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Association football culture

Association football culture, or football culture refers to the cultural aspects surrounding the game of association football. As the sport is global, the culture of the game is diverse, with varying degrees of overlap and distinctiveness in each country. In many countries, football has ingrained itself into the national culture, and parts of life may revolve around it. Many countries have daily football newspapers, as well as football magazines. Football players, especially in the top levels of the game, have become role models.

Football has 160 years of history. The rules were first written in England in 1863, and since then a vast and diverse culture has emerged. The culture of football can be easily divided into how the players, fans and clubs see the sport. Held every four years, the FIFA World Cup is a "month long festival of football", with The Independent adding "its extreme popularity across the expanse of the globe giving it a uniquely universal audience".

Accessories
The wearing of football kits has been a significant part of football fan culture since the 1973–74 season, when Leeds United's replica kit, made by Admiral, was sold to football fans for the first time. By the late 1990s, this had become a common part of global fan culture. A similar series of events saw scarves become a prominent accessory; having been first introduced in the 1930s, they became much more prominent in England in the 1960s and 70s. These accessories replaced more traditional fan accessories, such as rosettes and rattles.

Fair Play
Fair Play is the name of a FIFA programme which aims to increase sportsmanship as well as prevent discrimination in the game of football. This also involves programmes to reduce racism in the game. The programme extends to outside of football, in trying to support charities and other organisations which improve conditions around the world.

The principles of the Fair Play programme can be summarised as follows:

 * 1) Play fair (no diving)
 * 2) Play to win but accept defeat with dignity
 * 3) Observe the laws of the game
 * 4) Respect opponents, teammates, referees, officials and spectators
 * 5) Promote the interests of football
 * 6) Honour those who defend football's good reputation
 * 7) Reject corruption, drugs, racism, sexism, violence, gambling and other dangers to our sport
 * 8) Help others to resist corrupting pressures
 * 9) Denounce those who attempt to discredit the sport
 * 10) Use football to make a better world

Both FIFA and UEFA have awards which they hand out to individuals or groups of people who have promoted what they see as the spirit of Fair Play, both within and outside of football. An example of this was the Italian player Paolo Di Canio who, while not given an award, was congratulated by many sections of the football world for a generous display of Fair Play. Despite having a goal-scoring opportunity while playing for West Ham United against Everton, when Di Canio saw the Everton goalkeeper had incurred an injury, instead of scoring what would have been the easiest goal of his career, he caught the crossed ball with his hands, causing the referee to call a foul for handball. The referee stopped play and allowed the goalkeeper to receive treatment for the cuts and bruises to his face. The referee smiled and did not issue a red card, which he should have done according to the laws of the game. When the referee noticed he was being shown close-up on the scoreboard screen, he pointed at his smile and began blowing loudly on his whistle.

Food and beverages

In the United Kingdom, attendance at football matches is associated with the consumption of traditional football foods such as meat pies and Bovril. Food and beverage sales in stadiums can raise high incomes for clubs, and some clubs make attempts to improve their service and diversify out of traditional foods. In Brazil, sanduíche de calabresa (pepperoni sandwich) is a popular meal in the surrounding areas of stadiums. In Mineirão stadium, feijão tropeiro, a typical dish from Minas Gerais, is very common. In Germany, many football fans eat bratwurst and drink beers. In Argentina, choripán (a sandwich with grilled chorizo with crusty bread) and grilled hamburgers are commonly served in stadiums. In the past, a variety of pizza without cheese was served, which is now known as pizza de cancha ("pitch pizza"). In Spain and Bulgaria, it is very common to eat sunflower seeds during the match. Although not in the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but especially in Sarajevo, ćevapi are commonly seen to be sold around the stadiums before and after the matches, and people can often be seen selling pepita and juices in front of the entrance of the stadium and on the stands during the match.

In many countries with drinking culture, football has been associated with alcohol consumption. This can be before, during and after the match, with drinking occurring inside the stadium, sometimes illicitly, as well as in pubs and bars outside. However, unwanted behaviour caused by drinking has led to the banning of the sale of alcohol to general supporters in stadiums across the UK, although most English and Welsh sides continue to sell alcohol within general stadium areas, with only clubs in Scotland being subject to a blanket ban following rioting after the 1980 Scottish Cup Final. Sales of alcohol still occur in executive lounges. Some teams and countries have Supporters Clubs which have friendly drinking reputations. However, some countries are more associated with drunken hooliganism as mentioned in the violence section below. More recently research has cast doubt on the effectiveness of alcohol restrictions on reducing the likelihood of disorder and violence, particularly involving English football fans such as the Heysel Stadium disaster.

Hooliganism

The level of passion with which football teams are supported has from time to time caused problems, and clashes between fans can result in violence. Some violence occurs by people aiming to cause trouble, a phenomenon known as hooliganism. Other fans group together in hooligan firms, which are organised gangs that seek fights with other firms supporting rival clubs. Both are sometimes known as the "English Disease," after the disorder caused by English fans travelling abroad to support either their club or national team in the 1970s and 1980s. However, violent organised supporters' groups surrounding football have been prevalent in other countries, most notably barras bravas that emerged in Argentina in the 1950s, some years before the appearance of significant hooligan firms in England. In addition, ultras, originally emerging in Italy in the 1960s, and in parts of Europe, Asia, Australia and North Africa, and torcidas organizadas in Brazil (emerged as non-violent groups during the 1930s but became violent ones in the 1970s) have become significant.

Violence by fans has ranged from small fights between fans to tragedies such as the Heysel Stadium disaster and also the Football War. There have been incidents of fans being murdered, such as the killings of Christopher Loftus and Kevin Speight, two Leeds United supporters, in Istanbul in 2000 on the eve of the UEFA Cup Semi-Final first leg. In recent years this aspect of the game seems to have passed its peak in England though it has by no means disappeared completely. Specialist police units and information-sharing between regional and international police forces has made it much harder for the hooligans to organise and participate in disorder. CCTV inside and outside stadiums and also at other anticipated "flash points" such as city centres and railway stations now makes it more likely that people involved in disorder can be identified later even if they are not arrested at the scene. However, there are still disruptions surrounding football matches. One example being the UEFA Champions League matches which were played on 12 and 13 April 2005.

Violence by fans has also affected players, including professional athletes, but this is rare. One example includes a message to Christian Vieri, apparently by an Inter Milan fan, which threatened to burn down his restaurant, criticising his attitude towards the team. There is also the notorious incident where the Colombian international player Andrés Escobar was murdered shortly after returning home from the 1994 World Cup. This was reputedly for scoring the own goal which eliminated Colombia from the competition.

Before the 1998 FIFA World Cup, 26 Seaburn Casuals (a Sunderland A.F.C. supporters firm) hooligans were arrested in a police raid after a military-issue smoke bomb was let out at a local pub after a fight with bouncers. By the end of the operation, over 60 were facing charges. Some of the Seaburn Casuals hooligans picked up in the raid were also involved with neo-Nazi groups like Combat 18. The operation failed when judge ruled CCTV footage from the pub inadmissible.

In March 2000, the Seaburn Casuals fought with hooligans from the Newcastle Gremlins in a pre-arranged clash near the North Shields Ferry terminal, in what was described as "some of the worst football related fighting ever witnessed in the United Kingdom". The leaders of the Gremlins and Casuals were both jailed for four years for conspiracy, with 28 others jailed for various terms, based on evidence gained after police examined the messages sent by mobile phone between the gang members on the day.

There have been a number of accidents and disasters in the history of football. Some of these, such as the Hillsborough and Ibrox disasters, were due to problems with crowd control. The Heysel Stadium disaster was a combination of hooliganism and poor crowd control. The Bradford City stadium fire was due to poor fire safety in the stadium. Lessons learned from these disasters have led to safer football stadiums and gradual bans on smoking.

Matchday programme
Matchday programme are sold inside and outside stadiums before, and sometimes during, matches. In their most simple form, they provide basic information on the teams, players, and match officials. Larger clubs usually produce multiple-page programmes with features such as comments from the manager and club captain, interviews with players, ex-players and backroom staff, information about ticketing arrangements for forthcoming matches, a detailed fixture list and review of the team's season so far, competitions, pages for junior fans, and a detailed feature on the opposition. Programmes from some matches are collectible items, and can fetch money at an auction.

Pitch invasions

Pitch invasions happen when supporters move from the stands onto the football pitch, some times to deliberately disrupt a match. This is distinguished from times when, due to safety reasons, fans are let onto the pitch.

Examples of pitch invasions include the 1923 "White Horse" FA Cup final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium. Due to the overwhelming numbers in the stadium, the police had to bring order back to the stadium. Another example is the 1977 British Home Championship match between England and Scotland, again at Wembley. After Scotland won 2–1, the "Tartan Army" invaded the pitch and managed to break down the goalposts, as well as cutting up the turf to take.

In addition, there are better natured pitch invasions, typically at the end of games that involve success for one of the teams. This commonly occurs after a team wins a championship, survives relegation or achieves an upset, typically in a cup competition.

Solo invasions are more common although few in number. In some cases, these are streakers who try to invade the pitch while nude. Supporters tend to view this as harmless fun. One such pitch invasion was at UEFA Euro 2004, in the final between Portugal and Greece, when "Jimmy Jump" ran onto the pitch to disrupt the match. Another well known invasion was carried out by Karl Power, who sneaked into Manchester United's team photograph before their UEFA Champions League match with Bayern Munich. His other stunts have involved the England national rugby union team and the British Grand Prix.

Rivalries
Derby matches, which are matches between two neighbouring rival clubs, are often fiercely competitive. Sometimes there are underlying political or sectarian tensions. The term often applies to matches between two teams from the same city or region, but it is sometimes used to refer to matches between big clubs from the same country. Derbies are usually treated as the most important matches by the fans, players and clubs, regardless of position in the league table, et cetera.

