Rockall (Irish: Rocal, Scottish Gaelic: Rocabarraigh) is an extremely small, uninhabited, remote rocky islet in the North Atlantic Ocean. It gives its name to one of the sea areas named in the shipping forecast provided by the British Meteorological Office.
Historically the islet has been referred to in Irish folklore, and since the late sixteenth century it has been noted in written records, although it is likely that some northern Atlantic fishing crews knew of the rock before these historical accounts were made. In the twentieth century the location of the islet became a major concern due to oil and fishing rights, spurring continued debate amongst several European nations.
Rockall has also been a point of interest for adventurers and amateur radio operators who variously in the past have landed on or occupied the islet for up to several months, although fewer than twenty individuals have ever been confirmed to have landed on Rockall.
In 1956 the British scientist James Fisher referred to the island as "the most isolated small rock in the oceans of the world." The neighbouring Hasselwood Rock and several other pinnacles of the surrounding Helen's Reef are however smaller, at half or less the size of Rockall and equally remote. Yet these formations are, while being noted in the Island of Rockall Act 1972, technically not considered islands or points on land per se, as they are often submerged completely, only revealed momentarily under certain types of swell and visible by ocean surface waves.
Robert James "Bob" Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations. Kid Rock released several studio albums that mostly went unnoticed before his 1998 record Devil Without a Cause, released with Atlantic Records, sold 11 million albums behind the hits, "Bawitdaba", "Cowboy", and "Only God Knows Why". In 2000, he released The History of Rock, a compilation of remixed and remastered versions of songs from previous albums as well as the hit single, "American Bad Ass" and the previously unreleased "Abortion".
Kid Rock released the follow-up in 2001, Cocky. After a slow start, his country-flavored hit "Picture" with Sheryl Crow resurrected the album and it went gold as a single and pushed the album's sales over 5 million. It was followed by 2003's self-titled release, which went platinum in the USA and reached No. 8 on the Billboard charts. In 2006 he released Live Trucker, a greatest hits live album that went mostly unnoticed.
Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American hip hop artist and producer. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s (decade). He was signed to El-P's Definitive Jux label until it went on hiatus in 2010. The music site betterPropaganda ranked him at number 19 at the Top 100 Artists of the Decade. He is a member of the groups The Weathermen, Hail Mary Mallon (with Rob Sonic & DJ Big Wiz), and Two Of Every Animal (with Cage). Regarding his name, he said: "I acquired the name Aesop from a movie I had acted in with some friends. It was my character's name and it sort of stuck. The rock part came later just from throwing it in rhymes."
Bavitz was born at Syosset Hospital in Syosset, New York and raised in Northport, Long Island, New York to his father Paul and mother Jameija. Ian has two brothers: Chris (born 1975) and Graham (born 1977). Ian, along with his siblings, was raised Catholic but later on in his life became agnostic. Bavitz attended Northport High School in 1990 and graduated in 1994. He married Allyson Baker, guitarist and vocalist of rock band Dirty Ghosts in 2005. They now reside in San Francisco, California. The couple has now since divorced.
Oh the empire is finished no foreign lands to seize
So the greedy eyes of England are looking towards the
seas
Two hundred miles from Donegal, there's a place that's
called Rockall
And the groping hands of Whitehall are grabbing at its
walls
Oh rock on Rockall, you'll never fall to Britain's
greedy hands
Or you'll meet the same resistance that you did in many
lands
May the seagulls rise and pluck your eyes and the water
crush your shell,
And the natural gas will burn your ass and blow you all
to hell.
For this rock is part of Ireland, 'cos it' s written in
folklore
That Fionn MacCumhaill took a sod of grass and he threw
it to the fore,
Then he tossed a pebble across the sea, where ever it
did fall,
For the sod became the Isle of Man and the pebble's
called Rockall.
Now the seas will not be silent, while Britannia grabs
the waves
And remember that the Irish will no longer be your
slaves,
And remember that Britannia, well, - she rules the
waves no more
So keep your hands off Rockall - it's Irish to the
Of course, in those days of the mid-fifties, the London stage still suffered under
the iron hand of the wicked Lord Chamberlain, who at that time was a very charming
chap called Lord Scarborough. You weren't able to ad lib, or mention members of the
Royal family, or presidents, or so on, and my goodness, you couldn't mention
lavatories or anything dreadful like that! No sexual deviation, or four-letter words
- you may wonder how we managed. I remember, I used to be rung up by indignant
members of the press, saying 'Isn't it dreadful, all this censorship. Tell me some
of the great ideas you've had that the Lord Chamberlain has refused to pass'. I was
terribly embarrassed, and had to say rather sheepishly that I'd never had anything
banned at all. And I didn't dare tell them, which was even worse, that sometimes my
scripts used to come back from the Lord Chamberlain's office with little remarks
written on them, saying 'I like this one', 'Jolly good', 'Give it to 'em', things
like that. All rather embarrassing, but never mind, once you're on the
establishment, you stick there, I find. But I did get away with one mild double
entendre, in a song celebrating the occasion when our gallant British Navy annexed
Rockall - that lump of rock in the Atlantic. It was really more of a single
entendre, because the lyric looked innocent enough written down, but when you sung
it it was considered daringly near the bone then. Nowadays, I don't think anyone'd
raise an eyebrow. Anyway, judge for yourselves.
The fleet set sail for Rockall,
Rockall,
Rockall,
To free the isle of Rockall,
From fear of foreign foe.
We sped across the planet,
To find this lump of granite,
One rather startled Gannet;
In fact, we found Rockall.
So, praise the brave Bell-bottoms,
Bottoms,
Bottoms,
Who saw Britannia's Peril,
And answered to her call,
Though we're thrown out of Malta,
Though Spain should take Gibraltar,
Why should we flinch or falter,
When England's got Rockall.
MF: And Donald still hasn't got the point.