name	Space rock
bgcolor	crimson
color	white
stylistic origins	Progressive rock, psychedelic rock, experimental rock, electronic music
cultural origins	Late 1960s, England
instruments	Mellotron guitar, bass, synthesiser, strings, drums, vocals, sequencer
popularity	Limited to a few groups as a specific genre, but often associated with more popular genres
derivatives	Noise pop
subgenrelist	:Category:Space rock
subgenres	Neo-psychedelia, post-rock, shoegazing
fusiongenres	Dream pop, stoner rock, ambient music
other topics	Jam band }}

Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental guitar work and science fiction or astronomical lyrical themes, though it was later repurposed to refer to a series of late 1980s British alternative rock bands that drew from earlier influences to create a more ambient but still melodic form of pop music. The term was revived in the 21st century to refer to a new crop of bands including The Flowers of Hell, Comets on Fire, and Flotation Toy Warning who diversely draw upon the ideas and sounds of both waves of the genre’s founders.

History

Emergence

Space rock emerged from the late 1960s psychedelic music scene in Britain and was closely associated with the progressive rock movement of the same time period.

The earliest example of Space Rock is the 1959 concept album ''I Hear a New World'' by British producer and song writer Joe Meek. The album was inspired by the space race and concerned man's first close encounter with alien life forms. Meek then went on to have a UK and US #1 success in 1961 with ''Telstar'', named after the newly launched communications satellite and thus intended to commemorate the new space age. Its main instrument was a clavioline, an electronic forerunner of synthesizers.

Pink Floyd's early albums contain pioneering development of space rock on some tracks: "Lucifer Sam", "Astronomy Domine", "Pow R. Toc H." and "Interstellar Overdrive" from their 1967 debut album ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'' are examples. Their second album ''A Saucerful of Secrets'' contained further examples: "Let There Be More Light" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" with explicit science fiction themes, and their third, ''Soundtrack from the Film More '' (1969) had "Cirrus Minor". In early 1971, Pink Floyd began writing the song that would become known as "Echoes", from the 1971 album Meddle. The song was performed from April until September 1971, with an alternate set of lyrics, written about two planets meeting in space. Before the ''Meddle'' album released, the lyrics were changed to an aquatic theme, because of the band's concern that they were being labelled as a space rock band.

The Beatles' song "Flying" (1967), originally titled "Aerial Tour Instrumental", was a psychedelic instrumental about the sensation of flying, whether in a craft or in your own head space. The Rolling Stones' song "2000 Light Years from Home" (1967), which drew heavily on some of the aforementioned Pink Floyd songs, is another early form of space rock. Jimi Hendrix is also an early innovator of the genre, with such tracks as "Third Stone from the Sun", "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" and "The Stars That Play with Laughing Sam's Dice".

During the middle of the second set of a Grateful Dead concert throughout the late 1970s to 1990s, the band would go into a drum solo to a space rock section.

David Bowie's "Space Oddity" (1969) is, apart from ''Telstar'', probably the best example of a space rock song achieving mainstream recognition. A major album in the history of space rock was Hawkwind's ''Space Ritual'' (1973), a two-disc live album advertised as "88 minutes of brain-damage" documenting Hawkwind's successful 1972 tour of their blow-out show complete with liquid lights and lasers, nude dancers (notably the earth-mother figure Stacia), wild costumes and psychedelic imagery. This hard-edged concert experience attracted a motley but dedicated collection of psychedelic drug users, science-fiction fans and motorcycle riders. The science fiction author Michael Moorcock collaborated with Hawkwind on many occasions: for example, he wrote the lyrics for many of the spoken-word sections on ''Space Ritual''.

Another example is Flaming Youth's only album Ark 2.

