title: Atlanta United FC

text: During their inaugural season, Atlanta United introduced a ritual called the Golden Spike in a nod to the city's railroad history. Prior to the game, players and supporters sign a large golden railroad spike, which is then marched into the stadium by supporters and hammered into a platform by a local VIP while the crowd chants "A-T-L!" Additionally, after each Atlanta United win, the player voted as the Man of the Match hammers a spike. Local celebrities that took part in the Golden Spike tradition during 2017 included hip hop artists 2 Chainz, Yung Joc, and Waka Flocka, as well as country musician Zac Brown, retired Atlanta Braves star Andruw Jones, and Atlanta basketball players Tiffany Hayes and Dennis Schröder. Atlanta native rap artist Archie Eversole also participated in the Golden Spike tradition and would later compose a rap anthem for the club entitled "United We Conquer." In 2018, notable celebrity participants included singer T-Pain, Dutch soccer legend Edgar Davids, Atlanta multi-sports star Brian Jordan, boxing legend Evander Holyfield and his son Elijah Holyfield, and rappers Jeezy, Killer Mike, and Big Boi. At MLS Cup 2018, owner Arthur Blank hammered the Spike. 2019 saw celebrities such as wrestling legend Ric Flair, Hollywood icon Ron Howard, hip hop group Goodie Mob, and basketball star Dikembe Mutombo participate in the tradition.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: Atlanta United FC's principal owner is Arthur Blank, co-founder of Home Depot. It is a component of AMB Sports & Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Blank Family of Businesses that also includes the NFL's Atlanta Falcons and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: On February 10, 2017, Atlanta United announced that the number 17 would be reserved for the fans. The number marks the year of the team's first inaugural season in MLS. Atlanta United aims to recognize that from the very beginning, the fans, the city, and the people define the spirit and essence of this team.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: On January 22, 2021, the club also reserved for the 2021 MLS season the number 44. Following the death of Hank Aaron, a National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee who played for the local MLB club from 1966 to 1974 at 86, Atlanta-area sports teams on the amateur and professional level agreed to retire Aaron's 44 regardless of sport as a tribute.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: Rights to all Atlanta United FC first team matches not broadcast by MLS' national television partners were originally held by Bally Sports. Most of the team's games were televised by either Bally Sports South or Bally Sports Southeast, which also carried team programming. A small number of matches were broadcast on over-the-air television by WUPA in the event of scheduling conflicts with the two channels. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: Beginning in September 2020 (and for some services even earlier) as a result of negotiating issues with Sinclair Broadcast Group and streaming services FuboTV, Sling TV, YouTube TV. and Hulu Live TV, the ability for fans in the local Atlanta metro area and corresponding TV market to view Atlanta United games on regional sports networks became greatly reduced. This issue will be rectified when rights to every MLS game become exclusive to Apple TV+ in 2023, and local TV broadcasts are limited to WAGA and WSB through its affiliated networks.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: Kevin Egan served as the team's local television play-by-play announcer. Former MLS midfielder Maurice Edu was the color commentator and Jillian Sakovits served as the pre- and post-game show host and sideline reporter.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: Radio rights are held by WZGC/92.9 The Game, with other Audacy stations being used as an overflow (including WSTR (FM). Commentators are Mike Conti (play-by-play) and Jason Longshore (color). This will not change after the 2023 TV rights deal.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: Rights to Atlanta United 2 matches are held by ESPN as part of the USL's broadcast agreement. Games are streamed online on ESPN+ with Jon Nelson as the play-by-play announcer and Jason Longshore as color commentator.


title: Atlanta United FC

text: This is a partial list of the last five seasons completed by Atlanta. For the full season-by-season history, see List of Atlanta United FC seasons.


title: Juggalo

text: A juggalo (feminine juggalette, or juggala in Spanish) is a fan of the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse or any other hip hop group signed to Psychopathic Records. Juggalos have developed their own idioms, slang, and characteristics. The Gathering of the Juggalos, alternatively known as just "The Gathering", is a notable annual festival held by juggalos and the artists that they support, which have included rap stars such as Busta Rhymes, Ice Cube, and MC Hammer; over its first eleven events (2000–2010), the festival drew a total attendance of about 107,500 fans, averaging nearly 9,800 per year, with a peak of 20,000 in 2010.


title: Juggalo

text: The term originated during a 1994 live performance by Insane Clown Posse. During the song "The Juggla", Violent J addressed the audience as "Juggalos", and the positive response resulted in Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope using the word thereafter to refer to themselves and their friends, family and fans, including other Psychopathic Records artists. The fanbase boomed following the release of their third album, "Riddle Box", in 1995, leading Insane Clown Posse to write the songs "What Is a Juggalo?" and "Down With the Clown" for their 1997 album "The Great Milenko".


title: Juggalo

text: The roots music journal "No Depression" classified Juggalos as "goth clowns", as well as "a true community of music-lovers with a strange and warped view of today’s music scene and a strong connection to modern hillbilly culture." According to Shaggy 2 Dope, "[Juggalos come] from all walks of life – from poverty, from rich, from all religions, all colors. ... It doesn't matter if you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, or a crack rock in your mouth." Juggalos have compared themselves to a family. However, the subculture is most predominant in rural North America.


title: Juggalo

text: Juggalos view the lyrics of Psychopathic Records artists, which are often violent in nature, as a catharsis for aggression.


title: Juggalo

text: Many characteristics of the Juggalo culture originated from in the 1980s, when Joseph Bruce (Violent J) and his family were living in poverty. He and his brother Robert received all their clothes from rummage sales, and their food from canned food drives held at their own school. Due to their poverty, the Bruce Brothers were the butt of many jokes in school. However, the brothers were not ashamed of their living standards, and instead embraced it. Joe even made a name for themselves, Floobs. According to Joe, a Floob was essentially a scrub, but not just an ordinary scrub. A Floob "wore the same old shoes and shitty clothes from rummage sales ... but ... didn't even have to be cool. [Floobs] turned [their] scrubbiness into something [they] could be proud of." Though Joe only specifically names himself and his brother as Floobs, he alludes to other Floobs whom he had not met or known of, but were living in the same conditions as he and his brother; the respect that Floobs had for each other and their family-like embrace of likewise people influenced the philosophy held among Juggalos.


title: Juggalo

text: Since 2008, Florida Juggalos organized The Juggalo Cleanup Crew to pick up trash for the Dead Stephanie Memorial Cleanup, in honor of Stephanie Harris, a high school student who died of diabetes in 2008.


title: Juggalo

text: In Buffalo, New York, a group of Juggalos formed the Juggalos outreach program and started cleaning up Buffalo's East Side. In addition to the community cleanup they run Hatchet House which operates a 24/7 helpline referring community members in crises to services and serves as a base of operations for volunteer work and community service programs.


title: Juggalo

text: Although the Juggalo subculture stems from the horrorcore subgenre of the general hip hop music fandom, criminal and gang-related activity has been attributed to self-described 'Juggalos' in recent years, including assaults, drug trafficking, vandalism, burglary, shootings, theft, robbery, and numerous murders.


title: Juggalo

text: According to a 2011 National Gang Intelligence Center report, the Juggalo subculture is split between violent and nonviolent factions. Some members of the Juggalos street gang even look down on non-criminal Juggalos, considering them to be weak, and criminal Juggalo gangs have committed attacks on non-gang-related Juggalos. Both Juggalo gang affiliates and nonviolent Juggalos believe in the Juggalo "family", however, some nonviolent Juggalos do not believe that any gang related activity should be associated with the Juggalo lifestyle.


title: Juggalo

text: The Insane Clown Posse filed a lawsuit against the FBI about the gang-listing. In December 2012, ICP agreed to withdraw their involvement as plaintiffs.


title: Juggalo

text: Psychopathic Records launched the website juggalosfightback.com for fans to submit stories about unfair treatment by law enforcement. ICP hopes to use these stories in their legal battle to declassify Juggalos as a gang.


title: Juggalo

text: The classification of Juggalos as a criminal gang was ridiculed by the technology magazine "Wired" in a November 2011 article, with journalist Spencer Ackerman referring to previous scandals involving FBI harassment of Muslim-Americans.


title: Juggalo

text: On January 8, 2014, Insane Clown Posse along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan filed suit again against the FBI. The suit aims to have Juggalos no longer considered to be a gang and to have any "criminal intelligence information" about Juggalos destroyed.


title: Juggalo

text: The Gathering of the Juggalos (The Gathering or GOTJ) is an annual festival put on by Psychopathic Records, featuring performances by the entire label as well as numerous well-known musical groups and underground artists. It was founded by Robert Bruce, Insane Clown Posse, and their label in 2000. The Gathering has featured bands of a variety of genres within hip hop and rock, though the majority of the acts perform horrorcore and hardcore hip hop, similar to that of Psychopathic Records artists.


title: Juggalo

text: Described by Joseph Bruce as a "Juggalo Woodstock", the Gathering of the Juggalos spans four days and includes concerts, wrestling, games, contests, autograph sessions, karaoke, and seminars with artists. According to roots music journal "No Depression", the event displays the Juggalo culture's connection to hillbilly culture, by featuring "backyard wrestling, Wild West imagery, county fair performers like Naughty by Nature and Gallagher [and] acres and acres of white guys [wearing wife beater shirts] getting high." Over its first eleven events, the festival has drawn an attendance of about 107,500 fans.


title: Juggalo

text: In July 2012, the media organization Vice released "American Juggalo", a twenty-minute film documenting the festival, through their subsidiary music channel, Noisey. Sean Dunne directed the work.


title: Juggalo

text: On August 9, 2013, 24-year-old Cory Collins died at the festival, following three more deaths at previous festivals.


