Matthew Collings (born 1955) is a British art critic, writer and broadcaster.

Life and career[link]

In one of his books on art, Collings states that, in his early teenage years, he ran away to Canada. This act was preceded by a period of hanging around in a house in Oakley Street, Chelsea, whose residents included members of various rock bands including Mighty Baby and Family. For many weeks Collings was the object of an internationally coordinated police search.^[1]

Collings trained at Byam Shaw School of Art, and Goldsmith's College, and still practises as an artist. He edited Artscribe 1983-7. Collings was a producer and presenter on the BBC The Late Show 1989-95. In the early 1990s, he brought Martin Kippenberger into the BBC studios to create an installation, and he interviewed Georg Herold while this Cologne-based conceptual artist painted a large canvas with beluga caviar.

Collings also wrote and presented documentary films for the BBC on individual artists, such as Donald Judd, Georgia O'Keeffe and Willem de Kooning, as well as broader historical subjects such as Hitler's "Degenerate art" exhibition, art looted in the Second World War by Germany and Russia, Situationism, Spain's post-Franco art world and the rise of the Cologne art scene.

After leaving the BBC, Collings wrote and presented the Channel 4 TV series This is Modern Art, which won him a Bafta (1998) among other awards. He was originally identified as a proponent of Britart, however more recently his sympathies have become ambiguous or even hostile to it. He wrote in the New Statesman:

"A new popular audience is obsessed by contemporary art. But I think they are being sold something that isn't really there: an all-in package of spirituality, depth and profundity. I am afraid the official institutions of contemporary art are just lying about this stuff."^[2]

Collings wrote and presented a Channel 4 series in 2003 about the "painterly" stream of Old Master painting, called Matt's Old Masters. A book by the same title accompanied the series. Further Channel 4 series by Collings included Impressionism: Revenge of the Nice (2004) and The Me Generations: Self Portraits, (2005).

For some years Collings presented the Channel 4 TV programme on the Turner Prize. He has described himself as "an apologist for contemporary art", although in the same interview he confessed that this is more a popular assumption about him than his own idea.^[3]

In October 2007, with Emma Biggs, Collings curated and wrote a catalogue essay for an exhibition of Picasso's late works at the HN Gallery in London. The paintings were from the 1960s series of Painter and Model and Déjeuner sur l’herbe reworkings. According to the catalogue essay the exhibition aimed to draw attention to Picasso's achievement as a manipulator of form rather than the popular myth of Picasso as a showman or lover or sensationalist genius.

That year, Collings presented the Channel 4 TV series "This is Civilisation".^[4] In 2009 he appeared on the BBC2 programme "School of Saatchi" a reality TV show for newly trained UK artists. He lectures at City and Guilds of London Art School. In October 2010, he wrote and presented a BBC2 series called Renaissance Revolution, in which he discussed three Renaissance paintings: Raphael's Madonna del Prato; Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights; and Piero della Francesca's The Baptism of Christ.^[5]

Collings' abstract paintings are created in collaboration with mosaicist, Emma Biggs. In an article in the Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 18 April, 2012, by Colin Gleadell, it was reported that Collings' and Biggs' last exhibition at the Vigo Gallery, Old Bond Street, had sold out.

Mathematics[link]

Collings has introduced TV programmes on mathematics[1] and some of his artwork relates to mathematics.[2]

Books[link]

• Blimey! - From Bohemia to Britpop: London Art World from Francis Bacon to Damien Hirst, 21 Publishing, 1997
• It Hurts - New York Art from Warhol to Now, 21 Publishing, 2000
• This is Modern Art, Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000
• Art Crazy Nation, Worldwide, 2001
• Sarah Lucas, Tate Publishing, 2002
• Matt's Old Masters - Titian, Rubens, Velazquez and Hogarth, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003
• Criticism (with Matthew Arnatt), Rachmaninoff's, 2004
• Ron Arad interviewed by Matthew Collings, Phaidon, 2004
• This is Civilisation, 21 Publishing, 2008
• A Future for Modernism, Cornerhouse Publishing, 2006

References[link]

External links[link]

• Contains images and updated information on Collings and Biggs' work
• Interview with Matthew Collings
• Journalisted - Articles by Matthew Collings
• A Future for Modernism, Forward by Matthew Collings

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (June 2010)

The Nice
The Nice in Hamburg 29 March 1970
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Progressive rock, psychedelic rock
Years active	1967–1970, 2002
Labels	Immediate, Charisma, Mercury, Philips
Associated acts	P. P. Arnold, Refugee
Past members
Keith Emerson Lee Jackson Brian Davison David O'List

