title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: After a final visit to the Oracle, Neo learns that he has powers over the machines which extend beyond the Matrix and that Smith is spreading, threatening to destroy both the Matrix and the real world. Building on the Oracle's previous explanations about the nature of choice, Neo learns that the Architect's assertion that his choice to save Trinity would inherently lead to the extinction of humankind was incorrect; due to his nature as a purely mathematical being rendering him incapable of seeing past choices made by humans as he considers them mere variables in equations. Having told Neo that he now has the power to choose to end the war and defeat Smith, the Oracle then states "everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo" and informs him that in order for true peace to happen, he must travel to the heavily guarded Machine City in the real world and make a truce with the Machines in order to save both races from extinction because of Smith's activities. Soon after Neo leaves, dozens of Smiths come and assimilate Seraph, Sati and the Oracle.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: Neo and Trinity are given the "Logos", a hovercraft commanded by Morpheus's former lover, Niobe, in what seems to others as a suicidal journey to the Machine City. Meanwhile, captain Roland and the "Nebuchadnezzar"s surviving crew of Link and Morpheus in the hovercraft "Hammer/Mjolnir" return to Zion, which is now besieged and losing to the Machines. Neo and Trinity are ambushed by the stowaway Bane/Smith; who blinds Neo with an electric cable, but is killed when Neo discovers an ability to "see" programs and Machines independently without his eyesight. Neo, with Trinity as pilot, guide the "Logos" past the Machine City's defenses, but in the effort the "Logos" crash-lands, Trinity sustains fatal injuries and dies.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: Neo encounters the Deus Ex Machina, a giant machine construct and the leader of the machines. He offers Smith's defeat and destruction to the Deus in exchange for a truce. The offer is accepted; Neo enters the Matrix to find that Smith has copied himself throughout the simulated world, now truly threatening the safety and stability of the Matrix. One of the copies of Smith, having assimilated the Oracle and obtained as much freedom and control over the virtual world as Neo, faces Neo alone. For a while, the two fight evenly with no real advantage, but ultimately, the tireless Smith begins to wear out Neo and takes control of the fight. Realizing that he cannot win with brute force, Neo allows Smith to assimilate him, which enables the machines to eradicate the Smith virus directly through his body. Unfortunately, the process also kills Neo.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: Neo's body is taken away by the machines in the Machine City, while below in Zion, the machines stop their attack and depart in deference to the peace that Neo bartered. The Matrix is rebooted and a beautiful sunrise appears over the horizon, created by Sati in Neo's honor.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: Although the fate of Neo was never truly revealed in the MMORPG sequel, "The Matrix Online", however, despite this, his influence had a strong impact on several key events throughout the game.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: In the beginning, scattered code fragments of Neo's "RSI" (Residual Self Image) were found on the bodies of the impostor agents; who appeared across the Mega City during Chapter 1.1 (later revealed to be sentinels under the command of the general program) when held, these fragments echoed some of the final thoughts of Neo inside the redpill's mind. Each of the three main post-war political organizations inside the Matrix realized the possible significance of these fragments and began fighting amongst themselves to gather as many as they could.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: The Oracle reveals a secret society of exiles known only as the Shapers, who are the only ones able to bring the Fragments together in any significant way and that they must be protected from the impostor agents' corruption. The redpills' distrust and organizational differences prove too much for any strong unity, so that a shaper fell into the captivity of the false agents. His power was used to encode some part of the One's being onto them, creating the powerful, pale-skinned "N30 Ag3nts".


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: In Chapter 1.2, Morpheus states that though the machines never returned Neo's physical remains (Neo's body in the real world) to Zion, they did not "recycle" them; a reference to the first film, in which Morpheus tells Neo that the machines liquefy deceased occupants of the Matrix to provide organic sustenance for its living inhabitants. This would be the driving force behind Morpheus' descent into fanatical terrorism against the system in an attempt to force the machines to reveal Neo's fate; ultimately leading to his assassination.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: The subject of Neo then fell to the side lines for other struggles; until the arrival of the Oligarchs in Chapter 9. The original intruder, Halborn, was notably intrigued by the life of the One and was personally shocked about the implications of Neo's ability to affect Machines outside of the simulation had on his search for what he called the "Biological Interface Program".


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: After Halborn's removal in Chapter 10, little more was questioned; until the revelation of the Trinity project, originally headed by the Oracle, in Chapter 12. It was revealed that both Neo and Trinity were actually the culmination of decades of machine research into translating human DNA perfectly into machine code; allowing them to interface directly with technology without the need for simulated interfaces.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: 60 years after the events of "The Matrix Revolutions", Neo is now a video game designer and the creator of a video game series simply known as "The Matrix", which uses Neo's previous memories in the plot. Neo is 57 years old in the Matrix program, but 60 years have passed in the real world, making Neo 97 years old. Neo lives under his real name as Thomas Anderson and although he looks not that old, others see him as a man with an eyepatch and gray hair. His love, Trinity, who lives under the name "Tiffany", is married to a man named Chad and has three children. Neo has a series of existential crises, so his therapist has prescribed him with the blue pills. Neo's boss approaches him with an idea to make a fourth Matrix game. However, the more Neo and his crew make the game, the less blue pills he takes and he eventually stops taking them. One day, a man known as "Morpheus" approaches Neo with the red pill, but agents and a police force storm the building where Neo works in order to kill Morpheus; who is revealed to be a rogue agent who opened his mind and decided to help Neo destroy the Matrix. Morpheus kills several police officers while Neo's boss picks up an officer's gun and once again becomes Agent Smith.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: The attack was revealed to be a dream, and Neo was still in his therapist's room. A drunk Neo later goes on top of a rooftop and questions his existence. However, a woman with blue hair and a trench coat appears besides him. The woman introduces herself as Bugs; who tries to reopen his mind through a White Rabbit tattoo. Bugs then shows Neo her crew in an abandoned theater. Morpheus, part of Bugs' group once again offers a blue pill and a red pill to Neo; who takes the red pill. The team then "unplugs" Neo and with the help of a friendly machine; who was hacked, he is revived in the real world inside Bugs' ship, the "Mnemosyne".


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: In the real world, after Morpheus helps Neo regain his memories and fighting style, the "Mnemosyne" goes to Io, the last human city led by Niobe. Niobe reveals that, when Zion was nearly destroyed by the machines, she and the rest of the inhabitants escaped and made a new city. After sixty years, Niobe does not trust Neo, but lets the "Mnemosyne" crew destroy the Matrix with the help of Sati, the sentient program who helped Neo in "Revolutions". In the Matrix, Neo's therapist; whose name is the Analyst, a program designed to study the human psyche and the new leader of both the Matrix and the machines. He explains that after Neo and Trinity's deaths, he was able to resurrect them to study them. He found that suppressing their memories but keeping them in close proximity to one another made the Matrix more power-efficient and more resistant to the anomalies that caused the previous iterations to fail. However, Neo's liberation destabilized the system and triggered a fail-safe to reboot the Matrix. The Analyst stalled the reboot by convincing his superiors that threatening to kill Trinity would get Neo to voluntarily return to his pod. The Analyst then taunts Neo in the Matrix with bullet time by threatening to kill Trinity with a pistol, and then forces Neo to meet him in a café that he and Trinity had frequented. The crew then uses that opportunity to unplug Trinity. At the café, surrounded by riot officers, Neo distracts the Analyst while the team unplugs Trinity. They successfully unplug her, and Trinity gets her memories back and helps Neo fight the officers. Eventually, Smith fights the two, but gets away. In a final attempt to get rid of Neo and Trinity, the Analyst activates the Swarm, which forces many people to try to kill Bugs' team. The team survives, and when Neo and Trinity are cornered by police helicopters, they then decide to fly, which indeed does happen. The Analyst is defeated, and Neo and Trinity finally rekindle their romance and remake the Matrix in their own way.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: Neo is briefly featured in the webcomic "Casey and Andy" by Andy Weir, in which he is remotely disintegrated by the fictionalised mad scientist Andy Weir by the latter's hacking of the Matrix, who works on behalf of Agent Bill to kill him in exchange for money.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage, and Leonardo DiCaprio were approached for the role. Will Smith, who turned down the role to make "Wild Wild West", later said he regretted the decision. Ewan McGregor was said to have been sent the script to the movie, but later turned it down and moved on to do "". Sandra Bullock was asked by the film's producers to star in the film, thus changing the gender of the character to female, only to receive a negative answer by Bullock.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: Neo has carried, since his conception, the Matrix's source code known as the Prime Program. This gives him the ability to freely manipulate the simulated reality of the Matrix, similar to the authority a system administrator has over a given system. He manifests these abilities as various superhuman powers.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: The power Neo exhibits most often is akin to telekinesis in the Matrix. In that, he seems capable of manipulating any object in the Matrix through will alone. By focusing this ability upon himself, he can fly at amazing speeds and jump great distances. Whilst his speed is never specified, he flies from the Merovingian's mountain manor to the highway "500 miles due south" in a very short time. It can thus be extrapolated that if it took him roughly 10 minutes to fly from the chateau in the mountains to the freeway in the Mega City, he would have to have been flying at around 3,000 mph, or just shy of Mach 4. However, his speed of flight is further exemplified by his ability to escape explosions, and the sonic boom left in his wake has the power to overturn rows of heavy vehicles and reap massive destruction, indicating he can probably fly much faster than Mach 4 when pressed. He has used this ability multiple times to stop several bullets in mid flight, first against the Agents and again against the Merovingian.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: In addition to his abilities, Neo possesses superhuman strength and agility, and is near-invulnerable to most attacks. Although his physical endurance is immense, Neo can still be harmed or killed, as evidenced by an injury that Neo suffers while blocking a sword attack with his bare hand. His endurance is also finite: when confronted by masses of Smith clones in the second film, Neo was forced to escape rather than continue fighting though he easily overpowered at least 40 Smith clones and threw about 50 off him, and upon being disconnected from the Matrix, he appeared exhausted and winded. His reflexes are great enough to dodge bullets. Neo's strength and speed level have never been accurately measured; he is known to be capable of Mach 8, at least, and Mach 10 under stress, but his upper limit has never been shown. In the third movie, Neo has reached his (apparent) full strength; he is capable of withstanding a direct physical punch from the Smith enhanced by the Oracle's power, and is also able to hold his own in a prolonged fight (though his endurance is not without limit; he can fight this Smith to a standstill, but not defeat him).