title: Juggalo

text: In 2012, Shaggy and Violent J created the annual Juggalo Day, a yearly event to thank and celebrate its fans.


title: Juggalo

text: 2013 started the album shows, playing a joker card album from front to back. 2013 was the "Riddle Box Show" in Detroit.


title: Juggalo

text: Psychopathic Records launched the professional wrestling company Juggalo Championship Wrestling in 1999.


title: Juggalo

text: Mainstream media has also made references to the Juggalo subculture. In 2009, television sketch comedy "Saturday Night Live" began a reoccurring series of sketches about the "Kickspit Underground Rock Festival" which parodies Juggalos and the Gathering of the Juggalos. The following year, the television show "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" featured a Juggalo character in the episode "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth". In 2011, the television show "Workaholics" aired an episode called "Straight Up Juggahos" that revolved around Juggalos and an Insane Clown Posse concert. Later that year, an independent documentary entitled "American Juggalo" was released. "Gathering Prey", the 2015 crime novel in the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford, features a villain named Pilate who, with his disciples, are Juggalos. Much of the book takes place at the Gathering of the Juggalos. The 2018 Film Family includes characters that identify as Juggalos and a pivotal scene takes place at a Gathering of the Juggalos.


title: Juggalo

text: Several celebrities and other well known figures have identified themselves as Juggalos. These include actors Kane Hodder and Charlie Sheen; professional wrestlers Kazushige Nosawa, Vampiro, Colt Cabana, and Willie Mack; and rappers Chuck D, Coolio, Kung Fu Vampire, MURS, MC Lars and Vanilla Ice.


title: Sandman

text: The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.


title: Sandman

text: The Sandman is a traditional character in many children's stories and books. In Scandinavian folklore, he is said to sprinkle sand or dust on or into the eyes of children at night to bring on sleep and dreams. The grit or "sleep" (rheum) in one's eyes upon waking is the supposed result of the Sandman's work the previous night.


title: Sandman

text: E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) wrote a short story in 1816 titled "Der Sandmann", which showed how sinister such a character could be made. According to the protagonist's nurse, he threw sand in the eyes of children who wouldn't sleep, with the result of those eyes falling out and being collected by the Sandman, who then takes the eyes to his iron nest on the Moon and uses them to feed his children. The protagonist of the story grows to associate this nightmarish creature with the genuinely sinister figure of his father's associate, Coppelius. In Romanian folklore there is a similar character, Moș Ene (Ene the Elder). Hoffmann's version of the sandman is also similar to the French Canadian character known as the (seven o’clock guy), who, in some versions, throws sand in children's eyes to blind them so he may capture them. Contrarily to the sandman, his bag is the place where he traps children who do not go to bed.


title: Sandman

text: Hans Christian Andersen's 1841 folk tale "Ole Lukøje" introduced the Sandman, named Ole Lukøje, by relating dreams he gave to a young boy in a week through his magical technique of sprinkling dust in the eyes of the children. "Ole" is a Danish first name and "Lukøje" means "close eye". Andersen wrote:


title: Sandman

text: In Norway and Sweden, he is called John or Jon Blund, and in the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of southern Africa, he is referred to as "Klaas Vaak".


title: Sandman

text: Klaas Vaak is a character in a Dutch Musical 'De sprookjesmusical Klaas Vaak", has its own TV-series 'Fairytales of Klaas Vaak' and is one of the entertainers in the amusement park 'Efteling'.


title: Sandman

text: The East German stop motion children's television programme "Unser Sandmännchen" ("Our Little Sandman"), based on Hans Christian Andersen's Ole Lukøje character and the story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, has been broadcast since 1959, along with a West German version which was discontinued after reunification.


title: Sandman

text: In the 1970s, "Bonne nuit les petits" aired on French television. The show was featuring Nounours, a bear taking care of two toddlers, Nicolas and Pimprenelle. He would arrive on a cloud driven by his friend Sandman (“Le marchand de sable” in French) playing flute as the sun sets, and would only leave once he accompanies the children to bed. At the end of every episode, Nounours would say “Bonne nuit les petits” (which means “Good night kids”) before Sandman creates a light sandfall which puts the two siblings Nicolas and Pimprenelle to sleep. The two partners would then leave on the same cloud after Nounours climbed back the ladder that helped him go down at the beginning of the episode. Sandman plays here a major role, playing flute, driving the cloud, interacting with the other characters from time to time, and most importantly making the children fall asleep.


title: Sandman

text: The show was displayed every night at 7:50 pm, and every episode would last 10 minutes, so children could go to sleep peacefully after watching it. It was later reduced to 5 minutes in the 1990s for the reboot series. In Francophone Canada, it airs on Ici Radio-Canada Télé immediately before Le Téléjournal.


title: Sandman

text: The Sandman appears in "The Smurfs" episodes "Darkness Monster" and "Lazy's Nightmare", voiced by Frank Welker.


title: Sandman

text: In 1991, Paul Berry directed a stop-motion short film titled "The Sandman" based on the short story "Der Sandmann" by E. T. A. Hoffmann.


title: Sandman

text: The Sandman appears in "The Santa Clause 2" and "", portrayed by Michael Dorn. He is shown to be a member of the Council of Legendary Figures and tends to doze off during meetings causing the other members to wake him up.


title: Sandman

text: The sci-fi British television show "Doctor Who", from the earlier productions since 2005, has made an episode revolving Sandmen. The ninth episode of the ninth season (2015), called "Sleep No More", is a found footage video narrated by Gagan Rassmussen (Reece Shearsmith), a scientist and professor from the 38th century. Rassmussen manufactures a dangerous adventure involving Sandmen, to make more people watch the video and allowing the spread of the electronic signal to other people's brains to create more Sandmen. The episode has also made use of the song "Mr. Sandman", written by Pat Ballard in 1954, as the Morpheus machine theme song.


title: Sandman

text: In "Marvel Mystery Comics", the Sandman lives in the Land of Dreams, which is located in the Realm of Fairies within the potentially imaginary world of Nowhere. The Sandman ruled over the realm and would place a blanket over it every day. Those who grabbed a dream from the dream tree would have a dream based on whatever they grabbed from the tree and awaken again when the Sandman removed the blanket over his land. Anyone who did not grab a dream would end up in an eternal, dreamless sleep.


title: Sandman

text: Several fictional characters by the name of Sandman have appeared in comic books published by DC Comics. These include fantasy writer Neil Gaiman's 75-part comic book series called "The Sandman" for Vertigo Comics (an imprint of DC Comics). The original series ran from 1989 to 1996. It tells the story of Dream of the Endless, who rules over the world of dreams. He is an anthropomorphic personification of dreams known to various characters throughout the series as Morpheus, Oneiros, the Shaper of Form, Lord of the Dreaming, the Dream King, Dream-Sneak, the Cat of Dreams, Murphy, Kai'ckul, and Lord L'Zoril. He possesses three symbols of office: a helm, an amulet known as the Dreamstone, and a sand pouch.


title: Sandman

text: A comics adaption of the above-mentioned German TV show "Unser Sandmännchen" has also been published. Most notably on the back pages of FF Dabei focusing on Pittiplatsch and his friends.


title: Sandman

text: Songs based on the figure of the Sandman include the 1950s classic "Mr. Sandman" by The Chordettes, Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" in which the singer is put to sleep by "a candy-colored clown they call the sandman" to dream of his lost love, and Metallica's "Enter Sandman" whose lyrics "juxtapose childhood bedtime rituals and nightmarish imagery" and originally included a reference to crib death. The Sandman also appears in the song "Blood Red Sandman" by Lordi, "Mein Herz Brennt" by Rammstein, "Sandmann" by Oomph!, the 1971 song "Sandman" by America and the version of the lullaby "Morningtown Ride" recorded by The Seekers and is mentioned briefly in the songs “Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet” by Fall Out Boy and "Farewell and Goodnight" from the Smashing Pumpkins album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness". Ed Sheeran's album "= (Equals)" contains a song name "Sandman" that refers to the sandman bringing magical dreams. Oranger also released a song titled "Mr. Sandman" with reference to the mythical character. In 2021 SYML record a song at St. Mark’s Cathedral called "Mr. Sandman".


title: Albertsons

text: With 2,253 stores as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2020 and 270,000 employees as of fiscal year 2019, the company is the second-largest supermarket chain in North America after Kroger. Albertsons ranked 53rd in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. Prior to its January 2015 merger with Safeway Inc. for $9.2 billion, it had 1,075 supermarkets located in 29 U.S. states under 12 different banners. Its predecessor company, Albertsons, Inc., was reorganized as Albertsons LLC and sold to AB Acquisition LLC, a Cerberus Capital Management-led consortium. After buying back the majority of its former stores it sold to SuperValu in 2006, AB Acquisition announced it would change its name to Albertsons Companies Inc. in 2015. The company's corporate name was Albertson's Inc. until 2002, when the apostrophe was removed.


title: Albertsons

text: Albertsons was founded in 1939 by Joe Albertson (1906–1993) on July 21 in Boise, Idaho. An ad in Boise's "Idaho Statesman" newspaper touted Albertson's first store as "Idaho's largest and finest food store." The store was filled with perks that, at the time, were brand new: free parking, a money-back guarantee, and even an ice cream shop. The original store was built onto several times, but it was demolished in 1979 and a replacement store built on the same property. A brick monument stands on the northwest corner of 16th and State Streets in downtown Boise, commemorating the original store.