1990s revival

By the early 1990s, the term "space rock" came to be used when describing numerous American and British alternative rock bands of the time. Shoegazing, stoner rock/metal and noise pop genres emerged into the mainstream with the explosion of bands such as Kyuss, Slowdive, The Verve, My Bloody Valentine, Flying Saucer Attack, Loop, Ride, The Flaming Lips, Failure, Tool, Monster Magnet, Sun Dial, Hum, Orange Goblin, Spacemen 3, Spiritualized, Mercury Rev and Muse. The sonic experimentation and emphasis placed on texture by these bands led them to be dubbed "space rock", although most would more readily be categorized in other genres such as Shoegazing or Stoner Metal.

In the mid 1990s, a number of bands built on the space rock styles of Hawkwind and Gong appeared in America. Some of these bands (such as Pressurehed and Melting Euphoria) were signed to Cleopatra records, which then proceeded to release numerous space rock compilations. The Strange Daze festivals from 1997-2000 showcased the American space rock scene in 3 day outdoor festivals. The shows were headlined by Hawkwind and Nik Turner in 1997 and featured major players of American space rock: F/i, Alien Planetscapes, Architectural Metaphor, Quarkspace, Melting Euphoria, Pressurehed, Nucleon, Bionaut, Born to Go and others.

A Michigan based space rock scene included Burnt Hair Records, Darla Records, and bands such as Windy & Carl, Mahogany, Sweet Trip, Tomorrowland, Delta Waves, Starphase 23, Füxa, Auburn Lull, Monaural, Asha Vida, and Alison's Halo. This was a modern movement of the traditional "space rock" sound and was pinned Detroit Space Rock.

Space rock in the 21st century

Influences from space rock can be heard in UK bands Radiohead, Amplifier, Oceansize, Mugstar and Muse, American bands 30 Seconds to Mars, Angels and Airwaves, Lumerians, The Secret Machines, The Mars Volta and The Boxing Lesson, Australian bands Lunar Module and Space Project, and Turkish band Nemrud.

The first reported involvement of NASA and space rock came in 2009 when an off duty worker from the shuttle program synchronised footage of a Discovery launch with the Flowers Of Hell's 'Sympathy For Vengeance' in an online video which became popular amongst staff at the Kennedy Space Center. Star One's 2002 ''Space Metal'' album mixes space rock and progressive metal, and many of the songs are linked conceptually by having cult science fiction movies or TV series as their subjects.

Examples of space rock

10 Seconds of Forever

30 Seconds to Mars

Acid Mothers Temple

Amon Düül II

Amplifier

Angels and Airwaves

Ash Ra Tempel

Ayreon

Bardo Pond

Baxter Dury

Babylon Zoo

Brian Eno

Broken Bells

Brave Saint Saturn

Cluster

David Bowie

Dione

Brainticket

The Boxing Lesson

Bowery Electric

The Byrds

Captain Beyond

Caspian

Cave In

The Church

Julian Cope

Cosmic Jokers

Death In Vegas

Do Make Say Think

Eloy

Empire of the Sun

Failure

Far and Few

The Flaming Lips

Flotation Toy Warning

Flowers of Hell

Flying Saucer Attack

FM

Füxa

Gong

Grandaddy

Hawkwind

Hidria Spacefolk

Hum

Igra Staklenih Perli

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Klaxons

The Kovenant

Lansing-Dreiden

The Life and Times

Lothar and the Hand People

Lumerians

M83

Mandragora

Man... or Astro-man?

