maiden voyage radiohead

Five Good Covers: “Everything in Its Right Place” (Radiohead)

Five Good Covers  presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

“Everything in Its Right Place” was, in the absence of a single to promote the fourth Radiohead album, the initial indication that the most revered British rock band of the ’90s had not only downgraded coherent lyrics, but also guitars, traditional song structures, crescendos, and anything, really, that might sound good in the car with the windows down. Now they were hellbent on something altogether different. Something introspective, hypnotic, and electronic. Something composer Steve Reich and cover artists from Frightened Rabbit to Robert Glasper would demonstrate to be not so much rock, as minimalism, indie-folk, and jazz.

The song has traveled a rocky road to classic status as a result of its unclassifiable nature, while spawning in the region of 25 cross-genre reinterpretations. To the multitudes previously won over by “Paranoid Android,” “Karma Police,” and the whole angsty, proggy majesty of 1997’s OK Computer , it was a shock. To adherents of the band’s earlier, surging, arena-friendly hits like “High and Dry,” “Just,” “Fake Plastic Trees,” and particularly “ Creep ,” it was a kick in the teeth. For while there was nothing new in witnessing a rock group go nuts from the pressure of huge commercial success and fame, as had Nirvana on the brutal  In Utero opener “Serve the Servants” in 1993, none had appeared to cast off their fairweather friends by dropping practically all of their most powerful musical weapons. None had sought to express what they really felt by taking up synthesizers, adopting a strange time signature, and singing about sucking lemons.

“Everything” alone divided the critics in 2000, who quite reasonably assumed it to be a Thom Yorke affair rather than a group project, with the singer indulging a new love for digital technology in collaboration with producer Nigel Godrich. It’s a “weirdly hymnal dreamscape of ambient keys,” said one reviewer (a good thing, I think). Another asked, “Whose crackling old keyboards were those?” (bad). Then there was the accusation that it was a “messy and inconsequential doodle” (definitely bad). But once the furor died down, it was obvious that Yorke and co. had set a new bar with the song, having instilled it with plenty of meaning and significance, thank you very much.

It’s hard to say exactly what is so darn consequential about the track, and why so many artists should want to cover it, but it has a lot to do with its mellow yet eerie keyboard opening, adapted from Herbie Hancock’s “Maiden Voyage” of 1965. It also pertains to the arresting sound of what seems to be an android having a fit, but which is actually Yorke’s voice manipulated through a Prophet 5 synthesizer. Plus there are Thom’s impassioned falsetto vocals over seemingly random, nonsensical phrases repeated over and over, all conveying his feelings of stress and alienation as a consequence of relentless touring and promoting . He sings initially of perfectionism and control, sure, but it’s clear that everything is not in its right place. In fact, if he’s been “sucking a lemon,” he’s been pulling a dour face for most of the time, with his mind in a scrambled state. “What is that you tried to say? / What was that you tried to say?” he goes on to implore, as glitchy machine noises and processed human sounds skitter and swirl around him.

“Everything” is, effectively, the aural equivalent of an anxiety attack, or at least an episode of severe mental disorder. Director Cameron Crowe was quick to recognize this when he used it to ominous effect in the opening scene of the 2001 psychological thriller Vanilla Sky, where the Tom Cruise character confronts the fact that he is disconnected from New York reality (don’t ask me to explain the plot!). The possibly superior live version, meanwhile, goes further in creating the impression of emotional trauma, as evidenced on the I Might be Wrong  album of 2001. We hear Jonny Greenwood, lately of lead guitar, take up a strange toy called a Korg Kaoss Pad KP1 and accompany the real Thom with some downright disturbing improvisational looping of his sampled vocals, while the rest of the band play a fuller part in laying down a house groove that intensifies dramatically on the outro. It all adds up to a deeply harrowing sound. Which you can dance to.

A killer live song, then, and one that has gone on to occupy a key place in the Radiohead canon, “Everything” has been covered by a variety of innovative artists. It won’t have harmed its appeal that another star of the Vanilla Sky soundtrack, Paul McCartney, gave it a public seal of approval in 2007, when he hosted a BBC Radio 1 program to celebrate the station’s 40th anniversary. He featured the song as one of just 15 tracks that either “got him into music,” “inspired him,” or were his “current favorites,” being particularly enamored by its distinctive synth sound. This was before another shaper of musical history, Steve Reich, took an interest. The minimalist composer reworked the song as part of his 2014 album, Radio Rewrite , having found here “a constant repeat of three diatonic chords,” and an opening series of chords that stands out as “one of the classics in Western music.”

