Funk Island

Funk Island is a small, barren, isolated, uninhabited island approximately 60 kilometres (37 mi) northeast of Wesleyville, Newfoundland, Canada.

Geography

The island is roughly trapezoidal in shape, with a maximum length of 0.8 km and a maximum width of 0.3 km and is nearly flat, rising 14 m out of the North Atlantic. The island is composed of feldspathic granite and is traversed by two distinct fault lines which cross the island in a northwesterly direction, almost parallel to each other. The fault lines divide the island into three separate entities. The northeastern portion consists mainly of bare rock; the central portion has scattered vegetation; and the largest portion of the island, the southwestern, which occupies over half of the land surface, is covered with grasses, lichens and mosses.

Landing on Funk Island is extremely difficult and dangerous, though in calm weather there are three points where a safe landing can be effected. Gannet Head, the southwestern corner of the island, and Landing Rock, just north of Gannet Head, are two such places. On the north side, approximately 0.17 km west of Escape Point, the easternmost tip of the island, there is a steep cliff. Set in the cliff is a natural shelf, called The Bench, approximately 1.2 m wide, which slopes up the cliff face which allow relatively easy access to the surface.

Mark Ronson

Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is an English musician, DJ, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Although his debut album Here Comes the Fuzz failed to make an impact on the charts, his second album Version reached number two in the UK and included three top 10 singles. This success won him a Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist in 2008. His third studio album, Record Collection, was released on 27 September 2010, peaking at number two in the UK.

In 2014, Ronson achieved his first UK and US number one single with the Grammy-nominated "Uptown Funk," which featured vocals from Bruno Mars. In 2015 it won Ronson the Brit Award for British Single of the Year. His fourth studio album, the Grammy-nominated Uptown Special, was released in January 2015, and became his first UK number one album. Ronson has also produced multi-platinum, Grammy-winning albums for Amy Winehouse and Adele.

Early life

Ronson was born at the Wellington Hospital, St John's Wood, London, the son of Laurence Ronson, a real-estate speculator and music manager, and Anne Dexter. His parents are both Ashkenazi Jews (their ancestors being Jewish immigrants from Austria, Russia, and Lithuania); Ronson was brought up in Masorti Judaism and had a Bar Mitzvah. The family name was originally "Aaronson," but was shortened by Mark's grandfather Henry. He is the nephew of Gerald Ronson. Through his mother, he is also related to British Conservative politicians Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Leon Lord Brittan, as well as Odeon Cinemas founder Oscar Deutsch. He is not related to the late English guitarist Mick Ronson, who coincidentally fathered a son named Mark in 1975.

Uptown Funk

"Uptown Funk" (stylised as "UpTown Funk!") is a song recorded by British producer Mark Ronson, with vocals from American singer Bruno Mars, for Ronson's fourth studio album, Uptown Special (2015). RCA Records released the song as the album's lead single on 10 November 2014.Jeff Bhasker assisted the artists in co-writing and co-producing the track, with additional writing from Philip Lawrence. This is Mars' fourth collaboration with Ronson (following Mars' own songs "Locked Out of Heaven", "Moonshine", and "Gorilla") and sixth with Bhasker (after "Talking to the Moon", "Young Girls" and the three previously mentioned songs).