Patricia Quinn, Lady Stephens (born 28 May 1944) is a Northern Irish actress best known for her role as Magenta in the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Hers were the red lips that appeared in the film's opening song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" (although the singing voice was that of Richard O'Brien). She has appeared in many film and television roles including the Rocky Horror semi-sequel, Shock Treatment (1981), as well as I, Claudius (1976), Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983), and the 1987 Doctor Who serial Dragonfire.

Personal life[link]

Quinn was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She began her career as a Playboy Bunny in London.

She has one son, Quinn Hawkins, from her first marriage to Don Hawkins. He is now a London barrister and is married with four sons (Boy, Charles, Jesse and Harry).

In January 1995, Quinn married the ailing British actor Robert Stephens, whose wife she had played in the BBC serial, Fortunes of War (1987). She thus became stepmother to his two actor sons by his previous marriage (to Dame Maggie Smith), Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. Quinn had also appeared alongside Stephens in the BBC adaptation of The Box of Delights (1984), in the role of Sylvia Daisy Pouncer. Robert Stephens died in November 1995. He had been knighted earlier that year, giving Quinn the title of Lady Stephens.

Quinn's nephews are Jonny Quinn and Bradley Quinn, drummer and photographer, respectively, for Northern Irish band Snow Patrol.^[1]

Recent appearances[link]

In 2000, Quinn recorded the song "Guts To Dream" with London-based band The Grand. The song was to be part of an EP titled Open Displays Of Affection, but the band dissolved and the EP was never released. Quinn gave a copy of the unreleased CD to the winner of the Magenta costume contest at the 25th Anniversary Convention in Las Vegas.

In 2002 she returned to Doctor Who, playing an alien queen in the audio play Bang-Bang-a-Boom!. In September 2006, she relaunched herself as a DJ and club kitten, hosting the monthly Club Myra night at various venues throughout central London. In April 2007, Quinn joined Patrick Wolf at his London concert, singing, "Accident and Emergency," with him as a finale of the show.

On 3 October 2008, Quinn made an appearance at the New York City cast's production of The Rocky Horror Show, participating in a question and answer session as well as unexpectedly performing the show's opening number, "Science Fiction/Double Feature".

Quinn attended the 4/7/11 Rocky Horror Convention in Atlantic City, NJ, doing many Q&A sessions as well as helping introduce the show performed at the House of Blues by an all-star shadowcast.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site of Patricia Quinn
• Patricia Quinn at the Internet Movie Database
• Patricia Quinn Interview at Sci-fi-online.com

Richard O'Brien
O'Brien in 2006
Born	Richard Timothy Smith (1942-03-25) 25 March 1942 (age 70)[1] Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Occupation	Actor, writer, broadcaster, voice actor, theatre performer
Period	1965–present
Genres	Cult film
Notable work(s)	The Rocky Horror Show (Writer) The Crystal Maze (Presenter)
Spouse(s)	Kimi Wong (m. 1971–?, divorced) Jane Moss (m. 1983–2006, divorced)
Children	3
www.rockyhorror.com

Richard Timothy Smith (born 25 March 1942), better known under his stage name Richard O'Brien, is an English writer, actor, television presenter and theatre performer. He is perhaps best known for writing the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show and for his role in presenting the popular TV show The Crystal Maze. In addition to writing The Rocky Horror Show, O'Brien also co-wrote the screenplay of the 1975 film adaptation, and appeared in the film himself as the character Riff Raff. The stage show has been in almost continuous production and the cinematic version is one of the best known and most ardently followed cult films of all time. He is also the voice of Lawrence Fletcher, the title characters' father in Phineas and Ferb.

Early life[link]

O'Brien was born Richard Timothy Smith in 1942 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. In 1951, O'Brien emigrated with his family to Tauranga, New Zealand, where his father had purchased a sheep farm. After learning how to ride horses, a skill which provided him with his break into the film industry as a stuntman in Carry On Cowboy, and developing a keen interest in comic books and horror films, he returned to England in 1964. Upon launching his acting career he changed his name to O'Brien, his maternal grandmother's name,^[2] as there was already an actor named Richard Smith.

