A medieval manuscript fragment of Finnish origin, about 1340–60. Utilized by the Dominican convent at Turku.

The calendar of saints is a traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the feast day of said saint. The system arose from the early Christian custom of annual commemoration of martyrs on the dates of their deaths, or birth into heaven, and is thus referred to in Latin as dies natalis ("day of birth"). In the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is called a Menologion.^[1] Menologion may also refer to a set of icons on which saints are depicted along the order of dates of their feasts, often made in two panels.

History[link]

As the number of recognized saints increased during Late Antiquity and the first half of the Middle Ages, eventually every day of the year had at least one saint who was commemorated on that date. To deal with this increase, some saints were moved to alternate days in some traditions or completely removed, with the result that some saints have different feast days in different calendars. For example, Ss. Perpetua and Felicity died on 7 March, but this date was later assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas, allowing them only a commemoration (see Tridentine Calendar), so in 1908 they were moved one day earlier.^[2] When the 1969 reform of the Catholic calendar moved him to 28 January, they were moved back to 7 March (see General Roman Calendar). Both days can thus be said to be their feast day, in different traditions. The Roman Catholic calendars of saints in their various forms, which list those saints celebrated in the entire church, contains only a selection of the saints for each of its days. A fuller list is found in the Roman Martyrology, and some of the saints there may be celebrated locally.

The earliest feast days of saints were those of martyrs, venerated as having shown for Christ the greatest form of love, in accordance with the teaching: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."^[3] Saint Martin of Tours is said to be the first^[4][5] or at least one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint. The title "confessor" was used for such saints, who had confessed their faith in Christ by their lives rather than by their deaths. Martyrs are regarded as dying in the service of the Lord, and confessors are people who died natural deaths. A broader range of titles was used later, such as: Virgin, Pastor, Bishop, Monk, Priest, Founder, Abbot, Apostle, Doctor of the Church.

The Tridentine Missal has common formulas for Masses of Martyrs, Confessors who were bishops, Doctors of the Church, Confessors who were not Bishops, Abbots, Virgins, Non-Virgins, Dedication of Churches, and Feast Days of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Pope Pius XII added a common formula for Popes. The 1962 Roman Missal of Pope John XXIII omitted the common of Apostles, assigning a proper Mass to every feast day of an Apostle. The present Roman Missal has common formulas for the Dedication of Churches, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Martyrs (with special formulas for missionary martyrs and virgin martyrs), Pastors (subdivided into bishops, generic pastors, founders of churches, and missionaries), Doctors of the Church, Virgins, and (generic) Saints (with special formulas for abbots, monks, nuns, religious, those noted for works of mercy, educators, and [generically] women saints).

This calendar system, when combined with major church festivals and movable and immovable feasts, constructs a very human and personalised yet often localized way of organizing the year and identifying dates. Some Christians continue the tradition of dating by saints' days: their works may appear "dated" as "The Feast of Saint Martin". Poets such as John Keats commemorate the importance of The Eve of Saint Agnes.

As different denominations of Christianity developed, differing lists of saints began as the same individual may be considered (as an extreme) a saint or doctor by one denomination and a heretic by another, as in the case of Nestorius.

As the ecumenical movement has sought to converge each denominational lectionary into a unified Revised Common Lectionary, Dr. Philip Pfatteicher sought to unify different saints calendars (among Protestants) by authoring the New Book of Festivals and Commemorations: A Proposed Common Calendar of Saints, August 1, 2008.

Ranking of feast days[link]

Feast days are ranked in accordance with their importance.

In what is now the ordinary form of the Roman Rite, feast days are ranked (in descending order of importance) as solemnities, feasts or memorials (obligatory or optional).^[6] The 1962 version, whose use is authorized by the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum as an extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, divides liturgical days into I, II, III, and IV class days, as decreed by Pope John XXIII in 1960. Those who use even earlier forms of the Roman Rite rank feast days as Doubles (of three or four kinds), Semidoubles, and Simples. See Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church the ranking of feasts varies from church to church. In the Russian Orthodox Church they are: Great Feasts, middle, and minor feasts. Each portion of such feasts may also be called feasts as follows: All-Night Vigils, Polyeleos, Great Doxology, Sextuple ("sixfold", having six stichera at Vespers and six troparia at the Canon of Matins). There are also distinctions between Simple feasts and Double (i.e., two simple feasts celebrated together). In Double Feasts the order of hymns and readings for each feast are rigidly instructed in Typikon, the liturgy book.

In the Church of England, there are Principal Feasts and Principal Holy Days, Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations.

