.

Bailey appeared on the first episode of Grand Designs Live on 4 May 2008, helping Kevin McCloud build his eco-friendly home. In 2009 Bailey appeared in the BBC show Hustle as the character "Cyclops", a side-line character. In autumn 2009, Bailey presented Bill Bailey's Birdwatching Bonanza.^[19]

As a continuation of Bailey's recent foray into natural history, he presented ITV1's half-hour wildlife mini-series Baboons With Bill Bailey.^[20] The series was filmed in Cape Town and spanned 8 episodes, with exclusive content available on itvWILD.^[21]

Bill Bailey played Droxil, a Harvest Ranger from the Planet Androzani Major in the 2011 Christmas Special of Doctor Who, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

International tours[link]

Bailey in concert, 2007

In 2001, Bailey began touring the globe with Bewilderness, which became a huge success. A recording of a performance in Swansea was released on DVD the same year, and the show was broadcast on Channel 4 that Christmas. A modified version of it also proved successful in America, and in 2002 Bailey released a CD of a recording at the WestBeth Theatre in New York. The show contained all his trademarks, popular music parodies (such as Unisex Chip Shop, a Billy Bragg tribute which he actually performed with Billy Bragg at the 2005 Glastonbury Festival), "three men in a pub" jokes (including one in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer) and deconstructions of television themes such as Countdown and The Magic Roundabout. A Bewilderness CD was sold outside gigs, which was actually just a mixture of studio recordings of songs and monologues Bailey had performed in the past – it was later released in shops as Bill Bailey: The Ultimate Collection... Ever!. That same year he also presented a Channel 4 countdown, Top Ten Prog Rock.

Bailey premiered his show Part Troll at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A critical and commercial success, he then transferred it to the West End where tickets sold out in under 24 hours, and new dates had to be added. Since then he has toured it all over the UK as well as in America, Australia and New Zealand. The show marked the first time Bailey had really tackled political material, as he expanded on subjects such as the war on Iraq, which he had only touched upon before in his Bewilderness New York show. He also talks extensively on drugs, at one point asking the audience to name different ways of baking cannabis. A DVD was released in 2004.

2005 finally saw the release of his 1995 show Bill Bailey's Cosmic Jam. The 2-disc set also contained a director's cut of Bewilderness, which featured a routine on Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time not seen in the original version.

Bailey performed at show at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe entitled Steampunk. It looked set to become the fastest selling fringe show ever (beating the record Bailey set with The Odd Couple in 2005). But a ticketing mix-up forced the last 10% of tickets to be purchased in person from the venue rather than pre-booked, meaning the venue filled at a slower overall rate than it should have.

Bailey appeared at the Beautiful Days festival in August 2007. The UK leg of the Tinselworm tour enjoyed 3 sell-out nights at the MEN Arena in Manchester, Europe's largest indoor arena, and culminated with a sell-out performance at Wembley Arena.

Early in 2007, a petition was started to express fans' wishes to see him cast as a dwarf in the 2010 film The Hobbit, after his stand-up routine mentioned auditioning for Gimli in The Lord of the Rings. The petition reached its goal in the early days of January, and was sent to the producers. It was hoped that as the Tinselworm tour took him to Wellington in New Zealand where the film is in pre-production, that he would be able to audition.^[22]

Bill Bailey's most recent tour, titled Dandelion Mind, was released on DVD on 22 November 2010.

Other appearances[link]

2000[link]

• A small role in British comedy film Saving Grace

2001[link]

• 19 July: Panelist in Radio 4's show The 99p Challenge

2002[link]

• Voice for a BMW Mini advertising campaign
• Writer and performer for a series of British Airways adverts in which, through the use of music, he took a humorous look at several locations around the world
• Guest panellist on BBC Radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue

2003[link]

• Juror No. 4 in Twelve Angry Men, directed by Guy Masterson for the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
• Panelist on Radio 4's show Just a Minute (twice)
• 4 February: Panelist (for a second time) on Radio 4's show The 99p Challenge
• 21 October: Presented Good Vibrations: The History of the Theremin on Radio 4

2004[link]

• 24 October: appeared on Top Gear's Star in a Reasonably Priced Car. He finished with a time of 1:53.4 in the Suzuki Liana.

