Speedy were a five-piece Indie Pop/Britpop band from Sheffield, England, whose songs were known for their witty lyrics, often observing the darker and seedier side of working class life; "kitchen sink narratives" in the words of founder and lead singer Philip Watson. Their debut single on a major label Boy Wonder reached #56 in the UK Singles Chart in late 1996, but further chart success eluded them.
Band members Philip Watson (Vocals), Bronwen Stone (Drums), Moony Wainwright (Bass), Paul Turner (Keyboards) and Richard Sutcliffe (Guitar) (who replaced Tracey Plant) had previously performed under the name Blammo! between 1988 and 1994. In this guise they issued five singles; three on Heywood based label Imaginary Records who also had Cud and The Mock Turtles on their roster. The band was invited to support The Beautiful South on three tours, which allowed them to perform in front of several thousand people at London Wembley Arena.
Their first performance under the Speedy moniker was at the Spud Club on Sunday 3 April 1994. The following year, their track Sporting Life (produced by Danny Shackleton) was included on a limited edition 7" single. The Saturday Night Special: Silence is Golden EP was released by Leadmill Records, which was an imprint of the famous Sheffield venue of the same name. The notes on the back cover commented that The Leadmill had been voted the number one live venue/club in the UK in the 1994 Melody Maker music poll.
Speedy is a 1928 silent film that was one of the films to be nominated for the short-lived Academy Award for Best Director of a Comedy. The film stars famous comedian Harold Lloyd in the eponymous leading role, and it was his last silent film to be released in theatres.
The film was written by Albert DeMond (titles), John Grey (story), J.A. Howe (story), Lex Neal (story), and Howard Emmett Rogers (story) with uncredited assistance from Al Boasberg and Paul Girard Smith. The film was directed by Ted Wilde, the last silent film to be directed by him, and was shot in both Hollywood, and on location in New York City.
The plot revolves around Harold 'Speedy' Swift's attempts to save the last horse-drawn streetcar in New York. The film contrasts the speed of life of the contemporary city with the pace of yesteryear, represented by this non-motorized mode of transport. Yankees star Babe Ruth plays one of 'Speedy's' hapless passengers.
There is a scene in the film where Speedy is seen giving the finger to himself while looking in a distorted mirror which may be the earliest motion picture depiction of that gesture.
Speedy is the name of two DC Comics superheroes, fictional characters that have each served as teenaged sidekicks for the Green Arrow (a.k.a. Oliver Queen).
The original Speedy's real name was Roy Harper, Jr.. He first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 (November 1941), where he was identified as the orphaned son of Roy Harper, Sr., a forest ranger who had died saving a Navajo medicine chief named "Brave Bow" from a fire. Brave Bow raised the younger Roy himself, training him at archery. Roy Jr. took to this training eagerly, and idolized the archer superhero, Green Arrow. As a teenager, Roy is given the opportunity to perform at an archery competition judged by Green Arrow, where he assists the hero at foiling an attempted burglary, even proving himself to be a faster shot than the hero. Following the death of Brave Bow, Green Arrow asked Roy to serve as his sidekick, an offer Roy readily accepted, taking the name Speedy. Harper became the ward of Green Arrow's alter ego, billionaire Oliver Queen.
"Drama!" is the first single released by Erasure from their fourth studio album Wild!. It was issued by Mute Records in the UK and Sire Records in the U.S.
Written by Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, the synthpop song begins with a low-key keyboard line and a subdued vocal from Bell. As the song progresses, the instrumentation and vocals become more hectic, ultimately ending as a full-blown dancefloor anthem. "Drama!" is known for its mob-shouted "Guilty!" exclamation throughout and Bell's intricate, multi-layered background vocals. Lyrically the song addresses a person who could be considered a drama queen, experiencing "one psychological drama after another" about everyday struggles that are universal and are easily dealt with by most people. Lines such as "your shame is never-ending!" are directed at the subject of the song. The mob's vocals were added to by The Jesus and Mary Chain, who happened to be recording in the studio next door.
Released prior to Wild!, "Drama!" continued Erasure's winning streak on the UK singles chart, peaking at number four. In Germany the single also fared well, hitting number twelve. "Drama!" did not continue Erasure's chart success in the United States, where it failed to enter the Billboard Hot 100. It did, however, climb to number ten on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
Drama is the ninth studio album by the British female vocal duo Bananarama. It features eleven newly recorded tracks, along with a remix of their 1986 smash hit "Venus" (done by Soft Cell's Marc Almond) and a 2005 remix of their 1982 hit "Really Saying Something", an underground bootleg club hit produced by Solasso.
Drama is a comeback of sorts for Bananarama members Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin and is their first album to be released in their native UK since 1993. The album's first single "Move in My Direction" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at Number 14, also becoming their first UK Top 40 hit since 1993. The second single, "Look on the Floor (Hypnotic Tango)", also hit the UK Top 40, and climbed to Number 2 on the US Hot Dance Club Play chart as an import, becoming Bananarama's biggest US dancefloor hit since "Venus" two decades earlier.
The album mostly incorporates pop and eurodance musical styles, with some synthpop elements. Drama charted at a number 169 in the UK. It was later released in the United States (both in retail stores and as digital downloads) in 2006. While the album performed well on Billboard's Top Electronic Albums chart, peaking at number 21, it did not chart on the Billboard 200, the US Pop Albums chart.
In the context of film and radio, drama describes a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone, focusing on in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with realistic emotional struggles. A drama is commonly considered the opposite of a comedy, but may also be considered separate from other works of some broad genre, such as a fantasy. To distinguish drama as a genre of fiction from the use of the same word to mean the general storytelling mode of live performance, the word drama is often included as part of a phrase to specify its meaning. For instance, in the sense of a television genre, more common specific terms are a drama show, drama series, or television drama in the United States; dramatic programming in the United Kingdom; or teledrama in Sri Lanka. In the sense of a film genre, the common term is a drama film.
Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, child abuse, coming of age, drug addiction, emotion, hope, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put characters in conflict with themselves, others, society, or even natural phenomena. Drama is one of the broadest movie genres and includes subgenres such as romantic drama, war films, sport films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime.