Monday, October 16, 2006

Lorraine ( Music)



Lorraine Biography

Lorraine are Ole Gundersen (24, vocals), Anders Winsents (24, guitar) and Paal Myran-Haaland (23, keyboards, programming). Their drummer is a little black box which does exactly what it's told. Between them the members' personal influences range from New Order, Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode to Kasabian, The Smiths and The Stone Roses, so it's no surprise that Lorraine's own music sounds like it should come with 'Your new favourite band' stamped across every CD.

Melodically breathtaking with a lyrical touch that recalls the flamboyant nervousness of Neil Tennant at his most miserably optimistic, Lorraine's songs are finished off with a unique modern twist. After a brief period knocking about with friends in a Prodigy-influenced electro metal outfit, Anders and Ole set their sights elsewhere and, on their way back from a jam session in a local pizza parlour, chanced upon Paal.

He was at a bus stop, drunk and shouting. It was not long before he became Lorraine's third member, his (oddly immaculate) bedroom doubling as the band’s first recording studio.In the summer of 2000 the band, now in their late teens, decided not to go back to school. Paal's bedroom was traded for a work space, 45 minutes outside Bergen, in a decaying factory building. The units surrounding Lorraine's studio were filled with either crackheads or car mechanics. The heating didn’t work.

It's cold anyway in Norway, but in this ice-pocket it was often so cold that floppy discs would freeze in the band's sampler. Then, one day, everything clicked. "Our songs mix reality and unreality," Paal explains. Many of Lorraine's songs are based on dreams; Ole believes that only in dreams are we completely honest and unfettered by often unfairly imposed moral and social codes. "It's about articulating the thoughts in your head," Ole adds. "Thoughts which wouldn’t come out in conversation. Hopes, dreams, a dark positivity. I don't know if our songs are happy or sad – we can be quite melancholic. ." He thinks for a little while. "There is happiness, but it might only be temporary.""We've had some kind of trip into another world making this album," Paal smiles. "We're all about big atmosphere, big sounds, big songs. We always wanted everything to be very big." It's hard to believe these particular dreams won't become a reality in 2006. It is, after all, about defining your own destiny.


George V (6 May 1910 - 20 January 1936) Coinage and History



This is a Crown for George V it's from his Jubilee year of 1935 and the device of St George was done in an art deco style that was popular at the time. I have also posted above a picture of a George V Farthing from 1932.

HOUSE OF WINDSOR



George V (6 May 1910 - 20 January 1936)
- born 3rd June 1865 - one marriage with five offspring

Second son of Edward VII, George Duke of York was a fine naval officer and pushed his career until the death of his elder brother Albert made him heir to the throne. He married Mary of Teck in 1893 who bore him four sons and one daughter. George saw Britain through the crises of World War I and even visited the front, one occasion at which he broke his pelvis after falling from his horse, the injury would pain him for the rest of his life.

George suffered badly from Bronchitis in the early thirties and spent a lot of time in Bognor on the south coast of Britain to take in the good air, and henceforth the town has been known as Bognor Regis. The King was still in ill health by the time of his Silver Jubilee in 1935, and it was bronchitis that eventually killed him in January 1936 aged 70.