title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 1977, Redgrave produced and starred in a controversial documentary film, "The Palestinian" about the activities of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). She funded the documentary by selling her house. The Anti-Defamation League's honorary chairman criticized the film, highlighting that some of the responses of the people she interviews were not translated from Arabic, that the film showed children training with guns and that the phrase, "Kill the enemy!" kept being repeated. The president of Actors Equity in the United States criticized the film's interview with the chairman of the PLO, Yasser Arafat, in which he said that the only solution to the Middle East problem is the liquidation of the State of Israel, and Redgrave responded with, "Certainly". In June 1978, at one theater showing the film, a bomb exploded, causing damage to property, but screening of the film resumed the following day. Two months later, a JDL member was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to a three-month "thorough psychological examination" with the California Youth Authority. In a 2018 interview, Redgrave stood by her acceptance speech (which included the "Zionist hoodlums" remark) during the 1978 Academy Awards ceremony.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 1977, Redgrave offered a resolution asking the British actors union to boycott Israel, allegedly including the selling of any taped material. The resolution was reportedly not brought to a vote.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 1980, Redgrave made her American TV debut as concentration camp survivor Fania Fénelon in the Arthur Miller-scripted TV movie "Playing for Time", a part for which she won an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress in 1981. The decision to cast Redgrave as Fénelon was, however, a source of controversy. In light of Redgrave's support for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Fénelon herself and the Jewish groups the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Jewish Congress objected to Redgrave's casting. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote in a telegram that, "Your selection shows utter callous disregard of the tens of thousands of survivors for whom Miss Redgrave's portrayal would desecrate the memory of the martyred millions. Your decision could only be compared to selecting J. Edgar Hoover to portray Martin Luther King Jr." Producer David L. Wolper in a telephone interview compared it to letting the head of the Ku Klux Klan play a sympathetic white man in "Roots", a miniseries about the slave trade. Arthur Miller said "She's a Marxist; this is a political matter. Turning her down because of her ideas was unacceptable to me; after all I suffered the blacklist myself".


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 1984, Redgrave sued the Boston Symphony Orchestra, claiming that the orchestra had fired her from a performance because of her support of the PLO. Lillian Hellman testified in court on Redgrave's behalf. Redgrave won on a count of breach of contract, but did not win on the claim that the Boston orchestra had violated her civil rights by firing her.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 1995, Redgrave was elected to serve as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In December 2002, Redgrave paid £50,000 bail for Chechen separatist Deputy Premier and special envoy Akhmed Zakayev, who had sought political asylum in the United Kingdom and was accused by the Russian government of aiding and abetting hostage-takings in the Moscow Hostage Crisis of 2002 and guerrilla warfare against Russia.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: At a press conference, Redgrave said she feared for Zakayev's safety if he were extradited to Russia on terrorism charges. He would "die of a heart attack" or some other mysterious explanation offered by Russia, she said. On 13 November 2003, a London court rejected the Russian government's request for Zakayev's extradition. Instead, the court accepted a plea by lawyers for Zakayev that he would not get a fair trial, and could even face torture, in Russia. "It would be unjust and oppressive to return Mr Zakayev to Russia," Judge Timothy Workman ruled.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 2004, Vanessa Redgrave and her brother Corin Redgrave launched the Peace and Progress Party, which campaigned against the Iraq War and for human rights. Redgrave left the party in 2005.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: Redgrave has been an outspoken critic of the "war on terrorism". During a June 2005 interview on "Larry King Live", Redgrave was challenged on this criticism and on her political views. In response she questioned whether there can be true democracy if the political leadership of the United States and Britain does not "uphold the values for which my father's generation fought the Nazis, [and] millions of people gave their lives against the Soviet Union's regime. [Such sacrifice was made] because of democracy and what democracy meant: no torture, no camps, no detention forever or without trial... [Such] techniques are not just alleged [against the governments of the U.S. and Britain], they have actually been written about by the FBI. I don't think it's being 'far left'...to uphold the rule of law."


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In March 2006, Redgrave remarked in an interview with US broadcast journalist Amy Goodman: "I don't know of a single government that actually abides by international human rights law, not one, including my own. In fact, [they] violate these laws in the most despicable and obscene way, I would say." Goodman's interview with Redgrave took place in the actress's West London home on the evening of 7 March, and covered a range of subjects, particularly the cancellation by the New York Theatre Workshop of the Alan Rickman production "My Name is Rachel Corrie". Such a development, said Redgrave, was an "act of catastrophic cowardice" as "the essence of life and the essence of theatre is to communicate about lives, either lives that have ended or lives that are still alive, [and about] beliefs, and what is in those beliefs."


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In June 2006, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Transilvania International Film Festival, one of whose sponsors is a mining company named Gabriel Resources. She dedicated the award to a community organisation from Roşia Montană, Romania, which is campaigning against a gold mine that Gabriel Resources was seeking to build near the village. Gabriel Resources placed an "open letter" in "The Guardian" on 23 June 2006, attacking Redgrave, arguing the case for the mine. The open letter was signed by 77 villagers.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In December 2007, Redgrave was named as one of the possible suretors who paid the £50,000 bail for Jamil al-Banna, one of three British residents arrested after landing back in the UK following four years' captivity at Guantanamo Bay. Redgrave has declined to be specific about her financial involvement but said she was "very happy" to be of "some small assistance for Jamil and his wife", adding, "It is a profound honour and I am glad to be alive to be able to do this. Guantanamo Bay is a concentration camp."


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 2009, Redgrave together with artist Julian Schnabel and playwright Martin Sherman opposed the cultural boycott of Israel in the Toronto Film Festival.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In March 2014, Redgrave took part in a protest outside Pentonville Prison in North London after new prison regulations were introduced which forbade sending books to prisoners. She and fellow actor Samuel West, playwright David Hare and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy took turns reading poetry and making speeches. Redgrave stated that the ban was "vicious and deplorable...Literature is something that stirs us beyond our immediate problems, it can help us to learn better our own problems, our own faults or to have a goal to live for, an aspiration." The ban was overturned by the Ministry of Justice the following December.


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: In 2017, Redgrave made her directorial debut with the movie "Sea Sorrow", a documentary about the European migrant crisis and the plight of migrants encamped outside Calais, France, trying to reach Britain. She has heavily criticised the exclusionary policy of the British government towards refugees, stating that the British Government "... has violated these principles (of the Declaration of Human Rights), and it continues to do so, which I find deeply shameful. The UN signed the Declaration of Human Rights, and now we have to employ lawyers to take the government to court to force them to obey the law. Just thinking about that makes my mind go berserk."


title: Vanessa Redgrave

text: Redgrave was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967. Reportedly, she declined a damehood in 1999. However, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to drama.


Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is a 2003 American supernatural swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski and the first film in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film series. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer, the film is based on Walt Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" attraction at Disney theme parks. The story follows pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and blacksmith Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) as they rescue the kidnapped Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) from the cursed crew of the "Black Pearl", captained by Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who become undead skeletons in moonlight.


title: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

text: Jay Wolpert developed a script in 2001, and Stuart Beattie rewrote it in early 2002. Around that time, producer Jerry Bruckheimer became involved in the project; he had Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio work on the script, adding the plot device of a supernatural curse to the story to bring it in line with the original theme park ride. Filming took place from October 2002 to March 2003 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and on sets constructed around Los Angeles, California.


text: The first film released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner to be rated PG-13 by the MPAA, "The Curse of the Black Pearl" had its world premiere at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, on June 28, 2003. Defying low pre-release expectations, the film was a huge box-office success, grossed $654.3 million worldwide; making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with Depp's performance receiving universal acclaim. The film has been widely cited as the film that launched Depp as a box-office leading man after many years as a cult movie star. Depp won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, in addition to Best Actor nominations at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes. "The Curse of the Black Pearl" was also nominated for four other Academy Awards and BAFTAs. The film became the first in a franchise, with two back-to-back sequels, "" and "", released in 2006 and 2007. Two more sequels, "" and "", were released in 2011 and 2017, respectively.


text: In 1720, while sailing to Port Royal, Jamaica, aboard the HMS "Dauntless", Governor Weatherby Swann's crew encounters a shipwreck and recovers a boy, Will Turner. Swann's daughter, Elizabeth, discovers a golden pirate medallion around Will's neck, and takes it. Eight years later, Captain James Norrington is promoted to commodore and proposes to Elizabeth. Her corset makes her faint and fall into the sea, causing the medallion to emit a pulse. Captain Jack Sparrow, having just arrived in Port Royal to commandeer a ship, rescues Elizabeth. Norrington identifies Jack as a pirate, and a chase ensues. Jack encounters Will, now a blacksmith. They duel, and Jack is imprisoned.


text: That night, the crew of the "Black Pearl" attacks Port Royal, searching for the medallion. The pirates capture Elizabeth, taking her to meet Captain Barbossa. Elizabeth claims her last name is Turner, to conceal her identity as the governor's daughter. Barbossa explains that the medallion is the last of 882 gold pieces his crew took from a lost treasure of Hernán Cortés on Isla de Muerta. Cortés had accepted the treasure as payment to prevent the Fall of Tenochtitlan, but did not fulfill his part of the bargain. The Aztec gods cursed the treasure; Barbossa and any members of his crew who took the coins were cursed by extension, and became immortals whose true, skeletal forms are revealed in moonlight. To lift the curse, they must return the treasure, each coin stained with the either its taker's blood or the blood of the taker's direct relative. Assuming Elizabeth is the daughter of Bill Turner (Will's father, whom Barbossa tried to drown after discovering he sent the medallion to his child), Barbossa decides to use her blood on the medallion.