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: In the real world, like the other rebels, Neo does not display any of the aforementioned abilities. According to the Oracle, "The power of The One extends beyond the Matrix. It reaches from here all the way back to where it came from." Apparently because of his status as The One, he has a direct connection to the Source in the real world, and can therefore affect everything connected to it, including Sentinels, although the first use of this ability overwhelms him and he falls into a coma as his mind somehow plugs into the Matrix without a physical connection. Neo also begins to perceive everything connected to the Source, including the Machine City itself, as silhouettes of golden light. This ability becomes beneficial after he is blinded in the fight against Smith/Bane, thus he is able to see Smith/Bane and kill him.


title: Neo (The Matrix)

text: In "The Matrix Resurrections", the resurrected Neo at first doesn't have access to his powers, although he slowly regains them over time, particularly during his fight with Smith. Neo is now able to create powerful telekinetic shockwaves, particularly when touching Trinity, and while he can still stop bullets, it appears to take him more effort. At one point, he telekinetically deflects a missile into a helicopter and shields himself from Smith smashing a porcelain sink down on his head. However, he is unable to fly while trying to escape from the Analyst's forces after reuniting with Trinity or after jumping off of a roof. Instead, Trinity develops the ability to fly and takes them both to safety. Neo appears to have regained his full powers by the end of the movie as he and Trinity fly off together after confronting the Analyst.


title: Chad Gilbert

text: Chad Everett Gilbert (born March 9, 1981) is an American musician and record producer. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band New Found Glory, for whom he plays lead guitar, sings backing vocals, and composes music. He was also the lead vocalist for the band's now-defunct side-project, International Superheroes of Hardcore. Additionally, Gilbert was the vocalist for the hardcore punk band Shai Hulud between 1995 and 1998, and from 2012 to 2013.


title: Chad Gilbert

text: Gilbert has produced records, notably HO's "Nothing to Prove" and A Day to Remember's albums, "Homesick", "What Separates Me from You" and "Common Courtesy". In 2010, Gilbert announced he would release solo material online, free of charge, and has released several demos and 7" vinyl records under the name "What's Eating Gilbert".


title: Chad Gilbert

text: Chad Everett Gilbert was born on March 9, 1981 in Coral Springs, Florida. He attended J. P. Taravella High School, but left after the 11th-grade after New Found Glory got signed to California-based record label Drive-Thru Records.


title: Chad Gilbert

text: Gilbert married Sherri DuPree of the rock band Eisley in February 2007, and divorced later in the year due to infidelity on Gilbert's part. He also married Paramore's lead vocalist and keyboardist Hayley Williams from February 2016 until they divorced in 2017 due to infidelity on Gilbert's part. Gilbert married Lisa Cimorelli, member of the all-sisters singing group Cimorelli, on October 3, 2020. Their daughter was born on July 17, 2021.


title: Chad Gilbert

text: On January 26, 2010, Gilbert reported that "suspicious cells" had been found in his thyroid and he would be getting half of his thyroid surgically removed. Four days later, Gilbert posted on his Twitter that the surgery had been a success and no cancer had been found.


title: Chad Gilbert

text: On December 19, 2021, Gilbert reported that he underwent emergency surgery at the ICU to remove a rare cancerous tumor called Pheochromocytoma after he was found unresponsive in his bed at home.


title: Chad Gilbert

text: On August 15, 2022, Gilbert reported that he had been diagnosed with cancer again and would undergo surgery the following day after a Pheochromocytoma tumor was discovered in his spine.


title: Marillion

text: Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becoming the most commercially successful neo-progressive rock band of the 1980s.


title: Marillion

text: Marillion's recorded studio output since 1982 is composed of twenty albums and generally regarded in two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original lead singer Fish in late 1988 and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve Hogarth in early 1989. The band achieved eight Top Ten UK albums between 1983 and 1994, including a number one album in 1985 with "Misplaced Childhood", and during the period the band were fronted by Fish they had eleven Top 40 hits on the UK Singles Chart. They are best known for the 1985 singles "Kayleigh" and "Lavender", which reached number two and number five respectively, with "Kayleigh" also entering the "Billboard" Hot 100 in the United States.


title: Marillion

text: Marillion's first album released with Hogarth, 1989's "Seasons End", was another Top Ten hit, and albums continued to chart well until their departure from EMI Records following the release of their 1996 live album "Made Again" and the dissipation of the band's mainstream popularity in the late 1990s; save for a resurgence in the mid- to late-2000s, they have essentially been a cult act since then. Marillion have achieved a further twelve Top 40 hit singles in the UK with Hogarth, including 2004's "You're Gone", which charted at No. 7 and is the biggest hit of his tenure. Marillion continue to tour internationally, becoming ranked 38th in "Classic Rock"'s "50 Best Live Acts of All Time" in 2008. In 2016, they returned to the UK Albums Chart Top Ten for the first time in 22 years with their highest chart placing since 1987.


title: Marillion

text: Despite unpopularity in the mainstream media and a consistently unfashionable status within the British music industry, Marillion have maintained a very loyal international fanbase, becoming widely acknowledged as playing a pioneering role in the development of crowdfunding and fan-funded music. They have sold over 15 million albums worldwide.


title: Marillion

text: In 1977, Mick Pointer joined Electric Gypsy, which also included Doug Irvine on bass, Alan King on vocals and Andy Glass (later of Solstice) on guitar. Pointer and Irvine left to form their own band, Silmarillion, named after J.R.R. Tolkien's book "The Silmarillion", in late 1978. They played one London show as an instrumental band with Neal Cockle (keys) and Martin Jenner (guitar). 1979 saw a new line-up of Mick Pointer, Steve Rothery, Doug Irvine and Brian Jelliman. They played their first concert at Berkhamsted Civic Centre, Hertfordshire, on 1 March 1980. According to Pointer, it was at this stage that the name was shortened to Marillion.


title: Marillion

text: Other sources have that the band name was shortened to Marillion in 1981 to avoid potential copyright conflicts, at the same time as Fish and bassist William 'Diz' Minnitt replaced original bassist/vocalist Doug Irvine following an audition at Leyland Farm Studios in Buckinghamshire on 2 January 1981. Rothery, drummer Mick Pointer, and keyboardist Brian Jelliman completed this line-up; the first gig with this line-up was at the Red Lion Pub at 35 Market Square in Bicester on 14 March 1981.


title: Marillion

text: By the end of 1981, Kelly had replaced Jelliman, with Trewavas replacing Minnitt in 1982. Minnitt later formed Pride of Passion and went on to perform with Zealey and Moore.


title: Marillion

text: Marillion's first recordings were two demos recorded in March and the summer of 1980, before Fish and Minnitt joined the band. Two versions of the Spring demo circulate amongst collectors; the first has four tracks; "The Haunting of Gill House", "Herne the Hunter", an untitled track known as "Scott's Porridge", and "Alice". The second version has an instrumental version of "Alice" in place of "Scott's Porridge". All tracks are instrumental apart from "Alice", with vocals by Doug Irvine. The summer demo has three tracks; "Close" (parts of which were later rewritten into "The Web", "He Knows You Know" and "Chelsea Monday"), "Lady Fantasy" (an original based on an earlier Electric Gypsy song), and another version of "Alice". Both were recorded at The Enid's studio in Hertfordshire. Following Irvine's departure and replacement by Fish and Minnitt, the band recorded another demo tape, produced by Les Payne, in July 1981 that included early versions of "He Knows You Know", "Garden Party", and "Charting the Single".


title: Marillion

text: The group attracted attention with a three-track session for the "Friday Rock Show" (early versions of "The Web", "Three Boats Down from The Candy", and "Forgotten Sons"). They were subsequently signed by EMI Records. They released their first single, "Market Square Heroes", in 1982, with the epic song "Grendel" on the B-side of the 12" version. Following the single, the band released their first full-length album in 1983.


title: Marillion

text: The music on their debut album, "Script for a Jester's Tear", was born out of the intensive performances of the previous years. Although it had some progressive rock stylings, it also had a darker edge. The album was a commercial success, peaking at number seven on the UK album chart and producing the singles "He Knows You Know" (number 35) and "Garden Party" (number 16). Although they were accused of being Genesis soundalikes, the album reached the Platinum certification and has been credited with giving a second life to progressive rock bands from the previous era.


title: Marillion

text: Following the UK tour to promote "Script for a Jester's Tear", Mick Pointer was dismissed due to Fish's dissatisfaction with what he later described as the drummer's "awful" timing and failure to develop as a musician with the rest of the band. Ian Mosley, who had played for acts including Darryl Way's Wolf and the Gordon Giltrap band, was eventually secured as Pointer's replacement after a series of other drummers, including Andy Ward and Jonathan Mover, were short-lived. Despite the numerous production problems encountered during this period, the second album, "Fugazi", built upon the success of the first album with a more streamlined hard rock sound. It improved on the chart placing of its predecessor by reaching the top five and produced the singles "Punch and Judy" (number 29) and "Assassing" (number 22).


title: Marillion

text: In November 1984, Marillion then released their first live album, "Real to Reel", featuring songs from "Fugazi" and "Script for a Jester's Tear", as well as "Cinderella Search" (B-side to 'Assassing') and the debut single "Market Square Heroes", which had not been available on album until that point. The album entered the UK album charts at No. 8.


title: Marillion

text: Their third and commercially most successful studio album was "Misplaced Childhood", which had a more mainstream sound. The lead single from the album, "Kayleigh", received major promotion by EMI and gained heavy rotation on BBC Radio 1 and Independent Local Radio stations as well as television appearances, bringing the band to the attention of a much wider audience. "Kayleigh" reached number two in the UK and "Lavender" reached number five; these remain the only singles by the band to enter the top five.