See also[link]

Saints portal

• General Roman Calendar (includes Roman Catholic calendar of saints)
• Calendar of saints (Church of England)
• Calendar of saints (Episcopal Church in the United States of America)
• Calendar of saints (Lutheran)
• Coptic Orthodox calendar of saints
• Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar
• List of saints
• Movable feasts
• Name days

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Saints days

• Today's Saints on the Calendar (Catholic Church)
• Various Traditional Calendars (Catholic Church)
• Greek Catholic Saints' Calendar (Greek Catholic Church) (Ukrainian)
• Calendar of Saints (Orthodox Church in America)
• Butler's Lives of the Saints Bartleby.com

v t e Calendars of Saints and Commemorations Anglican Communion List of Anglican Church Calendars · Church of England · Anglican Church of Australia · Anglican Church of Canada · The Episcopal Church · Anglican Church of Korea · Province of Melanesia · Scottish Episcopal Church · Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui · Anglican Church of Southern Africa Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar Oriental Orthodox Coptic calendar · Armenian Apostolic Church Protestant churches Lutheran commemorations Roman Catholic Current Roman Rite Calendar · Tridentine Calendar · General Roman Calendar of 1954 · General Roman Calendar of 1962

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia. (December 2011) Don't speak French? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the French article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|fr|Catherine de Sienne}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010)

Saint Catherine of Siena, T.O.S.D.
St. Catherine of Siena, by anonymous painter, 19th century
Virgin; Doctor of Church
Born	(1347-03-25)March 25, 1347 Siena, Italy
Died	April 29, 1380(1380-04-29) (aged 33) Rome, Italy
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church; Anglican Communion; Lutheranism
Canonized	1461, by Pope Pius II
Feast	April 29; April 30 (Roman Calendar, 1628–1960)
Attributes	Dominican tertiaries' habit, lily, book, crucifix, heart, crown of thorns, stigmata, ring, dove, rose, skull, miniature church, miniature ship bearing Papal coat of arms
Patronage	against fire, bodily ills, diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA, Europe, firefighters, illness, Italy, miscarriages, people ridiculed for their piety, sexual temptation, sick people, sickness, nurses

Saint Catherine of Siena, T.O.S.D, (25 March 1347 in Siena – 29 April 1380 in Rome) was a tertiary of the Dominican Order, and a Scholastic philosopher and theologian. She also worked to bring the papacy of Gregory XI back to Rome from its displacement in France, and to establish peace among the Italian city-states. She was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1970. She is one of the two patron saints of Italy, together with St. Francis of Assisi.

Life[link]

The house of Saint Catherine in Siena

Caterina Benincasa was born in Siena, Italy, to Giacomo di Benincasa, a cloth dyer who ran his enterprise with the help of his sons, and Lapa Piagenti, possibly the daughter of a local poet.^[1] The house where Catherine grew up is still in existence. Born in 1347, she arrived when the black death struck the area; Siena was badly ravaged. Lapa was about forty years old when she prematurely gave birth to twin daughters, Catherine and Giovanna. Lapa had already had 22 children, but half of them had died. Giovanna was handed over to a wet-nurse, and presently died, whereas Catherine was nursed by her mother, and developed into a healthy child. She was two years old when Lapa had her 25th child, another daughter named Giovanna.^[2] Catherine had her first vision of Christ when she was age five or six, saying that Jesus smiled at her, blessed her, and left her in ecstasy. At age seven she vowed chastity.

Her older sister Bonaventura died in childbirth. Within a year, the younger sister named Giovanna also died. While tormented with sorrow, sixteen-year-old Catherine was now faced with her parents' wish that she marry Bonaventura's widower. Absolutely opposed to this, she started a massive fast, something she had learnt from Bonaventura, whose husband had not been considerate in the least. Bonaventura had changed his attitude by refusing to eat until he showed better manners. This had taught Catherine the power of fasting in close relationships. She claimed to feel "jubilant" when cutting off her long hair.

She would later advise her confessor and biographer, the Blessed Raymond of Capua, O.P., (who went on to become Master General of the Order) to do during times of trouble what she did now as a teenager: "Build a cell inside your mind, from which you can never flee." In this inner cell she made her father into a representation of Christ, Lapa into the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her brothers into the apostles. Serving them humbly became an opportunity for spiritual growth. The greater the suffering, the larger her triumph was. Eventually her father gave up and permitted her to live as she pleased.

