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What a cool song, even now it sounds just as good as when she first performed it. Bonnie Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951 in Skewen in Wales. She is widely recognisable by her highly distinctive, husky voice. In 1977, Tyler underwent surgery to remove nodules on her vocal cords, resulting in her singing voice taking on a raspy quality. Her next hit single, a cover of "It's a Heartache" was taken from Tyler's second album. In spring of 1983 came the single "Total Eclipse of the Heart", written by Jim Steinman. The song was a worldwide smash and reached no.1 in no less than 18 countries including the UK, France, Australia, Japan, Germany, Canada, and the United States, where it remained at the top for 4 weeks. In September 2006, Tyler made her first appearance on U.S. television in many years, as she sang a duet of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with actress and now singer Lucy Lawless on the Celebrity Duets.
Tags:
total
eclipse
of
the
heart
bonnie
tyler
80s
music
Added: 28th October 2007
Views: 2972
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Posted By: Babs64 |

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This is one of my favorite posed sports photos: Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins with the hardware he had accrued by the age of 23. The trophies are the Stanley Cup (which his team would win twice) the Prince of Wales Trophy (won three times by the Bruins), the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year), the Norris Trophy (best defenseman; won eight times), the Art Ross Trophy (NHL scoring champion; twice), Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff MVP; twice), and the Hart Trophy (NHL MVP; three times). Not bad, huh?
Tags:
Bobby
Orr
trophies
hockey
Added: 28th February 2008
Views: 2761
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Posted By: Lava1964 |

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If there is a castle that comes close to matching Harlech Castle in historical importance, that castle is surely Chepstow. Chepstow is a Norman castle perched high above the banks of the river Wye in southeast Wales. Construction began at Chepstow in 1067, less than a year after William the Conqueror was crowned King of England. It was his master castle builder in the person of his loyal Norman lord William FitzOsbern. FitzOsbern's fortresses were the vehicles from which the new king consolidated control of his newly conquered lands. Chepstow Castle became the key launching point for expeditions into Wales, expeditions that eventually subdued the rebellious population.
Photos
Char
Terry Winter
becky.bryan
Red Kit
Nigel Feasey
scuba_dooba
Karen McCort
Phillip Parr
Joe Dunckley
Maggie McDonnell
mrabanalc
miss.piccolo
mrssleepy(Rachelle Sadler)
Jon Combe
Martin
Morland Marauder
Karen & J.J. Morton
Roman Solowiej
kfy
Doug Woods
TimS
Simon
Music
The Angels of Venice
dragonfly
Mediaeval Baebes
gaudete
Jeff van Dyck
medieval II
cathedral of doom
Hans Zimmer
strength and honor
Hans Zimmer and Enya
now we are free
conceived and produced by
Dale Caruso
For more information about the Castles and Abbeys of Wales Visit
http://www.castlewales.com/
And for more information about Jeff van Dyck's soundtrack track for the
PC Game Total War and for information about the game itself, visit
www.totalwar.com/
Tags:
Medieval
Castles
Wales
12th
Century
Wye
River
Normans
Added: 27th September 2008
Views: 1702
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Posted By: dalecaruso |

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This is a 10-minute segment of an excellent British documentary about the tragic death of Welsh boxer Johnny Owen. Owen was the British, Commonwealth, and European bantamweight champion. He was tragically killed in the ring in his attempt to win the world championship from Lupe Pintor in 1980.
Tags:
Johnny
Owen
boxing
death
Wales
Added: 23rd April 2009
Views: 2069
Rating: 
Posted By: Lava1964 |

