Problem: Marudur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 - 24 December 1987), popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for ten years between 1977 and 1987. MGR is a cultural icon in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and he is regarded as one of the most influential actors of the Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as "Makkal Thilagam" (People's King) as he was popular with the masses. In his youth, MGR and his elder brother M. G. Chakrapani became members of a drama troupe to support their family.

The actor and politician M. R. Radha and MGR had worked in 25 films together. On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project. During the conversation, M. R. Radha stood up and shot MGR in his left ear twice and then tried to shoot himself.  After the operation, MGR's voice changed. Since he had been shot in his ear, MGR lost hearing in his left ear and had ringing in the ear problems. These further surfaced in 1983 when he had kidney problems. When Sinnappa Devar paid his first visit to see MGR at the hospital after the shooting incident he paid MGR an advance for MGR's next movie. After getting released from the hospital and finishing Arasakattalai, MGR acted in Devar's movie Vivasaayee against doctors' advice. Due to the operation, MGR's speaking parts in the movie Kaavalkaaran were reduced. This was the only movie in which MGR spoke with old and new voices between scenes: MGR was acting in the film Kaavalkaran in 1967 opposite J. Jayalalithaa when the shooting occurred.  Petralthaan Pillaya was the last movie of MGR-MR Radha together. Shooting ended just few days before MGR was shot. The bullet was permanently lodged in his neck and his voice damaged. Within hours of the shooting, some 50,000 fans had gathered at the hospital where MGR had been taken. People cried in the streets. For six weeks, he lay in the hospital as fans awaited each report of his health. He was visited by a steady stream of commoners and luminaries of film industry, polity and bureaucracy. From his hospital bed, he conducted his campaign for the Madras Legislative Assembly. He won twice the number of votes polled by his Congress rival and the largest vote polled by any candidate for the Assembly.

What were the motives?

Answer with quotes: On 12 January 1967, Radha and a producer visited MGR to talk about a future film project.


Problem: Burt Freeman Bacharach ( BAK-@-rak; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer who has composed hundreds of popular hit songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with popular lyricist Hal David. A six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner, Bacharach's songs have been recorded by more than 1,000 different artists. As of 2014, he had written 73 US and 52 UK Top 40 hits. He is considered one of the most important composers of 20th-century popular music.

Following his tour of duty in the United States Army, Bacharach spent the next three years as a pianist and conductor for popular singer Vic Damone. Damone recalls: "Burt was clearly bound to go out on his own. He was an exceptionally talented, classically trained pianist, with very clear ideas on the musicality of songs, how they should be played, and what they should sound like. I appreciated his musical gifts." He later worked in similar capacity for various other singers, including Polly Bergen, Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers and Paula Stewart (who became his first wife). When he was unable to find better jobs, Bacharach worked at resorts in the Catskill Mountains of New York, where he accompanied singers such as Joel Grey.  In 1956, at age 28, Bacharach's productivity increased when composer Peter Matz recommended him to Marlene Dietrich, who needed an arranger and conductor for her nightclub shows. He then became part-time music director for Dietrich, the German actress and singer who had been an international screen star in the 1930s. They toured worldwide off and on until the early 1960s; when they weren't touring, he wrote songs. As a result of his collaboration with Dietrich, he gained his first major recognition as a conductor and arranger.  In her autobiography, she remembered that Bacharach loved touring in Russia and Poland because the violinists were "extraordinary," and musicians were greatly appreciated by the public. He liked Edinburgh and Paris, along with the Scandinavian countries, and "he also felt at home in Israel," she says, where music was similarly "much revered." Their working relationship ceased by the early 1960s, after about five years with Dietrich, with Bacharach telling her that he wanted to devote his full-time to songwriting. She thought of her time with him as "seventh heaven ... As a man, he embodied everything a woman could wish for. ... How many such men are there? For me he was the only one."

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Answer with quotes: Their working relationship ceased by the early 1960s,


Problem: Donald Christopher Barber (born 17 April 1930) is an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. As well as scoring a UK top twenty trad jazz hit, he helped the careers of many musicians, notably the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and vocalist/banjoist Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with Barber triggered the skiffle craze of the mid-1950s and who had his first transatlantic hit, "Rock Island Line", while with Chris Barber's band. His providing an audience for Donegan and, later, Alexis Korner makes Barber a significant figure in the British rhythm and blues and "beat boom" of the 1960s.

The 2017 line up is; Chris Barber and Bob Hunt (trombones); Mike Henry and Pete Rudeforth (trumpets), Bert Brandsma, Nick White and Ian Killoran (clarinets and alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax). John Watson (drums), John Day (double bass), Joe Farler (banjo & guitar) Pat Halcox, trumpeter with the Chris Barber Band since 31 May 1954, retired after playing his last gig with the Big Chris Barber Band on 16 July 2008. Halcox and Barber were together in the band for 54 years - the longest continuous partnership in the history of jazz, exceeding even that of Duke Ellington and Harry Carney (48 years between 1926 and 1974). Tony Carter (reeds) also left the band at this time. Vic Pitt (double bass) retired in January 2007 after 30 years with the band.  His feature duet with the drummers of the day - "Big Noise From Winnetka" was not only a feature of the Barber concerts, but also his time with the Kenny Ball band immediately before. When Amy Roberts joined the band in 2011, she was still a student at Royal Northern College of Music and thus not always able to be present. On several tours Bert Brandsma (reeds) replaced her. Brandsma joined as a permanent member in 2012.  At St Luke's, London, on 9 June 2007 Barber appeared in the horn section of Nick Lowe's band during a concert. In 2008 Barber, along with Eric Clapton and others, were involved in a new co-operative record company, Blues Legacy. On 23 July 2009, Barber, Bilk and Ball played a one-off concert at Indigo2 at the O2 in Greenwich. The concert was presented by the British Music Experience. He performed at De Doelen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on 12 December 2010.

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Answer with quotes:
At St Luke's, London, on 9 June 2007 Barber appeared in the horn section of Nick Lowe's band during a concert.