A large shack near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Shacks in Kayamandi, South Africa

In affluent areas, shacks are most often used for storage or have been abandoned.

A shack is a type of small house, usually in a state of disrepair. The word may derive from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word xacalli or "adobe house" by way of Mexican Spanish xacal/jacal, which has the same meaning as "shack".^[1] It was a common usage among people of Mexican ancestry throughout the U.S. southwest and was picked up by speakers of American English.

An alternative etymology is that shack derives from teach, pronounced chaċ, meaning "house" in Irish Gaelic, which was absorbed into American English from the 1880s onwards. Similarly shanty may have derived from the Gaelic seantigh, prounced shan-tí, meaning "old house", at a time when Irish migrants lived in New York's tenements.^[2]

It is possible that up to a billion people worldwide live in shacks.^[3] Fire is a key hazard in shack settlements.^[4] Shack settlements are also sometimes known as slums or shanty towns.

In Australia, particularly in Tasmania,^[5] shacks were originally holiday homes or recreational fishing shelter located on crown land such as beside lakes, along on river banks (especially the Murray River) or near beaches. They were sometimes roughly built but were often quite solid structures where they had to withstand the inclement weather of highland areas. Frequently they had no legal title to the land they were built on. Now, a lot of the shack owners have freehold title to their land, and are subject to building codes to reduce the risk of damage or injury from floods and storms. Many are now quite grand holiday homes and summer houses. There are also fishermen's shacks at places like Wedge-Grey on the Western Australian coast. The New Zealand equivalent is called a bach.

In South Africa, shacks (also referred to as mikhukhu or imijondolo^[6]), typically constructed with corrugated iron sheets cladding a wooden frame, are an increasingly common form of accommodation for millions of people and are mostly found in or around urban areas, built particularly on the outskirts of larger cities. In recent years shack dwellers have organized major protests around the country.

Other meanings of the word[link]

• In amateur radio jargon, a shack refers to the place where an amateur radio operator's radio sending and receiving apparatus is located and operated. The term originally meant that part of a ship where the radio apparatus was located and operated. This is the inspiration for the name 'RadioShack'.
• In military aviation jargon, a "shack" refers to a successful, direct hit on a ground target.
• Bus stops are often referred to as "shacks" by commuters and the common passerby because some bus stops have roofs on top of the stops for shade and protection from the rain.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shacks

Paul Antony Young.^[1][2] (born 17 January 1956)^[3][4] is an English rock and pop musician. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & The Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, his following solo success turned him into a 1980s teenage pop idol. He was famous for hit singles such as "Love of the Common People", "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)", "Come Back and Stay", "Everytime You Go Away" and "Oh Girl". His debut album No Parlez turned him into a household name.^[5] Since the mid-1980s he has had international success, along with his backing band Los Pacaminos.

In 1985 he appeared at Geldof and Ure's next charity convention Live Aid,^[6] where he appeared at the London Wembley Stadium performing the Band Aid hit "Do They Know It's Christmas", and his own hits "Come Back and Stay", "That's The Way Love Is" and "Everytime You Go Away", with Alison Moyet joining him on-stage to perform "That's The Way Love Is".^[7]

In the past decade, Young has released very little new material, but has continued to tour in different parts of the world.^[8]

Early Life and Career[link]

Paul Young was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. He has an older brother, Mark, and a younger sister, Joanne.^[1] As a youth, after school, he played football for the Vauxhall Motors factory and in his spare time played in several bands as a bass guitarist.

The first group for which he became lead singer was Kat Kool & The Kool Kats. In the late 1970s he joined Streetband, who had one Top 20 hit in the UK, with the humorous, novelty track "Toast".^[5] In December 1979, Streetband disbanded.

The ex-Streetbanders added new recruits Dave Lathwell on guitar and Baz Watts on drums. In addition, a four piece brass section was created by Steve Farr (baritone saxophone), Richard Blanchchard (tenor saxophone), Stuart Van Blandamer (alto saxophone) and Tony Hughes (trumpet) who all hailed from the North London and Hertfordshire area, while organist Ian Kewley lived in Essex. Q-Tips' name derived from a well-known brand of cotton swab.

