English music producer and DJ
Goldie
|
---|
Goldie in 2003
|
Born
| Clifford Joseph Price
(
1965-09-19
)
19 September 1965
(age 58)
|
---|
Other names
| - Goldie
- Rufige Kru
- Metalheadz
|
---|
Occupations
| |
---|
Years active
| 1991?present
|
---|
Spouses
| -
Sonjia Ashby
(
m.
;
div.
2005)
-
Mika Wassenaar
(
m.
2010)
|
---|
Musical career
|
Genres
| |
---|
Labels
| |
---|
Website
| goldie
.co
.uk
|
---|
Musical artist
|
Clifford Joseph Price
MBE
(born 19 September 1965), better known as
Goldie
, is an English music producer and
DJ
.
Initially gaining exposure for his work as a
graffiti
artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in the 1990s UK
jungle
,
drum and bass
and
breakbeat hardcore
scenes. He released a variety of singles under the pseudonym
Rufige Kru
and co-founded the label
Metalheadz
. He later released several albums under his own name, including the 1995 album
Timeless
, which entered the UK charts at number 7.
Goldie's acting credits include the 1999
James Bond
film
The World Is Not Enough
,
Guy Ritchie
's
Snatch
(2000) and the
BBC
soap opera
EastEnders
(2001?2002). He has also appeared in a number of celebrity reality television shows, including
Celebrity Big Brother 2
(UK),
Strictly Come Dancing
,
Come Dine with Me
and
Maestro
.
Early life
[
edit
]
Born in
Walsall
, England, but raised in
Wolverhampton
,
[1]
Price is of Jamaican and Scottish heritage.
[1]
[2]
He was put up for
adoption
at the age of three, and raised in childcare homes and by several
foster parents
.
[2]
According to his 2002 autobiography, he was physically and sexually abused during this time.
[3]
Price was a member of the
breakdance
crew Westside, based in the
Whitmore Reans
and
Heath Town
areas of Wolverhampton, in the 1980s. He later joined a breakdance crew called the Birmingham
Bboys
, and made his name as a
graffiti
artist in the
West Midlands
.
His artwork around
Birmingham
and Wolverhampton was featured heavily in
Dick Fontaine
's documentary
Bombin
'
. He is mentioned for his graffiti in the book
Spraycan Art
by
Henry Chalfant
and
James Prigoff
, which contains several examples of his art.
He moved to the United States owing to graffiti projects, and also started selling
grills
(gold teeth jewellery) in New York and Miami; he continued this business after his return to the UK in 1988.
[2]
His nickname stems from "Goldielocks", an earlier nickname given to him during his Bboys days and subsequently shortened when he no longer wore
dreadlocks
.
[2]
Career
[
edit
]
Music
[
edit
]
By 1991, Price had become fascinated by the British
breakbeat
music scene when his girlfriend, DJ
Kemistry
, introduced him to the pioneering
jungle
and
drum and bass
producers
Dennis "Dego" McFarlane and Mark "Marc Mac" Clair, known as
4hero
.
[2]
He went on to execute some design and
A&R
work for 4hero's
Reinforced Records
label.
In 1992, Price made his first record appearance by contributing to an EP by Icelandic group Ajax Project that included the track
Ruffige
.
[4]
For many years, the track was repeatedly misattributed to Price himself, perhaps because of his subsequent use of "Rufige" as moniker for his own releases.
[
citation needed
]
His releases
Killa Muffin
b/w
Krisp Biscuit
and the
Dark Rider
EP
were released under the alias "Rufige Cru"
[note 1]
His track "Terminator", released under the name "Metalheads" in 1992,
[7]
was a hit in the jungle scene and is noted for pioneering the use of
time stretching
.
[8]
In 1993, he released
Angel
, another
12"
on the Synthetic Hardcore Phonography label. 1994 saw him setting up his own record label,
Metalheadz
.
[6]
His first studio album,
Timeless
, followed in 1995.
Timeless
entered the
UK Albums Chart
at number seven.