Early work[link]

After taking a few Method acting classes, O'Brien joined several stage productions as an actor. In 1970 he went into the touring production of Hair for nine months, and spent another nine months in the London production. He and actress Kimi Wong were married on 4 December 1971. May 1972 saw the birth of his son Linus by Kimi, and that summer he met director Jim Sharman who cast him as an Apostle and Leper in the London production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Sharman then cast O'Brien as Willie, the alien in his March 1973 production of Sam Shepard's The Unseen Hand at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, and would help make O'Brien's draft of a gothic-themed, schlock-horror comic-book fantasy romp into a reality. Sharman suggested changing the working title from They Came from Denton High, and The Rocky Horror Show opened at the Theatre Upstairs in June 1973.^[3] Within weeks it had become the cult show to see in London theatre, moving from the Royal Court to a nearby venue the Pheasantry in the King's Road, then to the Classic Cinema and eventually into the West End at the Comedy Theatre. After seeing the second night in the Theatre Upstairs, Jonathan King produced the original cast soundtrack over 48 hours during an off stage weekend and rushed it out on his UK Records label. He also became a 20% backer with producer Michael White who put up the remaining 80%. During this period, O'Brien and his wife recorded and released a number of pop singles under the name Kimi and Ritz.

Later career[link]

Richard O'Brien continued writing musicals with arranger Richard Hartley, including: T.Zee (1976), Disaster (1978), The Stripper (1982– based on the Carter Brown novel and produced in Australia), and Top People (1984). In 1995 O'Brien wrote his one-man revue Disgracefully Yours, singing as Mephistopheles Smith. O'Brien became a serial bit-part actor in cult films and has appeared in movies such as Jubilee (1977), Flash Gordon (1980), Dark City (1998), Ever After (1998) and Dungeons & Dragons (2000). Additionally he guest starred in five episodes in the third season of the popular HTV dramatisation of Robin of Sherwood, as the corrupt druid. In 1998 he released a music CD of the songs from Disgracefully Yours entitled "Absolute O'Brien."

He became the presenter of UK Channel 4's popular game show The Crystal Maze in 1990, specialising in sardonic put-downs, occasional eccentricities and playing his harmonica at random intervals. The show's heyday was around 1991–1993. It was regularly Channel 4's highest watched programme, mainly seen by children and young adults (particularly university students who made it into a cult show), reaching a peak of 7 million viewers for the 1993 Christmas special. The extent of both the shows and to a large extent O'Brien's success is shown by the fact that The Crystal Maze was named 'Greatest UK Game Show of All Time' in a 2006 poll by the UKGameshows.com website. Richard left The Crystal Maze in 1993 after the fourth series; the show was then taken over by Edward Tudor-Pole. It never achieved the same degree of success under Tudor-Pole, and was discontinued within two years.

In other roles O'Brien has conceptualized and played the role of the Child Catcher in the West End theatre production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He also occasionally does cabaret-style music and comedy performances on stages around the world, singing songs from Rocky Horror among others. In 1995, he performed a select number of shows as the devilish charmer, Mephistopheles Smith, in a musical/comedy show he wrote entitled Disgracefully Yours, which was later given permission to be adapted into a musical, performed first by Eubank Productions for the Kansas City Fringe Fest in 2006, and more recently by Janus Theatre Company for the Edinburgh Fringe 2007, simply entitled Mephistopheles Smith. In late 2005, he appeared (as the spirit of the mirror) in the pantomime version of Snow White, which played at the Milton Keynes Theatre. In the summer of 2006 he played the Child Catcher in the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations at Buckingham Palace.

Richard O'Brien performed in Thank-You for the Music, a 90-minute ABBA documentary for ITV, directed by Martin Koch, who previously directed the musical Mamma Mia!^[4] The documentary included a remake of the mini musical The Girl with the Golden Hair which ABBA performed during their 1977 world tour and which was featured on The Album. The musical was performed at the Prince of Wales Theatre and featured Richard O'Brien, Liz McClarnon, and the Dynamos.^[5]

He is also a patron of the Five Stars Scanner Appeal,^[6] which benefits the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, UK. From 2001 until 2006 he hosted the annual Transfandango,^[7] gala gathering of "Dearhearts and Trans 'n' Gentle People" to raise money for the hospital. This has now been superseded by 'Richard O'Brien's Halloween Party'.

A script for another rumored sequel entitled Revenge of the Old Queen, has been circulated on the web and reproduced on various fansites, though officially denied as O'Brien's work by his representatives. While he has worked on a screenplay by that title, it was never publicly released. He has been working again on The Stripper (based on the book by Carter Brown), a musical for which he wrote the lyrics and which had its UK premiere at The Queen's Theatre in Hornchurch, Essex on 28 August 2009.