The five tracks featured below are good reinterpretations rather than good rewrites. They are, however, equally demonstrative of the remarkable richness of “Everything” to musicians beyond the rock tradition.

Brad Mehldau Trio — “Everything in Its Right Place” (Radiohead cover)

In many ways, American jazz pianist Brad Mehldau made the natural next step with the Kid A track in 2004, when he reinterpreted it for his Anything Goes album. He recognized the Herbie Hancock influence, certainly, and was in any case renowned for incorporating pop and rock into his repertoire. He transformed “Everything” into a jazzy instrumental piece, with a stupendous gear shift at the 3:20 mark, where he showcases what critic Mike Hobart calls “bittersweet left-hand melodies” and “clusters of dense mid-range chords.” Moreover, as a thrilling live draw internationally, he made Radiohead amenable to audiences at the New Morning jazz club in Paris. Who could have predicted that?

Robert Glasper — “Maiden Voyage/Everything in Its Right Place” (Herbie Hancock/Radiohead cover)

Amazingly, two further American jazz pianists, after Mehldau, have covered “Everything.” Michael Wolff did it in 2006, and Robert Glasper did it in 2007. It’s Glasper, though, who offers the best, most epic version. Like Mehldau, he excels at fusing jazz with other genres of music, often with Grammy-winning results, and he effortlessly interweaves Radiohead with Herbie Hancock on this track from the In My Element album. It’s a mash-up, basically, with Glasper totally owning those somber opening chords of Kid A  on Rhodes piano. This is before he cuts loose with his energetic, free-floating style, interposed with some really cool transitions.

Osunlade with Erro — “Everything in Its Right Place” (Radiohead cover)

Jazz is one thing, but how about a Yoruba version of “Everything in Its Right Place”? It sounds crazy, but it did actually happen, on a single for BBE Records in 2006. US musician-producer Osunlade thought the Kid A opener would gel nicely with the highly evolved drumming sound of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin, with New Jersey singer Erro supplying the vocals. And he was right! It’s a song about a guy losing his mind, yes, but this time in unison with some incredibly inventive rhythms.

Scala and Kolacny Brothers — “Everything in Its Right Place” (Radiohead cover)

Choirs performing songs by the likes of Nirvana, U2, and Muse are usually horrible, horrible things. Yet we should be lenient when it comes to this cover of “Everything” by Scala and Kolacny Brothers, a group consisting of 20-30 Belgian women, together with a conductor and piano player. They garnered much acclaim in 2010 for an emotional 2002 reinterpretation of “Creep” (when it featured in a trailer for The Social Network ), but this cover from 2006 tops it. It’s sinister and unsettling as a consequence of its layered voices that build in intensity and complexity, aided by technological blips and distortions. In fact, it’s strangely compelling.

Frightened Rabbit — “Everything in Its Right Place” (Radiohead cover)

Scottish indie band Frightened Rabbit delivered a glorious cover of “Everything” on the heels of their highly acclaimed second album, The Midnight Organ Fight . This was for the 2009 Radiohead tribute album, Every Machine Makes a Mistake . Specializing in unflinching songs of heartache, grief and loss, they brought their own raw sound and anguished vocals to the track, showing that it could work perfectly well without the weird electronics. It’s the hypnotic acoustic guitars, impassioned harmonies, and crashing percussive effects that instead instill it with a chilling quality. That industrial noise in the background helps, too. And those Scottish accents.

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Radiohead Offshoot The Smile Plots 2023 North American Tour

The Smile has announced a new batch of 2023 tour dates around North America in continuing support of its debut album, 2022’s  A Light For Attracting Attention .

The trio featuring  Radiohead bandmates Thom Yorke  and  Jonny Greenwood alongside Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner will grace much larger stages during the 2023 campaign it did during its showcase-style maiden voyage in 2022 , which mostly consisted of mid-size theaters and clubs.

Related: The Smile Concludes 2022 North American Tour In Los Angeles [Photos/Videos]

The tour will begin on June 22nd in Mexico City, Mexico before heading north of the border for shows at Austin, TX’s ACL Live at The Moody Theater (6/25), Miami, FL’s  James L. Knight Center (6/29), and St. Augustine, FL’s St. Augustine Amphitheatre (6/30).

