Ange

Ange is a French progressive rock band formed in September 1969 by the Décamps brothers, Francis (keyboards) and Christian (vocals, accordion, acoustic guitar and keyboards).

History

Ange was initially influenced by Genesis and King Crimson, and its music was quite theatrical and poetic. Its first success in France was the cover of a Jacques Brel song, Ces gens-là, on its second album Le Cimetière des Arlequins. The band provided its first concert on January 30, 1970 at the cultural center "La Pépinière", in Belfort, France. It performed 110 concerts in England from 1973 to 1976, opening for Genesis at the Reading Festival in England, on August 26, 1973, fronting some 30.000 listeners.

One of the reasons for which the band was unable to break through into the British market was because they sang in French. Ange eventually released an English-speaking version of its fifth album Par les fils de Mandrin (By the sons of Mandrin), which was hard to find and sold poorly, although this version has since been made available on CD. Unfortunately, after three albums, the quality of creation had started to decrease, and Par les fils de Mandrin was probably not a good choice to try to break into the British market. Au delà du délire, third album, could be the band's best effort and is recommended as the one to listen to as a starter, for newcomers to the Ange progressive phenomenon.

Ange (disambiguation)

Ange is a French progressive rock band.

Ange may also refer to:

People with the given name Ange:

See also

Angel (coin)

The angel was an English gold coin introduced by Edward IV in 1465. It was patterned after the French angelot or ange, which had been issued since 1340. The name derived from its representation of the archangel Michael slaying a dragon. As it was considered a new issue of the noble, it was also called the angel-noble.

In 1472, the half-angel was introduced with a similar design weighing 40 grains (2.6 grams) with a diameter of 20 to 21 millimeters.

Design

Reverse: Depicts a ship with arms and rays of sun at the masthead. Legend: per crucem tuam salva nos christe redemptor, meaning "By Thy cross save us, Christ Redeemer."

Value

The angel varied in value from 6 shillings 8 pence to 11 shillings between Edward's reign and the time of James I. Under Charles I, it was last coined in 1642.

Stairs

A stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs is a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps. Stairs may be straight, round, or may consist of two or more straight pieces connected at angles.

Special types of stairs include escalators and ladders. Some alternatives to stairs are elevators (lifts in British English), stairlifts and inclined moving walkways as well as stationary inclined sidewalks (pavements in British English).

Components and terminology

A stair, or a stairstep is one step in a flight of stairs. In buildings, stairs is a term applied to a complete flight of steps between two floors. A stair flight is a run of stairs or steps between landings. A staircase or stairway is one or more flights of stairs leading from one floor to another, and includes landings, newel posts, handrails, balustrades and additional parts. A stairwell is a compartment extending vertically through a building in which stairs are placed. A stair hall is the stairs, landings, hallways, or other portions of the public hall through which it is necessary to pass when going from the entrance floor to the other floors of a building. Box stairs are stairs built between walls, usually with no support except the wall strings.

Staircase (play)

Staircase is a two-character play by Charles Dyer about an aging gay couple who own a barber shop in the East End of London. One of them is a part-time actor about to go on trial for propositioning a police officer. The action takes place over the course of one night as they discuss their loving but often volatile past together and possible future without each other.

The playwright named his characters Charles Dyer (after himself) and Harry C. Leeds, which is an anagram of his name.

In 1966 it was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company with Paul Scofield and Patrick Magee.

The Broadway production directed by Barry Morse opened on January 10, 1968 at the Biltmore Theatre, where it played for 12 previews and 61 performances. Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, starred.

Film adaptation

The play was adapted into a 1969 film by 20th Century Fox, also written by Dyer and directed by Stanley Donen, starring Rex Harrison and Richard Burton as the couple. The film was considered a critical and commercial failure.

Staircase (film)

Staircase is a 1969 film adaptation of a two-character play, also called Staircase, by Charles Dyer. The film, like the play, is about an aging gay couple who own a barber shop in the East End of London. One of them is a part-time actor about to go on trial for propositioning a police officer. The action takes place over the course of one night as they discuss their loving but often volatile past together and possible future without each other.

The two main characters are named Charles Dyer (the name of the playwright/screenwriter) and Harry C. Leeds, which is an anagram of his name.

Production

The screenplay was written by Dyer, and the film was directed by Stanley Donen. Dyer "opened up" the script to show the couple's neighborhood, expanded the action to cover a period of ten days, and added characters. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton portrayed the couple and Cathleen Nesbitt and Beatrix Lehmann were featured as their mothers.

The film was produced by 20th Century Fox.

Because of Great Britain's tax laws, the stars insisted that the film be shot in Paris, which added to the film's budget, already inflated by their salaries ($1 million for Harrison, $1.25 million for Burton). Reportedly Elizabeth Taylor was shooting 1970's The Only Game in Town at the same time as this film was in production. While that film is set in Las Vegas, Taylor demanded that director George Stevens shoot in France so she could be close to her husband. This caused the budget of The Only Game in Town to grow higher than most large-scale, high-profile films that Fox was producing at the time.