title: Albertsons

text: The grocery store was an enormous success, and Albertson reinvested his profits back into the business. New stores were opened in neighboring towns to the west: Nampa, Caldwell, and Emmett, before America's entry into World War II in late 1941. The company grew steadily in the years following World War II. When Albertson was considering putting a new store in a town, he would drive around the town and look for neighborhoods with children's clothing hanging on clotheslines, and station wagons in driveways; he knew that those kinds of neighborhoods were where he wanted to build his stores.


title: Albertsons

text: Albertson's, Inc. became a public company in 1959, and its growth continued, opening its hundredth store in Seattle in 1962. in 1964, Albertsons expanded to southern California by acquiring All American Markets, a small chain based in Orange County.


title: Albertsons

text: In 1967, Albertsons expanded into Colorado, acquiring eight stores from Furr's Supermarkets. By the end of the 1960s, Albertsons operated over 200 stores.


title: Albertsons

text: In 1969, Albertsons partnered with Skaggs Drug Centers, owned by The Skaggs Companies, Inc., to create the first combination food/drug stores, first in Texas. The partnership was a tremendous success for several years. The partnership ended due to the fact that it was getting more difficult to control. Neither partner could buy the other out, and the partnership was dissolved amicably in 1977. Skaggs kept stores in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and Albertsons kept stores in Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, as well as some Texas stores (based in San Antonio).


title: Albertsons

text: Albertsons continued to expand its base in the West during this time. In 1973, Albertsons opened its first distribution center in Brea, California. In 1974, Albertsons bought the four-store Monte Mart chain in northern California.


title: Albertsons

text: Albertsons bought Fazio's Shopping Bag in 1978 from Fisher Foods, adding 46 stores in Southern California.


title: Albertsons

text: In 1982, Albertsons reorganized its management into four regions: California, Northwest, Intermountain, and South. Albertsons continued to add stores in the 1980s, building or acquiring about 283 stores during the decade. Albertsons continued to expand in Texas beyond the Skaggs base in north Texas and San Antonio, re-entering the Dallas–Fort Worth market in 1984, and adding three Skaggs-Alpha Beta stores in Austin within months after entering that market in early 1989 with the acquisition of six Tom Thumb stores.


title: Albertsons

text: Albertsons began to expand heavily in the 1990s. In 1992, Albertsons bought the stores American Stores (formerly Skaggs Drugs Cos.) had in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Florida. Many of the stores had been opened as Skaggs Albertsons originally (later turning into "Skaggs Alpha Beta" under American Stores ownership) but by 1991 had been rebranded as Jewel-Osco. These included a few stores that American Stores opened in the late 1980s under that name in Florida. Additionally, a non-food distributions center in Ponca City, Oklahoma, was purchased from ASC.


title: Albertsons

text: The Skaggs acquisition was a success, and the new stores were integrated into Albertsons' Southern division. The ease of that acquisition and Albertsons' high-flying stock price led Albertsons to attempt expansion on a grand scale. In a series of acquisitions in the late 1990s, Albertsons purchased Seessel's and 14 other stores from Bruno's, Buttrey Food & Drug (divesting seven Buttrey stores and six Albertsons stores to Smith's and another two Buttrey stores to SuperValu), the Springfield, Missouri Smitty's chain, and three Super One Foods stores from Miner's Inc. in the Des Moines market, all while building new stores across all divisions. These acquisitions brought Albertsons into five new states: Georgia, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, and Tennessee.


title: Albertsons

text: Albertsons launched a new branch of their brand in 1997, Albertsons Express. The first of the Albertsons Express opened that year in Eagle, Idaho. This concept wasn't limited to Idaho; it expanded to locations across America located on Albertsons' existing/new stores properties. A few of the locations with Express Gas Stations include Gresham, Hillsboro, and Portland in Oregon; Houston in Texas; and Casper and Cheyenne in Wyoming.


title: Albertsons

text: In 1998, Albertsons made its biggest acquisition yet: American Stores Company, which included the chains ACME in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware; Lucky in California and Nevada; Jewel, Jewel-Osco in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, and two drug store chains: Osco Drug, with a presence in New England, the Midwest, Montana and Arizona; and Sav-on Drugs, with a presence in Southern California, Nevada, Western Arizona, and New Mexico. The acquisition briefly made Albertsons the largest American food and drug operator, with over 2,500 stores (including stand-alone drug stores) in 37 states, until Kroger's acquisition of Fred Meyer closed the following month. To make the acquisition, Albertsons was forced by anti-trust concerns to divest 146 stores, primarily in California, Nevada, and New Mexico to Certified Grocers, Raley's, Ralphs, Stater Bros., and Vons. In California, Nevada, and New Mexico, there were already Albertsons stores, so in order to not have two banners in the same area, 508 Lucky stores were converted to the Albertsons banner in November 1999, and the Lucky brand name was retired.


title: Albertsons

text: In January 2001, Albertsons restructured its "districts" to a divisional structure mostly based around distribution centers, with a drug store division and 18 regional division offices.


title: Albertsons

text: On July 18, 2001, Larry Johnston, the new chairman and CEO of Albertson's, announced it would close 165 "underperforming" stores spread across 25 states, cut jobs, and reduce its newly created operating divisions. The first change was that the Utah, Idaho, and Big Sky (Montana) division were merged back into Intermountain, while Oregon, Washington, and the Inland Empire (eastern Washington and Northern Idaho) division would be consolidated back into a single Northwestern division. Albertsons sold its freestanding Osco Drug stores in the northeastern states to Jean Coutu Group, a Canadian drug store company (those stores were re-branded as Brooks Pharmacy after the sale was completed in January 2002). In 2001, the short-lived Des Moines stores would close as well and Albertsons began to issue Albertsons Preferred Savings Cards for all of its stores.


title: Albertsons

text: Additionally, the distribution center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (home of the Great Plains division) was sold to Fleming Companies, though no stores were closed. The Great Plains division stretched all the way into Omaha, Nebraska. The sale of the distribution center included a distribution deal for Fleming to continue to supply Oklahoma and Omaha.


title: Albertsons

text: After stabilizing the company's finances and consolidating divisions, in 2004, Albertsons acquired Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Market from Sainsbury's for $2.5 billion. Albertsons also purchased Bristol Farms for $135 million. During the same time, Albertsons exited the markets of Omaha, Nebraska, where it closed or sold 21 stores, and New Orleans, Louisiana, where it closed seven, selling four to A&P, which converted them to Sav-A-Center.


title: Albertsons

text: Despite this, the acquisition spree had caused significant problems for Albertsons, Inc. Many of the acquired chains had systems that did not mesh well with Albertsons. Financing those acquisitions required Albertsons Inc. to take on significant debt. Added to those problems were significant changes in consumer buying patterns, including new competition from large discounters such as Walmart and Costco that impacted sales.


title: Albertsons

text: After several assessments of the company and months of rumors, it was announced on January 23, 2006, Albertsons, Inc. was to be sold to a consortium of companies. SuperValu would take the bulk of the company including the brand names and what was considered to be the stronger divisions, including the Albertsons divisions of Southern California, Northwest, and Intermountain, as well as the ACME, Bristol Farms, Jewel-Osco, and Shaw's Supermarkets and Star Market brands. This acquisition would also lead to SuperValu gaining access to over 100 Albertsons Express fuel centers.


title: Albertsons

text: CVS would acquire 702 stand-alone Osco and Sav-on Drug stores and converted them to CVS Pharmacy stores. They also closed about 100 of the 702.


title: Albertsons

text: What was left of Albertsons Inc. became Albertsons, LLC, purchased by a Cerberus-led group of investors, and CVS Pharmacy. The acquisition was completed on June 2, 2006, with the Cerberus-led group (who also included Kimco Realty Corporation, Schottenstein Stores Corp., Lubert-Adler Partners, and Klaff Realty). They held Albertsons LLC as "AB Acquisition LLC". Albertsons LLC included 661 stores and the distribution centers and offices from five of Albertsons divisions. These five divisions were thought to be Albertsons' five weakest divisions, and conventional wisdom in the industry was that the stores would eventually be closed or sold to other operators.


title: Albertsons

text: Following the sale, Albertson's, Inc., was removed from the NYSE. Albertsons LLC was technically the successor company to Albertsons according to SEC filings but it was New Albertsons Inc. that assumed most of the debt, got most of the property, and transitioned Albertsons stock into SuperValu stock.


title: Albertsons

text: The five Albertsons Inc. divisions that remained as Albertsons LLC were the Dallas/Fort Worth division (Texas excluding El Paso, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas), the Rocky Mountain division (Colorado, Wyoming (excluding Rock Springs and Jackson stores), Nebraska, and South Dakota), the Southwest division (Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas), the Florida division (Florida), and the Northern California division (northern California and northern Nevada). Albertson's LLC has concentrated on rebuilding market share and its store base in its strongest areas and divesting stores and other property in its weaker areas.


title: Albertsons

text: On June 6, 2006, only one week after Albertsons LLC was created, the company announced its intent to close 100 Albertsons stores by August 2006, including all but two Super Saver stores. Those closures were spread across all five divisions. Soon after, the company announced that it would be shutting down its online delivery service on July 21, 2006. To distinguish the two companies, Albertsons LLC created a second website, "AlbertsonsMarket.com".


title: Albertsons

text: In November 2006, it was announced that the Northern California division, consisting of stores located in northern California and northern Nevada, would be sold to Save Mart, with the deal closing in late February 2007. The company gradually converted all the stores to its Save Mart banner over summer 2007, except for stores in the San Francisco Bay area, which were rebranded as Lucky. The deal included two Northern California distribution centers. Most of the Albertsons locations had originally been branded as Lucky before Albertson's 1998 purchase of American Stores.