text: To save Elizabeth, whom he loves, Will frees Jack, who was the previous captain of the "Black Pearl" before Barbossa staged a mutiny. The two commandeer the HMS "Interceptor", a small sloop-of-war, and head for Tortuga. There, Jack enlists his friend Joshamee Gibbs to help them assemble a crew. Chasing the "Pearl" to the Isla de Muerta, Will and Jack witness Barbossa cut Elizabeth's hand, stain the coin, and return it to the chest. As she is not Bill Turner's relative, the curse does not lift. Will rescues Elizabeth and brings her to the "Interceptor", while Jack is captured by Barbossa and locked in the brig of the "Pearl". The "Pearl" pursues the "Interceptor", destroying it and taking Jack's crew hostage. Will makes a deal with Barbossa to release Elizabeth in exchange for his blood, but Barbossa exploits a loophole in the agreement, marooning Jack and Elizabeth on an island. Elizabeth makes a smoke signal, and Norrington brings the "Dauntless" to rescue Elizabeth and arrest Jack. Elizabeth promises to marry Norrington if he will pursue the "Pearl" and save Will.


text: That night, the "Dauntless" arrives at Isla de Muerta. Jack tells Norrington he will lure the pirates out to be ambushed by the crew of the "Dauntless", but instead persuades Barbossa's crew to attack the "Dauntless" before they lift the curse and lose their immortality. Elizabeth escapes the "Dauntless" and frees Jack's crew from the brig of the "Pearl". They refuse to rescue Jack and Will, so Elizabeth sets out on her own. Jack again switches sides, freeing Will and dueling Barbossa, while Elizabeth and Will fight off Barbossa's crewmen. When Barbossa stabs Jack, it is revealed that Jack took a piece of gold from the chest and is likewise cursed and unable to die. Jack shoots Barbossa, and Will returns both coins to the chest with his and Jack's blood on them. The curse is lifted; Barbossa dies from Jack's gunshot, and the rest of Barbossa's crew, no longer immortal, are arrested.


text: At Port Royal, Jack is to be hanged for piracy. Elizabeth diverts Norrington's attention while Will attempts a rescue, but Jack and Will are surrounded. Elizabeth intercedes and declares her love for Will. Governor Swann pardons Will and gives his blessing for Elizabeth to marry him. Jack dives into the sea and escapes aboard the nearby "Pearl", reclaiming the ship and his new crew. Norrington permits Jack and the "Pearl" "one day's head start" before initiating pursuit.


text: Supporting characters appearing in the film include Martin Klebba as Marty, a dwarf pirate; Damian O'Hare as Lt. Gillette; Greg Ellis as Officer; as well as Giles New and Angus Barnett as Murtogg and Mullroy. Although characters like Marty only had a single line of dialogue in the film, each of these characters reprise their roles in the "Pirates" sequels, respectively.


text: During the early 1990s, screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio began to think of a supernatural spin on the pirate genre. Walt Disney Pictures had Jay Wolpert write a script based on the ride in 2001, which was based on a story created by the executives Brigham Taylor, Michael Haynes, and Josh Harmon. This story featured Will Turner as a prison guard who releases Sparrow to rescue Elizabeth, who is being held for ransom money by Captain Blackheart.


text: Disney was unsure whether to release the film in theaters or direct-to-video. The studio was interested in Matthew McConaughey as Sparrow because of his resemblance to Burt Lancaster, who had inspired that script's interpretation of the character. If they chose to release it direct-to-video, Christopher Walken or Cary Elwes would have been their first choices.


text: Stuart Beattie was brought in to rewrite the script in March 2002, because of his knowledge of piracy. When Dick Cook managed to convince producer Jerry Bruckheimer to join the project, he rejected the script because it was "a straight pirate movie." Later in March 2002, he brought Elliott and Rossio, who suggested making a supernatural curse—as described in the opening narration of the ride—the film's plot.


text: In May 2002, Gore Verbinski signed on to direct "Pirates of the Caribbean". He was attracted to the idea of using modern technology to resurrect a genre that had disappeared after the Golden Age of Hollywood and recalled his childhood memories of the ride, feeling the film was an opportunity to pay tribute to the "scary and funny" tone of it.


text: Jim Carrey was considered for the part of Jack Sparrow. However, the production schedule for "The Curse of the Black Pearl" conflicted with "Bruce Almighty". Others considered for the role include Michael Keaton and Christopher Walken. Although Cook had been a strong proponent of adapting Disney's rides into films, the box-office failure of "The Country Bears" (2002) made Michael Eisner attempt to shut down production of "Pirates of the Caribbean". However, Verbinski told his concept artists to keep working on the picture, and when Eisner came to visit, the executive was astonished by what had been created.


text: As recalled in the book "DisneyWar", Eisner asked "Why does it have to cost so much?" Bruckheimer replied, "Your competition is spending $150 million," referring to franchises like "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Matrix". Eisner concurred, but with the stigma attached to theme-park adaptations, Eisner requested Verbinski and Bruckheimer remove some of the more overt references to the ride in the script, such as a scene where Sparrow and Turner enter the cave via a waterfall.


text: Ted Elliott was allegedly writing a George Lucas-produced animated film adaptation of "The Curse of Monkey Island", which was cancelled before its official announcement, three years prior to the release of "The Curse of the Black Pearl". This film was allegedly in production at Industrial Light and Magic before being cancelled.


text: Ron Gilbert, the creator of the "Monkey Island" series, has jokingly expressed a bitterness towards "Pirates of the Caribbean", specifically the , for its similarities to his game. Gilbert has also stated that "On Stranger Tides", a novel by Tim Powers which was adapted into the , was the principal source of inspiration for his video games.


text: Verbinski did not want an entirely romanticized feel to the film: he wanted a sense of historical fantasy. Most of the actors wore prosthetics and contact lenses. Depp had contacts that acted as sunglasses, while Rush and Lee Arenberg wore dulled contacts that gave a sinister feel to the characters. Mackenzie Crook wore two contacts to represent his character's wooden eye: a soft version, and a harder version for when it protrudes. In addition, their rotten teeth and scurvy skin were dyed on, although Depp did have gold teeth added, which he forgot to remove after filming. Depp also used a genuine pistol which was made in 1760 in London, which the crew bought from a dealer in Connecticut. A number of swords were built for the production by blacksmith Tony Swatton. The crew spent five months creating the cavern in which Barbossa and the "Black Pearl" crew attempt to reverse their curse, filling it with five feet of water, 882 Aztec coins, and some gold paint on the styrofoam rocks for more impressions of treasure. The crew also built the fortress at Port Royal in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and Governor Swann's palace was built at Manhattan Beach. A fire broke out in September 2002, causing $525,000 worth of damage, though no one was injured.


text: The filmmakers chose St. Vincent as their primary shooting location, as it contained the quietest beach they could find, and built three piers and a backlot for Port Royal and Tortuga. Of most importance to the film were the three ships: "Black Pearl", "Dauntless", and "Interceptor". For budget reasons, the ships were built on docks, with only six days spent in the open sea for the battle between "Black Pearl" and "Interceptor". "Dauntless" and "Black Pearl" were built on barges, with computer-generated imagery finishing the structures. "Black Pearl" was also built on the Spruce Goose stage, in order to control fog and lighting. "Interceptor" was a re-dressed , a full-scale replica sailing ship from Aberdeen, Washington, fully repainted before going on a 40-day voyage beginning December 2, 2002, arriving on location on January 12, 2003. A miniature was also built for the storm sequence.


text: Principal photography began on October 9, 2002, and wrapped by March 7, 2003. The quick shoot was only marred by two accidents: as Jack Sparrow steals "Interceptor", three of the ropes attaching it to "Dauntless" did not break at first, and when they did snap, debris hit Depp's knee, though he was not injured, and the way the incident played out on film made it look like Sparrow merely ducks. A more humorous accident was when the boat Sparrow was supposed to arrive in at Port Royal sank. In October, the crew was shooting scenes at Rancho Palos Verdes, by December they were shooting at Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and in January they were at the cavern set at Los Angeles. The script often changed with Elliott and Rossio on set, with additions such as Gibbs (Kevin McNally) telling Will how Sparrow allegedly escaped from an island—strapping two turtles together with rope made of his back hair—and Pryce was written into the climactic battle to keep some empathy for the audience.


text: Because of the quick schedule of the shoot, Industrial Light & Magic immediately began visual effects work. While the skeletal forms of the pirates revealed by moonlight take up relatively little screentime, the crew knew their computer-generated forms had to convince in terms of replicating performances and characteristics of the actors, or else the transition would not work. Each scene featuring them was shot twice: a reference plate with the actors, and then without them to add in the skeletons, an aesthetic complicated by Verbinski's decision to shoot the battles with handheld cameras. The actors also had to perform their scenes again on the motion capture stage. With the shoot only wrapping up four months before release, Verbinski spent 18-hour days on the edit, while at the same time spending time on 600 effects shots, 250 of which were merely removing modern sailboats from shots.


text: The film score was composed by Klaus Badelt, while Hans Zimmer served as music producer. Seven other composers, including Geoff Zanelli, who later went on to compose the score for "" and Ramin Djawadi, are credited for "additional music". Verbinski oversaw the score with Badelt and Zimmer, who headed 15 composers to finish it quickly. Alan Silvestri, who had collaborated with Verbinski on "Mouse Hunt" and "The Mexican", was set to compose the score, but Bruckheimer decided to go with Zimmer's team instead, who were frequent collaborators of his productions. Silvestri left the production before recording any material.


text: The first teaser trailer was attached to "" while the theatrical trailer debuted in front of "Anger Management" and Disney’s "Holes".


text: "Pirates of the Caribbean" was the first film released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner to be rated PG-13 by the MPAA; one executive noted that she found the film too intense for her five-year-old child. Nonetheless, the studio was confident enough to add "The Curse of the Black Pearl" subtitle to the film in case sequels were made, and to attract older children. Verbinski disliked the new title because it is the Aztec gold rather than the ship that is cursed, so he requested the title to be unreadable on the poster.