The Smile will stay on the road throughout the first half of July for stops at North Charleston, SC’s North Charleston Performing Arts Center (7/2), Asheville, NC’s  Thomas Wolfe Auditorium (7/3), Richmond, VA’s  The National (7/5), New York’s  Forest Hills Stadium (7/7), Philadelphia, PA’s  Franklin Music Hall (7/8), Pittsburgh, PA’s  Stage AE (7/10), Cleveland, OH’s  Agora Ballroom (7/11), and Laval, Quebec’s Place Bell (7/15). Finally, the tour will wrap in Missouri with shows at Kansas City’s Midland Theatre (7/19) and Chesterfield’s  The Factory (7/20).

Related: The Smile Performs Atmospheric NPR Tiny Desk Concert [Watch]

Tickets for the 2023 North American tour by The Smile go on sale on Friday, February 3rd at 10:00 a.m. local venue time. See below for a complete list of upcoming The Smile 2023 tour dates. For ticketing details, head here .

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by The Smile (@thesmiletheband)

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Why Radiohead are the Blackest white band of our times

Radiohead released Kid A 20 years ago today. It pointed a new direction for rock music – and mirrored radical Black art by imagining new spaces to live in amid a hostile world

Ask anyone who is the Blackest white rock band to emerge over the past 30 years, and my hunch is that few would say Radiohead .

The hypnotically wonky Oxfordshire quintet are lauded for intricate, challenging music that is now far from their grunge-era breakthrough. Their rapturous second album (1995’s The Bends) yoked together symphonic alt-rock melodies with even bigger feelings, and their post-prog-rock masterpiece OK Computer (1997) delivered darkly ominous late 20th-century dread about everything from rising neoliberal alienation to the coldness of technology. It prompted stop you in your tracks superlatives from critics, who became even more rapturous for the follow-up, Kid A, released 20 years ago today.

In sync with Black music, though? Immediately obvious contenders from that pop moment include funk rock veterans the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or perhaps – if reaching – the late 1990s rap-metal hybrid bands (Korn, Limp Bizkit) who gestured toward hip-hop rhyme schemes with little pretense toward virtuosic MC flow. But these examples miss the point entirely, emphasising superficial pop style rather than thinking more deeply about art that expresses the ideals and challenges of Black life.

It might sound absurd if judging by their slightly awkward, extremely white appearance, but I have long heard a strange and beautiful Blackness in Radiohead. There are powerful resonances between their work and radical Black art, that are more meaningful than ever amid our current racial reckoning. Resistance, futurism and critiques of bald-faced power are hardwired into Radiohead’s sound, and this blend, along with their embrace of jazz and other revolutionary Black musical forms, is likely why a whole host of contemporary Black artists have covered their work.

The Black era of Radiohead came fully to the fore on Kid A. It was famously polarising, with some longing for more guitars, others hailing the boldness of its sonic invention. The latter camp – including me – celebrated the band’s willingness to push even further past verse-chorus-verse rock towards adventurous dance and electronic music, and jazz avant-gardism, in individual song ideas as well as overall ethical vision.

As the critic Simon Reynolds would have it, Kid A was a record that did the hard thing of capturing “the vivid colours, spatial weirdness and rhythmic compulsion” of electronic music while yet still summoning the feelings one associates with “surface-and-sensation oriented, collective high-inducing dance”. It was a record that struck out, as he argues, “in search of the remotest extremities of the rock tradition”.

In the year 2000, all I wanted, as a Black girl Radiohead fan, was to live with them out at these extremities. The woozy keyboard swirl and processed vocal gibberish of Everything in Its Right Place , the album’s opening track, announced the very opposite: all was about to be thrown thrillingly out of whack. The sublime Treefingers is a glimmering object that spins slowly around the universe; the spectacular plaintive sorrow of Motion Picture Soundtrack was an invitation to dive into a cinematic dreamscape of heartbreak. Why not live in these worlds, I thought, with the disaster of the US presidential election recount unfolding deep into the fall?

What makes Radiohead’s music such a radical endeavour to me are these deeply introspective other worlds, built as bulwarks against the tyrannies of everyday life (a world where “we’ve got heads on sticks / you’ve got ventriloquists,” as Thom Yorke sings in nightmarishly garbled vocals on the title track). Kid A’s recurring lyrical insistence on “slipping away” is nothing new to rock masculinity, an anxious nod to the stubborn will to “not fade” dating back to the genre’s earliest days. But it is also a gorgeous, revolutionary invitation to exist in an elsewhere, in a way that resonates with what scholars often refer to as the Black Radical tradition in music.