title: Albertsons

text: Most of the changes in the next six years would downscale the remaining divisions. In the Dallas–Fort Worth division, in 2007, the distribution center was sold to Associated Wholesale Grocers, and Albertsons would exit both Oklahoma and Austin. The Oklahoma stores were sold to


title: Albertsons

text: Associated Wholesale Grocers associates while the Austin stores were sold to H-E-B. With the closures, only four stores south of the Dallas–Fort Worth area existed in Texas, all of which were closed or sold by December 2011. Additionally, many of the Dallas–Fort Worth stores closed during this time, even into 2011.


title: Albertsons

text: The Florida division, which was always discontiguous with Albertsons' main market, suffered a blow in June 2008 when Albertsons LLC entered into an agreement with Lakeland, Florida-based Publix stores to sell 49 Florida Albertsons locations to the chain. This included 15 stores in Northern and Northwest Florida, 30 locations in Central Florida, and four locations in South Florida. The sale was completed in September. In April 2012, the company closed most of its stores in Florida. The Plant City distribution center was sold to Gordon Food Service though the Florida Division continued to be located there. By April 2012, only four stores remained in the entire state of Florida.


title: Albertsons

text: The Rocky Mountain division slowly shed stores. By April 2007, there were only 32 stores left in the state of Colorado. In December 2007, SuperValu acquired the eight remaining Wyoming locations from Albertson's LLC not already owned by the company. These stores continued to operate under the Albertsons banner. 2008 also brought the sale of Albertsons' lone South Dakota and Nebraska stores to Nash Finch. In August 2009, the distribution center and division office closed and the 26 remaining stores moved to the Southwest division.


title: Albertsons

text: Only the Southwest division was spared the major cuts suffered by the other divisions. On June 12, 2007, Albertson's LLC agreed to acquire all Raley's locations in New Mexico. The acquisition includes one closed and eight operating stores in Albuquerque and one store in Taos, thus doubling Albertsons store base in the Albuquerque region.


title: Albertsons

text: In June 2007, Albertson's LLC decided to discontinue its Preferred Savings Card Program, choosing instead to offer discounted items to all of its customers. In September 2007, all Albertsons stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, and Florida markets began collecting their Albertsons Preferred Savings Cards.


title: Albertsons

text: Beginning in 2008, Albertsons began exiting the fuel business, selling 72 of over one hundred Albertsons Express gas stations to Valero Energy, which converted most of them to Corner Store locations. This wouldn't be the end though, as many Express stores still remained including Cheyenne, WY. It wouldn't be until 2011-2013 that most of the Albertsons Express locations were divested under the Supervalu company. Even then, some locations including Hillsboro still displayed Albertsons Express banners.


title: Albertsons

text: While Albertsons LLC had restored its stores to profitability, SuperValu's New Albertsons Inc. had done poorly. While SuperValu did remodel many stores and open a few new stores, New Albertsons had shrunk. Of the 1100+ stores SuperValu acquired in 2006, less than 900 remained by 2013. Under SuperValu, Bristol Farms had been sold off, 36 Utah stores were sold to Associated Food Stores (leaving just three traditional Albertsons stores in the state), the Wisconsin Jewel-Osco stores had been sold or closed, as well as the Shaw's stores in Connecticut. Additionally, like Albertsons LLC, most of the fuel stations had been shuttered or sold to other operators.


title: Albertsons

text: On January 10, 2013, it was announced that SuperValu was selling New Albertsons (Albertsons, ACME, Shaw's/Star Market, and Jewel-Osco, though they had previously sold off Bristol Farms in 2010) to Cerberus Capital Management. The deal was closed in March 2013. On February 23, 2013, AB Acquisition announced it would split operations of the newly combined company into eight divisions: Northwestern, Intermountain, Southern California, Southern, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw's, and Southwestern, and in March 2013, the deal was officially closed. On paper, Albertsons LLC controlled the Albertsons-branded stores and New Albertsons Inc. controlled ACME, Shaw's/Star Market, and Jewel-Osco, but it was operated as one company.


title: Albertsons

text: On June 11, 2013, Albertsons announced its plans to merge its duplicate websites, social media accounts and mobile apps onto one of each kind, ending the use of the Albertsons Market branding (though this was never used on store exteriors) and AlbertsonsMarket.com. While its website consolidation appeared to take place as expected, its applications received bad reviews—but the biggest consequence was the mistaken deletion of their previous Facebook page and loss of over 200,000 fans. While no details were given as to the mistake made, Albertsons simply admitted that while attempting to join their Albertsons page with over 200,000 Likes and their Albertsons Market page with over 80,000 Likes, something went wrong resulting in the loss of thousands of Likes and comments.


title: Albertsons

text: That same month, Albertsons did away with the Preferred Savings Card in the former SuperValu stores that Albertsons LLC had dispensed with in 2007. The cards briefly continued in Southern California stores before being discontinued in July 2013.


title: Albertsons

text: On September 9, 2013, the company acquired Lubbock-based supermarket United Supermarkets LLC. On February 4, 2014, the FTC voted 4–0 to approve the deal. The acquisition deal cost Albertsons $385 million and required Albertsons to sell its single stores in the Amarillo, Texas, and Wichita Falls, Texas, markets. The United Supermarkets family brands include Market Street, Amigos, and United Express.


title: Albertsons

text: After the deal was finalized, the Albertsons Market brand was revived for Albertsons stores operated by United. The first to be branded as such opened in Alamogordo, New Mexico, in January 2015.


title: Albertsons

text: On February 19, 2014, Safeway began to explore selling itself, and by February 21, 2014, it was in advanced negotiations with Cerberus Capital Management. On March 6, 2014, Cerberus (parent company of Albertsons) announced it would purchase Safeway for $9.4 billion in a deal expected to close in the 4th quarter of the year.


title: Albertsons

text: In December 2014, Albertsons announced that the Haggen Company, a Bellingham, Washington, based grocery chain, was buying 146 Safeway, Albertsons and Vons stores, as required by the antitrust review of the merger.


title: Albertsons

text: On January 30, 2015, Albertsons officially acquired Safeway Inc. after being cleared by the FTC, thus giving it control of the Safeway store banners, including Randalls, Tom Thumb, Carrs Safeway, Vons, and Pavilions, plus Safeway's 49% share of Casa Ley, a Mexican grocery chain. Following the merger, Albertsons announced the new company would have 14 divisions led by three regional offices.


title: Albertsons

text: After several months of rumors, the combined operation announced it would go public as Albertsons Companies, Inc. (the new name of AB Acquisition LLC). Albertsons attempted to IPO with the ticker ABS on October 14, 2015, planning to raise as much as $1.7 billion, selling 65.3 million shares with a range of $23 - $26 per share. However, the company postponed the listing due to market conditions, particularly after Wal-Mart warned of more challenged sales earlier that day. Albertsons has reportedly postponed the IPO indefinitely, as of October 2015. All during this time, Albertsons continued to expand, purchasing 70 stores owned by the bankrupt Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (operating under the names of The Food Emporium, A&P, A&P Fresh, Superfresh, and Pathmark), which were quickly reopened as ACME stores after two-day store resets.


title: Albertsons

text: As a result of the Albertsons-Safeway merger, Albertsons began to look to divest some stores in geographies where the merger could cause a high market share. Some of these stores including one Albertsons and three Safeway stores in Wyoming were sold off to Ridley's Family Markets.


title: Albertsons

text: Also at the time of the Albertsons-Safeway merger, the 18-store Pacific Northwest chain Haggen purchased 146 West Coast Vons, Pavilions, Albertsons, and Safeway locations that had to be sold due to anti-trust concerns, paying $300 million, plus spending $100 million to rebrand the stores. The FTC had hoped this would create a regional competitor for Albertsons. On September 1, 2015, Haggen announced that the company had filed a lawsuit against Albertsons LLC and Albertsons Holdings LLC ("Albertsons") seeking more than $1 billion in damages. The complaint, which was filed that day in United States District Court for the District of Delaware, alleged that following Haggen's December 2014 purchase of 146 Albertsons and Safeway stores, Albertsons engaged in "coordinated and systematic efforts to eliminate competition and Haggen as a viable competitor in over 130 local grocery markets in five states," and "made false representations to both Haggen and the FTC about Albertsons' commitment to a seamless transformation of the stores into viable competitors under the Haggen banner."


title: Albertsons

text: A week later Haggen filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and began the process of closing all but a few dozen 'core' stores in the Pacific Northwest. Albertsons would buy back 33 of the stores being sold at auction. In January 2016, Albertsons settled the lawsuit, agreeing to pay $5.75 million to Haggen, and subsequently reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 29 'core' Haggen stores located in Washington and Oregon for $106 million, the deal being approved on March 29, 2016. As part of the deal, 15 stores would still operate under the Haggen banner, with the rest converted to Albertsons locations.


title: Albertsons

text: During this time, the Albertsons family experienced further changes. On January 11, 2016, it was announced that the three remaining Albertsons stores in Florida, located in Largo, Altamonte Springs and Oakland Park, would be re-bannered as Safeway; this marked the first time that the Safeway brand would exist on a supermarket operation in Florida. It would also re-align the stores toward the Eastern Division. In 2016, smaller acquisitions included Homedale, Idaho-based Paul's Market and Santa Rosa, California-based G&G Supermarkets. Both brands were closed before they were converted into Albertsons and Safeway stores, respectively. Additionally, the United Supermarkets subsidiary acquired seven locations from Sweetwater, Texas-based Lawrence Brothers. These were converted into United Supermarkets or Albertsons Market stores. In late 2016, it was announced that Andronico's in the San Francisco area would be acquired as well. These stores would become "Safeway Community Markets" and still hold what made Andronico's unique, including chef-prepared items. When the first store reopened in February 2017 under the ownership of the Northern California division, it was still bannered as Andronico's due to an issue in obtaining local permits but the other stores were able to reopen as Safeway Community Markets.