text: The DVD and VHS editions of the film were released December 1, 2003, in the UK and December 2, 2003, in the US, with 11 million copies sold in the first week, a record for live action video. It earned $235 million from DVDs as of January 2004. This THX certified DVD release featured two discs, featuring three commentary tracks (Johnny Depp & Gore Verbinski; Jerry Bruckheimer, Keira Knightley & Jack Davenport; and the screenwriter team), various deleted scenes and documentaries, and a 1968 "Disneyland" episode about the theme park ride. A special three-disc edition was released on November 2, 2004, in the U.S. and April 25, 2005, in the UK.


text: A PSP release of the film followed on April 19, 2005. The high-definition Blu-ray Disc version of the film was released on May 22, 2007. This movie was also among the first to be sold at the iTunes music store. "The Curse of the Black Pearl" had its UK television premiere on Christmas Eve 2007 on BBC One at 20:30 and was watched by an estimated 7 million viewers.


text: On 2 January 2022, "The Curse of the Black Pearl" was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray. However, the film's remaster was criticized by various online reviewers for being upscaled from 2K resolution, excessive application of digital noise reduction and various other shortcomings. A review by Martin Liebman of Blu-ray.com compared the release unfavorably to the previous 2007 Blu-ray release, stating: "The picture's grain has been reduced to a meshy, artificial appearance, looking frozen and flat and certainly less than genuine and flattering. Edge enhancement is in evidence. Textures have been scrubbed down and sharpened back up. Details appear waxy and lacking complexity [...] This is just a real clunker of a UHD image and one of the least impressive the format has seen."


text: Before its release, many journalists expected "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" to be a flop. The pirate genre had not been successful for years, with "Cutthroat Island" (1995) being a notable flop. The film was also based on a theme park ride, and Depp, known mostly for starring in cult films at the time, had little track record as a box-office leading man.


text: "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" opened at #1, grossing $46,630,690 in its opening weekend and $70,625,971 since its Wednesday launch. It eventually made its way to $654,264,015 worldwide ($305,413,918 domestically and $348,850,097 overseas), becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 50.64 million tickets in the US.


text: Internationally it dominated for seven consecutive weekends at the box office, tying the record of "Men in Black II" at the time. Only three movies after that broke the record; its sequel, "", (with nine consecutive #1 weekends and ten in total), "Avatar" (with 11 consecutive #1 weekends) and "The Smurfs" (with eight consecutive #1 weekends). As of February 2021, it is the 141st-highest-grossing film of all time.


text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" has an approval rating of 80% based on 220 reviews, and an average rating of 7.11/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It may leave you exhausted like the theme park ride that inspired it; however, you'll have a good time when it's over." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film received an average score of 63 out of 100, based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


text: Alan Morrison of "Empire" felt it was "the best blockbuster of the summer," acclaiming all the comic performances despite his disappointment with the swashbuckling sequences.


text: The performance of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow was particularly praised by critics and audiences alike. Review site PopMatters applauds Depp's performance by saying "Ingenious and mesmerizing, Johnny Depp embodies the film's essential fantasy, that a pirate's life is exciting and unfettered." James Berardinelli of ReelViews also applauds Depp's performance by saying ""Pirates of the Caribbean" belongs to Johnny Depp...Take away Depp, and you're left with a derivative and dull motion picture."


text: Roger Ebert acclaimed the performances of Depp and Rush, and particularly that "It can be said that [Depp's] performance is original in its every atom. There has never been a pirate, or for that matter a human being, like this in any other movie... his behavior shows a lifetime of rehearsal." However, he felt the film went on for too long, a criticism shared by Kenneth Turan's negative review, feeling it "spends far too much time on its huge supporting cast of pirates (nowhere near as entertaining as everyone assumes) and on bloated adventure set pieces," despite having also enjoyed Depp's performance. Mark Kermode described the film as "a triumph of turgid theme-park hackery over the art of cinema".


text: For his performance as Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp won several awards, including Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the 10th Screen Actors Guild Awards, Best Male Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards, and Best Actor at the 9th Empire Awards. Depp was also nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 61st Golden Globe Awards, Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 57th British Academy Film Awards, and Best Actor at the 76th Academy Awards, in which "The Curse of the Black Pearl" also received nominations for Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. Awards won by "Curse of the Black Pearl" include Best Make-up/Hair at the 57th British Academy Film Awards, Saturn Award for Best Costumes, Golden Reel Award for Sound Editing, two VES Awards for Visual Effects, and the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture.


text: The film spun off four sequels, with the latest sequel released in 2017. The first two were back-to-back sequels in 2006 and 2007, "" and "", respectively. The third sequel, "", was released in 2011. The fourth sequel, "", was slated to begin production in October 2014 for a summer 2016 release, but was eventually delayed to May 2017. It was directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg. A sixth film is currently in development.


title: Phil Spector

text: Harvey Phillip Spector (born Harvey Philip Spector; December 26, 1939January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter, best known for his innovative recording practices and entrepreneurship in the 1960s, followed decades later by his two trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. Spector developed the Wall of Sound, a production style that is characterized for its diffusion of tone colors and dense orchestral sound, which he described as a "Wagnerian" approach to rock and roll. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in pop music history and one of the most successful producers of the 1960s.


title: Phil Spector

text: Born in the Bronx, Spector moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and began his career in 1958 as a founding member of the Teddy Bears, for whom he penned "To Know Him Is to Love Him", a U.S. number-one hit. In 1960, after working as an apprentice to Leiber and Stoller, Spector co-founded Philles Records, and at the age of 21 became the youngest ever U.S. label owner to that point. Dubbed the "First Tycoon of Teen", Spector became considered the first auteur of the music industry for the unprecedented control he had over every phase of the recording process. He produced acts such as the Ronettes, the Crystals, and Ike & Tina Turner, and typically collaborated with arranger Jack Nitzsche and engineer Larry Levine. The musicians from his "de facto" house band, later known as "the Wrecking Crew", rose to industry fame through his hit records.


title: Phil Spector

text: In the early 1970s, Spector produced the Beatles' "Let It Be" and several solo records by John Lennon and George Harrison. By the mid-1970s, Spector had produced eighteen U.S. Top 10 singles for various artists. His chart-toppers included the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road", and Harrison's "My Sweet Lord". Following one-off productions for Leonard Cohen ("Death of a Ladies' Man"), Dion DiMucci ("Born to Be with You"), and the Ramones ("End of the Century"), Spector remained largely inactive amid a lifestyle of seclusion, drug use, and increasingly erratic behavior.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector helped establish the role of the studio as an instrument, the integration of pop art aesthetics into music (art pop), and the genres of art rock and dream pop. His honors include the 1973 Grammy Award for Album of the Year for co-producing Harrison's "Concert for Bangladesh", a 1989 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a 1997 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2004, Spector was ranked number 63 on "Rolling Stone"s list of the greatest artists in history. In 2009, after spending three decades in semi-retirement, he was convicted for the 2003 murder of the actress Lana Clarkson and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison. He died in prison in 2021.


title: Phil Spector

text: Harvey Spector was born on December 26, 1939. He later added a second "l" to his middle name, which he preferred over "Harvey". His parents were Benjamin (1903-1949) and Bertha (1911-1995) Spector, a first-generation immigrant Russian-Jewish family in the Bronx, New York City. Bertha had been born in France to Russian migrants George and Clara Spektor, who brought her to America in 1911 aged 9 months, while Benjamin was born as Baruch (later changed to Benjamin) in the Russian Empire to George and Bessie Spektus or Spektres, and brought to America by his parents in 1913 aged 10. Both families anglicized their last names to "Spector" on their naturalization papers, both of which were witnessed by the same man, Isidore Spector. The similarities in name and background of the grandfathers led Spector to believe that his parents were first cousins. Spector had a sister named Shirley, who was six years older than him. Shirley died in 2004 in Hemet, California, at the age of 70.


title: Phil Spector

text: In April 1949, Spector's father, who was deep in debt, committed suicide; on his gravestone were inscribed the words "Ben Spector. Father. Husband. To Know Him Was To Love Him". In 1953, Spector's mother moved the family to Los Angeles where she found work as a seamstress. Spector attended John Burroughs Junior High School (now John Burroughs Middle School) on Wilshire Boulevard, then in 1954 transferred to Fairfax High School. Having learned to play guitar, Spector performed "Rock Island Line" in a talent show at Fairfax High. He joined a loose-knit community of aspiring musicians, including Lou Adler, Bruce Johnston, Steve Douglas, and Sandy Nelson. Spector formed a group, the Teddy Bears, with Nelson and two other friends, Marshall Leib and Annette Kleinbard.


title: Phil Spector

text: During this period, record producer Stan Ross—co-owner of Gold Star Studios in Hollywood—began to tutor Spector in record production and exerted a major influence on Spector's production style. In 1958, the Teddy Bears recorded the Spector-penned "Don't You Worry My Little Pet", and then signed a two to three singles recording deal with Era Records, with the promise of more if the singles did well.


title: Phil Spector

text: At their next session, they recorded another song Spector had written—this one inspired by the epitaph on Spector's father's tombstone. Released on Era's subsidiary label, Dore Records, "To Know Him Is to Love Him" reached number one on ""Billboard" Hot 100" singles chart on December 1, 1958, selling over a million copies by year's end. Following the success of their debut, the group signed with Imperial Records. Their next single, "I Don't Need You Anymore", reached number 91. They released several more recordings, including an album, "The Teddy Bears Sing!", but failed to reach the top 100 in US sales. The group disbanded in 1959.


title: Phil Spector

text: While recording the Teddy Bears' album, Spector met Lester Sill, a former promotion man who was a mentor to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Sill and his partner, Lee Hazlewood supported Spector's next project, the Spectors Three. In 1960, Sill arranged for Spector to work as an apprentice to Leiber and Stoller in New York. Spector co-wrote the Ben E. King Top 10 hit "Spanish Harlem" with Leiber and also worked as a session musician, playing the guitar solo on the Drifters' song "On Broadway".