That tradition, which the philosopher and poet Fred Moten has written about extensively, reveals the ways that sound made by people who were once held captive, once deemed commodities, once defined as “not human”, is a vital form of self-making: it is the gateway to other lifeworlds to inhabit when no safe spaces are available. Black music, Moten argues, is “irruptive”, an “irreducibly disordering, deformational force” that has enabled colonised and disfranchised peoples to make a way out of no way.

This tradition can be felt across the history of Black pop, in, for instance, the Afrofuturist aesthetics of Sun Ra and Funkadelic, and arguably even the materialist fantasies of rap. In the Black Lives Matter era, artists such as Solange, Frank Ocean, Childish Gambino, the Weeknd, Janelle Monáe and others have forged a kind of R&B that leans into weariness, psychedelic dreaming and longing as a confrontation and exorcism of our present day anti-Black terror. These latter musicians came of age in a 21st-century landscape transformed, in part, by Radiohead’s risk-taking activity at the fringes of pop.

Kid A also aligned itself with jazz, the radical music before rock’n’roll that Black folks also birthed in response to the violence of Jim Crow life and the turbulence of mass migration. Those sounds come bursting forth on The National Anthem , with an eight-piece brass section invoking the spirit of the fearlessly way-out Art Ensemble of Chicago , as well as Charles Mingus’s 1964 Town Hall Concert , in which he called upon his ensemble to make noise akin to a traffic jam. Yorke sings through the cacophony: “Everyone around here / Everyone is so near / Everyone has got the fear / It’s holding on …” The body politic is fundamentally fraught, but this is the riotous music, this song tells us, that ferociously beats back against crisis.

There are abundant think pieces and academic theses on Radiohead’s fluent conversations with jazz: the band’s guitarist Jonny Greenwood has cited Miles Davis’s fusion classic Bitches Brew as an important blueprint for OK Computer, and Mingus has had a continuing impact on their work, for instance on Pyramid Song from 2001’s Amnesiac. Black jazz artists, meanwhile, repay Radiohead’s respects with their own. Pianist and producer Robert Glasper’s multiple, stirring Radiohead covers – of tracks such as Packt Like Sardines in a Crushed Tin Box and Reckoner – attest to the ways that their music travels in jazz musicians’ circles as topics of roving, improvisational exploration and abandon. Glasper’s crossfade reading of Everything in Its Right Place with Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage connect Kid A’s escapist watery universe – awash in keyboard soundscapes that plunging you down and pull you to the surface of things – with Hancock’s rolling aquatic journey.

But there are signs of Radiohead’s appeal to Black artists all around pop. Take the typically sly and unpredictable version of Creep that Prince dropped on a delighted Coachella audience in 2008, scrambling the pronouns of that self-loathing anthem (“What are we doing here? We don’t belong here!”). In Gnarls Barkley’s version of Reckoner (also circa ’08, at the dawn of the Obama era) Cee-Lo Green’s robust falsetto earnestly takes over Yorke’s dark songbird incantations about human division; Frank Ocean gave us an agonising and exquisite Fake Plastic Trees for one minute at a 2012 Spotify press conference. Risk-taking Black musicians keep turning to the band’s repertoire for its massive, formalist vistas, and for its expression of knotty feelings about the uncertainties of the world and one’s place in it.

One of the most ambitious attempts at wedding the form and the feeling of Radiohead’s music with African American music is OK Lady, Roman GianArthur’s underground sensation of a mashup album from 2015. The singer-songwriter and member of Janelle Monáe’s marvellously audacious Wondaland Arts Collective looped together his own deep groove arrangements of tracks from OK Computer and The Bends with the dense songbook of D’Angelo, R&B’s prince of brooding funk abstractions, gospel hymnody and bedroom ballads. Standing at the crossroads of cosmic despair and iridescent hope, GianArthur’s succinct, elegant project turned up the volume on Black Radical music’s affinities with the band.

Five years later, these affinities remain strong as ever for poet-singer Arlo Parks whose poignant, self-accompanied piano rendition of Creep stands out in a sea of similar interpretations by virtue of the 20-year-old Londoner’s delicately mature vocalising, and the way she transforms the song into a narrative of acutely queer heartbreak. And then there’s Lianne La Havas, whose self-titled third album released this year features a dramatically altered Weird Fishes, an underwater tale of love and fear from In Rainbows that circles back to themes of passion, submission, the anticipation of hitting the bottom of the sea of a relationship before finding an exit route. La Havas’s version slows things down to a march as she gets us to wade ever so carefully into the water with her; that big, shimmering vibrato of hers becomes “the deepest ocean,” the intoxicating alterity we all long for in this brutal era.