title: Marillion

text: Following the exposure given to "Kayleigh" and its subsequent chart success, the album became their only number one in the UK, knocking Bryan Ferry's "Boys and Girls" off the top spot and holding off a challenge from Sting, whose first solo album, "The Dream of the Blue Turtles", entered the chart in the same week. The third single from the album, "Heart of Lothian", became another top-thirty hit for the band, reaching No. 29. The album came sixth in "Kerrang!" magazine's "Albums of the Year" in 1985. "Kayleigh" also gave Marillion its sole entry on the "Billboard" Hot 100, reaching No. 74. In the summer of 1986, the band played to their biggest ever audience as special guests to Queen at a festival in Germany attended by a crowd of over 150,000 people. They were also offered the "Highlander" soundtrack but turned it down because of their world tour, a missed opportunity which Rothery later said he regretted.


title: Marillion

text: The fourth studio album, "Clutching at Straws", shed some of its predecessor's pop stylings and retreated into a darker exploration of excess, alcoholism, and life on the road, representing the strains of constant touring that would result in the departure of Fish to pursue a solo career. It did continue the group's commercial success, however; lead single "Incommunicado" charted at No. 6 in the UK charts gaining the band an appearance on "Top of the Pops", and the album entered the UK album chart at No. 2, Marillion's second highest placing. "Sugar Mice" and "Warm Wet Circles" also became hit singles, both reaching No. 22. Fish has also stated in interviews since that he believes this was the best album he made with the band. The album came sixth in "Kerrang!" magazine's "Albums of the Year" in 1987, equalling the ranking given to "Misplaced Childhood". It was also included in "Q" magazine's "50 Best Recordings of the Year". Fish explained his reasons for leaving in an interview in 2003:


title: Marillion

text: "By 1987 we were over-playing live because the manager was on 20 per cent of the gross. He was making a fantastic amount of money while we were working our asses off. Then I found a bit of paper proposing an American tour. At the end of the day the band would have needed a £14,000 loan from EMI as tour support to do it. That was when I knew that, if I stayed with the band, I'd probably end up a raging alcoholic and be found overdosed and dying in a big house in Oxford with Irish wolfhounds at the bottom of my bed."


title: Marillion

text: Fish gave the band a choice to continue with either him or the manager, John Arnison. They sided with the manager and Fish left for a solo career. His last live performance with Marillion was at Craigtoun Country Park on 23 July 1988. Owing to lengthy legal battles, informal contact between Fish and the other four band members apparently did not resume until 1999. Fish would later disclose in the liner notes to the 2-CD reissue of "Clutching at Straws" that he and his former bandmates had met up and discussed the demise of the band and renewed their friendship, and had come to the consensus that an excessive touring schedule and too much pressure from the band's management led to the rift.


title: Marillion

text: Although reportedly now on good personal terms, both camps had always made it very clear that the oft-speculated-upon reunion would never happen. However, when Fish headlined the 'Hobble on the Cobbles' free concert in Aylesbury's Market Square on 26 August 2007, the attraction of playing their debut single in its spiritual home proved strong enough to overcome any lingering bad feeling between the former band members, and Kelly, Mosley, Rothery, and Trewavas replaced Fish's backing band for an emotional encore of "Market Square Heroes".


title: Marillion

text: In a press interview following the event, Fish denied this would lead to a full reunion, saying that: "Hogarth does a great job with the band. We forged different paths over the 19 years."


title: Marillion

text: After the split, the band found Steve Hogarth, the former keyboardist and vocalist of the Europeans and the duo How We Live. Hogarth first stepped into Pete Trewavas garage 24 January 1989 and got the job three months later on April 25, as the group had already recorded some demos of the next studio album, which eventually would have become "Seasons End". Hogarth was a significant contrast to Fish, coming from a new wave musical background instead of progressive rock. He had also never owned a Marillion album before joining the band.


title: Marillion

text: After Fish left the group (taking his lyrics with him), Hogarth set to work crafting new lyrics to existing songs with lyricist and author John Helmer. The demo sessions of the songs from "Seasons End" with Fish vocals and lyrics can be found on the bonus disc of the remastered version of "Clutching at Straws", while the lyrics found their way into various Fish solo albums such as his first solo album, "Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors", some snippets on his second, "Internal Exile" and even a line or two found its way to his third album, "Suits".


title: Marillion

text: The first time Marillion would appear in public with Steve Hogarth as the new singer was, under the banner of Low Fat Youghurts, at the Crooked Billet pub in Stoke Row, on 8 June 1989. Only about 100 fans attended that Crooked Billet show, considerably more at Hogarths official introduction to fans at the recording of the promo video for "Hooks in You" at London's Brixton Academy on 1 August that year, and even more at the Palais des Sports in Besançon, France on 5 October following the release of "Seasons End". Marillion ended 1989 with their traditional Christmas show at London's Hammersmith Odeon, and kicked off 26 January 1990 with the "Seasons End" world tour, in front of 180,000 people at Hollywood Rock Festival in Rio de Janeiro, then rolling through Canada and North America before returning to Europe. The tour would prove to be the longest that Hogarth has thus far undertaken with Marillion. Although the tour wouldn't end in the UK until July, that Marillion ended the "Seasons End" tour in the UK at Wembley Arena highlighted how successful the shift from Fish to the new frontman Hogarth had been.


title: Marillion

text: Hogarth's second album with the band, "Holidays in Eden", was the first he wrote in partnership with the band from the beginning, and includes the song "Dry Land", which Hogarth had written and recorded with his earlier duo, How We Live. As quoted from Steve Hogarth, ""Holidays in Eden" was to become Marillion's "pop"est album ever, and was greeted with delight by many, and dismay by some of the hardcore fans". EMI also wanted Marillon to deliver three hit singles from the album.


title: Marillion

text: Marillion returned to their pseudonym Low Fat Youghurts in December 1990 to preview their forthcoming album at the Moles club in Bath. "Holidays in Eden" wouldn't be released until June 1991, and was followed by a headlining appearance at the second and final Cumbria Rock Festival at Derwent Park in Workington 13 July 1991. The Cumbria appearance kick-started another lengthy world tour that would see the band course through the UK, before venturing through Europe and returning to the UK for some Christmas shows. In the beginning of 1992 the band built their own recording and rehearsal studio, The Racket Club, in Buckinghamshire. March and April 1992 saw Marillion back out across Canada and America. They returned to UK for an exclusive, intimate show at London's Borderline for members of their The Web fan club to celebrate the band's 10th Anniversary on 9 May 1992. This show was the first 'official bootleg' live-CD released in August on their own new started Racket Records label, a limited edition of 2000 copies, before venturing off again through Europe. EMI also released the compilation album "A Singles Collection - Six of One, Half A Dozen of the Other" to celebrate the band's tenth anniversary with the label. It also included two new recordings, a cover of Rare Birds "Sympathy" and "I Will Walk on Water". "Sympathy" was also released as a single and it reached No.17 in the UK charts, the first time the band had been inside the top 20 since "Incommunicado".


title: Marillion

text: Marillon returned to the UK to headline the Wembley Arena on 5 September 1992, for what would be the final time for the band. The 1992 tour wound up in Baltimore, USA on 23 October. Marillion would only play just one gig in 1993, a fan club gig at Tivoli Theatre in Utrecht on 19 June, as a duo with only Hogarth and Trewavas. Marillion were busy readying what might become one of the most important albums of their career.


title: Marillion

text: "Holidays in Eden" was followed by "Brave", a dark and richly complex concept album that took the band 18 months to write and record. The album also marked the start of the band's longtime relationship with producer Dave Meegan.


title: Marillion

text: "Brave" was released on 7 February 1994. Some of the material had been aired at that sole 1993 show in Utrecht, and was also previewed at low-key gigs in the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany before Marillion kicked off the "Brave" world tour at Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre on 20 February. The "Brave" tour was another lengthy one, and the band undertook the move to perform the whole of their new album in its entirety (as they had done with "Misplaced Childhood" just under a decade earlier). However, this meant the inevitable relegating of some Fish-era songs from the set. After a series of summer shows in Japan, the "Brave" tour wound its way down to Mexico in September. An independent film based on the album, which featured the band, was also released in February 1995. The film was directed by Richard Stanley. The band had already returned to studio work on what would become their next studio album released in the summer of 1995.


title: Marillion

text: "Afraid of Sunlight" would be the band's last album with record label EMI Records. Once again, it received limited promotion, no mainstream radio airplay and its sales were disappointing for the band. Despite this, it was one of their most critically acclaimed albums and was included in "Q"'s 50 Best Albums of 1995. One track of note on the album is "Out of This World", a song about Donald Campbell, who died while trying to set a speed record on water. The song inspired an effort to recover both Campbell's body and the "Bluebird K7," the boat which Campbell crashed in, from the water. The recovery was finally undertaken in 2001, and both Steve Hogarth and Steve Rothery were invited. In 1998, Steve Hogarth said this was the best album he had made with the band.


title: Marillion

text: On 2 August 1995, Marillion began their "Afraid of Sunlight" tour in USA at the Bayou in Washington DC. They returned to the UK and Europe and ended the tour in Krakow, Poland on 21 November 1995.


title: Marillion

text: The band's independent status was confirmed with signing a deal to the UK-based Castle. The first album to be released through Castle was the live double CD "Made Again". Not only did it release Marillion from its obligations with EMI (as the fifth album in a five-album deal), as well as paying off the debts without creating new ones, it marked a certain symmetry with the first seven years of the band. Mark Kelly noted: "Our first four studio albums were followed by a double live album that signalled the end of a chapter. Now, after another four studio albums, followed by a live album, we move from EMI." Featuring "Brave" in its entirety, "Made Again" was released 25 March 1996 as the final EMI-era Marillion release in the UK, with Castle handling the release in mainland Europe and the US. The release was followed by a brief tour with four dates in Europe at the end of April.


title: Marillion

text: In the months prior, Rothery, Hogarth and Mosley used the break from Marillion to record separate solo projects. Mosley's project, IRIS, with French guitarist Sylvian Gouvernaire and Trewavas, released "Crossing the Desert," on 22 April 1996. Rothery's project with the female singer Hannah Stobart, drummer Paul Craddick (from Enchant) and Trewavas, called The Wishing Tree, released their album "Carnival of Souls" in September 1996. Hogarth released his solo album "Ice Cream Genius" in February 1997.


