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Jacques Gaillot

Jacques Gaillot (11 September 1935 – 12 April 2023) was a French Catholic clergyman and social activist. He was Bishop of Évreux in France from 1982 to 1995. In 1995, Pope John Paul II removed him as head of his diocese because he publicly expressed controversial and heterodox positions on religious, political, and social matters. These views earned Gaillot the popular nickname "the Red Cleric."

From 1995, Gaillot was bishop of the titular see of Parthenia. His online ministry to dissidents in the Catholic Church under the name Partenia has since been described as the Catholic Church's first virtual diocese.

Early life and priesthood
Jacques Gaillot was born in Saint-Dizier, Haute-Marne, on 11 September 1935. After his secondary studies, he entered the seminary in Langres. From 1957 to 1959, he performed his compulsory military service in Algeria during the Algerian War. From 1960 to 1962 he completed his studies in theology in Rome, earning a bachelor's degree. He was ordained a priest in 1961.

From 1962 to 1964, he studied at the Higher Institute for Liturgy in Paris and taught at the major seminary in Châlons-en-Champagne. Beginning in 1965, he was a professor at the regional seminary of Reims, where he chaired sessions for the implementation of the principles of the Second Vatican Council.

In 1973, he was assigned to the parish of St Dizier in his hometown and became co-manager of the institute for the training of seminary instructors in Paris. In 1977, he was appointed vicar general of the Diocese of Langres. When the see became vacant in 1981, he was elected diocesan administrator.

Bishop of Évreux
On 5 May 1982, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of Évreux. He received his episcopal consecration on 20 June from Léon Aimé Taverdet, Bishop of Langres. In his first Easter message he wrote: "I'm not here to convince the convinced or take care of the well. I'm here to support the ill and offer a hand to the lost. Does a bishop remain in his cathedral or does he go into the street? ... I made my choice."

In 1983, Gaillot publicly supported a conscientious objector in Évreux who declined to perform alternative service in forestry on the grounds that it did not contribute to the relief of the destitute or promote peace. During the annual assembly of the French episcopate, he was one of two bishops (of a total of 110) who voted against a text which supported nuclear deterrence.

In 1984, Gaillot declined to join large-scale Church-led public demonstrations in favour of French parochial schools and signed petitions in favour of secular education.

In January 1985, Gaillot drew sustained media attention for the first time when he signed an appeal on behalf of underpaid Catholic school teachers; also signing the appeal was Georges Marchais, the head of the French Communist Party. In response, conservatives in Gaillot's diocese described him as "a tool of the church's worst enemies", while the right-leaning newspaper Le Figaro spearheaded a campaign against him. Also in 1985, Gaillot supported the First Palestinian Intifada.

In 1987, he went to South Africa to meet a young anti-apartheid militant from Évreux sentenced to four years in prison by the South African régime. There he also appeared at a demonstration where some Communist militants were also demonstrating. In order to accomplish this trip, he had to renounce going with the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, a move that attracted criticism. Further, in the same year, he also announced that the French Bishops "remain too preoccupied by the correct functioning of the church and its structures." This only ensured that the responses to Gaillot when he later attacked the right-wing French political party, the National Front, were even stronger. Also in 1987, Gaillot traveled to Athens to show solidarity with Palestinian refugees. Perhaps the most notable event he performed in 1987 was attending, by invitation, a special session of the United Nations in New York to speak out for disarmament.

In 1988, during a closed-door session of the annual assembly of the French episcopate in Lourdes, he advocated the ordination of married men to the priesthood. After the proceedings had finished Gaillot spoke to the press about the discussions held and also promoted his own viewpoints. By promoting a revision of clerical celibacy and the use of condoms, he caused considerable tension with the French bishops' conference, the situation being exacerbated by the fact that in speaking to the media about the session, Gaillot had violated convention regarding assembly conclaves. He later defended his previous actions, remarking that "I never broke the vow of celibacy ... I only questioned it. But that's worse." Also that year, Gaillot took the unprecedented step for a Roman Catholic bishop of blessing a homosexual union in a "service of welcoming," after the couple requested it in view of their imminent death from AIDS.

In 1989, Galliot participated in a trip to French Polynesia organized by the peace movement, asking for the end to French nuclear testing.

Gaillot also participated in the ceremony of the transfer of the ashes of the late bishop Baptiste-Henri Grégoire (1750–1831) to the Panthéon, a necropolis for the great men of France. Grégoire had been instrumental in the first abolition of slavery, and the end of discrimination against Blacks and Jews during the French Revolution. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church had refused to give him the last sacraments because of Grégoire's acceptance of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. Gaillot was the only French bishop participating in this ceremony.

The French journalist Henri Tincq wrote in Le Monde that Gaillot "has the merit of saying out loud what many people in authority in the church think deep down".

In 1989, the French Bishops' Conference, to the extent that the members of the episcopate voted to censure him after Gaillot gave an interview to the publication Lui, a publication known for its explicit sexual content. He also gave interviews to leading gay magazines and criticized his peers as incompetent to judge the circumstances of gays and lesbians. Gaillot offered to resign but the Vatican did not respond.

Toward late 1989, he made a conciliatory gesture by signing a promise of "loyalty" and "docility" to the papal authority. A week later, Gaillot appeared on television and spoke of the "feeble state of internal debate in the church" and express disappointment that progress had not been made since the Second Vatican Council.

In 1991, he opposed the Gulf War, publishing a book called Open letter to those who preach war, but let it be waged by others. He also condemned the embargo on Iraq. By the end of 1991, the French Bishops' Conference had censured Gaillot three times, most recently for his intervention in Haiti, rousing support for Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Gaillot's book A Rant on Exclusion (Coup de gueule contre l'exclusion) was published in March 1994. It criticized the French laws on immigration proposed by Minister of the Interior, Charles Pasqua.

On 12 April 1994, Gaillot appeared on television in a discussion with dissident Catholic theologian Eugen Drewermann. On 14 April, Archbishop Joseph Duval, the president of the Bishops Conference of France and Gaillot's superior as metropolitan archbishop of Rouen, wrote to Gaillot: "For all to see you are in solidarity with Drewermann. But how do you show your solidarity with us, your fellow episcopal brothers and the Pope? Are you aware that your position is unsustainable? The distance from your brothers in the episcopate that you emphasize makes us suffer and has become a scandal for many Catholics." Gaillot at one point offered to resign, but withdrew his offer, fearing that the Vatican might resolve his case as it had that of Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen in 1987 by appointing an auxiliary bishop with special authority.

Gaillot was the target of a bitter campaign to disparage his name. Unsubstantiated allegations of homosexuality, racism, anti-Semitism, and psychosis and neurosis were made by highly placed authorities in the French hierarchy. Gaillot responded by calling Duval an "ayatollah" seeking to impose "ideological uniformity" within the French Bishops Conference. He compared the leadership style of Cardinal Bernadin Gantin, head of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops, to that of the Stasi, the East German security police.

Removal from Évreux
Gantin summoned Gaillot to a meeting at the Vatican on 13 January 1995 and offered the choice of resigning his see or being removed from his office. Gaillot returned to France and issued a statement that said: "I was asked to hand in my resignation, which I thought I had good reasons to refuse." Having refused to resign, he was removed and denied the use of the title "bishop emeritus". As all bishops need to be assigned to a see (diocese), he was assigned the titular see of Parthenia on 13 January 1995.

The Church named two bishops to stay in contact with Gaillot.

Reaction to removal
This removal sparked an emotional response from thousands of people across France and the rest of the world. Twenty thousand people gathered outside the cathedral in Évreux when he offered his last Mass there on 22 January. Four French bishops demonstrated their support by attending the service, where Gaillot said: "This should be a Church of the marginalised, not a Church that marginalises." The crowd stayed on the streets protesting the Vatican's decision. Protestors united under the leadership of the Communist mayor of the region and marched through the streets in the rain. Although still a bishop he left his cross, mitre and staff behind in Évreux.

The decision to remove Gaillot as ordinary of Évreux was widely seen as a mistake by both lay people and clergy, and also by many non-religious people who had come to view Gaillot favorably. After his removal, a reported forty thousand people wrote letters to the cathedral office at Évreux, with more being sent to the Vatican and eminent prelates. He was perceived favorably by a significant number of people, particularly due to his ministry to all people without distinction. In addition, he had become a national figure after the sanctions taken against him.

Polls taken at the time consistently revealed the French public to be against the punishment brought upon Gaillot. One CSA survey showed that total of 64 percent of the public was against the firing of Jacques Gaillot as bishop of Évreux, with only 11 percent approving of his firing and the remaining 25 percent being undecided. Some later polls showed that support for Gaillot might even have been as high as 75 percent.

Reactions from other French bishops varied. No French bishop expressed public support for Gaillot, but the spokesperson for the hierarchy reported that both Cardinal Robert-Joseph Coffy of Marseille and Archbishop Duval were "visibly troubled" by the Vatican's action. Duval released a statement that said: "I pleaded for patience in Rome." Duval later said that he "regretted" what Rome had done and called it "an authoritarian act which cannot be accepted by society, even if it is carried out by the Church."

The Archbishop of Cambrai,, defended Gaillot and called his removal "a wound for our church... a source of misunderstanding for the poor and for all those who seek the truth and who put their trust in the church."

By the time he left his position in Évreux, he had visited more prisons than any bishop in France's history.

After Évreux
After being removed from his position as prelate of Évreux, Gaillot wrote:

"I had a dream: to be able to accompany the poor, the excluded, the ignored, without having to explain myself or justify myself to the rich, the secure, or the comfortable. To be able to go where distress calls me without having to give advance notice. To be able to show my indignation at destitution, injustice, violence, the sale of weapons, and managed famines without being considered a meddler in politics.

I dreamed of being able to live my faith within the church, but also in society, in my time and with my times. I dreamed of the freedom to think and express myself, to debate and criticize, without fear of the guillotine. I dreamed of being different within the unity of faith, and remaining myself, alone and yet in solidarity with others. Ultimately, I hoped to be able to proclaim a Gospel of freedom without being marginalized."

- Jacques Gaillot, Voice from the Desert

After leaving the Bishop's Palace, Gaillot immediately moved in with illegal squatters in Paris' infamous Rue de Dragon. Since then he had shown similar solidarity with the homeless. Bishop Gaillot continued to defend human rights and engage in activism, regularly publishing information about his activities on the website of Parthenia.