A vision of St. Dominic strengthened her, though, but her wish to join his Order was no comfort to Lapa, who took her daughter with her to the baths in Bagno Vignoni to improve her health. Soon she fell seriously ill with violent rash, fever and pain, which conveniently made her mother accept her wish to join the "Mantellate", the local association of Dominican tertiary Sisters.^[3] Lapa went to the Sisters of the Order and persuaded them to take in her daughter. Within days, Catherine seemed entirely restored, rose from bed and donned the black and white habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic. As a tertiary, she lived outside the convent, at home with her family like before. The Mantellate taught Catherine how to read, and she lived in almost total silence and solitude in the family home.^[4] Her custom of giving away food and clothing without asking anyone's permission cost her family significantly but she demanded nothing for herself. By staying in their midst, she could live out her rejection of them more strongly. She did not want their food, referring to the table laid for her in Heaven with her real family.^[5]

Catherine had received the habit of a Dominican tertiary from the friars of the Order, however, only after vigorous protests from the Tertiaries themselves, who up to that point had been only widows.

"St Catherine's mystic communion" by Francesco Brizzi

In about 1366, Catherine experienced what she described in her letters as a "Mystical Marriage" with Jesus,^[6] later a popular subject in art as the Mystic marriage of Saint Catherine. Other miracles recounted in Raymond of Capua's biography include her reception of the stigmata^[7] and her receiving communion from Christ himself.^[8] Raymond also records that she was told by Christ to leave her withdrawn life and enter the public life of the world.^[9] Catherine dedicated much of her life to helping the ill and the poor, where she took care of them in hospitals or homes. Her early pious activities in Siena attracted a group of followers, both women and men, while they also brought her to the attention of the Dominican Order, which called her to Florence in 1374 to interrogate her for possible heresy. After this visit, in which she was deemed sufficiently orthodox, she began traveling with her followers throughout northern and central Italy advocating reform of the clergy and the launch of a new crusade and advising people that repentance and renewal could be done through "the total love for God."^[10]

Physical travel was not the only way in which Catherine made her views known. In the early 1370s, she began dictating letters to various scribes.^[11] These letters were intended to reach men and women of her circle, increasingly widening her audience to include figures in authority as she begged for peace between the republics and principalities of Italy and for the return of the Papacy from Avignon to Rome. She carried on a long correspondence with Pope Gregory XI, also asking him to reform the clergy and the administration of the Papal States.

In June 1376 Catherine went to Avignon herself as ambassador of Florence to make peace with the Papal States, but was unsuccessful. She also tried to convince Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome.^[12] She impressed the Pope so much that he returned his administration to Rome in January 1377. Following Gregory's death and during the Western Schism of 1378 she was an adherent of Pope Urban VI, who summoned her to Rome, and stayed at Pope Urban VI's court and tried to convince nobles and cardinals of his legitimacy. She lived in Rome until her death in 1380. The problems of the Western Schism would trouble her until the end of her life.

St Catherine's letters are considered one of the great works of early Tuscan literature. More than 300 have survived. In her letters to the Pope, she often referred to him affectionately as Papa ("Pope" in Italian). Other correspondents include her various confessors, among them Raymond of Capua, the kings of France and Hungary, the infamous mercenary John Hawkwood, the Queen of Naples, members of the Visconti family of Milan, and numerous religious figures. Roughly one third of her letters are to women.

Her other major work is The Dialogue of Divine Providence, a dialogue between a soul who "rises up" to God and God himself, and recorded between 1377 and 1378 by members of her circle. Often assumed to be illiterate, Catherine is acknowledged by Raymond in his life of her as capable of reading both Latin and Italian, and another hagiographer, Tommaso Caffarini, claimed that she could write in her own hand, though the majority of her written work was dictated.

Death[link]

The Chapel of Saint Catherine with parts of her relics in the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena

St Catherine died in Rome, the spring of 1380, at the age of thirty-three. Jesus is also commonly thought to have died at the same age, and Catherine's heroine Mary Magdalen is said to have fasted for thirty-three years.

Over the years Catherine had eaten less and less, claiming that she found no nourishment in earthly food. Instead she received the Holy Communion virtually on a daily basis. This extreme fasting appeared unhealthy in the eyes of the clergy and her own sisterhood, and her confessor, Blessed Raymond, ordered her to eat properly. But Catherine claimed that she was unable to, describing her inability to eat as an infermita (illness). She would disgorge what she swallowed, and suffered severe stomach pains, which she bore with patience as another penance.