The Mars Volta

Mercury Rev

Midnight Juggernauts

Mogwai

Monster Magnet

Muse

My Vitriol

Nektar

Oceansize

Ozric Tentacles

Peter Schilling

Pink Floyd

Porcupine Tree

Radiohead

Ramases

The Red Krayola

Rush

Rockets

Secret and Whisper

The Secret Machines

Shiner

Simply Saucer

Slowdive

Solidagoes

The Soundtrack of Our Lives

The Sound of Animals Fighting

Spacehog

Spacemen 3

Space Ritual

Spirits Burning

Spiritualized

Star One

Steve Miller Band

SubArachnoid Space

Sweet Trip

Tangerine Dream

UFO

Underground Zero

The United States of America

Zager and Evans

Zolar X

Zombi

See also

Nu Gaze

Notes

Category:Progressive rock Category:Psychedelic rock

be:Спэйс-рок cs:Space rock de:Space Rock es:Rock espacial fa:اسپیس راک fr:Space rock gl:Space rock it:Space rock ka:სპეის როკი nah:Space rock nl:Spacerock no:Space rock pl:Space rock pt:Space rock ru:Спейс-рок simple:Space rock fi:Space rock sv:Space rock

birth name	Donald Henry Pleasence
birth date	October 05, 1919
birth place	Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
death date	February 02, 1995
death place	Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Alpes-Maritimes, France
death cause	Heart Failure
nationality	British
alma mater	Ecclesfield School
years active	1954–95
spouse	Miriam Raymond (1941–58) Josephine Crombie (1959–70) Meira Shore (1970–88) Linda J. Kentwood (1988-95)
occupation	Actor }}

Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, (5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995) was an English actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades. Often typecast as villainous and/or psychopathic characters, Pleasence is arguably best-known for his work in the ''James Bond'' and ''Halloween'' franchises.

Early life

Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, the son of Alice (née Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence, a railway stationmaster. He was brought up in the small village of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire, and raised a strict Methodist. Pleasence attended Ecclesfield Grammar School, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and subsequently dropped out to work as a railway clerk, whilst looking for a job as an actor. During World War II Pleasence was initially a conscientious objector, but later changed his stance and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force, serving with 166 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command. His Avro Lancaster was shot down on 31 August 1944 during a raid on Agenville. He was taken prisoner and placed in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where he produced and acted in plays. He would later play Flight Lt. Colin Blythe in ''The Great Escape'' where much of the story takes place inside a German POW camp.

Career

Cinema

Pleasence's acting career began in a production of ''Wuthering Heights'', but was interrupted by World War II. Pleasence returned to acting after the war, and critics began to call him the "Man with the Hypnotic Eye". Equipped with a shiny bald head and a quiet but intense voice to go with his trademark penetrating gaze, he specialised in portraying insane or evil characters, including a violent alcoholic homosexual Doc Tydon in ''Wake in Fright'' (1971), the mad Doctor in the Bud Spencer-Terence Hill movie Watch Out, We're Mad (1974), Heinrich Himmler in ''The Eagle Has Landed'' (1976), and the Bond arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in ''You Only Live Twice'' (1967), the first film in which the villain's face is clearly seen. His interpretation of the character has become predominate in popular culture considering the popularity of the comic villain, Dr. Evil in the successful ''Austin Powers'' film series, which primarily parodies it.

In his later years, he became best known to a younger generation of cinema-goers as Dr. Loomis in ''Halloween'' (1978). The distinctive, rather sinister accent that he employs in this and other movies may be credited to the elocution lessons that he had as a child. He reprised his role as Dr. Loomis in ''Halloween II'' (1981), ''IV'' (1988), ''V'' (1989) and ''VI'' (1995).

Perhaps his most sympathetic screen role was as the tragic POW Colin Blythe in the 1963 film ''The Great Escape'', who discovers that he is slowly going blind, but nonetheless participates in the mass break-out, only to be shot down by German soldiers because he is unable to see them. In ''The Night of the Generals'' (1967), he played another uncharacteristically sympathetic role, this time as an old-school German general involved in a plot to kill Hitler. In 1971, he returned to the realm of the deranged, delivering a ''tour de force'' performance in the role of an alcoholic Australian doctor in Ted Kotcheff's nightmarish outback drama ''Wake in Fright''.