Gaillot remained active as a pastor to the excluded. He also travelled throughout France and also internationally, spreading the word of the Christian Gospel and defending those who are considered "outcasts" (namely immigrants). He was an avid anti-war protester and is considered by many to be a strong socialist. Gaillot had a strong friendship with Abbé Pierre.

In 1995, after his removal as Bishop of Évreux, Gaillot attended a Call to Action conference in Detroit as one of the keynote speakers. He held three sessions, proving to be popular despite speaking through a translator. He hosted the conference alongside other controversial Catholic theologians including Hans Küng and Thomas Gumbleton.

Free of responsibility for a functioning diocese, Gaillot became even more daring in his activism. In July 1995, Gaillot engaged in protests against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. Aboard the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior, part of a fleet of protest ships, he was removed from the ship along with its other protestors and journalists by French commandos, after the Rainbow Warrior sailed within the exclusion zone, and escorted back to the atoll.

Twice bishops prohibited Gaillot from speaking in their dioceses. In 2000, Pope John Paul II forbade his participation in a conference in Rome about religion and homosexuals. Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne prohibited Gaillot from addressing a World Youth Day event in Bonn in 2004.

Also in 2004 Bishop Gaillot met with Maryam Rajavi, a controversial Iranian political activist. Gaillot strongly criticized the actions of some extremist religious leaders in Iran, going on to comment that “One must not forget that the strength of truth will make it [the Iranian resistance] triumphant. Darkness will give way and truth will prevail despite all the lies and ruses”. Rajavi publicly thanked the bishop and expressed that his support had been very effective in promoting the cause of the Iran resistance.

Gaillot also took the position as a well-known public figure in France, fighting for a number of causes; Gaillot served as the co-chairman of one of France's foremost human rights activist groups, '' (Rights First), among other groups.

In 2007 Gaillot expanded his use of the internet by posting a video interview on the website Google Video, attempting to bring attention to the escalating violence in Darfur.

A book he wrote shortly after his removal from Évreux was published in 1996 in an English translation as Voice from the Desert: A Bishop's Cry for a New Church. It is a largely autobiographical discussion of the events surrounding his removal.

Reconciliation with Church authorities
In 2000, Louis-Marie Billé, Archbishop of Lyon and president of the French Episcopal Conference, invited Gaillot to attend a national ecumenical service in Lyon on 14 May alongside other senior members of the French hierarchy. Billé said the invitation came from the bishops as a group: "It is important that Catholics, and public opinion in general, are aware that the communion that links us as brothers is real, even when it is lived out in a special fashion. What happened five years ago remains a wound even for those who don't necessarily share Mgr Gaillot's opinions." There was no indication that the pope or anyone in the Roman Curia was involved. Gaillot accepted, writing that he was "happy to demonstrate my communion with the Church".

On 1 September 2015, shortly before his 80th birthday, Gaillot, accompanied by Daniel Duigou, a priest and former journalist, met privately with Pope Francis in his Vatican City residence for 45 minutes. Gaillot said the pontiff encouraged him to continue his activism on behalf of migrants and refugees. After the meeting, Gaillot said he was "in love" with Francis.

Death
Gaillot moved to a retirement home in Paris in November 2022. He died in Paris on 12 April 2023, at the age of 87. He suffered from pancreatic cancer and had been hospitalized a week earlier.

title: Jacques Gaillot


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FirstGroup

FirstGroup plc is a British multi-national transport group, based in Aberdeen in the north-east of Scotland. The company operates transport services in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

The creation of what became FirstGroup is closely tied to the deregulation of bus services in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. During April 1995, two acquisitive private bus operators, Badgerline and GRT Bus Group, merged together to create FirstBus. The new company initially operated a fleet of 5,600 buses to provide services to numerous regions across England, Wales and Scotland. Throughout the late 1990s, FirstBus continued its policy of growth by acquisition. To this end, it acquired several former council owned operations and companies formerly owned by English, Welsh and Scottish nationalised operators.

During December 1997, the company was renamed FirstGroup to reflect its recent entry into Britain's recently privatised railways. Around this time, it had a 24.5% shareholding in Great Western Holdings that was awarded the Great Western and North Western franchises, as well as a 100% shareholding in First Great Eastern. FirstGroup made its first overseas foray in September 1998 via a 26% shareholding in the joint venture New World First Bus that provided bus services in Hong Kong. In September 1999, FirstGroup purchased the American company Ryder Public Transport Services. During May 2000, it began operating the London Tramlink concession. During August 2003, FirstGroup purchased GB Railways, which owned Anglia Railways and GB Railfreight and held 80% of the shares in Hull Trains.

In February 2007, FirstGroup agreed to buy the US-based bus operator Laidlaw, along with a controlling stake in Greyhound Lines, the largest bus operator in North America. During June 2009, FirstGroup made a unsuccessful takeover bid for rival transport operator National Express. In June 2010, FirstGroup sold its rail freight business First GBRf to the Eurotunnel Group, exiting the rail freight sector as a result. During October 2016, First Transit commenced operating the A-train, its first rail operation in the United States. In August 2017, FirstGroup's joint venture with MTR Corporation commenced operating the South Western franchise. In May 2020, FirstGroup announced it would retain its UK bus operations and sell off its activities in North America. During June 2022, FirstGroup rejected a £1.2bn takeover offer from US private equity company I Squared Capital.

Origins and early acquisitions
FirstGroup originated within the deregulation of bus services in the United Kingdom in 1986, whereby private companies purchased nationalised and municipal bus operators. During September 1986, the Somerset based services of the Bristol Omnibus Company that were rebranded in 1985 as Badgerline were purchased in a management buyout. As Badgerline Group, it expanded through acquisition purchasing other formerly nationalised bus companies in England and Wales.

In January 1989, Grampian Regional Transport, the bus operator in Aberdeen owned by Grampian Regional Council, was privatised in a management buyout led by its then general manager, Moir Lockhead. As GRT Bus Group, it expanded through acquisition purchasing six former nationalised bus companies in England and Scotland. During April 1995, FirstBus was formed through the merger of the Badgerline and GRT Bus Groups, with fleets in England, Wales and Scotland. The former King Street Barracks site in Aberdeen was selected as the headquarters. At the time of the merger, FirstBus had 5,600 buses, 4,000 of which came from Badgerline. Badgerline's Trevor Smallwood became chairman of FirstBus, while GRT head Moir Lockhead became deputy chairman and chief executive.

Throughout the late 1990s, FirstBus continued its policy of growth by acquisition. To this end, it acquired several former council owned operations and companies formerly owned by English, Welsh and Scottish nationalised operators. FirstBus went on to acquire larger urban metropolitan operators by taking advantage of the privatisation of the PTE bus operations and the privatisation of London bus services. FirstBus acquired GM Buses North in Manchester and Strathclyde Buses in Glasgow in 1996, Mainline in South Yorkshire and CentreWest in London in 1997, and Capital Citybus in London in 1998.

FirstGroup and expansion
During December 1997, the company was renamed FirstGroup; this change was due to the company's entry in February 1996 into Britain's recently privatised railways, having a 24.5% shareholding in Great Western Holdings that won the Great Western and North Western franchises, and a 100% shareholding in First Great Eastern that ran the Great Eastern franchise from January 1997. In March 1998, FirstGroup purchased the 75.5% shares in Great Western Holdings that it did not already own and rebranded the franchises First Great Western and First North Western.

In September 1998, FirstGroup made its first overseas foray when New World First Bus commenced operating bus services in Hong Kong formerly operated by China Motor Bus; the company held a 26% shareholding in the joint venture. During May 2000, FirstGroup sold its shares to joint venture partner New World Development. In September 1999, FirstGroup purchased Ryder Public Transport Services, a provider of school bus and contracted public bus transportation in the United States. In May 2000, FirstGroup began operating the London Tramlink concession under contract to Transport for London.

During August 2003, FirstGroup purchased GB Railways, which owned Anglia Railways and GB Railfreight and held 80% of the shares in Hull Trains. Having not been shortlisted for the Greater Anglia franchise, this outcome gave FirstGroup another chance to bid. However, it too was unsuccessful and the franchise was awarded to the rival transport company National Express from April 2004, including the services operated by First Great Eastern. In November 2003, FirstGroup purchased a 90% shareholding in Irish coach operator Aircoach.

In February 2004, FirstGroup's joint venture with Keolis commenced operating the First TransPennine Express rail franchise, FirstGroup having a 55% shareholding in the venture. During April 2004, FirstGroup commenced operating the First Great Western Link franchise, it also commenced the First ScotRail franchise in October 2004. In December 2004, the remainder of First North Western passed to Northern Rail, some services having already been transferred to Arriva Trains Wales and FirstTranspennine Express.

During April 2006, FirstGroup commenced operating the First Capital Connect franchise and a renewed First Great Western franchise that had been expanded to include the Thames Trains and Wessex Trains franchises.

In February 2007, FirstGroup agreed to buy the US-based firm Laidlaw, an operator of inter-city coaches and yellow school buses across North America, in exchange for £1.9 billion (US$3.7 billion). This also gave it a controlling stake in Greyhound Lines, the largest bus operator in North America. The Greyhound name and the names of Canadian subsidiaries of Greyhound Canada were retained, and all other Laidlaw-owned services in the United States and Canada were rebranded under the First or Greyhound names, except for Voyageur Colonial and Grey Goose in Canada.

In January 2009, DSBFirst, FirstGroup's joint venture with Danish State Railways commenced operating the Oresundtrain rail franchise from Helsingør and Nivå in Denmark along the Kystbanen line and over the Øresund Bridge to Malmö, Växjö, Kalmar, Karlskrona and Gothenburg in Sweden. FirstGroup had a 25% shareholding in the Danish business and 20% in the Swedish business. By March 2011, this shareholding had increased to 30%.

During June 2009, FirstGroup made a takeover offer for fellow transport operator National Express, which was struggling with debt at the time and was struggling to hold onto its National Express East Coast rail franchise. This offer was rejected; a National Express spokesperson stated that it did not "consider it appropriate" at the time to discuss a takeover. FirstGroup believed that there was "significant industrial and commercial logic" for a merger, but National Express wished to focus on its own initiatives.

2010s
In June 2010, FirstGroup sold its railfreight business First GBRf to the Eurotunnel Group in exchange for £31 million, ending the group's involvement in rail freight transport. In September 2010, former London Underground managing director Tim O'Toole, already a board member since May 2009 and chief operating officer and Deputy Chief Executive since June 2010, was announced as the successor to retiring group chief executive officer Moir Lockhead with effect from 31 March 2011.