title: Albertsons

text: On February 17, 2017, the Randalls store in south Katy, Texas, serving the Cinco Ranch area closed. On March 6, 2017, shortly after the Katy Randalls closure, it was announced that the Houston-area distribution center near Cypress, Texas, would be closed and the operations consolidated in the Roanoke, Texas Tom Thumb distribution center in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to supply the Houston and Austin-area stores instead. Also, the Houston Division offices would be folded into the legacy Albertsons' South Division offices in Fort Worth. Additionally, the stores in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, market were realigned toward the United Supermarkets division.


title: Albertsons

text: During the time after the Albertsons-Safeway merger, Albertsons was experimenting with different banners, converting many stores to Safeway, etc., including many Colorado Albertsons locations. With this rebranding also came additional closures, such as Centennial, Colorado. Some exceptions include Pueblo and Durango in Colorado, which are owned by a different division.


title: Albertsons

text: To start off 2018, Albertsons began to reenter the fuel market, opening a brand new Albertsons Express in Boise, ID at the site of a former Pizza Hut; this also introduced a new concept to the state of Idaho's gas stations, where the pumps are chip-credit-card enabled. At least one Albertsons Express from the original generation of Albertson's fuel centers located in Hillsboro, OR remained open in the relaunch of Albertsons Express. As of September 2021, there are exactly 7 Albertsons Express across America. They are located in Idaho with three sites; and in Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas with one site each.


title: Albertsons

text: On February 20, 2018, Albertsons announced plans to acquire Rite Aid, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. In addition to retaining the stand-alone Rite Aid pharmacies, its Osco and Sav-on pharmacies located in Albertsons' existing stores were expected to be replaced by Rite Aid pharmacies. On August 8, 2018, Rite Aid announced that the plan had failed to please shareholders and the proposed acquisition would be canceled.


title: Albertsons

text: That same year, Albertsons closed several stores across multiple divisions, including all three Safeway stores in Florida. These stores were sold to Publix for an undisclosed price. With the closing, Albertsons officially exited the state, which it had been in since the late 1970s when they acquired their Skaggs Albertsons stores. Additionally, the company divested its share in Casa Ley, selling it to Tenedora CL del Noroeste.


title: Albertsons

text: Also that year three new Lucky locations in Utah opened, two in West Valley City and Salt Lake City, replacing the last two Super Saver stores, and one in Tooele, replacing a former Albertsons store.


title: Albertsons

text: The next year, a location in West Jordan, Utah opened, replacing another Albertsons that closed in the late 2000s.


title: Albertsons

text: In 2019, Albertsons opened Albertsons Market Street in Meridian, Idaho, a flagship store located in a converted ShopKo store and based on the Market Street brand of United Supermarkets. This became Albertsons' largest store at 110,000 square feet and featured a variety of departments exclusive to the store or found rarely in the chain, including an oyster bar, a full bar area, and in-house sausages. Additionally, around the same time, a new Andronico's Community Markets opened in Monterey, California, the first new store to be branded as such.


title: Albertsons

text: In 2020, Albertsons announced the closing of a distribution center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, laying off up 520 people. Albertsons said its duties will be shifted to an existing distribution center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which will add up to 300 workers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Albertsons' total sales experienced a growth of 27% compared to the previous year. The rise in sales and higher traffic came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in gross sales of $22.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020. Additionally, the company finally went public in June 2020 after years of delays.


title: Albertsons

text: On October 14, 2022, Kroger announced its intent to merge with Albertsons, with Kroger acquiring all Albertsons shares, and divesting some stores to secure regulatory approval. The $24.6 billion transaction is expected to close in early 2024. The announcement was met with criticism due to the potential for monopolies to form in some U.S. cities that have few other grocery chains, as well as food deserts that would form from store closures.


title: Albertsons

text: On November 1, 2022, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court against Albertsons and Kroger seeking to halt the payment of a $4 billion dividend to Albertsons shareholders. The lawsuit aims to prevent Albertsons from winding down operations and preparing store closures during regulator review of the merger. Other state attorneys general have also investigated the merger according to Reuters.


title: Albertsons

text: Albertsons once owned several store brands ("private label" brands), often bearing the name of the chain sold under, e.g. "Jewel" brand products in the Jewel and Jewel-Osco locations. Other Albertsons brands over the years have included "A+", "Good Day", "Janet Lee" (named after the executive vice-president's daughter), "Master's Choice", and "Village Market". The drug store brands (used for health and beauty aids, over-the-counter medications, and intimate paper goods) were consolidated under the name "Equaline", rather than the previous "Sav-On Osco by Albertsons" brand. Albertsons introduced an upscale private label brand, "Essensia", in 2003, which was later renamed by SuperValu as Culinary Circle.


title: Albertsons

text: Store brand items in Albertsons stores included Albertsons (national brand quality food), Arctic Shores (frozen seafood), Baby Basics (diapers and infant care items), Culinary Circle ("gourmet" foods and ready-made meals), Equaline (health and beauty products), Farm Fresh (fresh produce), Flavorite (national brand quality foods, used throughout Supervalu stores), Homelife (national brand quality non-foods), Java Delight (coffee), Shoppers Value (value-priced items), Stockman & Dakota (high-quality beef), Stone Ridge (ice cream and sherbet), Super Chill (soft drinks and mixers), Whole Care Pet (pet foods and supplies), and Wild Harvest (natural and organic foods). In 2011, SuperValu announced it would eliminate Flavorite and all brands named after the chains it operates (such as Albertsons, Jewel, Shaw's, etc.) and would replace those labels with a new label, Essential Everyday.


title: Albertsons

text: After its purchase of Safeway, Albertsons began replacing some of its brands with Safeway's. O Organics and Open Nature replaced Wild Harvest, Pantry Essentials replaced Shoppers Value, and Refreshe replaced Super Chill. By late 2015, the remaining store brands were replaced with "Signature" (formerly Safeway Care, Farms, Home, and Kitchens). Albertsons started selling Lucerne dairy products, Mom To Mom baby products, and Priority Pet Food as well.


title: Albertsons

text: Albertsons Companies line of Own Brands products launches 1,100 brand new items a year, making it one of the most diverse in-house brands in the country. Albertsons Companies' O Organics line is one of the nation's largest brand of USDA-certified organic products, with annual sales over $1 billion; it offers a wide array of products, for a variety of customers.


title: Albertsons

text: On average, stores in the Albertsons Companies range between and and almost universally feature a bakery, deli, meat counter, produce department, and seafood counter; many of the stores also feature in-store banks and pharmacies. Larger and newer stores may also offer enhanced amenities, including Starbucks coffee counters, prepared foods, in-store pizza, salad bars, and juice bars.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The Pilgrims, also known as the Pilgrim Fathers, were the English settlers who came to North America on the "Mayflower" and established the Plymouth Colony in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts, named after the final departure port of Plymouth, Devon. Their leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownists, or Separatist Puritans, who had fled religious persecution in England for the tolerance of 17th-century Holland in the Netherlands.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: They held many of the same Puritan Calvinist religious beliefs but, unlike most other Puritans, they maintained that their congregations should separate from the English state church, which led to them being labeled Separatists (the word "Pilgrims" was not used to refer to them until several centuries later). After several years living in exile in Holland, they eventually determined to establish a new settlement in the New World and arranged with investors to fund them. They established Plymouth Colony in 1620, where they erected Congregationalist churches. The Pilgrims' story became a central theme in the history and culture of the United States.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The core of the group who later were to be referred to as "Pilgrims" was brought together around 1605 when they quit the Church of England to form Separatist congregations in Nottinghamshire, England, led by John Robinson, Richard Clyfton, and John Smyth. Their congregations held Brownist beliefs—that true churches were voluntary democratic congregations, not whole Christian nations—as taught by Robert Browne, John Greenwood, and Henry Barrow. As Separatists, they held that their differences with the Church of England were irreconcilable and that their worship should be independent of the trappings, traditions, and organization of a central church.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The Separatist movement was controversial. Under the Act of Uniformity 1559, it was illegal not to attend official Church of England services, with a fine of one shilling (£0.05; about £ today) for each missed Sunday and holy day. The penalties included imprisonment and larger fines for conducting unofficial services. The Seditious Sectaries Act of 1593 was specifically aimed at outlawing the Brownists. Under this policy, the London Underground Church from 1566, and then Robert Browne and his followers in Norfolk during the 1580s, were repeatedly imprisoned. Henry Barrow, John Greenwood, and John Penry were executed for sedition in 1593. Browne had taken his followers into exile in Middelburg, and Penry urged the London Separatists to emigrate in order to escape persecution, so after his death they went to Amsterdam.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: During much of Brewster's tenure (1595–1606), the Archbishop of York was Matthew Hutton. He displayed some sympathy to the Puritan cause, writing to Robert Cecil, Secretary of State to James I in 1604:


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The Puritans though they differ in Ceremonies and accidentes, yet they agree with us in substance of religion, and I thinke all or the moste parte of them love his Majestie, and the presente state, and I hope will yield to conformitie. But the Papistes are opposite and contrarie in very many substantiall pointes of religion, and cannot but wishe the Popes authoritie and popish religion to be established.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Many Puritans had hoped that reforms and reconciliation would be possible when James came to power which would allow them independence, but the Hampton Court Conference of 1604 denied nearly all of the concessions which they had requested—except for an updated English translation of the Bible. The same year, Richard Bancroft became Archbishop of Canterbury and launched a campaign against Puritanism and the Separatists. He suspended 300 ministers and fired 80 more, which led some of them to found more Separatist churches. Robinson, Clifton, and their followers founded a Brownist church, making a covenant with God "to walk in all his ways made known, or to be made known, unto them, according to their best endeavours, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them".