She was buried in the cemetery of Santa Maria sopra Minerva which lies near the Pantheon. After miracles were reported to take place at her grave, Raymond moved her inside the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva,^[13] where she lies to this day. Her head however, was parted from her body and inserted in a gilt bust from bronze. This bust was later taken to Siena, and carried through that city in a procession to the Dominican church. Behind the bust walked Lapa, Catherine's mother, who lived until she was 89 years old. By then she had seen the end of the wealth and the happiness of her family, and followed most of her children and several of her grandchildren to the grave. She helped Raymond of Capua write his biography of her daughter, and said, "I think God has laid my soul athwart in my body, so it can't get out."^[14]

The people of Siena wished to have St. Catherine's body. A story is told of a miracle whereby they were partially successful: Knowing that they could not smuggle her whole body out of Rome, they decided to take only her head which they placed in a bag. When stopped by the Roman guards, they prayed to St Catherine to help them, confident that she would rather have her body (or at least part thereof) in Siena. When they opened the bag to show the guards, it appeared no longer to hold her head but to be full of rose petals. Once they got back to Siena they reopened the bag and her head was visible once more. Due to this story, St Catherine is often seen holding a rose. The incorruptible head and thumb were entombed in the Basilica of San Domenico, where they remain.^[15]

Sarcophagus of Saint Catherine beneath the High Altar of the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome

Pope Pius II canonized St Catherine in the year 1461. Her feast day, at the time, was not included in the Roman Calendar. When it was added in 1597, it was put on the day of her death, April 29, as now, but because of a conflict with the feast of Saint Peter of Verona, which was also on April 29, it was moved in 1628 to the new date of April 30.^[16] In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, it was decided to leave the celebration of the feast of St Peter of Verona to local calendars, because he was not as well known worldwide, and Saint Catherine's feast was restored to its traditional date of April 29.^[17] Some continued to use one or other of the calendars in force in the 1628–1969 period.

On May 5, 1940 Pope Pius XII named her a joint Patron Saint of Italy along with Saint Francis of Assisi. Pope Paul VI gave her the title of Doctor of the Church in 1970 along with Saint Teresa of Ávila making them the first women to receive this honour. In 1999, Pope John Paul II made her one of Europe's patron saints. She is also the patroness of the historically Catholic American woman's fraternity, Theta Phi Alpha.

Catherine is alleged to have suffered from anorexia mirabilis.^[18] Nonetheless she remains a greatly respected figure for her spiritual writings, and political boldness to "speak truth to power"— it being exceptional for a woman, in her time period, to have had such influence in politics and on world history.

Images[link]

A series of articles on Christian mysticism
Articles Aspects of meditation • Christian meditation • Contemplative prayer • Hesychasm • Mystical theology • Reflection on the New Age Early period Gregory of Nyssa • Bernard of Clairvaux • Guigo II 13th and 14th centuries Francis of Assisi • Dominic de Guzmán • Bonaventure • Catherine of Siena 15th and 16th centuries Ignatius of Loyola • Francisco de Osuna • John of Avila • Teresa of Avila • John of the Cross 17th and 18th centuries Francis de Sales • Pierre de Bérulle 19th century Therese of Lisieux • Gemma Galgani • Conchita de Armida 20th century Maria Valtorta • Faustina Kowalska • Thomas Merton

• CatherineSienaMeo.jpg

  Michele de Meo, "Catherine of Siena, Patroness of Europe," 2003, Chapel of St. James, Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva

• CatherineCommunionBeccafumi.jpg

  Domenico Beccafumi, "The Miraculous Communion of St. Catherine of Siena," circa 1513-1515, Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

• CSienaStigmataBeccafumi.jpg

  Domenico Beccafumi, "St. Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata," circa 1513-1515, Getty Center, Los Angeles, California

• RosaryStaAgata.jpg

  "The Virgin Mary Giving the Rosary to St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena," Church of Santa Agata in Trastevere, Rome (Bottom of painting: the souls in Purgatory await the prayers of the faithful)

• 

  Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, "Saint Catherine of Siena", circa 1746, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Austria

See also[link]

• Biblioteca Communale
• Flying Saints
• Order of Preachers
• Stigmata
• War of the Eight Saints

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Catherine of Siena (1988). Suzanne Noffke. ed. The Letters of St. Catherine of Siena. 4. Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton. ISBN 0-86698-036-9. 
• Catherine of Siena (1980). Suzanne Noffke. ed. The Dialogue. New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-2233-2. 
• Raymond of Capua (1980). Conleth Kearns. ed. The Life of Catherine of Siena. Wilmington: Glazier. ISBN 0-89453-151-4. 
• Hollister, Warren; Judith Bennett (2001). Medieval Europe: A Short History (9 ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.. p. 343. ISBN 0-07-234657-4. 
• McDermott,, Thomas, O.P. (2008). Catherine of Siena: spiritual development in her life and teaching. New York: Paulist Press. ISBN 0-8091-4547-2. 

