National Biscuit day🍪🍪🍪

National Biscuit Day, Takes place annually on 29th May in the UK. Biscuits are a flour-based baked and shaped food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, biscotti, and speculaas. In most of North America, nearly all hard sweet biscuits are called “cookies” and savoury biscuits are called “crackers”, while the term “biscuit” is used for a soft, leavened quick bread similar to a less sweet version of a scone.

Biscuits didn’t become known as a sweet confectionary until the 7th century, when the Persians experimented by adding different ingredients to the standard water and flour mixture. Biscuits were created to solve The need for nutritious, easy-to-store, easy-to-carry, and long-lasting foods on long journeys, in particular at sea, It was initially solved by taking livestock along with a butcher/cook. However The introduction of the baking of processed cereals, including the creation of flour, provided a more reliable source of food. 

Egyptian sailors carried a flat, brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake while the Romans had a biscuit called buccellum. Roman cookbook Apicius describes: “a thick paste of fine wheat flour was boiled and spread out on a plate. When it had dried and hardened, it was cut up and then fried until crisp, then served with honey and pepper.” Many early physicians believed that most medicinal problems were associated with digestion. Hence, for both sustenance and avoidance of illness, a daily consumption of a biscuit was considered good for health.

Hard biscuits soften as they age. To solve this problem, early bakers attempted to create the hardest biscuit possible. Because it is so hard and dry, if properly stored and transported, navies’ hardtack will survive rough handling and high temperature. Baked hard, it can be kept without spoiling for years as long as it is kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two. To soften hardtack for eating, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cookedinto a skillet meal. Anthony the Great (who lived in the 4th century AD) ate biscuits which may have been a popular food among monks of the time and region. At the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was one pound of biscuit plus one gallon of beer. Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations. Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria’s reign was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen’s mark and the number of the oven in which they were baked. When machinery was introduced into the process the dough was thoroughly mixed and rolled into sheets about 2 yards (1.8 m) long and 1 yard (0.9 m) wide which were stamped in one stroke into about sixty hexagonal-shaped biscuits. This left the sheets sufficiently coherent to be placed in the oven in one piece and when baked they were easy to separate. The hexagonal shape rather than traditional circular biscuits meant a saving in material and were easier to pack. Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailor’s diet until the introduction of canned foods. Canned meat was first marketed in 1814; preserved beef in tins was officially added to Royal Navy rations in 1847

Early biscuits were hard, dry, and unsweetened. They were most often cooked after bread, in a cooling bakers’ oven; they were a cheap form of sustenance for the poor. By the 7th century AD, cooks of the Persian empire had learnt from their forebears the techniques of lightening and enriching bread-based mixtures with eggs, butter, and cream, and sweetening them with fruit and honey. One of the earliest spiced biscuits was gingerbread, in French, pain d’épices, meaning “spice bread”, brought to Europe in 992 by the Armenian monk Grégoire de Nicopolis. He left Nicopolis Pompeii, of Lesser Armenia to live in Bondaroy, France, near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there for seven years and taught French priests and Christians how to cook gingerbread. This was originally a dense, treacle (molasses-based) spice cake or bread.

With the combination of knowledge spreading from Al-Andalus, and then the Crusades and subsequent spread of the spice trade to Europe, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. By mediaeval times, biscuits were made from a sweetened, spiced paste of breadcrumbs and then baked (e.g., gingerbread), or from cooked bread enriched with sugar and spices and then baked again. King Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart) left for the Third Crusade (1189–92) with “biskit of muslin”, which was a mixed corn compound of barley, rye, and bean flour.

As the making and quality of bread had been controlled to this point, so were the skills of biscuit-making through the craft guilds. As the supply of sugar began, and the refinement and supply of flour increased, so did the ability to sample more leisurely foodstuffs, including sweet biscuits. Early references from the Vadstena monastery show how the Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease digestion in 1444. The first documented trade of gingerbread biscuits dates to the 16th century, where they were sold in monastery pharmacies and town square farmers markets. Gingerbread became widely available in the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution in Britain sparked the formation of businesses in various industries, and the British biscuit firms of McVitie’s, Carr’s, Huntley & Palmers, and Crawfords were all established by 1850. Chocolate and biscuits became products for the masses, thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the consumers it created. By the mid-19th century, sweet biscuits were an affordable indulgence and business was booming. Manufacturers such as Huntley & Palmers in Reading, Carr’s of Carlisle and McVitie’s in Edinburgh transformed from small family-run businesses into state-of-the-art operations. British biscuit companies vied to dominate the market with new products and eye-catching packaging. The decorative biscuit tin, invented by Huntley & Palmers in 1831, saw British biscuits exported around the world.In 1900 Huntley & Palmers biscuits were sold in 172 countries, and their global reach was reflected in their advertising. Competition and innovation among British firms saw 49 patent applications for biscuit-making equipment, tins, dough-cutting machines and ornamental moulds between 1897 and 1900.In 1891, Cadbury filed a patent for a chocolate-coated biscuit. Along with local farm produce of meat and cheese, many regions of the world have their own distinct style of biscuit due to the historic prominence of this form of food.