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Archbishop Hutton died in 1606 and Tobias Matthew was appointed as his replacement. He was one of James's chief supporters at the 1604 conference, and he promptly began a campaign to purge the archdiocese of non-conforming influences, including Puritans, Separatists, and those wishing to return to the Catholic faith. Disobedient clergy were replaced, and prominent Separatists were confronted, fined, and imprisoned. He is credited with driving people out of the country who refused to attend Anglican services.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: William Brewster was a former diplomatic assistant to the Netherlands. He was living in the Scrooby manor house while serving as postmaster for the village and bailiff to the Archbishop of York. He had been impressed by Clyfton's services and had begun participating in services led by John Smyth in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. After a time, he arranged for a congregation to meet privately at the Scrooby manor house. Services were held beginning in 1606 with Clyfton as pastor, John Robinson as teacher, and Brewster as the presiding elder. Shortly after, Smyth and members of the Gainsborough group moved on to Amsterdam. Brewster was fined £20 (about £ today) "in absentia" for his non-compliance with the church. This followed his September 1607 resignation from the postmaster position, about the time that the congregation had decided to follow the Smyth party to Amsterdam.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Scrooby member William Bradford of Austerfield kept a journal of the congregation's events which was eventually published as "Of Plymouth Plantation". He wrote concerning this time period:


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: But after these things they could not long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted & persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as flea-bitings in comparison of these which now came upon them. For some were taken & clapt up in prison, others had their houses besett & watcht night and day, & hardly escaped their hands; and the most were faine to flie & leave their howses & habitations, and the means of their livelehood.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The Pilgrims moved to the Netherlands around 1607-08. They lived in Leiden, Holland, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, residing in small houses behind the "Kloksteeg" opposite the Pieterskerk.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: and many members were able to support themselves working at Leiden University or in the textile, printing, and brewing trades. Others were less able to bring in sufficient income, hampered by their rural backgrounds and the language barrier; for those, accommodations were made on an estate bought by Robinson and three partners. Bradford wrote of their years in Leiden:


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: For these & other reasons they removed to Leyden, a fair & bewtifull citie, and of a sweete situation, but made more famous by ye universitie wherwith it is adorned, in which of late had been so many learned man. But wanting that traffike by sea which Amerstdam injoyes, it was not so beneficiall for their outward means of living & estats. But being now hear pitchet they fell to such trads & imployments as they best could; valewing peace & their spirituall comforte above any other riches whatsoever. And at length they came to raise a competente & comforteable living, but with hard and continuall labor.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: William Brewster had been teaching English at the university, and Robinson enrolled in 1615 to pursue his doctorate. There he participated in a series of debates, particularly regarding the contentious issue of Calvinism versus Arminianism (siding with the Calvinists against the Remonstrants).


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Brewster acquired typesetting equipment about 1616 in a venture financed by Thomas Brewer, and began publishing the debates through a local press.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The Netherlands, however, was a land whose culture and language were strange and difficult for the English congregation to understand or learn. They found the Dutch political situation to be unstable, and their children were becoming more and more Dutch as the years passed. The congregation came to believe that they faced eventual extinction if they remained there.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: By 1617, the congregation was stable and relatively secure, but there were ongoing issues which needed to be resolved. Bradford noted that many members of the congregation were showing signs of early aging, compounding the difficulties which some had in supporting themselves. A few had spent their savings and so gave up and returned to England, and the leaders feared that more would follow and that the congregation would become unsustainable. The employment issues made it unattractive for others to come to Leiden, and younger members had begun leaving to find employment and adventure elsewhere. Also compelling was the possibility of missionary work in some distant land, an opportunity that rarely arose in a Protestant stronghold.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Bradford lists some of the reasons for which the Pilgrims felt they had to leave, including the discouragements that they faced in the Netherlands and the hope of attracting others by finding "a better, and easier place of living", the children of the group being "drawn away by evil examples into extravagance and dangerous courses", and the "great hope, for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world." Edward Winslow's list was similar. In addition to the economic worries and missionary possibilities, he stressed that it was important for the people to retain their English identity, culture, and language. They also believed that the English Church in Leiden could do little to benefit the larger community there.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: At the same time, there were many uncertainties about moving to such a place as America, as stories had come back about failed colonies. There were fears that the native people would be violent, that there would be no source of food or water, that they might be exposed to unknown diseases, and that travel by sea was always hazardous. Balancing all this was a local political situation which was in danger of becoming unstable. The truce was faltering in the Eighty Years' War, and there was fear over what the attitudes of Spain might be toward them.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Possible destinations included Guiana on the northeast coast of South America where the Dutch had established Essequibo colony, or another site near the Virginia settlements. Virginia was an attractive destination because the presence of the older colony might offer better security and trade opportunities; however, they also felt that they should not settle too near, since that might inadvertently duplicate the political environment back in England. The London Company administered a territory of considerable size in the region, and the intended settlement location was at the mouth of the Hudson River (which instead became the Dutch colony of New Netherland). This plan allayed their concerns of social, political, and religious conflicts, but still promised the military and economic benefits of being close to an established colony.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Robert Cushman and John Carver were sent to England to solicit a land patent. Their negotiations were delayed because of conflicts internal to the London Company, but ultimately a patent was secured in the name of John Wincob on June 9 (Old Style)/June 19 (New Style), 1619.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The charter was granted with the king's condition that the Leiden group's religion would not receive official recognition.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Preparations then stalled because of the continued problems within the London Company, and competing Dutch companies approached the congregation with the possibility of settling in the Hudson River area. David Baeckelandt suggests that the Leiden group was approached by Englishman Matthew Slade, son-in-law of Petrus Placius, a cartographer for the Dutch East India Company. Slade was also a spy for the English Ambassador, and the Pilgrims' plans were therefore known both at court and among influential investors in the Virginia Company's colony at Jamestown. Negotiations were broken off with the Dutch, however, at the encouragement of English merchant Thomas Weston, who assured them that he could resolve the London Company delays. The London Company intended to claim the area explored by Hudson before the Dutch could become fully established, and the first Dutch settlers did not arrive in the area until 1624.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Weston did come with a substantial change, telling the Leiden group that parties in England had obtained a land grant north of the existing Virginia territory to be called New England. This was only partially true; the new grant did come to pass, but not until late in 1620 when the Plymouth Council for New England received its charter. It was expected that this area could be fished profitably, and it was not under the control of the existing Virginia government.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: A second change was known only to parties in England who did not inform the larger group. New investors had been brought into the venture who wanted the terms altered so that, at the end of the seven-year contract, half of the settled land and property would revert to the investors. Also, there had been a provision in the original agreement that allowed each settler to have two days per week to work on personal business, but this provision was dropped from the final agreement without the knowledge of the Pilgrims.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Amid these negotiations, William Brewster found himself involved with religious unrest emerging in Scotland. In 1618, King James had promulgated the Five Articles of Perth which were seen in Scotland as an attempt to encroach on their Presbyterian tradition. Brewster published several pamphlets that were critical of this law, and they were smuggled into Scotland by April 1619. These pamphlets were traced back to Leiden, and the English authorities unsuccessfully attempted to arrest Brewster. English ambassador Dudley Carleton became aware of the situation and began pressuring the Dutch government to extradite Brewster, and the Dutch responded by arresting Thomas Brewer the financier in September. Brewster's whereabouts remain unknown between then and the colonists' departure, but the Dutch authorities did seize the typesetting materials which he had used to print his pamphlets. Meanwhile, Brewer was sent to England for questioning, where he stonewalled government officials until well into 1620. He was ultimately convicted in England for his continued religious publication activities and sentenced in 1626 to a 14-year prison term.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Not all of the congregation were able to depart on the first trip. Many members were not able to settle their affairs within the time constraints, and the budget was limited for travel and supplies, and the group decided that the initial settlement should be undertaken primarily by younger and stronger members. The remainder agreed to follow if and when they could. Robinson would remain in Leiden with the larger portion of the congregation, and Brewster was to lead the American congregation. The church in America would be run independently, but it was agreed that membership would automatically be granted in either congregation to members who moved between the continents.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: With personal and business matters agreed upon, the Pilgrims procured supplies and a small ship. "Speedwell" was to bring some passengers from the Netherlands to England, then on to America where it would be kept for the fishing business, with a crew hired for support services during the first year. The larger ship "Mayflower" was leased for transport and exploration services.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The "Speedwell" was originally named "Swiftsure". It was built in 1577 at 60 tons and was part of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada. It departed Delfshaven in July 1620 with the Leiden colonists, after a canal ride from Leyden of about seven hours. It reached Southampton, Hampshire, and met with the "Mayflower" and the additional colonists hired by the investors. With final arrangements made, the two vessels set out on August 5 (Old Style)/August 15 (New Style).Soon after, the "Speedwell" crew reported that their ship was taking on water, so both were diverted to Dartmouth, Devon. The crew inspected "Speedwell" for leaks and sealed them, but their second attempt to depart got them only as far as Plymouth, Devon. The crew decided that "Speedwell" was untrustworthy, and her owners sold her; the ship's master and some of the crew transferred to the "Mayflower" for the trip. William Bradford observed that the "Speedwell" seemed "overmasted", thus putting a strain on the hull; and he attributed her leaking to crew members who had deliberately caused it, allowing them to abandon their year-long commitments. Passenger Robert Cushman wrote that the leaking was caused by a loose board.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Of the 120 combined passengers, 102 were chosen to travel on the "Mayflower" with the supplies consolidated. Of these, about half had come by way of Leiden, and about 28 of the adults were members of the congregation.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The reduced party finally sailed successfully on September 6 (Old Style)/September 16 (New Style), 1620.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Initially the trip went smoothly, but under way they were met with strong winds and storms. One of these caused a main beam to crack, and the possibility was considered of turning back, even though they were more than halfway to their destination. However, they repaired the ship sufficiently to continue, by using a "great iron screw" brought along by the colonists (probably a jack to be used for either house construction or a cider press). Passenger John Howland was washed overboard in the storm but caught a top-sail halyard trailing in the water and was pulled back on board.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: One crew member and one passenger died before they reached land. A child was born at sea and named Oceanus.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The "Mayflower" passengers sighted land on November 9, 1620 after enduring miserable conditions for about 65 days, and William Brewster led them in singing Psalm 100. They confirmed that the area was Cape Cod within the New England territory recommended by Weston. They attempted to sail the ship around the cape towards the Hudson River, also within the New England grant area, but they encountered shoals and difficult currents around Cape Malabar (the old French name for Monomoy Island). They decided to turn around, and the ship was anchored in Provincetown Harbor by November 11/21.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The charter was incomplete for the Plymouth Council for New England when the colonists departed England (it was granted while they were in transit on November 3/13). They arrived without a patent; the older Wincob patent was from their abandoned dealings with the London Company. Some of the passengers, aware of the situation, suggested that they were free to do as they chose upon landing, without a patent in place, and to ignore the contract with the investors.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: A brief contract was later on drafted to address this issue, later known as the Mayflower Compact, promising cooperation among the settlers "for the general good of the Colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." It organized them into what was called a "civill body politick," in which issues would be decided by voting, the key ingredient of democracy. It was ratified by majority rule, with 41 adult male Pilgrims signing for the 102 passengers (74 males and 28 females). Included in the company were 13 male servants and three female servants, along with some sailors and craftsmen hired for short-term service to the colony. At this time, John Carver was chosen as the colony's first governor. It was Carver who had chartered the "Mayflower" and his is the first signature on the Mayflower Compact, being the most respected and affluent member of the group. The Mayflower Compact is considered to be one of the seeds of American democracy and one source has called it the world's first written constitution.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Thorough exploration of the area was delayed for more than two weeks because the shallop or pinnace (a smaller sailing vessel) which they brought had been partially dismantled to fit aboard the "Mayflower" and was further damaged in transit. Small parties, however, waded to the beach to fetch firewood and attend to long-deferred personal hygiene.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Exploratory parties were undertaken while awaiting the shallop, led by Myles Standish (an English soldier from Chorley whom the colonists had met while in Leiden) and Christopher Jones. They encountered an old European-built house and iron kettle, left behind by some ship's crew, and a few recently cultivated fields, showing corn stubble.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: They came upon an artificial mound near the dunes which they partially uncovered and found to be an Indian grave. Farther along, a similar mound was found, more recently made, and they discovered that some of the burial mounds also contained corn. The colonists took some of the corn, intending to use it as seed for planting, while they reburied the rest. William Bradford later recorded in his book "Of Plymouth Plantation" that, after the shallop had been repaired,


