Dancer (novel)

Dancer is a novel based on the life of Rudolf Nureyev, written by Colum McCann and published in 2003.

Background

Nureyev was a Russian ballet dancer who achieved fame with the Kirov Ballet before defecting to the West in 1961 and subsequently became "one of the most written-about dancers in history". He died in 1992. McCann, born in Ireland, had previously written novels, short stories and newspaper reports while travelling and teaching in the United States and Japan; some of his work was set in Ireland and Northern Ireland. In 2001, already having "a growing reputation as an international writer", he moved to Russia where he researched his novel based on Nureyev while teaching English. A decade after the book's publication, McCann commented that he personally saw Nureyev as "a monster".

Plot and structure

The book begins on the Eastern Front during World War Two, with Nureyev performing for injured Soviet soldiers as a child. It covers his good fortune in gaining the chance to study ballet in his home country, his success there and then his life, work, loves and excesses as a celebrity after his defection to the West.

Assault Attack

Assault Attack is the third studio album from The Michael Schenker Group, and the only album to feature former Rainbow vocalist Graham Bonnet. The album was recorded in France at the Château d'Hérouville and was produced by Martin Birch.

Overview

After returning to the UK from Japan in August 1981, having recorded the live album One Night at Budokan, Schenker and his band played a short tour of the UK. After the tour, Cozy Powell and Peter Mensch (Michael Schenker Group's manager) wanted a better singer for the band and suggested David Coverdale, but Schenker himself wanted Graham Bonnet. After some disagreements, which ultimately led to the termination of the cooperation between Mensch and MSG, Bonnet joined the MSG in February 1982. Meanwhile, Powell and Paul Raymond left the band for their own reasons and were replaced by drummer Ted McKenna and session keyboardist Tommy Eyre. After four months the band went to France to start recording the album that would become Assault Attack with producer Martin Birch, who arrived fresh from Iron Maiden's album The Number of the Beast. The sessions took place at a French castle, Le Château d'Hérouville.

Hot Space

Hot Space is the tenth studio album by British rock band Queen, released in May 1982. Marking a notable shift in direction from their earlier work, they employed many elements of disco, funk, rhythm and blues, dance and pop music on the album. This made the album less popular with fans who preferred the traditional rock style they had come to associate with the band.

Queen's decision to record a dance-oriented album germinated with the massive success in the US of their 1980 hit "Another One Bites the Dust" (and to a lesser extent, the UK success of the song too).

"Under Pressure", Queen's collaboration with David Bowie, was released in 1981 and became the band's second #1 hit in the UK. Though included on Hot Space, the song was a separate project and recorded ahead of the album, before the controversy over Queen's new sound (disco-influenced rock music). The album's second single, "Body Language", peaked at #11 on the US charts.

In July 2004, Q magazine listed Hot Space as one of the top fifteen albums where great rock acts lost the plot. Most of the album was recorded in Munich during the most turbulent period in the band's history, and Roger Taylor and Brian May lamented the new sound, with both being very critical of the influence Freddie Mercury's manager Paul Prenter had on the singer. Estimated sales of the album currently stand at four million copies.

Ace (Ian Van Dahl album)

Ace is the debut studio album by the Belgian dance music act known as Ian Van Dahl, released in 2002. The album contains four songs that reached the top 20 of the UK singles chart: "Will I?" (#5); "Reason" (#8); "Try" (#15); and their biggest hit single, "Castles in the Sky", which reached #3 and spent seven weeks in the top 10 in the summer of 2001. This last song also reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., where it peaked at #91. The album itself peaked at #7 in the UK, where it achieved Gold status after only four weeks. The album title was inspired by taking the first letters of the names of each member of the act; Annemie, Christophe and Eric.

Track listings

Ace Motor Corporation

Ace Motor Corporation was a motorcycle manufacturer in operation continuously in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania between 1919 and 1924 and intermittently afterward until 1927. Essentially only one model of the large luxury four-cylinder motorcycle, with slight variations, was made from first to last.

Origin

Having sold Henderson Motorcycle to Ignaz Schwinn's Excelsior Motor Manufacturing & Supply Company, founder William G. Henderson continued to work there until 1919, when differences of opinion regarding the design direction of Henderson motorcycles led to his resignation from Excelsior.

In the fall of 1919, with the support of Max M. Sladkin of Haverford Cycle Co., Henderson started the Ace Motor Corporation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Ace motorcycle resembled the Henderson in general form, being a longitudinal four-cylinder motorcycle with chain drive, but Henderson had to be careful not to infringe any trademarks or patents that would have been owned by Excelsior at the time. Production began in 1920.

Tide (brand)

Tide (Alo, Vizir or Ace in some countries) is the brand-name of a laundry detergent manufactured by Procter & Gamble, first introduced in 1946.

Background

The household chore of doing the laundry began to change with the introduction of washing powders in the 1880s. These new laundry products originally were simply pulverized soap. New cleaning-product marketing successes, such as the 1890s introduction of the N. K. Fairbank Company's Gold Dust Washing Powder (which used a breakthrough hydrogenation process in its formulation), and Hudson's heavily advertised product, Rinso, proved that there was a ready market for better cleaning agents. Henkel & Cie's "self-activating" (or self bleaching) cleaner, Persil; (introduced in 1907); the early synthetic detergent, BASF's Fewa (introduced in 1932); and Procter & Gamble's 1933 totally synthetic creation, Dreft, (marketed for use on infant-wear)—all indicated significant advances in the laundry cleaning product market.

The detergent business was further revolutionized with the discovery of the alkylbenzene sulfonates, which, when combined with the use of chemical "builders", made machine washing with hard water possible. This presented Procter and Gamble with the opportunity to create a product such as Tide.