Virgil Donati

Virgil Donati (born 22 October 1958) is an Australian drummer, frequent drum clinician and a producer. He is currently playing with Planet X, Allan Holdsworth, and his own band among other projects. Virgil is perhaps most well known for his fast, highly technical drumming skills. He holds the drum sticks in the traditional style and is also proficient at the keyboard.

Biography

Virgil Donati was born on 22 October 1958 in Melbourne, Australia of Italian descent. He got his first drumset at age 2. He started playing soon after with his father's showband, and kept on doing these shows until he was around 6 years old. He joined his first major rock band and signed with his first major record label at the age of 15. The band was first called Cloud Nine, but was later renamed Taste, with whom he recorded 3 albums. Soon after at age 16, Donati left school focusing mainly on the drums, but also piano. At age 19 Donati travelled to the U.S. to study with Philly Joe Jones, and at Dick Groves School in Los Angeles. He also took lessons from snare drum specialist Murray Spivack and Rob Carson.

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro (Classical Latin: [ˈpuː.blɪ.ʊs wɛrˈɡɪ.lɪ.ʊs ˈma.roː]; October 15, 70 BC – September 21, 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil /ˈvɜːrdʒᵻl/ in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him.

Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome from the time of its composition to the present day. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and arrive on the shores of Italy—in Roman mythology the founding act of Rome. Virgil's work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably Dante's Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dante's guide through hell and purgatory.

This Life

This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007. The series centres on the life of five twentysomething law graduates embarking upon their careers while sharing a house in south London.

It is considered to be the definitive statement on twentysomething life in mid-1990s "Cool Britannia" London and is notable for its Britpop soundtrack and pushing of sex and drugs broadcasting boundaries of the time.

Production

The series was created by, and some episodes written by, Amy Jenkins. Other writers contributed scripts, including Joe Ahearne (who also directed some episodes—the only person to do both on the series), Ian Iqbal Rashid, Amelia Bullmore and Matthew Graham. Tony Garnett was the executive producer and Jane Fallon worked as a producer on both series.

When the first series was screened it was a modest critical success, rather than being a ratings "hit". Nevertheless, the original production agreement secured a second series. In the lead-up to the broadcast of the second series, the entire first series was repeated, helping to generate a critical "buzz" around the programme, to the point that millions of viewers were waiting to discover the ultimate resolutions to the various plot-lines and generating front-page newspaper coverage.

In This Life

In This Life may refer to:

Thomas Lang

Thomas Lang ( listen ; born 5 August 1967, Vienna) is an Austrian drummer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and record producer. He is the founding member of the Los Angeles-based progressive/avant garde metal band, stOrk, and is known for his international session work on a wide variety of genres such as rock, pop, jazz, and heavy metal, with artists such as Robert Fripp, Peter Gabriel, Robbie Williams, and Sugababes, among many others.

He is widely known for his technical prowess in drumming. Peter Wildoer described Lang as a "drummer's drummer", and Mike Portnoy cited Lang as a drummer he "can't replicate".

Biography

Lang was born in Vienna. He took up drumming at age five. In addition to lessons at local music schools and years of private tuition, he was classically trained at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. After leaving the conservatory in 1985, Lang began working professionally, working his way through the European pop, rock and jazz scenes. As a session musician he played for artists such as John Wetton, Robert Fripp, Glenn Hughes, Peter Gabriel, Asia, Nik Kershaw, Tina Turner, Robbie Williams, Kelly Clarkson, Sugababes, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Victoria Beckham, Ronan Keating, Steve Hackett, 911, Boyzone, Falco, Nina Hagen, Steve Jones, Mick Jones, the Commodores, George Michael, Doogie White, B*Witched, Gianna Nannini, Lighthouse Family, Westlife, Kylie Minogue, the Blockheads, Sertab Erener, Vienna Art Orchestra, Bonnie Tyler, Nadine Beiler, and Paul Gilbert. In 1995 Lang released his debut solo project, Mediator, which topped the charts in Europe and garnered positive reviews.