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: They also found two of the Indian's houses covered with mats, and some of their implements in them; but the people had run away and could not be seen. Without permission they took more corn, and beans of various colours. These they brought away, intending to give them full satisfaction (payment) when they should meet with any of them, – as about six months afterwards they did.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: And it is to be noted as a special providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people, that they thus got seed to plant corn the next year, or they might have starved; for they had none, nor any likelihood of getting any, till too late for the planting season.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: By December, most of the passengers and crew had become ill, coughing violently. Many were also suffering from the effects of scurvy. There had already been ice and snowfall, hampering exploration efforts; half of them died during the first winter.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Explorations resumed on December 6/16. The shallop party headed south along the cape, consisting of seven colonists from Leiden, three from London, and seven crew; they chose to land at the area inhabited by the Nauset people (the area around Brewster, Chatham, Eastham, Harwich, and Orleans) where they saw some people on the shore who fled when they approached. Inland they found more mounds, one containing acorns which they exhumed, and more graves, which they decided not to dig. They remained ashore overnight and heard cries near the encampment. The following morning, they were attacked by Indigenous peoples who shot at them with arrows. The colonists retrieved their firearms and shot back, then chased them into the woods but did not find them. There was no more contact with the Natives for several months.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The Native peoples were already familiar with the English, who had intermittently visited the area for fishing and trade before "Mayflower" arrived. In the Cape Cod area, relations were poor following a visit several years earlier by Thomas Hunt. Hunt kidnapped 20 people from Patuxet (the site of Plymouth Colony) and another seven from Nausett, and he attempted to sell them as slaves in Europe. One of the Patuxet abductees was Squanto, who became an ally of the Plymouth Colony.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The Pokanokets also lived nearby and had developed a particular dislike for the English after one group came in, captured numerous people, and shot them aboard their ship. By this time, there had already been reciprocal killings at Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod. But during one of the captures by the English, Squanto escaped to England and there became a Christian. When he came back, he found that most of his tribe had died from plague.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Continuing westward, the shallop's mast and rudder were broken by storms and the sail was lost. They rowed for safety, encountering the harbor formed by Duxbury and Plymouth barrier beaches and stumbling on land in the darkness. They remained at this spot for two days to recuperate and repair equipment. They named it Clark's Island for a "Mayflower" mate who first set foot on it.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: They resumed exploration on Monday, December 11/21 when the party crossed over to the mainland and surveyed the area that ultimately became the settlement. The anniversary of this survey is observed in Massachusetts as Forefathers' Day and is traditionally associated with the Plymouth Rock landing tradition. This land was especially suited to winter building because it had already been cleared, and the tall hills provided a good defensive position.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The cleared village was known as Patuxet to the Wampanoag people and was abandoned about three years earlier following a plague that killed all of its residents. The "Indian fever" involved hemorrhaging and is assumed to have been fulminating smallpox. The outbreak had been severe enough that the colonists discovered unburied skeletons in the dwellings.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The exploratory party returned to the "Mayflower", anchored away, having been brought to the harbor on December 16/26. Only nearby sites were evaluated, with a hill in Plymouth (so named on earlier charts)


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Construction commenced immediately, with the first common house nearly completed by January 9/19, 20 feet square and built for general use. At this point, each single man was ordered to join himself to one of the 19 families in order to eliminate the need to build any more houses than absolutely necessary. Each extended family was assigned a plot one-half rod wide and three rods long for each household member, then each family built its own dwelling. Supplies were brought ashore, and the settlement was mostly complete by early February.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: When the first house was finished, it immediately became a hospital for the ill Pilgrims. Thirty-one of the company were dead by the end of February, with deaths still rising. Coles Hill became the first cemetery, on a prominence above the beach, and the graves were allowed to overgrow with grass for fear that the Indians would discover how weakened the settlement had actually become.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: Between the landing and March, only 47 colonists had survived the diseases that they contracted on the ship. During the worst of the sickness, only six or seven of the group were able to feed and care for the rest. In this time, half the "Mayflower" crew also died.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: William Bradford became governor in 1621 upon the death of John Carver. On March 22, 1621, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony signed a peace treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags. The patent of Plymouth Colony was surrendered by Bradford to the freemen in 1640, minus a small reserve of three tracts of land. Bradford served for 11 consecutive years, and was elected to various other terms until his death in 1657.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The colony contained Bristol County, Plymouth County, and Barnstable County, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was reorganized and issued a new charter as the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1691, and Plymouth ended its history as a separate colony.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The first use of the word "pilgrims" for the "Mayflower" passengers appeared in William Bradford's 1651 "Of Plymouth Plantation". As he finished recounting his group's July 1620 departure from Leiden, he used the imagery of Hebrews 11 (Hebrews 11:13–16) about Old Testament "strangers and pilgrims" who had the opportunity to return to their old country but instead longed for a better, heavenly country.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: So they lefte [that] goodly & pleasante citie, which had been ther resting place, nere 12 years; but they knew they were pilgrimes, & looked not much on these things; but lift up their eyes to y heavens, their dearest cuntrie, and quieted their spirits.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: There is no record of the term "Pilgrims" being used to describe Plymouth's founders for 150 years after Bradford wrote this passage, except when quoting him. The "Mayflower's" story was retold by historians Nathaniel Morton (in 1669) and Cotton Mather (in 1702), and both paraphrased Bradford's passage and used his word "pilgrims". At Plymouth's Forefathers' Day observance in 1793, Rev. Chandler Robbins recited this passage.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The name "Pilgrims" was probably not in popular use before about 1798, even though Plymouth celebrated Forefathers' Day several times between 1769 and 1798 and used a variety of terms to honor Plymouth's founders. The term "Pilgrims" was not mentioned, other than in Robbins' 1793 recitation.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The first documented use of the term that was not simply quoting Bradford was at a December 22, 1798 celebration of Forefathers' Day in Boston. A song composed for the occasion used the word "Pilgrims", and the participants drank a toast to "The Pilgrims of Leyden".