World digestive health day

World Digestive Health Day (WDHD) is celebrated annually on May 29. It was created by The World Gastroenterology Organisation in order to promote general public awareness of how to maintain digestive health, prevent digestive disorders and educate people concerning the therapy and treatments of diferent digestive disorders. So each year the World GAstroenterology Organisation use the day to focus upon the causes and treatments of different digestive disorders.

Past World Digestive Health themes have included: Health and Nutrition, Helicobacter pylori infection, Viral Hepatitis, Optimal Nutrition in Health and Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Enteric Infections: Prevention and Management – Clean Food, Clean Water, Clean Environment, Common GI Symptoms in the Community: Impact and Interpretation, Liver CANCER, Gut Microbes, Heartburn and Diet and gut Health.

The World Gastroenterology Organisation (WGO) is an international federation of over 100 national GI societies and 4 regional associations of gastroenterology representing over 50,000 individual members. It was established in 2007 to raise financial support to develop and sustain the World Gastroenterology Organisation’s global training and education programs. These programs focus primarily on developing, low-resource countries and aim to meet the increasing demand for digestive disorder prevention and treatment worldwide..” The WGO is focused on “the improvement of standards in gastroenterology training and education on a global scale.”

The association was founded in 1935 and incorporated in 1958. The WGO was originally known as the Organisation Mondiale de Gastroenterologie (OMGE) and was renamed the World Gastroenterology Organisation in 2006. Its activities include educational initiatives such as Training Centers, Train the Trainers Workshops, public awareness campaigns such as World Digestive Health Day and Global Guidelines which cascade, providing viable solutions which are adaptable to varying resource levels around the world, as well as a quadrennial World Congress of Gastroenterology. The WGO Foundation was incorporated in 2007 and is dedicated to raising funds to support the ongoing WGO education initiatives and activities.In 2008, the WGO, together with Danone, launched a global campaign to improve digestive health, titled “Optimum Health and Nutrition.” The campaign is part of a three-year partnership between WGO and Danone to “help raise awareness of digestive disorders and the importance of maintaining good digestive health.”.

Georges Brohée (1887–1957), was a Belgian surgeon who promoted modern gastroenterology, and he is largely responsible for the origin of the WGO, in particular by founding the Belgian Society of Gastroenterology in 1928 and by organizing the first International Congress of Gastroenterology in Brussels in 1935. At first Developed nations were the initial focus of the organization, however today the WGO embraces a global approach with a special emphasis on developing regions. In May 1958 the first World Congress of Gastroenterology was held in Washington DC, where Georges Brohée’s continuing efforts culminated in the constitution of the “Organisation Mondiale de Gastro-entérologie” (OMGE) on May 29, 1958. Dr H.L. Bockus was the organisation’s first President. His vision was to enhance standards of education and training in gastroenterology.

More international and national events taking place on 29 May

• Biscuit Day
• Coq Au Vin Day
• Learn About Composting Day
• Paperclip Day 
• World Digestive Health Day
• International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers 
• Escalator Day takes place annally on 29 May to commemorate the occasion when The Otis Elevator Company first registered the trade name “Escalator” on 29 May 1900

Messerschmitt BF 109

The German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter made it’s first flight 29 May 1935. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War before becaming the backbone of the Luftwaffe’s fighter force during World War II and was still in service at the end of World War II in 1945. It was one of the most advanced fighters of the era, including such features as all-metal monocoque construction, a closed canopy, and retractable landing gear. It was powered by a liquid-cooled, inverted-V12 aero engine. From the end of 1941, the Bf 109 was steadily being supplemented by the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

It was commonly called the Me 109, most often by Allied aircrew and even among the German aces themselves, even though this was not the official German designation. The designation “Messerschmitt Bf 109” was issued by the Ministry of Aviation (German: Reichsluftfahrtministerium/ RLM) and represents the firm that originally built them, the “Bavarian Aircraft Works”, or Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) in German. The confusion arises because design work began in 1934 at the BFW firm and, as was customary, the model was designated by the prefix Bf. On 11 July 1938 the company was renamed Messerschmitt AG due to Willy Messerschmitt becoming its new owner, and the prefix Me was applied to all new models after that date, whilst existing types retained their Bf prefix. It was designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser, who worked at Bayerische Flugzeugwerke during the early to mid-1930s.

Whilst the 109 was conceived as an interceptor, later models were developed to fulfill multiple tasks, serving as bomber escort, fighter-bomber, day-, night-, all-weather fighter, ground-attack aircraft, and as reconnaissance aircraft. It was supplied to and operated by several states during World War II, and served with several countries for many years after the war. The Bf 109 is the most produced fighter aircraft in history, with a total of 33,984 airframes produced from 1936 up to April 1945.

