The Gers (French: le Gers, Gascon: Gers, pronounced: [ʒɛʁs] or [ʒɛʁ]) is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.

Inhabitants are called les Gersois or Gersoises.

In the Middle Ages, the Lordship of L'Isle-Jourdain was nearby.

The Gers is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from parts of the former provinces of Guyenne and Gascony.

In 1808 it lost Lavit on its the north-eastern side to the newly created department of Tarn-et-Garonne.

The culture is largely agricultural, with great emphasis on the local gastronomical specialties such as:

Also, some prominent cultivated crops are corn, colza, sunflowers and grain.

The Gascon language is a dialect of Occitan, but it is not widely spoken.The department is characterised by sleepy bastide villages and rolling hills with the Pyrenees visible to the south.

Alexandre Dumas, père created the famous Gersois d'Artagnan, the fourth musketeer of The Three Musketeers. A museum to d'Artagnan is found in the Gersois village of Lupiac.

Gustaaf Stephanus Modestus "Guus" Meeuwis (born Mariahout, 23 March 1972) is a Dutch singer and songwriter. As part of the band Vagant, he scored several hits in the Netherlands and Flanders during the '90s and first decade of the 2000s.

Guus Meeuwis was born at a monastery in Mariahout, a small village in the municipality of Laarbeek where his parents were living temporarily. He attended Stella Maris College, and went on to study jurisprudence in Tilburg. It quickly became apparent that Meeuwis was musically talented while at school. Following a romantic weekend in Bruges with his girlfriend Valérie he wrote the song Het is een Nacht ("It is a Night"), with which, in 1994, he won a prize at the AHC-Studentensongfestival in Leiden. He and his backing band were awarded a record contract, under the name "Guus Meeuwis & Vagant", after a café they frequented. Marc Meeuwis, Jan Willem Rozenboom, Hugo van Bilsen, Robin van Beek en Dirk Oerlemans. At the end of 2001 the group decided to split and Meeuwis continued on as a solo artist.

DJ Paul Elstak (real name: Paul Roger Elstak; born The Hague 14 January 1966) is a Dutch hardcore/gabber and happy hardcore DJ and record producer. He used to use his full name to create happy hardcore and DJ Paul for hardcore gabber, but when he started Offensive Records in 2001, he started using both names for gabber.

In 1987, his career as a DJ started when he was hired as a Struppier at Rotterdam Discothèque Bluetiek-Inn. Here he played with the Dutch House music pioneer Peter Slaghuis. Around this time he also hooked up with Rob Fabrie and Richard van Naamen to form Holy Noise, with whom he released a string of releases at the Hithouse record label (owned by Slaghuis). In 1991 Holy Noise had their biggest success with their release "James Brown is Still Alive". This release was a reply to the popular house record "James Brown is Dead" by L.A. Style.

In 1992 Elstak created his own record label, Rotterdam Records (under the flag of Mid-Town records) to release hardcore and Rotterdam Tekno. The first release on this label was a Holy Noise release under the guise of De Euromasters, releasing Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan? (Translated; Amsterdam where is that?). This record was an implicit complaint about the Dutch media paying most attention to Amsterdam and not to Rotterdam. In 1995 he released the first DJ Paul Elstak single, "Life Is Like a Dance". After this record, a few commercial releases followed. "Rainbow in the Sky" was the most successful of these. Several of his singles reached the Dutch Top 40 in the mid-1990s. After two years, Elstak decided to leave the commercial dance scene and devote his time releasing gabber. In 2001 he left Mid-Town and Rotterdam Records to start a new record label at Rige Entertainment, called Offensive Records. To this day Paul still releases hardcore on this imprint in his own typical style.

Paul Beauregard, better known by his stage name DJ Paul, is an American rapper and record producer from Memphis, Tennessee. He is one half of the Memphis-based rap group Three 6 Mafia. He is also the half-brother of former Three 6 Mafia member Lord Infamous. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "It's Hard out Here for a Pimp". DJ Paul founded Scale-A-Ton Entertainment in 2009.

DJ Paul (Paul Beauregard) began his career as a DJ, producer, and rapper in the early 90's. He was one-half of the duo The Serial Killaz, his older half-brother Lord Infamous (Ricky Dunigan) was the other half. They released self-recorded tapes in their neighborhood, school, and local shops. "Portrait Of A Serial Killa" was their first tape, released in 1992. Also DJ Paul released numerous solo mixtapes (ex: c "Volume 12 (Pts. 1 and 2)", "Volume 15: For You Niggaz Wit' Anna", and "Volume 16: 4 Da Summa of '94").

DJ Paul rose to prominence as one of the best DJ-producers on the south side of Memphis, and met up with DJ/artist/producer Juicy J (Jordan Houston), also garnering buzz on the North side of Memphis. They noticed they had a lot of similar interests eventually merging their sound and crew members to form the super-group The Backyard Posse (later known as Triple Six Mafia). DJ Paul and Juicy J soon began producing dark, eerie tracks driven by bass-heavy beats and haunting sounds, and invited numerous Backyard Posse members to rap over the beats with them. They released the resulting tracks locally as Triple Six Mafia; years later these recordings would resurface as re-releases.

Adrian Frederick "H" Smith (born 27 February 1957) is an English musician, best known as one of the three guitarists in the heavy metal band, Iron Maiden, for whom he regularly writes and, along with bassist Steve Harris, performs backing vocals on some songs.

Growing up in Camden, London, Smith gained an interest in rock music at 15 and formed a friendship with future Iron Maiden guitarist Dave Murray, who would inspire Smith to take up the guitar himself. Upon leaving school at 16, he formed his own band, Urchin, which he would lead until their demise in 1980. Having already been offered a position as their second guitarist the previous year, Smith joined Iron Maiden in November 1980, replacing Dennis Stratton. Following a short-lived solo project entitled A.S.A.P, he left Iron Maiden in 1990, forming his own group, Psycho Motel, before joining Bruce Dickinson's solo outfit in 1997. Along with Dickinson, he returned to Iron Maiden in 1999, after which the band gained renewed success, and recently formed the side project, Primal Rock Rebellion.