title: Marillion

text: "This Strange Engine" was the following Marillion album released in April 1997 in the UK, and in October in the US, with limited promotion from their new label Castle. Marillion could not afford to make tour stops in the United States. Their dedicated US fan base decided to solve the problem by raising some $60,000 themselves online to give to the band to come to the US. The band's loyal fanbase (combined with the Internet) would eventually become vital to their existence. Following the completion of the extensive 1997 tour (including Marillion's one-thousandth gig, on 27 October at the Amsterdam Paradiso), the band returned to their own studio, The Racket Club, in November.


title: Marillion

text: The band's tenth album, "Radiation," released on 21 September 1998"," saw them taking a different approach and was received by fans with mixed reactions. The short Radiation tour, with only dates in the UK and mainland Europe, ended on 18 November 1998 at the Élysée Montmartre in Paris.


title: Marillion

text: "marillion.com" was the follow-up, released on 18 October 1999, and showed progression in a new musical direction. However, the band were still unhappy with their record label situation. Under the terms of the deal, this was to be the third and final album distributed on the Castle label. The Dot Com tour, again with dates only in the UK and mainland Europe, started on 13 October at the MCM Cafe in Paris, and ended with a special Christmas show for the Web fanclubs worldwide in Aachen, Germany on 5 December 1999. For the whole of 2000, the band were writing the next album at the Racket Club and in November 2000 they played 2 Charity gigs at Bass Museum in Burton-on-Trent, before playing some more Christmas shows for their European fan clubs. Marillion needed a new strategy, and following the release of three albums via Castle, they came up with a novel approach for their next album.


title: Marillion

text: The band decided that they would try a radical experiment by asking their fans if they would help fund the recording of the next album by pre-ordering it before recording even started. The result was 12,674 pre-orders which raised enough money to record and release "Anoraknophobia" in the beginning of May 2001. As a 'thank-you' gesture to the fans who pre-ordered it, their names were credited in the sleeve notes and the pre-order "Special Edition" came in a deluxe 48-page hard-bound case with an extra enhanced CD. The band was able to strike a deal with EMI to also help distribute the album. This allowed Marillion to retain all the rights to their music while enjoying commercial distribution. The band went on tour which started in May 2001. A second leg of the tour (with a setlist largely decided by a poll of the fans) reached places that had never been played before, such as in the Azores at Ponta Delgada 22 September 2001. A US Tour was still not a possibility. A 4-part BBC documentary 'The Future Just Happened' aired in the UK on BBC2 in the Summer 2001. Featured in Episode 3 was Marillion's revolutionary internet pre-order campaign for Anoraknophobia.


title: Marillion

text: In April 2002 marked a new era of Marillion fandom. The band decided to book out a holiday camp and invite their fanbase to enjoy three entire days of Marillion with three concerts, signing sessions, and more. The hallmark of the weekend was the first night which hosts the entire rendition of an album of Marillion's choice. The Marillion weekends began at Pontin's Holiday Park, Brean Sands in the West Country, to which fans would fly in from all over the world. In March 2003 they continued and held the Marillion weekend at Butlin's Minehead.


title: Marillion

text: The success of "Anoraknophobia" allowed the band to start recording their next album, but they decided to leverage their fanbase once again to help raise money towards marketing and promotion of a new album. The band put up the album for pre-order in mid-production. This time fans responded by pre-ordering 18,000 copies.


title: Marillion

text: "Marbles" was released in the end of April 2004 with a 2-CD version that was only available at Marillion's website. The pre-order version (known as the Deluxe Campaign Edition) of Marbles was packaged as a 128-page hard-bound book, packed in a rigid slip case. Those who purchased the Deluxe Campaign Edition by the end of 31 December 2003 were directly helping the Campaign Fund, and as a "Thank You" their name was printed in the album credits (like with the previous album, "Anoraknophobia").


title: Marillion

text: Marillion continued to tour throughout 2005 playing several summer festivals and embarking on acoustic tours of both Europe and the United States, followed up by the "Not Quite Christmas Tour" of Europe throughout the end of 2005.


title: Marillion

text: A new DVD, "Colours and Sound", was released in Feb 2006, documenting the creation, promotion, release, and subsequent European tour in support of the album "Marbles".


title: Marillion

text: In February 2007 the Marillion weekend was held abroad for the first time in the Netherlands at Center Parcs, Port Zélande.


title: Marillion

text: April 2007 saw Marillion release their fourteenth studio album "Somewhere Else", their first album in 10 years to make the UK Top No. 30. The success of the album was further underscored by that of the download-only single "See it Like a Baby", making UK No. 45 (March 2007) and the traditional CD release of "Thankyou Whoever You Are / Most Toys", which made UK No. 15 and No. 6 in the Netherlands during June 2007. The "Somewhere Else" tour started in Gibraltar 14 April 2007, and they also played in some places they had never been before like Bratislava.


title: Marillion

text: In July 2008 the band posted a contest for fans to create a music video for the soon-to-be released single "Whatever is Wrong with You", and post it on YouTube. The winner would win £5,000.


title: Marillion

text: "Happiness Is the Road", released in October 2008, again featured a pre-order "deluxe edition" with a list of the fans who bought in advance, and a more straightforward regular release. It is another double album, with one disc based on a concept and the second containing the other songs that are not a part of the theme. Before the album's release, on 9 September 2008, Marillion pre-released their album via p2p networks themselves. Upon attempting to play the downloaded files, users were shown a video from the band explaining why they had taken this route. Downloaders were then able to opt to purchase the album at a user-defined price or select to receive DRM-free files for free, in exchange for an email address. The band explained that although they do not support piracy, they realised their music would inevitably be distributed online anyway, and wanted to attempt to engage with p2p users and make the best of the situation.


title: Marillion

text: The band's sixteenth studio album (released 2 October 2009) was an acoustic album featuring new arrangements of previously released tracks (except one, the new track: "It's Not Your Fault") entitled "Less Is More". In October Marillion started an acoustic European tour which ended with a show in Istanbul 4 March 2010.


title: Marillion

text: Their seventeenth studio album, titled "Sounds That Can't Be Made", was released in September 2012. Two versions of the album were released: A 2-disc 'deluxe' version that included a DVD with 'making-of' features and sound-check recordings and a single CD jewel case version. The 'deluxe' version also included a 128-page book that incorporated lyrics, artwork and, as was the case with "Anoraknophobia", "Marbles" and "Happiness is the Road", the names of people who pre-ordered the album. Parts of the album were recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in 2011.


title: Marillion

text: In September 2015, Marillion announced that they were working on a new album, provisionally titled "M18" and later confirmed as "Fuck Everyone And Run (F E A R)". As with several of their previous releases, the recording of the album was to be funded by fan pre-orders, this time through direct-to-fan website PledgeMusic. The album was released on 23 September 2016 debuting at number 4 in the official UK charts of 30 September 2016, their highest placing since "Clutching at Straws" nearly three decades earlier. In November 2016, they announced their first ever show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in October 2017. The gig sold out in just 4 minutes and was filmed for DVD release. They also won "UK Band of the Year" at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards.


title: Marillion

text: In May 2017 Marillion took their Marillion Weekend to Santiago, Chile for the first time. In February 2018 Marillion returned to tour in the US and also played shows in Japan in September. In March 2018, the film of the Royal Albert Hall gig was premiered at cinemas around the UK, before the DVD launch, with the band attending the showing in London. On 6 April the concert was released as "All One Tonight – Live at the Royal Albert Hall".


title: Marillion

text: In March 2018, Hogarth was involved with fellow musician Howard Jones in helping to unveil a memorial to David Bowie, which is situated close to Aylesbury's Market Square. The memorial was the inspiration of promoter David Stopps, who booked Bowie to appear at the Friars Aylesbury where he debuted his Ziggy Stardust persona. The bulk of the funds for the memorial were raised at a gig held at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury on the evening of the unveiling which Marillion headlined, alongside Jones, John Otway and the Dung Beatles, all of whom have close association to Aylesbury and in particular, the Friars.


title: Marillion

text: In early 2019, Marillion entered the studio with the intention to record songs from their catalogue with friends from the orchestra, who played with the band at the Royal Albert Hall shows in 2017. "With Friends from the Orchestra" was recorded at The Racket Club and Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios and features reimagined versions of songs accompanied by the In Praise of Folly String Quartet with Sam Morris on French horn and Emma Halnan on flute. The album was released 29 November 2019. In November and December 2019, the orchestra followed Marillion on tour in the UK, returning for two nights at the Royal Albert Hall, and they also played shows in the Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany.


title: Marillion

text: On 3 August 2021, Marillion announced their new pre-order campaign for a new studio album, entitled "An Hour Before It's Dark". The album was released on 4 March 2022.


title: Marillion

text: In 2021, Marillion asked their fans to insure their 10-date Light at the End of the Tunnel Tour in November. Manager Lucy Jordache said: "We're asking our fans to pledge money that will be held in escrow and if it all goes Covid free, it will be returned to them at the end of the tour. But if we do have to cancel, then their money will be used to pay the band's unavoidable expenses." The band had already invested more than £150,000 on preparations, but risked losing it all if just one member tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to isolate. The tour was a success, and the donations were refunded to the fans who were named "Lightsavers".


title: Marillion

text: Marillion's music has changed stylistically throughout their career. The band themselves stated that each new album tends to represent a reaction to the preceding one, and for this reason their output is difficult to 'pigeonhole'. Although the band has featured two very distinct and different vocalists, the core instrumental line-up of Steve Rothery (lead guitar, and the sole 'pre-Fish' original member), Pete Trewavas (bass), Mark Kelly (keyboards) and Ian Mosley (drums) has been unchanged since 1984.


title: Marillion

text: Their 1980s sound (with Fish on vocals) was guitar and keyboard-led neo-progressive rock. They have been described at their outset as "a bridge between punk and classic progressive rock". Guitarist Steve Rothery wrote most of the music during the period Fish was in the band. Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers commented, "What I love so much about Marillion is that they could be very strong and powerful and have very quiet passages, but the powerful stuff was really edgy and heavy... I just thought he (Fish) wrote good lyrics, and they wrote good music, and it fit together effortlessly."