The Bf 109 was flown by the three top-scoring German fighter aces of World War II, who claimed 928 victories among them while flying with Jagdgeschwader 52, mainly on the Eastern Front. The highest scoring fighter ace of all time, Erich Hartmann, flew the Bf 109 and was credited with 352 aerial victories. The aircraft was also flown by Hans-Joachim Marseille, the highest-scoring German ace in the North African Campaign, who achieved 158 aerial victories. It was also flown by several other aces from Germany’s allies, notably Finn Ilmari Juutilainen, the highest scoring non-German ace on the type, and pilots from Italy, Romania, Croatia, Bulgaria and Hungary. Through constant development, the Bf 109 remained competitive with the latest Allied fighter aircraft until the end of the war.

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This particular Messerschmitt “Black 6″ ⬆️was built in 1942 and briefly served in North Africa with JG77. Abandoned at Gambut airfield by evacuating German forces, she was captured by members of 3 Sqn Royal Australian Air Force. Repaired by members of 3 Sqn and flown out, she would eventually be taken by the RAF for evaluation. She remained in Africa for a year before being shipped to to UK in December 1943, by mid 1944 she was in use at Farnborough as a trails aircraft against new Allied designs. In 1946 she joined the Air Historical Branch and was displayed or stored as required, and in 1962 and 1966, restorations to flight were considered but not followed through. However, everything changed in 1972 when Russ Snadden and his team commenced the epic task of returning her to flight. Over the next 18 years and moving between several bases, the dedicated team worked on returning “Black 6” to the sky.

By 1987 the restored engine was fitted to the airframe and in 1989 she made her first static appearance at RAF Benson’s 50th anniversary event. Her first engine runs occurred in 1990 and she flew again in 1991 on the civil register as G-USTV. It was agreed by the Ministry of Defence that she would fly for a few seasons and be based at Imperial War Museum Duxford, before moving to static display at the RAF Museum, this was eventually extended to 1997. Sadly, on what was due to be her final public flying display, she suffered damage when she over-turned following a forced landing in a field outside of Duxford. After a period in storage, it was decided to restore to her to static condition for display at the RAF Museum and the contract was awarded to Russ Snaden and the team who originally restored her. From the summer of 1999 – February 2002 the work was undertaken with 70% of the original airframe used in the restoration. She was moved by road to the RAF Museum’s Hendon site where she was initially displayed in the Bomber Command Hall, before moving to the Milestones of Flight Hall from 2003-12, and then back to the Bomber Hall. In 2016 she was moved to the RAF Museum’s Cosford site where she is now displayed alongside an impressive number of German aircraft.

G.K.Chesterton

English writer G.K Chesterton was born 29th May 1874. He published works on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the “prince of paradox”. Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: “Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories— first carefully turning them inside out.” For example, Chesterton wrote “Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.”Chesterton is well known for his reasoned apologetics and even some of those who disagree with him have recognized the universal appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.

Chesterton, as a political thinker, cast aspersions on both progressivism and conservatism, saying, “The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an “orthodox” Christian, and came to identify such a position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Roman Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton’s “friendly enemy” according to Time, said of him, “He was a man of colossal genius”. Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Henry Cardinal Newman, and John Ruskin.Among his best known works are The Napoleon of Notting Hill, Heretics, Charles Dickens: A Critical Study, The Man Who Was Thursday, Orthodoxy, Manalive, Father Brown short stories (detective fiction), Eugenics and Other Evils, Saint Francis of Assisi (1923), Doubleday, The Everlasting Man & Saint Thomas Aquinas. A lot of these can be found on the Project Gutenberg Website.

Francis Rossi OBE

Best known for being a co-founder of the English rock band Status Quo , British singer and Guitarist Francis Rossi, OBE was born 29th May 1949. Status Quo were orignially called The Spectres & were founded by schoolboys Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster in 1962. After a number of lineup changes, the band became “The Status Quo” in late 1967, finally settling on the name “Status Quo” in 1969. They have recorded over 60 chart hits in the UK, more than any other rock group. 22 of these have reached the UK Top Ten. The origins of Status Quo were in the rock and roll freakbeat band “The Spectres” formed in 1962.Rossi and Lancaster played their first gig at the Samuel Jones Sports Club in Dulwich, London. In 1963 they added drummer John Coghlan.