In 2004, Hamilton City Council in New Zealand honoured O'Brien's contribution to the arts with a statue of Riff Raff, the character Richard played in The Rocky Horror Show, on the site of the former Embassy Cinema.^[8] His love of horror and similar genres can be traced back to the countless afternoons he spent watching double feature horror/science fiction films at the Embassy before he moved back to England. This was made ironic when, in June 2010, O'Brien was refused New Zealand citizenship and so could himself not settle in the country. He commented "They build a statue of me and celebrate me as a New Zealander, but I have to go on my knees and do all sorts of things, and I'm probably too old."^[9] The government eventually made an exception, and O'Brien became a New Zealand citizen in December 2011.^[10]

In September 2007 he reprised his role as the Child Catcher for the final 2 weeks of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's 5 year UK run, and then played the role in its Singapore engagement for the month of November, extended to 9 December. Also in December, he visited Hamilton, New Zealand and presented An Evening With Richard O'Brien, in conjunction with an independent New Zealand film group, planning to film a musical based on his early life, The King's Stilettoes.

In December 2008 Richard O'Brien donated his original script, Pig In Boots to 'The Wireless Theatre Company'^[11] who converted it into an audio pantomime. The show was recorded live at the Headliners Comedy Club in front of a studio audience with live FX and music. The production was opened by an original interview with Richard O'Brien.

In June 2012, Richard returns to Hamilton, New Zealand to appear on stage as 'Fagin' with the Hamilton Operatic Society's production of Oliver! at the Founders Theatre.

Personal life[link]

O'Brien has married twice and fathered three children. In a 2009 interview he spoke about an ongoing struggle to reconcile cultural gender roles and described himself as being transgender or possible third sex. O'Brien stated, "There is a continuum between male and female. Some are hard-wired one way or another, I’m in between."^[12]

In June 2010, the media reported that O'Brien had been denied citizenship after he applied to retire in New Zealand.^[13] In August 2010, New Zealand's The Dominion Post reported that O'Brien would be allowed residency and possibly citizenship as an "exceptional" case.^[14] According to the Waikato Times, he was officially registered as a New Zealand citizen on 14 December 2011.^[10]

On 16 August 2010, he appeared on a Celebrity Cash in the Attic episode, where he donated the takings from his sale of memorabilia to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

Filmography[link]

• Carry On Cowboy (1965) – Rider
• Zee & Co. (1971)
• The Four Dimensions of Greta (1972)
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – Riff Raff, and the church custodian in the opening scene
• Jubilee (1977) – John Dee
• The Odd Job (1978) – Batch
• Flash Gordon (1980) – Fico
• Shock Treatment (1981) – Dr. Cosmo McKinley
• Robin of Sherwood (1986) – Gulnar
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1989) – James
• The Crystal Maze (TV) (1990–1993) – Presenter
• The Ink Thief (TV) (1994) – The Ink Thief
• Spiceworld (1997) – Damien
• Ever After (1998) – Pierre Le Pieu
• Dark City (1998) – Mr. Hand
• The Mumbo Jumbo (2000) – Archie
• Dungeons & Dragons (2000) – Xilus
• Elvira's Haunted Hills (2001) – Lord Vladimere Hellsubus
• Phineas and Ferb (2007–) – Lawrence Fletcher (Dad)
• Night Train (2009) – Mrs Froy
• Jackboots on Whitehall (2010) – Himmler (voice)
• Manor Hunt Ball (2011) - Uncle Felix
• Mongrels (2011) - Zombie Dog, Series 2 Episode 2

References[link]

External links[link]

• Richard O'Brien at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard O'Brien at the Internet Broadway Database* Richard O'Brien at RockyMusic.org
• Interview on British television
• The Richard O'Brien Crusade, a fansite
• Richard O'Brien – God of Cult, a LiveJournal community
• Transfandango, Richard O'Brien's annual charity fundraiser
• RiffRaffStatue.org, for the tribute statue in Hamilton, New Zealand
• Pig In Boots, Richard O'Brien's Pig In Boots – Audio Pantomime produced by The Wireless Theatre Company

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2012)

Christabel Pankhurst

Suffragette, Emily Wilding Davison memorial issue of the newspaper edited by Christabel Pankhurst

Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, DBE (22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958), was a suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exile in France from 1912 to 1913. In 1914 she became a fervent supporter of the war against Germany. After the war she moved to the United States, where she worked as an evangelist for the Second Adventist movement.