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Le Pétomane was the stage name of French flatulist (professional farter) Joseph Pujol. He was famous for his remarkable control of the abdominal muscles which enabled him to fart at will. His stage name combines the French verb péter, 'to fart' with the -mane, '-maniac' suffix, which translates to 'fartomaniac'. Pujol was 'gifted' in the sense that he was able to inhale water or air into his rectum and then control the release of it using his sphincter muscles (avoiding any associated odor). When Pujol joined the army he told his fellow soldiers about his special ability, and repeated it for their amusement, sucking up water from a pan into his rectum and then projecting it through his anus up to several yards. He then found that he could suck in air as well. Although a baker by profession, Pujol would entertain his customers by imitating musical instruments, and claim to be playing them behind the counter. Pujol decided to try his talent on the stage, and debuted in Marseille in 1887. After his act proved successful, he proceeded to Paris, where he took the act to the Moulin Rouge in 1892.
Some of the highlights of his stage act involved sound effects of cannon fire and thunderstorms, as well as playing 'O Sole Mio' and 'La Marseillaise' on an ocarina through a rubber tube in his anus. He could also blow out a candle from several yards away. He performed before various VIPs, including the Prince of Wales, King Leopold II of the Belgians, and Sigmund Freud.
In 1894, as a star attraction at the Moulin Rouge, Pujol was earning 20,000 francs per performance.
In the following decade Pujol tried to 'refine' his acts to make them 'gentler.' One of his favorite numbers was a rhyme about a farm which he himself composed--and which he punctuated with the usual anal renditions of the animals' sounds. The climax of Pujol's act was his farting impression of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Tags:
Joseph
Pujol
farter
entertainer
Added: 15th February 2011
Views: 2641
Rating: 
Posted By: Lava1964 |

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At 9.15 am on Friday, October 21, 1966 a enormous mountain of excavated coal mining debris (known to coal miners as a waste tip) slid down a mountainside into the mining village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. The waste tips, which had been building up for 50 years, had become heavy and saturated due to a week of rainy weather. The debris slide first destroyed a farm cottage in its path, killing all the occupants. At Pantglas Junior School, just below, the children had just returned to their classes after singing All Things Bright and Beautiful at their assembly. The tipping gang up the mountain had seen the slide start, but could not raise the alarm because their telephone cable had been repeatedly stolen. (The Tribunal of Inquiry later established that the disaster happened so quickly that a telephone warning would not have saved any lives regardless.) Down in the village, nobody saw anything, but everybody heard the noise as about 40,000 cubic metres of debris crashed into the school at a depth of 39 feet. Gaynor Minett, an eight-year-old student, remembered four years later, "It was a tremendous rumbling sound and all the school went dead. You could hear a pin drop. Everyone just froze in their seats. I just managed to get up and I reached the end of my desk when the sound got louder and nearer, until I could see the black out of the window. I can't remember any more but I woke up to find that a horrible nightmare had just begun in front of my eyes."
The slide engulfed the school and about 20 houses in the village before coming to rest. Then there was total silence. George Williams, who was trapped in the wreckage, remembered that "In that silence you couldn't hear a bird or a child." All able-bodied persons in the village rushed to the scene with whatever implements they could find to begin digging through the mess to search for survivors. None were found after 11 a.m., but it took nearly a week to recover all the bodies.
The death toll in the Aberfan disaster was 144--of which 116 were school children. That accounted for about half the school's enrolment. Five teachers were killed too. An inquiry later blamed the National Coal Board (NCB) for ignoring warnings from years earlier about the potential hazards of the growing waste tips. Families of the victims were eventually compensated 500 British pounds by the NCB for each loved one who had perished.
Tags:
Aberfan
Wales
disaster
coal
Added: 11th June 2012
Views: 2795
Rating: 
Posted By: Lava1964 |

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This is the concluding segment of a BBC documentary on Welsh boxer Johnny Owen. Owen died from injuries he suffered in a world bantamweight championship fight versus titleholder Lupe Pintor of Mexico on September 19, 1980. Owen's scrawny appearance--and his nickname the "Matchstick Man"--belied the fact he was a scrappy battler with a 25-1-1 record who held the Welsh, British, Commonwealth, and European bantamweight championships. The title fight took place in front of a hostile crowd of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. Before, during, and after the fight, Owens' handlers and the Welsh fans who had travelled thousands of miles to support Owen were routinely pelted with cups of urine thrown at them by the Hispanic fans. Nevertheless, Owen surprised everyone by putting on a competitive fight. Some writers had Owen ahead after eight rounds, but he was tiring. In the ninth round he was knocked down for the first time in his pro career. In the fateful twelfth round, Pintor floored Owen again. Owen rose and a few seconds later was knocked unconscious by a Pintor straight right. A blood clot formed on Owen's brain. He never regained consciousness and died 45 days after the fight. He was 24 years old. Owen's family held no grudge against Pintor and encouraged him to continue his boxing career. When a memorial statue to Owen was about to erected in his hometown of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales in 2000, Owen's father insisted Pintor perform the official unveiling. Pintor obliged.
Tags:
boxing
fatality
Johnny
Owen
Wales
Added: 26th November 2012
Views: 2077
Rating: 
Posted By: Lava1964 |

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