They began writing their own material and after a year met Rick Parfitt who was playing with a cabaret band called The Highlights. By the end of 1965 Rossi and Parfitt, who had become close friends, made a commitment to continue working together. On 18 July 1966 The Spectres signed a five-year deal with Piccadilly Records, releasing two singles that year, “I (Who Have Nothing)” and “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (written by Alan Lancaster), and one the next year called “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet”. By 1967, the group had discovered psychedelia At this time the line-up also included organist Roy Lynes. They released another single “Almost But Not Quite There” which was also a flop. In late 1967 the band became The Status Quo, and in January 1968 they released the psychedelic-flavoured “Pictures of Matchstick Men”. Rick Parfitt was invited to join the band just as the song hit the UK Singles Chart, reaching Number 7. “Matchstick Men” also became their only Top 40 hit single in the United States. Though the follow-up was the unsuccessful single, “Black Veils of Melancholy”, they had a hit again the same year with the poppy, Marty Wilde penned “Ice in the Sun”, which climbed to Number 8.After their second album Spare Parts failed to impact commercially, the band, disillusioned with their musical direction, abandoned pop psychedelia and Carnaby Street fashions in favour of a hard rock/boogie sound, faded denims and T-shirts, an image which was to become their trademark throughout the 1970s.

After two well-received but relatively poor selling albums in 1970 and 1971, their major breakthrough came when they signed with the heavy rock and progressive label Vertigo. Their first album for Vertigo, Piledriver was released in 1972, and heralded an even heavier, self-produced sound. This album was essentially the stylistic template for each album they released up until Blue for You in 1976. During this period, and throughout the rest of the 1970s, they became one of the UK’s leading rock bands, gaining a faithful following due to their relentless touring and energetic live gigs. Quo’s more popular songs from this era include “Paper Plane”, “Caroline”, “Down Down”, “Rain”, “Rockin’ All Over the World” and “Whatever You Want”. “Down Down” topped the UK Singles Chart in January 1975, becoming their only UK number one single to date . In 1976, they signed a pioneering sponsorship deal with Levi’s. To date Quo have sold approximately 128 million records worldwide. They released their latest album Live on Stage O2 in 2013. Sadly though Rick Parfitt died on 23 December 2016.

Noel Gallagher (Oasis, High flying birds)

English musician and singer-songwriter Noel Gallagher was born 29 May 1967. Formerly the lead guitarist, occasional lead singer and principal songwriter of the rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Raised in Burnage, Manchester with Liam, Noel began learning guitar at the age of thirteen. After a series of odd jobs in construction, he worked for local Manchester band Inspiral Carpets as a roadie and technician in 1988.Whilst touring with them, he learned that Liam had formed a band of his own, known as The Rain, which eventually took on the name Oasis. After Gallagher returned to England, he was invited by his brother to join Oasis as songwriter and guitarist.

Oasis’ debut album, Definitely Maybe (1994), marked the beginning of the band’s rise to fame as head of the Britpop movement. Oasis’ second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, reached the top of the album charts in many countries and their third studio album, Be Here Now, became the fastest-selling album in UK chart history. Britpop eventually declined in popularity and Oasis’ next two albums failed to revive it. However, the band’s final two albums, Don’t Believe the Truth (2005) and Dig Out Your Soul (2008), were hailed as its best efforts in over a decade and found renewed success.

However on 28 August 2009 Noël Gallagher announced that he was leaving Oasis, following an altercation with Liam prior to a gig in Paris and Since acrimoniously splitting from Oasis in August 2009, He has formed a new band called “Noel Gallaghers Flying Birds” The bands first album HIGH FLYING BIRDS was released on October 17th 2011 and the follow up to High Flying Birds, entitled “Who Built the Moon” was released in 2018, a more adventurous 18-track collaboration with Amorphous Androgynous may also be in the works.

Noël has had a number of altercations with Liam, and Gallagher’s run with Oasis was marked by turbulence, especially during the peak of Britpop, during which he was involved in at least several disputes with Liam, and the brothers’ fights and wild lifestyles regularly made headlines in British tabloid newspapers. Gallagher (along with Oasis) also shared a personal rivalry with fellow Britpop band Blur. However, Gallagher was often regarded as the spear-head of the Britpop movement, and at one point of time, NME termed a number of Britpop bands (including Kula Shaker, Ocean Colour Scene and Cast) as “Noelrock”, citing Gallagher’s influence on their success. Many have praised Gallagher’s songwriting, with George Martin claiming Noel to be ‘the finest songwriter of his generation’.

Mel Gaynor

English Drummer, Song writer and Producer Mel George Gaynor was born 29 May 1960 in Balham, London, England. He is best known as the longtime drummer for the rock band Simple Minds. Gaynor was born to a Jamaican father and an Afro-Brazilian mother. Gaynor began drumming at age 11 and had his first professional engagement at age 14. Gaynor considers The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to be his main influences.

He joined the British hard rock band Samson who were formed in 1977 by guitarist and vocalist Paul Samson. They are best known for their first three albums with future Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson, then known as “Bruce Bruce”, and drummer Thunderstick (real name Barry Graham Purkis), who wore a leather mask and performed on stage in a metal cage. Drummer Clive Burr was also a member of the band, both before and after his tenure with Iron Maiden. Drummer Mel Gaynor had a successful music career being a member of Simple Minds for over 20 years. Dickinson’s replacement on vocals, Nicky Moore, performed with Samson throughout the mid-1980s and again from the late 1990s onwards; he has also been a member of the bands Mammoth and Nicky Moore and the Blues Corporation. In 1976 Paul Samson replaced Bernie Tormé in London-based band Scrapyard, joining bassist John McCoy and drummer Roger Hunt.