title: Marillion

text: They were often compared unfavourably by critics during the Fish era with the Peter Gabriel era of Genesis, although the band had many other influences. Fish was influenced by a wide range of artists and his favourite albums were by artists such as Van der Graaf Generator, Joni Mitchell, the Who, Pink Floyd, John Martyn, Yes, Lowell George, Led Zeppelin, Roy Harper, the Faces, the Beatles and Supertramp. Rothery's main influences were Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, David Gilmour, Andrew Latimer of Camel, Steve Hackett, Jeff Beck and Joni Mitchell, with Gordon Giltrap also an early influence on the development of his playing style. Kelly's biggest inspiration was Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman, and Trewavas' favourite bass player was Paul McCartney. Original drummer Mick Pointer was a huge fan of Neil Peart's drumming in his favourite band, Rush.


title: Marillion

text: During the Steve Hogarth era, their sound has been compared, on various albums, to more contemporary acts such as U2, Radiohead, Coldplay, Muse, Talk Talk, Elbow, and Massive Attack. In 2016, Hogarth himself was quoted as describing the band: "If Pink Floyd and Radiohead had a love child that was in touch with their feminine side, they would be us." According to an interview with Rothery in 2016, many of their later albums with Hogarth had been written by jamming.


title: Marillion

text: The chief music critic of "The Guardian", Alexis Petridis, has described Marillion as "perennially unfashionable prog-rockers". On the subject of joining the band in 1989, Steve Hogarth said in a 2001 interview: "At about the same time, Matt Johnson of The The asked me to play piano on his tour. I always say I had to make a choice between the most hip band in the world, and the least." In the same conversation, he said: "We're just tired of the opinions of people who haven't heard anything we've done in ten years. A lot of what's spread about this band is laughable."


title: Marillion

text: Much of the band's enduring and unfashionable reputation stems from their emergence in the early 1980s as the most commercially successful band of the neo-progressive rock movement, an unexpected revival of the progressive rock musical style that had fallen out of critical favour in the mid-1970s. Some early critics were quick to dismiss the band as clones of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis due to musical similarities, such as their extended songs, a prominent and Mellotron-influenced keyboard sound, vivid and fantastical lyrics and the equally vivid and fantastical artwork by Mark Wilkinson used for the sleeves of their albums and singles. Lead singer Fish was also often compared with Gabriel due to his early vocal style and theatrical stage performances, which in the early years included wearing face paint.


title: Marillion

text: As Jon Wilde summarised in "Melody Maker" in 1989: At the end of a strange year for pop music, Marillion appeared in November 1982 with "Market Square Heroes". There were many strange things about 1982, but Marillion were the strangest of them all. For six years, they stood out of time. Marillion were the unhippest group going. As punk was becoming a distant echo, they appeared with a sound and an attitude that gazed back longingly to the age of Seventies pomp. When compared to Yes, Genesis and ELP, they would take it as a compliment. The Eighties have seen some odd phenomena. But none quite as odd as Marillion. Along the way, as if by glorious fluke, they turned out some singles that everybody quietly liked – "Garden Party", "Punch and Judy" and "Incommunicado". By this time, Marillion did not need the support of the hip-conscious. They were massive. Perhaps the oddest thing about Marillion was that they became one of the biggest groups of the decade. They might have been an anomaly but they were monstrously effective.


title: Marillion

text: The band's unfashionable reputation and image has often been mentioned in the media, even in otherwise positive reviews. In "Q" in 1987, David Hepworth wrote: "Marillion may represent the inelegant, unglamorous, public bar end of the current Rock Renaissance but they are no less part of it for that. "Clutching at Straws" suggests that they may be finally coming in from the cold." In the same magazine in 1995, Dave Henderson wrote: "It's not yet possible to be sacked for showing an affinity for Marillion, but has there ever been a band with a larger stigma attached?" He also argued that if the album "Afraid of Sunlight" "had been made by a new, no baggage-of-the-past combo, it would be greeted with open arms, hailed as virtual genius." In "Record Collector" in 2002, Tim Jones argued they were "one of the most unfairly berated bands in Britain" and "one of its best live rock acts." In 2004, "Classic Rock"'s Jon Hotten wrote: "That genre thing has been a bugbear of Marillion's, but it no longer seems relevant. What are Radiohead if not a progressive band?" and said Marillion were "making strong, singular music with the courage of their convictions, and we should treasure them more than we do." In the "Q" & "Mojo" Classic Special Edition "Pink Floyd & The Story of Prog Rock", an article on Marillion written by Mick Wall described them as "probably the most misunderstood band in the world".


title: Marillion

text: In 2007, Stephen Dalton of "The Times" stated: The band have just released their 14th album, "Somewhere Else", which is really rather good. Containing tracks that shimmer like Coldplay, ache like Radiohead and thunder like Muse, it is better than 80 per cent of this month's releases. But you are unlikely to hear Marillion on British radio, read about them in the music press or see them play a major festival. This is largely because Marillion have – how can we put this kindly? – an image problem. Their music is still perceived as bloated, bombastic mullet-haired prog-rock, even by people who have never heard it. In fairness, they did once release an album called "Script for a Jester's Tear". But, come on, we all had bad hair days in the 1980s.


title: Marillion

text: Despite publishing a very good review for their 1995 album "Afraid of Sunlight" and including it in their 50 Best Albums of 1995, "Q" refused to interview the band or write a feature on them. Steve Hogarth later said: "How can they say, this is an amazing record... no, we don't want to talk to you? It's hard to take when they say, here's a very average record... we'll put you on the front cover."


title: Marillion

text: In 2001, the television critic of "The Guardian", Gareth McLean, used his review of the Michael Lewis BBC Two documentary, "", to concentrate on launching a scathing attack on the band, whose appearance only constituted one segment of the programme. He described them as "once dodgy and now completely rubbish" and he characterised their fans as "slightly simple folks". He also dismissed the band's efforts to continue their career without a label by dealing directly with their fans on the Internet, writing: "One suspects that their decision occurred round about the time that the record industry decided to shun Marillion."


title: Marillion

text: Rachel Cooke, a writer for "The Observer" and "New Statesman", has repeatedly referred negatively to the band and insulted their fans in her articles.


title: Marillion

text: In an interview in 2000, Hogarth expressed regret about the band retaining their name after he joined: If we had known when I joined Marillion what we know now, we'd have changed the name and been a new band. It was a mistake to keep the name, because what it represented in the mid-Eighties is a millstone we now carry. If we'd changed it, I think we would have been better off. We would have been judged for our music. It's such a grave injustice that the media constantly calls us a 'dinosaur prog band'. They only say that out of ignorance because they haven't listened to anything we've done for the last 15 bloody years. If you hear anything we've done in the last five or six years, that description is totally irrelevant... It's a massive frustration that no-one will play our stuff. If we send our single to Radio 1 they say: 'Sorry, we don't play music by bands who are over so-many years old... and here's the new U2 single.' I suppose it's something everyone has to cope with – every band are remembered for their big hit single, irrespective of how much they change over the years. But you can only transcend that by continuing to have hits. It's Catch 22. You know, at some stage, someone has to notice that we're doing interesting things. Someday someone will take a retrospective look at us and be surprised.


title: Marillion

text: The 2013 film "" includes a joke reference to a former drummer of the band. The band were quoted: "We know Marillion are seen as 'uncool' but we were delighted to be a part of it."


title: Marillion

text: Marillion are widely considered to have been one of the first mainstream acts to have fully recognised and tapped the potential for commercial musicians to interact with their fans via the internet, starting in around 1996, and are nowadays often characterised as a rock & roll 'Web Cottage Industry'. The history of the band's use of the Internet is described by Michael Lewis in the book "" as an example of how the Internet is shifting power away from established elites, such as multinational record labels and record producers.


title: Marillion

text: The band are renowned for having an extremely dedicated following (often self-termed 'Freaks'), with some fans regularly travelling significant distances to attend single gigs, driven in large part by the close fan base involvement which the band cultivate via their website, podcasts, biennial conventions and regular fanclub publications. The release of their 2001 album "Anoraknophobia", which was funded by their fans through advance orders instead of by the band signing to a record company, gained significant attention and was called "a unique funding campaign" by the BBC. Writing for "The Guardian", Alexis Petridis described Marillion as "the undisputed pioneers" of fan-funded music.


title: Summit Entertainment

text: Summit Entertainment is an American film production and distribution company. It is a label of Lionsgate Films, owned by Lionsgate Entertainment and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.


title: Summit Entertainment

text: Summit Entertainment was founded in 1991 by film producers Bernd Eichinger, Arnon Milchan, and Andrew G. Vajna to handle film sales in foreign countries. Summit officially launched in 1993 by Patrick Wachsberger, Bob Hayward, and David Garrett under the name Summit Entertainment LP as a distribution and sales organization. By 1995 they were producing and co-financing films, and by 1997 they started fully financing films. Among the company's early successes was "American Pie", which Summit distributed outside of English-speaking territories. In 2006, it became an independent film studio with over a billion dollars in financing backed by Merrill Lynch.


title: Summit Entertainment

text: After a string of flops including "P2", "Never Back Down" and "Sex Drive", Summit found success in November 2008 with the release of "Twilight", a teen romance about vampires based on the best-selling book of the same name by Stephenie Meyer that made $408,773,703 worldwide. In the spring of 2009, Summit released "Knowing", the company's second movie to open #1 at the box office and made $182,492,056 worldwide.


title: Summit Entertainment

text: In November 2009, Summit released the sequel to "Twilight" titled "", also based on the popular novel by Stephenie Meyer, breaking box office records for first weekend grosses at the time, taking in $142,839,137 in the first three days. In June 2010 Summit released the third film of the "Twilight" series, "". It broke a midnight screening record of over $30 million and set a one-day Wednesday record of $68.5 million. It became the first movie in the series to cross the $300 million mark domestically.


title: Summit Entertainment

text: In 2008, Summit Entertainment ranked in eighth place among the studios, with a gross of $226.5 million, almost entirely because of the release of "Twilight". In 2009, Summit ranked 7th among studios with a gross of $482.5 million.


