Luddite

The Luddites were 19th-century English textile workers (or self-employed weavers who feared the end of their trade) who protested against newly developed labour-economizing technologies, primarily between 1811 and 1816. The stocking frames, spinning frames and power looms introduced during the Industrial Revolution threatened to replace them with less-skilled, low-wage labourers, leaving them without work. The Luddite movement culminated in a region-wide rebellion in Northwestern England that required a massive deployment of military force to suppress.

Although the origin of the name Luddite (/ˈlʌd.aɪt/) is uncertain, a popular belief is that the movement was named after Ned Ludd, a youth who allegedly smashed two stocking frames in 1779, and whose name had become emblematic of machine destroyers. The name evolved into the imaginary General Ludd or King Ludd, a figure who, like Robin Hood, was reputed to live in Sherwood Forest.

Background

The movement can be seen as part of a rising tide of English working-class discontent in the late 18th and early 19th century. An agricultural variant of Luddism, centering on the breaking of threshing machines, occurred during the widespread Swing Riots of 1830 in southern and eastern England. The Luddites' goal was to gain a better bargaining position with their employers. They were not afraid of technology per se, but were "labour strategists".

Horrible Histories

It is now 20 years since the first Horrible Histories books – Awesome Egyptians and Terrible Tudors – were published, so the first generation of children exposed to the grisly sensibility of Terry Deary and the cartoonist Martin Brown may now have children of their own. The output in those two decades has been extraordinary: there are now more than 100 titles, which have sold 20 million copies (eight million of those in translation), to 31 countries. There are sticker books, annuals, Horrible Histories Top Trumps, mugs, video games, roadshows and a magazine that was launched last autumn. The CBBC series was a relative latecomer to the party in 2009; before that, in 2001-2, there were two series of an animated version that never really took off, then in 2006 the Birmingham Stage Company secured the stage rights and has been touring with Horrible Histories stage productions ever since.

Horrible Histories is an educational entertainment franchise encompassing many media including books, magazines, audio books, stage shows, TV shows, and more.

Everything Everything

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Everything Everything are an English indie rock band that formed in late 2007. They originate from Northumberland, Kent and Guernsey and reside in Manchester.

The band have released three albums to date – 2010's Man Alive, 2013's Arc and 2015's Get To Heaven – and have been widely critically acclaimed. Their work was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize and received three nominations for the Ivor Novello Award.

Musical style

Everything Everything are noted for an extremely eclectic and dynamic style, with complex song construction and dense, detailed lyrics sung in falsetto by Jonathan Higgs. While nominally an alternative rock band with outright pop stylings, the band uses production and rhythmic approaches closer to those of contemporary R&B, glitch pop and electronica (including heavy use of laptop programming and processing) and songwriting approaches similar to those of progressive or psychedelic rock. Critic Paul Lester has compared Everything Everything's sound to "a riot in a melody factory" and compared them to "Timbaland if he cocked an oblique ear to Yes". In the Guardian, Mark Beaumont described the band as "the most intricate, streamlined merging yet of math rock's arch complexities, electronica's 80s obsession and hooks made from mobile phone interference."