The Nice were an English progressive rock band from the 1960s, known for their blend of rock, jazz and classical music. Their debut album, The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack was released in 1967 to immediate acclaim. It is often considered the first progressive rock album. The Nice are also a forerunner of the much more widely known Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

The Nice consisted initially of keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist/vocalist Lee Jackson, drummer Brian Davison, and guitarist David O'List, more commonly known as "Davy".^[1] The band took their name from Steve Marriott's slang term for being high, a term he used in the song "Here Come the Nice". Marriott originally wanted to give the name to a band he was producing, called The Little People. Andrew Loog Oldham took it upon himself to rename The Little People Apostolic Intervention, and dubbed the Emerson, Jackson, Davison, O'List group "The Nice". Emerson's autobiography Pictures of an Exhibitionist suggests that the name originated with a suggestion from P. P. Arnold.^[1] The reference to "being high" is not mentioned, instead a routine by hipster/comic Lord Buckley is quoted.

History[link]

The band was formed in October 1967 by Andrew Loog Oldham with soul singer P. P. Arnold,^[1] a performer who reached a higher level of popularity in the UK than her native US. After performing with Arnold through the summer, The Nice soon gained a reputation of their own. In August, former Mark Leeman Five and Habits drummer Davison replaced Arnold's original drummer, Ian Hague.^[2] The first album by The Nice was recorded throughout the autumn of 1967, and in October of that year they recorded their first session for John Peel's Top Gear. Early work tended toward the psychedelic but more ambitious elements soon came to the fore. The classical and jazz influences manifested themselves both in short quotes from Janacek (Sinfonietta) and in more elaborate renderings of Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk" which The Nice called simply "Rondo", changing the meter from the original 9/8 to 4/4 in the process.

For their second single, The Nice created an arrangement of Leonard Bernstein's "America" which Emerson described as the first ever instrumental protest song. It not only uses the Bernstein piece (from West Side Story) but also includes fragments of Dvořák's New World Symphony. The single concludes with a child (who, according to Emerson's biography, is P. P. Arnold's three-year old son) speaking the lines "America is pregnant with promise and anticipation, but is murdered by the hand of the inevitable." The new arrangement was released under the title "America (Second Amendment)" as a pointed reference to the US Bill of Rights provision for the bearing of arms. In July 1968, the British music magazine, NME, reported that the band had asked their record label, Immediate Records, to withdraw a controversial poster advertising the single. It pictured the group members with small boys on their knees, with superimposed images of the faces of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King on the children's heads. The band's spokesperson said "Several record stores have refused to stock our current single .... the Nice feel if the posters are issued in America they will do considerable harm".^[3]

O'List was fired for chronic tardiness and his bizarre behavior during the recording of their second album.^[1] The Nice briefly considered looking for a replacement but, (according to sources such as MOJO magazine) they followed the example set by 1-2-3 (later Clouds), and decided to continue as a rock organ trio. With O'List gone, Emerson's control over the band's direction became greater, resulting in more complex music. The absence of a guitar in the band and Emerson's redefining of the role of keyboard instruments in rock set The Nice apart from many of its contemporaries.

The earlier work of French pianist Jacques Loussier and the more-or-less contemporary Charles Lloyd Quartet (featuring Keith Jarrett) can be seen as influences. Loussier took classical works, notably by Bach, and arranged them for jazz piano trio. The Charles Lloyd band was bridging the jazz and rock spheres and Jarrett's performances (which included playing inside the piano) received much attention. The Nice performed two pieces from the Lloyd repertoire: "Sombrero Sam" and "Sorcery". Part of the musical approach of The Nice was transferring the innovations of these jazz artists into an electric medium, one that was influenced by The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles. Another influence was Bob Dylan, whose songs were common currency at the time; The Nice interpreted several of them.

The band's second LP Ars Longa Vita Brevis featured an arrangement of the Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite by Jean Sibelius and the album's second side was a suite which included an arrangement of a movement from J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. The group used an orchestra for the first time on some parts of the suite.

Perhaps as a foil for the highbrow aspects of their music, the stage performances were bold and violent, with Emerson incorporating feedback and distortion. He manhandled his Hammond L-100 organ, wrestling it and attacking it with daggers (which he used to hold down keys and sustain notes during these escapades). This was inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Billy Ritchie of Clouds, and Don Shinn, an English organist who played alongside Rod Stewart in The Soul Agents, as well as earlier figures such as pianist Jerry Lee Lewis. Motörhead frontman Lemmy was a roadie for The Nice in their early days, and gave Emerson the knife that he used to sustain organ keys.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times (January 4, 1970), Don Heckman pointed out this dichotomy.