The film Green Street embodies the spirit of derbies when one of the characters refers to the West Ham United–Millwall rivalry as that of Israel against Palestine. Of course this film does focus on the mostly past era of hooliganism, however its depiction of matchday passion shows just how important derby day is to fans. When it comes to derbies, the culture of football thrives and shines in all its colours. How Soccer Explains the World is a perfect source into how derbies emerged and what they mean to the community.

Supporter groups
There are many types of sub-cultures and types of groups centred around football. Casuals are interlinked with hooligan firms. Ultras are a primarily continental European phenomenon (emerging later in Asia, Australia and North Africa), while in South America, the barra bravas (oldest violent organised supporters' groups, emerged in the 1950s in Argentina) are common, with the exception of Brazil, where torcidas organizadas are more prevalent.

Celebrities
Such is the popularity of football that some players become better known for their 'off-the-pitch' activities. The celebrity status is such that advertisers and sports goods manufacturers hire them to sponsor their products. The Brazilian footballer Pelé is such a player. He was so admired as a player during his time that he went on to become a UNICEF ambassador, as well as being a spokesman in advertisements for many different companies. He also spent some time in politics in Brazil. Brazilian striker Ronaldo was chosen as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme in 2000 as he had the highest global appeal among sportspeople.

Former FIFA World Player of the Year and African Footballer of the Year George Weah secured most votes in the first round of the 2005 Liberian presidential election, but was defeated in the run-off ballot. He was elected President 12 years later.

Another football celebrity is the English footballer David Beckham. He has been perceived as a trend-setter in England due to a history of frequent hairstyle changes. He is also married to the former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, and his relationship difficulties were widely reported in the UK press in 2004 and 2005. Statues have been made of him, notably at a Buddhist temple as well as made out of chocolate. Beckham was for a long time an Armani model, famous for his underwear advertisements.

In late 2009, Beckham was replaced by Cristiano Ronaldo as Armani's primary footballer/model. Nine of the top ten most followed sportspeople on Facebook are footballers, including the top six, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Beckham, Neymar, Ronaldinho and Kaká, with Cristiano also the most followed person. Cristiano, Messi and Neymar are the three most followed sportspeople on Instagram, and all 3 in the top 12 most followed people.

Many other players have also become celebrities and are treated as heroes by the fans. Retired players, such as Gary Lineker, have become celebrities in their own right by working on television or radio. Even non-footballers who are connected to football have become famous through their association alone. For instance, after the 2002 World Cup, the head of the Korea Football Association decided to run for president of South Korea.

Goal celebration
In football, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve his or her teammates, the manager or coaching staff and/or the supporters of the team. Whilst referring to the celebration of a goal in general, the term can also be applied to specific actions, such as a player removing his shirt or performing a somersault. Many unique goal celebrations have been immortalized, such as in a statue (Thierry Henry), advertisements (Ronaldo), postage stamps (Pelé), magazine covers, or in video games: Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Lionel Messi among many others are featured in the FIFA series.

Deaths
There have been deaths of players on the pitch and dugouts. On 5 September 1931, Celtic goalkeeper John Thomson suffered a skull fracture when he collided with Rangers player Sam English during an Old Firm match. He was fatally injured and died later that day. On 10 September 1985, Scotland manager Jock Stein died of a heart attack as his team scored the equaliser against Wales which virtually secured qualification for the 1986 World Cup finals. He was aged 62.

In 2003, Cameroon international player Marc-Vivien Foé collapsed during a FIFA Confederations Cup match against Colombia and was pronounced dead later that day. His death was attributed to previously undiagnosed heart problems. On 8 September 1990, York City's David Longhurst collapsed and died on the pitch during his team's match with Lincoln City. The match was abandoned and York City paid tribute to the player later by naming a stand in his honour at their Bootham Crescent ground. In 2004, the Hungarian international Miklós Fehér died from a heart attack while playing for Benfica against Vitória de Guimarães. On 9 September 2006, Hinckley United player Matt Gadsby collapsed on the pitch and died during a Conference North match against Harrogate Town. Medical tests revealed he died from a heart condition known as Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy. On 25 August 2007, Sevilla player Antonio Puerta suffered a heart attack during Sevilla's first match of the season – against Getafe – while running back towards his own goal. Sevilla teammate Ivica Dragutinović and Sevilla medical staff subsequently rushed to his aid. He was admitted to hospital but died on 28 August, aged 22. Several players have also been struck by lightning while playing during sudden storms. On 29 December 2007, Motherwell captain Phil O'Donnell suffered from a suspected heart failure on the pitch in a match against Dundee United, as a result of which he died several hours later in hospital. At the end of that season, a tribute match was played in his honour between stars of the Motherwell team which won the Scottish FA Cup in 1991 and the Celtic team which won the League Championship in 1998, both of which O'Donnell starred for. Motherwell also named the main stand of their stadium in his honour.

Other disasters have occurred away from stadia. Most notably, the Superga air disaster of 1949 in which the entire Torino squad perished. Other examples include the Munich air disaster which involved the 1958 Manchester United squad; the loss of the entire Zambia national team squad in an air crash in 1993; and a plane crash in 2016 that killed 71 passengers, including almost the entire Chapecoense first team squad.

Ethnicity
People of different races have sometimes not been accepted as players in European football. This is changing at the start of the 21st century due to society change as well as campaigning on the part of the football authorities in different countries. UEFA and the European Union support the Football Against Racism in Europe ("FARE") project, which aims to stop racism. Many black players were not accepted initially into European football, even though the earliest black player was in 1881. However, in the 1970s onwards, players were increasingly accepted leading to a situation where many club and national teams have players of varying ethnicities. However, full acceptance in the bigger footballing nations did not occur until the 1990s, and racism still exists at some levels. Samuel Eto'o, for example, was once racially insulted by some Real Zaragoza fans at a match against Barcelona, and threatened to quit the game if they kept insulting him. The same occurred to then-Messina defender Marc Zoro in a match against Inter Milan.

In some countries, such as England and Germany, there have been strong campaigns to remove racism and intolerance from football on the pitch and on the terraces. In other countries, such as Spain and Italy, little action has been taken despite visible problems.

Globalization
For the best players, it means their services can be offered to clubs in a number of different countries and for compensation they have significant bargaining power in setting – the top players can make salaries of millions in a year, in addition to whatever endorsements they receive.

Teams have also benefited from this by being able to find a wider support base outside their traditional local areas. They can also scout for talent from a wider area. However, some European clubs have been accused of exploitation for doing this, as some African youngsters they have recruited for football teams have eventually been left with nothing after the team no longer requires their services. In the modern game, most clubs have multiple foreign players. This is especially evident in the English Premier League, where English players are outnumbered by their foreign counterparts. Some of football's leading authorities, including former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, have argued this is detrimental to the game and an issue for supporters. Published academic research on this question (by David Ranc) seems to demonstrate the opposite. Many teams attempt to build a complete team with players with ball control, others with strength, others with speed and others with vision. Traditionally, these skillsets are associated with different regions: ball control is regarded as a South American trait, speed is typically associated with African players and strength is typically seen as the European way. Therefore, prominent clubs scout these regions heavily for rising talent and advise them to have a trial with the club. Football has become a global sport where spectators from around the world can enjoy many different leagues. It has created international rivalries as well as community rivalries, but at the same time, it has the power to bring communities together. The FIFA World Cup brings the world of football together for an entire month. Through triumph and defeat it is a modern example of nationalism fused with globalisation. In Franklin Foer's How Soccer Explains the World, he explains that national teams create a tribal sense of nationalism amongst fans. This nationalism is shown in wearing football shirts, scarves and flying flags to express pride. When tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup, the African Cup of Nations and the UEFA European Championship bring in supporters from nations around the world, this national pride is a part of globalism. This complex system is all a part of the global community of football. Football brings players, fans, coaches and clubs together from every part of the world. A prime example of the unifying power of football is the African nation of Ghana. It gained independence from British imperial rule in 1957 and used football to unite the nation. "The Black Stars", as the national team became known as, hosted the first African Cup of Nations. Ghana has become one of the most passionate footballing nations in both Africa and the world, thanks to the unifying power of the sport.

Coaches are also becoming sought after internationally. This extends to national team coaches, once being native to their country, being brought in from other countries. Examples include Brazilian legend Zico coaching Japan; Sven-Göran Eriksson, a Swede who coached England; as well as Berti Vogts, a German who coached Scotland and Nigeria. Another German, Otto Rehhagel, is practically a national icon in Greece after leading its national team to a shock victory in UEFA Euro 2004, and shortly afterwards turning down an offer to coach Germany and remain coaching Greece. Dutch coach Guus Hiddink has a similar iconic status in South Korea after coaching its national team to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup, so much so that one of South Korea's World Cup stadiums was renamed in his honour shortly after the competition. The two most recent managers of the US women were born outside the country, although both had lived in the US for many years before becoming USWNT head coaches. Jill Ellis, who managed the USWNT to World Cup wins in 2015 and 2019, is a native of England who moved to the US with her family in her early teens, and current manager Vlatko Andonovski moved from North Macedonia to the US as a player in 2000 and has remained in the US ever since as a player and coach.

Role models
While many football players can be argued to be good role models, there have been headlines in the news regarding bad behaviour by footballers. Such is the influence of footballers, their activities tend to be reported widely in the media and also bring condemnation from the government of the countries in which they play.

Shortly prior to UEFA Euro 1996, the England national team gained notoriety for the "Dentist's Chair" incident. Several English players, including Paul Gascoigne and Teddy Sheringham, were photographed in Hong Kong after being seen in a bar pouring beer down each other's throats while the person sat on a dentist's chair. Later in his life, Gascoigne struggled with alcohol and drug addiction and had to be hospitalised for overdose on several occasions.

