Gandia (Valencian: [ɡanˈdi.a], Spanish: Gandía [ɡanˈdi.a]) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, eastern Spain on the Mediterranean. Gandia is located on the Costa de Valencia, 65 kilometres (40 mi) south of Valencia and 110 km (68 mi) north of Alicante. Vehicles can access the city through road N-332 and AP-7 highway.
Gandia operated as an important cultural and commercial centre in the 15th and 16th centuries: in the 15th century it had a university. It was home to several important people, including the poet Ausiàs March (1400-1459) and the novelist Joanot Martorell (1410-1465). It is perhaps best known for the Borja or Borgia, through their family title, Duke of Gandia (originally created in 1399).
As of 2020 Gandia is one of the largest coastal towns in Spain, with a population of over 200,000 during summer, and a centre of commerce and tourism in its region. There are two main zones, Gandia City, which has all the historical monuments, commercial activity, and shopping, and Gandia beach, which has apartments and summer residences used during the summer season. The bars and nightclubs are concentrated in the beach area. As is normal for Spain, nightlife does not begin until well after midnight. The beach and town are actually some 2 km (1 mi) apart, which succeeds in separating summer tourism from day-to-day living.
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For culture, there are literary contests, the Summer University (Universitat d’Estiu), the International Festival of Classical Music and art exhibitions; sports include water, golf, tennis and hiking. [citation needed] Gandia hosts the annual Cortoons Gandia animation festival in April, which celebrates international animation and short films.[2][3]
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With its long, wide, golden, sandy beaches Gandia is one of the major tourist destinations in Spain. Traditionally Gandia’s tourism has a domestic base, with the majority coming from Madrid, although in recent years it has been an increasingly popular destination for international tourists, mainly French, German and British.[4]
There are some popular Spanish restaurants around the beach.
Gandia has a number of shopping facilities including shopping malls and chain supermarkets like Carrefour, Carrefour Express, Lidl, Mercadona and Aldi.[5]
The Kooks (/kuːks/) are an English indie rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton.[1] The band currently consists of Luke Pritchard (vocals, guitar) and Hugh Harris (bass, guitar, synthesiser).
Their music is primarily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion movement and post-punk revival of the new millennium.[2] The Kooks have experimented in several genres including rock, Britpop, pop, reggae, ska, and more recently, funk and hip-hop, being described once as a «more energetic Thrills or a looser Sam Roberts Band, maybe even a less severe Arctic Monkeys at times».[3]
After securing a deal with Virgin Records merely three months after forming, The Kooks achieved instant mainstream success following the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Inside In/Inside Out (2006). The album is certified five-times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), platinum certified by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and two times platinum by Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). Further success followed, with the Kooks winning Best UK & Ireland Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006 and receiving a nomination at The Brit Awards for the single «She Moves in Her Own Way«.[4][5] With their follow-up Konk (2008) debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart, it recorded first week sales of 65,000, achieving gold status in both the UK and Ireland.[6] Their third studio album, Junk of the Heart, was released on 12 September 2011. The bands fourth album, Listen, was released on 8 September 2014. Their most recent album 10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark was released on 22 July 2022 and peaked at No. 32 on the UK Albums Chart.
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The three members – Garred, Pritchard and Harris – of the Kooks all met as students at the BRIT School in Croydon, all three moving further south to join BIMM British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM), where they met Rafferty – who was from Bridgnorth – in 2002.[7] The inspiration to form a band came to Pritchard as he and Garred were out shopping for clothes one day in Primark as a joke. Speaking to MTV Garred said, «we had a vision on how we wanted the band to look and stuff—so we bought some clothes and these hats, it was fun.»[8] Sharing a love of the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Police and David Bowie, Pritchard got Harris and Rafferty involved under the guise of a school music project.[7] Pritchard himself said «We got together just on a whim, really.»[9] With a strong demo of their material Garred and Pritchard went in search of a gig, and according to Garred, they were able to book their first show simply because the landlord liked their hats. «So we went in to get a gig, we don’t have a demo blid burnt, and this guy told us, ‘Well, you can’t get a gig if you don’t have a demo, but I like your hats, so I’m going to give you a gig'», said Garred. However, the band was unable to make the performance as they were finishing off their demo at the time.[8]
Taking their name from the David Bowie song with the same title, Pritchard said the first song they played as a group was a cover version of the Strokes‘ «Reptilia«.[10] The Kooks recorded an EP demo, sending it out in search of gigs; they instead received offers from managers and record companies.[9] The band had only been together as a group for four months when they signed with Virgin Records,[9] after being spotted by several label scouts at the Brighton Free Butt Festival in 2005.[11] In an interview with musicOMH, Pritchard revealed «It was really quick how it all happened, we did a demo with a mate of ours in London, which we sent off to one guy to get some gigs, and he turned out to be a manager. He rung us up and it kind of went from there.»[10] The members of the band have since revealed that they felt they weren’t ready at the time, «We were way too early to sign a record deal … We were really young, we’d been together like two or three months, so we really didn’t want to sign. But then we thought it’s a really good opportunity and Virgin seemed like really cool people – they just seemed to really understand where we were coming from»,[10] said Pritchard, who has also complimented the space the record label allowed for the band to grow: «They were patient with us and let us develop
April 14 is the 104th day of the year (105th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 261 days remain until the end of the year.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