2005[link]

• Voice of the sperm whale in the 2005 film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Co-starred as Oscar in The Odd Couple (alongside Alan Davies), directed by Guy Masterson for the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
• One of the acts in the Birmingham show Jasper Carrott's Rock with Laughter, alongside other performers including Bonnie Tyler, Lenny Henry, Bobby Davro and the Lord of the Dance troupe
• Returned to Radio 4's Just a Minute for a third show as a panellist

2006[link]

• 15 March: Interviewed by Lenny Henry for BBC Radio 4 show Chain Reaction
• 22 March: Returned to Chain Reaction to interview Simon Pegg

2007[link]

• A minor part in Simon Pegg's and Edgar Wright's film Hot Fuzz, as a pair of desk sergeant twins. (Bailey had originally meant to also appear in Pegg and Wright's earlier film, Shaun of the Dead. but the commentary included with the DVD of that movie explains that he was busy with other commitments at the time.)
• February: Organised, produced, and starred in West End show Pinter's People, a collection of sketches by playwright Harold Pinter. The show also starred Kevin Eldon, Sally Phillips and Geraldine McNulty
• March: Appeared at the International Human Beatbox Convention at the Southbank Centre in London, introducing Shlomo to the stage for the climax of the concert, as well as showing off his own beatboxing
• 4 May: Guest presenter for an episode of BBC One's Have I Got News for You (a role he returned to on 9 May 2008)
• July: Narrator for Nessy Tales, a series of animated reading books for dyslexic children

2008[link]

• Guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs
• February: Co-host of the first series of BBC Radio 4's panel show The Museum of Curiosity
• 9 May: Guest presenter for an episode of BBC One's Have I Got News for You
• 9 June: Guest on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.^[5] Later that day, appeared as Rushton in the first episode of an adaptation of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists on the same station
• 7 September: Guest on live Australian TV show Rove.^[23] In a questionnaire to win in 20 seconds, host Rove McManus asked his usual question, "Who would you turn gay for?". Bailey replied, "The pope"
• September: One of the hosts of the So You Think You're Funny comedy gala at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe^[24]
• 11 October: Guest on BBC Radio 4's Loose Ends
• 12 November: Performed for We Are Most Amused, a special comedy performance to celebrate the 60th birthday of Prince Charles

2010[link]

• 30 March: took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London.
• 27 June: appeared on Top Gear's Star in a Reasonably Priced Car, while impersonating Angelina Jolie. He finished with a time of 1:50.8 in the Kia Cee'd.
• 28 September: the first guest on new ABC TV conversation program A Quiet Word With ....^[25]

Music[link]

Bailey is a talented pianist and guitarist, and has perfect pitch; of this he has said

"Perfect pitch ... occurs entirely at random in about one in every 10,000 of us, and I'm one of them. From as early as I can remember, I was able to pick out the pitch of things, not just instruments but washing machines, vacuum cleaners, dentists' drills."^[26]

His stand-up routines often feature music from genres such as jazz, rock (most notably prog rock from the early seventies), drum'n'bass, rave, classical, and even theme songs, usually for comic value. Favourite instruments include the keyboard, guitar, theremin, kazoo and bongos. He also mentioned in an interview that he has achieved Grade 6 Clarinet. He was part of punk band Beergut 100,^[27] which he founded in 1995 with comedy writer Jim Miller and also featured Martin Trenaman and Phil Whelans, with Kevin Eldon as lead singer.^[28] The band performed at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.^[29] Trenaman and Welans had previously appeared in Cosmic Jam under the name "The Stan Ellis Experiment", and Trenaman and Eldon later featured with John Moloney in the Kraftwerk homage "Das Hokey Kokey" on the Part Troll tour. Bailey claims that he and the three other performers are a Kraftwerk tribute band called Augenblick. To mark the final gig of the Part Troll tour on 1 January 2005 the band reappeared on stage after the "Das Hokey Kokey" joke to play an hour-long encore of music.