Pleasence played Lucifer (taking on several human disguises) in the religious epic ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' (1965). He was one of many stars who were given cameos throughout the film. Perhaps his most bizarre and powerful film role occurred in Polanski's ''Cul-de-sac'' (1966), in which he portrayed the love-sodden husband of a much younger French wife (Françoise Dorléac). In 1968, he ventured successfully into American cowboy territory, playing a sadistic self-styled preacher who goes after stoic Charlton Heston in the Western ''Will Penny''.

His acting hero was Sir Laurence Olivier, with whom he worked on-stage in the 1950s, and later on the 1979 movie version of ''Dracula''. Two years earlier, Pleasence did an amusingly broad impersonation of Olivier in the guise of a horror-film actor called "Valentine De'ath" in the film ''The Uncanny''.

Television

One of his earliest roles on television was as Syme in the BBC's highly-acclaimed 1954 adaptation of George Orwell's novel ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. This adaptation also starred Peter Cushing –- another British actor who would go on to find fame in many horror-film roles. Pleasence played Prince John in several episodes of the ITV series ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' (1956–1958). He appeared twice with Patrick McGoohan in the British spy series, ''Danger Man,'' in episodes "Position of Trust" (1960) and "Find and Return" (1961). His first appearance in America was in an episode of ''The Twilight Zone'', playing an aging (and suicidal) teacher at a boys' school in the episode "The Changing of the Guard" (1962). In 1963, he appeared in an episode of ''The Outer Limits'' entitled "The Man With the Power". He hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of ''Saturday Night Live'' with music guest Fear (which, because of Fear's raucous performance and the ultra-dark humour of the sketches, hasn't been seen on television since its first airing).

In 1973 Pleasence played the murderer in an episode of ''Columbo'' entitled "Any Old Port in a Storm". He also had the distinction of playing a culprit captured by ''Mrs. Columbo'' in "Murder is a Parlor Game" (1979). Pleasence provided the voice-over for the British Public Information Film, ''The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water'' in 1973. The film, intended to warn children of the dangers of playing near water, attained notoriety for allegedly giving children nightmares. Pleasence starred as the Reverend Septimus Harding in the BBC's 1982 TV serial ''The Barchester Chronicles''.

Spoken records

During the early 1960s, he recorded several children's-story records on the Atlas Record label. These were marketed as the Talespinners series in the UK. They were also released in the USA as Tale Spinners For Children by United Artists. The stories included ''Don Quixote'' and the ''Brave Little Tailor''.

Books

Pleasence was the author of the 1977 children's book ''Scouse the Mouse'' (London: New English Library), which was animated by Canadian animator/film director Gerald Potterton (a friend of the actor, who directed him in the 1973 Canadian film ''The Rainbow Boys'', retitled ''The Rainbow Gang'' for VHS release in the United States) and also adapted into a children's recording (Polydor Records, 1977) with Ringo Starr voicing the book's title character, Scouse the Mouse.

Awards

Pleasence was nominated four times for the Tony Award for best performance by a leading actor in a Broadway play: in 1962 for Harold Pinter's ''The Caretaker'', in 1965 for Jean Anouilh's ''Poor Bitos'', in 1969 for Robert Shaw's ''The Man in the Glass Booth'', and in 1972 for Simon Gray's ''Wise Child''.

He was made an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to the acting profession by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

Personal life

Pleasence married four times and had five daughters from his first three marriages. He was married to Miriam Raymond in 1947–1958, and they had Angela and Jean. His 1959–1970 marriage to actress and singer Josephine Martin Crombie produced Lucy and Polly. He was married to Meira Shore in 1970–1988 and they had a daughter, Miranda. His last marriage to Linda Kentwood lasted until his death in 1995 and was without issue.

Death

Pleasence died at the age of 75 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, from complications of heart failure following heart valve replacement surgery. He was cremated.

Legacy

''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers'' and ''Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later'', were both dedicated the memory of Pleasence, the latter of which he did not appear in.

Dr. Evil, the character played by Mike Myers in the Austin Powers comedy films (1997–2002), is a parody of Pleasence's performance as Blofeld in ''You Only Live Twice''.

