Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and Grand Lodge of Ireland, over a quarter of a million under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England and just under two million in the United States.

The fraternity is administratively organised into independent Grand Lodges or sometimes Orients, each of which governs its own jurisdiction, which consists of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges. The various Grand Lodges recognise each other, or not, based upon adherence to landmarks (a Grand Lodge will usually deem other Grand Lodges who share common landmarks to be regular, and those that do not to be "irregular" or "clandestine").

There are also appendant bodies, which are organisations related to the main branch of Freemasonry, but with their own independent administration.

Amanda Wilson , is a British singer in the UK house music act, Freemasons. As part of the act she has scored two major UK hit singles, one of which went on to success in several European charts, and the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.

Wilson provided lead vocals on the track "When We Were In Love" which made it to the semi final of The Great British Song Contest 1998 to select the UK's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. She has a four octave vocal range and her vocals have been compared to Mariah Carey.^{[by whom?]} Her vocal skills brought her to the attention of music industry A&R. However most of Wilson's success has been found as a guest vocalist working with dance acts.

Wilson provided lead vocals on many tracks on the Freemasons' album, Shakedown. It is believed that The Freemasons discovered Wilson while singing at a karaoke bar in the Méditerranée.^{[citation needed]} Her biggest hit was the Freemasons track, "Love On My Mind", which reached number 11 in 2005 on the UK Singles Chart. The song sampled vocals from "This Time Baby" by Jackie Moore, and lyrics from "When The Heartache Is Over" by Tina Turner. Wilson's vocals on the track were electronically lowered in pitch to blend in with the sampled vocals of Jackie Moore.^{[citation needed]}

Katherine Ellis (born Katherine Jane Margaret Wood in Brighton, England, 1965) is an English dance music vocalist and songwriter. A mainstay of the genre past and present, she has been making records since 1990.

She records under the aliases Katherine Ellis, Kathy Wood, Arrola and K. Ellis and her maiden name Katherine Wood (Ellis is her married name, and she is mother to two sons). She has no connection with the American vocalist Katherine E (also born Katherine Ellis, whose well-known single was "Then I Feel Good", released in 1991), even though some biographies and websites have understandably mistaken the two artists as being the same person, as well as having the same vocal range.

Katherine has been a vocalist since the age of 15, performing lead and backing vocals. Her touring credits include that of working with Belinda Carlisle, Chaka Khan, Boy George and Roger Sanchez.

She has recorded with a variety of prominent names in dance music including Freemasons, Soul Avengerz, Dave Lee, Roger Sanchez, Meat Katie, Dylan Rhymes, Lee Coombs and Tom Stephan.

Bailey Tzuke (born Bailey Jean Muggleton-Tzuke on 28 June 1987) is a British singer/songwriter. She is the daughter of the singer/songwriter Judie Tzuke and record producer Paul Muggleton.

Tzuke has toured with and performed backing vocals for her mother for many years. In October 2007, her vocals were featured on the Freemasons track "Uninvited" (a reworking of the 1998 Alanis Morissette hit) which made number 8 in the UK charts and number 4 in the Netherlands.

More recently, Tzuke has since contributed vocals to Rollo Armstrong's new project "All Thieves". She has also been working on her own material, having signed up to the digital distribution company AWAL (Artists Without A Label). She released her debut EP, Strong, in May 2010, followed by another EP, Laid Bare, in October 2010. A live recording, Alive, was released in 2011 via Judie Tzuke's official website.

Monty Python (sometimes known as The Pythons) was a British surreal comedy group who created Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series. The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and impact, spawning touring stage shows, films, numerous albums, several books and a stage musical as well as launching the members to individual stardom. The group's influence on comedy has been compared to The Beatles' influence on music.

The television series, broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974, was conceived, written and performed by members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Loosely structured as a sketch show, but with an innovative stream-of-consciousness approach (aided by Gilliam's animation), it pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in style and content. A self-contained comedy team responsible for both writing and performing their work, the Pythons' creative control allowed them to experiment with form and content, discarding rules of television comedy. Their influence on British comedy has been apparent for years, while in North America it has coloured the work of cult performers from the early editions of Saturday Night Live through to more recent absurdist trends in television comedy. "Pythonesque" has entered the English lexicon as a result.