Thompson may refer to:

• Thompson (surname)

Places[link]

In Bulgaria:

• Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province

In Canada:

• Thompson, Manitoba
• Thompson (Manitoba riding), an electoral district in the above location
• Thompson River, a river in British Columbia
  • Thompson Country, a region within the basin of the Thompson River
  • Thompson Plateau, a landform in the Interior of British Columbia named for the Thompson River
  • Thompson-Nicola Regional District, a regional district in British Columbia
• Thompson Sound, a sound in the area of the Broughton Archipelago
• Thompson Sound, British Columbia, an unincorporated locality at Thompson Sound
• Thompson Station, Nova Scotia

In Chile:

• Thompson Island (Chile), a small island in the south

In England:

• Thompson, Norfolk

In the United States of America:

• Thompson, California
• Thompson, Connecticut
• Thompson, Iowa
• Thompson, New York
• Thompson, Alamance County, North Carolina
• Thompson, Robeson County, North Carolina
• Thompson, North Dakota
• Thompson, Pennsylvania
• Thompson, Wisconsin
• Thompson Island (Massachusetts), an island in Boston Harbor
• Thompson Township (disambiguation)

South Atlantic

• Thompson Island (South Atlantic)

Other uses[link]

• Nlaka'pamux, a Canadian First Nation also known as "the Thompson"
  • Thompson language, spoken by the Nlaka'pamux
• USS Thompson, two U.S. Navy destroyers
• Thompson submachine gun
• Thomson and Thompson (Dupont et Dupond), two clumsy detectives from the Tintin series
• Thompson (band), a Croatian rock band

See also[link]

• Thomson (disambiguation)
• Thomsen

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

Marko Perković
Marko Perković in Frankfurt
Background information
Born	(1966-10-27) 27 October 1966 (age 45) Čavoglave, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
Origin	Croatia
Genres	Rock, Pop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Singing
Years active	1991–present
Associated acts	Thompson

Marko Perković (English transcription: Marko Perkovich) (born October 27, 1966) is a Croatian musician and is the lead singer of the band Thompson since 1991.

In June, 2008, Marko Perković was named as the third most influential person in Croatian showbusiness by Globus magazine.^[1]

Early life and War[link]

Marko Perković was born 1966 in the village of Čavoglave, Yugoslavia to parents Marija and Ante. He rarely saw his father, who worked as a Gastarbeiter in Germany and only came home for Christmas and Easter. He finished high school in Split.

In 1991, Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, and soon the Croatian War of Independence started. Perković joined the Croatian National Guard where he was given the American gun Thompson, which became the nickname given to him by his battlefield comrades. It was during the time where he was defending his home village in the that Perković became inspired to write one of the most popular songs during the war: Bojna Čavoglave ("Čavoglave Battalion"), which launched his music career.

In 1992, Perković held numerous humanitarian concerts throughout Croatia, and released his first album in 1992. He continued to write songs to raise morale during the war. In 1995 he returned to the Croatian Army and the 142nd Drniš Brigade, and became on of the first soldiers to enter the captured cities of Drniš and Knin during Operation Storm.

Career[link]

Perković's songs are often marked with patriotic,love and religion, and often include folklore elements. His motto is that he sings of his three big loves: God, Family and homeland, are not simply a self-defense statement, or a political manifesto: a lot of his most successful (and most appreciates by critics) songs deal about religion: Radost s Visina (Joy from Above), Neću izdat ja (I will not betray/give up), Dan dolazi (The day is coming), Početak (In Principium); or his own family and birthplace: Vjetar s Dinare (Winds from Dinara, Sine Moj (Oh, my Son), Moj Dida i Ja (My Grandfather and I).

Marko Perković has said that he is personally a fan of Nightwish, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Dream Theater among others ultra-Catholic group, with great consistency of its Catholic thought.^[2][3]

The lyrics of his songs often feature patriot sentiments and relate to Croatia, God, the 1991-1995 Croatian War of Independence, family, and condemn the domestic softline politics and politicians and media, as well as international politics that forgot the values of family and patriotism.