Further reading[link]

• Catherine of Siena (1707–1721) Opere, ed. Girolamo Gigli. 4 vols. Lucca; Siena
• Cross, F. L., ed. (1957) The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford U. P.; p. 251
• The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, TAN Books, 2009. ISBN 978-0-89555-149-8

External links[link]

Find more about Catherine of Siena on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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• Works by Catherine of Siena at Project Gutenberg
• Edmund G. Gardner (1913). "St. Catherine of Siena". Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03447a.htm. 
• EWTN Library: Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin
• Letters of Catherine from Gutenberg
• Saint Catherine of Siena: Text with concordances and frequency list
• Drawn by Love, The Mysticism of Catherine of Siena
• St. Catherine of Siena page at Christian Iconography
• Divae Catharinae Senensis Vita 15th c. manuscript at Stanford Digital Repository

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Enter Shikari
Live at Heaven Nightclub, London in 2009.
Background information
Also known as	Hybryd (1999–2003)
Origin	St Albans, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Electronicore Post-hardcore,[1] trancecore,[2] metalcore[3]
Years active	2003–present
Labels	Ambush Reality, Tiny Evil, PIAS Recordings, Hopeless
Website	www.entershikari.com
Members
Rou Reynolds Rory Clewlow Chris Batten Rob Rolfe

Enter Shikari are a British rock/hardcore group that combine post-hardcore and various heavy metal sub-genres such as metalcore and alternative metal with elements of various electronic genres such as electronica, dubstep, trance and occasionally drum and bass creating a very strong electronicore sound, formed in 2003 in St Albans, Hertfordshire.^[4][5] The band is named after a boat belonging to Roughton "Rou" Reynolds' uncle, and a character in a play which he wrote before forming the band, both of which are named Shikari.^[6] Shikari also means 'Hunter' in Marathi, Persian, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali.^[7] Their debut album, Take to the Skies was released on 19 March 2007 and reached #4 in the Official UK Album Chart. Their second album, titled Common Dreads, was released on 15 June 2009 and debuted on the UK Albums Chart at 16.^[8] Their third studio album, A Flash Flood of Colour was released on 16 January 2012 and was positioned at the top of the UK Album Chart for almost its entire week of release, however it eventually debuted on the chart at 4. The band are currently embarking on the A Flash Flood of Colour World Tour.

Biography[link]

[edit] Beginnings and Take to the Skies (1999–2008)

In 1999 a band named Hybryd formed consisting of Rou on guitar, Chris on bass and Rob on drums. They released an EP under the name 'Commit No Nuisance' and featured the tracks 'Perfect Pygmalion' and 'Fake'. In 2003, Hybryd became Enter Shikari. They revolutionised their sound by recruiting Rory to play Guitar so that Rou could concentrate on electronics. Enter Shikari formed in St Albans, England in 2004. The band features Roughton "Rou" (/raʊ/) Reynolds on vocals and electronics, Liam 'Rory' Clewlow on guitar, Chris Batten on bass guitar and Rob Rolfe on drums. All four members are from St Albans, Hertfordshire.^[4]

During 2003 and 2004, the band released three demo EPs that were available from their gigs and their website. They had another demo EP planned for release in 2005, (although no such EP materialized only recordings surfaced online) for this the first versions of Return To Energiser and Labyrinth were recorded, early versions of Ok Time For Plan B and We Can Breathe In Space were also recorded around this time but it's unclear if these were destined for the EP. In August 2006 they released a video of, the (only 100 copies) single "Mothership" which became the single of the week on the iTunes store. Their first physical single featured re-recorded versions of "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which had previously been featured on one of the demo EPs. It was released on 30 October 2006. It was limited to 1000 copies of each format and sold out within the first week of release. In mid January 2007, Enter Shikari's first single, "Mothership", entered the UK singles chart for one week at number 151, on Downloads only (despite its physical formats not being eligible for charts [at the band's request]). This was followed a week later by "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B", which charted at number 182 on the singles chart (despite its physical formats being ineligible for charts [at the band's request]) and number 146 in the Download Chart. In addition "Sorry You're Not a Winner/OK Time for Plan B" featured on EA Sports video game title NHL 08 and also Madden 08. Enter Shikari secured a spot on the Gibson/MySpace stage at 2006's Download Festival. They have also had interviews with popular music press such as Kerrang! and Rock Sound. On 4 November 2006, they became only the second unsigned band to ever sell out London Astoria (the first being The Darkness).

They also made the NME's "New Noise 2007", a list of the bands it considers most likely to achieve success in the coming year (previous years lists have included the likes of Arcade Fire, Hot Chip and Bloc Party).