[9]
The album fused the
breakbeats
and basslines common in jungle with orchestral textures and
soul
vocals by
Diane Charlemagne
. The album's title track was a 21-minute
symphonic
piece. "
Inner City Life
", a track from the album, reached number 39 in the
UK Singles Chart
.
[9]
Timeless
helped to popularise drum and bass as a form of
musical expression
.
[10]
The music critic
Simon Reynolds
noted that Price's credentials as a musical innovator?and particularly as one of the key driving forces of innovation in the jungle/breakbeat scene?were exceptional. "Goldie revolutionised jungle not once but thrice", he noted in
The Wire
magazine, continuing, "First there was 'Terminator' (pioneering the use of time stretching), then 'Angel' (fusing
Diane Charlemagne
's live vocal with
David Byrne
/
Brian Eno
samples to prove that hardcore could be more 'conventionally' musical), now there's 'Timeless', a 22-minute hardcore symphony."
[8]
In 1996, he released the
Toasted Both Sides Please
remix of the
Bush
song "
Swallowed
", which topped charts in the US and Canada.
[11]
[12]
[13]
Price released his second album,
Saturnz Return
, in 1998. The album's opening track, "Mother", is an hour-long orchestral drum and bass piece. The album featured appearances by
David Bowie
,
Noel Gallagher
and
KRS-One
. The album met with mixed reviews. David Brown of
Entertainment Weekly
called the album "ambitious but monotonous and overlong?
Pink Floyd
with a gold tooth".
[14]
In 2002, Price said that he had been working for three years on a film called
Sine Tempus
,
[15]
described as a coming-of-age story of a young paintbrush artist. In 2006, he announced the soundtrack as his new album.
[16]
The album was released via the Metalheadz website in 2008, but the film has not been released.
Price is known for his work as the leader of Rufige Kru. The group has no fixed members and has included drum and bass producers such as Technical Itch, Heist, Cujo, Agzilla Da Ice, Danny J,
Doc Scott
and
Rob Playford
.
[
citation needed
]
March 2013 saw the release of
The Alchemist: The Best of Goldie 1992?2012
, featuring prominent tracks from throughout Price's musical career.
[17]
A subsequent compilation, the three-CD Masterpiece set released by Ministry of Sound in 2014, brought together tracks that influenced him (
Soul II Soul
's "Back To Life",
Roy Ayers
' "Everybody Loves The Sunshine") with cuts that soundtracked his entry into the rave scene and key moments from the drum'n'bass scene.
[18]
In 2017, the Goldie album
The Journey Man
was released, which Price described as his "
magnum opus
" and "the most important thing that I've ever made."
[3]
In 2020, Goldie launched his new record label, Fallen Tree 1Hundred.
[19]
A 25th anniversary edition of Timeless was released by London Records the following year. The new release included a triple gold vinyl version and a compact disc version. The release brought the number of versions of the iconic drum'n'bass album (including reissues and global pressings) to 44.
Acting
[
edit
]
Price has appeared in
Guy Ritchie
's
Snatch
and several other films, most notably the
James Bond
film,
The World Is Not Enough
. He also played gangster
Angel Hudson
in the British soap opera
EastEnders
(2001?2002). Price starred in
Everybody Loves Sunshine
(1999) (aka
B.U.S.T.E.D.
? United States title) with
David Bowie
.
Television appearances
[
edit
]
Price appeared on
BBC1
's
Daytime Live
in October 1987 to discuss the rise of urban art across the United Kingdom.
[20]
Price also appeared on
Central Weekend
, a Friday evening topical debate show on
Central TV
, promoting
graffiti
as an art form. He had a small documentary made about his own art on Central TV's
Here and Now
programme featuring
Pogus Caesar
's photographs of New York. He has appeared on various young people's TV shows as part of a
breakdance
crew, the
Bboys
from Wolverhampton. In 1995, he appeared on
Passengers
, and in a
Channel 4
documentary about himself in 1998.
His next TV appearance was hosting
Crime Business
on the digital TV channels
Bravo
and
Ftn
. He presented the documentary series
The World's Deadliest Gangs
on Bravo in 2002.