There have been incidents in England of players being accused of violence and misconduct off the pitch. Although on many occasions, players have been found not guilty, such cases are highly controversial. In 2001, two Leeds United players, Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer, appeared in court over the assault of a student outside a nightclub. Woodgate was found guilty of affray. In 2002, three players (two from Chelsea, John Terry and Jody Morris; and one from Wimbledon, Des Byrne) appeared in court on charges of affray. All were acquitted. On 20 May 2008, Joey Barton was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty for his part in an assault in December 2007. Barton was captured on CCTV punching a man 20 times.

In 2004, the Leicester City trio of Paul Dickov, Frank Sinclair and Keith Gillespie spent a week in prison after being accused of sexual assault while on a training break at the La Manga resort in Spain with their team. However, the case was dropped after forensic evidence showed the accusations to be baseless. Although the players accused were ultimately innocent, the scandal led to a media outcry about footballers and their behaviour, especially with regard to children who look up to them.

Wayne Rooney was also attacked in the media for alleged visits to prostitutes in 2004, a claim he later admitted was true. Adrian Mutu admitted cocaine use after failing a drugs test, and Graham Stack was charged with rape but cleared in 2005. Lee Bowyer again made headlines in 2005 when he and Newcastle United teammate Kieron Dyer fought each other near the end of a Premier League match.

Clubs
Clubs have moved from amateur status to, in some cases, big commercial concerns. Players have also managed to increase their earnings massively during this change.

Seating
After the Hillsborough Disaster, the British government commissioned the Taylor Report which resulted in standing being banned from many stadiums, including every top league stadium. Groups such as Stand Up Sit Down are campaigning for its return. This is very different from the situation in British non-league football and other leagues around the world where it is common to see terracing (standing areas) making up some, or even all of the room for fans.

Corruption
Allegations of corruption in football have always been present. This level of corruption can vary from country to country, and can involve players, agents and clubs. In 1980, Italian sides Milan and Lazio were relegated to Serie B for match-fixing. The 2005–06 football season saw many corruption scandals. This included the 2005 Bundesliga scandal in Germany, with the refereeing scandals of Robert Hoyzer; and the Brazilian football match-fixing scandal involving Edilson Pereira de Carvalho. This was followed by the 2006 Serie A scandal ("Calciopoli") in Italy where five clubs were found guilty for interference in the referees work by their leaders and resulted in several top clubs being penalised (most notably, Juventus was relegated to Serie B for the 2006–07 season and lost many top players) and getting their own title stripped off from them and being rewarded to Inter Milan, who were runners-up; and Apito Dourado in Portugal, with Porto and Boavista involved.

Finance
In a 1997 address to the Oxford Union, then Tottenham Hotspur chairman Alan Sugar described clubs' inability to manage the ever-increasing amounts of money in football as the "prune juice effect"; clubs expenditure continually outnumbering the profits coming from sponsorships and prize money.

While most grassroot clubs and lower division league teams struggle to make ends meet, large clubs can make significant revenue. For example, sides such as Manchester United and Real Madrid are considered amongst the richest in the world, with a global support base. Chelsea has also undergone a transformation, purchasing a number of expensive football players after itself being purchased by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich.

In 2008, Manchester City became the richest club in the world after being bought-out by Emirati billionaire Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyanan.

The catalyst for this change was the arrival of satellite television. Satellite TV companies paid massive sums for the rights to cover football matches, and in turn have recouped this investment from the many fans who are unable to catch the match in person. This benefits the "hardcore" and "casual" fan as they have more choice of which game they want to watch.

While some clubs do well out of the increased money in football, other clubs can get into trouble trying to keep up. Leeds United attempted to do this by spending a lot of money and were successful for a few seasons. However, the debts became unmanageable, the successful players were sold off and the team were eventually relegated twice, first from the Premier League to the Championship, and then to League One.

Not all clubs do well out of television money. Clubs in lower leagues receive less money for matches and, if promoted to higher leagues, can have trouble matching the spending power of bigger clubs. This leaves them more likely to be relegated again.

Clubs from smaller countries also have problems with this issue. Due to their smaller population base they receive less money from television rights. This means they are comparative paupers compared to clubs from the bigger countries, and can lead to debt problems if they try to match spending in trans-national competitions. Some clubs have managed to buck the trend by training players through their youth academies, as well as making wise investments. Examples of these clubs include Porto and Ajax, although when these teams become successful, as in Porto's case winning the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League, the players tend to get sold-off due to financial pressures.

In 2021, Newcastle United became the richest football club in the world after being bought-out by the Saudi Arabian government's sovereign wealth fund.

Women's football

Women have been playing football as long as the game has existed. Early women's matches in England during the 1920s drew large crowds until The Football Association banned women from its pitches, and bans elsewhere followed. Their numbers, as both football players and fans, increased with the lifting of bans on women playing football and attending matches. The first official FIFA Women's World Cup was held in 1991 and drew worldwide television interest. Professionalism and interest surged after the 1999 World Cup in the United States, the 2019 World Cup in France, and the 2021–22 UEFA Women's Champions League, UEFA Euro 2022, and 2023 Women's FA Cup final all set global records in attendance or viewership to women's matches.

In North America, the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which has played since 2013, features multiple teams that have averaged more than 20,000 attendance per league match over the course of a season and set a record of 32,000 attendance in 2022, and Mexico's Liga MX Femenil has drawn more than 50,000 in attendance and 2.8 million television viewers to finals matches. In Europe, leagues such as England's Women's Super League, Spain's Liga F, and France's Division 1 Féminine have all broken all-time attendance or television viewership records annually over the last five years, with attendances over 91,000 for Women's Champions League matches in 2022 breaking the all-time record for a women's match set in 1999. Greater professionalism in the women's game has followed this growth, with new or newly professionalized leagues forming in Spain, China,  Mexico, Argentina, and Japan  — among others — since 2017.

The culture around the women's game is as varied globally as the men's game, but in different ways. A relative lack of investment in women's football has also insulated it from the influence and complications of extreme wealth in the men's game. Hooliganism is frowned upon more broadly and addressed with more urgency. In Europe and North America, media coverage of the women's game is measurably lacking compared to men's football, though shifting toward increased and more positive coverage since the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, and in some markets the women's game must combat a perception that it is a lesser product. Some leagues, such as the Scottish Women's Football League, rejected sponsorships from alcohol and gambling industries allowed in the men's game. Unlike leagues in other nations, most teams in the United States' NWSL are owned independently of men's teams, and all are branded separately from men's teams, resulting in less crossover fandom and more distinct fan cultures even within organizations where the club's ownership is shared. Fewer women's teams in general control or are the primary tenants of their own venues.

The women's sport is also considered a more inclusive space for supporters of broader ranges of age, gender, and sexuality than the men's game. Players, even at the elite levels of club and national team play, maintain closer and more direct relationships with supporters, often interacting with fans after matches, including taking selfies with and giving autographs to fans.

Society
In many countries, football has ingrained itself into the national culture, and many parts of life revolve around it. While incarcerated in Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela reflected on how playing football "made us feel alive and triumphant despite the situation we found ourselves in". Many countries have daily football newspapers, as well as football magazines. The mood of regions and countries has been seen to be connected to football, especially during major tournaments where victory can bring happiness to the local community or country. Conversely defeat can lower spirits, and has been seen to be connected to mortality in the population. Withdrawal symptoms when the football season finished have also been reported. The economy can also be seen to be connected to major football tournaments, although the precise association is disputed.

The terms "soccer mom" and "soccer dad", popularised in the United States, refer broadly to a demographic group of parents with school-age children playing football.

Visual arts
Football has not been widely represented in fine art. Sunderland and Aston Villa were the subject of one of the earliest football paintings in the world – possibly the earliest – when in 1895 the artist Thomas M. M. Hemy painted Sunderland v. Aston Villa 1895 (also titled A Corner Kick). This canvas depicts a game between the two most successful English teams of the decade at Sunderland's then ground Newcastle Road.

A 1908 oil painting by Henri Rousseau bears the title The Football Players, but it is possible that the moustachioed players depicted in this picture are, in fact, playing an early form of rugby football. Kazimir Malevich's created an abstract painting in 1909 entitled Painterly Realism of a Football Player — Color Masses in the 4th Dimension. Another abstract football work, Dynamism of a Soccer Player by Umberto Boccioni dates from 1913. In the post-war era, Nicolas de Staël produced a series of paintings depicting a floodlit football match played between France and Sweden in 1952, entitled Les Footballeurs.

Possibly the most well-known football painting is L. S. Lowry's 1953 canvas, Going to the Match. Lowry had produced paintings of football crowds as early as 1928, but his 1953 piece is widely recognised. It depicts crowds of fans on match day walking towards Burnden Park, the then home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club. When it was purchased at auction by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), it chief executive Gordon Taylor (a former Bolton Wanderers player) stated, "We were determined to buy it for football because it is quite simply the finest football painting ever." The painting was later sold to The Lowry arts centre in Salford where it is now on public display.

Numerous football-related sculptures have been created representing noted personalities of football, such as the Statue of Bobby Moore at Wembley Stadium in London (Philip Jackson, 2007), the statue of Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford in Manchester (Philip Jackson, 2012), or the sculpture of Pelé at the Itaipava Arena Fonte Nova in Brazil (Lucy Viana, 1971). Sculptor Emanuel Santos's bust of Cristiano Ronaldo attracted media criticism in 2017 for his stylised representation of the Portuguese player, and a revised version was unveiled at Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport the following year.

Literature
The popularity of football has been reflected in books and films. Books have been written dealing with the culture, such as violence, surrounding football, as well as detailed histories of events or rivalries. Many clubs have one or more fanzines, one example being TOOFIF.

Some consider that British football's image of a nasty working-class pursuit was changed into something far more respectable after Fever Pitch, a memoir by Nick Hornby about his life as an Arsenal fan, was published. The book also provided Hornby's big break. It was later adapted very loosely into a film.