Early life[link]

Christabel Pankhurst was the daughter of the lawyer Dr. Richard Pankhurst and women's suffrage movement leader Emmeline Pankhurst and sister to Sylvia Pankhurst and Adela Pankhurst. Nancy Ellen Rupprecht wrote, “She was almost a textbook illustration of the first child born to a middle-class family. In childhood as well as adulthood, she was beautiful, intelligent, graceful, confident, charming, and charismatic.” Christabel and her mother, Emmeline, had a special bond that none of her other siblings had. She and her father were very close as well. In the Dictionary of National Biography, Roger Fulford says that he named her Christabel after the lines of a poem by Coleridge “The lovely lady Christabel/ Whom her father loves so well.” When her mother died in 1928, Christabel grieved deeply for two years. Her family was not wealthy growing up. Her father was a lawyer and her mother owned a small shop. She assisted her mother while Emmeline was working as the Registrar of Births and Deaths in Manchester. Her family always encouraged themselves in their financial struggles by firmly believing that they were more devoted to causes than comforts.^{[1] [2]}

Education[link]

She learned to read at her home on her own before she went to school. She and her two sisters attended Manchester High School for Girls. She obtained a law degree from the University of Manchester. She received honors on her LLB exam, but was not allowed to practice law as a woman. Later she moved to Geneva in France to live with a family friend, but returned home to help her mother raise the rest of the children when her father died in 1898.^[1]

Activism[link]

In 1905 Christabel Pankhurst interrupted a Liberal Party meeting by shouting demands for voting rights for women. She was arrested and, along with fellow suffragist Annie Kenney, went to prison rather than pay a fine as punishment for their outburst. Their case gained much media interest and the ranks of the WSPU swelled following their trial. Emmeline Pankhurst began to take more militant action for the women's suffrage cause after her daughter's arrest and was herself imprisoned on many occasions for her principles.

After obtaining her law degree in 1906, Christabel moved to the London headquarters of the WSPU, where she was appointed its organising secretary. Nicknamed "Queen of the Mob", she was jailed again in 1907 in Parliament Square and 1909 after the "Rush Trial" at Bow Street. Between 1912 and 1913 she lived in Paris, France, to escape imprisonment under the terms of the Prisoner's (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act, better known as the Cat and Mouse Act. The start of World War I compelled her to return to England in 1913, where she was again arrested. Pankhurst engaged in a hunger strike, ultimately serving only 30 days of a three-year sentence.

She was influential in the WSPU's 'anti-male' phase after the failure of the Conciliation Bills. She wrote a book called The Great Scourge and How to End It on the subject of sexually transmitted diseases and how sexual equality (votes for women) would help the fight against these diseases.^[3]

She and her sister, Sylvia, did not get along well. Her sister was against turning the WSPU towards solely upper- and middle-class women and using militant tactics, while Christabel thought it was essential. Christabel felt that suffrage was a cause that should not be tied to any causes trying to help working-class women with their other issues. She felt that it would only drag the suffrage movement down and that all of the other issues could be solved once women had the right to vote.^[1]

On 8 September 1914, Pankhurst re-appeared at the London Opera House, after her long exile, to utter a declaration not on women's enfranchisement but on "The German Peril", a campaign led by the former General Secretary of the WSPU, Norah Dacre Fox in conjunction with the British Empire Union and the National Party.^[4] Along with Norah Dacre Fox (later known as Norah Elam), Pankhurst toured the country making recruiting speeches. Her supporters handed the white feather to every young man they encountered wearing civilian dress and bobbed up at Hyde Park meetings with placards: "Intern Them All". The Suffragette appeared again on 16 April 1915, as a war paper, and on 15 October changed its name to Britannia. There, week by week, Pankhurst demanded the military conscription of men and the industrial conscription of women into "national service", as it was termed. In flamboyant terms she called also for the internment of all people of enemy race, men and women, young and old, found on these shores, and for a more complete and ruthless enforcement of the blockade of enemy and neutral nations. She insisted that this must be "a war of attrition". In her ferocious zeal for relentless prosecution of the War she demanded the resignation of Sir Edward Grey, Lord Robert Cecil, General Sir William Robertson and Sir Eyre Crowe, whom she considered too mild and dilatory in method. So furious was her attack that, in its over-fervent support of the National War policy, Britannia was many times raided by the police and experienced greater difficulty in appearing than had befallen The Suffragette. Indeed, although occasionally Norah Dacre Fox's father, John Doherty, who owned a printing firm, was drafted in to print campaign posters,^[4] Britannia was compelled at last to set up its own printing press. A gentler impulse was embodied in an early proposal of Emmeline Pankhurst to set up Women's Social and Political Union Homes for illegitimate girl "war babies", but only five children were adopted: sterner interests prevailed. David Lloyd George, whom Pankhurst had regarded as the most bitter and dangerous enemy of women, was now the one politician in whom she and Emmeline Pankhurst placed confidence.