Q-Tips' first rehearsals took place in November 1979. Their first gig was on 18 November 1979 at the Queens Arms Hotel in Harrow. This was followed by another at the Horn of Plenty in St Albans - a regular gig for Streetband during 1978 - and a total of sixteen in their first month of existence. Some personnel changes occurred during the first six months, with Blanchard's departure leaving a three-piece brass section, and Lathwell also leaving the band.

By 1 April 1980, the band had recorded two tracks, "SYSLJFM (The Letter Song)", and "Having A Party", both recorded at the Livingstone Studios in Barnet. Constant touring and concert appearances had built up a strong fan base by mid 1981, when the small amount of soul music cover versions were outnumbered by the band's own tracks.^[9] The professionalism of the band had attracted the attention of several record labels, with the late Mickie Most (RAK Records) confirming on BBC Radio 1's Round Table programme that Q-Tips "...are easily the best live band working at the moment". In August 1980, the British music magazine, NME reported that Q-Tips had just released their debut, self titled album.^[10]

In time, Garth Watt Roy was replaced by John Gifford on guitar,^[9] and Blandamer was replaced by Nick Payne. This line-up remained for the rest of the band's career. They appeared on BBC Television's In Concert, Rock Goes to College and The Old Grey Whistle Test in the latter part of 1981. Other television appearance included children's Saturday morning TV. Q-Tips opened for The J. Geils Band, The Knack, Thin Lizzy, Bob Marley and the Average White Band.

The band toured with After The Fire, and supported The Who on their twelve date UK tour in 1980. In 1981, Q-Tips played the Montreux Jazz Festival. With poor record sales after the release of two albums and seven singles, the Q-Tips broke up in early 1982 when Paul Young signed a solo recording contract with Sony/CBS.^[9] In late 1982 and early 1983, the brass section and drummer of Q-Tips toured with Adam Ant on the UK and US legs of his Friend or Foe tour, and some remained for Ant's 1984 Strip tour.

Young briefly teamed up again with Q-Tips for a reunion tour in 1993.^[9]

Work in Music and Media[link]

The Q-Tips disbanded in 1982, and Young was signed by CBS Records as a solo performer.

Young’s new backing band 'The Royal Family' included keyboardist Kewley, fretless bass player Pino Palladino,^[13][14] guitarist Steve Bolton, drummer Mike Pinder, and backing singers Maz Roberts and Kim Leslie AKA 'The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts'. Helped by the driving sound of Pino Palladino's fretless bass in his backing band, his first two singles, "Iron Out the Rough Spots" and a cover of "Love of the Common People", had no success, but the third, a cover of the Marvin Gaye song "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)", reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart^[5] for three weeks in the summer of 1983, the first of 14 British Top 40 singles.^[5][15][16] (The song was included on the soundtrack of the 1992 British comedy film Peter's Friends.

Similar success followed all over Europe. In the UK, follow-up single "Come Back and Stay"^[17] reached No. 4, and a re-release of "Love of the Common People" made it to No. 2 and even received radio airplay in the United States (thanks to its soundtrack inclusion in John Hughes's film "Sixteen Candles"), while his debut album No Parlez was certified platinum in various countries.^[18]

Young's style at the time was a warm, approachable white soul, though he sometimes received playful criticism for his fashion decisions. However, his choice of an Antony Price leather suit for the cover of No Parlez proved to be impractical for the concert stage, where his energetic shows dictated more robust clothing.

Paul Young performing in Budapest Hungary on 18 June 1987^[19]

The year 1984 was a difficult one for Young, as his first heavy promotional and live concert tour of America strained his vocal cords severely, to the extent that he was completely unable to sing for most of the year.^{[citation needed]} He recovered sufficiently to provide a famous lead performance on the opening and closing lines to the Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", a charity project put together by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, which also featured famed singers and bandleaders such as Simon Le Bon, Francis Rossi and Bono.

