Mircea Baniciu, un cântăreț și chitarist român. S-a remarcat în muzica românească la începutul anilor '70 când a devenit solist vocal al formației rock Phoenix

Mircea Baniciu (n. 31 iulie 1949, Timișoara) este un cântăreț și chitarist român. S-a remarcat în muzica românească la începutul anilor '70 când a devenit solist vocal al formației rock Phoenix. După fuga colegilor săi din țară în 1977, începe o carieră solo, timp în care scoate pe piață un EP și 4 albume. În 1992 a fondat trupa Pasărea Colibri, alături de Florian Pittiș, Mircea Vintilă și Vlady Cnejevici, cu care a cântat zece ani, răstimp în care au apărut pe piață 5 albume și un DVD. În 2002 revine în trupa Phoenix cu ocazia concertului aniversar Phoenix 40 de ani. În toamna anului 2007 părăsește din nou Phoenix pentru a-și continua cariera solo și pentru a înființa în 2014 supergrupul Pasărea Rock.

La începutul anilor '70 Mircea Baniciu cânta ca folkist în cluburile din Timișoara. Cu această ocazie este văzut de Nicu Covaci și Günther Reininger, doi dintre membrii grupului Phoenix, care erau în cautarea unui solist vocal, și hotărăsc să-l coopteze în formație. Mircea Baniciu debutează în Phoenix în anul 1971 când susține câteva spectacole în care sunt prezentate piese precum Nunta, Negru Vodă, Iarna. Aceste piese au fost ulterior înregistrate pe albumul Cei ce ne-au dat nume, apărut în 1972, în componența: Nicu Covaci, Mircea Baniciu, Josef Kappl, Costin Petrescu și Valeriu Sepi.
Continuarea vine în 1973 cu EP-ul Meșterul Manole, apoi, în 1974, cu Mugur de fluier, unde apar câteva dintre hiturile absolute ale grupului Phoenix: Mica țiganiadă, Ochii negri, ochi de țigan, Mugur de fluier și Andrii Popa, care a devenit aproape un imn național^{[necesită citare]}. Andrii Popa este singura compoziție de Mircea Baniciu apărută în discografia Phoenix, despre care artistul povestește ca a apărut din întâmplare pe disc, datorită faptului că la „înregistrările din Electrecord trebuia să completăm discul cu 4 minute”.
Cantafabule a apărut în 1975 și este considerat până astăzi cea mai importantă operă rock a României. Trupa Phoenix s-a retras, de toamna până primăvara, în munții Semenic pentru a compune piesele de pe acest album, iar când au ajuns în studio, în locul lui Costin Petrescu, a fost adus de Covaci la baterie Ovidiu Lipan „Țăndărică”.
În primăvara anului 1977, o parte dintre membrii trupei Phoenix, adică Nicu Covaci, Ovidiu Lipan, Josef Kappl și Erlend Krauser, fug din țară, reușind să treacă granița ascunși în boxele Marshall. Mircea Baniciu a rămas în țară, susținând ulterior ca nu a fost anunțat de această plecare. A continuat să cânte piesele Phoenix și după plecarea lui Nicu Covaci, deși a fost, în nenumărate rânduri, anchetat de Securitate.

Juan Pablo Villalobos, a Mexican writer and entrepreneur. He is the author of Down the Rabbit Hole (And Other Stories, 2011), which was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2011

Juan Pablo Villalobos is a Mexican writer and entrepreneur. He is the author of Down the Rabbit Hole (And Other Stories, 2011), which was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2011, and Quesadillas (And Other Stories, 2013).

Villalobos was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1973. He lived in Barcelona, Spain for eight years, before moving to Brazil.
He studied marketing and Spanish literature. He has worked in market research and published travel stories, as well as literary and film criticism. Villalobos has researched the influence of the avant-garde on the work of César Aira, and the flexibility of pipelines for electrical installations.

Villalobos's first book, Fiesta en la madriguera, has been translated into Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Romanian, Dutch and English. Its English translation, Down the Rabbit Hole by Rosalind Harvey, was published in September 2011 by the London publishing house And Other Stories. Down the Rabbit Hole was shortlisted for the 2011 Guardian First Book Award.
His second novel, Quesadillas, is also translated by Rosalind Harvey and is set to be published by And Other Stories in 2013.

 Villalobos has said that his first book was inspired by Nellie Campobello's collection of short stories set during the Mexican revolution, titled Cartridge.
 In Germany, Villalobos is recognized as an important representative of the so-called 'narco-literature'. His book Fiesta en la madriguera has been called "a disillusioned domestic tale from the dark heartland of Latin American machismo"

Down the Rabbit Hole, by Juan Pablo Villalobos, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2011 and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize 2012.

Tochtli lives in a palace. He loves hats, samurai, guillotines and dictionaries, and what he wants more than anything right now is a new pet for his private zoo: a pygmy hippopotamus from Liberia. But Tochtli is a child whose father is a drug baron on the verge of taking over a powerful cartel, and Tochtli is growing up in a luxury hideout that he shares with hit men, prostitutes, dealers, servants and the odd corrupt politician or two.
Down the Rabbit Hole, a masterful and darkly comic first novel, is the chronicle of a delirious journey to grant a child’s wish.