"One might assume, in the face of such a visual display, that the Nice is a mediocre group that compensates for musical failings with a pop-rock version of the theater of violence. Far from it. The Nice is as musically proficient a group as one will hear anywhere on the pop scene. Their most attractive quality is the genuine spirit of improvisational invention and surging jazz rhythm which permeates their work [...]"

During the long and wildly popular tour that followed the release of their second album, the group spawned controversy when Emerson burned an American flag onstage during a performance of "America". Emerson burnt the American stars and stripes during the band’s appearance at charity event “Come Back Africa” at London’s Royal Albert Hall, on 26 June 1968, provoking a big controversy and a "lifetime ban". The Nice were banned from ever playing the Royal Albert Hall again, though Keith Emerson played again at the venue with Emerson, Lake and Palmer in October 1992.

The Nice were on the bill at the 1969 Isle of Wight Festival.^[4]

The third album, titled Nice in the UK and Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It in the US, featured one side recorded live on their American tour and one side of studio material.

The Five Bridges suite, commissioned for the Newcastle Arts Festival, was premiered with a full orchestra conducted by Joseph Eger on 10 October 1969 (the recorded version is from 17 October in Croydon's Fairfield Hall). The title refers to the city's five bridges spanning the River Tyne (two more have since been built).

The Nice provided instrumental backing for the track "Hell's Angels" on Roy Harper's 1970 album Flat Baroque and Berserk.

One of the final appearances by the group was in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic led by Zubin Mehta. This was broadcast in March 1970 on American television as part of the "Switched-On Symphony" program. Following standard television procedure of the day, The Nice's contribution (a version of "America") was recorded ahead of time and the band mimed for the cameras.

Post Nice[link]

By 1970, Emerson and the other band members were frustrated with their lack of mainstream success and they soon broke up. They played their last concert on 30 March 1970 in Berlin, Germany (Sportpalast). Emerson formed a band with Greg Lake (of King Crimson) and Carl Palmer (of Atomic Rooster) — Emerson, Lake & Palmer.^[5]

A posthumous Nice release Elegy included different versions of already familiar tracks, two being studio versions and two live from the 1969 U.S. tour.

Lee Jackson formed Jackson Heights which released five albums between 1970 and 1973. Brian Davison formed "Every Which Way" which released an album in 1970. Both Jackson and Davison formed Refugee with Patrick Moraz in 1974, but Moraz later joined Yes to replace Rick Wakeman.

Reunion[link]

After over three decades, The Nice reformed in 2002 for a series of concerts. A three-CD set Vivacitas was released, with the third CD being an interview with Keith Emerson.^[6] The band featured Dave Kilminster on guitar.

Davison died on 15 April 2008 in Horns Cross, Devon from a brain tumour. He was 65 years old.^[7]

O'List has recently re-emerged to play again in England, and a substantial amount of information can be found on his website. He has re-embraced the Nice's musical heritage with a new group of musicians and recordings.

Line-up[link]

• Keith Emerson: Organ, piano, vocals — (born 2 November 1944, Todmorden, Yorkshire)
• Keith "Lee" Jackson: Bass, guitar, vocals — (born 8 January 1943, Newcastle upon Tyne)
• David "Davy" O'List: Guitar, vocals (1967–68) — (born 13 December 1948, Chiswick, London)
• Brian "Blinky" Davison: Drums, percussion — (born 25 May 1942, Leicester, Leicestershire - died 15 April 2008)

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack (Immediate, 1967)
• Ars Longa Vita Brevis (Immediate, 1968)
• Nice (aka Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It) (Immediate, 1969)
• Five Bridges (Charisma, 1970)
• Elegy (Charisma, 1971)
• America - The BBC Sessions (Receiver, 1996)
• The Swedish Radio Sessions (late 1967) (Sanctuary, 2001)
• BBC Sessions (Sanctuary, 2002)
• Vivacitas (Sanctuary, 2004)
• Live At The Fillmore East December 1969 (Virgin, 2009)^[1]

Everything As Nice As Mother Makes It is the US version of Nice after Immediate's distribution changed from Columbia to Capitol. Nice had been initially released in the US with a slightly longer version of Rondo 69 not available on the UK or on the Capitol distributed US versions. The first US version of Nice was briefly reissued in 1973 by Columbia Special Products. Both Five Bridges and Elegy were released in the US by Mercury and in Germany by Phillips. Both albums were reissued as a two record set in both the US and Germany in 1972 as Keith Emerson and The Nice (see compilations). On the U.S. reissues of Five Bridges from the 1980s, "One of Those People" features a noticeably different mono mix in place of the stereo mix on the original issue.