Under the accusations of neo-Nazism, he was banned from performing in the Netherlands.,^[4] His concert is held either in the Swiss city Luzern after the Social Democratic Party called for an urgent statement on the issue of Thompson's concert by the cantonal council.^[5] On the same occasion, and he was banned from entering Switzerland for three years.^[6] Since Switzerland is a member of Schengen, Thompson was the decision prohibited the entry into all Schengen countries for a period of three years which was confirmed by Michele Cercone, spokesman for European Commission Vice President.^[7] His concerts have been banned in several German cities.^[8][9]

The biggest concentrations of his fan base is (for the most part) the rural hinterland, in Dalmatia, Lika, Herzegovina, Bosnia, but also in other areas affected by the recent war, as well as fans in urban areas with origins from those areas, which has significantly influenced the public opinion in certain parts. Romantic glorification of Croatian rural areas (especially mountainous ones, neglected by national economic policy) and revival of folk traditions in his songs, brought him even more popularity among Croats.

He has caused much controversy performing the song Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara, which openly glorifies genocide against the Serbs in WWII.^[10] The Simon Wiesenthal Centre has filed complaints to Croatia's state television channel regarding its broadcast of a singer accused of expressing nostalgia for the Ustaše, Croatia's ruling party during World War II, although Perković denies any connection with that period in history.^[11] His fans are known for displaying Croatian patriotism mixed with Ustaše uniforms, (including black hats associated with the movement), symbols, and banners.^[12]

At the beginning of the song Bojna Čavoglave, Perković invokes the audience with the slogan "za dom - spremni!" which means "for home - ready!" The slogan was also (but not exclusively) used by the Ustaše, which gave it bad connotations.^[13] However, Perković says this did not originate as an Ustaša slogan and that it was traditionally used by Croats before World War II.

The song was composed at the time of hardest part of the Serbian aggression on Croatia (when the "tide" was on the Serb side) as a memory to glorious successful defense in battle of the village Čavoglave, against much better equipped and armed enemy, Serb-led JNA and rebel Croatian Serb paramilitary forces; he himself was engaged in that battle, and the song appeared there, on the battlefield.

That slogan, that was also used by Ustaše, . In this context, here's important to note that that regime (besides not less important inhumanities) behaved as heavily revanchist towards the Serbs.

He has performed two large concerts in Croatia. One was held in Poljud Stadium, Split, on September 15, 2002 with about 45,000 people. The other was held in the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb on June 17, 2007 for 60,000 people. Following this June 2007 concert, the Croatian government released a statement decrying the use of Ustaša symbols. He has also performed for Croatian diaspora in Germany, Australia, Sweden, Canada and the USA.^{[citation needed]}

Perković has written many songs for other singers, such as Mate Bulić. He has also sung in duets with Miroslav Škoro, Tiho Orlić, and Jasmin Stavros.

Personal life[link]

Perković's nickname, "Thompson", is actually a nom de guerre deriving from his time as a soldier in the 1991-1995 Croatian War of Independence, during which he carried a Thompson submachine gun.

In the mid 1990s he was in a relationship with Croatian singer Danijela Martinović. Although never legally married, they had a marriage ceremony in the Catholic Church. After their separation and his marriage, he sought a Church annulment, which was granted by the Ecclesiastical Court in Split in 2005.

Subsequently he was able to join in church marriage with his wife Sandra, a Croatian-Canadian he met during a concert in Canada. Together they have five children: Petar, Ante, Diva Maria, and the twins Katarina and Cvita.

He owns a 20-percent share in the radio station Narodni radio,^[14] the most successful Croatian private station, notable for airing exclusively Croatian songs. Because of that he was able to counteract the ban of his songs on the state-owned radio stations. His concert in Maksimir Stadium was aired live on state owned HRT plus pay-for view channel, and few days after also on the main national channel.

