The Slits

The Slits were a British rock band formed in London in 1976 by members of the groups The Flowers of Romance and The Castrators. The group's early line-up consisted of Ari Up (Ariane Forster) and Palmolive (a.k.a. Paloma Romero, who played briefly with Spizzenergi and later left to join The Raincoats), with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members Kate Korus and Suzy Gutsy. Their 1979 debut album, Cut, has been called one of the defining releases of the post-punk era.

Career

1976–1982

The group supported fellow punk band The Clash on their 1977 White Riot tour along with the Buzzcocks, the Prefects and the Subway Sect. Club performances of The Slits during this period are included in The Punk Rock Movie (1978). In November 1978, The Slits toured with the Clash again on the "Sort it Out Tour" and were joined by The Innocents who opened the shows.

Captured on a Peel Session, the Slits' originally raw and raucous live sound was cleaned up and polished by the time of their debut album. Their Dennis Bovell-produced debut album Cut was released in September 1979 on Island Records, with Neneh Cherry joining as additional vocalist. The album's sleeve art depicted the band naked, except for mud and loincloths. Palmolive left the band around this time: it is often claimed that this was partly because she did not like this artwork, including by Palmolive herself, but according to Viv Albertine Palmolive had been asked to leave the band before that, and anyway does not appear on the record. She was replaced by the drummer Budgie (Peter Clarke), formerly of The Spitfire Boys and later of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Viv Albertine

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Viviane Katrina Louise "Viv" Albertine (born 1 December 1954, Sydney, Australia) is a British singer and songwriter, best known as the guitarist for the English punk group The Slits. She lives in Hackney, London.

Early life

Albertine was born in Sydney to a Swiss mother and a Corsican father. She was brought up in North London, attended comprehensive school in Muswell Hill, and at seventeen enrolled in the Hornsey School of Art. After completing a foundation course at Hornsey, Albertine went to the Chelsea School of Art to study fashion and textile design. In 1976, while still studying at Chelsea, she helped form the early punk band The Flowers of Romance.

Music career

Albertine was amongst the first "inner circle" fans of the Sex Pistols, and was a close friend of both Mick Jones and Joe Strummer of The Clash. Albertine joined The Slits as the band's guitarist after founding member Kate Korus left in 1977. The Clash's 1979 song "Train in Vain" has been interpreted by some as a response to "Typical Girls" by The Slits, which mentions girls standing by their men. She split up with songwriter Mick Jones shortly before he wrote the song.

Channel 4 News

Channel 4 News is the main news programme on British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since Channel 4's launch in November 1982.

Current productions

Channel 4 News

Channel 4 News is the name of UK Channel 4's award-winning flagship evening news programme.

The news editor is Ben de Pear, appointed in July 2012. The programme is presented by Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Cathy Newman and Matt Frei and is on the air Monday to Friday from 19:00–19:55 on Channel 4 and at variable times on weekends. Alex Thomson is the chief correspondent.

Channel 4 News is among the highest-rated television programmes in the United Kingdom, winning a record five Royal Television Society Television Awards in February 2006. These included TV Journalist of the Year for Jon Snow, Home News Award for the Attorney General leak, and the International News Award for Congo's Tin Soldiers.

It won the News Coverage British Academy Television Award in 2004 and the 2004 International Emmy for the best news programme produced and aired outside the United States. Jon Snow won the Richard Dimbleby British Academy Television Award in 2005 for outstanding contribution to the world of news and current affairs.

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster that began transmission on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the station is now owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation, a public body established in 1990, coming into operation in 1993. With the conversion of the Wenvoe transmitter group in Wales to digital on 31 March 2010, Channel 4 became a UK-wide TV channel for the first time.

The channel was established to provide a fourth television service to the United Kingdom in addition to the television licence-funded BBC's two services and the single commercial broadcasting network, ITV.

History

Conception

Before Channel 4 and S4C, Britain had three terrestrial television services: BBC1, BBC2, and ITV. The Broadcasting Act 1980 began the process of adding a fourth, and Channel 4, along with its Welsh counterpart, was formally created by an Act of Parliament in 1982. After some months of test broadcasts, it began scheduled transmissions on 2 November 1982.