In February 2007, Bailey appeared on two occasions with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Anne Dudley in a show entitled Cosmic Shindig. Performed in the Colosseum in Watford on 24 February and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 26 February, the show contained orchestrally accompanied versions of many of Bailey's previously performed songs, an exploration of the instruments of the orchestra and a number of new pieces of music. The Queen Elizabeth Hall performance was aired on BBC Radio 3 on 16 March 2007 as a part of Comic Relief 2007.

Bailey had planned to put himself forward as Britain's Eurovision entry in 2008, as a result of several fan petitions encouraging him to do so.^[30]

In October 2008 he performed Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Anne Dudley.^[31]

In 2009, Bailey presented a project about the explorer and naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, in the form of an Indonesian travelogue.^[32] Bailey said in an interview that Wallace had been "airbrushed out of history", and that he feels a "real affinity" with him.

In November 2009 he was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.^[33]

In July 2011, Bailey performed at the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, headlining the Saturn Stage.^[34] He released an album, In Metal, using songs played at Sonisphere, later that year.

Tours[link]

• Cosmic Jam (1995)
• Bewilderness (2001)
• Part Troll (2004)
• Steampunk (2006) (Edinburgh Festival)
• Tinselworm (2008)
• Bill Bailey Live (2008–09) (Theatre tour with some material from Tinselworm, but mostly new material)
• Remarkable Guide to the Orchestra (2009)
• Dandelion Mind (2010)
• Dandelion Mind – Gently Modified (2011)

DVD releases[link]

Filmography[link]

• The James Whale Radio Show (TV series) (circa 1990) (Guest)
• Blue Heaven (Channel 4 TV series) (1994)
• Asylum (1996)
• Space Cadets (1997) (Regular team captain)
• Is It Bill Bailey? (1998)
• Spaced (1999–2001)
• Have I Got News for You (guest 1999, 2001, 2005; guest presenter 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011)
• Saving Grace (2000)
• Maid Marian and her Merry Men (1992). Cameo court jester to King John
• Black Books (2000–2004)
• Jonathan Creek
  • "Satan's Chimney" (2001)
  • "The Tailor's Dummy" (2003)
• Wild West (2002–2004)
• Never Mind the Buzzcocks (2002–2008) (Regular team captain)
• QI (2003–present) (Frequent guest)
• "15 Storeys High" – "The Holiday" (2004)
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) (Voice of the Sperm Whale)^[35]
• The Libertine (Small cameo role as advisor to Charles II of England).
• Wild Thing I Love You (2006) (Presenter)
• Top Gear (A Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car)
• Hot Fuzz (2007)
• Run Fatboy Run (2007) (Cameo)
• Skins (2008)
• Love Soup (2008)
• We Are Most Amused (2008) (One-off special)
• Hustle (as 'Cyclops')
  • "Return of the Prodigal" (2009)
  • "Diamond Seeker" (2009)
  • "Picasso Finger Painting" (2012)
• Steve's World (2009)
• Burke and Hare (2010)
• Bill Bailey's Bird Watching Bonanza (2010)
• Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010)
• Talkin' 'bout Your Generation (2010); one episode
• Jo Brand's Big Splash (2011); one episode
• Chalet Girl (2011)^[36]
• Doctor Who – The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (2011)^[37]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bill Bailey

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bill Bailey

• Official website
• Bill Bailey at the Internet Movie Database
• Bill Bailey discography at Discogs
• Bill Bailey at the British Film Institute's Screenonline.
• Bill Bailey on Chortle.

Derek Bailey may refer to:

• Derek Bailey (guitarist)
• Derek Bailey (tribal chairman) and Congressional candidate

See also[link]

• Derrick Bailey

This disambiguation page lists articles about people with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Orchestra
The Orchestra 2008, performing at the Sweden Rock Festival.
Background information
Origin	Birmingham, England
Genres	Rock music, Pop music
Years active	2000–present
Associated acts	Electric Light Orchestra ELO Part II Styx
Website	theorchestra.net
Members
Louis Clark Eric Troyer Mik Kaminski Gordon Townsend Phil Bates Glen Burtnik
Past members
Kelly Groucutt Parthenon Huxley

The Orchestra is a rock band formed by former members of the Electric Light Orchestra and ELO Part II. It is the continuation of ELO Part II following Bev Bevan's departure and selling of the rights to Jeff Lynne.