During September 2011, FirstGroup's German bus operations were sold to Marwyn European Transport. In December 2011, DSBFirst ceased operating the Swedish part of the operation after difficulties encountered by Danish State Railways over cross subsidies.

In July 2012, First Travel Solutions provided bus and coach services for the London 2012 Olympic Games as First Games Transport. This involved the provision of venue shuttle and park and ride services, services connecting the peripheral park and ride sites on the M25 with the Olympic Park and Ebbsfleet, and a nationwide network of express coaches to the Olympic Park and the Weymouth and Portland sailing venue. These services required around 900 vehicles in total, although some were sub-contracted. During June 2013, most of the First London bus operations were sold to Go-Ahead London, Metroline and Tower Transit.

In April 2015, FirstGroup was unsuccessful in bidding for the ScotRail franchise, which was run by Abellio ScotRail until the end of that franchise in March 2022. During December 2015, FirstGroup was awarded the next TransPennine Express franchise. The new franchise commenced on 1 April 2016 with a commitment to introduce new trains, routes and faster journey times.

During October 2016, First Transit commenced operating the A-train under contract to the Denton County Transportation Authority, its first rail operation in the United States. In August 2017, FirstGroup's joint venture with MTR Corporation commenced operating the South Western franchise, the company holding a 70% shareholding in South Western Railway.

In May 2019, FirstGroup announced its intention to sell its UK bus operations and that its US activities were to receive greater attention in the future. However, the only sales completed were parts of First Greater Manchester to the Go-Ahead Group and Rotala.

2020s
In May 2020, FirstGroup announced it has effectively reversed its previous strategy, opting to retain its UK bus operations and instead sell its assets in North America. In April 2021, FirstGroup agreed terms to sell the First Student and First Transit businesses to EQT AB; the sale completed later in 2021.

During October 2021, FirstGroup announced the sale of Greyhound Lines to FlixMobility, completing its stated divestments to focus on its core UK public transport businesses. In October 2021, the open-access operator Lumo commenced operating services on the East Coast Main Line.

In June 2022, FirstGroup's board unanimously rejected a £1.2bn takeover proposal from US private equity firm I Squared Capital; a spokesperson stated that the offer had undervalued the company. While talks between the two companies continued for a further two months, I Squared ultimately called off its efforts in August 2022.

In February 2023, FirstGroup announced that subject to regulatory approval, it would purchase both the bus services and bus dealer operations of Purfleet-based Ensignbus.

Operations
FirstGroup is Britain's largest bus operator, running more than 20% of all local bus services. A fleet of nearly 9,000 buses carries some 2.9 million passengers a day in more than 40 major towns and cities. FirstGroup also runs passenger rail services in the UK. Passenger rail franchises consist of Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway and South Western Railway. It also runs two non-franchised open access passenger operations – Hull Trains and Lumo. FirstGroup operates tram services on the London Tramlink network carrying approximately 24 million passengers per year on behalf of Transport for London.

FirstGroup owns and operates the Aircoach service in Dublin, linking Dublin Airport with the city centre, the south side of Dublin, Greystones and Bray as well as long-distance express services runs to Cork and Belfast.

Corporate branding and liveries
FirstGroup has always had a consistent brand and uses the First brand for most of its operations. FirstBus began to apply a standard corporate typeface to its fleet names in the late 1990s, introducing the stylized f logo depicting a road. A corporate white, pink and blue livery nicknamed "Barbie" was introduced to new buses, while further bus company acquisitions continued. Inherited bus fleets were initially left in their original colours with First fleet names, with the intention that the Barbie scheme would stand for a set service quality. Later older buses received a modified "Barbie 2" livery.

As part of its corporate branding, First subsequently removed all local branding for its bus services, buses simply carried the 'First' brand, although each company still operated independently. In 2012, the group began to introduce a new purple, white and lilac livery to its bus fleets, which also reinstated local branding. In January 2014, the company rebranded its First Somerset & Avon operations in Bridgwater and Taunton as The Buses of Somerset, using a two-tone green livery.

Hull Trains carries a predominantly blue livery, including white, pink and purple. This was also used by First Great Western until 20 September 2015, when the franchise was rebranded as Great Western Railway, with a new logo and dark green livery paying homage to the original Great Western Railway.

London Tramlink operations are painted in white, green and blue as per Transport for London requirements. In Scotland, First ScotRail operated with a blue livery with white saltire markings on the carriage ends, as mandated by the Scottish Government's transport agency Transport Scotland.

Current operating businesses
Current operating businesses include:

First Bus
In September 2022 First Bus was reorganised as follows:

Scotland

 * First Aberdeen (formerly First Grampian)
 * King Coaches (formerly First Aberdeen Coach Hire and Grampian Executive)
 * First Glasgow (formerly First Kelvin and First Greater Glasgow)

East of England

 * First Eastern Counties
 * First Essex (formerly First Eastern National, First Thamesway)

Manchester, Midlands and South Yorkshire

 * First South Yorkshire & Midlands
 * First Leicester (Leicester Electric) (Formerly Leicester city bus, Leicester corporation transport)
 * Aircoach(Leicester to Birmingham Airport)
 * East Midlands Airport Carpark shuttles (First Leicester)
 * First Greater Manchester (Bee Network)
 * First Potteries (operating in Staffordshire and South Cheshire, formerly First PMT/PMT Limited)
 * First South Yorkshire (formerly First Mainline)

North and West Yorkshire

 * First West Yorkshire
 * First Bradford
 * First Halifax, Calder Valley & Huddersfield
 * First Leeds (Leeds Electric)
 * First York (including the York Park & Ride)

South and South West England

 * First South West (formerly First Devon & Cornwall)
 * Kernow
 * Buses of Somerset
 * First Beeline (formerly First Berkshire & The Thames Valley)
 * First Hampshire & Dorset

Wales and West of England

 * First West of England (formerly First Bristol & First Somerset & Avon)
 * First Worcestershire (sometimes referred to as First Wyvern)
 * First Cymru

Other operations

 * First Travel Solutions re-branded 2016 (Formally First Rail Support) which provides emergency and planned rail replacement transport to train operating companies using First and non-First Transport through its 24-hour control room in Simonstone, Lancashire
 * Specialist Passenger Solutions
 * Ensignbus

Ireland

 * Aircoach

United Kingdom

 * Avanti West Coast (70% shareholding)
 * Great Western Railway
 * Hull Trains
 * London Tramlink
 * Lumo
 * South Western Railway (70% shareholding)

Canada

 * Greyhound Canada (intercity bus services)
 * Grey Goose Bus Lines
 * Vancouver Island Coach Lines
 * Voyageur Colonial Bus Lines
 * First Student (school, charter bus and public transit services)
 * HandyDART Contract to TransLink (British Columbia) for accessible transit service in Metro Vancouver

Germany

 * FirstGroup Rhein-Neckar sold September 2011 to Marwyn European Transport

Hong Kong

 * New World First Bus 26% stake sold May 2000 to New World Development

United Kingdom

 * First Chester & The Wirral sold to Stagecoach Merseyside & South Lancashire in January 2013
 * First Northampton ceased 14 September 2013
 * First Scotland East (formerly First SMT, First Borders and First Midland Bluebird) sold to McGills in September 2022
 * First London from March 1997 until September 2013, most operations sold to Go-Ahead London, Metroline and Tower Transit, remainder ceased upon expiry of contracts in September 2013
 * Greyhound UK coach services between September 2009 and December 2015
 * First Borders (formerly Lowland Scottish and part of the wider First Scotland East group) sold to West Coast Motors, trading as Borders Buses, on 26 March 2017.
 * First Southampton (also known as First Cityred) ceased trading on 18 February 2023.

United States

 * Greyhound Lines (intercity bus services)
 * BoltBus (a discount operator competing with Megabus)
 * First Vehicle Services, which maintained vehicles for many corporations, organizations and local governments, including the other First divisions.
 * First Student, sold in 2021
 * First Transit, sold in 2021

United Kingdom

 * First Great Eastern from January 1997 until April 2004, incorporated into Greater Anglia franchise subsequently operated by National Express as One
 * First North Western from March 1997 until December 2004, operations split between Arriva Trains Wales, First TransPennine Express and Northern Rail
 * First GBRf from August 2003 until sold in June 2010 to Eurotunnel Group, rebranded as GB Railfreight
 * First Capital Connect from April 2006 until September 2014, succeeded by Govia Thameslink Railway
 * First ScotRail from October 2004 until March 2015, succeeded by Abellio ScotRail & Caledonian Sleeper
 * First TransPennine Express (55% shareholding) from February 2004 until March 2016, succeeded by TransPennine Express with FirstGroup having 100% ownership
 * TransPennine Express from April 2016 until May 2023, superseded by government-owned TransPennine Express

United States

 * A-train, Denton County Transportation Authority commenced October 2016

Denmark and Sweden

 * DSBFirst was a joint rail venture with Danish State Railways (30% shareholding) until 2013

title: FirstGroup


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I'm a Software Engineer from India currently working in US.

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Barclay James Harvest

Barclay James Harvest were an English progressive rock band, which following a split in 1998 now exists as two successor bands. They were founded in Oldham, in September 1966 by bassist/vocalist Les Holroyd (b. 1948), guitarist/vocalist John Lees (b. 1947), drummer/percussionist Mel Pritchard (1948–2004), and keyboardist/vocalist Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme (1947–2010).

History
After signing with EMI's Parlophone label in the UK for one single in early 1968 (entitled Early Morning / Mr. Sunshine), they moved to the more progressively inclined Harvest label. The name of the band, according to The International Barclay James Harvest Fan Club, signifies nothing specifically. Having exhausted other possibilities, each of the band members wrote single words on pieces of paper which were drawn out of a hat one by one. All were rejected until only three were left: James, a man who used to sing with the band, Harvest because they were living in a farmhouse, and Barclay after Barclays bank, because they aspired to make money. These were then rearranged to get the best-sounding name - "Barclay James Harvest".