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: The term was used prominently during Plymouth's next Forefather's Day celebration in 1800, and was used in Forefathers' Day observances thereafter.


title: Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)

text: By the 1820s, the term "Pilgrims" was becoming more common. Daniel Webster repeatedly referred to "the Pilgrims" in his December 22, 1820 address for Plymouth's bicentennial which was widely read. Harriet Vaughan Cheney used it in her 1824 novel "A Peep at the Pilgrims in Sixteen Thirty-Six", and the term also gained popularity with the 1825 publication of Felicia Hemans's classic poem "The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers".


title: Third Eye Blind

text: Third Eye Blind is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1993. After years of lineup changes in the early and mid-1990s, the songwriting duo of Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadogan signed the band's first major-label recording contract with Elektra Records in 1996. The band released their self-titled debut album in 1997, with the band largely consisting of Jenkins (vocals, rhythm guitar), Cadogan (lead guitar), Arion Salazar (bass guitar), and Brad Hargreaves (drums). Shortly after the release of the band's second album in 1999, "Blue", with the same line-up, Cadogan was released from the band under controversial circumstances.


title: Third Eye Blind

text: The band continued, but with many line-up changes and long gaps between album releases for the next 15 years. The band released "Out of the Vein" in 2003 and "Ursa Major" in 2009 with guitarist Tony Fredianelli, but parted ways with him shortly afterwards, leaving only Jenkins and Hargreaves as the remaining core members. The band's lineup stabilized again in the mid-2010s, adding Kryz Reid (lead guitar), Alex Kopp (keyboards), and Alex LeCavalier (bass guitar). The new lineup led to increased output with less time between releases - "Dopamine" (2015), and a string of EPs, "We Are Drugs" (2016) and "Thanks for Everything" (2018). After Kopp was replaced by Colin Creev, a sixth studio album, "Screamer" (2019) was released, and a seventh studio album, "Our Bande Apart", was released on September 24, 2021.


title: Third Eye Blind

text: The band found commercial success in the late 1990s, with "Third Eye Blind" and "Blue" certified platinum six times and single platinum in the United States, respectively. Several songs were commercial successes as well, with "Semi-Charmed Life", "Jumper", and "How's It Going to Be", all reaching the Top 10 of the US "Billboard" Hot 100, and "Never Let You Go" reaching the Top 20. Third Eye Blind has sold around 12 million records worldwide.


title: Third Eye Blind

text: The band's origins trace back to the early 1990s, with frontman Stephan Jenkins writing music, but struggling to put and hold together a consistent musical lineup. Originally, Jenkins started his music career as one half of an interracial rap duo "Puck and Natty" with musician Herman Anthony Chunn, who went by the stage name "Zen". Because of legal issues from the musical group Tuck & Patti, the duo later changed their name to "Puck and Zen". The two managed to attract some attention from record labels - enough to get one of their few recorded songs "Just Wanna Be Your Friend" on a soundtrack for the television drama "Beverly Hills, 90210". The two were in talks of being signed with Capitol Records, but Jenkins did not see eye to eye on the label's views on the musical direction or what music producer they would work with, and negotiations fell through. The group broke up shortly afterwards, and while short-lived, it was in the group that Jenkins first developed connections in the industry, and wrote the first iteration of what would become Third Eye Blind's biggest hit, "Semi-Charmed Life".


title: Third Eye Blind

text: After the experience, Jenkins moved into the direction of starting up a rock band instead. Jenkins recounted that over the span of a few years, he would recruit members, only to have them frequently dropout because of issues such as drug addiction or joining other bands. Jenkins would write and workshop early material with musician Jason Slater for years before the band started up formally, and the two would work together to record the band's first demo together in 1993. Jenkins reconnected with music producer and sound engineer David Gleeson, a contact from his Puck and Natty days, to be able to record demos at professional studios, such as Skywalker Ranch. Gleeson would assist in the sessions, but eventually had a falling out with Jenkins and stopped working with the band. George Earth also played guitar on some demos. Much of the contents of the first demo, such as the track "Hold Me Down", would be scrapped and shelved entirely, but Jenkins would continue to work on some material like "Semi-Charmed Life" or "Alright Caroline" that would eventually see release. Around this time, guitarist Tony Fredianelli would audition for the band as well, though according to Slater, Jenkins believed him to be "too [heavy] metal" for the band. Around the time frame of 1993 and 1994, Slater would depart the band, while guitarist Kevin Cadogan and bassist Arion Salazar would join. The band cycled through a number of drummers - Adrian Burley, Steve Bowman (Counting Crows), and Michael Urbano (Smash Mouth).


title: Third Eye Blind

text: Salazar noted that the band struggled to make much progress prior to the arrival of Cadogan, and felt that the songs really started to develop when Cadogan's big guitar sound was added to Jenkin's more stripped down demos. The two became songwriting partners, with Jenkins writing the lyrics and Cadogan helping him brainstorm musical ideas, and worked on a second set of demos. The band toured locally extensively across 1994 and early 1995, building up a following. However, in July 1995, the band hit a significant setback with a disastrous "Battle of the Bands" performance that would see the winner be offered a record deal. Urbano, the drummer at the time, quit shortly before the show, Jenkins was sick and unable to perform well, and Cadogan blew out his guitar amp two songs into the show. They lost the contest, and with it, the potential record deal and the confidence of their current management and studio team, who left the band right afterwards. On the verge of breaking up, the band instead regrouped, recruited two new key people - a new drummer in Brad Hargreaves, and a new manager, Eric Gotland, a long-time personal friend and confidant of Jenkins. Jenkins, Cadogan, Salazar, and Hargreaves would go on to be the core lineup for the band during the recording of their first two studio albums.


title: Third Eye Blind

text: Through past connections of Slater and Gotland, they were able to start recording a third demo with producer and sound Engineer Eric Valentine, with some additional funding from a partially interested RCA Records, from late 1995 to February 1996. Valentine noted that he had heard the demos the band had recorded prior to his arrival, but felt it was "not ready" and needed to be reworked or discarded. He later expressed more satisfaction with material he had worked on. RCA passed on the band after hearing the material, but the demos instead attracted the attention of Arista Records. Label founder Clive Davis invited the band to perform at a band showcase in New York City in March 1996. During Third Eye Blind concerts at the time, it was customary for the band to have a piñata release candy above their mosh pits, yet at the showcase for the record executives, lead singer Jenkins released live crickets from the piñata instead. Cadogan noted that the performance was ultimately not successful, and Davis passed on signing the band, but the event built hype and notoriety for the band, and Salazar noted that the well-developed, 14 song demo they had recorded with Valentine still had helped the band feel more prepared to deal with record labels. In April 1996, after Jenkins had challenged Epic Records executive Dave Massey in a meeting, the band landed an opening gig for Oasis at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium. In an unlikely scenario for an opening act, the band was invited back for an encore after playing their initial set and was paid double by the concert promoter. In addition, Jenkins' production of hip hop duo The Braids' cover of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" gained major-label attention. Afterwards, the band found themselves in a bidding war among record labels, and after another showcase in June 1996 in Los Angeles, the band signed a contract with Sylvia Rhone of Elektra Records because they believed it offered the most artistic freedom. It was later reported as the largest publishing deal ever for an unsigned artist at the time. Throughout this, the band had continued to work on their music, with much of the album being largely put together prior to being signed to Elektra. Some iterations of songs were even asked to be redone to be more similar to the original demos.


title: Third Eye Blind

text: While the band had finally accomplished their goal of getting signed, troubles persisted with the band. Jenkins and Valentine clashed; Valentine was hired as a sound engineer, but felt he was tasked with duties that a full-fledged music producer would do, without the pay that would normally come with the role. Valentine ended up getting a co-production credit, but people involved felt he did far more for the album than technically credited for. Valentine also criticized Jenkins's decision to buyout all of Zen's early contribution to album material. Jenkins contended that he heavily reworked any of Zen's contributions. Cadogan also became disillusioned throughout the recording sessions. His understanding was that his role in the band was of an equal partnership with Jenkins, but did not feel he was treated as such. Valentine reported that while Jenkins and Cadogan recorded good material together, they were constantly at odds with one another in the studio, with their relationship deteriorating over time as they finished the album. Additionally, unbeknownst to the rest of the band until years later, even though both Cadogan and Jenkins were signed to the deal from the record label, days prior to the signing, Jenkins secretly set up a Third Eye Blind Inc" as a corporation, and named himself the sole owner and shareholder, giving him complete control over all legal and financial matters in the band.


title: Third Eye Blind

text: Despite the issues, the band's debut album, "Third Eye Blind", was finished and released in April 1997. As a new artist, album did not particularly debut high in the US all-format "Billboard" 200 album's chart, and only ever peaked at number 25 on the chart, but consistently sold each week, staying on the chart for over a year straight. Sales approached 1 million in the US by the end of 1997. The album's sales were propelled by the success of their first single, the long-worked-upon and finalized version of "Semi-Charmed Life". It not only performed well on rock radio, topping the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart for 8 weeks, but also found crossover success, becoming the fourth most popular song in the US after peaking at number 4 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. Four subsequent singles - "Graduate", "How's It Going to Be", "Losing a Whole Year", and "Jumper" - kept the album selling well into 1998. "How's It Going to Be" and "Jumper" similarly succeeded "Semi-Charmed Life" as crossover hits as well, peaking at number 9 and 5 respectively on the all-format "Billboard" Hot 100 chart. The album would go on to be certified platinum six times by the RIAA, indicating over six million copies sold in the US. Meanwhile, "Billboard" named it the number one modern rock track of the year. The band toured extensively in support of the album, including opening for large acts such as U2 and The Rolling Stones in late 1997, before quickly graduating to headlining status afterwards throughout 1998. The band toured extensively throughout the year, including a 3 month tour with Smash Mouth and a larger venue amphitheater tour mid-year, and a college tour with Eve 6. The touring was seen as a success, as the band continued to book increasingly higher profile shows but the touring was not without issues, including a 1997 show where Jenkins fell unconscious after falling off the side of a stage, Salazar missing some 1997 shows because he was hospitalized by a viral infection, and an incident at a festival in 1998 where Salazar and Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt got into a physical altercation.