Barry Gibb

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Barry Alan Crompton Gibb, CBE (born 1 September 1946) is a British singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the group Bee Gees, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed groups in the history of popular music. With his brothers, Robin and Maurice Gibb, he formed a songwriting partnership beginning in 1966.

Born on the Isle of Man, he was raised in Manchester where he became involved in the skiffle craze, forming his first band, the Rattlesnakes, which evolved into the Bee Gees in 1960 when they moved to Redcliffe, Queensland, Australia. They returned to England where they achieved worldwide fame. He was also known for his high-pitched falsetto singing voice. Gibb shares the record with John Lennon and Paul McCartney for consecutive Billboard Hot 100 number ones as a writer with six. Guinness World Records lists Gibb as the second most successful songwriter in history behind Sir Paul McCartney.

The Now

The Now are a late 1970s English punk rock group from Peterborough, England. Whilst never officially disbanding, they ceased recording and performing in 1979. In 2004, The Now recorded all of their original material and released as the Fuzztone Fizzadelic album in 2005 on the Damaged Goods record label.

Career

The Now, Peterborough's first punk rock band, formed late in 1976. Founded by Mike McGuire and Steve Rolls. Mike and Steve were at the time performing with The Faderz, who had only existed for a few months, before they had hooked into the London Punk scene in 1976. Joe MacColl and Paul Wicks (aka The Dangerous Dip or occasionally The Mysterious Dip) were recruited immediately to form The Now. Early gigs were self organised affairs, notably at the Peterborough Marcus Garvey Club. A community club, mainly catering for the city's West Indian community. Such gigs were usually with local reggae artists such as The Legions, any punk band who would dare come out of London (or other major cities), such as 999, The Killjoys and Eater, as well as new local punk bands such as Heavy Manners. This was a great challenge for The Now since putting Punk Rock into an East Anglian provincial environment (where there already existed a time warp sensibility), caused a lot of friction at that time. During this time The Dangerous Dip was replaced on the bass guitar by Faz Farrow. The Now were managed by Allen Adams who later went on to form the band The Destructors and later Destructors 666.

Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle (/ˈɛkɑːrt ˈtɒlə/ EK-art TO-lə; German pronunciation: [ˈɛkaʁt ˈtɔlə], born Ulrich Leonard Tölle on February 16, 1948) is a German-born resident of Canada, best known as the author of The Power of Now and A New Earth: Awakening to your Life's Purpose. In 2011, he was listed by the Watkins Review as the most spiritually influential person in the world. In 2008, a New York Times writer called Tolle "the most popular spiritual author in the United States".

Tolle has said that he was depressed for much of his life until he underwent, at age 29, an "inner transformation". He then spent several years wandering and unemployed "in a state of deep bliss" before becoming a spiritual teacher. Later, he moved to North America where he began writing his first book, The Power of Now, which was published in 1997 and reached the New York Times Best Seller lists in 2000.

The Power of Now and A New Earth sold an estimated three million and five million copies respectively in North America by 2009. In 2008, approximately 35 million people participated in a series of 10 live webinars with Tolle and television talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Tolle is not identified with any particular religion, but he has been influenced by a wide range of spiritual works. He has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia since 1995.

Present

The present (or now) is the time that is associated with the events perceived directly and in the first time, not as a recollection (perceived more than once) or a speculation (predicted, hypothesis, uncertain). It is a period of time between the past and the future, and can vary in meaning from being an instant to a day or longer. In radiocarbon dating, the "present" is defined as AD 1950.

It is sometimes represented as a hyperplane in space-time, typically called "now", although modern physics demonstrates that such a hyperplane cannot be defined uniquely for observers in relative motion. The present may also be viewed as a duration (see specious present).

Society and religion

Contemporary history describes the historical timeframe that is immediately relevant to the present time and is a certain perspective of modern history.

In Yoga

In Patanjali Yoga Sutras the first sutra defines Yoga as 'NOW'. By 'Chitta Vrithhi nirodha' (restraining the thought-streams) the present can be experienced. The moment a person thinks, he is recalling his past experience. He will never know the present. Being conscious or being aware is the only way to know the present.