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector's first true recording artist and project as producer was Ronnie Crawford. Spector's production work during this time included releases by LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, and Billy Storm, as well as the Top Notes' original recording of "Twist and Shout". Leiber and Stoller recommended Spector to produce Ray Peterson's "Corrine, Corrina", which reached number 9 in January 1961. Later, he produced another major hit for Curtis Lee, "Pretty Little Angel Eyes", which made it to number 7. Returning to Hollywood, Spector agreed to produce one of Sill's acts. After both Liberty Records and Capitol Records turned down the master of "Be My Boy" by the Paris Sisters, Sill formed a new label, Gregmark Records, with Lee Hazlewood, and released it. It reached only number 56, but the follow-up, "I Love How You Love Me", was a hit, reaching number 5.


title: Phil Spector

text: In late 1961, Spector formed a record company with Sill, who by this time had ended his business partnership with Hazlewood. Philles Records combined the first names of its two founders. Through Hill and Range Publishers, Spector found three groups he wanted to produce: the Ducanes, the Creations, and the Crystals. The first two signed with other companies, but Spector managed to secure the Crystals for his new label. Their first single, "There's No Other (Like My Baby)" was a success, hitting number 20. Their next release, "Uptown", made it to number 13.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector continued to work freelance with other artists. In 1962, he produced "Second Hand Love" by Connie Francis, which reached No. 7. Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic paired Spector with future Broadway star Jean DuShon for "Talk to Me", the B-side of which was "Tired of Trying", written by DuShon.


title: Phil Spector

text: In 1962, Spector briefly took a job as an A&R producer for Liberty Records. It was while working at Liberty that he heard a song written by Gene Pitney, for whom he had produced a number 41 hit, "Every Breath I Take", a year earlier. "He's a Rebel" was due to be released on Liberty by Vikki Carr, but Spector rushed into Gold Star Studios and recorded a cover version using Darlene Love and the Blossoms on lead vocals. The record was released on Philles, attributed to the Crystals, and quickly rose to the top of the charts.


title: Phil Spector

text: By the time "He's a Rebel" went to number 1, Lester Sill was out of the company, and Spector had Philles all to himself. He created a new act, Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans, featuring Darlene Love, Fanita James (a member of the Blossoms), and Bobby Sheen, a singer he had worked with at Liberty. The group had hits with "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (number 8), "Why Do Lovers Break Each Other's Heart" (number 38), and "Not Too Young to Get Married" (number 63). Spector also released solo material by Darlene Love in 1963. In the same year, he released "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, which went to number 2.


title: Phil Spector

text: The first time Spector put the same amount of effort into an LP as he did into 45s was when he utilized the full Philles roster and the Wrecking Crew to make what he felt would become a hit for the 1963 Christmas season. "A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records" was released a few days after the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963.


title: Phil Spector

text: On September 28, 1963, the Ronettes appeared at the Cow Palace, near San Francisco. Also on the bill were the Righteous Brothers. Spector, who was conducting the band for all the acts, was so impressed with Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield that he bought their contract from Moonglow Records and signed them to Philles. In early 1965, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" became the label's second number 1 single. Three more major hits with the duo followed: "Just Once in My Life" (number 9), "Unchained Melody" (number 4, originally the B-side of "Hung on You"), and "Ebb Tide" (number 5). Despite having hits, he lost interest in producing the Righteous Brothers and sold their contract and all their master recordings to Verve Records. However, the sound of the Righteous Brothers' singles was so distinctive that the act chose to replicate it after leaving Spector, notching a second number 1 hit in 1966 with the Bill Medley–produced "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration".


title: Phil Spector

text: During this period, Spector formed another subsidiary label, Phi-Dan Records, partly created to keep promoter Danny Davis occupied. The label released singles by artists including Betty Willis, the Lovelites, and the Ikettes. None of the recordings on Phi-Dan were produced by Spector.


title: Phil Spector

text: The recording of "Unchained Melody", credited on some releases as a Spector production although Medley has consistently said he produced it originally as an album track, had a second wave of popularity 25 years after its initial release, when it was featured prominently in the 1990 hit movie "Ghost". A re-release of the single re-charted on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and went to number one on the Adult Contemporary charts. This also put Spector back on the U.S. Top 40 charts for the first time since his last appearance in 1971 with John Lennon's "Imagine", though he did have UK top 40 hits in the interim with the Ramones.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector's final signing to Philles was the husband-and-wife team of Ike & Tina Turner in April 1966. Spector considered their single "River Deep – Mountain High" his best work, but it failed to reach any higher than number 88 in the United States. The record, which actually featured Tina Turner without Ike Turner, was successful in Britain, reaching number 3.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector released another single by Ike & Tina Turner, "I'll Never Need More Than This", while negotiating a deal to move Philles to A&M Records in 1967. The deal did not materialize, and Spector subsequently lost enthusiasm for his label and the recording industry. Already something of a recluse, he withdrew temporarily from the public eye, marrying Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett, lead singer of the Ronettes, in 1968. Spector emerged briefly for a cameo as himself in an episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" (1967) and as a drug dealer in the film "Easy Rider" (1969).


title: Phil Spector

text: In 1969, Spector made a brief return to the music business by signing a production deal with A&M Records. A Ronettes single, "You Came, You Saw, You Conquered" flopped, but Spector returned to the Hot 100 with "Black Pearl", by Sonny Charles and the Checkmates, Ltd., which reached number 13.


title: Phil Spector

text: In early 1970, Allen Klein, the new manager of the Beatles, brought Spector to England. After impressing with his production of John Lennon's solo single "Instant Karma!", which went to number 3, Spector was invited by Lennon and George Harrison to take on the task of turning the Beatles' abandoned "Let It Be" recording sessions into a usable album. He went to work using many of his production techniques, making significant changes to the arrangements and sound of some songs. Released a month after the Beatles' break-up, the album topped the U.S. and UK charts. It also yielded the number 1 U.S. single "The Long and Winding Road". Spector's overdubbing of "The Long and Winding Road" infuriated its composer, Paul McCartney. Several music critics also maligned Spector's work on "Let It Be"; he later attributed this partly to resentment that an American producer appeared to be "taking over" such a popular English band. Lennon defended Spector, telling Jann Wenner of "Rolling Stone": "he was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit, with a lousy feeling toward it, ever. And he made something out of it. He did a great job."


title: Phil Spector

text: For Harrison's multiplatinum album "All Things Must Pass" (number 1, 1970), Spector helped provide a symphonic ambience, although his health issues meant that after recording the basic tracks, he was absent from the project until the mixing stage. "Rolling Stone"s reviewer lauded the album's sound, calling it "Wagnerian, Brucknerian, the music of mountain tops and vast horizons". The triple LP yielded two major hits: "My Sweet Lord" (number 1) and "What Is Life" (number 10). That same year, Spector co-produced Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" (number 6), a stark-sounding album devoid of any Wall of Sound extravagance. Through Harrison, he also produced the debut single by Derek and the Dominos, "Tell the Truth", but the band disliked the sound and had the record withdrawn.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector was made head of A&R for Apple Records. He held the post for only a year, during which he co-produced Lennon's 1971 single "Power to the People" (number 11) and his chart-topping album "Imagine". The album's title track hit number 3. With Harrison, Spector co-produced Harrison's "Bangla Desh" (number 23)—rock's first charity single—and wife Ronnie Spector's "Try Some, Buy Some" (number 77). The latter was recorded for Ronnie's intended solo album on Apple Records, a project that stalled due to the same erratic, alcohol-fueled behavior from Spector that had hindered work on "All Things Must Pass". Spector was convinced that the Harrison-written single would be a major hit, and its poor commercial performance was one of the biggest disappointments of his career.


title: Phil Spector

text: That same year Spector oversaw the live recording of the Harrison-organized Concert for Bangladesh shows in New York City, which resulted in the number 1 triple album "The Concert for Bangladesh". The album won the "Album of the Year" award at the 1973 Grammys. Despite being recorded live, Spector used up to 44 microphones simultaneously to create his trademark Wall of Sound. Following Harrison's death in 2001, Spector said that the most creative period of his career was when he worked with Lennon and Harrison in the early 1970s, and he believed that this was true of Lennon and Harrison also, despite their achievements with the Beatles.<ref name="Kubernik/MusicConnection">.</ref>


title: Phil Spector

text: Lennon retained Spector for the 1971 Christmas single "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and the poorly reviewed 1972 album "Some Time in New York City" (number 48), both collaborations with Yoko Ono. In late 1972, Apple reissued Spector's "A Christmas Gift for You from Philles Records" (as "Phil Spector's Christmas Album"), bringing the recordings the commercial success and critical recognition that had originally eluded the 1963 release. Lennon and Ono's "Happy Xmas" single similarly stalled in sales upon its initial release, but later became a fixture on radio station playlists around Christmas.


title: Phil Spector

text: Harrison and Spector started work on Harrison's "Living in the Material World" album in October 1972, but Spector's unreliability soon led to Harrison dismissing him from the project. Harrison recalled having to climb down into Spector's central London hotel room from the roof to get him to attend the sessions, and that his co-producer would then need "eighteen cherry brandies before he could get himself down to the studio".<ref name="White/Musician"></ref>


title: Phil Spector

text: In late 1973, Spector produced the initial recording sessions for what became Lennon's 1975 covers album "Rock 'n' Roll" (number 6). The sessions were held in Los Angeles, with Lennon allowing Spector free rein as producer for the first time, but were characterized by substance abuse and chaotic arrangements. Amid the party atmosphere, Spector brandished his handguns and at one point fired a shot while Lennon was recording. In December, Lennon and Spector abandoned the collaboration. Since the studio time had been booked by his production company, Spector withheld the tapes until June the following year, when Lennon reimbursed him through Capitol Records.