When the February 1917 Russian Revolution took place and Alexander Kerensky rose to power, Christabel Pankhurst, like many others, journeyed to Russia in a vain effort to prevent that vast country with its starving multitudes from retiring from the War. Her circuit was like that of Hervé, the French "anti-patriot", as for many years he had called himself, and of whom she had been an ardent admirer in her youth. She received the commendation of many war enthusiasts.

After some British women were granted the right to vote at the end of World War I, Pankhurst stood in the 1918 general election as a Women's Party candidate, in alliance with the Lloyd George/Conservative Coalition in the Smethwick constituency. She was narrowly defeated, by only 775 votes to the Labour Party candidate John Davison.

Move to California[link]

Leaving England in 1921, she moved to the United States where she eventually became an evangelist with Plymouth Brethren links and became a prominent member of Second Adventist movement. Marshall, Morgan and Scott published her works on subjects related to her prophetic outlook, which took its character from John Nelson Darby's perspectives. Pankhurst lectured and wrote books on the Second Coming. She was a frequent guest on TV shows and had a reputation for being an odd combination of “former suffragist revolutionary, evangelical Christian and almost stereotypically proper “English Lady” who always was in demand as a lecturer.” While in California she adopted her daughter, Betty, after finally recovering from her mother’s death. She returned to Britain in the 1930s. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1936. At the start of the Second World War she again left for the USA where she lived until her death in Los Angeles, California. Before her death she received 250 pounds a year from Olivia Durand-Deacon, a widow who was murdered by her male companion. The widow was brutally murdered and her killer dissolved her body in an acid bath. The reason for which she left the sum to Christabel was unknown.

Death[link]

Christabel died February 13, 1958, at the age of 77, sitting in a straight-backed chair. Her housekeeper found her body and there was no indication of her cause of death. She was buried in the Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.^[1]

See also[link]

• History of feminism
• List of suffragists and suffragettes
• Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
• Pankhurst Centre in Manchester

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Hillberg, Isabelle. "Pankhurst, Christabel Hariette (1880-1958)". Detroit:Gale. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=SUIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CA148364172&mode=view. Retrieved 6 October 2011. 
2. ^ "Christabel Pankhurst". Gale. http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/whic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=WHIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CK1616000037&mode=view. Retrieved 17 October 2011. 
3. ^ Pankhurst C, 1913. The Great Scourge and How to End It
4. ^ ^{a b} McPherson, Angela; McPherson, Susan (2011). Mosley's Old Suffragette - A Biography of Norah Elam. ISBN 978-1-4466-9967-6. http://www.oldsuffragette.co.uk. 

Further reading[link]

• Christabel Pankhurst, Pressing Problems of the Closing Age (Morgan & Scott Ltd., 1924).
• Christabel Pankhurst, The World's Unrest: Visions of the Dawn (Morgan & Scott Ltd., 1926).
• David Mitchell, Queen Christabel (MacDonald and Jane's Publisher Ltd., 1977) ISBN 0-354-04152-5
• Barbara Castle, Sylvia and Christabel Pankhurst (Penguin Books, 1987) ISBN 978-0-14-008761-1.

External links[link]

• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WpankhurstC.htm
• Blue Plaque for Suffragette Leaders Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst
• "Christabel Harriette Pankhurst". Suffragette. Find a Grave. Jun 09, 2005. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=11132115. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011. 