Film
Numerous films have been made including Bend It Like Beckham, and The Football Factory, based on the book by John King, dealing with hooliganism and its relationship to socio-economic realities in England. In Germany, The Miracle of Bern (2003) revived the euphoria of the national team's victory in the 1954 World Cup and was a huge hit.

In Venezuela, Hermano tells the story of two brothers who have the goal of becoming professional football players.

One film that has a historical basis is Escape to Victory. The film was based on the true World War II story where a Dynamo Kyiv team, which defeated a German Luftwaffe team, was subsequently persecuted and some team members executed. The story has also been recounted in the book Dynamo by Andy Dougan.

Sticker albums and cards
Usually collected by children, a sticker album is a book where a collector sticks in pictures of players from different teams in a certain league. There may also be stickers of the clubs' stadia, badges or team photos. The most widespread are those that have been produced by Panini worldwide. In 1970, Panini published its first FIFA World Cup sticker album for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. Initiating a craze for collecting and trading stickers, UK newspaper The Guardian states, "the tradition of swapping duplicate [World Cup] stickers was a playground fixture during the 1970s and 1980s". Under its Merlin brand, Topps has held the licence to produce collectables for the Premier League since 1994, including stickers (for their sticker album) and trading cards. Launched in the 2007–08 season, Topps' Match Attax, the official Premier League trading card game, is the best selling boys collectable in the UK, and is also the biggest selling sports trading card game in the world.

Religion
Religious beliefs are also in common use throughout football. Some players are religious and can be seen to cross themselves before a game. In Africa, traditional belief rituals are used to help teams win important games. In Argentina, an official religion around the footballer Diego Maradona has been formed called "Iglesia Maradoniana".

German club Schalke 04 has brought out their own Bible titled Mit Gott auf Schalke ("With God in Schalke"). This is an edition of the common Christian Bible along with spiritual texts by Christian Schalke players and officials.

Health
In July 2014, the Seychelles Health department blocked the football team from Sierra Leone from coming in to play qualification match for the Africa Cup of Nations. This came at the cost of Seychelles forfeiting that match and Sierra Leone advancing. The Africa Cup of Nations is known as the biggest football tournament in Africa.

Morocco asked to delay the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations due to Ebola, and then pulled out from hosting it entirely. Despite the scare, it held the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup. The Africa Cup of Nations is biennial 16-team football match for Africa. After this, the Confederation of African Football ("CAF") searched for a new host nation for the event. Equatorial Guinea took over as the new host for the event. Equatorial Guinea was previously barred from the competition, but was allowed back in after it became host, while Morocco, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea were banned from the competition.

title: Association football culture


text:
Road Runner (video game)

Road Runner is a racing video game based on the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner shorts. It was released in arcades by Atari Games in 1985.

Gameplay

The player controls Road Runner, who is chased by Wile E. Coyote. In order to escape, Road Runner runs endlessly to the left. While avoiding Wile E. Coyote, the player must pick up bird seeds on the street, avoid obstacles like cars, and get through mazes. Most of the time Wile E. Coyote will just run after the Road Runner, but he occasionally uses tools like rockets, roller skates, and pogo sticks.

Development
Originally, the game was going to use LaserDisc technology for the backgrounds and road. When the player died in the game, one of many cartoon death sequences taken from the original shorts would have shown.

The game was going to be released in 1984, but Atari decided to cancel the game. The game was eventually released in 1985, but this version was a modified version. The LaserDisc cutscenes were taken out of the final game, and the road and backgrounds were changed to computer-generated graphics. The prototype cabinet was eventually found, and it is now playable at California Extreme.

Music
The background music during attract mode and 4th level is "Sabre Dance" from Gayane by Aram Khachaturian, the 1st level music is "William Tell Overture" by Gioachino Rossini, 2nd level music is "Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and 3rd level is "Trepak" from The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Ports

Road Runner was ported to the Amstrad CPC, Atari 2600, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum, and Nintendo Entertainment System. The Atari 2600 port was one of Atari Corporation's last games for the system, being released in 1989.

Like other NES games released by Tengen, Road Runner was unlicensed by Nintendo itself, released as an unlicensed cartridge avoiding Nintendo's protections. It was planning on to be released in a licensed version by Mindscape, but it was scrapped in the fall of 1989.

Reception
The game was reviewed in 1988 in Dragon #140 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars. The game went to number 2 in the UK sales charts, behind Exolon.

Reviews

 * Computer and Video Games (CVG) (Sep, 1987)
 * Computer and Video Games (CVG) (Oct, 1987)
 * Commodore User (Feb, 1987)
 * Génération 4 (1987)
 * ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment) (Nov, 1989)
 * Zzap! (Sep, 1987)
 * ASM (Aktueller Software Markt) (Sep, 1987)
 * Happy Computer (1986)
 * Happy Computer (Jul, 1987)
 * Commodore User (Aug, 1987)
 * Commodore Force (Aug, 1993)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Road Runner (video game)


text:
XPL

XPL, for expert's programming language is a programming language based on PL/I, a portable one-pass compiler written in its own language, and a parser generator tool for easily implementing similar compilers for other languages. XPL was designed in 1967 as a way to teach compiler design principles and as starting point for students to build compilers for their own languages.

XPL was designed and implemented by William M. McKeeman, David B. Wortman, James J. Horning and others at Stanford University. XPL was first announced at the 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference. The methods and compiler are described in detail in the 1971 textbook A Compiler Generator.

They called the combined work a 'compiler generator'. But that implies little or no language- or target-specific programming is required to build a compiler for a new language or new target. A better label for XPL is a translator writing system. It helps to write a compiler with less new or changed programming code.

Language
The XPL language is a simple, small, efficient dialect of PL/I intended mainly for the task of writing compilers. The XPL language was also used for other purposes once it was available. XPL can be compiled easily to most modern machines by a simple compiler. Compiler internals can be written easily in XPL, and the code is easy to read. The PL/I language was designed by an IBM committee in 1964 as a comprehensive language replacing Fortran, COBOL, and ALGOL, and meeting all customer and internal needs. These ambitious goals made PL/I complex, hard to implement efficiently, and sometimes surprising when used. XPL is a small dialect of the full language. XPL has one added feature not found in PL/I: a STRING datatype with dynamic lengths. String values live in a separate text-only heap memory space with automatic garbage collection of stale values. Much of what a simple compiler does is manipulating input text and output byte streams, so this feature helps simplify XPL-based compilers.

XCOM
The XPL compiler, called XCOM, is a one-pass compiler using a table-driven parser and simple code generation techniques. Versions of XCOM exist for different machine architectures, using different hand-written code generation modules for those targets. The original target was IBM System/360, which is a proper subset of IBM System/370, IBM System/390 and IBM System z.

XCOM compiles from XPL source code, but since XCOM itself is written in XPL it can compile itself – it is a self-compiling compiler, not reliant on other compilers. Several famous languages have self-compiling compilers, including Burroughs B5000 Algol, PL/I, C, LISP, and Java. Creating such compilers is a chicken-and-egg conundrum. The language is first implemented by a temporary compiler written in some other language, or even by an interpreter (often an interpreter for an intermediate code, as BCPL can do with intcode or O-code).

XCOM began as an Algol program running on Burroughs machines, translating XPL source code into System/360 machine code. The XPL team manually turned its Algol source code into XPL source code. That XPL version of XCOM was then compiled on Burroughs, creating a self-compiling XCOM for System/360 machines. The Algol version was then thrown away, and all further improvements happened in the XPL version only. This is called bootstrapping the compiler. The authors of XPL invented the tombstone diagram or T-diagram to document the bootstrapping process.

Retargeting the compiler for a new machine architecture is a similar exercise, except only the code generation modules need to be changed.

XCOM is a one-pass compiler (but with an emitted code fix-up process for forward branches, loops and other defined situations). It emits machine code for each statement as each grammar rule within a statement is recognized, rather than waiting until it has parsed the entire procedure or entire program. There are no parse trees or other required intermediate program forms, and no loop-wide or procedure-wide optimizations. XCOM does, however, perform peephole optimization. The code generation response to each grammar rule is attached to that rule. This immediate approach can result in inefficient code and inefficient use of machine registers. Such are offset by the efficiency of implementation, namely, the use of dynamic strings mentioned earlier: in processing text during compilation, substring operations are frequently performed. These are as fast as an assignment to an integer; the actual substring is not moved. In short, it is quick, easy to teach in a short course, fits into modest-sized memories, and is easy to change for different languages or different target machines.

ANALYZER
The XCOM compiler has a hand-written lexical scanner and a mechanically-generated parser. The syntax of the compiler's input language (in this case, XPL) is described by a simplified BNF grammar. XPL's grammar analyzer tool ANALYZER or XA turns this into a set of large data tables describing all legal combinations of the syntax rules and how to discern them. This table generation step is re-done only when the language is changed. When the compiler runs, those data tables are used by a small, language-independent parsing algorithm to parse and respond to the input language. This style of table-driven parser is generally easier to write than an entirely hand-written recursive descent parser. XCOM uses a bottom-up parsing method, in which the compiler can delay its decision about which syntax rule it has encountered until it has seen the rightmost end of that phrase. This handles a wider range of programming languages than top-down methods, in which the compiler must guess or commit to a specific syntax rule early, when it has only seen the left end of a phrase.

Runtime
XPL includes a minimal runtime support library for allocating and garbage-collecting XPL string values. The source code for this library must be included into most every program written in XPL.

SKELETON
The last piece of the XPL compiler writing system is an example compiler named SKELETON. This is just XCOM with parse tables for an example toy grammar instead of XPL's full grammar. It is a starting point for building a compiler for some new language, if that language differs much from XPL.

XMON
XPL is run under the control of a monitor, XMON, which is the only operating system-specific part of this system, and which acts as a "loader" for XCOM itself or any programs which were developed using XCOM, and also provides three auxiliary storage devices for XCOM's use, and which are directly accessed by block number. The originally published XMON was optimized for IBM 2311s. An XMON parameter FILE= enabled the monitor to efficiently use other disks with larger block sizes. The working disk block size was also a compile-time constant in XCOM.