title: Phil Spector

text: As the 1970s progressed, Spector became increasingly reclusive. The most probable and significant reason for his withdrawal, according to biographer Dave Thompson, was that in 1974 he was seriously injured when he was thrown through the windshield of his car in a crash in Hollywood. Spector was almost killed, and it was only because the attending police officer detected a faint pulse that Spector was not declared dead at the scene. He was admitted to the UCLA Medical Center on the night of March 31, suffering serious head injuries that required several hours of surgery, with over 300 stitches to his face and more than 400 to the back of his head. His head injuries, Thompson suggests, were the reason that Spector began his habit of wearing outlandish wigs in later years.


title: Phil Spector

text: He established the Warner-Spector label with Warner Bros. Records, which undertook new Spector-produced recordings with Cher, Darlene Love, Danny Potter, and Jerri Bo Keno, in addition to several reissues. A similar relationship with Britain's Polydor Records led to the formation of the Phil Spector International label in 1975. When the Cher and Keno singles (the latter's recordings were only issued in Germany) foundered on the charts, Spector released Dion DiMucci's "Born to Be with You" to little commercial fanfare in 1975; largely produced and recorded by Spector in 1974, it was subsequently disowned by the singer. In the 1990s and 2000s, the album enjoyed a resurgence among the indie rock cognoscenti. The majority of Spector's classic Philles recordings had been out of print in the U.S. since the original label's demise, although Spector had released several Philles Records compilations in Britain. Finally, he released an American compilation of his Philles recordings in 1977, which put most of the better-known Spector hits back into circulation after many years.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector began to reemerge later in the decade, producing and co-writing a controversial 1977 album by Leonard Cohen, titled "Death of a Ladies' Man". This angered many devout Cohen fans who preferred his stark acoustic sound to the orchestral and choral wall of sound that the album contains. The recording was fraught with difficulty. After Cohen had laid down practice vocal tracks, Spector mixed the album in studio sessions, rather than allowing Cohen to take a role in the mixing, as Cohen had previously done. Cohen remarked that the result is "grotesque", but also "semi-virtuous"—for many years, he included a reworked version of the track "Memories" in live concerts. Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg also participated in the background vocals on "Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On".


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector also produced the much-publicized Ramones album "End of the Century" in 1979. As with his work with Leonard Cohen, "End of the Century" received criticism from Ramones fans who were angered over its radio-friendly sound. However, it contains some of the best known and most successful Ramones singles, such as "Rock 'n' Roll High School", "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?", and their cover of a previously released Spector song for the Ronettes, "Baby, I Love You". Guitarist Johnny Ramone later commented on working with Spector on the recording of the album, "It really worked when he got to a slower song like "Danny Says"—the production really worked tremendously. For the harder stuff, it didn't work as well."


title: Phil Spector

text: Rumors circulated for years that Spector had threatened members of the Ramones with a gun during the sessions. Dee Dee Ramone claimed that Spector once pulled a gun on him when he tried to leave a session. Drummer Marky Ramone recalled in 2008, "They [guns] were there but he had a license to carry. He never held us hostage. We could have left at any time."


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector remained inactive throughout most of the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. In early 1981, shortly after the death of John Lennon, he temporarily re-emerged to co-produce Yoko Ono's "Season of Glass."


title: Phil Spector

text: In 1989, Tina Turner inducted Spector into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. "Rolling Stone" reported, "Spector hit the stage bopping madly to the strains of the Ronettes' "Be My Baby", flanked by three beefy bodyguards who practically elbowed Tina out of the way. He mumbled a few incoherent words about George Bush and the presidential inauguration, and then his bodyguards carried him away again." He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997 and he received the Grammy Trustees Award in 2000.


title: Phil Spector

text: In 1994, Spector wrote a letter to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's nominating committee to oppose the Ronettes being considered for induction. He argued that the group was not a proper recording act and did not contribute enough to music to merit an induction. The Ronettes were eventually inducted into the Hall, but not until 2007.


title: Phil Spector

text: He attempted to work with Céline Dion on her album "Falling into You" but fell out with her production team. His last released project was "Silence Is Easy" by Starsailor, in 2003. He was originally supposed to produce the entire album, but was fired owing to personal and creative differences. One of the two Spector-produced songs on the album, the title track, was a UK top 10 single (the other single being "White Dove").


title: Phil Spector

text: On February 3, 2003, Spector shot actress Lana Clarkson in the mouth while in his mansion (the Pyrenees Castle) in Alhambra, California. Her body was found slumped in a chair with a single gunshot wound to her mouth. Spector told "Esquire" in July 2003 that Clarkson's death was an "accidental suicide" and that she "kissed the gun". The emergency call from Spector's home, made by Spector's driver, Adriano de Souza, quotes Spector as saying, "I think I killed somebody." De Souza added that he saw Spector come out of the back door of the house with a gun in his hand.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector remained free on $1 million bail while awaiting trial. In the meantime, Spector produced singer-songwriter Hargo Khalsa's track (known professionally as Hargo) "Crying for John Lennon", which originally appears on Hargo's 2006 album "In Your Eyes". On a visit to Spector's mansion for an interview for the Lennon tribute film "Strawberry Fields", Hargo played Spector the song and asked him to produce it.


title: Phil Spector

text: On March 19, 2007, Spector's murder trial began. Presiding Judge Larry Paul Fidler allowed the proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court to be televised. On September 26, Fidler declared a mistrial because of a hung jury (ten to two for conviction).


title: Phil Spector

text: Released in December 2007, the song "B Boy Baby" by Mutya Buena and Amy Winehouse featured melodic and lyrical passages heavily influenced by "Be My Baby". As a result, Spector was given a songwriting credit on the single. The sections from "Be My Baby" were sung by Winehouse, not sampled from the mono single. Winehouse referenced her admiration of Spector's work and often performed Spector's first hit song, "To Know Him Is to Love Him". That same month, Spector attended the funeral of Ike Turner. In his eulogy, Spector criticized Tina Turner's autobiography—and its subsequent promotion by Oprah Winfrey—as a "badly written" book that "demonized and vilified Ike". Spector commented that "Ike made Tina the jewel she was. When I went to see Ike play at the Cinegrill in the '90s ... there were at least five Tina Turners on the stage performing that night, any one of them could have been Tina Turner."


title: Phil Spector

text: In mid-April 2008, BBC Two broadcast a special titled "Phil Spector: The Agony and the Ecstasy", by Vikram Jayanti. It consists of Spector's first screen interview—breaking a long period of media silence. During the conversation, images from the murder court case are juxtaposed with live appearances of his tracks on television programs from the 1960s and 1970s, along with subtitles giving critical interpretations of some of his song production values. While he does not directly try to clear his name, the court case proceedings shown try to give further explanation of the facts surrounding the murder charges leveled against him. He also speaks about the musical instincts that led him to create some of his most enduring hit records, from "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" to "River Deep, Mountain High", as well as "Let It Be", along with criticisms he feels he has had to deal with throughout his life.


title: Phil Spector

text: The retrial of Spector for murder in the second degree began on October 20, 2008, with Judge Fidler again presiding; the retrial was not televised. Spector was once again represented by attorney Jennifer Lee Barringer. The case went to the jury on March 26, 2009, and 18 days later, on April 13, the jury returned a guilty verdict. Additionally, Spector was found guilty of using a firearm in the commission of a crime, which added four years to the sentence. He was immediately taken into custody and, on May 29, 2009, was sentenced to 19 years to life in the California state prison system. Various attempted appeals were unsuccessful, in 2011, 2012, and 2016.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector's early musical influences included Latin music in general, and Latin percussion in particular. This is perceptible in many if not all of Spector's recordings, from the percussion in many of his hit songs: shakers, güiros (gourds), and maracas in "Be My Baby" and the son montuno in "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" (heard clearly in the song's bridge, played by session bassist Carol Kaye, while the same repeating refrain is played on harpsichord by Larry Knechtel).


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector's trademark during his recording career was the so-called Wall of Sound, a production technique yielding a dense, layered effect that reproduced well on AM radio and jukeboxes. To attain this signature sound, Spector gathered large groups of musicians (playing some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars) playing orchestrated parts—often doubling and tripling many instruments playing in unison—for a fuller sound. Spector himself called his technique "a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids".


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector directed the overall sound of his recordings, using a core group that became known as the Wrecking Crew, including session players such as Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Steve Douglas, Carol Kaye, Roy Caton, Glen Campbell, and Leon Russell. He delegated arrangements to Jack Nitzsche and having Sonny Bono oversee the performances, viewing these two as his "lieutenants". Spector frequently used songs from songwriters employed at the Brill Building (Trio Music) and at 1650 Broadway (Aldon Music), such as the teams of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Gerry Goffin and Carole King. He often worked with the songwriters, receiving co-credit and publishing royalties for compositions.


title: Phil Spector

text: Despite the trend towards multichannel recording, Spector was vehemently opposed to stereo releases, saying that it took control of the record's sound away from the producer in favor of the listener. Sometimes a pair of strings or horns would be double-tracked multiple times to sound like an entire string or horn section. But in the final product the background sometimes could not be distinguished as either horns or strings. Spector also greatly preferred singles to albums, describing LPs as "two hits and ten pieces of junk", reflecting both his commercial methods and those of many other producers at the time.


title: Phil Spector

text: According to guitarist Stevie Van Zandt of the E Street Band, Spector was a "genius irredeemably conflicted". On Twitter, he wrote: "[Spector] was the ultimate example of the art always being better than the artist... [He] made some of the greatest records in history based on the salvation of love while remaining incapable of giving or receiving love his whole life."