Price appeared on the
second series
of
Celebrity Big Brother
in 2002. He was the first celebrity to be "evicted". In 2006, he was scheduled to appear in
The Games
, a UK reality TV show on Channel 4, but during training for the water-ski jump event he
fractured
his
femur
and was unable to take part in the show. He was replaced by
Adam Rickitt
. In 2009, he was reported to be suing the producers of the show for damages as a result of the injury.
[21]
During August and September 2008, the
BBC
broadcast
Maestro
, a reality television show in which eight celebrities, including Price, learned to conduct a concert orchestra.
[3]
Price was placed second, behind
Sue Perkins
.
On 31 July 2009, the first of a two-part television programme
Classic Goldie
was broadcast, showing how in the wake of his success in the
Maestro
programme he learns to write a score for a large orchestra and choir. The resulting composition, commissioned by the BBC and entitled
Sine Tempore
(
Timeless
), was performed at two children's
Promenade concerts
in the
Royal Albert Hall
on 1 and 2 August 2009, which featured music connected with
Charles Darwin
and the creation and evolution of the world.
[22]
He appeared on
Celebrity Mastermind
on 27 December 2009 and came fourth behind
Paul O'Grady
,
Gail Emms
and
Loyd Grossman
. On 11 September 2010, he was announced as part of the line-up in
Strictly Come Dancing
, staying in the competition for two weeks.
On 22 December 2010, he appeared in a
Celebrity Come Dine with Me
Christmas special
.
[23]
On 26 March 2011, he appeared in a three-part reality television series,
Goldie's Band: By Royal Appointment
in which he led a group of music experts as they conducted a nationwide search for young talented musicians and then selected and coached 12 of them, who collaborated to create some musical pieces for a performance at
Buckingham Palace
.
[24]
In 2014, he appeared on the
telethon
BBC Children in Need
.
In 2007, Price returned to the art world with an art exhibition, "Love Over Gold", which was held at the Leonard Street Gallery, London.
[25]
In 2008, he teamed up with
Pete Tong
to provide much of the artwork for Tong's new
Wonderland
club night at Eden nightclub in
San Antonio
,
Ibiza
.
[26]
There was an exhibition of Price's art in
Berlin
from 13 to 26 June 2008.
[27]
In April 2009, a retrospective exhibition titled "Kids Are All Riot" took place in
Shoreditch
, London, coinciding with the release of his screenprint "Apocalypse Angel".
Around 2008, Price's art work was displayed on the
London Underground
by the arts company
Art Below
.
[28]
In 2021, he modeled for
Louis Vuitton
Menswear Spring / Summer collection and contributed a song.
Books
[
edit
]
The innovative nature of Goldie's art (both sonic and visual) was a consistent theme in
Kodwo Eshun
's acclaimed book 'More Brilliant Than The Sun' (published in 1998) which has long been seen as a landmark text on Afro-futurism. Among the works that Eshun referenced were Goldie's 1986 graffiti piece Future World Machine and his 1992 single 'Terminator' single. Noting the links between the multi-dimensionality in both painting and sound, Eshun noted: "There's a big interface between graffiti and the break."
[29]
In 2002, Goldie's autobiography 'Nine Lives' was published by
Hodder & Stoughton
. Written with London-based writer
Paul Gorman
, the book traced his life story from childhood in care and foster homes through to the first flush of his success as a groundbreaking musical artist.
A second autobiography 'All Things Remembered' was published in November 2017 by Faber & Faber. Written when Goldie was 52, it covers a more comprehensive span than the earlier book but is more philosophic in tone. While incidents from his extraordinary childhood are recounted, it also includes his ruminations on musical heroes such as Pat Metheny and a conversation with "my left-hand man"
Doc Scott
as well as memories of his work in TV and film. The book includes pictures of Goldie on set with
David Bowie
. Co-written with Ben Thompson, 'All Things Remembered' was chosen by
Nicola Barker
as one of The Guardian's Books Of The Year. She described it as "a fabulous, whirling kaleidoscope of music, memory and trauma . . . magical and cautionary."
[30]
Personal life
[
edit
]
In the early 1990s, Price had a relationship with
drum and bass
artist
Kemistry
, who died in a car accident in 1999.