XMON used a very simple strategy for disk direct access. NOTE provided the address of a disk track. POINT set the location of the next disk track to be the address previously returned by NOTE. This strategy was adopted to allow easy porting of XMON to other OSes, and to avoid the much more complicated disk direct access options available at that time.

Converting XMON from its primitive use of NOTE, POINT and READ/WRITE disk operations—with precisely 1 block per track—to EXCP (i.e., write/create new records) and XDAP (i.e., read/update old records)—with n blocks per track, where n was computed at run-time from the target device's physical characteristics and could be significantly greater than 1—achieved significantly improved application performance and decreased operating system overhead.

Although originally developed for OS/360, XMON (either the original NOTE, POINT and READ/WRITE implementation; or the EXCP and XDAP enhancement) will run on subsequently released IBM OSes, including OS/370, XA, OS/390 and z/OS, generally without any changes.

Parsing
XCOM originally used a now-obsolete bottom-up parse table method called Mixed Strategy Precedence, invented by the XPL team (although the officially released version retains the MSP parser and does not include later-released "peephole optimizations" and additional data types which were developed outside of the original implementation team.) MSP is a generalization of the simple precedence parser method invented by Niklaus Wirth for PL360. Simple precedence is itself a generalization of the trivially simple operator precedence methods that work nicely for expressions like A+B*(C+D)-E. MSP tables include a list of expected triplets of language symbols. This list grows larger as the cube of the grammar size, and becomes quite large for typical full programming languages. XPL-derived compilers were difficult to fit onto minicomputers of the 1970s with limited memories. MSP is also not powerful enough to handle all likely grammars. It is applicable only when the language designer can tweak the language definition to fit MSP's restrictions, before the language is widely used.

The University of Toronto subsequently changed XCOM and XA to instead use a variant of Donald Knuth's LR parser bottom-up method. XCOM's variant is called Simple LR or SLR. It handles more grammars than MSP but not quite as many grammars as LALR or full LR(1). The differences from LR(1) are mostly in the table generator's algorithms, not in the compile-time parser method. XCOM and XA predate the widespread availability of Unix and its yacc parser generator tool. XA and yacc have similar purposes.

XPL is open source. The System/360 version of XPL was distributed through the IBM SHARE users organization. Other groups ported XPL onto many of the larger machines of the 1970s. Various groups extended XPL, or used XPL to implement other moderate-sized languages.

Applications
XPL has been used to develop a number of compilers for various languages and systems.
 * Stony Brook Pascal
 * HAL/S, the language used for the Space Shuttle program
 * MALUS, a system programming language used by General Motors to develop their Multiple Console Time Sharing System
 * New England Digital used a variant of XPL, called "Scientific XPL" for their ABLE series computers, used for laboratory automation, computer networking, and control of music synthesis hardware, starting in the mid-1970s

Current status
XPL continues to be ported to current computers. An x86/FreeBSD port was done in 2000, an x86/Linux port in 2015, and an XPL to C translator in 2017.

title: XPL


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Villa Polaroid

A large house in the Netherlands. Not very notable, only get about 5 hits on google, and if we listed every large house in the world there would be a lot more articles.
 * User:Supadawg, you forgot to sign --Ianb 15:51, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Oops. Sorry 'bout that.  [[User:supadawg|supadawg - [[Image:Bulldog.jpg|30px|Talk]]]] 15:01, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * This throws up more questions than it answers. For example, who is Rob? Never mind, Wikipedia is Not A Real Estate Directory, Delete. --Ianb 15:51, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Well, we know that Rob is not a student. I think we need to call the police and find out what Rob is doing with those 15 students.  Delete. Geogre 17:00, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. And if 15 students and Rob shows up as an article, delete that too.  Postdlf 19:16, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete - no evidence of notability. -- Cyrius|✎ 07:04, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, unless explained why this is encyclopedic. I agree that Wikipedia is Not A Real Estate Directory. Andris 07:44, Aug 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Does it have architectural importance? Historical importance? Cultural importance? No, it has 15 students and some guy apparently only known as 'Rob'. Trivial. Average Earthman 09:40, 16 Aug 2004 (UTC)


text:
Domenichino

Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.

Life

Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a shoemaker, and there initially studied under Denis Calvaert. After quarreling with Calvaert, he left to work in the Accademia degli Incamminati of the Carracci where, because of his small stature, he was nicknamed Domenichino, meaning "little Domenico" in Italian. He left Bologna for Rome in 1602 and became one of the most talented apprentices to emerge from Annibale Carracci's supervision. As a young artist in Rome he lived with his slightly older Bolognese colleagues Albani and Guido Reni, and worked alongside Lanfranco, who later would become a chief rival.

In addition to assisting Annibale with completion of his frescoes in the Galleria Farnese, including A Virgin with a Unicorn (c. 1604–05), he painted three of his own frescoes in the Loggia del Giardino of the Palazzo Farnese c. 1603–04. With the support of Monsignor Giovanni Battista Agucchi, the maggiordomo to Cardinal Aldobrandini and later Gregory XV, and Giovanni's brother Cardinal Girolamo Agucchi, Domenichino obtained further commissions in Rome. His most important project of the first decade was decoration of the Cappella dei Santissimi Fondatori in the medieval basilica of the Abbey of Grottaferrata (1608–1610), some 20 kilometers outside Rome, where Odoardo Farnese was the titular abbot. Meanwhile, he had completed frescoes c. 1604–05 in the church of Sant'Onofrio, feigned stucco decoration of 1606–07 in the Palazzo Mattei, a large scene of The Flagellation of St. Andrew at San Gregorio Magno, painted in competition with a fresco by Reni that faces it, and a ceiling with Scenes from the Life of Diana, 1609, in the Villa Odescalchi at Bassano di Sutri (today Bassano Romano).

Following Annibale Carracci's death in 1609, the pupils who had followed Annibale's Roman style, including Domenichino and Francesco Albani, were not as successful at gaining the most prestigious commissions as Guido Reni. As Donald Posner stated in his influential thesis, The Roman Style of Annibale Carracci and His School, '...it should be stressed that the severe classicism of Annibale's late style had an immediate life in Rome of only about a lustrum [five years].' In turn, the Bolognese biographer Malvasia states that 'only Guido [Reni] was put ahead of everyone else, Guido alone proclaimed and well treated, while [Domenichino], on the contrary, was either not recognized or constantly mistreated in the fees he got, so that he was left without commissions and rejected. Therefore, he was forced to go begging for work, with much effort, through intermediaries, and at any price... the same had been true of the Flagellation of Saint Andrew, which had been painted for a hundred and fifty scudi, whereas in the case of the Adoration of the Cross on the opposite wall four hundred scudi had gone to Guido.'

One of Domenichino's masterpieces, his frescoes of Scenes of the Life of Saint Cecilia in the Polet Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi, was commissioned in 1612 and completed in 1615. Concurrently he painted his first, and most celebrated, altarpiece, The Last Communion of St. Jerome for the church of San Girolamo della Carità (signed and dated, 1614). It subsequently would be judged as being comparable to Raphael's great Transfiguration and even as "the best picture in the world."

By late 1616, Domenichino had designed the coffered ceiling with The Assumption of the Virgin in Santa Maria in Trastevere; and he had begun a cycle of ten frescoes depicting the Life of Apollo in a garden pavilion of the Villa Aldobrandini (Belvedere) in Frascati, where he was assisted by Giovanni Battista Viola, a Bolognese artist who, like Domenichino himself, was a pioneer in the development of classicistic landscape painting. From 1617 until 1621, Domenichino was absent from Rome, working in Bologna and at Fano, where during 1618–19 he frescoed the Nolfi chapel of the Fano Cathedral with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin.

With the election of a Bolognese pope (Gregory XV) in 1621, Domenichino returned to Rome. Appointed Papal Architect (he built little but left drawings for various projects, most notably for the façade of Sant'Andrea della Valle and for the plan of Sant'Ignazio, both in Rome), he nonetheless continued to be most active as a painter, obtaining many commissions for altarpieces in Roman churches (San Lorenzo in Miranda, 1626–27, SS. Giovanni Evangelista e Petronio dei Bolognesi, 1626–1629, Santa Maria della Vittoria, 1629–30, and St. Peter's, 1625–1630). He also executed numerous frescoes in Rome during the 1620s: a ceiling in the Palazzo Costaguti (c. 1622); the choir and pendentives in Sant'Andrea della Valle, where he worked in fierce competition with Lanfranco, who painted the dome above Domenichino's pendentives; and the pendentives of San Silvestro al Quirinale (c. 1628) and San Carlo ai Catinari (1628–30).

In spite of his activity in Rome, Domenichino decided to leave the city in 1631 to take up the most prestigious, and very lucrative, commission in Naples, the decoration of the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro of the Naples Cathedral. His Scenes from the Life of San Gennaro occupied him for the rest of his life. He painted four large lunettes, four pendentives, and twelve scenes in the soffits of the arches, all in fresco, plus three large altarpieces in oil on copper. He died, perhaps by poison at the hands of the jealous Cabal of Naples, before completing the fourth altarpiece or the cupola, which was subsequently frescoed by Lanfranco.

At the time of his death, Domenichino's chief assistant was an obscure painter from Assisi, Francesco Raspantino, who inherited his master's studio. Earlier, Domenichino's principal pupils were Alessandro Fortuna, Giovanni Battista Ruggieri, Antonio Alberti called Barbalonga, Francesco Cozza, Andrea Camassei, and Giovanni Angelo Canini. Others who studied in his studio include Poussin, Pietro Testa, and his future biographer, Giovanni Pietro Bellori.