History[link]

By 2000 Bev Bevan had sold his fifty per cent share of the Electric Light Orchestra name as well as the rights to the ELO Part II name to Jeff Lynne. Lynne, now the full owner of the ELO name, took legal action to prevent the band from continuing to call themselves “ELO Part II”. They initially tried to alter their name to “ELO2”, but they eventually submitted and changed their name to The Orchestra.

In 2001 The Orchestra released a limited number of their CD No Rewind which was produced and released without involvement from a major record label (but was subsequently released in Argentina by Art Music in 2005 and reissued worldwide in 2006). The album contains The Orchestra's best known non-ELO song, Over London Skies, a loving homage to the classic ELO sound in Jewel & Johnny and a cover of Twist and Shout which begins in a slow, plaintive minor key with arpeggiated chords before building to the familiar, rocking major progression. With the release of No Rewind, The Orchestra worked more original material into their set, with Jewel & Johnny and the album's title song becoming staples. The band continues to tour and regularly sells out shows in Chile, Argentina, the UK, Eastern Europe and elsewhere around the world.

In late 2004, a legal dispute almost erupted between The Orchestra and a Florida-based rock band called theOrchestra, but the issue was settled out-of-court.

The Orchestra toured the UK extensively in 2006 following the re-issue of No Rewind. The band were promoted using the descriptive phrase "Electric Light Orchestra Part II Former Members". Lynne sued The Orchestra, claiming copyright infringement. The matter went to litigation and in August 2006, a Los Angeles judge ruled in favour of the members of The Orchestra.^[1]

During The Orchestra's 2006 UK tour, Phil Bates, formerly a member of Trickster, ELO Part II and Bev Bevan's Move, stood in for Parthenon Huxley at a couple of gigs when Huxley had to return unexpectedly to the States to attend the funeral of his father. In July 2007 Huxley left the band to spend more time with his family and was replaced by Bates.

In 2008 The Orchestra participated in the Sweden Rock Festival.

On February 18, 2009 the group returned from a sell out concert in Berlin. But a few hours after returning home, Kelly Groucutt collapsed of a massive heart attack and died the following day. The band decided to carry on and brought in former Styx man Glen Burtnik on bass (Glen had filled in for Kelly previously during a 1998 ELO Part II tour when the latter had taken ill). On July 17, 2009 they opened for the Alan Parsons Live Project at DTE Theater in Clarkston, Michigan. Also in 2009 German bassist Ralf Vornberger played with the band in Israel when Glen was unavailable due to other work commitments booked before he joined the band.

In November 2011 guitarist Phil Bates left The Orchestra again, and Parthenon Huxley reclaimed his position as guitarist/singer. With Huxley on board The Orchestra ended 2011 with a 17-city tour of Eastern Europe, including stops in Russia, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.

Members[link]

Current members[link]

• Louis Clark - keyboards, orchestral arranger and conductor (2000–present) (from ELO and ELO Part II)
• Eric Troyer - keyboards, vocals, guitar (2000–present) (from ELO Part II)
• Mik Kaminski - violin (2000–present) (from ELO and ELO Part II)
• Gordon Townsend - drums (2000–present)
• Parthenon Huxley - guitar, vocals (2000–2007 and 2011 to present) (from ELO Part II)
• Glen Burtnik - bass guitar, vocals (2009–present)

Former Members[link]

• Kelly Groucutt - bass guitar, vocals (2000–2009) (from ELO and ELO Part II)
• Phil Bates - guitar, vocals (2007-2011) (from ELO Part II)

Discography[link]

• No Rewind (2001)

Live albums[link]

• The Orchestra Live (2008)

Videos[link]

• Live in Reno (DVD), (2006)

Live Lineup History[link]

References[link]

1. ↑ The P. Hux Chronicles Issue Number Nine

External links[link]

• [1] The Orchestra on Facebook