Their self-titled debut album featured backing by an orchestra organized by Robert John Godfrey. It was released in mid-1970 and was heavily touted by the musicians and the record label as the next big thing in orchestral rock, but met with overwhelmingly negative reviews and weak sales. Their second album, Once Again, was followed by a tour with a full orchestra under Godfrey's guidance. Godfrey departed over writing issues behind "Mocking Bird" – one of the group's most consistently popular tracks - so Martyn Ford was brought in to supervise the orchestral work for their third album, Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories. Years later Godfrey filed a lawsuit alleging he was owed composing credits and corresponding royalties on several of Barclay James Harvest's songs. By the release of their fourth album, Baby James Harvest, in 1972, the pressures of touring were beginning to affect the band.

After this album, they departed from EMI, moved management to Harvey Lisberg, and signed to Polydor; the move immediately resulted in greater sales. The next album, Everyone Is Everybody Else (1974) was voted 13th by listeners in Radio Caroline's 1977 Top 100 All Time Albums Chart. The band did a BBC Radio 1 session in 1974 for John Peel; Alan Freeman, however, would be the band's main champion on the station in the 1970s and again when he returned from 1989 to 1993. The double live album, Barclay James Harvest Live, which followed in late 1974, was the first to chart in the UK, reaching No. 40. Time Honoured Ghosts (1975), which has "Titles", recorded in the US, followed, and this too charted in the UK, reaching No. 32. Octoberon followed in 1976 and reached number 19 in the UK. They broke into the mainstream mainland European market with their 1977 set Gone to Earth, which contained the song "Poor Man's Moody Blues", a homage to the Moody Blues' song, "Nights in White Satin."

Wolstenholme – whose mellotron playing was a trademark of the band's sound in the 1970s – left in 1979 after the album XII (1978), as he began to suffer from clinical depression. He pursued a short solo career fronting the band Maestoso, before retiring from the music industry to farm. He remained inactive throughout the '80s before rejoining John Lees when BJH essentially split in two.

The remaining three members continued. In August 1980, they played a free concert in front of the Reichstag in West Berlin, with an estimated attendance of 250,000 people. They were the first Western rock band to perform in an open-air concert in East Germany (over two years before the Berlin Wall fell), playing in Treptower Park, East Berlin on 14 July 1987 to a 170,000-plus audience.

The band continued as a trio with regular guest-musicians until 1998. One album, Welcome to the Show, produced in 1990, was released under the abbreviated name BJH. However, because of criticism from fans, the full name was restored, albeit with the inclusion of the BJH moniker.

In 1998, musical differences amongst members of BJH saw the band essentially split into two different groups, each of which retained "Barclay James Harvest" as part of its name. John Lees released an album mixing new songs and classics of the band, entitled Nexus, under the name "Barclay James Harvest Through the Eyes of John Lees". Woolly Wolstenholme played in (and composed for) this band, subsequently resurrecting Maestoso to record and tour with new material, as well as back-catalogue favourites. Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard teamed up to record under the name "Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd". In 2006/7, Lees and Wolstenholme toured under the slightly modified band title "John Lees' Barclay James Harvest".

Mel Pritchard died suddenly of a heart attack in early 2004. Woolly Wolstenholme took his own life in December 2010, having apparently struggled with depression for many years.

The two derivatives of Barclay James Harvest continue to record and tour to this day, and enjoy ongoing popularity, particularly in Germany, France, and Switzerland.

John Lees' Barclay James Harvest (1998-2023)
This derivative of Barclay James Harvest features John Lees, bassist Craig Fletcher, drummer Kevin Whitehead and keyboard player Jez Smith. The band originally featured "Woolly" Stuart Wolstenholme on keyboards before his death in December 2010. The group formed in 1999 to record the album "Nexus". Craig Fletcher and Kevin Whitehead were from Wolstenholme's band "Maestoso", and John and Woolly were members of the original Barclay James Harvest. The band toured in the UK and Europe in 2006, and recorded the live album "Legacy" at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. Since then, the band has played at venues in the UK, but more so in the rest of Europe, where they achieve good success. The band toured again around the UK in 2009. They played at the Berlin Wall anniversary festival at the Brandenburg Gate, Bad Homburg in Germany with JLBJH's best attendance of 17,500 people, and more recently in Porto, Portugal with an attendance of 5,000. The band recently visited America, and played in Philadelphia. John Lees' Barclay James Harvest is currently signed and managed by Esoteric Recordings. Mark Powell, founder of the label, works as the band manager. In October 2013 JLBJH released "North", a studio album of all-new material, recorded at John's own Friamere Studios, on limited edition vinyl, CD and deluxe CD with a bonus disc recorded live at the Buxton Opera House. "North" was very well received, going on to become Cherry Red's biggest selling album of the fourth quarter of 2013. The band played nine gigs on a UK tour to promote the album, followed by a live radio concert for Christmas on German station SWR1. On 11 December 2022, John Lees announced on his website that his band would not tour after the 2023 gigs

The band also formerly featured Jeff Leach and Mike Bramwell as guest musicians.

Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd (since 2002)
In 2001, Les Holroyd and Mel Pritchard returned to the studio to record the album 'Revolution Days' along with former Sad Cafe members Ian Wilson and Michael Byron-Hehir, as well as Steve Butler, Steve Pigott (Cher, Mike and the Mechanics), and Rabbit Bundrick (The Who). 'Revolution Days' was released in 2002, and a touring band was put together with Holroyd and Pritchard; Michael Byron-Hehir on lead guitar and vocals; Ian Wilson on guitar and vocals; Steve Butler on keyboards, percussion, and vocals; Chris Jago on drums; and former BJH sideman Colin Browne on keyboards and vocals. The first show was at the Colmar Wine Festival in August 2002. In October and November of that year, they undertook their first European Tour. More tours and festivals followed in 2003.

In January 2004, the band performed at the 'Art on Ice' spectacular at the Zurich Hallenstadion with Roger Hodgson, John Helliwell and Bob Siebenberg of Supertramp, Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues and Jeremy Spencer of Fleetwood Mac. Upon returning to the UK, Mel Pritchard died from a suspected heart attack.

In January 2005, BJHFLH toured with Asia featuring John Payne as support, returning the favour on four UK shows in March of the same year. In 2006, they undertook the Classic Meets Rock Symphonic Barclay Tour with the 25-piece Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. In July 2007, they toured the UK. Les Holroyd and Michael Byron-Hehir also worked on Alan Simon's Excalibur II album, Les joining the stage show in 2010. Les also performed in the live show of Simon's Anne de Bretagne. In 2011, Les joined the Rock Meets Classic Tour along with Ian Gillan, Lou Gramm, Dan McCafferty with The Bohemian Symphony Orchestra, performing four BJH songs: "Hymn", "Mockingbird", "Ring Of Changes", and "Life Is For Living".

Still touring Europe, the band introduced an acoustic spot into the set, showcasing their vocal harmonies with old favourites like "Poor Boy Blues", "Friend of Mine", and "Crazy City". They recorded their 2012 winter tour.

External works
The band released a single "Breathless"/"When the City Sleeps" under the pseudonym of "Bombadil" in 1972. "Breathless", an instrumental, was credited to "Terry Bull" (actually John Lees). The B side "When the City Sleeps" was credited to "Lester Forest" (actually Woolly Wolstenholme), who also played every instrument and sang. This obscure track made an appearance on the soundtrack of the 2007 series Life on Mars, although it was not featured on the CD release.

Barclay James Harvest (1966–1998)

 * Les Holroyd – vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards (1966–1998)
 * John Lees – vocals, guitars, keyboards (1966–1998)
 * Mel Pritchard – drums, percussion (1966–1998; died 2004)
 * Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme – mellotron, keyboards, vocals, guitars (1966–1979; died 2010)

John Lees' Barclay James Harvest

 * Current members
 * John Lees – vocals, guitars (1998–present)
 * Craig Fletcher – bass (1998–present)
 * Kevin Whitehead – drums, percussion (1998–present)
 * Jez Smith – keyboards (2009–present)
 * Former members
 * Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme – mellotron, keyboards, vocals, guitars (1998–2010; his death)

 * Guest musicians
 * Jeff Leach – keyboards (1998–2006)
 * Mike Bramwell – keyboards (2006–2009)
 * John Joseph Lees – cornet (2006, 2009)
 * Liz Fitzpatrick – trumpet (2009)

Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd

 * Current members
 * Les Holroyd – vocals, bass, guitars, keyboards (2002–present)
 * Steve Butler – guitars, keyboards (2002–present)
 * Michael Byron-Hehir – lead guitars (2002–present)
 * Ralf Gustke – drums, percussion (2019–present)
 * Jens Skwirblies – keyboards, vocals (2022–present)

 * Former members
 * Mel Pritchard – drums, percussion (2002–2004; his death)
 * Ian Wilson – guitars (2002–2009)
 * Chris Jago – drums, percussion (2002–2003, 2004–2005)
 * Roy Martin – drums, percussion (2003–2004, 2006–2007)
 * Paul Walsham – drums, percussion (2005–2006, 2007–2011)
 * Colin Browne – keyboards, guitars (2002–2022)
 * Louie Palmer – drums, percussion (2011–2019)

Discography

 * Studio albums

 * Barclay James Harvest (1970)
 * Once Again (1971)
 * Barclay James Harvest and Other Short Stories (1971)
 * Baby James Harvest (1972)
 * Everyone Is Everybody Else (1974)
 * Time Honoured Ghosts (1975)
 * Octoberon (1976)
 * Gone to Earth (1977)
 * XII (1978)
 * Eyes of the Universe (1979)
 * Turn of the Tide (1981)
 * Ring of Changes (1983)
 * Victims of Circumstance (1984)
 * Face to Face (1987)
 * Welcome to the Show (1990)
 * Caught in the Light (1993)
 * River of Dreams (1997)

title: Barclay James Harvest


text:
Fates Warning

Fates Warning is an American progressive metal band, formed in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1982 by vocalist John Arch, guitarists Jim Matheos and Victor Arduini, bassist Joe DiBiase, and drummer Steve Zimmerman. There have been numerous lineup changes over the course of their 42-year career, and Matheos is the only constant member. As of 2020, the band consists of Matheos, vocalist Ray Alder (who replaced Arch in 1987), bassist Joey Vera (who replaced DiBiase in 1996), drummer Bobby Jarzombek and guitarist Michael Abdow. Fates Warning also had a revolving cast of drummers and guitarists by the time Jarzombek and Abdow joined the band in 2007 and 2020 respectively.