The next single released was "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour", on 5 March 2007. This was the band's second single to be released from their forthcoming debut album. It contained a re-recorded version of the song "Anything Can Happen in the Next Half Hour". It reached 27 in the Official UK chart. The band's debut album, Take to the Skies, was released on 19 March 2007 and on 25 March it reached number 4 in the UK Official Album Charts. It contained re-recordings of many of the songs that had featured on the demo EPs and singles that were released prior to the release of the album.

During the month of March 2007 it was announced they would be playing at Download Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals, Give it a Name, Glastonbury Festival, Oxegen festival in Ireland and Rock am Ring in Germany. On 30 March 2007, Enter Shikari announced that their next single would be "Jonny Sniper"^[9] and would be released on 18 June. The song's video was premiered on 21 May. The single received bad reviews from NME.^[10]

On 6 June 2007 they performed a live show on BBC Radio 1 for Zane Lowe at BBC Radio Theatre.

They played an eleven date headline tour in October/November 2007 including their biggest ever headline gig in the 4,921 capacity Brixton Academy. The band released a compilation EP titled The Zone on 12 November.

Enter Shikari have performed over 500 gigs as of 2007 and played on the Gibson/MySpace stage at 2006's Download Festival. On 14 May 2007, Enter Shikari started their first North America tour. This followed into three more North American tours.

In January 2008, Enter Shikari performed in Australia and New Zealand for the first time as part of the Big Day Out Festival. The band also did a number of side-shows in Australia, including two sold out shows at the Hi-Fi Bar in Melbourne.

They played at Projekt Revolution in Milton Keynes on 29 June 2007, alongside Linkin Park, Jay-Z, N.E.R.D, The Bravery, InnerPartySystem and Pendulum.

On 13 May 2008, the band released the first in a series of videos called "Enter Shikari: In the 'Low". The videos, posted on the band's YouTube page, showcased the band as they recorded their new single, "We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don't Want Us To Escape", and demoed new material. One of the new songs set to feature on the album was 'Step Up', which was first performed at Milton Keynes Pitz on 28 June 2008, the warm up show to Projekt Revolution the following day.

On 8 August 2008, it was announced that "We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don't Want Us To Escape" would be released as a single. It was said to be a drastic re-working of the song originally demoed by the band back in 2005, but was not to be included in the band's second album.

They completed a tour of the UK and Ireland which took place over the course of 6 weeks; from 30 September to 4 November 2008; and consisted of 28 shows. A DVD compilation of live footage filmed by band / crew along with some TV footage was to be released to coincide with the tour according to a Kerrang! interview with the band, but has not been released as of yet.

[edit] Common Dreads (2009–2010)

It was confirmed by NME that Enter Shikari had finished working on their second album, Common Dreads, in March 2009 and announced that they would tour the UK and Europe during 2009. They also made available a free download of a new song, Antwerpen from their website.^[11] On 15 April 2009 Juggernauts was played on Radio 1 as Zane Lowe's "Hottest Track in the World" and was released as a single on 1 June 2009. The B-side of the single is "All Eyes On The Saint". The band also had help from musician Danny Sneddon who helped with the recording of Juggernauts.^[12] On 1 May Kerrang featured their track-by-track of the album. Metal Hammer were the first to review the album online with a track-by-track.^[13] Since it was announced in an interview with Andy Copping on Scuzz on their "The Digital Darkside: Download Special" that there would be 2 secret bands playing at Download Festival 2009, it has been heavily speculated that Enter Shikari would play one of these slots. They were confirmed to be one of the secret bands on 9 June 2009.^[14] Enter Shikari also featured at Reading and Leeds Festivals on 29 and 30 August 2009, playing songs from Common Dreads, as well as acoustic variations of 'Juggernauts', 'No Sleep Tonight' and 'Adieu' from Take To The Skies.

Common Dreads was released through Ambush Reality on 15 June 2009 and debuted at #16 on the UK top 40 album chart. The second single that has been released from Common Dreads was No Sleep Tonight.^[15] The 7-inch vinyl, CD single and MP3 download was released on 17 August 2009. A slightly modified version of the song "Wall" was released as a radio single, and a video for the song "Zzzonked" made of clips of a live show which was played at Norwich UEA, was also released.

A 2-disc version of Common Dreads was due to be released in January 2010.^[16] Frontman Rou Reynolds announced that "We’ve got a different artist for each single from Hospital Records to do drum ‘n’ bass remixes so we’ll be releasing that as a 12". Then we're doing the same thing with (dubstep label) True Tiger who've done a dubstep remix of each single." however it was later said in a Radio 1 interview that in fact they were only having their main singles remixed.

The new single "Thumper"^[17] was released on 19 January 2010, on BBC Radio One, As well the new single "Tribalism", which was first played on Radio 1, 16 February 2010. These songs come off the new B-sides and remixes album Tribalism, which was released on 22 February 2010.