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector is often called the first auteur among musical artists for acting not only as a producer, but also the creative director, writing or choosing the material, supervising the arrangements, conducting the vocalists and session musicians, and masterminding all phases of the recording process. He helped pave the way for art rock, and helped inspire the emergence of aesthetically oriented genres such as shoegaze and noise music. "PopMatters" editor John Bergstrom credits the start of dream pop to Spector's collaboration with George Harrison on "All Things Must Pass".


title: Phil Spector

text: His influence has been claimed by performers such as the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Velvet Underground alongside latter-day record producers such as Brian Eno and Tony Visconti. Alternative rock performers Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus and Mary Chain have all cited Spector as an influence. Shoegaze, a British musical movement in the late 1980s to mid-1990s, was heavily influenced by the Wall of Sound. Jason Pierce of Spiritualized has cited Spector as a major influence on his "Let It Come Down" album. Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream and the Jesus and Mary Chain has enthused about Spector, with the song "Just Like Honey" opening with an homage of the famous "Be My Baby" drum intro.


title: Phil Spector

text: Many have tried to emulate Spector's methods, and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys—a fellow adherent of mono recording—considered Spector his main competition as a studio artist. In the 1960s, Wilson thought of Spector as "the single most influential producer. He's timeless. He makes a milestone whenever he goes into the studio." Wilson's fascination with Spector's work has persisted for decades, with many different references to Spector and his work scattered around Wilson's songs with the Beach Boys and even his solo career. Of Spector-related productions, Wilson has been involved with covers of "Be My Baby", "Chapel of Love", "Just Once in My Life", "There's No Other (Like My Baby)", "Then He Kissed Me", "Talk to Me", "Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love", "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "I Can Hear Music", and "This Could Be the Night".


title: Phil Spector

text: Johnny Franz's mid-1960s productions for Dusty Springfield and the Walker Brothers also employed a layered, symphonic "Wall of Sound" arrangement-and-recording style, heavily influenced by the Spector sound. Another example is the Forum, a studio project of Les Baxter, which produced a minor hit in 1967 with "The River Is Wide". Sonny Bono, a former associate of Spector's, developed a jangly, guitar-laden variation on the Spector sound, which is heard mainly in mid-1960s productions for his then-wife Cher, notably "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)".


title: Phil Spector

text: Bruce Springsteen emulated the Wall of Sound technique in his recording of "Born to Run". In 1973, the British band Wizzard, led by Roy Wood, had three Spector-influenced hits with "See My Baby Jive", "Angel Fingers (A Teen Ballad)", and "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday", the latter becoming a perennial Christmas hit. Other contemporaries influenced by Spector include George Morton, Sonny & Cher, the Rolling Stones, the Four Tops, Mark Wirtz, the Lovin' Spoonful, and the Beatles. Swedish pop group ABBA cited Spector as an influence, and used similar Wall of Sound techniques in their early songs, including "Ring Ring", "Waterloo", and "Dancing Queen". The Los Angeles-based new wave band Wall of Voodoo takes their name from Spector's Wall of Sound. Spector's influence is also felt in other areas of the world, especially Japan. City pop musician Eiichi Ohtaki has been influenced by Spector and the Wall of Sound.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector's first marriage was in 1963 to Annette Merar, lead vocalist of the Spectors Three, a 1960s pop trio formed and produced by Spector. Spector named a record company after Merar, Annette Records. Spector and Merar divorced in 1966. While still married to Merar, he began having an affair with Ronnie Bennett, later known as Ronnie Spector. Bennett was the lead singer of the girl group the Ronettes (another group Spector managed and produced). They married in 1968 and adopted a son, Donté Phillip Spector. As a Christmas present, Spector surprised her by adopting twins Louis Phillip Spector and Gary Phillip Spector.


title: Phil Spector

text: In her 1990 memoir, "Be My Baby: How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts And Madness", Bennett alleged that Spector had imprisoned her in his California mansion and subjected her to years of psychological torment. According to Bennett, Spector sabotaged her career by forbidding her to perform. She escaped from the mansion barefoot with the help of her mother in 1972. In their 1974 divorce settlement, she forfeited all future record earnings and surrendered custody of their children. She alleged that this was because Spector threatened to hire a hitman to kill her.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector's sons Gary and Donté both stated that their father "kept them captive" as children, and that they were "forced to perform simulated intercourse" with his girlfriend. According to Gary, "I was blindfolded and sexually molested. Dad would say, 'You're going to meet someone,' and it would be a 'learning experience'." Donté described himself as coming "from a very sick, twisted, dysfunctional family".


title: Phil Spector

text: In 1982, Spector had twin children with his girlfriend Janis Zavala: Nicole Audrey Spector and Phillip Spector Jr. Phillip Jr. died of leukemia in 1991. On September 1, 2006, while on bail and awaiting trial, Spector married his third wife Rachelle Short, who was 26 at the time. Spector filed for divorce in April 2016, claiming irreconcilable differences. They divorced in 2018.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector testified in a 2005 court deposition that he had been treated for bipolar disorder ("manic depression") for eight years, saying, "No sleep, depression, mood changes, mood swings, hard to live with, hard to concentrate, just hard—a hard time getting through life, I've been called a genius and I think a genius is not there all the time and has borderline insanity."


title: Phil Spector

text: In the first criminal trial for the Clarkson murder, defense expert and forensic pathologist Vincent DiMaio said that Spector might be suffering from Parkinson's disease stating, "Look at Mr. Spector. He has Parkinson's features. He trembles."


title: Phil Spector

text: California Department of Corrections photos from 2013 (released in September 2014) show evidence of a progressive deterioration in Spector's health, according to observers. He had been an inmate at the California Health Care Facility (a prison hospital) in Stockton since October 2013. In September 2014, it was reported that Spector had lost his ability to speak, owing to laryngeal papillomatosis.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector's daughter Nicole attributed her father's death to complications of COVID-19, with which he was diagnosed in December 2020. He was taken to San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, California, on December 31, and intubated in January 2021. Spector died in an outside hospital on January 16 at the age of 81, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He would have been eligible for parole in 2024.


title: Phil Spector

text: Some media outlets that reported on Spector's death were subject to controversy for reportedly downplaying his murder conviction. Examples given were the obituaries in "The New York Times" and "Rolling Stone", which originally stated, respectively, that Spector's legacy "was marred by a murder conviction" and that his "life was upended" after being sentenced. These obituaries were revised following a social media backlash.


title: Phil Spector

text: Spector is one of a handful of producers to have number one records in three consecutive decades (1950s, 1960s and 1970s). Others in this group include Quincy Jones (1960s, 1970s, and 1980s), George Martin (1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s), Michael Omartian (1970s, 1980s and 1990s), and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s).


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.24 million.


title: Liverpool

text: On the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, Liverpool historically lay within the ancient hundred of West Derby in the county of Lancashire. It became a borough in 1207, a city in 1880, and a county borough independent of the newly-created Lancashire County Council in 1889. Its growth as a major port was paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with general cargo, freight, and raw materials such as coal and cotton, merchants were involved in the slave trade. In the 19th century, Liverpool was a major port of departure for English and Irish emigrants to North America. It was also home to both the Cunard and White Star Lines, and was the port of registry of the ocean liners , , , and .


title: Liverpool

text: In 2019, Liverpool was the fifth most visited UK city. It is noted for its culture, architecture, and transport links. The city is closely associated with the arts, especially music. The popularity of the Beatles, widely regarded as the most influential band of all time, led to it becoming a tourist destination. Liverpool has continued to be the home of numerous notable musicians and record from the city have released 56 No. 1 hit singles, more than any other city in the world. The city also has a long-standing reputation for producing countless , , , , , , and .


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool has the second highest number of art galleries, national museums, listed buildings, and listed parks in the UK; only the capital, London, has more. The former Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City includes the Pier Head, Albert Dock and William Brown Street. In sport, the city is best known as the home of Premier League football teams Liverpool FC and Everton FC, with matches between the two rivals being known as the Merseyside derby. The annual Grand National horse race takes place at Aintree Racecourse.


title: Liverpool

text: Several areas of Liverpool city centre carried World Heritage Site status from 2004 until 2021; the city's vast collection of parks and open spaces has been described as the "most important in the country" by England's Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. Its status as a port city historically attracted a diverse population from a wide range of cultures, primarily Ireland, Norway, and Wales. It is also home to the oldest black community in the UK and the oldest Chinese community in Europe.


title: Liverpool

text: Natives of Liverpool (and some longtime residents from elsewhere) are formally referred to as "Liverpudlians" but are usually called "Scousers" in reference to scouse, a local stew made popular by sailors in the city; "Scouse" is also the most common name for the Liverpool accent and dialect. The city celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007 and was named the 2008 European Capital of Culture, which it shared with the Norwegian city of Stavanger. Its selection as a European Capital of Culture has been credited with kickstarting its economic renaissance.


title: Liverpool

text: The name comes from the Old English "lifer", meaning thick or muddy water, and "pōl", meaning a pool or creek, and is first recorded around 1190 as "Liuerpul". According to the "Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names", "The original reference was to a pool or tidal creek now filled up into which two streams drained". The place appearing as "Leyrpole", in a legal record of 1418, may also refer to Liverpool. Other origins of the name have been suggested, including "elverpool", a reference to the large number of eels in the Mersey. The adjective "Liverpudlian" was first recorded in 1833.


title: Liverpool

text: Although the Old English origin of the name Liverpool is beyond dispute, claims are sometimes made that the name Liverpool is of Welsh origin, but these are without foundation. The Welsh name for Liverpool is Lerpwl, from a former English local form Leerpool. This is a reduction of the form "Leverpool" with the loss of the intervocalic [v] (seen in other English names and words e.g. Daventry (Northamptonshire) > Danetry, never-do-well > ne’er-do-well).