He returned to the UK Top Ten with a version of Ann Peebles' "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down".^[5] The latter appeared on his second album, The Secret of Association, released in 1985, which secured his future success in the United States, Japan and Australia. The album went to No. 1 in the UK. However, he continued to have occasional voice and throat difficulties. That year, Young scored the biggest worldwide hit of his career with "Everytime You Go Away", a version of a Daryl Hall song from a 1980 Hall & Oates album. "Every Time You Go Away" topped the pop charts in the U.S., and was his biggest success in the U.S. He would perform the song during the London segment of the Live Aid concert.^[20]

In 1990, he released a cover of The Chi-Lites' "Oh Girl", which peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[5]

He continued to have a successful career, with some highlights such as singing the Crowded House track "Don't Dream It's Over" at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute in 1988,^[21][22] producing a popular duet, "Senza una donna (Without a Woman)," with Italian blues singer Zucchero in 1991, and singing "Radio Ga Ga" with the surviving members of Queen in 1992, at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert soon after Freddie Mercury died.^[23][24][25] In 1991, he recorded a duet with Irish group Clannad for the Blake Edwards film Switch, a cover of the Joni Mitchell song, "Both Sides Now".^[5]

"Don't Dream It's Over", "Senza una donna (Without a Woman)" and "Both Sides Now" were all featured on his first greatest hits album, From Time To Time - The Singles Collection, released in 1991.^[5] The album included the most prominent hit singles from Young's first four solo albums, the three above-mentioned songs, and a previously unreleased selection called "I'm Only Foolin' Myself".

In 1993, Young was freed from his contract with the CBS/Sony Records label, and afterward, released fewer solo albums. He reformed the Q-Tips for a short series of concerts that year. He contributed to the Vangelis album Voices in 1995. Young sang the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen", at Wembley Stadium before England's Euro '96 semi-final match against Germany.

In 1995, Young formed his own backing group Los Pacaminos, and first performed with the group in Hyde Park, London the same year. In 1996 however, Young was once again performing solo. By mid-1996, Young made his last full public performance with Tony Hadley, before declining to perform more in nightclubs and pubs so that he could concentrate more on his personal life and family without having to organise tours. In late-1996, Young co-wrote the song "Build Me Up" for Tony Hadley with Hadley. The song was the only song Young had written for another artist, and was recorded into the soundtrack of the 1996 film When Saturday Comes.

Also in late 1996, Young set about recording for his next album, Paul Young, which was released the following year.

Young performing in August 2004

From there, he was known to divide his time between family, the informal Tex-Mex group Los Pacaminos,^[26] and performing live during 1980s revival tours in the UK between 2001 and 2008.^[27] In November 2001, when Young was on the final night of the Here and Now tour, Michael Aspel awarded him his This is Your Life book. The show went out on BBC One on 5 December that year.

2006 saw the release of Rock Swings - On The Wild Side Of Swing. In September 2006, he appeared in the BBC1 cooking show Celebrity MasterChef,^[28][29] and won his show, allowing him a place in the semi-finals.^[30] A year later, he was a contestant on another cooking show, ITV's Hell's Kitchen.^[31]

Although his musical career had began to decline, as well as appearing on Celebrity MasterChef and Hell's Kitchen, Young began to make more appearances on the media. He appeared as a guest on shows including The Wright Stuff, This Morning and The One Show.

In 2010, Young recorded and released a new hit "Come Back", a duet he did with electronic dance music act Chicane. The single was a sample of Young's 1983 hit "Come Back and Stay", and charted at 151 on the UK Singles Chart. The single was recorded onto Chicane's 2010 album Giants.^[32]

Los Pacaminos[link]

Young first formed Los Pacaminos^[34][35] in 1995. The result of the group forming was Young's desire to get back to basic, as he explains "I was between record labels and writing material for a new album but I wanted to play live again. I’ve always loved the Tex-Mex sound and knew a few musicians who had a similar passion for this type of music. So I asked them to join me in forming a band.^[36][37][38]

The group were usually known for performing in pubs and nightclubs, singing songs such as "Wooly Bully", "La Bamba" and "Speedy Gonzales".^[39] However, in 2000, Young decided to take the group further, and the group released an album Los Pacaminos in 2002,^[5][40][41] the track listing for the album was:

• "My My My"
• "Manana"
• "Perdita"
• "La Mesa"
• "Shadows on the Rise"
• "Raised on Margaritas"
• "Poor Boys"
• "Handsome Man"
• "Tico"
• "Do We Want The Same Things"
• "Two Margaritas"
• "Tierra D'Ensuenos"