Alessandro Del Piero, an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions

Alessandro Del Piero (born 9 November 1974) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a deep-lying forward, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions.^[4][5][6][7] Since 2015, he has worked as a pundit for Sky Sport Italia.^[8]
A technically gifted^[9] and creative supportin^[10][11] who was also a free-kick specialist,^[12][13] Del Piero is widely regarded by players, pundits, and managers as one of the greatest players of his generation^[14][15] and as one of the best Italian players of all time,^[16][17] winning the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year award in 1998 and 2008. A prolific goal-scorer, he is currently the second highest all-time Italian top-scorer in all competitions, with 346 goals, behind only Silvio Piola, with 390 goals; he is also the joint ninth highest goalscorer in Serie A history, with 188 goals, alongside Giuseppe Signori and Alberto Gilardino.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23]} After beginning his career with Italian club Padova in Serie B in 1991, he moved to Juventus in 1993, where he played for 19 seasons (11 as captain), and holds the club records for most goals (290) and appearances (705). During his time at the club, he won six Serie A titles, the Coppa Italia, four Supercoppa Italiana titles, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the UEFA Intertoto Cup, and the Intercontinental Cup. After leaving the club in 2012, he also spent two seasons with Australian side Sydney FC; he retired after a season with Delhi Dynamos FC in the Indian Super League, in 2014.
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Del Piero has scored in every competition in which he has participated.^[24] In 2004, he was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA's centenary celebrations.^[25] In the same year, he was also voted into the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll, a list of the 50 best European players of the past 50 years.^[26] Along with six awards in Italy for gentlemanly conduct,^[27][28] he has also won the Golden Foot award, which pertains to personality as well as playing ability.
At international level, Del Piero has also represented the Italian national team at three FIFA World Cups and four UEFA European Football Championships, most notably winning the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and reaching the final of UEFA Euro 2000 with Italy. He is the joint fourth highest scorer for the Italian national team, with 27 goals, alongside Roberto Baggio, and behind only Silvio Piola with 30 goals, Giuseppe Meazza with 33 goals, and Luigi Riva with 35 goals; with 91 appearances for Italy between 1995 and 2008, he is also his nation's eleventh-most capped player of all-time.

Phil Collins, an English drummer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor, best known as the drummer/singer of the rock band Genesis and for his solo career. Between 1982 and 1989, Collins scored three UK and seven US number-one singles in his solo career

Philip David Charles Collins LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English drummer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor, best known as the drummer/singer of the rock band Genesis and for his solo career. Between 1982 and 1989, Collins scored three UK and seven US number-one singles in his solo career. When his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, he had more US Top 40 singles than any other artist during the 1980s.^[8] His most successful singles from the period include "In the Air Tonight", "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)", "One More Night", "Sussudio", "Two Hearts" and "Another Day in Paradise".
Born and raised in west London, Collins played drums from the age of five and completed drama school training, which secured him various roles as a child actor. He then pursued a music career, joining Genesis in 1970 as their drummer and becoming lead singer in 1975 following the departure of Peter Gabriel. Collins began a solo career in the 1980s, initially inspired by his marital breakdown and love of soul music, releasing a series of successful albums, including Face Value (1No Jacket Required (1985), and ...But Seriously (1989). Collins became "one of the most successful pop and adult contemporary singers of the '80s and beyond".^[9][10] He also became known for a distinctive gated reverb drum sound on many of his recordings.^[11] In 1996, Collins left Genesis to focus on solo work; this included writing songs for Disney’s Tarzan (1999) for which he received an Oscar for Best Original Song for “You'll Be in My Heart”. He rejoined Genesis for their Turn It On Again Tour in 2007. Following a five-year retirement to focus on his family life,^[12][13] Collins released an autobiography in 2016 and completed his Not Dead Yet Tour in 2019.
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Collins's discography includes eight studio albums that have sold 33.5 million certified units in the US and an estimated 150 million worldwide, making him one of the world's best-selling artists.^[14] He is one of only three recording artists, along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, who have sold over 100 million records worldwide both as solo artists and separately as principal members of a band.^[15][16] He has received eight Grammy Awards, six Brit Awards (winning Best British Male Artist three times), two Golden Globe Awards, one Academy Award, and a Disney Legend Award.^[17] He was awarded six Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the International Achievement Award. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1999, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010. He has also been recognised by music publications with induction into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2012, and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013

David Piper, a British former Formula One and sports car racing driver from England

David Piper (born 2 December 1930)^[1] is a British former Formula One and sports car racing driver from England. He participated in 3 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 18 July 1959. He scored no championship points.

Early career and Formula One

Piper was born in Edgware, Middlesex^[1] and began his career in the mid-1950s by competing in sprints and hill-climbs, before beginning circuit racing with a Lotus Eleven.^[2] He then moved up to a Lotus 16 which he used in 1959 and 1960 to compete in both Formula One and Formula Two,^[2] by means of changing engines as appropriate.^[2] His best result with the car was a second place in the Lady Wigram Trophy, in 1960, behind Jack Brabham in a Cooper.^[2]

In 1961, Piper competed in European Formula Junior alongside Jo Siffert but drove the Gilby F1 car in the Gold Cup.^[2] He also competed in non-championship races in 1962, but had become disenchanted with single-seater racing and moved into sports car racing initially with a Ferrari GTO.^[2]

Between 1962 and 1970, Piper raced frequently in many locations worldwide using his personally owned Ferraris and, later, Porsches. He was moderately successful and gained a reputation for reliability and consistency.^[2]
Piper crashed a Porsche 917 during the 1970 shooting of the film Le Mans and lost part of one leg.^[3]
Piper later raced his personal, green, Porsche 917 and other cars in historic events.