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Patrick Wolf
Background information
Birth name	Patrick Denis Apps
Born	(1983-06-30) 30 June 1983 (age 28)
Genres	Indietronica Folktronica Alternative rock Baroque pop
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Low Altitude Records Faith & Industry Tomlab Loog Bloody Chamber Music Mercury Records
Website	PatrickWolf.com

Patrick Wolf (born Patrick Denis Apps on 30 June 1983) is an English singer-songwriter from South London. Patrick utilises a wide variety of instruments in his music, most commonly the ukulele, piano and viola. Known for combining electronic sampling with classical instruments, Wolf's styles range from romantic folk to techno-pop.

Biography[link]

Patrick Wolf was born in St Thomas' Hospital,^[1] South London,^[2][3] into a creative family. He started his musical education with Piano lessons but soon got bored and progressed onto violin lessons and church choirs and made his first theremin at age eleven, and first began recording songs with his violin, voice, and car boot sale organs on a four-track tape recorder at age twelve. At fourteen, he joined and performed with pop art collective Minty. Two years later, he dropped his music A-Levels, which he was studying at Davies Laing and Dick Sixth Form College off Bond Street, and left home. During this period, as well as working in Super Lovers clothing store in Covent Garden, Wolf earned money from busking in a string quartet and formed a group called 'Maison Crimineaux', a noisy trio built on destructive ethics around white noise and pop music. He also continued to write and record his own material. A Maison Crimineaux gig in Paris was attended by electronic maestro Kristian Robinson (aka Capitol K), who would then go on to release Wolf's debut album Lycanthropy.

[edit] Lycanthropy and Wind in the Wires

Wolf's ongoing writing and recordings brought him to the attention of Fat Cat Records, who provided him with an Atari computer and a mixing console. During the recording of Lycanthropy, Wolf studied composition at Trinity College of Music for one year. Lycanthropy was released in the summer of 2003. He also made some guest appearances as a viola player with Chicks on Speed, Arcade Fire, Owen Pallett, CocoRosie and The Hidden Cameras. The Germany-based Tomlab later released the album in America and Europe. His second album of 2005, Wind in the Wires, which was inspired by Patrick's Cornish and Irish roots, was released on the same label and likewise met with critical acclaim. The single Tristan, based on the Cornish legend, Tristram of Lyonesse, received significant attention from critics and remains a fan favourite.

[edit] The Magic Position

Following the success of Wind in the Wires, Wolf signed a record deal with Loog in 2005 and began recording his third album, The Magic Position, which featured collaborations with Marianne Faithfull and Edward Larrikin of Larrikin Love.^[4] Its official release on 26 February met with critical acclaim, and gained a degree of commercial success due to the relative accessibility compared to his previous works.^{[citation needed]} The Magic Position was released in the United States on Low Altitude Records on 1 May 2007.^[5] A concept album on the theme of love, the majority of the album was written after the end of a long term intimate relationship. In January 2007, the first of six vodcasts was made available on iTunes. The series included live performances of old and new material and interviews. Wolf promoted the album with a concert tour in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia, culminating in two sold out nights at London's Shepherds Bush Empire. Both of these shows, which were shot and directed by photographer Brantley Gutierrez, are in development to be shown on a Virgin channel and then released on DVD.

[edit] The Bachelor and Lupercalia

Wolf began work on his next album, initially titled Battle, immediately after The Magic Position tour ended. The album was originally conceived as a political album. The focus then shifted to the depression experienced by Wolf during the tour. However, before entering the studio, he fell in love, changing the direction of the album again, and eventually providing enough material for two releases. Wolf parted ways with Universal Records, and on 10 December 2008 announced to NME his plan to sell £10 shares of the album on bandstocks.com: "Basically, you can invest in the finishing of the album and the production of it, and you get a share in the album. So you almost become part of the record company, like a co-owner of the album."^[6] On 12 February 2009, Wolf announced that the two discs would be titled The Bachelor and The Conqueror (although the latter album title has subsequently been changed). The Bachelor's first single, "Vulture", was released on 2 April 2009, on vinyl and digital download. The B-sides include new song, "The Tinderbox", and remixes of the title track.