Upon the release of the album, the band established themselves as a professional line-up, consisting of:

• Young on guitar and vocals
• Drew Barfield on guitar and vocals^[42]
• Melvyn Duffy on pedal steel guitar
• Steve Greetham on bass and vocals
• Matt Irving on keyboards, accordion and vocals
• Jamie Moses on guitar and vocals
• Mark Pinder on drums

The band have continued to perform since the release of their only album, most recently performing at the 2006 Wickham Festival.^[43]

Collaborations[link]

Young's best known collaboration (apart from that with his backing band Los Pacaminos) was with his early collaboration with bassist Pino Palladino.^[44][45] Palladino, who had also collaborated with others including Tears for Fears, Go West and Gary Numan, featured on three of Young's albums, No Parlez, The Secret of Association and Paul Young. Palladino has also frequently appeared live with Young during his concerts. Well known appearances by Paul Young that featured Palladino were his performance at Live Aid,^[46] and several concerts since. Palladino also appeared on Young's non-official album Los Pacaminos, and album Young recorded with his newfound backing band Los Pacaminos in 2002, and so for a year between 2002 and 2003, Palladino acted as a touring member for Los Pacaminos. In 2010, Young recorded "Come Back", a sample of his original hit "Come Back and Stay", with the electronic dance music act Chicane.^[47][48]

Personal life[link]

Young met his wife, former model Stacey Smith, on his video for "Come Back and Stay" in 1983. They married while they were living in Los Angeles in November 1987. Together they have three children: daughters Levi (born March 1987), Layla (born August 1994), and son Grady Cole (born January 1996). Young and Smith split in May 2006; however, in March 2009, it was announced that they had reconciled.^[49][50][51] Young is a close friend of singer and Spandau Ballet front man Tony Hadley. The two toured Australia and New Zealand during October and November 2008.^[52][53][54]

Discography[link]

Paul Young performing in 2011

Young's discography has consisted of 8 studio albums, one live album, 13 compilation albums and 36 singles.^[5][55] Following short stints in several groups, Young became known in the 1980s for his baritone voice and his music gengres rock, blue-eyed soul and pop. From 1983 to 1993, all of Young's studio albums were released during a contract he had with Columbia Records, and since 1994, Young has released albums through Vision, East West and SonyBMG Records. Three of Young's albums, No Parlez (1983), The Secret of Association (1985) and Other Voices (1990) featured Welsh bassist Pino Palladino.^[56] Several of Young's most famous songs are covers of the originals, such as his 1983 hit "Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)" is a cover of an original by Marvin Gaye and his 1990 hit "Oh Girl" is a cover of an original by The Chi-Lites. In the past decade, Young has released very little popular new material, and has only one hit since 2000, which was "Come Back" in 2010, which he recorded with electronic dance music act Chicane, which featured on Chicane's 2010 album Giants.^[57][58] Young has however, since 2000, become famed for his frequent performances with his newfound backing band Los Pacaminos, with whom he released the album Los Pacaminos in 2002.^[5]

Trivia[link]

In one episode of the BBC cult comedy show Little Britain, Young's name is used on the Young Offenders Unit where Vicky Pollard is detained (the area is called Paul Young Offenders Unit).

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Paul Young

• Official website
• Paul Young at Allmusic

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2012)

Les Cowboys Fringants
Les Cowboys Fringants in 2007
Background information
Origin	Repentigny, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Folk rock
Years active	1997 (1997)–present
Website	cowboysfringants.com
Members
Karl Tremblay Jean-François Pauzé Marie-Annick Lépine Jérôme Dupras Simon Landry
Past members
Dominique Lebeau

Les Cowboys Fringants (English: The Frisky Cowboys) are a Canadian folk rock music group formed in 1997 in Repentigny.

They are a popular band and cult phenomenon from Quebec, who perform Québécois néo-trad music (modernized Quebec folk music with a rock flavour), the band also draws on Country music. They have gained an international underground following, especially in France, French-speaking Belgium and Switzerland. There is even a group of French fans called Les Cousins Fringants (a take on the expression cousin that the French use to affectionately call French Canadians). They hail from the Montreal suburb of Repentigny and L'Assomption. The entire band collaborates on the lyrics, although guitarist Jean-François Pauzé often contributes more than the others. The fundamental aspect of the band are their explosive live performances, captured on the Attache ta tuque live album and the Centre Bell 30 décembre 2003 DVD.