Selected filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1952	''The Dybbuk''	Second Batlon	TV movie
		Corporal	TV series, episode ''Arrow to the Heart (I)'' (1952)
Chamberlain	Episode ''Such Men are Dangerous'' (1954)
Syme	Episode ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1954)
Foreign Minister	Episode ''The Moment of Truth'' (1955)
Doctor	Episode ''The Millionairess'' (1959)
	''The Beachcomber''	Tromp
''Montserrat''	Juan Alvarez	TV movie
''The Face of Love''	Alex	TV movie
''Orders Are Orders''	Corporal Martin
1955	''Value for Money''	Limpy
		R. Parsons
''The Black Tent''	Ali
	rowspan=2		TV series, episodes ''The Prisoner'' (1956), ''Isabella'' (1956), ''Ambush'' (1957), ''Marian's Prize'' (1958)
Bailiff Baldwin (1 episode)	Episode ''A Village Wooing'' (1956)
		William	TV series, episode ''Ever Since Paradise'' (1956)
Albert	Episode ''Chance Meeting'' (1956)
Captain Browne	Episode ''Fate and Mister Browne'' (1958)
Leonard Browne	Episode ''Mr. Browne Comes Home'' (1959)
Robert Robertson	Episode ''The Silk Purse'' (1959)
		Crabtree	Titled ''Decision Against Time'' in USA
''Assignment Foreign Legion''	Commandant	TV series, episode ''The Coward''
	Evans
	Cashier	Titled ''All at Sea'' in USA
	''I Spy''	Mr. Frute	TV movie
	John Barsad
''Heart of a Child''	Spiel
''The Wind Cannot Read'''	Doctor
''The Man Inside''	Organ-grinder
''The Two-Headed Spy''	General Hardt
	''The Scarf''	Detective Inspector Harry Yates	TV series, 6 episodes
	Hurst
	The Spider	TV series, episode ''The Spider''
''The Traitor''	Grantley Caypor	TV movie
''Killers of Kilimanjaro''	Captain
	Irwin Hoffman
		Jessel Brown
	Paul Koster	TV Series, episode ''The Survivor''
''Interpol Calling''	Karl Haussman	TV series, episode ''The Absent Assassin''
1962		Sergeant Wolters
1963		Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe RAF, "The Forger"
1965	''The Hallelujah Trail''	Oracle Jones
	''Fantastic Voyage''	Dr. Michaels
''Cul-de-sac''	George
1967		Ernst Stavro Blofeld
1970	''Soldier Blue''	Isaac Q. Cumber
1971	''THX 1138''	SEN 5241
1972	''Death Line''	Inspector Calhoun
1974	''Watch Out, We're Mad''	The Doctor
1977	''The Eagle Has Landed''
1978
1981	''Halloween II''
	''Escape from New York''	Mr. President
''Alone in the Dark''	Dr. Leo Bain
1985		John McGregor
1987		Priest
	''Hanna's War''	Captain Thomas Rosza
''Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers''
	''Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers''
	Judge Lawrence Wargrave
1993	''The Thief and the Cobbler''	Phido the Vulture	(voice)
1995	''Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers''	Dr. Loomis
1996	''Fatal frames: Fotogrammi mortali''	Professor Robinson

References

External links

Donald Pleasence at screenonline

Donald Pleasence-bio at (re)Search my Trash

The Man with the Hypnotic Eye A Tribute to Donald Pleasence

Photograph of a theatrical production in prisoner of war camp featuring Donald Pleasence

Lonely Water Public Information Film

Category:1919 births Category:1995 deaths Category:British conscientious objectors Category:British expatriates in France Category:British prisoners of war Category:Deaths from surgical complications Category:English conscientious objectors Category:English Methodists Category:English film actors Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:English voice actors Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Worksop Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Category:Shot-down aviators Category:World War II prisoners of war held by Germany

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