title: Summit Entertainment

text: Other Summit Entertainment releases include: "Ender's Game" (released November 1, 2013 in the United States; an adaptation of Orson Scott Card's 1985 novel); "Next Day Air" ($10,027,047 US box office); "The Hurt Locker" ($16,400,000 US box office; it garnered Summit its first Best Picture Oscar); the animated "Astro Boy"; teen horror film "Sorority Row" ($11,965,282 US box office); the low-budget "Push" ($31,811,527 US box office); "Bandslam" ($5,210,988 US box office); "Letters to Juliet" ($53,032,453 US box office); and, the sleeper hit, "RED" ($87,940,198 US box office; nominated for a 2010 Golden Globe in the Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical category).


title: Summit Entertainment

text: On February 1, 2009, it was announced that Lionsgate would acquire Summit Entertainment, along with its library of six films and rights to the "Twilight" franchise, but two days later, these merger negotiations broke down due to concerns over changing content. On January 13, 2012, Lionsgate officially acquired Summit Entertainment for $412.5 million. Lionsgate continues to operate Summit Entertainment as a label.


title: Danny Carey

text: Daniel Edwin Carey (born May 10, 1961) is an American musician and songwriter. He is the drummer for the American rock band Tool. He has also contributed to albums by artists such as Zaum, Green Jellö, Pigface, Skinny Puppy, Adrian Belew, Carole King, Collide, Meat Puppets, Lusk, and the Melvins.


title: Danny Carey

text: He was ranked among the 100 greatest drummers of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, occupying the 26th position, in addition to being frequently considered by other magazines.


title: Danny Carey

text: Born in Lawrence, Kansas, Carey's first encounter with the drums began at the age of ten by joining the school band and taking private lessons on the snare drum. Two years later, Carey began to practice on a drum set. In his senior year of high school in Paola, Kansas, Carey joined the high school jazz band. Jazz would later play a huge role in his signature approach to the drum set in a rock setting. As Carey progressed through high school and later college at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, he began expanding his studies in percussion with theory into the principles of geometry, science, and metaphysics as well as delving into the occult. Carey also played jazz while attending college and got to experience the jazz scene in Kansas City.


title: Danny Carey

text: After college, a friend and bandmate convinced Carey to leave Kansas for Portland, Oregon, where he played briefly in various bands before moving to Los Angeles, where he was able to perform as a studio drummer with Carole King and perform live sets with Pigmy Love Circus. He also played in Green Jellö as "Danny Longlegs" and recorded the album "Cereal Killer". He would later find his way to Tool after coming to know singer Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Adam Jones and practicing with them in place of drummers the two had requested but had never shown up. Besides Tool, Carey also finds time for other projects new and old such as Legend of the Seagullmen, Pigmy Love Circus, Volto!, and Zaum.


title: Danny Carey

text: Carey's drumming influences include Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Lenny White, Neil Peart, Tony Williams, John Bonham, Barriemore Barlow and Tim Alexander.


title: Danny Carey

text: Danny Carey uses the wood tip version of his own signature model of drumstick made by Vic Firth. He previously had endorsed a signature model with Trueline Drumsticks (now Trueline's Tribal Assault model).


title: Danny Carey

text: Carey also uses Sonor drums, Paiste cymbals, Evans drumheads, Hammerax, and electronic devices such as Mandala, Korg and Roland


title: Danny Carey

text: Paiste and Jeff Ocheltree (noted drumtech for Billy Cobham, John Bonham, Lenny White, etc) teamed up in the late 90s to develop an entire drumset made out of recycled cymbals. The final product was a melted down Paiste's Signature bronze custom cast cymbals. Danny Carey used the kit during the Lateralus 2002 tour and during some drum clinics through the years.


title: Danny Carey

text: Only three versions of this kit were ever created. Two are owned by Danny Carey and Carl Palmer and other one is located in Paiste's Switzerland headquarters.


title: Danny Carey

text: At Winter NAMM 2009 Sonor released a Danny Carey signature snare drum, which is a 1 mm thick bronze 14x8" snare with laser etched talisman symbols and his signature engraved around the vent hole.


title: Danny Carey

text: In 2016 Paiste released a Danny Carey signature ride cymbal called "Dry Heavy Ride - Monad" based on their discontinued model that Carey always used since a Paiste artist. The cymbal has a purple color and sigils printed on. It is named "Monad" because the main print is an esoteric glyph from John Dee.


title: Danny Carey

text: During 2019, builder Alan Van Kleef from VK Drums was contacted by Carey to create a drum kit and a snare drum. After much debate Alan developed the set called "Monad", made by hand in Sheffield, England. Shortly after the completion of the Monad set, It was announced that a snare drum replica called "7empest" (after Tool's grammy award winning song) would be made available as part of a limited collection of 33 individual pieces. At the same time that the 7empest snare was launched, Alan was also developing the first complete 7empest drum set. Like the snare, the 7empest drums is a Monad replica in almost every way, except for the engravings.


title: Danny Carey

text: Carey's popularity among drummers and non-drummers alike stems from the diversity of his sound and dynamics through his years of learning jazz music, his technical ability, frequent use of odd time signatures, polyrhythms and polymeters. He has stated in interviews that he effectively treats his feet as he does his hands: he practices rudiments (used for sticking techniques) and even snare drum solos with his feet to improve his double bass drumming, hi-hat control and foot independence.


title: Danny Carey

text: In search of new techniques, Carey has studied tabla with Aloke Dutta, who can be heard playing on the live version of the song "Pushit" (from "Salival"). This is especially apparent on tracks such as "Disposition" ("Lateralus") or "Right in Two" ("10,000 Days"), for which Carey has recorded the tabla parts himself in the studio. The tabla (and other percussive instruments) used in Tool's music are replicated live using the Mandala pads (in fact the pads are also used when recording in the studio, a notable example being the tabla solo of "Right in Two" (from "10,000 Days").


title: Danny Carey

text: He has also stated that when he is playing to an odd time signature, he tries to drum to the "feel" of the song and establish general "inner pulse" for the given time signature instead of fully counting it out.


title: Danny Carey

text: In his time away from Tool, Carey has contributed (and still regularly does) to a vast number of projects:


title: Danny Carey

text: Carey was arrested at the Kansas City Airport on December 12, 2021 after allegedly using a homophobic slur and repeatedly jabbing someone in the chest with two fingers. He was charged with a municipal assault violation.


title: Ginuwine

text: Elgin Baylor Lumpkin (born October 15, 1970), better known by his stage name Ginuwine, is an American R&B singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. He began his career as a member of Swing Mob in the early 1990s. Signing to Epic Records as a solo artist in the mid-1990s, Ginuwine has released a number of multi-platinum and platinum-selling albums and singles, becoming one of R&B's top artists during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He had significant commercial success with his first four albums: "Ginuwine...The Bachelor" (2× Platinum), "100% Ginuwine" (2× Platinum), "The Life" (Platinum), and "The Senior" (Gold). According to "Billboard", Ginuwine has sold roughly 10 million albums in the US. Ginuwine received the Urban Music Icon award at the 2021 Black Music Honors.


title: Ginuwine

text: Elgin Baylor Lumpkin was born on October 15, 1970 in Washington, D.C. He is named after NBA legend Elgin Baylor, a fellow D.C. native. In 1988, he graduated from Forestville High School (now known as Forestville Military Academy) in Forestville, Maryland, and later graduated from Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland, with a paralegal associate's degree.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine began his career as a member of Swing Mob, a Rochester, New York-based record label and music compound founded by Donald "DeVante Swing" DeGrate, a member of popular 90's R&B group Jodeci. There, he met rapper Melissa "Missy" Elliott, singer-songwriter Stephen "Static Major" Garrett and producer Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, who became his main collaborators through the 1990s. After Swing Mob folded, they continued working together on different projects, one of which was Ginuwine's 1996 debut album, titled "Ginuwine...The Bachelor". The first single, "Pony" showcased his smooth vocals and Timbaland's innovative production style, and also Static Major's writing skills; the two became a hit-making duo. "Pony" peaked at number 6 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. It is still relevant today with the smooth upbeat tempos. It was used in the video game "Grand Theft Auto IV" in 2008. In 2012, "Pony" was featured in a striptease dance performed by Channing Tatum in the film "Magic Mike". Mike Patton and Rahzel together perform a cover of "Pony" during their concerts. Ginuwine covered Prince's "When Doves Cry" single from the movie soundtrack "Purple Rain".


title: Ginuwine

text: His second album, "100% Ginuwine", was released in 1999 and featured the hit singles "Same Ol' G, "So Anxious" and "None of Ur Friends Business". After "100% Ginuwine", Ginuwine and Timbaland grew apart. Producers such as R. Kelly have crafted hits for him since then. In 2001, Ginuwine had a number-four hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100 with the single "Differences", which also peaked at number one on the "Billboard" Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.


title: Ginuwine

text: Within a year, Ginuwine lost both of his parents. He later wrote and recorded a song that is featured on his third album "The Life" entitled "Two Reasons I Cry". In 2002, he was a featured artist on P. Diddy's number-one hit "I Need a Girl (Part II)". Later that year, Ginuwine started his own label, Bag Entertainment. The label would feature artists such as Jose Cenquentez (who appeared on "The Senior") and Knight.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine's fifth album, "Back II Da Basics", was released on November 15, 2005. The album debuted at number 12 on the "Billboard" 200, selling close to 100,000 copies. Ginuwine stated on BET's Top 100 countdown that the album went Gold with sales of 500,000 copies.


title: Ginuwine

text: In May 2007, an album entitled "I Apologize" was released in stores. Although attributed to Ginuwine, the release was an unauthorized album and included only three Ginuwine songs – apparently from stolen masters – and ten songs by other artists. Ginuwine spoke against the unofficial release on both his MySpace page and through YouTube. In 2007, Ginuwine collaborated with Canadian hip-hop artist Belly in the latter's debut solo song "Pressure", which was featured in Belly's debut album the "Revolution", released in June 2007.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine's sixth album entitled "A Man's Thoughts", was released on June 23, 2009. The album was produced by The Underdogs, B Cox, Timbaland, The Runners, Johnta Austin, Oak and Polow Da Don. The album includes guests appearances from Brandy, Missy Elliott, Bun B and Timbaland. Ginuwine formed a group with Tank and Tyrese named TGT. Their first single was a remix of Tank's "Please Don't Go". They were supposed to tour but plans fell apart due to conflicting schedules.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine announced on his Myspace Blog on August 21, 2008, that due to label and legal issues, they will not be able to release an official TGT album. Ginuwine is the founder and CEO of LoveSong Incorporated, after completing his contract with 550 Music/Epic. Ginuwine announced on his Myspace blog on August 21, 2008, that he signed a major label deal with Notifi Records/Warner Brothers.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine introduced producer MELROG and rapper Young Knight a.k.a. Knightron on the "Back 2 Da Basics" album. Currently Knightron is working on his own album under Ginuwine's label BAG ENT. Ginuwine's seventh studio album, "Elgin", was released on Valentine's Day in 2011.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine is currently working on his eighth studio album "Same Ol' G...the Bachelor" and confirmed that Timbaland and Missy Elliott executive produced the project.