Her cover whispers the possibility one also hears in the string arrangements of Radiohead tracks such as Dollars and Cents, which conjure the spiritually escapist sounds of jazz harpist Alice Coltrane (another touchstone figure for the band). This dreamy, mystic aura is the language of personal transfiguration and change, a way to “be constructive with your blues”, as Yorke puts it on that song.

There are of course limits to the comparison. On the one hand, Kid A’s How to Disappear Completely feels to me as if it belongs on a wished-for soundtrack to Ralph Ellison’s still all-too-timely 1952 African American literary classic, Invisible Man. The song’s echoing refrain (“I’m not here / This isn’t happening”) sums up the agony of the novel’s unnamed narrator as well as his will to seize back the invisibility inflicted upon him by a white supremacist regime, and turn it into a shield and weapon. But Yorke’s challenges, we know, are not the same as Ellison’s hero. He chooses to be invisible in his reverie, as a reaction, perhaps, to his own struggles, which are worlds away from racial insult and injury. There are fathoms of Black experience that the band will simply never be able to access through their sound. Kid A’s biggest pop chorus, on Idioteque – “Here I’m allowed everything all of the time” – is a sarcastic condemnation of (white) privilege that has brought us to the edge of a climate crisis, but it’s a sentiment that may not chime with Black people, who aren’t allowed very much any of the time.

Yet the connections between Black liberation and Radiohead’s creative freedom are still rich and were made undeniable when they did what no other stadium rock group has, to my knowledge, ever done, back in 2016 on their A Moon Shaped Pool tour. With the stage darkly lit at the start of each night’s gig, the voice of a Black woman musical genius, of Black feminist revolution, of a towering figure of activism and fortitude in popular music – that of Nina Simone – would signal the beginning of the show. Her words washed over us again at Madison Square Garden when I caught them on another leg of the tour in 2018: “What’s free to me? ... I’ve had a couple of times on stage when I’ve really felt free. And that’s something else! ... I tell you what freedom means to me. No fear. I mean really no fear.”

I watched as the group took up their instruments under the cover of darkness and Nina’s words. There were no glaring lights, no raucous appeals to the crowd for welcoming applause, just the quiet resolve to pursue her charge, to live out the vision of her improvised aphorism. And, like the Black folks to my right and to my left – a smattering of peeps in the crowd, bespectacled young Afropunkers whose ardent anticipation was, like mine, palpable – I leapt out of my seat, ready to go with them to the free place of her dreams.

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Basic Jazz Record Library

Herbie hancock: 'maiden voyage'.

A. B. Spellman

Murray Horwitz

Web Resources

MURRAY HORWITZ, American Film Institute: Hello, I'm Murray Horwitz asking you to close your eyes, because A.B. Spellman and I have to ask you to visualize something, right now. Jazz musicians sometimes like to paint tone pictures, and Herbie Hancock gives us a seascape in this week's entry into the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library with Maiden Voyage .

A.B. SPELLMAN, National Endowment for the Arts: And a deep and rolling sea it is, Murray. Herbie said that he wanted to evoke everything in the ocean: the flow of the current; the creatures, great, small and mythical, who live in the water; the response of voyagers, who experience it for the first time. And he's done that. But mostly, he and his collaborators have made some very satisfying music. Here's the saxophonist George Coleman at his most lyrical on the title cut.

SPELLMAN: And again from the title composition, here's Freddie Hubbard doing a John Coltrane imitation on the trumpet.

HORWITZ: Then, there's always this magnificent rhythm section, the same one that Miles Davis assembled, leading the soloists and making a context for everything that happens.

SPELLMAN: I love every minute of all the music that Hancock, the bassist Ron Carter, and the drummer Tony Williams have made together. All are strong stylists, and together they have this sensitive coherence.

HORWITZ: Not least, two of Herbie Hancock's compositions for this record date became jazz standards — "Dolphin Dance" and "Maiden Voyage." And that's not surprising, because he is one of the best composers for small ensemble in the history of jazz music.

SPELLMAN: No doubt about it, Murray.

HORWITZ: We're listening to, and we've been talking about Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage . It's on the Blue Note label, and it's in the NPR Basic Jazz Record Library. The Basic Jazz Record Library is funded by NPR member stations and by the Lila-Wallace Reader's Digest Fund.

SPELLMAN: For information about Maiden Voyage , and other selections, visit our Web site. For NPR Jazz, I'm A.B. Spellman.

HORWITZ: And, I'm Murray Horwitz.