Ideas on art
Domenichino's work, developed principally from Raphael's and the Carracci's examples, mirrors the theoretical ideas of his friend Giovanni Battista Agucchi, with whom the painter collaborated on a Treatise on Painting. The portrait of Agucchi in York used to be attributed to Domenichino, but is now thought to be by Annibale Carracci, another friend.

It represents what would become known as classic-idealist art, which aims to surpass the imperfections of nature by developing an "Idea of Beauty" (idea del bello) through the study and imitation of the best examples of ancient and Renaissance art. Imitation in this sense is not copying but a creative process inspired by rhetorical theory whereby revered models are not only emulated but surpassed. One of the most famous incidents in the history of art that centered on concepts of Imitation arose when Lanfranco accused Domenichino of plagiarism, specifically of having stolen the design of his great Last Communion of St. Jerome from an altarpiece of the same subject in Bologna by his former teacher, Agostino Carracci. To prove his point, Lanfranco circulated a print after Agostino's painting, prompting painters and critics to take sides, most of whom—including Poussin and the antiquarian-critic-biographer Bellori—strongly defended Domenichino's work as being praiseworthy imitation.

In addition to his interest in the theory of painting (he was well educated and bookish), Domenichino was devoted to music, not as a performer but to the invention of instruments suited to the stile moderno or to what Monteverdi dubbed the "seconda pratica." Like Domenichino's paintings, its sources were in ancient models and aimed at clarity of expression capable of moving its audience. As the Florentine composer Giulio Caccini held and Domenichino surely believed, the aim of the composer/artist was to "move the passion of the mind." To achieve that goal, Domenichino paid particular attention to expressive gestures. Some 1750 drawings in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle attest to the assiduous study underlying Domenichino's work—figural, architectural, decorative, landscape, even caricature—and to the painter's brilliance as a draftsman. In Roger de Piles' Balance of 1708, an effort to quantify and compare the greatness of painters in four categories (no artist ever achieved a score above 18 in any category), the French critic awarded Domenichino 17 points for drawing (dessein), 17 for expression, 15 for composition, yet only 9 as a colorist. Domenichino's composite score of 58 nonetheless was surpassed only by Raphael and Rubens, and it equalled that of the Carracci.

Criticism from Ruskin
The Balance reflects Domenichino's high standing in the history of European taste— until John Ruskin in the 1840s wrote his devastating attacks on Bolognese Baroque painting in his Modern Painters. The Carracci and their followers were condemned by Ruskin as being "insincere". For Ruskin, there was no entirely sincere nor any great art from the seventeenth century and all was doubly damned as being "eclectic." Modern scholarship, led by Luigi Serra, John Pope-Hennessy, Evelina Borea and Richard Spear, who in 1982 published the first catalogue raisonné of all of Domenichino's paintings and preparatory drawings, has resurrected the artist from the Victorian graveyard and reestablished his place among the most important and influential painters of seventeenth-century Italy. In 1996 the first major exhibition of his work was held at the Palazzo Venezia in Rome.

Selected works

 * Saint John the Evangelist, 1621–1629 (auctioned in London in December 2009 for more than £9.2 million, acquired by another buyer on condition that it be put on public display for three months every year).
 * The Virgin, Infant Jesus, and John the Baptist (The Madonna of Silence), c. 1605, Louvre Museum
 * A Virgin with a Unicorn, c. 1604–05, Farnese Gallery, Palazzo Farnese, Rome; fresco based on a design by Annibale Carracci
 * Abraham Leading Isaac to Sacrifice, 1602, Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth
 * Landscape with Baptism of Christ (in collaboration with G. B. Viola?), c. 1603, Kunsthaus, Zurich
 * Landscape with Flight into Egypt, c. 1605–06, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College''
 * Portrait of Cardinal Girolamo Agucchi, c. 1604–05, Uffizi, Florence
 * Landscape with fishermen, hunters and washerwomen, c. 1604–05, Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill
 * Landscape with Fording], c. 1604–05, Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome
 * Adoration of the Shepherds c. 1607–1610
 * Flagellation of St. Andrew, 1609, San Gregorio Magno, Rome
 * The Ascension of St. Paul, c. 1606–1608, Louvre
 * Scenes from the Life of Diana, 1609, Palazzo Giustiniani, now Odescalchi, Bassano di Sutri (Rome)
 * The 'Consecratio' of a Roman Emperor, 1634–1636, Prado Museum, Madrid
 * Landscape with Fortifications, c. 1634–35, Denis Mahon Collection, London
 * Cumaean Sybil, c. 1610, Pinacoteca Capitolina, Rome
 * Legends of SS. Nilus and Bartholomew, 1608–1610, Abbey of Grottaferrata
 * A Triumphal Arch, c. 1609, Prado Museum, Madrid
 * Way to Calvary, c. 1610, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
 * Last Communion of St Jerome, 1614, Vatican Pinacoteca and
 * Scenes of the Life of Saint Cecilia, 1612–1615, frescoes, San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome
 * Landscape with St Jerome, c. 1610, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum
 * Landscape with Sylvia and Satyrs, c. 1615–1620, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
 * Alexander and Timoclea, c. 1615, Louvre Museum
 * Truth Disclosed by Time (in collaboration with Agostino Tassi), c. 1622, fresco Palazzo Costaguti, Rome)
 * Cumaean Sybil, 1616–17, Galleria Borghese, Rome
 * Madonna of the Rosary, 1617–1622/25 (Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna)
 * Archery Contest of Diana and her Nymphs, c. 1616–17, Galleria Borghese, Rome
 * The Virgin and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Petronius, 1626–1629, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan (on deposit at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome)
 * Saint Agnes, c. 1620, Royal Collection, Hampton Court
 * Madonna of Loreto with Saints John the Baptist, Paterniano, and Anthony Abbot, c. 1618–19, North Carolina Museum of Art)
 * Rinaldo and Armida, c. 1620–21, Louvre, Paris
 * Martyrdom of St Peter Martyr (after Titian), c. 1619–1621, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
 * Life of Apollo, 1616–18, frescoes, Stanza di Apollo, Villa Aldobrandini (Belvedere), Frascati (now mostly in the National Gallery, London)
 * The Four Evangelists and Scenes from the Life of St. Andrew, 1622–1627, frescoes in the pendentives and choir of Sant'Andrea della Valle, Rome MatthewMark Luke
 * Landscape with Hercules and Acheloüs, c. 1622–23, Louvre, Paris
 * Saint Ignatius de Loyola's Vision of Christ and God the Father, c. 1622, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
 * Landscape with The Flight to Egypt, c. 1623, Louvre, Paris
 * Landscape with Child overturning Wine, c. 1603–1605, Louvre, Paris
 * Rebuke of Adam and Eve, c, 1623–1625, Musée des Beax-Arts, Grenoble
 * An Allegory of Agriculture, Astronomy and Architecture, c. 1624–25, Galleria Sabauda, Turin
 * Rebuke of Adam and Eve, 1626, National Gallery Art, Washington D.C.
 * Martyrdom of St. Agnes, c. 1619–22/25, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna
 * Death of Adonis, Apollo and Hyacinthus and Narcissus, frescoes, 1603–04, Palazzo Farnese, Rome
 * Martyrdom of St Sebastian, 1625–1630, St. Peter's, Rome (now Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome)
 * Assumption of the Virgin, 1616–17, Santa Maria di Trastevere, Rome
 * Landscape with Erminia and the Shepherds, c. 1623–1625?, Louvre, Paris
 * Landscape with Hercules and Cacus, c. 1622–23, Louvre, Paris
 * Saint Cecilia with an Angel, c. 1617–18, Louvre, Paris
 * Sacrifice of Isaac, c. 1627–28, Prado Museum, Madrid
 * Scenes from the Life of San Gennaro, 1631–1641, frescoes, Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro, Cathedral of Naples
 * Landscape with Tobias laying hold of the Fish, c. 1610–1612, National Gallery, London
 * Mary Magdalene in Glory, c. 1620, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
 * Sibyl, XVII c., M. Žilinskas Art Gallery, Kaunas, Lithuania
 * The Appearance of the Angels to St. Jerome, Prado Museum, Madrid.
 * The Head of the Baptist, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.
 * St. John the Evangelist, c.1625-1628, Museum & Gallery, Inc. in Greenville, SC.

title: Domenichino


text:
Gytha Thorkelsdóttir

Gytha Thorkelsdóttir (c. 997 – c. 1069), also called Githa, was a Danish noblewoman. She was the wife of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and the mother of King Harold Godwinson and Edith of Wessex, the latter of whom was the queen consort of King Edward the Confessor.

Biography
Gytha Thorkelsdóttir was the daughter of Danish chieftain Thorgil Sprakling (also called Thorkel). Gytha was also the sister of the Danish Earl Ulf Thorgilsson who was married to Estrid Svendsdatter, the sister of King Cnut the Great. She married the Anglo-Saxon nobleman Godwin of Wessex. They had a large family together, and one of her sons, Harold, became king of England.

Two of their sons, Harold and Tostig, faced each other at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, where Tostig was killed. Less than a month later, three of her sons: Harold, Gyrth, and Leofwine, were killed by William the Conqueror's invading Norman army at the Battle of Hastings. She pleaded with William for the return of the body of her slain son, King Harold, but was unsuccessful. Shortly after the Battle of Hastings, Gytha was living in Exeter and may have been the cause of that city's rebellion against William the Conqueror in 1067, which resulted in his laying siege to the city. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Gytha left England after the Norman conquest, together with the wives or widows and families of other prominent Anglo-Saxons, all the Godwin family estates having been confiscated by William. Little else is known of Gytha's life after that time, although it is probable that she went to Scandinavia where she had relatives.

Her youngest and only surviving son, Wulfnoth, lived nearly all his life in captivity in Normandy until the death of William the Conqueror in 1087. Only her eldest daughter, Queen Edith (d. 1075), still held some power (however nominal) as the widow of King Edward the Confessor.