title: Ginuwine

text: In 2007, Ginuwine teamed up with Tyrese, and Tank and formed an R&B group among themselves called TGT and have signed to Atlantic Records in 2012. Their Grammy-nominated debut album Three Kings was released in 2013. The first single of the album "Sex Never Felt Better" was released on iTunes on February 14, 2013, for Valentine's Day.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine was originally cast in the 2004 film "You Got Served". Ultimately R&B artist Marques Houston was cast in his place. The writer of the movie kept Ginuwine's real name "Elgin" as the name for one of the lead characters. He also was cast as R&B singer "Romeo" in the film "Juwanna Mann". He also appeared in three episodes of "Moesha" as Khalib, called "All This and Turkey, Too", "You Say He's Just A Friend", and "On the Rebound"


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine appeared on "Half & Half" as R.J. Jackson in the episode "The Big Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls Episode" that aired in 2004.


title: Ginuwine

text: In February 2011, Ginuwine co-starred in the Gospel Music Channel's debut of John Ruffin's stage play "The Ideal Husband", which also stars Darrin Dewitt Henson, Jackée Harry, Clifton Powell, Shirley Murdock, Shanti Lowry and Erica Hubbard.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine is a spokesman for the beverage Adult Chocolate Milk, a 40-proof vodka-based version of chocolate milk.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine appeared in the CBS show "Martial Law" starring Sammo Hung and Arsenio Hall. In the episode "How Sammo Got His Groove Back" airing November 21, 1998, Ginuwine plays Hall's nephew, Zeke Meadows, a singer who is a target for murder by a ruthless CD bootlegger.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine appeared on the UPN television sitcom "Half & Half" where he played R.J. Jackson, the friend of Spencer's (Chico Benymon) which aired in November 2004.


title: Ginuwine

text: In the NBC series "Parks and Recreation", character Donna Meagle is Ginuwine's cousin. He appeared on the show as himself twice: the season six finale "Moving Up," (performing at the Unity Concert) and the seventh-season episode "Donna & Joe."


title: Ginuwine

text: On January 5, 2018, Ginuwine entered the UK reality show "Celebrity Big Brother 21". He was evicted on January 23, 2018, and came in 11th place.


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine lost both his parents; his father died by suicide, and his mother to cancer less than a year later. Ginuwine struggled with grief and depression; he also thought of taking his own life. He received counseling from his pastor, which turned him to a more positive path. He recorded the song "Two Reasons I Cry" about the death of his parents on his 2001 album "The Life".


title: Ginuwine

text: Ginuwine was married to the rapper Tonya M. Johnston better known by her stage name, Solé. Ginuwine met Solé in June 1999 and they began dating in October 1999. They were married on September 8, 2003, in the Cayman Islands. They lived in Maryland. They have two daughters together: Story (born March 29, 2001) and Dream Sarae Lumpkin (born November 1, 2002). He has a son Elgin, Jr (born January 30, 1991) from a previous relationship, as well as four other children with three different women. In February 2009, Ginuwine announced he has nine children: Ramonda, Tiffany, Elgin, Ginel, Tahjair, Story and Dream, plus two step-children, Dejan and Cypress.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel/Sudan in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its leading ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai. Sonni Ali established Gao as the capital of the empire although a Songhai state had existed in and around Gao since the 11th century. Other important cities in the empire were Timbuktu and Djenné, conquered in 1468 and 1475 respectively, where urban-centered trade flourished and to the south is the north Akan state of Bonoman. Initially, the empire was ruled by the Sonni dynasty (–1493), but it was later replaced by the Askia dynasty (1493–1901).


title: Songhai Empire

text: During the second half of the 13th century, Gao and the surrounding region had grown into an important trading center and attracted the interest of the expanding Mali Empire. Mali conquered Gao towards the end of the 13th century. Gao would remain under Malian hegemony until the late 14th century. As the Mali Empire started to disintegrate, the Songhai reasserted control of Gao. Songhai rulers subsequently took advantage of the weakened Mali Empire to expand Songhai rule.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Under the rule of Sonni Ali, the Songhai surpassed the Malian Empire in area, wealth, and power, absorbing vast areas of the Mali Empire and reached its greatest extent. His son and successor, Sonni Bāru (1492–1493), was a less successful ruler of the empire, and as such was overthrown by Muhammad Ture (1493–1528; called Askia), one of his father's generals, who instituted political and economic reforms throughout the empire.


title: Songhai Empire

text: A series of plots and coups by Askia's successors forced the empire into a period of decline and instability. Askia's relatives attempted to govern the empire, but political chaos and several civil wars within the empire ensured the empire's continued decline, particularly during the brutal rule of Askia Ishaq I (1539–1549). The empire experienced a period of stability and a string of military successes during the reign of Askia Daoud (1549–1582/1583). Ahmad al-Mansur, the Moroccan sultan at the time, demanded tax revenues from the empire's salt mines.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Askia Daoud responded by sending a large quantity of gold as a gift in an attempt to appease the sultan. Askia Ishaq II (1588–1591) ascended to power in a long dynastic struggle following the death of Askia Daoud. He would be the last ruler of the Songhai Empire, for in 1590, al-Mansur took advantage of the recent civil strife in the empire and sent an army under the command of Judar Pasha to conquer the Songhai and to gain control of the Trans-Saharan trade routes. After the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Tondibi (1591), the Songhai Empire collapsed.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The Songhai Empire replaced Mali as the most important empire in West Africa (covering the modern states of Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Nigeria, Guinea, Gambia, Algeria (south), Burkina-Faso, and Ivory Coast). Beginning as a smaller kingdom along the eastern side of the Niger river, the Songhai would expand their territory dramatically from the reign of King Sunni Ali (1464-1492). In ancient times there were several different groups of people that collectively formed the Songhai identity. Among the first people to settle in the region of Gao were the Sorko people, who established small settlements on the banks of the Niger River. The Sorko fashioned boats and canoes from the wood of the cailcedrat tree and fished and hunted from their boats and provided water-borne transport for goods and people. Another group of people that moved into the area to live off of Niger's resources were the Gao people. The Gao were hunters and specialized in hunting river animals such as crocodile and hippopotamus.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The other group of people known to have inhabited the area were the Do people. They were farmers who raised crops in the fertile lands bordering the river. Sometime before the 10th century, these early settlers were subjugated by more powerful, horse-riding Songhai speakers, who established control over the area. All these groups of people gradually began to speak the same language and they and their country eventually became known as the Songhai.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The earliest dynasty of kings is obscure and most of the information about this dynasty comes from an ancient cemetery near a village called Saney, close to Gao. Inscriptions on a few of the tombstones in the cemetery indicate that this dynasty ruled in the late 11th and early 12th centuries and that the rulers from this dynasty bore the title of "Malik" (King in Arabic). Other tombstones mention a second dynasty, whose rulers bore the title "zuwa". There is only myth and legend to describe zuwa origins. The "Tarikh al-Sudan" (the "History of the Sudan"), written in Arabic around 1655, provides an early history of the Songhai as handed down through oral tradition. The Chronicle reports that the legendary founder of the Za or the Zuwa dynasty was called Za Alayaman (also spelled Dialliaman), who originally came from Yemen and settled in the town of Kukiya. What happened to the Zuwa rulers is not recorded.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The Sanhaja tribes were among the early people of the Niger bend region. They were locally known as the Tuareg. These tribes rode out of the great Sahara Desert and established trading settlements near the Niger. As time passed, North African traders crossed the Sahara and joined the Tuaregs in their Niger bend settlements. They all conducted business with the people living near the river. As trade in the region increased, the Songhai chiefs took control of the profitable commerce around what was to later become Gao. Between 750 and 950, as the Ghana Empire prospered as the "land of gold" far to the west, the trading centre at Gao became an increasingly important terminus for trade across the Sahara.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The trade goods included gold, salt, slaves, kola nuts, leather, dates, and ivory. And by the 10th century, the Songhai chiefs had established Gao as a small kingdom, taking control of the people living along the trade routes. At around 1300, Gao had become so prosperous that it attracted the attention of the Mali Empire and its rulers. Gao was subsequently conquered by them and Mali profited from Gao's trade and collected taxes from its kings until about the 1430s. Troubles in the Mali homelands made it impossible to maintain control of Gao. Ibn Battuta visited Gao in 1353 when the town was a part of the Mali Empire. He arrived by boat from Timbuktu on his return journey from visiting the capital of the empire:Then I travelled to the town of Kawkaw, which is a great town on the Nīl [Niger], one of the finest, biggest, and most fertile cities of the Sūdān. There is much rice there, and milk, and chickens, and fish, and the cucumber, which has no like. Its people conduct their buying and selling with cowries, like the people of Mālī.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Following the death of Mansa Sulayman in 1360, disputes over the succession weakened the Mali Empire. Furthermore, the ruinous reign of Mari Djata II left the empire in bad financial shape, but the empire itself passed intact to Musa II. However, the real power in the empire was in the hands of Mari Djata, Musa's "kankoro-sigui". He put down a Tuareg rebellion in Takedda and attempted to quell the Songhai rebellion in Gao. While he was successful in Takedda, he did not manage to re-subjugate Gao, and so the Songhai effectively retained their independence. During his reign, Sonni Ali would be the one to expand the small kingdom of Gao into an enormous empire.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Sunni Ali was the first king of the Songhai Empire and the 15th ruler of the Sunni dynasty. He worked hard to get the Songhai empire past its rocky start. The Muslim leaders of Timbuktu asked him to drive out the invaders. Once Sunni Ali drove them out, he took this chance and took over Timbuktu. Soon, he had almost all the trading cities along the Niger River.