• Tony Williams
• Herbie Hancock

The maiden voyage of the Mayflower II: Provincetown was first again

My knowledge of the world drops off sharply beyond the Orleans rotary, but the recent hullabaloo about the Mayflower II passing through the Cape Cod Canal really sizzled my synapses.

Thus, a steep learning curve began. I figured the "II" in the name of the ship was likely a clue that the original Mayflower had retired to The Villages in Florida and was raising heck on a tricked-out golf cart. 

But that doesn't seem to be the case, although the fate of the original Mayflower appears to be murky, at least to a bumbling historical sleuth like me.

An intriguing possibility about what happened to the Mayflower was raised by noted historian and physician Charles Edward Banks in his 1929 book about the English ancestry and homes of the Pilgrims. Here's what he wrote:

"What finally became of her is an unsettled problem. Dr. Rendel Harris, an English historian of the Pilgrim ship, has published interesting material which he claims as proof that this historic vessel was finally broken up and her timbers used in the construction of a barn at Jordan's (village) in Buckinghamshire."

So let's assume the original Mayflower is no more. How the heck did folks come up with the idea to build a replica in the first place?

According to an account on the Plimoth Patuxet Museums website , a reproduction of the Mayflower "was always part of (founder) Harry Hornblower’s vision for Plimoth Patuxet Museums." The organization contracted a naval architect to cook up plans for a Mayflower-type ship in the early 1950s.

A similar plan was springing to life at roughly the same time in England, where a fellow named Warwick Charlton had founded Project Mayflower Ltd. "to honor the alliance of friendship forged between the United States and United Kingdom during World War II," according to Plimoth Patuxet .

Team Charlton read an article by Plimoth Patuxet's naval architect, which led to Plimoth Patuxet sharing their research and plans. The game was afoot!

According to his 2002 obituary in The Telegraph, an English newspaper, "Charlton was determined that everything about the ship and its voyage should be authentic."

The Mayflower II was built in Devon, England in the mid-1950s, as the creative Charlton was able to find all sorts of ways to finance the replica, including charging folks two shillings to get a look at the ongoing construction.

According to Charlton's obituary, "On April 20, 1957, amid much publicity on both sides of the Atlantic .... the 33-man crew, dressed as Pilgrim Fathers, set sail from Brixham. Powered solely by sail, Mayflower II took 54 days .... to cross the Atlantic, during which time the crew encountered a violent storm and a severe depletion of supplies. The beer ration was reduced to a bottle a day."

The final destination on the ship's maiden voyage was Plymouth , a seaside town located somewhere off-Cape. But all Cape Codders know that the original Pilgrims stopped in Provincetown first , and so did the Mayflower II.

The June 13, 1957 front page headline in the Provincetown Advocate newspaper read: "Mayflower II Makes Safe Harbor Here As Thousands Line Shore In Welcome."

Here's some of the Advocate story: "The Mayflower II rounded Long Point and headed into the harbor at 12:30 yesterday afternoon, 53 days out of England, thus marking Provincetown's authentic place in the history of the nation as the first landing place of the Pilgrims."

Local officials also stressed the Provincetown-first storyline: "Joseph Lema Jr., Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, reading from a scroll, said, 'You have attested your fidelity to history by stopping first in the waters of this ancient Town of Provincetown where your forefathers first touched foot on the soil of the Western hemisphere."

It seems the Pilgrim rivalry between Provincetown and Plymouth was still going strong back then. The Advocate article ends with this: "Whatever follows in Plymouth will be anti-climatic, Provincetown felt. For this original landing place the real story took place in the harbor, here."

Eric Williams, when not solving Curious Cape Cod mysteries, writes about a variety of ways to enjoy the Cape, the weather, wildlife and other subjects. Contact him at  [email protected] . Follow him on X: @capecast.

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Elektrostal , Moscow Oblast, Russia

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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• Victor Mukhin

Victor M. Mukhin was born in 1946 in the town of Orsk, Russia. In 1970 he graduated the Technological Institute in Leningrad. Victor M. Mukhin was directed to work to the scientific-industrial organization "Neorganika" (Elektrostal, Moscow region) where he is working during 47 years, at present as the head of the laboratory of carbon sorbents.     Victor M. Mukhin defended a Ph. D. thesis and a doctoral thesis at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia (in 1979 and 1997 accordingly). Professor of Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia. Scientific interests: production, investigation and application of active carbons, technological and ecological carbon-adsorptive processes, environmental protection, production of ecologically clean food.   

Title : Active carbons as nanoporous materials for solving of environmental problems

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