Children

 * Sweyn Godwinson, Earl of Herefordshire, (c. 1020–1052), at some point he declared himself an illegitimate son of Canute the Great but this is considered to be a false claim
 * Harold Godwinson, King of England (c. 1022 – October 14, 1066)
 * Edith of Wessex, (c. 1025 – December 19, 1075), queen consort of Edward the Confessor
 * Tostig Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria (c. 1026 – September 25, 1066)
 * Gyrth Godwinson, Earl of East Anglia (c. 1030 – October 14, 1066)
 * Gunhilda of Wessex, a nun (c. 1035–1087)
 * Leofwine Godwinson, Earl of Kent (c. 1035 – October 14, 1066)
 * Ælfgifu of Wessex, (c. 1035)
 * Wulfnoth Godwinson, (c. 1040–1094)

Related Reading

 * Barlow, Frank (1988)  The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042–1216 (New York: Longman) ISBN 0-582-49504-0
 * DeVries, K. (1999) The Norwegian Invasion of England in 1066 (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press) ISBN 0-85115-763-7
 * Mason, Emma (2004) House of Godwine: The History of Dynasty (London: Hambledon & London) ISBN 1-85285-389-1
 * Rex, Peter (2005) Harold II: The Doomed Saxon King (Stroud, UK: Tempus) ISBN 978-0-7394-7185-2
 * Walker, Ian (2000) Harold the Last Anglo-Saxon King (Gloucestershire: Wrens Park) ISBN 0-905778-46-4

title: Gytha Thorkelsdóttir


text:
Thorgils Sprakelegg

Thorgils Sprakalegg (also called Thorgil, Torkel, Torgils, Thrugils or Sprakalägg) was a Danish nobleman whose children were active in the politics of Denmark and England in the early 11th century and who was grandfather of kings of both nations. Little is recorded about Thorgils in historical texts outside of his place in the genealogy of his children or grandchildren. Thorgils' cognomen Sprakalägg can be translated into English as "Break-leg" or "Strut-leg".

The 11th-century English chronicler John of Worcester reports in an entry dated 1049 that Earl Beorn Estrithson was brother of King Svein of Denmark, and son of Danish Earl Ulf, son of Spracling[us], son of Urs[us]. Here Spraclingus is a garbled representation of the byname of Thorgils appearing in later Scandinavian sources, while Ursus is the Latin urso, or bear (Bjørn in Danish, Björn in Swedish).

He appears in several 13th-century sources. He is Torgils or Þorgils Sprakaleggs in Knýtlinga saga and in two works of Snorri Sturluson – Óláfs saga helga in Heimskringla, and the Separate Saga of St. Olaf – each time simply as father of Earl Ulf. Two other 13th-century sources relate folklore that derives Thorgils from the mating of a bear with a noblewoman. Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus recorded that the son born to such a union was 'named after his father' (i.e. called 'bear' – Ursus/Björn; in the 14th-century summary of Saxo's work, Compendium Saxonis, he is explicitly named 'Byorn' ) and was himself father of 'Thrugillus, called Sprageleg', father of Earl Ulf. Saxo further says of 'Thrugillis' that he "lacked not one ounce of his father's valour" (nullo probitatis vestigio a paternae virtutis imitatione defecit). The other source, Gesta Antecessorum Comitis Waldevi, copies the early generations of John of Worcester's pedigree but, confusing two like-named men, replaces Earl Beorn Estrithson as Earl Ulf's son with Björn Boreson, the father of Siward, Earl of Northumbria. This pedigree commences with an episode not found in the Worcester chronicler's pedigree but similar to that of Saxo, that a 'certain nobleman', contrary to the natural order of human procreation, had a white bear as his father and a noblewoman as a mother, before continuing the pedigree with 'Ursus begat Spratlingus'. The chronicle sometimes attributed to the 15th-century John Brompton tells a very similar tale of bear-paternity relating to the birth of Björn Boresune ('bear's son') himself. Historian Timothy Bolton has suggested that the role of a bear in the immediate ancestry of both Ulf's children and Siward's line may represent a tradition shared by relatives rather than that two independent families at about the same time both co-opting the same ancient Norwegian legend for their immediate ancestry – that Björn Boresune and Thorgils may have been brothers.

In the 18th century, Danish historian Jakob Langebek suggested this bear story was allegorical, and that the brutish 'Wild' Björn, father of Thorgils, was a reference to Jomsviking brigand leader Styrbjörn the Strong (Styrbjörn Starke), depicted by sagas as the son of Olaf Björnsson, king of Sweden. The sagas relate that Styrbjörn was the first husband of Tyra, the daughter of Harold Bluetooth, king of Denmark and Norway. Otto Brenner's detailed study of the descendants of Gorm the Old gives his granddaughter Tyra and Styrbjörn no children.

Children

 * Ulf (died 1027) – Earl in Denmark and brother-in law of King Cnut the Great. His son became King Sweyn II of Denmark.
 * Eileifr (Eglaf), named in a Supplement to Jómsvíkinga saga as "Eilífr Þorgilsson, bróðir Úlfs", he was one of the leaders of Thorkell the Tall's 1009 invasion of England, and appears between 1019 and 1024 as an earl under King Cnut with jurisdiction centered on Gloucester. He ravaged the South Wales coastal region in 1022/3, but apparently left England for Scandinavia in 1024.
 * Gytha Thorkelsdóttir – married Godwin, Earl of Wessex; mother of King Harold Godwinson of England and Edith of Wessex, Queen of King Edward the Confessor.

title: Thorgils Sprakelegg


text:
Up at the Lake

Up at the Lake is the eighth album by the British alternative rock band The Charlatans, released on 17 May 2004 through Universal and Island Records Group. As promotion wrapped up for their seventh album, Wonderland (2001), Universal wanted them to follow it up with another one quickly. However, frontman Tim Burgess began working on his debut solo album in late 2002. At the end of the year, the band reconvened to write songs; by March 2003, they relocated to their own studio, Big Mushroom, in Cheshire, Greater Manchester, with them and James Spencer serving as producers. Recording halted in May 2003 to allow for Burgess to finish his album, I Believe (2003); sessions would resume by the end of the year and finish in February 2004. Up at the Lake is a pop rock album that pursues the country rock direction that they had first explored on their sixth album, Tellin' Stories (1997).

Up at the Lake received generally favourable reviews from music critics, many of whom praised the songwriting. It peaked at number 6 in Scotland, number 13 in the United Kingdom, and number 32 in Ireland, being certified silver in the UK 11 days after its release. Both "Up at the Lake" and "Try Again Today" reached the top 30 on the Scottish and UK Singles Charts. "Up at the Lake" was released as the album's lead single in May 2004, which was promoted with a tour of the UK and appearances at the Isle of Wight and T in the Park festivals until the following month. "Try Again Today" was released as the second single from the album in July 2004; afterwards, the Charlatans performed at the V Festival. In December 2004, the band embarked on another tour of the UK, and "Loving You Is Easy" was released as a radio-only promotional single. A video album from that tour was released in early 2005 under the title Live at Last Brixton Academy.

Background and development
The Charlatans released their seventh studio album, Wonderland, in September 2001 through Universal Records. As it was released in the United States on 11 September, it would perform poorly commercially in that territory. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number two in the UK Albums Chart, while its two singles, "Love Is the Key" and "A Man Needs to Be Told", charted within the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. They promoted it with two tours in the UK and one in the US, along with appearances at the Coachella, Isle of Wight, and Glastonbury Festivals. Tours in support of Wonderland: After supporting Stereophonics at Slane Castle in Dublin, Ireland, in August 2002, the Charlatans played three club shows to end the month. Universal wanted a follow-up quickly, threatening the band with dropping them from the roster if they did not work on one; frontman Tim Burgess was not happy with the situation. He wanted to continue writing, but the rest of the band members wanted a break.
 * First UK tour:
 * Second UK tour:
 * US tour:
 * Coachella:
 * Isle of Wight:
 * Glastonbury:

In October 2002, Dotmusic reported that Burgess was recording a solo album with Linus of Hollywood. A few days later, the band denied rumours that they would be splitting up but mentioned that the other members worked with different artists: drummer Jon Brookes with Preacher Man and keyboardist Tony Rogers with Moco. In the same announcement, they mentioned that they would start demoing material for their next album in early 2003, which they were aiming to release later that year. In December 2002, the band started writing new songs; guitarist Mark Collins subsequently visited Burgess in February 2003 at his home in Los Angeles, California, where the pair worked for three weeks, finishing four tracks in the process. The two of them would then spend some time in a cottage in Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. As the pair left behind a CD of the material they were working on, the material made it out to the public as a bootleg.

Recording
In March 2003, the band relocated to their own studio, Big Mushroom, in Cheshire, Greater Manchester, with them and engineer James Spencer serving as producers. Burgess said that unlike Wonderland, they had no firm idea of what musical direction they wanted to take for Up at the Lake when they got into the studio. By May 2003, they had finished seven songs but had to pause recording as Burgess shifted focus to his solo debut, I Believe (2003). Bassist Martin Blunt said the plan was for Burgess to finish promoting his album before they would return to work on their album. While this was occurring, the band held a warm-up show in London prior to their appearances at the Move and T in the Park festivals in July 2003. At the former festival, the band premiered a new track, "Feel the Pressure".

Collins, meanwhile, worked with Adam Masterson, marking his first producer role outside of the band; Rogers performed on one of his tracks. The band regrouped at Big Mushroom in December 2003, after the conclusion of Burgess' solo tour of the UK. They expected to have an album's worth of tracks finished by early 2004, eventually ending in February 2004. Linus of Hollywood recorded Burgess' vocals for "Try Again Today"; Mike Cave did additional engineering on it, as Blunt thought the song sounded a bit overproduced. The songs were mixed by Spencer, Ken Nelson, and the Chemical Brothers at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool and Mayfair and Miloco Studios in London, before the album was mastered by Frank Arkwright at Townhouse Studios, also in London. Johnny Marr helped compile the final track listing.