The band name was changed to McCoy, and they built up a busy gigging schedule, whilst also independently playing various sessions. Eventually, McCoy left to join Atomic Rooster. His replacement was the band’s sound engineer and a close friend of Paul Samson’s, Chris Aylmer. Aylmer suggested a name change to Samson, and recommended a young drummer, Clive Burr, whom he had previously played with in the band Maya. Burr joined, and Samson was born, although for a time Paul Samson used bassist Bill Pickard and drummer Paul Gunn on odd gigs when Aylmer and Burr were honouring previous commitments. Various other people were tried out to expand the line up: Paul Samson got in touch with an old bandmate, bass player Stewart Cochrane, and asked him to try out with the group as a four-piece, with the current bass player Chris Aylmer on second guitar alongside Paul. Only one gig was played in this incarnation, at The Nag’s Head pub in Rochester, Kent on 11 March 1978, where it was decided that Paul Samson and Aylmer’s playing styles were not compatible, so they went back to being a three-piece. Cochrane joined the avant-garde jazz-rock band Spanish Fly; he later continued his career as an orchestra-leader for Holland America Line, Windstar Cruises and performed and recorded with members of bands The Animals, Nashville Teens and Steve Hackett Band. In October 1978, lead vocalist Mark Newman joined, but after about six shows, Paul Samson resumed lead vocals and they reverted to a three-piece line-up.

At the end of 1978, Burr left. They auditioned over 60 drummers, and eventually decided on Barry Purkis. The band were offered a recording contract, but Aylmer would not commit, so Paul Samson and Purkis decided that, as John McCoy was producing and had co-written much of the material, they would ask him to play bass on the album. The album was recorded for release on Lazer records, and given the title Survivors. In late 1979 Bruce Dickinson joined as lead vocalist under the name ‘Bruce Bruce’.

The band’s second album, Head On, was released in July 1980 and peaked at No. 34 in the UK Albums Chart The supporting tour was full of controversy and legal issues, due to problems with their management. They kept writing and rehearsing for a new record. Ten songs had already been composed, by October 1980, and were ready to be recorded. At the same time, the band re-issued their debut album, Survivors, now with Dickinson handling vocal duties. The tour continued until the end of the year, when Samson entered the studio to record their third album, Shock Tactics. This was the last album Dickinson recorded with the band. Samson faced innumerable problems with their management. They were always being booked on ill-matched support tours. After leaving their management in 1981 they discovered that their record company was going bankrupt. Dickinson said they “made every mistake in the business”. His last performance with Samson was at the Reading Festival in 1981. This was recorded by the BBC and released in 1990, as the live album Live at Reading 1981. The band appeared in a short-movie Biceps of Steel in 1980, directed by Julien Temple, which featured two music-video type sequences which form the 15 minute film and were features in the movie The Incubus and in 2006 Biceps of Steel re-surfaced on Bruce Dickinson’s Anthology DVD. The group posted three entries in the UK Singles Chart. These were “Riding With The Angels (1981, No. 54), “Losing My Grip” (1982, No. 63) and “Red Skies (1983, No. 65).

Following Dickinson’s departure, former Hackensack and Tiger vocalist Nicky Moore was recruited to front the band who had also signed a new recording contract with Polydor. Samson’s first release with Moore was the “Losing My Grip” EP in 1982. The title track as well as “Pyramid to the Stars” had originally been cut with Dickinson. Those versions would remain unreleased until they surfaced on the Shock Tactics CD re-release in 2001. Samson issued two albums with Moore, 1982’s Before the Storm and 1984 Don’t Get Even, Get Mad before the group disbanded with Paul Samson carrying on solo. Samson reformed in 1987 and performed until 1991, through various line-up changes. The album Refugee was launched in 1990.

In early nineties, Paul Samson asked New York singer/songwriter Rik Anthony to write lyrics and vocal melodies for Samson’s “reunion” project with Thunderstick and Chris Aylmer. As a collaboration, Anthony wrote and recorded the lyrics and vocal melodies for eight songs while in New York, and in London re-recorded five demos at Picnic Studios. With limited time and budget, the band could only record five demo songs and the project was never completed. The Picnic demos were never picked up by Samson’s record company, and sat idle for almost nine years. Anthony, Paul Samson, Gerry Sherwin and Tony Tuohy played some shows in Germany and the Netherlands under the name Paul Samson’s Rogues, and as Samson whilst opening for Girlschool. After the dates in Europe, Anthony returned to New York. Samson had a new line-up in 1993 and recorded the album Samson.