Compilation albums[link]

• The Best of The Nice (EMI/Immediate, 1971)
• Keith Emerson with The Nice (Mercury, 1972)
• In Memoriam (The Nice Album) (Immediate, 1973)
• Autumn '67 - Spring '68 (Charisma, 1972, UK), released as Autumn to Spring (Charisma, 1973, USA)
• Hang On To A Dream (EMIDisc, 1974)
• The Immediate Years (2-LP set) (Sire, 1975)
• Amoeni Redivivi (NEMS/Immediate, 1976)
• Greatest Hits (The Nice Album) (NEMS/Immediate, 1977)
• Greatest Hits (The Nice Album) (Big Time, 1988)
• The Immediate Years (3-CD Boxed Set) (Charly, 1995)
• Here Come The Nice - The Immediate Anthology (3-CD Boxed Set) (Castle Communications, 2002)^[1]
• Charisma Disturbance (2-LP set) (Charisma 1973, UK), track 3 - Intermezzo "Karelia Suite", catalogue no. TSS1
• The Essential Collection (The Nice Album) (2-CD set) (Union Square Music, 2006)
• Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon (2-CD set) (Micro Werks, 2010)

Keith Emerson with The Nice was reissued on CD in 1990 as a single disc, eliminating "Country Pie/Brandenburg Conc.#6" and "One of Those People" from Five Bridges and "Pathetique" from Elegy. The Immediate Collection contains all three albums and all the singles originally released by Immediate records along with several unreleased recordings. Some of the compilations listed (namely Autumn to Spring, Hang On to a Dream and In Memoriam) feature slightly different mixes than originally released on the albums. Due to Immediate Records' dissolution in 1970, the recordings of The Nice (along with other artists on the Immediate label) were leased out to many record companies, resulting in a high number of compilation albums (many of which are not listed here) with different packaging, but similar track listings.

Singles[link]

• "The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack" / "Azrial (Angel of Death)" (Immediate IM 059, November 1967)
• "America" / "The Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon" (Immediate IM 068, June 21, 1968)
• "Brandenburger" / "Happy Freuds" (Immediate IM 072, November 8, 1968)
• "Diary of an Empty Day" / "Hang On to a Dream" (Immediate, 1969)
• "Country Pie" / "One Of Those People" (Charisma, 1969)^[1]

The singles listed here are the original releases. Many of the singles were re-released throughout the 1970s with different B-sides.

References[link]

• Hanson, Martyn (December 2002). Hang On To A Dream - The Story Of The Nice. Helter Skelter. ISBN 978-1-900924-43-6. 
• Emerson, Keith (December 2003). Pictures of an Exhibitionist. Blake Publishing. ISBN 1-904034-79-9. 

External links[link]

• Rock Reviews
• Keith Emerson Web site
• Davy O'List Web site
• David O'List - Interview on The Marquee Club

3-2-1 Contact is an American science educational television show that aired on PBS from 1980 to 1988, and an adjoining children's magazine. The show, a production of the Children's Television Workshop, teaches scientific principles and their applications. Dr. Edward G. Atkins, who was responsible for much of the scientific content of the show, felt that the TV program wouldn't replace a classroom but would open the viewers to ask questions about the scientific purpose of things.^[1]

History[link]

3-2-1 Contact was the brainchild of Samuel Y. Gibbon, Jr., who had been the executive producer of The Electric Company for CTW from 1971 to 1977. (Gibbon actually left CTW before Contact's production began, though he was still credited as "Senior Consultant.")

The first season of 65 programs began airing January 14, 1980 on select PBS member stations; it featured a cast of three college students who discussed science in an on-campus room known as the Workshop. The first season came to an end on April 11, 1980, but funds for more episodes were not sufficient until 1982.

When production resumed for the second season, which premiered on October 17, 1983, the show presented a more realistic appearance, as the new cast convened in a suburban basement (these segments were shot at Reeves Teletape, which also housed Sesame Street at the time). This cast continued until October 18, 1985. Ozzie Alfonso was Contact's new director and Al Hyslop its executive producer.

When the fifth season began on September 22, 1986, a third cast was introduced. However, unlike the previous casts, they did not meet in any specific setting; instead, they appeared in various taped and filmed segments. Episodes continued to be produced through November 1988.