Overview[link]

Les Cowboys represent an important part of modern Québécois music. They are part of the néo-trad movement that appeared in Quebec around the turn of the 21st century, and they embody a resurgence of political songwriting (after the drought of the 1980s and parts of the 1990s, political songwriting had been a victim of Post-Referendum Syndrome). As the néo-trad movement adapts Quebec folklore into contemporary crafts, the political message of the band is a re-occurrence of 1970s chansonnier activist messages of left-wing solidarity and, recently, sovereignism, although in a more distinctly modern way. They also sometimes adopt a minimalist & dadaesque style, a trend of the Quebec music scene of the 2000s - a decade of voluntary simple yet nonetheless quite intelligent and Joual lyrics, therefore subversive and akin to a sort of lyrical naïve art. (The 1970s did see the first wave of voluntary Joual art, like the songs of Robert Charlebois and Aut'chose, and the plays of Michel Tremblay, although not as willingly exaggerated. This is present even more so in the music of Les Trois Accords, Les Denis Drolet, Daniel Boucher, or in "Pépé et sa Guitare"'s (Pépé and his Guitar) song Carole).

The usual subject matter of the group includes: environmentalism, poverty, anguish and family troubles, as well as the denouncing of consumerism, exploitation, state-controlled gambling, cynical government attitude and political apathy. While some of those subjects are serious in appearance, they are often treated in a light manner, sometimes even in a fun, amusing and ironic way. The band also deals with themes of Quebec history, Quebec independence, suburban life, childhood and adolescence, kitsch, relationships and sports. Their songwriting is renowned for having woven an elaborate tapestry of fictional characters with interpersonal relationships, and sometimes a number of these characters appear in more than one song. Much like their writing, the clothes of the male members of the band are quite unique, sometimes purposely normal or kitsch and something of a postmodern, second degree artistic statement. Fans have followed the trend by wearing the equally kitsch t-shirts and other official clothing, with the group logo.

The band themselves are noted fans of Passe-Partout composer Pierre F. Brault and have performed shows in his honour. They have also been influenced by French singer Renaud, and his songs with political messages and local popular language (for Renaud, the French argot).

Many of the idiosyncrasies of their music stem from Marie-Annick Lépine, a versatile musician, who makes the band line up distinct from the conventional guitar-bass-drums-singer. Her talents contribute to the vivacious sounds of instruments like the violin, mandolin and accordion. She has also worked on the Dumas album Le cours des jours.

The band went on tour in summer of 2011, visiting cities in Quebec, France and Switzerland.

Members[link]

• Karl Tremblay (vocals)
• Jean-François "J-F" Pauzé (rhythm guitar)
• Nic Cartwright "Cartwright" (lead guitar)
• Marie-Annick Lépine (violin, mandolin, accordion, piano, banjo etc.)
• Jérôme Dupras (bass guitar, double bass)

Previous members:

• Dominique "Domlebo" Lebeau (drums) - Left the group on August 22, 2007, citing personal reasons.

Discography[link]

• 1997 12 Grandes chansons
• 1998 Sur mon canapé
• 2000 Motel Capri (listen) (April 4, 2000)
• 2001 Enfin Réunis (12 grandes chansons + Sur Mon Canapé) - (November 20, 2001) - (listen)
• 2002 Break syndical - (March 5, 2002) - (listen)
• 2003 Attache ta tuque! - (May 13, 2003; live album) - (listen)
• 2004 La Grand Messe - (November 23, 2004) - (listen)
• 2007 Au Grand Théâtre de Québec - (2007; live album)
• 2008 L'expédition - (September 23, 2008)
• 2008 Sur un air de déjà vu - (October 14, 2008)
• 2010 En concert au Zénith de Paris - (2010; live album)
• 2011 Que du vent - (November 14, 2011)

Filmography[link]

• 2004 Centre Bell 30 décembre 2003 - (April 13, 2004)

See also[link]

• Néo-trad
• List of bands from Canada
• Music of Canada
• Music of Quebec

External links[link]

• (in French) Les Cowboys Fringants Official site