Since March 2009, drummer Rob Rolfe has not been able to perform at United States shows due to a denial of a visa. Rob has chosen Fellsilent drummer, Christopher Mansbridge to fill in for these dates.^[18] Although, on 9 July 2010 Rob stated in a Twitter post that he had obtained a visa. On 30 September 2010 Rob passed through customs at an airport in Houston for Enter Shikari's North American tour in October/November, and confirmed this in a Twitter post stating simply "America, I'm back".

Throughout February–March 2010, Enter Shikari joined the Australian summer festival Soundwave along with other bands such as A Day to Remember and Architects, playing shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. The band then continued to tour Japan with A Day to Remember and Escape the Fate and in April–May 2010, they served as a support act, along with August Burns Red and Silverstein on A Day to Remember's Toursick.

[edit] Live From Planet Earth and A Flash Flood of Colour (2010–present)

On 14 June 2010, Enter Shikari announced that they had returned to the studio to do a "one off new track" called "Destabilise" which was released as a download on 26 October 2010, and a limited edition coloured 7-inch vinyl on 29 November 2010.

During June and July 2010, the band took part in the Warped Tour in USA and afterwards, they played a few festivals such as headlining Redfest and supporting The Prodigy at Milton Keynes Bowl. Following this, they performed an exclusive show at the venue Underworld situated in Camden which was filmed and recorded and features on the live DVD, 'Live From planet Earth'.

In August 2010, Enter Shikari returned to Australian shores for a headlining national tour, playing sold out shows in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne and near-sellout shows in Perth and Brisbane. On 2 October 2010, the band went on their headlining "Destabilise" Tour in North America with Haste the Day, Sleeping With Sirens, MSWHITE, and LightsGoBlue.^{[citation needed]} The band then supported 30 Seconds to Mars on their Into The Wild Tour leg of UK arenas in November and December 2010.^[19]

Also, at the end of 2010, the band collaborated with UK drum and bass band The Qemists on their single Take it Back which was released on 28 March 2011.

On 21 March 2011, it was confirmed that Enter Shikari will be playing at the Reading and Leeds festivals in late August and on 26 April 2011, the band confirmed a mainland European tour starting in Kiev, Ukraine on 7 September, and ending in Tilburg, Holland on 3 October 2011. Also, on 14 June 2011, the band confirmed a UK and Ireland tour which will take part during the month of October. Support for these two tours will be provided from Your Demise and letlive.

In May 2011, the band traveled to Bangkok, Thailand to record their third studio album. Recording began on 8 May 2011, and finished on 14 June 2011. On 19 May 2011, they released the single; "Quelle Surprise". It was originally planned to be the first single released from the new album however, Rou Reynolds has since confirmed that it won't feature, and instead will be a stand alone single much like Destabilise.^[20]

In June 2011, the band signed to Hopeless Records in the US, and embarked on the Vans Warped Tour for the second year in a row.^[21]

On 11 July 2011, the band released their third live album and first DVD, bundled together as Live From Planet Earth. Distribution of the non limited edition version of Live From Planet Earth and other Enter Shikari stock has been affected however following a fire at the PIAS distribution warehouse in London, after it was set on fire by rioters following the 2011 England riots. This was announced via the bands' Facebook after many fans discovered that the fire had affected the bands' label Ambush Reality, and Rou confirmed a majority of the stock had indeed gone up in flames in an interview with Rocksound.^[22]

In the fall and winter of 2011, Enter Shikari will embark on a US tour called "The Dead Throne Tour" with The Devil Wears Prada, Whitechapel, and For Today.

On 8 September 2011, the band announced that the first single from their 'as yet untitled' third album will be called "Sssnakepit." The single was announced for release on 20 September 2011 along with a video recorded for the track at Dingwalls Club in Camden Town, London. ^[23] A video of the first live performance of the song posted on the band's Facebook shows the rap hardcore influences in the song, as well as the title suggests a further political theme. The band had also been playing another new song live titled "Arguing with Thermometers", during their European fall tour. The debut performance of this song took place on 12 September in Warsaw, Poland.

During the band's show in St.Petersburg, Russia, on 8 September 2011, bassist Chris Batten revealed that the band's third album was set for release in January 2012.

On 19 September 2011, Sssnakepit was played twice in a row on Zane Lowes show as his 'Hottest Track In The World'. The music video (produced by Stand Your Ground Media) for Sssnakepit was released the same week. 'Arguing with Thermometers' was announced to be on the new album on Lowe's show, when a live studio session was played. ^[24]

A leak from UK Magazine Rock Sound revealed that Enter Shikari's third studio album will be titled "A Flash Flood of Colour" and will be released on 9 January 2012, however, due to shipping issues the band has since moved the release date back a week to 16 January. It was also revealed in the leak that the band are planning a March 2012 UK tour.