For a time in the mid-1980s, the program was co-produced with the French television network FR3 and featured several new French cast members in addition to the American cast. From 1982 to 1983 the program was aired in Spain with dubbed-over versions of the American original broadcasts, and some local add-ons with four Spanish cast members: Sonia Martínez, Luis Bollain, Fernando Rueda and Marifé Rodríguez.^[2] Another Spanish version of the broadcast was aired from 1990 to 1992.

From September 1, 1991 until May 1, 1992, an edited version of the series titled 3-2-1 Classroom Contact was produced, specifically for in-school viewing.

It was reported in 1984 that 3-2-1 Contact had an audience of over 7 million viewers and was broadcast in 26 countries including West Germany, France, Italy and Spain making their own dubbed-over versions.^[1]

Broadcasters wanted the children to record the episodes without being afraid of infringement of copyright violations.^[1]

Hosts[link]

The Bloodhound Gang[link]

A frequent segment of the show was The Bloodhound Gang, a series about a group of young detectives who used science to solve crimes. Episodes of the series needed to be run in regular sequence for understandable viewing, as many Bloodhound Gang mysteries were cut among two or three Contact episodes.

The magazine[link]

Three months before the show premiered, a print magazine of the same name that also focused on science was released. In 1985, the magazine absorbed some of the content of sibling publication Enter (which went out of print that same year), including reader submissions of computer programs written in the BASIC computer language as well as reviews of popular computer programs. A new feature called "The Slipped Disk Show" appeared in mid-1985, starring a fictional disc jockey who answered computer-related questions submitted by readers.

Beginning in 1987, the magazine also featured content from another CTW production, Square One Television. Such content frequently took the form of a two-page comic strip, often parodying a popular show or movie of the time, with a math-related question at the end.

The Bloodhound Gang mysteries also made the leap to the magazine, but they were subsequently replaced with a series entitled The Time Team in September 1990. These stories found teenage characters Sean Nolan and Jenny Lopez traveling to different time periods in the past and future. Their surroundings and personal encounters were described with great detail, educating readers as to the customs of various cultures throughout history, and – on trips to the future – often pushing present day hot-button issues. For example, a 1993 story saw the duo traveling to what appeared to be a prehistoric forest, but near the end, they found a Brazil flag, a newspaper clipping from 1995, and a bulldozer at work: this was in fact a Brazilian rainforest being levelled.

In 1996, The Time Team was replaced by a comic serial, Cosmic Crew, which focused on the adventures of a group of teenagers and their robot butler in space. Their first story arc (which ran for more than a year) had them trying to figure out a series of riddles relating to places in the solar system in order to claim a treasure (which turned out to be a scholarship fund). Another story arc had a delinquent (who had been a villain in the first arc) join them in order to chase down a gang of other delinquents. Despite being effectively replaced, a few Time Team stories were run whenever there were gaps between installments of Cosmic Crew.

Many of the magazine's cover stories involved current events, such as 1990s oil fires in the Middle East. In addition, the magazine offered a games section in which most of the games were related to the stories in the issue.

In 1996, CTW presumably concluded that faithful readers from the late 1980s and early 1990s had long since moved on, and the magazine began to reprint non-time-sensitive stories from years past. For example, a 1991 article on the geography of the Galápagos Islands – a relatively unchanging subject – could very well re-appear in an identical format a half a decade later.

Under Sesame Workshop the magazine later became Contact Kids, removing the original reference to the television show. Production of the magazine was suspended indefinitely in 2001.

After production[link]

Though the show went off the air in 1988, it appeared in reruns from 1999 to 2003 on the cable television network Noggin, then a joint venture of CTW and Nickelodeon. Occasionally, shows were also rerun on Nickelodeon's Cable in the Classroom time period. For all these Nickelodeon and Noggin airings, the series was rated TV-Y7 (possibly due to the target audience). It also still aired on some PBS stations as reruns from 1989 to 1998 before it was switched to Noggin in 1999. As of 2003, Noggin no longer airs any shows produced by Sesame Workshop. The shows were modified for the shorter running time on these networks to allow for their interstitials.

Sources of funding[link]

Funding for 3-2-1 Contact was provided by the following:^[3]

• National Science Foundation (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• United States Department of Education (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• Corporation for Public Broadcasting (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• IBM Corporation (January 14, 1980–November 18, 1988)
• Carnegie Corporation of New York (October 31, 1983-November 18, 1988)

Five sponsors funded the show for its entire run. They were originally supposed to fund for 20 new episodes until 1989.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• 3-2-1 Contact at the Internet Movie Database
• 3-2-1 Contact at TV.com