In 1999, Paul Samson released a CD containing five of the compositions from the Picnic Demos, entitled Past Present & Future. The Samson-Aylmer-Thunderstick line-up reformed for a live show in Tokyo, and in 2000, with Nicky Moore back on board, a series of live dates, including a “25th Anniversary of the NWOBHM” concert at the London Astoria on 26 May 2000, which also featured Angel Witch on the bill. Samson’s performance was recorded and released as a live album. The same line-up later appeared at the Wacken Open Air rock festival on 4 August 2000.

The group effectively disbanded with Paul Samson’s death from cancer on 9 August 2002. Moore paid tribute to his late bandmate at the Sweden Rock Festival on 12 June 2004, with a set entitled “Nicky Moore plays Samson”. Bass player Chris Aylmer born Christopher Robin Aylmer, 7 February 1948 died on 9 January 2007 following a battle with throat cancer and Samson Drummer Clive Burr died on 12 March 2013 after many years suffering from multiple sclerosis.

After leaving Samson, Gaynor joined Scottish rock band Simple Minds in 1982 as a session drummer for the New Gold Dream album (as a recommendation by record producer Pete Walsh), Simple Minds Were formed in Glasgow in 1977 and became the most commercially successful Scottish band of the 1980s. They achieved five UK Albums chart number one albums during their career and have sold an estimated 60 million albums. Despite various personnel changes, they continue to record and tour. The band scored a string of hit singles, becoming best known internationally for their 1985 hit “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” (UK #7, US #1, Canada #1), from the soundtrack of the film The Breakfast Club. Their other more prominent hits include “Alive and Kicking” (UK #7, US #3, Canada #3) and “Belfast Child” (UK #1). In 2016, they received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. The core of the band is the two remaining founding members, Jim Kerr (vocals, songwriting) and Charlie Burchill (guitars, keyboards after 1990, other instruments, songwriting). The other current band members are Ged Grimes (bass guitar), Sarah Brown (vocals), Gordy Goudie (guitar), Cherisse Osei (drums) and Catherine AD (vocals, keyboards, guitar). Former members include bass guitarist Derek Forbes, keyboardists Mick MacNeil and Andy Gillespie, drummers Brian McGee and Mel Gaynor (who first joined the band in 1982).Mel Gaynor later joined the band permanently for the New Gold Dream tour, as a replacement for Mike Ogletree. Except for a period (1992–97) away from the band after the Real Life tour of 1991–92 and remained the Simple Minds drummer until 2017.

In addition to Simple Minds, he has played alongside other acts such as: Elton John, Lou Reed, Tina Turner, Meat Loaf, Samson, Mango, Kirsty MacColl, The Associates, Orange Juice, Peter Gabriel, The Pretenders, Prljavo kazalište, Gary Moore, Jackson Browne, Little Steven, Brian May, The Nolans, Goldie, Robert Palmer, Joan Armatrading and Light of the World. In 2007 Gaynor Embarked on a solo project with a version of play that funky music his latest solo album Was released in 2016 Gaynor’s first single was a re recording of Robert Palmers Addicted to love. Gaynor was also a member of Birmingham-based Muscles, a funk-oriented covers band that had minor chart success with “If it Relaxes Your Mind” and “I’m a Girlwatcher”.

Gaynor has played a variety of drum sets over the years, including and currently Natal drums, and uses Remo drumheads. He has played a variety of cymbals as well, including at first Paiste during at the start of his career, but then switched to Zildjian in the early 1980s upon joining Simple Minds, which he played for much of the duration of his career. He has also endorsed Anatolian, UFIP, and also Meinl cymbals at various other stages in his career, but in 2011, Paiste announced him as an official endorser again, and has remained so to this day. Gaynor has also acquired an Italian company called Drum Art, to make his signature sticks and snare drum.

Simon Jones (the Verve)

Best known as being a member of The Verve and Theshining, the English Singer-Songwriter Simon Jones was born 29th May 1972. The Verve were an English alternative rock band formed in Wigan in 1989 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. The guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong became a member at a later date. Beginning with a psychedelic sound, by the mid-1990s the band had released several EPs and three albums.The founding members of Verve met at Winstanley Sixth Form College, in Wigan, Greater Manchester. The band’s first gig was at the Honeysuckle Pub, in Wigan, on 15 August 1990.Most of the band’s early material was created through extensive jam sessions.Fronted by singer Richard Ashcroft, the band caused a buzz in early 1991 for its ability to captivate audiences with its musical textures and avant-garde sensibilities. The group was signed by Hut Records in 1991 and their first studio releases in 1992, “All in the Mind”, “She’s a Superstar”, and “Gravity Grave” (along with the December 1992 Verve) saw the band become a critical success, making an impression with freeform guitar work by McCabe and unpredictable vocals by Ashcroft. Those first 3 singles reached the first spot in the UK Indie charts, and “She’s a Superstar” did enter the UK Top 75 Singles Chart. The band saw some support from these early days in the United States in some music scenes in big cities like New York connected with psychedelic music.