Pope Benedict XVI received Thompson in an audience in December 2009. ^[15]

Perković is a declared Roman Catholic and a hardline right-wing political supporter, although not affiliated to any specific party. He used to perform free of charge for Croatian Party of Rights at some of their campaigns.

CDs[link]

• 1992 - "Moli mala" (Pray, young girl)
• 1995 - "Vrijeme škorpiona" (The Time of the Scorpions)
• 1996 - "Geni kameni" (Genes of Stone)
• 1998 - "Vjetar s Dinare" (The wind from Dinara)
• 2002 - "E, moj narode" (Oh, My People)
• 2003 - "Sve najbolje" ("Greatest hits")
• 2006 - "Bilo jednom u Hrvatskoj" ("Once upon a time in Croatia")
• 2008 - "Druga strana" ("Other side")

DVDs[link]

• 2002 - "Poljud" (limited)
• 2004 - "Turneja - E, moj narode"
• 2007 - "Turneja - Bilo jednom u Hrvatskoj (Stadion Maksimir)"

See also[link]

• Thompson (band)

References and notes[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (April 2012)

External links[link]

• (Croatian) Official website of Thompson
• "A Croatian rock star flirts with the Nazi past", July 1, 2007, International Herald Tribune
• Songs lyrics

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (September 2011)

Gabrielle Ann Aplin (born 10 October 1992) is an English singer-songwriter from Bath, Somerset. Aplin first became recognised on Youtube over 3 years ago when she covered a song by the American rock band Paramore, called My Heart.^[1] She received a large amount of recognition when she posted a cover of the You Me At Six song "The Liar and the Lighter."^[2] As of August 2011, this cover has over 450,000 views. Gabrielle first recorded a version of this song when she was 13, and then rerecorded it 4 years later for her debut EP entitled 'Acoustic EP'. Her most successful, and recent EP, Home was released in early January 2012.

Background[link]

Gabrielle was born and brought up near Bath, the first of two children, and grew up listening to Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen. She self taught herself and began playing piano around aged 12 and the guitar at around 14. She attended Sheldon School^[3] in Chippenham and then in September 2009 decided to go to City of Bath College^[4] to gain a diploma in popular music.

Music career[link]

Early career[link]

Gabrielle used Youtube to gain a following, and as of December 2011 she has over 40,000 subscribers. Her most viewed videos include The Liar and the Lighter originally by You Me At Six, Teenage Dream originally by Katy Perry and Forget You by Cee Lo Green. At some point in 2009, Gabrielle uploaded her original songs to BBC Introducing. In 2010, Gabrielle set up her own website.^[5]

Gabrielle's first release was her 5-track acoustic EP which was made available to download on the iTunes store at midnight on the 13th September 2010. It reached the top 25 in the UK iTunes album chart. It features the song "Reverse" which was used on Made in Chelsea.

Never Fade EP[link]

Her second EP was entitled 'Never Fade EP' and saw Gabrielle expand her sound, showcasing a more folk/pop sound. On this EP she played all the instruments herself. A video for the title track was released in addition to this. The EP was released on the 9th May 2011 and reached the top 14 in the UK, top 50 in Australia and top 100 in America. This EP featured the track 'Panic Cord' which was also used on Made in Chelsea.

BBC Introducing[link]

Gabrielle uploaded her songs to BBC Introducing at some point in 2009, where they were noticed by her local radio show BBC Wiltshire.^[6] She was invited to play for them and has since done several sets with them.

In 2011 Gabrielle was invited to perform 4 songs along with a band at Maida Vale Studios where she sang 3 of her own compositions, Ghosts from her Acoustic EP, Never Fade and Puzzle Piece from her Never Fade EP, and finally a cover of the Coldplay song Fix You.^[7]