The Bachelor was released on 1 June 2009, while the second single from the album, "Hard Times", was released on 6 July 2009. The third and final single, "Damaris", was released on 14 December 2009.^[7]

In April 2010 it was announced that Wolf had signed a record deal with Hideout, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, who will release his fifth album, Lupercalia. The final title was announced via Twitter on 23 December 2010.^[8]

On 4 November 2010, Wolf announced that the first single from Lupercalia was to be "Time of My Life" and the song was posted on YouTube. Of the song, Wolf said: "'Time of My Life' is a song that I began writing at the end of a relationship in 2006 and then finished three years later during a temporary break-up in my current relationship. The new album has a direct narrative about love and optimism surviving through adversity and recession. I wanted to celebrate the love and hope I have found in the last few years." The song was released on 6 December 2010. He also announced that Lupercalia would be released in May 2011.

On 10 January 2011, Wolf announced on his official Twitter account that the second single from the album, "The City", would be released on 14 March 2011.^{[dated info][9][10]}

On 6 April 2011, Wolf released Lupercalia 20 June 2011 worldwide (excluding USA, where it was released 28 June 2011).^[11] In the same month, Wolf was featured on the cover of national UK publication Notion), which included an interview conducted by writer Alex Lee Thomson, clothes by James Long, and photos by James Moriarty.

Next Project[link]

On 18 May 2012 Wolf announced that he was working on his next album, to be released later in the year: "I'm going back to the studio and recording my jubilee record... The album will be totally, totally, totally stripped down. It's time for me to be retrospective about the last ten years before I move onto the next ten. I'm 28 and I think it's quite fun to sing the songs you wrote as a teenager." ^[12]

Personal life[link]

Wolf reflects that as a teenager, he was bullied at school for his perceived eccentricity and effeminacy. At the time, he was unsure whether he was gay or bisexual. Mentors at school treated him with disdain when he came to them for support on the issue. The bullying problem was only rectified after his mother changed schools. Wolf comments, "With gay or bi people, I think education still wonders if it's a nature-versus-nurture thing. If you were black, they'd know they couldn't change you, and racist bullying would never be condoned, but if someone is quite feminine or knows they might be gay at 13, they think they can change you with a bit of rugby."^[13]

On 27 February 2007, in an interview with thelondonpaper, Wolf raised questions about his sexuality: "In the same way I don’t know if my sixth album is going to be a death-metal record or children's pop, I don’t know whether I’m destined to live my life with a horse, a woman or a man. It makes life easier."^[14] In a 5 July 2007 interview with the Sydney Star Observer, he confirmed his sexuality: "My sexuality is kind of liberal. I fall in love with men and women. I guess you would call me bisexual. I like to have sex and fall in love—I don't like giving terminology for my sexuality."^[15][16][17] Later, in 2009, Wolf told The Guardian that though in the past he has had relationships with women, he now identifies himself as gay. As an artist, Wolf reflects that he doesn't like to worry about whether he makes a record "too gay or too straight or too this or too that."^[13]

In September 2008, Wolf claimed that he was beaten up by security guards for kissing his boyfriend at a Madonna concert in London. Wolf told Electroqueer: "We were beaten up outside Wembley [Stadium], handcuffed. [...] The police came and it just went on and on and on. My man's face covered in blood. [...] They totally twisted my arm and my legs - it was just mad. They are currently researching the CCTV - it just really nuts. [— sic] We basically got beaten up by the police."^[18][19]

On 31 December 2010, Patrick Wolf announced via Twitter that he was set to enter a civil partnership with his boyfriend William Pollock.^[20] He confirmed in an interview at Bestival 2011 that this will take place in summer 2012 due to touring commitments.

Modeling[link]

Wolf, along with The Paddingtons, Edward Larrikin, and The View, was featured in a series of photographs by Mario Testino as a part of a campaign for Burberry in August 2007.^[21]

Wolf has also worked with a variety of designers at London Fashion Week 2009.

Discography[link]

• Lycanthropy (2003)
• Wind in the Wires (2005)
• The Magic Position (2007)
• The Bachelor (2009)
• Lupercalia (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Interview in Virgin Red Room
• Interview in Exberliner Magazine

Sir Michael Murray Hordern (3 October 1911^[1] – 2 May 1995) was an English actor. He was knighted in 1983 for his services to the theatre, which began before the Second World War.