[31]
He was romantically involved with Icelandic singer
Bjork
in 1996.
[6]
His relationship with Bjork, and her previous relationship that year with
Massive Attack
member
Tricky
, upset
Ricardo Lopez
, an obsessed Bjork fan, who was angered by the fact that Bjork was in a relationship with a black man (in both Price’s and Tricky’s case) and, on September 12, 1996, sent an explosive device to Bjork, disguised as a book, which was designed to spray
sulfuric acid
on her face, disfiguring her or killing her. Lopez then went back to his apartment, shaved off all the hair on his head, and painted his face and head red and green, before shooting himself, all of which he filmed. The device failed to reach Bjork because Lopez’s body, and his plans, were discovered before the package was delivered, and the device was defused by
Scotland Yard
.
[32]
In 1998, Price bought a country house in
Bovingdon
, Hertfordshire.
[16]
[33]
Price married model Sonjia Ashby in 2002.
[34]
They divorced in 2005.
[16]
As of 2003, he had five children, including social content creator Danny Price, who has appeared on Channel 4 reality show
Make Me Prime Minister
.
[33]
[35]
In 2007, Goldie began a relationship with Mika Wassenaar, a Canadian. The couple appeared in the 20 June 2009 episode of ITV's
All Star Mr & Mrs
with
Phillip Schofield
and
Fern Britton
. Mika and Price married in 2010.
[36]
On 29 April 2010, Price opened the William Tyndale Primary School Sports Pitch in
Islington
, London.
[37]
In July 2010, Price received an honorary doctorate in Social Sciences from
Brunel University
, Uxbridge.
[38]
On 3 September 2010, he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Design from the
University of Wolverhampton
.
[39]
On 7 September 2010, Price's 23-year-old son Jamie Price was sentenced to
life imprisonment
, with a minimum sentence of 21 years, for murder. He was convicted of stabbing a rival gang member to death in Wolverhampton town centre on 24 August 2008.
[40]
As of 2017, Price and his wife were living in Thailand, having moved there in 2015.
[3]
Price was appointed a
Member of the Order of the British Empire
(MBE) in the
2016 New Year Honours
awards, for services to music and young people.
[41]
Price was accused of assaulting a security guard at the 2017 Glastonbury festival after the guard had refused to let Price's daughter, Chance, backstage; Price later emailed a response which read, "Yep, guilty as charged", but in March 2018, district judge Lynn Matthews at Bristol Magistrates' Court rejected Price's emailed response and in a video call Price later admitted to assault by beating.
[42]
On 30 May Bristol Magistrates' Court ordered Goldie to pay almost £2,500 as a fine.
[43]
In 2017, Price appeared to reveal the first name of pseudonymous graffiti artist
Banksy
as "Rob" on
Scroobius Pip
's weekly
Distraction Pieces Podcast
(Episode #156). When discussing the rise of commercialism in street art, Price said, "Give me a bubble letter and put it on a T-shirt and write Banksy on it and we're sorted. We can sell it now... No disrespect to Rob, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over."
[44]
Discography
[
edit
]
Albums
[
edit
]
Studio albums
as Rufige Kru
- Malice in Wonderland
(2007)
- Memoirs of an Afterlife
(2009)
Soundtrack albums
- Sine Tempus ? The Soundtrack
(2008)
Collaboration albums
- Subject One ? Music for Inanimate Objects
(2019) with James Davidson as Subjective
- The Start of No Regret
(2022) with James Davidson as Subjective
Selected singles/EPs
[
edit
]
- "Kris Biscuit / Killer Muffin" (as Rufige Cru) (
Reinforced Records
, 1992)
- Darkrider EP
(as Rufige Cru) (Reinforced Records, 1992)
- Terminator EP
(as Metal Heads) (Synthetic Hardcore Phonography, 1992)
- "Ghosts of My Life / Terminator 2" (as Rufige Kru) (Reinforced Records, 1993)
- "Angel / You and Me" (as Metal Heads) (Synthetic Hardcore Phonography, 1993)
- Internal Affairs EP
(as Internal Affairs with
4hero
) (Reinforced Records, 1993)
- "VIP Riders Ghost" (as Rufige Kru) (
Metalheadz
, 1993)
- "
Inner City Life
" (as Goldie presents Metalheadz) (
FFRR
, 1994) ? UK No. 39 (UK Singles Chart)
- "
Angel
" (FFRR, 1995) ? UK No. 41
- "Jah / Deadly Deep Subs" (Remixes) (Razors Edge, 1996)
- "State of Mind" (FFRR, 1996)
- "
Digital
" (feat.