On 4 December 2011, the band posted this on their Facebook page: "we've kept this news under our hats for now, BUT, who's interested in hearing another new track?? WELL... if you keep your eyes peeled on our wall tomorrow, we'll give you the details. tease tease." Sure enough, the next day "Gandhi Mate, Gandhi" was released on the band's YouTube page and iTunes. It was also broadcast on the Zane Lowe show on BBC Radio 1.^[25]

On 5 January 2012 the band released the studio version of "Arguing With Thermometers" on their YouTube page. It was also played on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show in the morning as his "Hottest Track In The World". The official video for the song was uploaded to the band's YouTube page on 17 January 2012. A few days prior to the song's release the band showcased a still shot of the video, seeing Rou dressed as a news reporter called "Phillis McCleavland".

The band released their new album on 16 January 2012, and played three album release shows. The first was for HMV in London at the Borderline. People who had pre-ordered the album via HMV were automatically entered into a prize draw to gain access to the release show as no tickets were sold. The second show was in Kingston upon Thames, at the Hippodrome. This was for Banquet Records and tickets were sold with special offers available if the ticket was bought with an album. The final show was played in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

At the end of the first week of the album being released, the album reached number four in the U.K charts.

The band began their first tour of "A Flash Flood Of Colour" on 10 March 2012 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam, Holland; with two weeks worth of dates across mainland Europe and the United Kingdom, ending with a sold out show at Hammersmith Apollo in London on 23 March 2012. Support came from Young Guns, The James Cleaver Quintet (Europe only) and Tek-One (UK only).^[26]

Soon after, that band took the "A Flash Flood of Colour World Tour" to America for a 7 week stint, with support from letlive. and At The Skylines.^[27]

The bands Summer 2012 plans feature festivals across Europe, including festivals such as Radio 1's Big Weekend, Reading and Leeds Festivals, Pukkelpop, FM4 Frequency Festival, Sonisphere in Spain, T in the Park, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, and many more, ranging from the end of May to the end of August.^[28]

Band members[link]

• Roughton "Rou" Reynolds — lead vocals, programming, keyboards, synthesizers, acoustic guitar
• Liam "Rory" Clewlow — guitars, backing vocals
• Chris Batten — bass, backing vocals
• Rob Rolfe — drums, percussion, backing vocals

Discography[link]

• Take to the Skies (2007)
• Common Dreads (2009)
• A Flash Flood of Colour (2012)

Ambush Reality[link]

Ambush Reality is an independent record label that only releases music by Enter Shikari. Formed in July 2006, it is co-owned and run by the members of the band and their friends.^[29] The band has decided that, in order to tour in the United States, they will have to sign with a major record label in America.^[30] On 28 August 2007, Ambush Reality said that Take to the Skies came out in North America in October 2007, with Ambush Reality joining Interscope Records imprint Tiny Evil. Ambush Reality signed a distribution deal with Warner Music in order to make the album Common Dreads and future releases more accessible outside the UK and also more widely advertised and promoted.^[31] As of 8 December 2010 Enter Shikari / Ambush Reality have left distribution through Warner and will distribute throughout UK/Europe/Japan/Australia via PIAS Entertainment Group. As of 21 June 2011, Enter Shikari's releases in North America and Canada will be via independent record label Hopeless Records.^[32]

Side projects[link]

Reynolds has produced music as part of a side project with the name "Rout"[3], which he sometimes performs in small venues and before shows. He previously used the names "Shark & Blitz" and "Routron 5000".^[33] The music develops on his penchant for electronics, resulting in a drum and bass/jungle/dubstep sound. Some songs feature samples of Rou and friends fooling around as well as iconic lines from movies or songs.

Frontman Rou Reynolds has also set up his own clothing company Step Up Clothing [4].

Drummer Rob Rolfe also performs as a DJ under the alias "Sgt. Rolfy" specialising in freeform hardcore music.

Enter Shikari promoted the film Zeitgeist: Moving Forward through their website, encouraging their fans to join the Zeitgeist Movement, stating: "Single-handedly the biggest influence on all that is Enter Shikari!".

Reynolds was also involved in hardcore side project JBM along with his friend Matt Pendell.

Accolades and Readers Poll Results[link]

Miscellaneous

• Rock Sound's poll for 'who will make it in 2007'.^[42]
• Ourzone Reader's Poll: Best Live Band 2011.^[43]
• Ourzone Reader's Poll: Who Will Own 2012.^[44]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website