A pioneer of the progressive metal movement, Fates Warning has been referred to as one of the "Big Three" of the genre, creating and popularizing the style along with Queensrÿche and Dream Theater. Their early work, influenced by the new wave of British heavy metal, is also important in the development of American power metal. Fates Warning has released thirteen studio albums, two live albums, one compilation album, one VHS cassette, three DVDs (each featuring live concerts) and four demo tapes. The band experienced its first commercial success with the 1986 release of their third studio album, Awaken the Guardian, which peaked at No. 191 on the Billboard 200 and became the first album released on Metal Blade to enter that chart. Their next three albums — No Exit (1988), Perfect Symmetry (1989) and Parallels (1991) — were also successful; the first two peaked at No. 111 and No. 141 on the Billboard 200, respectively. By 2001, Fates Warning had sold over a million albums worldwide. Their latest studio album, Long Day Good Night, was released on November 6, 2020.

Early career and first three albums (1982–1986)
The first album, Night on Bröcken, was released in 1984 on the Metal Blade label. The album was mainly influenced by Iron Maiden and other heavy metal bands, in songs like the title track and "Damnation" in particular. There were prog aspects that would be further developed in subsequent albums. The Spectre Within (1985) featured a more progressive approach with songs like "The Apparition", "Epitaph", "Pirates of the Underground" and "Traveler in Time", with many tempo changes, a greater complexity in the arrangements, and fantasy lyrics full of symbolism and double meaning. During this period, Fates Warning had become a live staple in the East Coast and Midwest areas of the US, sharing the stage with numerous bands like Motörhead, Queensrÿche, Anthrax, Overkill, Anvil and Armored Saint.

In 1986, original guitarist Victor Arduini was dismissed from the band and was replaced by Frank Aresti, and the third Fates Warning album, Awaken the Guardian, was released in November of that year. It has been regarded as a groundbreaking and essential progressive metal release,  working towards creating a more mythical atmosphere and a more fully realized progressive approach in song form; with complex and unusual riffs, and numerous tempo changes amidst frenetic and evocative vocal lines, however maintaining a basic fluidity. Awaken the Guardian also made history by becoming the first album released on Metal Blade to enter the Billboard 200 chart, and saw Fates Warning sharing the stage with bands like Queensrÿche and Saxon.

Lineup changes and rise to near fame (1987–1993)

In 1987, original vocalist John Arch was dismissed from the band prior to the start of work on the band's next album, and was replaced by Ray Alder. Their first album with Alder, No Exit was released in March 1988 and further developed the direction taken by the prior album with a more powerful sound all the while setting aside the fantasy themes and atmospheres. It featured one of the first prog metal suite of the genre, "The Ivory Gate of Dreams," which is based on the Gates of horn and ivory. No Exit gave Fates Warning their highest chart position to date on the Billboard 200, entering at number 111 and staying on the chart for thirteen weeks; it also helped build the band's popularity worldwide, with the videos for "Anarchy Divine" and "Silent Cries" receiving considerable airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball, and Fates Warning touring almost non-stop in support of the album, playing with bands like Krokus, Savatage, Armored Saint and Flotsam and Jetsam.

Following the tour in support of No Exit, original drummer Steve Zimmerman left the band in 1988 and was replaced by Mark Zonder, just as Fates Warning was preparing for their fifth studio album. The resulting album, Perfect Symmetry, was released in August 1989. The album abandoned the aggressive sound of No Exit, in favor of a more melodic and experimental one along with a melancholic atmosphere and intimate lyrics. Perfect Symmetry was full of extremely complex arrangements and an unusual and very articulated rhythm section, and is often regarded as a seminal prog metal album, "which laid the foundations of the sound of the 90s". Kevin Moore (keyboardist for Dream Theater at the time) was featured as a guest on the song "At Fate's Hands", while the cover was designed by Hugh Syme, famous for his work with the Canadian progressive rock band Rush. Although Perfect Symmetry was not as successful as No Exit, the album nonetheless charted for nine weeks on the Billboard 200, while its only music video "Through Different Eyes" managed to get some airplay on Headbangers Ball. The album also saw the band embark on their first full-length world tour, which lasted for a year between November 1989 and November 1990; they opened for Manowar in Europe and toured there again with Sanctuary, who had also opened for Fates Warning in the US in early 1990.

1991 saw the release of Parallels, distributed by Warner. The album, which started the collaboration with Rush producer Terry Brown, contains more accessible and streamlined songs than in the past, except for tracks such as "The Eleventh Hour" and "Life in Still Water", which features guest vocals by James LaBrie (who had just joined Dream Theater). Parallels is considered by some an essential album that "has influenced a great amount of subsequent musicians" and is possibly the band's most commercially successful record, despite the fact that it did not enter the Billboard 200 chart like the previous three albums did and was released during the grunge breakout; it did, however, chart on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and reach the top 10 on the Heatseekers chart. With Parallels, Fates Warning's popularity was still dominant in the US and Europe, with the videos for "Point of View" and "Eye to Eye" receiving heavy rotation on Headbangers Ball, and the band going on high-profile tours with the likes of Pantera and Savatage during 1992 as well as headlining the second night of the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany in 1993.

Later years (1994–2009)
Slowing down after the commercial success of previous releases, the follow-up to Parallels took two and a half years for Fates Warning to make. The resulting album, Inside Out (1994), continued in the general vein of the previous album while adding more melody to their songs. The band's lineup also remained intact between albums for the first time since Spectre Within. Band members have attributed the album's comparative lack of success to confusion while writing this album in the wake of the success of Parallels and their subsequent failure to maintain creative momentum. Just like Parallels, Inside Out entered the Top 10 on Billboard Heatseekers chart in spite of little or no airplay due to the increasing popularity of grunge and alternative, and following its release, the band opened for Dream Theater in the U.S. and Europe on their Awake tour.

A compilation album, Chasing Time, was released in 1995 and included two previously unreleased songs.

In 1996, both Joe DiBiase and Frank Aresti left the group. The three remaining members, Alder, Matheos and Zonder, joined by new member Joey Vera on bass and Kevin Moore as a guest keyboardist, released A Pleasant Shade of Gray the following year. Written as a concept album, A Pleasant Shade of Gray revealed a much darker and bleaker mood in writing style than had been heard before from the band. The album consists of a single 53-minute song split into twelve parts, making it the longest track Fates Warning has ever recorded.

A live two-CD set, Still Life, was released in 1998, containing A Pleasant Shade of Gray performed live in its entirety. Joey Vera (bass), Bernie Versailles (guitars) and Jason Keazer (keyboards) accompanied the group on this album. A Japanese version included a studio cover of the Scorpions' "In Trance".

The lineup for A Pleasant Shade of Gray consisting of Alder, Matheos, Zonder, Vera, and Moore, returned to record Disconnected in 2000. In 2003, Frank Aresti was asked to fill in on a tour with Dream Theater and Queensrÿche. He officially rejoined the band as a full-time member in 2005.

Their tenth studio release FWX was released in 2004. Drummer Mark Zonder stated it would be his last album with the band, as he wished to pursue other interests, and left in 2005. Although an official member again, Frank Aresti did not appear on the album because the writing had been completed and contracts had been signed already.

Live in Athens, a concert DVD, was released in 2005; this DVD included guest drummer Nick D'Virgilio.

In the liner notes to the 2005 expanded edition of Awaken the Guardian, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy noted that "very often fans and critics credit Dream Theater for creating a whole new genre of progressive metal music in the late '80s/early '90s, [...] but the truth is Fates Warning were doing it years before us."

The band provided the song "Nothing Left to Say" to the soundtrack to the 1991 movie Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. They have recorded songs for various tributes, including the tracks "Closer to the Heart" on the Rush tribute album Working Man, "Saints in Hell" on the 1997 Judas Priest tribute album Legends of Metal, and "Sign of the Southern Cross" on the 2000 Holy Dio Ronnie James Dio tribute album.

Reunions with former members, Darkness in a Different Light and Theories of Flight (2010–2017)
In 2010, Fates Warning played select dates with the Parallels lineup (Alder, Matheos, Zonder, Aresti and DiBiase) to celebrate the reissued, remastered and expanded edition of the classic album.

At the beginning of 2011, an announcement was made that Matheos and original vocalist John Arch had formed a band called Arch/Matheos. Their debut album was released in the autumn of that year, also featuring Joey Vera on bass guitar, Bobby Jarzombek on drums, and Frank Aresti on additional lead guitar.

After many delays, Fates Warning released its eleventh studio album Darkness in a Different Light on September 27, 2013. It was the band's first album since 2004's FWX.

To celebrate the album's 30th anniversary, the Awaken the Guardian lineup (Arch, Matheos, Aresti, DiBiase and Zimmerman) reunited for a headlining appearance at the Keep It True festival in Germany on April 30, 2016. That lineup also headlined the Progpower USA Festival in Atlanta, Georgia on September 9, 2016. Both performances were recorded and filmed and later released on April 28, 2017, by Metal Blade Records as Awaken the Guardian Live on CD, double vinyl, DVD, and Blu-ray.

Fates Warning entered the studio in December 2015 to begin recording their twelfth studio album, which was planned for release in early 2016. The album, titled Theories of Flight, was released on July 1, 2016.

Return to Metal Blade and Long Day Good Night (2018–2022)
When asked in a June 2018 interview about the thirteenth Fates Warning album, frontman Ray Alder stated: "Right now, we're not in a writing mode. Everyone is kind of doing their own thing. I'm sure that will come out soon enough, of what everyone is doing. For the meantime, there are no plans to write another Fates Warning album — not in the near future, at least." Alder also commented on the band's future, saying: "Right now, there's just no plans to go into the studio or write. But, people are working on different things and we're working on another tour right now for South America, so that is still a little up in the air. It's 90 percent sure, but we'll see what happens with that. I can't say anything until it's confirmed."

On February 15, 2019, it was announced that Fates Warning had re-signed to Metal Blade Records, and planned to begin working on a new album, for a 2020 release, after their spring tour with Queensrÿche. In a December 2019 interview, bassist Joey Vera stated, "Fates Warning is not quite done writing, but pretty close. I think that the Fates record is also gonna be recording probably around January, February. I'm still very involved in both of those bands, obviously. So, for sure, a new Armored Saint record and a new Fates Warning record is on the horizon in the next 18 months, for sure."

On May 13, 2020, Alder announced on his Instagram profile that "the vocals for Fates Warning's 13th album are done. 13 songs in 12 days." It was announced on August 25, 2020, that the album was titled Long Day Good Night and would be released on November 6, 2020, just two weeks after Punching the Sky by Vera's other band Armored Saint.