Personal life[link]

The Poplars,Berkhamsted, birthplace of Sir Michael Hordern

Hordern was born in The Poplars, an 18th century townhouse in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire,^[1] the son of Margaret Emily (Murray) and Capt. Edward Joseph Calverly Hordern.^[2] He was educated at Brighton College, as was his brother Peter. He acted at school and then as an amateur with the St Pancras People's Theatre. He worked as a school teacher and travelling salesman before entering the profession. In 1937, he made his professional stage debut at the People's Palace, East London, playing a minor role in Othello and, later in the year, joined the repertory company of the Little Theatre in Bristol. There he met the actress Grace Eveline Mortimer; they married in 1943 and remained together until her death in 1986.^[3] They had one daughter, Joanna.
During World War II Horden served on HMS Illustrious (R87), in Operation Ironclad in 1942 and later as a Lt.-Commander in the office of the first Sea Lord. After the war he has a brief appearance in the 1960 film Sink the Bismarck! as Admiral Tovey, Commander-in-Chief, HMS King George V (41).

On stage[link]

His stage work, for the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford and in London, at the Old Vic and in the West End demonstrated his wide range and distinctive, rich voice. In addition to his many Shakespearean roles (Jaques in As You Like It, Cassius in Julius Caesar, Polonius in Hamlet, Malvolio in 'Twelfth Night), Hordern performed in plays by Strindberg, Chekhov, Ibsen, Pinero, Pinter, Dürrenmatt, Albee, Alan Ayckbourn, David Mercer and Tom Stoppard.

He played King Lear, as directed by Jonathan Miller, at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1970. He reprised the role for Miller on two further occasions, in 1975 and in the BBC Television Shakespeare series in 1982. In 1978 he returned to Stratford to play a wise Prospero in The Tempest. This was also replicated for the BBC Shakespeare series in 1980.

Film, television and radio[link]

He made more than a 160 film appearances, usually in character roles, including Passport to Pimlico (1949), Scrooge (1951, as Jacob Marley; he was to play Ebenezer Scrooge himself in a 1977 TV adaptation), The Heart of the Matter (1953), Grand National Night (1953),The Spanish Gardener (1956), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), El Cid (1961), Cleopatra (1963), The V.I.P.s (1963), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Khartoum (1966), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), The Taming of the Shrew (1967), Where Eagles Dare (1969), Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), England Made Me (1972), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972), Juggernaut (1974), The Slipper and the Rose (1976), Shogun (1980), Gandhi (1982). In 1968 he appeared as the central character in Jonathan Miller's television adaptation of M. R. James's ghost story Whistle and I'll Come to You. Some years later he narrated nineteen unabridged supernatural stories by M. R. James, released across four audio cassette collections by Argo Records in the 1980s. In 1986, he appeared in the TV series Paradise Postponed. In 1992 Hordern narrated the two-cassette recording of the John Mortimer story Rumpole on Trial.

Hordern was also in demand for other voice-over work. As the narrator of FilmFair Production's of Paddington, and as the voice of Badger in the 1980s TV series The Wind in the Willows, Hordern is familiar to TV audiences everywhere. He also provided the ironic voice-over narration in Stanley Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon, and can be heard playing the part of the rabbits' god Frith in Martin Rosen's 1978 animated adaptation of Richard Adams' Watership Down [2].

On radio he played Gandalf in the BBC radio adaptation of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (1981); another great wizard, Merlin, in an adaptation of T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone (1982); and P. G. Wodehouse's famous indefatigable valet (or gentleman's gentleman) Jeeves in several series in the 1970s.

Hordern's abridged 1991 recording of C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia remains a classic recording of the series.

He was appointed a CBE in 1972 and knighted in 1983.^[4]

Later years and death[link]

On television, he played Tartuffe for the BBC in 1971 and Professor Marvin in The History Man in 1980. He also appeared in several classic drama serials, his last performance being in the BBC adaptation of Middlemarch (1994).

In 1956 he had bought a house near Newbury in Berkshire, where he spent his final years close to the river Lambourn on which he had enjoyed fishing (for trout and grayling) for so long, where dramatist Tom Stoppard "shared a rod" with him, as Stoppard once put it.

He died as a result of kidney disease in May 1995, at the age of 83. Shortly before his death, Brighton College named a room in his honour where a bronze portrait bust stands; the National Portrait Gallery in London has another copy.

Filmography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Robin Armstrong, The Painted Stream, Dent, 1985, ISBN 0-460-04702-7 (foreword by Hordern)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Michael Hordern at Find a Grave
• Michael Hordern at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Hordern at the Internet Broadway Database
• Sir Michael Hordern - Daily Telegraph obituary
• Actor's Compendium