KRS-One
) (FFRR, 1997) ? UK No. 13
- "The Shadow" (as Rob & Goldie) (
Moving Shadow
, 1997) ? UK No. 82
- "Kemistry V.I.P. / Your Sound" (Remixes) (Razors Edge, 1997)
- Ring of Saturn
(FFRR, 1998)
- "
Temper Temper
" (featuring
Noel Gallagher
) (FFRR, 1998) ? UK No. 13
- "
Believe
" (FFRR, 1998) ? UK No. 36
- "Beachdrifta / Stormtrooper VIP" (Metalheadz, 2001)
- "Say You Love Me" (Metalheadz, 2005)
- "Monkey Boy / Special Request" (Metalheadz, 2007)
- "Vanilla" (Metalheadz, 2007)
- "Freedom" (feat.
Natalie Duncan
) (Metalheadz, 2012)
- "I Adore You" feat. Ulterior Motive (2017)
- "Upstart" feat.
Skepta
(2018)
- "Breakout" feat. LaMeduza (as Subjective) (2022)
Selected mixes
[
edit
]
- INCredible Sound of Drum'n'Bass
(1999)
- Goldie.co.uk
(2001)
- MDZ.04
(2004)
- Drum & Bass Arena: The Classics
(2006)
- Watch the Ride
(2008)
- FabricLive.58
(2011)
Filmography
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Talking about how he used various sounds?"throwing nu-skool samples against old-skool stuff and then pull[ing] other things in"?Goldie explained the word "rufige" was "the way you describe things that were left lying around on the surface?more or less scum", and said what he was doing was "collect[ing rufige] together and turn[ing it] into something new".
[5]
[6]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Goldie; Gorman, Paul (2002).
Nine Lives
. Hodder & Stoughton: 2002.
ISBN
0-340-82478-6
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Barr, Tim (17 March 2013).
"Goldie: Precious Metalheadz"
. New York: DoAndroidsDance.com. Archived from
the original
on 11 December 2014
. Retrieved
5 April
2014
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Goldie's voyage into another galaxy: DJ Mag cover story"
.
DJ Mag
. 27 June 2017
. Retrieved
3 November
2019
.
- ^
Egilsson, Ragnar (17 March 2011).
"Remembering Biogen/"
.
The Reykjavik Grapevine
.
- ^
Barr, Tim (1996).
The Mix
. Bath: Future Publishing.
- ^
a
b
c
Strong, Martin C. (2000).
The Great Rock Discography
(5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. p. 389.
ISBN
1-84195-017-3
.
- ^
"Metalheads ? Terminator"
. Discogs. 1 October 2005. Archived from
the original
on 19 February 2009
. Retrieved
12 May
2009
.
- ^
a
b
Simon Reynolds, "Above The Treeline",
The Wire
#127, September 1994.
- ^
a
b
Roberts, David (2006).
British Hit Singles & Albums
(19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 230.
ISBN
1-904994-10-5
.
- ^
Bush, John.
"Goldie"
. AllMusic
. Retrieved
15 May
2012
.
- ^
Billboard ? Google Books
. 16 November 1996
. Retrieved
15 May
2012
.
- ^
"Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks Top 39 of 1996"
. Jjheath.com
. Retrieved
15 May
2012
.
- ^
RPM
(2 December 1996).
"Rock/Alternative ? Volume 64, No. 16, December 02 1996"
. Archived from
the original
on 22 October 2012
. Retrieved
26 April
2011
.
- ^
Brown, David (6 February 1998).
"Saturnz Return"
.
Entertainment Weekly
. New York City:
Meredith Corporation
. Retrieved
20 April
2018
.