Possible fourteenth studio album and future of the band (2023–present)
When commenting on the possibility of another album, Alder stated in a May 2023 interview with Rock Hard that Matheos has no interest in writing new material as Fates Warning, but did not rule out any future tours: "That was basically his saying he doesn't wanna write any more Fates Warning music. It doesn't mean we won't ever tour again. I would love to tour again, and Jim would as well; we've already discussed it. It's just a matter of getting everyone together." In an interview with Prog magazine a few months later, Alder reiterated that Matheos does not want to write new material as Fates Warning, but added, "That could change, I don't know, you'd have to talk to him. It's not to say there won't be any more live shows. The band didn't break up. It's just that there won't be any more new music. And I need an outlet; music has been my life for over thirty years." The members began discussing a 40th anniversary tour however.

Studio albums

 * Night on Bröcken (1984)
 * The Spectre Within (1985)
 * Awaken the Guardian (1986)
 * No Exit (1988)
 * Perfect Symmetry (1989)
 * Parallels (1991)
 * Inside Out (1994)
 * A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)
 * Disconnected (2000)
 * FWX (2004)
 * Darkness in a Different Light (2013)
 * Theories of Flight (2016)
 * Long Day Good Night (2020)

Live albums

 * Still Life (1998)
 * Awaken the Guardian Live (2017)
 * Live Over Europe (2018)

Compilation albums

 * Chasing Time (1995)

Singles

 * "Anarchy Divine" (1988)
 * "Silent Cries" (1988)
 * "Through Different Eyes" (1989)
 * "Point of View" (1991)
 * "Eye to Eye" (1992)
 * "We Only Say Goodbye" (1992; a remix version was going to be the third single from Parallels, later appeared in the compilation Chasing Time)
 * "Pale Fire" (1994)
 * "Monument" (1994)
 * "A Pleasant Shade of Gray pt. 2" (1997)
 * "Simple Human" (2004)
 * "Firefly" (2013)

DVDs and VHSs

 * A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1998, VHS)
 * Live at the Dynamo (2000)
 * The View from Here (2003)
 * Live in Athens (2005)
 * A View from Here (2007)
 * Awaken the Guardian Live (2017)

Miscellaneous releases

 * Demo 1983 (1983)
 * Misfit Demo (1983)
 * Demo 1984 (1984)
 * Dickie Demo (1985)
 * Inside Out / Disconnected (combined re-release with bonus tracks) (2007)

Music videos

 * "Kyrie Eleison" (1986)
 * "Anarchy Divine" (1988)
 * "Silent Cries" (1988)
 * "Through Different Eyes" (1989)
 * "Point of View" (1991)
 * "Eye to Eye" (1992)
 * "Monument" (1994)
 * "Simple Human" (2004)
 * "I Am" (2013)
 * "Firefly" (2013)
 * "From the Rooftops" (lyric video) (2016)
 * "Seven Stars" (2016)
 * "SOS" (2016)
 * "Begin Again" (2020)

Band members

 * Current members
 * Jim Matheos − guitars (1982–present)
 * Ray Alder − vocals (1987–present)
 * Joey Vera − bass (1996–present)
 * Bobby Jarzombek − drums (2007–present)
 * Michael Abdow − guitars (2017–present)

 * Former members
 * Victor Arduini − guitars (1982–1985)
 * John Arch − vocals (1982–1987)
 * Frank Aresti − guitars (1985–1996, 2005–2016; session member 2003–2005, 2016–2020)
 * Steve Zimmermann − drums (1982–1988)
 * Joe DiBiase − bass (1982–1996)
 * Chris Cronk − vocals (1987)
 * Mark Zonder − drums (1988–2005)
 * Nick D'Virgilio − drums (2005–2007)
 * Kevin Moore - studio keyboards (1989, 1997-2000)

2010 Parallels reunion lineup

 * Jim Matheos: guitars
 * Joe DiBiase: bass
 * Frank Aresti: guitars
 * Ray Alder: vocals
 * Mark Zonder: drums

2016 Awaken the Guardian reunion lineup

 * Jim Matheos: guitars
 * Joe DiBiase: bass
 * Steve Zimmermann: drums
 * John Arch: vocals
 * Frank Aresti: guitars

Touring members

 * Ed Roth: keyboards (1997)
 * Jason Keazer: keyboards (1997–1998)
 * Bernie Versailles: guitars (1998)
 * Joey Vera: bass (1996–2000; full-time member since 2000)
 * Shaun Michaud: keyboards, guitars (2000)
 * Nick D'Virgilio: drums (2003–2007)
 * Frank Aresti: guitars (2003–2009; full-time member between 2011 and 2016)
 * Bobby Jarzombek: drums (2007, 2009)
 * Michael Abdow: guitars (2013–2016; full-time member since 2017)

Touring guests

 * Kevin Moore − keyboards (2005)
 * Mike Portnoy − drums (2005, 2012)
 * James LaBrie − vocals (2005)

Guitar rig and signal flow
A detailed gear diagram of Jim Matheos' 2012 Fates Warning guitar rig is well-documented.

title: Fates Warning


text:
Eight-string guitar

An eight-string guitar is a guitar with eight strings, or one more than the Russian guitar's seven. Eight-string guitars are less common than six- and seven-string guitars, but they are used by a few classical, jazz, and metal guitarists. The eight-string guitar allows a wider tonal range, or non-standard tunings (such as major-thirds tuning), or both.

Various non-standard guitars were made in the 19th century, including eight-string guitars played by Italians Giulio Regondi and Luigi Legnani.

Eight-string electric guitars gained popularity among metal bands, largely inspired by Swedish progressive metal band Meshuggah (formed in 1987). Contemporary use outside of metal has picked up in the last decade, and owes much to Animals as Leaders and their stylistic eclecticism.

Semi-acoustic guitar (hollow-body guitar)
Seeking a guitar tuning that would facilitate jazz improvisation, Ralph Patt invented major-thirds tuning in 1963. Patt's tuning is a regular tuning, in the sense that all of the intervals between its successive open strings are major thirds; in contrast, standard guitar tuning has one major-third amid four fourths.

Seven-string guitars are needed for major-thirds tuning to have the E-e' range of the standard tuning. Having an eight-string instrument allowed Patt's guitar to have G♯ (equivalently A♭) as its open note. Patt purchased six-string archtop hollow-body guitars that were then modified by luthiers to have wider necks, wider pickups, and eight strings. Patt's Gibson ES-150 was modified by Vincent "Jimmy" DiSerio c. 1965. Luthier Saul Koll modified a sequence of guitars: a 1938 Gibson Cromwell, a Sears Silvertone, a c. 1922 Mango archtop, a 1951 Gibson L-50, and a 1932 Epiphone Broadway; for Koll's modifications, custom pick-ups accommodated Patt's wide necks and high G♯ (equivalently A♭); custom pick-ups were manufactured by Seymour Duncan and by Bill Lawrence. Roy Connors, former member of the 1960s folk singing group, The Highwaymen, reconfigured a Martin O-28 six-string guitar to an eight-string of his own design and received a U.S. Patent on it (#3269247).

Solid-body
Solid-body eight string guitars are also used by many bands today. The construction of a solid-body eight-string guitar is comparable to that of seven- and six-string variants. The standard tuning (from low to high) is F♯, B, E, A, D, G, B, E. Many prefer to tune the F♯ to a low E (E1), the same note as the lowest string on a four-string electric bass in standard tuning, and providing the guitar with a fuller sound by having three different E strings. This tuning is equivalent to tuning a six-string guitar to Drop D tuning.

Like the seven-string, the first mass-produced eight-string guitar was made by Ibanez guitars in Japan; the RG2228.

Scale length
The main design issue faced with an eight-string guitar is tuning stability with the lower strings. This is due to the neck being constructed too short, bridge problems such as improper intonation, uneven spacing for floating bridges, or the use of wrong string gauges. Other problems associated with tuning stability rely on the proper setup of the guitar.

Extended range eight string guitars sometimes will have a multi-scale design where the bass strings will be longer than the treble strings (fanned fret design). This helps with proper intonation of the lower strings, improves string tension balance across the strings, improves harmonic overtones, overtone series, and improves inharmonicity. (See also inharmonicity in pianos). The bass strings on an 8 string typically require the saddle to be pulled back a bit more than the other strings to properly set the intonation. Some bridge designs accommodate this by offsetting back the 7th and 8th strings or providing a bit extra room for adjustment. Longer scale lengths require less offset for proper intonation.

Classical
Paul Galbraith began using an eight-string guitar in 1994 when, in collaboration with luthier David Rubio, they designed the Brahms guitar. Galbraith generally tunes AEADGBEA. Egberto Gismonti (born 1947) is a Brazilian guitarist and pianist who favors the 8-string classical guitar. Livio Gianola (Premana, 1964) is an Italian guitarist. It is considered by the specialized critic "The Master of the Eight String Guitar".

Jazz
Hungarian born Australian Jazz guitarist Laszlo Sirsom plays 8-string jazz guitar made by Phil Carson Crickmore He's tuning as a normal guitar on the middle plus High A and lower B. Charlie Hunter plays an eight-string guitar made by Ralph Novak of Novax Guitars. Five of the strings are tuned to the standard guitar's upper five (A, D, G, B, E), while three of the strings are tuned to the standard bass guitar's three lowest (E, A, D). The bass and treble sections have separate pickups and are sent to separate amplifiers. Hunter also has a ten-string guitar based on the same principle—a combination of standard six-string guitar and standard four-string bass.

Metal
The eight-string guitar is used by modern heavy metal guitarists such as Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström of Meshuggah, Dino Cazares of Fear Factory, Stephen Carpenter of Deftones, Greg Burgess of Allegaeon, Simon Girard and Kevin Chartré of Beyond Creation, Justin Lowe and Trent Hafdahl of After the Burial, Josh Travis of Emmure (ex-The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza and ex-Glass Cloud), Per Nilsson of Scar Symmetry and Meshuggah as a touring member and others. The instrument is particularly associated with the “djent” sound popularized by Meshuggah, Vildhjarta, and Periphery, among others.

Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders primarily use a drop-E tuning (where the lowest string matches the E1 on a standard-tuned bass guitar) and incorporate "thumping," an adaptation of different bass guitar techniques — the term blankets all sorts of possible note groupings, but primary influences include a style á la funk bassist Larry Graham and Victor Wooten's double thumping technique — as well as harp-like arpeggios extending across the full range of the instrument.