1993′s A Storm in Heaven was the band’s full-length debut, produced by record producer John Leckie (of Radiohead, The Stone Roses,XTC and The Fall fame). “Blue” was released as the lead single and again managed to enter in the UK Top 75 at No. 69 and reached No. 2 in the Indie charts. The album was a critical success, but was only a moderate commercial success, reaching No. 27 in the UK album chart that summer. The second single from the album, “Slide Away”, topped the UK indie rock charts. During this period the band played a number of gigs with Oasis who, at the time, were relatively unknown.]In 1994, the band released the album No Come Down, a compilation of b-sides plus a live version of “Gravity Grave” performed atGlastonbury Festival in 1993. It was the band’s first release under the name The Verve, following legal difficulties with the jazz labelVerve Records. The band then played on the travelling U.S. alternative rock festival, Lollapalooza, in the summer of 1994. A new mix of “Blue” was released in the U.S. to promote the band.

For the band’s second album, 1995′s A Northern Soul, They departed from the experimental psychedelic sounds of A Storm in Heaven and focused more on conventional alternative rock, with Ashcroft’s vocals taking a more prominent role in the songs, although reminiscent of some of the early work. Around this period, Oasis guitarist and friend of Ashcroft, Noel Gallagher, dedicated the song “Cast No Shadow” on the album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? to Ashcroft, and Ashcroft returned the gesture by dedicating the song “A Northern Soul” to Noel.

The band released the album’s first single “This Is Music” in May, and it reached No. 35, their first single to reach the Top 40. It was followed by “On Your Own” in June which performed even better, reaching No. 28. This single was particularly new for The Verve as it was a soulful ballad. The album reached the UK Top 20 upon its release in July, but Ashcroft broke up the band three months later, just before the release of the third single “History”, which reached No. 24 in September. Ashcroft reunited with Jones and Salisbury just a few weeks after the break-up, but McCabe did not rejoin them. The new band hired former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, but he spent only a couple of days with the band. The band then chose Simon Tong, a school friend credited with originally teaching Ashcroft and Jones to play guitar. The band made no live appearances for all of 1996, apart from a solo performance from Ashcroft supporting Oasis in New York. The rest of the year was spent playing and recording songs for a new album.

The band’s commercial breakthrough was the 1997 album Urban Hymns, one of the best-selling albums in UK Chart history, and the single “Bitter Sweet Symphony”, which became a worldwide hit. In 1998, the band won two Brit Awards—winning Best British Group, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in March, and in February 1999, “Bitter Sweet Symphony” was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song.Soon after this commercial peak, The Verve broke up in April 1999, citing internal conflicts.According to Billboard magazine, “the group’s rise was the culmination of a long, arduous journey that began at the dawn of the decade and went on to encompass a major breakup, multiple lawsuits, and an extensive diet of narcotics”. During an eight-year split, Ashcroft dismissed talk of a reunion, saying: “You’re more likely to get all four Beatles on stage.”The band’s original line-up reunited in June 2007, embarking on a tour later that year and releasing the album Forth in August 2008. In 2009, the band broke up for the third time.

Sir Humphrey Davy PRS MRIS FGS

British chemist and inventor Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, PRS, MRIA, FGS sadly died 29 May 1829. He was born December 1778  in Penzance, Cornwall, England. At the age of six, Davy was sent to the grammar school at Penzance. Three years later, his family moved to Varfell, near Ludgvan, and subsequently, in term-time Davy boarded with John Tonkin, his godfather and later his guardian. Upon Davy’s leaving grammar school in 1793, Tonkin paid for him to attend Truro Grammar School to finish his education under the Rev Dr Cardew, where Davy entertained his school friends by writing poetry, composing Valentines, and telling stories from One Thousand and One Nights. Davy’s father sadly died in 1794, after which Tonkin apprenticed him to John Bingham Borlase, a surgeon with a practice in Penzance. While becoming a chemist in the apothecary’s dispensary, he also began conducting his earliest experiments at home. In 1797, after learning French from a refuge priest, Davy red Lavoisier’s Traité élémentaire de chimie. This exposure influenced much of his future work As a poet, Davy wrote over one hundred and sixty manuscript poems, the majority of which are found in his personal notebooks. Most of his written poems were not published, and he chose instead to share a few of them with his friends. Eight of his known poems were published including Sons of genius, on the Mounts bay and St Michael’s Mount. Davy also painted Three of Davy’s paintings from around 1796 have been donated to the Penlee House museum at Penzance. On depicting the view above Gulval showing the church, Mount’s Bay and the Mount, and the other two depict Loch Lomond in Scotland. 