Composition and lyrics
Musically, Up at the Lake is a pop rock album that continues the country rock direction that the band initially explored on their sixth album, Tellin' Stories (1997). Cokemachineglow writer David M. Goldstein explained that Up at the Lake had the "same hazy, guitar-centered production, and an emphasis on la-di-da country-rockers evoking the [Rolling] Stones at their late '60s/early '70s peak" as Tellin' Stories. AllMusic reviewer Jason Damas wrote that the "classic-rock coloring that dominated discs" such as the band's self-titled (1995) and Tellin' Stories albums return, in addition to "brief flirtations with classic folk". The band's trademark Hammond organ sound also returned, though in a reduced presence, as Collins' guitarwork was placed higher in the mix. Burgess largely dropped the falsetto vocal styling that he used on the majority of Wonderland, though it was used on "Up at the Lake". According to Burgess, the album's title is taken from a never-made David Lynch film, and "I thought we could at least provide the soundtrack to this unmade film".

The opening track, "Up at the Lake", is a British traditional rock song; its first line is adapted from "Loose Fit" (1990) by former contemporaries Happy Mondays. The indie disco song "Feel the Pressure" evokes the Tellin' Stories track "One to Another". Burgess said its "full horror movie" intro section was made by the collaborators, the Chemical Brothers. For the rest of the track, Collins came up with music that was more akin to the rest of the album until Blunt said the Chemical Brothers "did their thing to it." Burgess had Brookes play a drum pattern akin to the sound of Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow. The opening portion of the following track, "As I Watch You in Disbelief", is taken from "Heroes" (1977) by David Bowie. Burgess said it detailed "being broken" and was influenced by "When I Paint My Masterpiece" (1971) by Bob Dylan. "Cry Yourself to Sleep" retreads the American country and folk direction that Burgess tackled on I Believe. It was written by Rogers, though Burgess said he potentially contributed a few lyrics to it. Rogers described it as a melancholic song about his daughters moving to Australia. Ged Lynch, formerly of Black Grape, contributed percussion to the track.

"Bona Fide Treasure" is done in the style of Electric Light Orchestra, while "High Up Your Tree" was compared to Ween, specifically on their album White Pepper (2000). Discussing the latter, Burgess found it difficult to "keep the band and my marriage together". "Blue for You" is a psychedelic blues track that was written about their former, deceased keyboardist, Rob Collins. "I'll Sing a Hymn (You Came to Me)", another one in the vein of Burgess' solo album, apes the sound of Bob Dylan circa New Morning (1970). Burgess said he tried emulating "Please Don't Leave Me Lonely" (1971) by King Floyd, though he admitted it was unsuccessful. "Loving You Is Easy" is a soul ballad that recalled the work of Minnie Riperton, who had a song with the same name. Rogers sings lead vocals on the track, though he did not wish to; he wished for the song to be dropped entirely, but the rest of the band wanted it on the album. "Try Again Today" is a Beatlesque ballad, co-written by Linus of Hollywood, who helped Burgess on I Believe. Burgess wanted to talk about "when things are not going that well [...] having another go" and not having high expectations. He said he was unhappy when he composed the lyrics to "Apples and Oranges". The album concludes with "Dead Love", which talks about communication with the band breaking down and Burgess feeling alone while promoting I Believe. It features cello and viola from Ian Bracken and Heather Wallington, respectively, of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Release
American label MCA Records was absorbed by Universal Music Group (UMG) subsidiary Geffen Records in mid-2003, which resulted in its staff and roster being moved to Geffen. As a result, the band was dropped from the roster. On 22 March 2004, Up at the Lake was announced for release in two months' time; alongside this, the track listing was posted online. The band debuted material from the album at two one-off shows in London in early May 2004. Initially planned for 3 May 2004, "Up at the Lake" was released as the album's lead single on 10 May 2004. The CD version included "For Where There Is Love, There Will Always Be Miracles", while the seven-inch vinyl edition featured "I'll Sing A Hymn (You Came to Me)" as the B-side. After being available to stream on the band's website two and a half weeks ahead of schedule, Up at the Lake was released on 17 May 2004. Its artwork was taken at Pickmere Lake in Cheshire, outside of Burgess' home town of Northwich.

In May and June 2004, the band embarked on a tour of the UK, leading up to appearances at the Isle of Wight, T in the Park, and Fleadh festivals. Additional shows were added, with two shows apiece in Glasgow and Manchester. "Try Again Today" was released as the album's second single on 26 July 2004. The CD edition featured "M.I.A.", "Give Me a Reason", and the music video for "Try Again Today", while the DVD version included videos of "Up at the Lake" and footage from Keele University, along with audio of "Try Again Today". while the seven-inch vinyl edition featured "I'll Sing A Hymn (You Came to Me)" as the B-side. In August 2004, the band performed at the V Festival. They ended the year with a short tour of the UK in December 2004; extra shows were added twice, increasing it to an eight-date tour. "Loving You Is Easy" was released as a radio-only promotional single on 20 December 2004. In April 2005, the band's second video album, Live at Last Brixton Academy, was released, consisting of footage from the December 2004 tour.

Up at the Lake was re-pressed on vinyl in 2018 through UMC, Universal's catalogue label. "Up at the Lake" and "Try Again Today" were featured on the band's third compilation album, Forever: The Singles (2006), while four demos from the sessions were included on the special edition version of it. "High Up Your Tree" and "Blue for You" appeared on their fourth compilation album, Collection (2007). "Up at the Lake" was included on their fifth compilation album, A Head Full of Ideas (2021).

Reception
Up at the Lake was met with generally favourable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 72, based on 10 reviews.

Reviewers praised the songwriting. Damas felt that there was a "defined sense that this is the beginning of a new chapter for the band, and that Up at the Lake is their first work as 'mature' artists." He added that it was a "relaxed and assured record, the work of craftsmen who know how to produce something solid and consistent." Goldstein said it was "surprisingly their strongest effort" since Tellin' Stories, agreeing with Damas that they "actually sound[ed] relaxed," making it the type of album that the band could compose in their sleep. The Independent critic Andy Gill was also impressed, saying that the "relatively simple and direct Up at the Lake is a surprise", adding that it was the "most focused, coherent and unmediated that the band have sounded in years." Steve McQueen of Gigwise called it "soothingly British, with authentic flavourings throughout. Like an English summer's day – you cannot take this for granted." Chris Nye Browne of Yahoo! Launch said that "although, essentially, there's nothing exceptional here, as an album 'Up At The Lake' flows seamlessly."

Other critics felt that it was uninspiring. Entertainment.ie Andrew Lynch wrote that "while it doesn't break any new ground, it's just as enjoyable" as their past releases. The staff at Uncut said it was "hardly the album-length E-rush of career peak Tellin' Stories (1997)," while Stephen Ackroyd of This Is Fake DIY said the band "[c]ould do worse, [or] could do a lot better." RTÉ.ie writer Seamus Leonard said "unfortunately the songs are pretty inconsistent", with "Cry Yourself to Sleep" and "I'll Sing a Hymn (You Came to Me)" being "well worth listening to, but [...] [t]he rest are reasonable but unremarkable." God Is in the TV Alex Worsnip, meanwhile, thought they had "run their course at this stage, although they themselves seem positive about their direction. However, for the rest of us, 'Up At The Lake' will be both familiar and uninspiring". Playlouder writer Richard Smirke said the album "plays more like Burgess & Co hijacking Stars in Their Eyes, rather than a band trying to sound fresh or relevant in their fifteenth year. Unfortunately, as artistically redundant as that concept sounds, this 45-minute pop-rock opus doesn't fare much better."

Up at the Lake peaked at number 13 in the UK; it reached number 6 in Scotland and number 32 in Ireland. It was certified silver in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry 11 days after its release. "Up at the Lake" charted at number 20 in Scotland and number 23 in the UK. "Try Again Today" charted at number 24 in Scotland and the UK.

Track listing
All songs by Martin Blunt, Jon Brookes, Tim Burgess, Mark Collins, and Tony Rogers, except "Try Again Today" by the band and Linus of Hollywood. "I'll Sing a Hymn (You Came to Me)" is not included on all versions.

 * 1) "Up at the Lake" – 3:45
 * 2) "Feel the Pressure" – 3:35
 * 3) "As I Watch You in Disbelief" – 3:48
 * 4) "Cry Yourself to Sleep" – 4:25
 * 5) "Bona Fide Treasure" – 3:24
 * 6) "High Up Your Tree" – 4:01
 * 7) "Blue for You" – 3:56
 * 8) "I'll Sing a Hymn (You Came to Me)" – 2:43
 * 9) "Loving You Is Easy" – 5:00
 * 10) "Try Again Today" – 3:42
 * 11) "Apples and Oranges" – 4:20
 * 12) "Dead Love" – 2:21

Personnel
Personnel per sleeve.

The Charlatans
 * Jon Brookes – drums, percussion
 * Tim Burgess – lead vocals, underwater piano
 * Mark Collins – guitars, pedal steel, backing vocals
 * Tony Rogers – Hammond, piano, backing vocals, lead vocals (track 9)
 * Martin Blunt – bass guitar

Additional musicians
 * Ged Lynch – percussion (track 4)
 * Ian Bracken – cello (track 12)
 * Heather Wallington – viola (track 12)

Production and design
 * The Charlatans – producer
 * James Spencer – producer, mixing, engineer
 * Ken Nelson – mixing
 * The Chemical Brothers – mixing
 * Mike Cave – additional engineering (track 10)
 * Johnny Marr – compiler
 * Linus of Hollywood – recording (track 10)
 * Frank Arkwright – mastering
 * Tom Sheehan – photography
 * John Mark James – design

title: Up at the Lake