Ihsahn of the black metal band Emperor began playing seven-string guitar in 1999 and first played eight-string guitar on his 2010 album After.

Rusty Cooley tunes his eight-string guitar like a standard six-string expanded in both directions. This tuning offers both deeper bass tones than a conventional guitar and extended range in the higher register for lead melodies.

Guitarist Justin Broadrick of the English industrial metal band Godflesh introduced his eight-string playing on the 2014 Godflesh EP Decline & Fall.

Guitarists Lucas Mann and Joel Omans from the technical deathcore band Rings of Saturn also use eight-string guitars, with Mann primarily making use of a nine-string guitar for the band's 2019 album Gidim. Miles Dimitri Baker, one of their former members, also used one.

Chris Andrews of the death metal band Devourment uses eight-string guitars, starting with the album Obscene Majesty.

John Petrucci of progressive metal band Dream Theater plays an eight-string guitar on the song "Awaken the Master", from Dream Theater's 2021 album A View from the Top of the World.

title: Eight-string guitar


text:
AAFC

AAFC may refer to:

Sport

 * Alexandra Athletic F.C., a defunct Scottish association football club
 * All-America Football Conference, a professional American football league that challenged the established National Football League from 1946 to 1949
 * Alloa Athletic F.C., a Scottish association football club
 * Annan Athletic F.C., a Scottish association football club
 * Ardwick Association Football Club, former name of Manchester City F.C., an English association football club
 * Arlesey Athletic F.C., an English non-league association football club
 * Ashington A.F.C., an English non-league association football club
 * Ashton Athletic F.C., an English non-league association football club
 * Australian Amateur Football Council, the governing body for the sport of amateur Australian rules football in the states of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania

Other uses

 * Australian Air Force Cadets, an Australian youth organisation supported by the RAAF.
 * Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada a federal agency of Canada

title: AAFC


text:
Emmett Chapman

Emmett Chapman (September 28, 1936 – November 1, 2021) was an American jazz musician best known as the inventor of the Chapman Stick and maker of the Chapman Stick family of instruments.

Career
Chapman started his career as a guitarist, recording and performing in the late 1960s. He played with Barney Kessel and Tim Buckley before leading his own band.

In 1969, Chapman modified his homemade nine-string "Freedom Guitar" to accommodate his "Free Hands" tapping method. Although some guitarists had done two-handed tapping with the fingers of the right hand parallel to the strings, Chapman's method used the fingers of both hands perpendicular to the strings. This culminated in the creation of the Electric Stick, which he renamed the Chapman Stick. He founded Stick Enterprises in 1974 and has made more than 6,000 instruments. He held fourteen patents for various aspects of the Chapman Stick. During the 1970s, Chapman toured extensively to promote his music and the instrument.

He was influenced by Barney Kessel, then John McLaughlin.

In 1985, he released a solo album, Parallel Galaxy. The song "Back Yard" was used in the 1984 version of the film Dune. An aesthetically modified Chapman Stick was used as the baliset musical instrument, described in the novel, and is performed by Patrick Stewart in the director's cut of the film.

Chapman died at his home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, on November 1, 2021, at the age of 85, after a long battle with cancer.

title: Emmett Chapman


text:
Southern Adventist University

Southern Adventist University is a private Seventh-day Adventist university in Collegedale, Tennessee. It is owned and operated by the Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. It was founded in 1892 in Graysville, Tennessee, as Graysville Academy and was the first Adventist school in the southern U.S. Due to the need for additional space for expansion the school relocated in 1916 and was renamed Southern Junior College. In 1944, Southern began awarding baccalaureate degrees and was renamed Southern Missionary College. In 1996 the institution started conferring master's degrees and adopted its current name.

Southern offers associate, baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees. The university and its programs are accredited by multiple organizations including the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Its Institute of Archaeology offers an undergraduate degree in biblical archaeology; Southern is one of only two schools which offer the degree. It is known for its emphasis on Adventist beliefs and conservative religious and social practices, and is considered the most conservative of the Seventh-day Adventist schools in North America. The college operates a radio station (WSMC-FM), a health food store and a wellness center. Enrollment was 3,053 students in 2010, its highest level to date.

History
Southern's roots stem from the establishment of Graysville Academy in Graysville, Tennessee, in 1892, in a part of the South much affected by the American Civil War. The area saw the battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga campaign, and was the staging ground for Sherman's Atlanta campaign. The academy was privately funded at first, with no financial support from the Adventist church. In 1897 it was renamed the Southern Industrial School and then Southern Training School in 1901. The school moved to the community of Thatcher's Switch in 1916, renaming it Collegedale. In 1943, Kenneth A. Wright became president of the school. During Wright's administration, Southern Junior College became accredited as a four-year college. A new name, Southern Missionary College, was adopted in 1944, and Southern granted its first baccalaureate degrees two years later. When the school became a university in 1996, the trustees voted on a new name: Southern Adventist University.

Graysville Academy, 1892–1897
The Graysville Seventh-day Adventist Church was organized on September 8, 1888, and by the fall of 1890, the members had dedicated a church building. R.M. Kilgore, former president of the Illinois Conference had been asked to supervise the church's work in the Southern United States. He had just moved to Graysville and was present for the church dedication. As the superintendent for the church's work in the South, Kilgore repeatedly advocated the establishment of a school.

Kilgore invited George W. Colcord (1843–1902), to come to Graysville and establish a school. Colcord was the founder of Milton Academy, which is the forerunner of Walla Walla University. The General Conference Education Secretary, W. W. Prescott, along with Kilgore and Colcord worked together to establish the school at Graysville. Colcord and his wife Ada began the school. The first term began in February, 1892, with 23 students. The second term began in September of that year. By January 1893 Colcord reported that 62 students were in attendance. By 1893 there were three full-time teachers and three part-time teachers. Prescott considered the positive attitude of the school's faculty, students and supporters to be indicators of the school's future success and good reason to start other such schools in the South.

During 1892, Colcord operated the school privately. Then, at the session of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference held at Battle Creek, Michigan, February 17 to March 6, 1893, the church officially took over the school. This first school in the South inspired the session to recommend that other schools also be established.

In the Fall of 1894, Graysville Academy faced a crisis. Fourteen of the members of the Graysville Church were indicted for having violated the Tennessee Sunday law. This included Colcord, his nephew, I. C. Colcord, and M. C. Sturdevant, manager of the boys' dormitory.

The church members found guilty refused to pay the fines, choosing to go to prison instead. The imprisonment of the school's leaders resulted in its immediate closing for the rest of the year. The students, some of whom were ready to graduate, returned to their homes.

Southern Industrial School, 1897–1901
In November 1897, the district conference voted to change the school's name to Southern Industrial School. The name change reflected a change in the school's emphasis. Industries were established including a wagon and blacksmith shop, a broom shop, a printshop and a school farm. The farm grew peaches, pears and many types of berries and vegetables.

Southern Training School, 1901–1916
The Southern Union Conference was organized in April 1901. Kilgore, the superintendent of the Southern District, known as District 2, was elected the first president of the Southern Union Conference. The headquarters was in Graysville. The General Conference arranged for the Southern Union to take over the operation of the Southern Industrial School. The property was transferred to the Southern Union. They renamed the school the Southern Training School. It offered 14 grades of instruction.

Relocation
Eventually the Graysville school outgrew its 7 acre site. Church leaders looked for a larger plot of land. They believed "that the only education worth while in these strenuous days is that practical kind which teaches the student to actually do with his hand the things he learns about in books." To provide for this practical concern, they found a larger property. Plans were made to relocate the college program to a 285 acre farm at Thatcher's Switch east of Chattanooga. The move from Graysville to Thatcher's Switch involved moving most of the school's equipment, livestock, and implements to the new site fifty miles away. The school moved and opened in its new location by October, 1916. The community was soon renamed Collegedale and the school as Southern Junior College. The term training school had become associated with reform schools while at the same time the junior college designation had become a popular one.

Graysville Academy continued on at the original site as a church and conference-sponsored secondary boarding academy until 1938.

Pioneer years
In 1916, the school's property holdings totaled $32,000. Two years later, due mainly to the construction of additional buildings on campus, the school's holdings increased to $113,000. Many students earned their tuition by helping to construct these buildings. Southern was financially supported by two union conferences of the Church's North American administration. The school organized construction bees. Interested church members came from across the South to help in these bees.

At first, the school taught only students in grades 1–12 with a total enrollment of 59 students. In 1918, three students were taking post-high school level classes. The total student enrollment at this time was 175.

Southern Junior College served two union conferences of Seventh-day Adventists, the Southern and the Southeastern. Later these two would be reorganized into one, the Southern Union Conference. In 1920, Lynn H. Wood, the president of the college, presented a major report to meetings for both union conferences. He reviewed the events of the first four years at the Ooltewah location.

According to Wood, enrollment grew quickly because of a tuition work program. Students of limited means realized they could get an education and improve themselves. This put a strain on housing. But the desire for an education motivated the students to cope with those early inadequate facilities, "Students have been willing to live in shacks and tents, to put up with all kinds of inconvenience, in order that they might receive the character development that the school had for them." Wood referred to these first few years as the "pioneer years." He wrote that the positive spiritual attitude of the students made these years the most enjoyable that one could wish for.

The college built the girls' dormitory first. The girls moved in before it was finished, even before there was any heating, doors or chairs. They used "curtains for doors, sat upon their trunks for chairs — any way to get along."

Faith community support
The building of the boys' dormitory began in the summer of 1918. The students helped build it, and, in doing so, many earned their way through school. Shortly after the beginning of the school year in 1918, a "Workers' Bee" took place. Church workers from all across the South and from church headquarters in Washington, D.C. came to the college to build the boys' dormitory. For two and a half weeks they worked and associated with the students. They succeeded in putting up most of the framework.

Other help from the Adventist faith community included a $6,000 donation by the Southern Publishing Association for a water supply system and another "Working Bee" to build a large dairy barn, a blacksmith shop, and a corn crib. People interested in the college's success bought surrounding properties and donated them to the institution, more than doubling the school's area to close to 600 acre. This allowed the school to protect itself from families moving so close that they hindered their young people attending from learning some independence, President Wood wrote. He encouraged families to send their young people to the school, and if the cost was too high for some of them, he advised that church leaders make sure they got the help they needed for their young people to attend and live in the dormitory.