- ^
"new insight ? feature article, Roger McGough interview"
. Nigelberman.co.uk. Archived from
the original
on 23 January 2013
. Retrieved
12 May
2009
.
- ^
a
b
c
Verma, Rahul (13 January 2006).
"Goldie: lookin' back"
.
The Independent
.
- ^
"The Alchemist: Best Of 1992?2012: Amazon.co.uk: Music"
. Amazon
. Retrieved
2 August
2013
.
- ^
Coultate, Aaron (14 July 2014).
"Full details of Goldie's Masterpiece revealed"
.
residentadvisor.net
. Archived from
the original
on 7 September 2018
. Retrieved
17 April
2022
.
- ^
"GOLDIE LAUNCHES NEW LABEL FALLEN TREE 1HUNDRED"
.
Mixmag.net
. Retrieved
21 June
2020
.
- ^
"Daytime Live (BBC Archive)"
.
YouTube
.
- ^
"Rapper Goldie sues C4's The Games for £300k over injury"
.
Mirror
. 5 May 2009.
- ^
BBC Proms programme, 1 August 2009.
- ^
"Come Dine with Me ? Series 20 ? Episode 19 ? Celebrity Christmas Special"
. Channel 4. 22 December 2010
. Retrieved
15 May
2012
.
- ^
"Goldie's band perform for Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace"
. BBC Press Office. 22 October 2010
. Retrieved
6 April
2011
.
- ^
Barnett, Laura (25 September 2007).
"Portrait of the artist: Goldie, musician"
.
The Guardian (London)
. Retrieved
12 May
2009
.
- ^
"Pete Tong new Ibiza plans at the Eden"
. Famemagazine.co.uk. 22 April 2008. Archived from
the original
on 20 November 2008
. Retrieved
12 May
2009
.
- ^
"Goldie Berlin Exhibition"
. Eddielock.co.uk. 26 June 2008. Archived from
the original
on 5 August 2009
. Retrieved
12 May
2009
.
- ^
"Goldie"
.
artbelow.org.uk
. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
3 November
2019
.
- ^
Eshun 1998, p. 177.
- ^
"Best books of 2017 ? part one"
.
The Guardian
. 25 November 2017.
ISSN
0261-3077
. Retrieved
8 December
2023
.
- ^
Alister Morgan, "Obituary: Kemi Olusanya",
The Independent
, 6 May 1999.
- ^
"Inside the Mind of a Celebrity Stalker"
. ABC News. 11 December 1996
. Retrieved
11 December
2023
.
- ^
a
b
Ansted, Mark (6 September 2003).
"More by luck than judgement"
.
The Guardian
. London
. Retrieved
12 May
2009
.
- ^
"Local and community news, opinion, video & pictures"
. Southport Visiter. Archived from
the original
on 3 December 2013
. Retrieved
18 April
2014
.
- ^
@dannyfuckingprice (2022).
"Danny Price"
. Retrieved
9 January
2022
– via
Instagram
.
- ^
Lynn Barber,
Goldie: The interview
,
The Observer
, 19 July 2009.
- ^
"William Tyndale Sports Pitch"
.
- ^
Honorary degree for artist and musician Goldie
[
permanent dead link
]
Brunel University, 20 July 2010, accessed 21 July 2010.
- ^
"2010 Clifford Price (Goldie)"
. Wlv.ac.uk. Archived from
the original
on 3 December 2013
. Retrieved
18 April
2014
.
- ^
"Wolverhampton gang member jailed for murder"
. BBC News. 7 September 2010.
- ^
"No. 61450"
.
The London Gazette
(Supplement). 30 December 2015. p. N23.
- ^
"Goldie appears in court via FaceTime from Thailand"
.
BBC News
. 15 March 2018
. Retrieved
15 March
2018
.
- ^
"Goldie fined for Glastonbury assault"
. BBC News. 30 May 2018
. Retrieved
31 May
2018
.
- ^
"Did Goldie just reveal who Banksy is?"
.
BBC News
. 23 June 2017
. Retrieved
5 October
2019
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Wikiquote has quotations related to
Goldie
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Studio albums
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Mix albums
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Extended plays
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Singles
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International
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