While visitin the Larigan River with his friend Robert Dunkin Davy discovered that rubbing two plates of ice together developed sufficient energy by motion, to melt them, and that after the motion was suspended, the pieces were united by regelation. This experiment  caused great interest when later exhibited by Davy in the lecture-room of the Royal Institution. Davies Giddy met Davy in Penzance and invited him to his house at Tredrea and offered him the use of his library. This led to his introduction to Dr Edwards, who lived at Hayle Copper House. Edwards was a lecturer in chemistry in the school of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He permitted Davy to use his laboratory and possibly directed his attention to the floodgates of the port of Hayle, which were rapidly decaying as a result of Galvanic corrosion (the contact between copper and iron under the influence of seawater). This influenced Davy to experiment on ships’ copper sheathing. 

Gregory Watt, son of James Watt, also visited Penzance and while lodging at the Davys’ house became a friend and gave him instructions in chemistry. Davy was also acquainted with the Wedgwood family, who spent a winter at Penzance. Thomas Beddoes and John Hailstone made Davy’s acquaintance when travelled together to examine the Cornish coast accompanied by Davies Gilbert to examine the rival merits of the Plutonian and Neptunist hypotheses. 

Beddoes, had a Pneumatic Institution,  at Bristol and needed an assistant to superintend the laboratory. Gilbert recommended Davy, and in 1798 Gregory Watt showed Beddoes the Young man’s Researches on Heat and Light, which were subsequently published by him in the first volume of West-Country Contributions. In 1802, Humphry Davy demonstrated what was then the most powerful electrical battery in the world at the Royal Institution. With it, Davy created the first incandescent light by passing electric current through a thin strip of platinum, chosen because the metal had an extremely high melting point. He improved it and By 1806 he was able to demonstrate a much more powerful form of arc light to the Royal Society in London. In 1798, Davy joined the Pneumatic Institution at Bristol. It had been established to investigate the medical powers of factitious airs and gases (gases produced experimentally or artificially). 

While living in Bristol, Davy met the Earl of Durham, who was a resident in the institution for his health, and became close friends with Gregory Watt, James Watt, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey, all of whom became regular users of nitrous oxide (laughing gas). The gas was first synthesised in 1772 by the natural philosopher and chemist Joseph Priestley, who called it phlogisticated nitrous air and described his discovery in the book Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. James Watt built a portable gas chamber to facilitate Davy’s experiments with Nitrous Oxide and Davy noted that it might be useful for performing surgical operations. Davy ran considerable risks during his gas experiments. His respiration of nitric oxide which may have combined with air in the mouth to form nitric acid (HNO3), severely injured the mucous membrane, Davy’s also attempt to inhale four quarts of “pure hydrocarbonate” gas in an experiment with carbon monoxide which caused severely unpleasant symptoms.

In 1799 the first volume of the West-Country Collections was issued. Half consisted of Davy’s essays On Heat, Light, and the Combinations of Light, On Phos-oxygen and its Combinations, and on the Theory of Respiration. Davy became increasingly well known  due to his experiments with the physiological action of some gases, including laughing gas (nitrous oxide). experimenting on his poet friends Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge., Beddoes and Davy also published “Contributions to physical and medical knowledge, principally from the west of England and Essays on heat, light, and the combinations of light, with a new theory of respiration.  “On the generation of oxygen gas, and the causes of the colors of organic beings.” This led Davy to refine and improve his experimental techniques,

In 1800, Davy repeated the galvanic experiments with success. And published his Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, chiefly concerning Nitrous Oxide and its Respiration. In 1800 William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge moved to the Lake District  and asked Davy to proofread the second edition of Lyrical Ballads, the first to contain Wordsworth’s “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads”. In 1799, Count Rumford had proposed the establishment in London of an ‘Institution for Diffusing Knowledge’, i.e. the Royal Institution. In February 1801 Davy was interviewed by the committee of the Royal Institution, comprising Joseph Banks, Benjamin Thompson) and Henry Cavendish concerning a possible move to London and the promise of funding for his work in galvanism.  Davy left Bristol to take up his new post at the Royal Institution, in the capacity of assistant lecturer in chemistry, director of the chemical laboratory, and assistant editor of the journals of the institution. In 1801, Davy gave his first lecture on the relatively new subject of ‘Galvanism’. 

Davy and Coleridge had had many conversations about the nature of human knowledge and progress, and Davy’s lectures gave his audience a vision of human civilisation brought forward by scientific discovery. ” The first lecture garnered rave reviews, and his last lecture was attended by nearly 500 people. ” Davy’s lectures included spectacular and sometimes dangerous chemical demonstrations along with scientific information, and were presented with considerable showmanship. Davy also acquired a large female following. When Davy’s lecture series on Galvanism ended, he progressed to a new series on Agricultural Chemistry, and his popularity continued to grow. By June 1802, after just over a year at the Institution, Davy was nominated to full lecturer at the Royal Institution of Great Britain and In  1804 Davy became a Fellow of the Royal Society, and was one of the founding members of the Geological Society in 1807. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1810 and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1822.