title: Liverpool

text: In the nineteenth century, some Welsh publications used the name "Lle'r Pwll" ("(the) place (of) the pool"), a reinterpretation of Lerpwl, probably in the belief that "Lle'r Pwll" was the original form.


title: Liverpool

text: Another name, which is widely known even today, is Llynlleifiad, again a nineteenth-century coining. "Llyn" is pool, but "lleifiad" has no obvious meaning. Professor G. Melville Richards (1910–1973), a pioneer of scientific toponymy in Wales, in "Place Names of North Wales", does not attempt to explain it beyond noting that "lleifiad" is used as a Welsh equivalent of "Liver".


title: Liverpool

text: A derivative form of a learned borrowing into Welsh (*llaf) of Latin lāma (slough, bog, fen) to give "lleifiad" is possible, but unproven.


title: Liverpool

text: King John's letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool. By the middle of the 16th century, the population was still around 500. The original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough. The original seven streets were laid out in an H shape: Bank Street (now Water Street), Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street (now High Street), Moor Street (now Tithebarn Street) and Whiteacre Street (now Old Hall Street).


title: Liverpool

text: In the 17th century there was slow progress in trade and population growth. Battles for control of the town were waged during the English Civil War, including a brief siege in 1644. In 1699, the same year as its first recorded slave ship, "Liverpool Merchant", set sail for Africa, Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament. But arguably the legislation of 1695 that reformed the Liverpool council was of more significance to its subsequent development. Since Roman times, the nearby city of Chester on the River Dee had been the region's principal port on the Irish Sea. However, as the Dee began to silt up, maritime trade from Chester became increasingly difficult and shifted towards Liverpool on the neighbouring River Mersey.


title: Liverpool

text: As trade from the West Indies, including sugar, surpassed that of Ireland and Europe, and as the River Dee continued to silt up, Liverpool began to grow with increasing rapidity. The first commercial wet dock was built in Liverpool in 1715. Substantial profits from the slave trade and tobacco helped the town to prosper and rapidly grow, although several prominent local men, including William Rathbone, William Roscoe and Edward Rushton, were at the forefront of the local abolitionist movement.


title: Liverpool

text: By the start of the 19th century, a large volume of trade was passing through Liverpool, and the construction of major buildings reflected this wealth. In 1830, Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have an intercity rail link, through the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The population continued to rise rapidly, especially during the 1840s when Irish migrants began arriving by the hundreds of thousands as a result of the Great Famine.


title: Liverpool

text: In her poetical illustration "Liverpool" (1832), which celebrates the city's worldwide commerce, Letitia Elizabeth Landon refers specifically to the Macgregor Laird expedition to the Niger River, at that time in progress. This is to a painting by Samuel Austin, "Liverpool, from the Mersey".


title: Liverpool

text: Britain was a major market for cotton imported from the Deep South of the United States, which fed the textile industry in the country. Given the crucial place cotton held in the city's economy, during the American Civil War Liverpool was, in the words of historian Sven Beckert, "the most pro-Confederate place in the world outside the Confederacy itself."


title: Liverpool

text: For periods during the 19th century, the wealth of Liverpool exceeded that of London, and Liverpool's Custom House was the single largest contributor to the British Exchequer. Liverpool was the only British city ever to have its own Whitehall office.


title: Liverpool

text: In the early 19th century, Liverpool played a major role in the Antarctic sealing industry, in recognition of which Liverpool Beach in the South Shetland Islands is named after the city.


title: Liverpool

text: As early as 1851 the city was described as "the New York of Europe". During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Liverpool was attracting immigrants from across Europe. This resulted in the construction of a diverse array of religious buildings in the city for the new ethnic and religious groups, many of which are still in use today. The Deutsche Kirche Liverpool, Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, Gustav Adolf Church and Princes Road Synagogue were all established in the 1800s to serve Liverpool's growing German, Greek, Nordic and Jewish communities, respectively. One of Liverpool's oldest surviving churches, St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, served the Polish community in its final years as a place of worship.


title: Liverpool

text: The postwar period after the Great War was marked by social unrest, as society grappled with the massive war losses of young men, as well as trying to integrate veterans into the economy. Union organising and strikes took place in numerous locations, including police strikes in London among the Metropolitan Police. Numerous colonial soldiers and sailors from Africa and India, who had served with the UK, settled in Liverpool and other port cities. In June 1919 they were subject to attack by whites in racial riots; residents in the port included Swedish immigrants, and both groups had to compete with native people from Liverpool for jobs and housing. In this period, race riots also took place in Cardiff, Newport and Barry, and there had been incidents in Glasgow, South Shields, London, Hull and Salford.


title: Liverpool

text: The Housing Act 1919 resulted in mass council housing being built across Liverpool during the 1920s and 1930s. Thousands of families were relocated from the inner-city to new suburban housing estates, based on the belief that this would improve their standard of living, though this is largely subjective. Numerous private homes were also built during this era. During the Great Depression of the early 1930s, unemployment peaked at around 30% in the city.


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool was the site of Britain's first provincial airport, operating from 1930. During the Second World War, the critical strategic importance of Liverpool was recognised by both Hitler and Churchill. The city was heavily bombed by the Germans, suffering a blitz second only to London's. The pivotal Battle of the Atlantic was planned, fought and won from Liverpool.


title: Liverpool

text: The "Luftwaffe" made 80 air raids on Merseyside, killing 2,500 people and causing damage to almost half the homes in the metropolitan area. Significant rebuilding followed the war, including massive housing estates and the Seaforth Dock, the largest dock project in Britain. Much of the immediate reconstruction of the city centre has been deeply unpopular. It was as flawed as much subsequent town planning renewal in the 1950s and 1960s. The historic portions of the city that had survived German bombing suffered extensive destruction during urban renewal. Since 1952 Liverpool has been twinned with Cologne, Germany, a city which also suffered severe aerial bombing during the war.


title: Liverpool

text: A significant West Indian black community has existed in the city since the first two decades of the 20th century. Like most British cities and industrialised towns, Liverpool became home to a significant number of Commonwealth immigrants, beginning after World War I with colonial soldiers and sailors who had served in the area. More immigrants arrived after World War II, mostly settling in older inner-city areas such as Toxteth, where housing was less expensive. The black population of Liverpool was recorded at 1.90% in 2011.


title: Liverpool

text: The construction of suburban public housing expanded after the Second World War. Some of the older inner-city areas were redeveloped for new homes.


title: Liverpool

text: In the 1960s Liverpool was the centre of the "Merseybeat" sound, which became synonymous with the Beatles and fellow Liverpudlian rock bands. Influenced by American rhythm and blues and rock music, they also in turn strongly affected American music for years and were internationally popular. The Beatles became internationally known in the early 1960s and performed for years together; they were the most commercially successful and musically influential band in popular history. Their co-founder, singer, and composer John Lennon was killed in New York City in 1980. Liverpool airport was renamed after him in 2002, the first British airport to be named in honour of an individual.


title: Liverpool

text: Previously part of Lancashire, and a county borough from 1889, Liverpool in 1974 became a metropolitan borough within the newly created metropolitan county of Merseyside.


title: Liverpool

text: From the mid-1970s onwards, Liverpool's docks and traditional manufacturing industries declined due to restructuring of shipping and heavy industry, causing massive losses of jobs. The advent of containerisation meant that the city's docks became largely obsolete, and dock workers were thrown out of jobs. By the early 1980s unemployment rates in Liverpool were among the highest in the UK, standing at 17% by January 1982. This was about half the level of unemployment that had affected the city during the Great Depression 50 years previously. During this period, Liverpool became a hub of fierce left-wing opposition to the central government in London.


title: Liverpool

text: In the later 20th century, Liverpool's economy began to recover. Since the mid-1990s the city has enjoyed growth rates higher than the national average.


title: Liverpool

text: To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II in 2002, the conservation charity Plantlife organised a competition to choose county flowers; the sea-holly was Liverpool's final choice.


title: Liverpool

text: Capitalising on the popularity of 1960s rock groups, such as the Beatles, as well as the city's world-class art galleries, museums and landmarks, tourism has also become a significant factor in Liverpool's economy.


title: Liverpool

text: In 2004, property developer Grosvenor started the Paradise Project, a £920 m development based on Paradise Street. This produced the most significant changes to Liverpool's city centre since the post-war reconstruction. Renamed 'Liverpool ONE,' the centre opened in May 2008.


title: Liverpool

text: In 2007, the city celebrated the 800th anniversary of the founding of the borough of Liverpool, for which a number of events were planned. Liverpool was designated as a joint European Capital of Culture for 2008. The main celebrations, in September 2008, included the erection of La Princesse, a large mechanical spider 20 metres high and weighing 37 tonnes, and represents the "eight legs" of Liverpool: honour, history, music, the Mersey, the ports, governance, sunshine and culture. La Princesse roamed the streets of the city during the festivities, and concluded by entering the Queensway Tunnel.


title: Liverpool

text: Spearheaded by the multi-billion-pound Liverpool ONE development, regeneration has continued through to the start of the early 2010s. Some of the most significant redevelopment projects include new buildings in the Commercial District, the King's Dock, Mann Island, the Lime Street Gateway, the Baltic Triangle, the RopeWalks, and the Edge Lane Gateway. All projects could be eclipsed by the Liverpool Waters scheme, which if built will cost in the region of £5.5billion and be one of the largest megaprojects in the UK's history. Liverpool Waters is a mixed-use development planned to contain one of Europe's largest skyscraper clusters. The project received outline planning permission in 2012, despite fierce opposition from such groups as UNESCO, which claimed that it would adversely affect Liverpool's World Heritage status.


title: Liverpool

text: In June 2014, Prime Minister David Cameron launched the International Festival for Business in Liverpool, the world's largest business event in 2014, and the largest in the UK since the Festival of Britain in 1951. In July 2021, Liverpool lost its World Heritage status, UNESCO citing the Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium and Liverpool Waters projects as not being in keeping with a World Heritage site.