title: Songhai Empire

text: In the decades following the death of Mansa Sulayman, disputes over succession weakened the Mali Empire, and in the 1430s Songhai, previously a Mali dependency, gained independence under the Sonni dynasty. Around thirty years later Sonni Sulayman Dama attacked Méma, the Mali province west of Timbuktu, paving the way for his successor, Sonni Ali, to turn his country into one of the greatest empires of medieval Africa.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Sonni Ali reigned from 1464 to 1492, after the death of Sulayman Dama. Like Songhai kings before him, Ali was a Muslim. In the late 1460s, he conquered many of the Songhai's neighboring states, including what remained of the Mali Empire. Sonni Ali was considered the empire's most formidable military strategist and conqueror.


title: Songhai Empire

text: During his campaigns for expansion, Ali conquered many lands, repelling attacks from the Mossi to the south and overcoming the Dogon people of the north. He annexed Timbuktu in 1468, after Islamic leaders of the town requested his assistance in overthrowing marauding Tuaregs who had taken the city following the decline of Mali. However, Ali met stark resistance after setting his eyes on the wealthy and renowned trading town of Djenné (also known as Jenne). After a persistent seven-year siege, he was able to forcefully incorporate it into his vast empire in 1473, but only after having starved its citizens into surrender.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The invasion of Sonni Ali and his forces caused harm to the city of Timbuktu, and he was described as an intolerant tyrant in many muslim accounts such as the Tarikh al-fattash which was written by Mahmud Kati who was a notable ally of the succeeding Askia Muhammad I. According to "The Cambridge History of Africa" the Islamic historian Al-Sa'di expresses this sentiment in describing his incursion on Timbuktu:


title: Songhai Empire

text: Sonni Ali conducted a repressive policy against the scholars of Timbuktu, especially those of the Sankore region who were associated with the Tuareg. With his control of critical trade routes and cities such as Timbuktu, Sonni Ali brought great wealth to the Songhai Empire, which at its height would surpass the wealth of Mali.


title: Songhai Empire

text: In oral tradition, Sonni Ali is often known as a powerful politician and great military commander. Whatever the case may have been, his legend consists of him being a fearless conqueror who united a great empire, sparking a legacy that is still intact today. Under his reign Djenné and Timbuktu became great centers of learning.


title: Songhai Empire

text: After taking the throne Muhammad is known as Askia the Great, even though he had no real right to be the king. Not only was he not in the royal family blood line, he did not hold the sacred symbols which entitled one to become a ruler. Furthermore, he was most likely a descendant of "sohankey" songhay wizard lineage not Soninke lineage, "wakorey" it's Soninke people name in songhay language. But Askia managed to bypass that law and take the throne.


title: Songhai Empire

text: He organized the territories that Sonni Ali had previously conquered and extended his power as far to the south and east. The army of the Songhai Empire under the Askia Mohammad I (1493 - 1528) possessed a full-time core of warriors. Al-Sa'di, the chronicler who wrote the Tarikh al-Sudan compared Askiya Mohammad I's army to that of his predecessor;"he distinguished between the civilian and the army unlike Sunni Ali [1464–92] when everyone was a soldier."Askia Mohammad I is said to have possessed cynical attitudes towards kingdoms that lacked professional armies like his. He was not as tactful as Ali in the means of the military, but he did find success in alliances. Because of these alliances he was able to capture and conquer more vastly. Unlike Ali, however, he was a devout Muslim. Askia opened religious schools, constructed mosques, and opened up his court to scholars and poets from throughout the Muslim world. He sent his children to an Islamic School and enforced Islamic practices. Yet he was tolerant of other religions and did not force Islam on his people.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Like Mansa Musa, Askia also completed one of the Five Pillars of Islam by taking a hajj to Mecca, and, also like the former, went with an overwhelming amount of gold. He donated some to charity and used the rest for lavish gifts to impress the people of Mecca with the wealth of the Songhai. Islam was so important to him that, upon his return, he recruited Muslim scholars from Egypt and Morocco to teach at the Sankore Mosque in Timbuktu as well as setting up many other learning centers throughout his empire. His pilgrimage was much less noteworthy to Cairene historians than that of Mansa Musa; they noted it consisted of "an escort of 500 cavalry and 1000 infantry, and with him he carried 300,000 pieces of gold". Among his great accomplishments was an interest in astronomical knowledge which led to a flourishing of astronomers and observatories in the capital.


title: Songhai Empire

text: While not as renowned as his predecessor for his military tactics, he initiated many campaigns, notably declaring Jihad against the neighboring Mossi. Even after subduing them he did not force them to convert to Islam. His army consisted of war canoes, expert cavalry, protective armor, iron tipped weapons, and an organized militia.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Not only was he a patron of Islam, he also was gifted in administration and encouraging trade. He centralized the administration of the empire and established an efficient bureaucracy which was responsible for, among other things, tax collection and the administration of justice. He also demanded that canals be built in order to enhance agriculture, which would eventually increase trade. More important than anything he did for trade was the introduction of weights and measures and the appointment of an inspector for each of Songhai's important trading centers. During his reign Islam became more widely entrenched, trans-Saharan trade flourished, and the Saharan salt mines of Taghaza were brought within the boundaries of the empire.


title: Songhai Empire

text: As Askia the Great grew older, his power declined. In 1528 his sons revolted against him and declared Musa, one of Askia's many sons, as king. Following Musa's overthrow in 1531, Songhai's empire went into decline. Following multiple attempts at governing the Empire by Askia's sons and grandsons there was little hope for a return to the power it once held.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Between the political chaos and multiple civil wars within the empire, it came as a surprise when Morocco invaded Songhai unexpectedly. The main reason for the Moroccan invasion of Songhai was to seize control of and revive the trans-Saharan trade in salt and gold. The Songhai military, during Askia's reign, consisted of full-time soldiers, but the king never modernized his army. On the other hand, the invading Moroccan army included thousands of arquebusiers and eight English cannons. In the decisive Battle of Tondibi on 13 March 1591, the Moroccans destroyed the entire Songhai army and proceeded to capture Gao and Timbuktu, marking the end of the empire.


title: Songhai Empire

text: After the defeat of the Empire, the nobles moved south in an area known today as Songhai in present Niger where the Sonni dynasty had already settled and formed various smaller kingdoms namely, Wanzarbe, Ayerou Gothèye, Dargol, Téra, Sikié, Kokorou, Gorouol, Karma, Namaro etc and further south, the Dendi which rose to prominence shortly after.


title: Songhai Empire

text: At its peak, the Songhai City of Timbuktu became a thriving cultural and commercial center. Arab, Italian, and Jewish merchants all gathered for trade. A revival of Islamic scholarship also took place at the university in Timbuktu. It acquired a reputation for learning and scholarship across the Muslim world. However, Timbuktu was but one of a myriad of cities throughout the empire.


title: Songhai Empire

text: External overland trade in the Sahel and internal riverine trade along the Niger were the primary sources of Songhai wealth. Sea-borne trade along the West African coast was not possible until the late 1400s. Several dykes were constructed during the reign of Sonni Ali. This enhanced the irrigation and agricultural yield of Songhai.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Overland trade was fostered by four factors: "camels provided the transportation, Berber tribesmen ensured the source of provisions [along the trade routes], Islam provided some internal cohesion as well as an ideological link with other people in the Sahel, and the imperial structure supplied the politico-military organization that mandated and safeguarded the available resources." Gold was readily available in West Africa, but salt was not - it was rare but essential for human survival. So, the gold-salt trade was the backbone of overland trade routes in the Sahel. On the back of this trade, ivory, ostrich feathers, and slaves were sent north in exchange for salt, horses, camels, cloth, and art. While there were many trade routes in use to varying degrees, the route through the Fezzan via Bilma, Agades, and Gao was heavily used by the empire.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The Niger river was an essential artery for trade for the empire. Goods would be offloaded from camels onto either donkeys or boats at Timbuktu. From there, they'd move along a 500-mile corridor upstream to Djenné or downstream to Gao.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The "Julla" (merchants) would form partnerships, and the state would protect these merchants and the port cities of the Niger. It was a very strong trading kingdom, known for its production of practical crafts as well as religious artifacts. A universal system of weights and measures throughout the empire was implemented by Askia Muhammad I.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The Songhai economy was based on a clan system. The clan a person belonged to ultimately decided one's occupation. The most common were metalworkers, fishermen, and carpenters. Lower caste participants consisted of mostly non-farm working immigrants, who at times were provided special privileges and held high positions in society. At the top were noblemen and direct descendants of the original Songhai people, followed by freemen and traders. At the bottom were war captives and slaves obligated to labor, especially in farming. The Songhai used slaves more consistently than their predecessors, the Ghana and Mali empires. For example, a large landed estate worked by slaves "in the bend of the Niger ... was solely to supply the needs of the administration and the army." James Olson describes the labor system as resembling modern day unions, with the Empire possessing craft guilds that consisted of various mechanics and artisans.


title: Songhai Empire

text: Criminal justice in Songhai was based mainly, if not entirely, on Islamic principles, especially during the rule of Askia Muhammad. The local "qadis" were in addition to this, with their responsibility being to maintain order by following "Sharia" law under Islamic domination, according to the Qur'an. An additional "qadi" was noted as a necessity in order to settle minor disputes between immigrant merchants. Kings usually did not judge a defendant; however, under special circumstances, such as acts of treason, they felt an obligation to do so and thus exert their authority. Results of a trial were announced by the "town crier" and punishment for most trivial crimes usually consisted of confiscation of merchandise or even imprisonment, since various prisons existed throughout the Empire.


title: Songhai Empire

text: "Qadis" worked at the local level and were positioned in important trading towns, such as Timbuktu and Djenné.


title: Songhai Empire

text: The Qadi was appointed by the king and dealt with common-law misdemeanors according to Sharia law. The Qadi also had the power to grant a pardon or offer refuge. The "Assara-munidios", or "enforcers" worked along the lines of a police commissioner whose sole duty was to execute sentencing. Jurists were mainly composed of those representing the academic community; professors were often noted as taking administrative positions within the Empire and many aspired to be "qadis".