Southern Missionary College, 1944–1982

In 1944, the Seventh Day Adventist General Conference Spring Council voted for Southern to become a four-year college. The enrollment that first year was the highest ever to date, 436 students. The theology, teaching and pre-nursing departments had the highest enrollments. Industries that helped students earn their tuition included a wood shop, a broom factory, a printing press, and a farm. The name Southern Missionary College was chosen at a combined meeting of the members of the college board, the union educational board, and the college faculty.

Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists, 1982–1996
On July 1, 1982, the word "Missionary" was dropped from the school's name. The reported reasons for the change were that the general population reacted negatively to the term; foreign countries resisted accepting church workers who were from a "missionary" college; the name incorrectly identified the school as only a Bible college, rather than a fully accredited, four-year liberal arts institution; and, graduates found the name "missionary" made it more difficult for them to get a job. Southern was the last Adventist college in North America to retain "missionary" in its title. The others changed their names many years earlier.

In their official announcement of the name change, the Board of Trustees of Southern Missionary College explained that a shorter name would help popularize it. They also stated that, "The word 'Southern' has been associated with the College since its beginning—Southern Industrial School, Southern Training School, Southern Junior College, Southern Missionary College, and now Southern College."

Early 1980s controversy
Southern College found itself drawn into a wider church controversies involving Desmond Ford who was dismissed from ministry in the Adventist church in 1980, and Walter Rae, and Ronald Numbers' book, The Prophetess of Health. It began after a visit to the campus by a leading Bible scholar and theologian of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Edward Heppenstall, on his understanding of the church's "investigative judgment" teaching, and who was also mentor to Desmond Ford. Then grew when a teacher from the theology department made a comment that seemed to disagree with statements made by church pioneer Ellen G. White. The incident along with other concerns led to accusations that faculty at the school did not believe in White as a prophet and led to calls for their dismissal. Southern President Frank Knittel and Board of Trustees member Tom Zwemer resigned, and Jerry Gladson, a professor of Old Testament Studies at Southern, also left the school. His credentials as a minister of the church were not renewed.

Southern Adventist University, 1996–present
In May 1996, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools granted approval for Southern to become an accredited Level III institution, allowing the school to confer master's degrees. By September of that year, the college's constituency approved the name change to Southern Adventist University. In 1996, attendance was 1600. Since 1996, Southern has continued to grow and build, reaching a peak enrollment of 3,053 in 2010 (compared with 2,079 in 1980).

Academics
The student-faculty ratio at Southern Adventist University is 16:1 and its most selected majors are biological and biomedical sciences; business, management, marketing, and related support services; education; and health professions and related clinical sciences. Southern offers 81 undergraduate degrees, with sixty majors, thirty-eight minors and two one-year certificate programs. It also offers master's degrees in business, computer science, education, psychology, nursing, religion and social work. The university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Accrediting Association of Seventh-day Adventist Schools, Colleges, and Universities. In 2009, the Princeton Review, an education services company, selected Southern as one of 141 institutions it listed in its "Best in the Southeast" section.

School of Nursing
The nursing program was instituted in 1934. Upon completion of the program students were able to transfer to Florida Sanitarium and Hospital, where they could earn a diploma in nursing. In 1963, Southern's President Rees announced that the school's nursing program had received its Bachelor of Science National League of Nursing accreditation. In 2002, the master's program also received official accreditation. Southern's School of Nursing has existed on the Collegedale campus since 1956.

In 2003, the school announced an accelerated program allowing registered nurses with an associate's degree to receive a Master of Science in Nursing. At this date approximately half of Southern's nursing graduate program were non-Adventist.

In December 2010, the college temporarily suspended a home health nursing program after two of its nursing students were accosted at gunpoint in Chattanooga. The school is considering a safer, more controlled environment for the program.

In 2011, the university opened Florida Hospital Hall, a new building with twice the space of the former nursing building, to accommodate an expanding student base.

Institute of Archaeology
The Institute of Archaeology is part of the School of Religion. It coordinates the archaeological programs at Southern through an undergraduate degree, an archeological museum, the William G. Dever Research Library and its archaeological excavations and publications. Southern is one of two schools in the U.S. where students can pursue an undergraduate degree in biblical archaeology. The Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum has a collection of nearly 600 artifacts, many of which were unearthed in Palestine between 1967 and 1975.

The current Institute Director, Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology Michael Hasel, studied for his doctorate under William G. Dever at the University of Arizona. In 2000, Dever gave his artifact collection in loan to Hasel and Southern. This made the development of Southern's program possible. The artifacts, valued at $250,000, date from 3200 BC to 450 AD. The collection has an almost complete set of the many strains of pottery from this period which students can study. In 2008, Dever placed his personal library at Southern, along with 15,000 photographic slides of archaeological excavations.

School of Visual Art and Design
Wayne and Maria Hazen founded the School of Visual Art and Design in 1998. The film department produced Angel in Chains in 2003, a film "based on a true story about acceptance and forgiveness." In 2007, Southern released Secret of the Cave, a feature film which was awarded a Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival in Indiana. The family-oriented feature was filmed in Ireland and was the first feature-length film produced at the university. The school offers degrees in graphic design, animation, film production and fine art.

McKee Library
The McKee Library is located on the campus and opened in 1970. Its collection of books and media comprises approximately 165,000 volumes on the shelves, 25,000 electronic books, subscriptions to more than 880 print and electronic periodicals and access to more than 19,000 electronic journals. The library is defined by the Thomas Memorial Collection, a major Civil War collection with more than 3,600 volumes concerning Lincoln and the Civil War, and authentic photos and newspapers. The Collection has two original copies of the only Lincoln biography ever read and approved by him, the Life of Abraham Lincoln by J. L. Scripps, and a section of his original marble sarcophagus.

Ideology
Southern is known for its religious and social conservatism, and it is widely regarded as the most conservative of denominationally owned Adventist colleges in North America. In 2001, Adventist noted theologian and scholar Raymond Cottrell, a "progressive Adventist", wrote that Southern operated "an agency of Southern Bible belt obscurantism."

In explaining why he placed his collection of artifacts and his personal library at Southern Adventist University, archaeologist William Dever said, "The major support for archaeology work in Israel and Jordan comes from conservative and evangelical circles where the Bible is still taken seriously and no one is more serious and committed about archaeological study in the Middle East than Adventists."

Student life
The Princeton Review describes Southern as a "religiously loving environment." Most forms of jewelry are not allowed on campus, other than engagement rings, and students may be fined for not complying with this policy. Southern is a dry campus, as the Adventist Church opposes the use of alcohol. The university observes the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday and students are expected to refrain from secular activities during these hours.

Although Southern does not have fraternities or sororities, there are 40 clubs on campus, one of which is a chapter of the Adventist Forum, publisher of Spectrum Magazine. The Southern Accent is a weekly student-run newspaper that has been the voice of Southern students since 1926 and gives information on events and outings and "hot issues that are being talked about on campus". There are 21 student-led ministries on campus and in the community and a Student Missions program.

Southern has more than 10 mi of hiking/mountain biking trails used by students and local community members alike.

There is a campus-wide internet network with all classrooms accessing the wireless network and a computer lab in each building with access to printing. Wireless printing is also accessible in the dormitories.

Dormitories
Southern's dormitories are single gender although students can opt out of the dormitories during summer sessions or with permission from a dean. Upperclass and married students can receive exemptions from this policy. The men's dormitory is Talge Hall and the women's dormitory is Thatcher Hall. An accidental fire in Thatcher Hall in April 2005 killed one student and injured two others. The dormitories have also been used to shelter storm victims who needed short-term housing, such as after tornadoes in early 2011.

WSMC-FM radio station
Southern owns and operates FM radio station WSMC which is almost completely staffed by students and the only classical music station in the Chattanooga area. In 2003, following technical problems that caused the station to keep dropping off the air, WSMC upgraded equipment to improve its reliability. It has been in operation since 1961 and is located on campus.

McKee Foods
McKee Foods has its headquarters beside the campus and has been an important part of school history as one of the companies which have provided jobs within walking distance for students to fund their education. It was founded by a Southern alumnus and is the headquarters for Little Debbie, Sovex and Sunbelt products. McKee Foods is one of the largest employers in Hamilton County.

Principals, presidents

 * Graysville Academy, 1892–1897
 * G. W. Colcord (1892–1895)
 * W. T. Bland (1896–1898)

 * Southern Industrial School, 1897-1901
 * Charles W. Irwin (1899–1900)
 * N. W. Lawrence (1901)

 * Southern Training School, 1901–1916

 * J. Ellis Tenney (1902–1905)

 * M. B. Van Kirk (1906–1911)

 * C. L. Stone (1912–1913)

 * Lynn H. Wood (1914)

 * A. N. Atteberry (1915)

 * Southern Junior College, 1917-1945

 * Leo F. Thiel (1916–1917)
 * Lynn H. Wood (1918–1921)
 * Leo F. Thiel (1922–1924)
 * H. H. Hamilton (1925)
 * Marion E. Cady (1926)
 * Henry J. Klooster (1927–1936)
 * John C. Thompson (1937–1941)
 * Denton E. Rebok (1942)

 * Southern Missionary College, 1946–1982
 * Kenneth A. Wright (1943–1954)
 * Thomas W. Walters (1955–1957)
 * Conard N. Rees (1958–1966)
 * Wilbert Schneider (1967–1970)
 * Frank A. Knittel (1971–1982)

 * Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists, 1983–1996
 * John Wagner (1983–1985)

 * Southern Adventist University, 1997–Present
 * Donald R. Sahly (1986–1997)
 * Gordon Bietz (1998–2016)
 * David Smith (2016–2021)
 * Ken Shaw (2021–Present)

Notable alumni

 * Clifford Goldstein, author and editor
 * Jim Davis, Class of 1965, Member North Carolina General Assembly, Senate
 * Dwight Nelson, Class of 1973, author, senior pastor, Pioneer Memorial Church, Andrews University
 * Ron Numbers, Class of 1963, PhD UC Berkeley, awarded the 2008 George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society
 * Cherie Priest, Class of 1998, novelist and blogger
 * Tyler Rand, Class of 2016, musician and arts administrator
 * Mathew Staver, founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, former Dean, Liberty University School of Law, 2006–2014
 * Mathew Staver, founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, former Dean, Liberty University School of Law, 2006–2014

title: Southern Adventist University