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool has been a centre of invention and innovation. Railways, transatlantic steamships, municipal trams, and electric trains were all pioneered in Liverpool as modes of mass transit. In 1829 and 1836, the first railway tunnels in the world were constructed under Liverpool (Wapping Tunnel). From 1950 to 1951, the world's first scheduled passenger helicopter service ran between Liverpool and Cardiff.


title: Liverpool

text: The first School for the Blind, Mechanics' Institute, High School for Girls, council house, and Juvenile Court were all founded in Liverpool. Charities such as the RSPCA, NSPCC, Age Concern, Relate, and Citizen's Advice Bureau all evolved from work in the city.


title: Liverpool

text: The first lifeboat station, public bath and wash-house, sanitary act, medical officer for health (William Henry Duncan), district nurse, slum clearance, purpose-built ambulance, X-ray medical diagnosis, school of tropical medicine (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine), motorised municipal fire-engine, free school meal, cancer research centre, and zoonosis research centre all originated in Liverpool. The first British Nobel Prize was awarded in 1902 to Ronald Ross, professor at the School of Tropical Medicine, the first school of its kind in the world. Orthopaedic surgery was pioneered in Liverpool by Hugh Owen Thomas, and modern medical anaesthetics by Thomas Cecil Gray.


title: Liverpool

text: The world's first integrated sewer system was constructed in Liverpool by James Newlands, appointed in 1847 as the UK's first borough engineer. Liverpool also founded the UK's first Underwriters' Association and the first Institute of Accountants. The Western world's first financial derivatives (cotton futures) were traded on the Liverpool Cotton Exchange in the late 1700s.


title: Liverpool

text: In the arts, Liverpool was home to the first lending library (The Lyceum), athenaeum society (Liverpool Athenaeum), arts centre (Bluecoat Chambers), and public art conservation centre (National Conservation Centre). It is also home to the UK's oldest surviving classical orchestra (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) and repertory theatre (Liverpool Playhouse).


title: Liverpool

text: In 1864, Peter Ellis built the world's first iron-framed, curtain-walled office building, Oriel Chambers, which was a prototype of the skyscraper. The UK's first purpose-built department store was Compton House, completed in 1867 for the retailer J.R. Jeffrey. It was the largest store in the world at the time.


title: Liverpool

text: Between 1862 and 1867, Liverpool held an annual Grand Olympic Festival. Devised by John Hulley and Charles Pierre Melly, these games were the first to be wholly amateur in nature and international in outlook. The programme of the first modern Olympiad in Athens in 1896 was almost identical to that of the Liverpool Olympics. In 1865, Hulley co-founded the National Olympian Association in Liverpool, a forerunner of the British Olympic Association. Its articles of foundation provided the framework for the International Olympic Charter.


title: Liverpool

text: Sir Alfred Lewis Jones, a shipowner, introduced bananas to the UK via Liverpool's docks in 1884. The Mersey Railway, opened in 1886, incorporated the world's first tunnel under a tidal estuary and the world's first deep-level underground stations (Liverpool James Street railway station).


title: Liverpool

text: In 1889, borough engineer John Alexander Brodie invented the football goal net. He also was a pioneer in the use of pre-fabricated housing and oversaw the construction of the UK's first ring road (A5058) and intercity highway (East Lancashire Road), as well as the Queensway Tunnel linking Liverpool and Birkenhead. Described as "the eighth wonder of the world" at the time of its construction, it was the longest underwater tunnel in the world for 24 years.


title: Liverpool

text: In 1897, the Lumière brothers filmed Liverpool, including what is believed to be the world's first tracking shot, taken from the Liverpool Overhead Railway, the world's first elevated electrified railway. The Overhead Railway was the first railway in the world to use electric multiple units, employ automatic signalling, and install an escalator.


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool inventor Frank Hornby was a visionary in toy development and manufacture, producing three of the most popular lines of toys in the 20th century: Meccano, Hornby Model Railways, and Dinky Toys. The British Interplanetary Society, founded in Liverpool in 1933 by Phillip Ellaby Cleator, is the world's oldest existing organisation devoted to the promotion of spaceflight. Its journal, the "Journal of the British Interplanetary Society", is the longest-running astronautical publication in the world.


title: Liverpool

text: In 1999, Liverpool was the first city outside London to be awarded blue plaques by English Heritage in recognition of the "significant contribution made by its sons and daughters in all walks of life".


title: Liverpool

text: For the purposes of local government, the city of Liverpool is classified as a metropolitan borough. The metropolitan borough is located within both the county of Merseyside and the Liverpool City Region. Each of these geographical areas is treated as an administrative area with different levels of local governance applying to each.


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool City Council is the governing body solely for the city of Liverpool and performs functions that are standard of an English Unitary Authority.


title: Liverpool

text: The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority reserves major strategic powers over such things as transport, economic development and regeneration for the city along with the 5 surrounding boroughs of the Liverpool City Region. The Combined Authority has competency over areas which have been devolved by national government and are specific to the local area.


title: Liverpool

text: Nevertheless, there are a few exceptions to local governance apart from these two structures. Liverpool was administered by Merseyside County Council between 1974 and 1986 and some residual aspects of organisation which date back to this time have survived. When the County Council was disbanded in 1986, most civic functions were transferred to Liverpool City Council. However, several authorities such as the police and fire and rescue service, continue to be run at a county-wide level. The county of Merseyside, therefore, continues to exist as an administrative area for a few limited services only, while the capability and capacity of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is evolving over time.


title: Liverpool

text: The City of Liverpool is governed by three separate Mayors each with their own distinct functions and powers.


title: Liverpool

text: The Mayor of Liverpool is directly elected by the public every four years to lead Liverpool City Council. The figure is responsible for directing the City Council's policies and appoints cabinet members to run key council functions such as education and housing. The council's 90 elected councillors who represent local communities throughout the city, are responsible for scrutinising the mayor's decisions, setting the budget, and policy framework of the city. The Mayor's responsibility is to be a powerful voice for the city both nationally and internationally, to lead, build investor confidence, and to direct resources to economic priorities. The Mayor also exchanges direct dialogue with government ministers and the Prime Minister through his seat at the Cabinet of Mayors. Discussions include pressing decision-makers in the government on local issues as well as building relationships with the other directly elected mayors in England and Wales. The current Mayor is Joanne Anderson.


title: Liverpool

text: This role is the oldest of the three mayors and is mostly ceremonial. The Lord Mayor is chosen only by councillors within Liverpool City Council, not the general public, and serves a one year term. The Lord Mayor is styled as the 'first citizen' and chosen representative of the city. They represent the city at functions, promote it to the wider world and attend religious ceremonies. They also have the key task of chairing full council meetings and can choose a number of charities to support throughout their term.


title: Liverpool

text: The City of Liverpool is one of the six constituent local government districts of the Liverpool City Region. The Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region is directly every four years by residents of those six boroughs and oversees the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.


title: Liverpool

text: The Combined Authority is the top-tier administrative body for the local governance of the city region and is tasked with taking major strategic decisions on issues such as transport and investment, economic development, employment and skills, tourism, culture, housing and physical infrastructure. The current Metro Mayor is Steve Rotheram.


title: Liverpool

text: During the local elections held in May 2011, the Labour Party consolidated its control of Liverpool City Council, following on from regaining power for the first time in 12 years, during the previous elections in May 2010. The Labour Party gained 11 seats during the election, taking their total to 62 seats, compared with the 22 held by the Liberal Democrats. Of the remaining seats, the Liberal Party won three and the Green Party claimed two. The Conservative Party, one of the three major political parties in the UK had no representation on Liverpool City Council.


title: Liverpool

text: In February 2008, Liverpool City Council was reported to be the worst-performing council in the country, receiving just a one-star rating (classified as inadequate). The main cause of the poor rating was attributed to the council's poor handling of tax-payer money, including the accumulation of a £20m shortfall on Capital of Culture funding.


title: Liverpool

text: While Liverpool through most of the 19th and early 20th centuries was a municipal stronghold of Toryism, support for the Conservative Party recently has been among the lowest in any part of Britain, particularly since the monetarist economic policies of prime minister Margaret Thatcher after her 1979 general election victory contributed to high unemployment in the city which did not begin to fall for many years. Liverpool is one of the Labour Party's key strongholds; however the city has seen hard times under Labour governments as well, particularly in the Winter of Discontent (late 1978 and early 1979) when Liverpool suffered public sector strikes along with the rest of the United Kingdom but also suffered the particularly humiliating misfortune of having grave-diggers going on strike, leaving the dead unburied.


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool has four parliamentary constituencies entirely within the city, through which MPs are elected to represent the city in Westminster: Liverpool Riverside, Liverpool Walton, Liverpool Wavertree and Liverpool West Derby. At the last general election, all were won by Labour with representation being from Kim Johnson, Dan Carden, Paula Barker and Ian Byrne respectively. Due to boundary changes prior to the 2010 election, the Liverpool Garston constituency was merged with most of Knowsley South to form the Garston and Halewood cross-boundary seat. At the most 2019 election this seat was won by Maria Eagle of the Labour Party.


title: Liverpool

text: Liverpool has been described as having "the most splendid setting of any English city." At (53.4, −2.98), northwest of London, located on the Liverpool Bay of the Irish Sea the city of Liverpool is built across a ridge of sandstone hills rising up to a height of around 230 feet (70 m) above sea-level at Everton Hill, which represents the southern boundary of the West Lancashire Coastal Plain.


title: Liverpool

text: The Mersey Estuary separates Liverpool from the Wirral Peninsula. The boundaries of Liverpool are adjacent to Bootle, Crosby and Maghull in south Sefton to the north, and Kirkby, Huyton, Prescot and Halewood in Knowsley to the east.