Talk:Alex Kapranos

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Moved VfD discussion to Talk:Alexander Kapranos/Archive VFD. There's not really much debate about their or his notability now... — ciphergoth 19:17, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Nationality

He cannot have been born in two countries and is therefore a British musician, of Greek decent....— ciphergoth 19:17, 2 sep 2007 (UTC)

Generally, nationality is established at birth by a child's place of birth (jus soli) and/or bloodline (jus sanguinis). Nationality may also be acquired later in life through naturalization.....— ciphergoth 19:17, 2 sep 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Descision

Page changed per request. Ryan Norton T | @ | C 13:09, 11 Sep 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Huntley?

Um, Huntley is his mother's maiden name from what I've heard.

That's what I've heard, too. Starla Dear 16:34, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
It was the name his father adopted from his aunt aged 15
Do you have a source for that? Starla Dear 16:45, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
You can find it on their offical fansite

important correction concerning the name:

Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley was his birth name as corroborated in the Infobox, and therefore. Alex Kapranos is a pseudonym of sorts. "Huntley" was never legally 'dropped'. (where is your source?) I'll change it if no-one objects... — ciphergoth 19:17, 2 sep 2007 (UTC)

A pseudonym (Greek: ψευδόνυμον, pseudo + -onym: false name) is an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a person's legal name.

It's not a pseudonym, then. It's a shortening of his full name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.159.50.61 (talk) 01:43, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Descision

Page changed per request. Ryan Norton T | @ | C 13:09, 11 Sep 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alexander or Alex?

Why is this titled Alexander? Even his Guardian column is bylined "Alex Kapranos". I'll move it if no-one objects... — ciphergoth 19:17, 2 October 2005 (UTC)

Sure. - PurpleStripe

important correction concerning the name:

Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley was his birth name as corroborated in the Infobox, and therefore. Alex Kapranos is a pseudonym of sorts. "Huntley" was never legally 'dropped'. (where is your source?) I'll change it if no-one objects... — ciphergoth 19:17, 2 sep 2007 (UTC)

A pseudonym (Greek: ψευδόνυμον, pseudo + -onym: false name) is an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a person's legal name.

[edit] Descision

Page changed per request. Ryan Norton T | @ | C 13:09, 11 Sep 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The photo

Shouldn't it be more "appropriate"?

I was thinking the same thing. Stan weller 10:13, 12 November 2005 (UTC)

I agree.

Appropriate? Like a school picture? This I believe displays his passion for music quite well.

How about a promo picture? Starla Dear 01:57, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

The current photo is rather blurry; the previous one was better, since, as stated before displayed his passion for music quite well.

  • I agree. This photo is too dark and blurry. The previous photo was a much better illustration. Giacomodalsace 18:58, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
  • so, does anyonw know how to change the picture?

[edit] Eleanor Friedberger edit tussle

The line about Alex's relationship with Eleanor Friedberger keeps being changed from "currently" to "previously" and sometimes to not being there at all. Only being a big fan of The Fiery Furnaces (Eleanor's band) and the writer of most of their pages on here, I'm not really in a position to say whether they are really going out or not. Still, changing between two condtradictory stances on any fact (however minor) is really not a good place for an encyclopedia to be. I propose we either decide (and provide a source or reference for) one of the options, make a vague claim that the relationship status is unclear, or remove the sections altogether (on both the individuals' pages). I personally saw mr Kapranos at a Furnaces show only a few weeks ago and both of them certainly looked happy. Perhaps we should ask someone from the indie-rock equivalent of Smash Hits to find out for us. Jellypuzzle 11:00, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Ok, it's been changed AGAIN. Come on folks, someone at least provide a source. --Jellypuzzle 11:45, 24 November 2005 (UTC)
I don't think discussion about my relationship is appropriate here - AK
See this Times interview with Friedberger in 2004] (scroll down). Image:Huskyeye.jpg Husky (talk page) 20:12, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

If you don't want people to talk about your relationships do you really think you should be famous AK? Ok sometimes people should leave it out but, come on you're like a hero to people so they're gonna want to know everything about you..

There is a whole paragraph about their relationship on the Wikipedia article on Eleanor Friedberger. If it is okay there, then why not here?


His personal life shouldn't be discussed anywhere. Although he is famous, don't you think he deserves some privacy like everyone else?

Ok fair enough the comment i made earlier about "If you don't want people to talk about your relationships do you really think you should be famous AK? Ok sometimes people should leave it out but, come on you're like a hero to people so they're gonna want to know everything about you" was a little harsh but i'm a huge fan, not a stalker, so it doesn't bother me whether his relationship is over or not, but i know loads of people that want to know everything about him so they can be like him. That's fair enough so long as it doesn't go too far. He should have privacy as you said. Everyone should. In the real world there's always going to be someone who encroaches on that privacy. He's a great guy and he deserves some respect. If he doesn't want Eleanor discussed then i'm willing to respect that wish. BK

He should be and is to most, a hero because of his music, not because of his relationships.

[edit] His age?

Ok. So there has always been a thing about his age and how Alex has "lost his passport." Anyway, the profile says he is 34 but i've read articles where Alex himself has said he is 29 and that those rumours are bollocks. So i'm wondering what the truth behind his age is. There should be some sort of source to say he is 34.. it's all a mystery to me still.. 34 or 29?

He is indeed, 34. Otherwise he's been 29 for 5 years...
He finally said that he was 34. Actually he said that he's been writing songs since he was fourteen, and that was twenty years ago. Starla Dear 16:46, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] allergic to peanuts and animals?

i understand allergic to peanuts, but allergic to animals? is that a meat allergy? which meats? is it actually some kind of roundabout way of saying he's a vegetarian? i could be wrong but i don't think anyone in the world has an allergy to every kind of meat. if that's what the article it's saying, then it needs to be wikified... on the other hand if you mean animal dander, again... which animals? humans are animals. as for likening it to arsenic, what does that mean? all of these things would be completely fatal? i've written too much. all i'm saying is that that whole section is baffling. Youdontsmellbad 21:47, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

He's allergic to animals, as in live animals as in animal saliva and dander. I think when you say that someone is allergic to animals it's implied that it's animal saliva and dander, and not meat and humans.
Here is the post that Alex left on their website. It should explain the whole arsenic thing:
I had the most horrific night, last night. I was up until 5:30, retching, then retching again until it was just blood and bile coming up. I have an allergy to peanuts. My friend Kate, who is a fantastic cook, made some baklava. The packet of hazelnuts she used had one of those generic catch-all notices on the back: “Made in a factory that processes other nuts - may contain traces of peanut”. I’m not as allergic as some other people. I just retch for hours. Other people go into anaphylactic shock and die very quickly. Apparently it’s a similar death to swallowing arsenic.
Just suppose there was a hypothetical factory which produced chocolate bars or sliced bread. They also processed arsenic. In fact they used the same machines to process the arsenic that they used to process sweets and bread. But that’s OK. They didn’t clean the machines between uses, they just put a little notice on the back by the ingredients saying: “Warning: May Contain Traces Of Arsenic”.
Hope that clears it up. Starla Dear 16:53, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
allegic to animals?! in soundbites he says he went horse riding!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.151.33.115 (talk) 14:11, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Gear?

What is the obsession with the Fender telecaster? Does it really necessitate its own sub-heading?

[edit] South Shields/Sunderland

I appreciate a citation needs to be found regarding Kapranos' South Tyneside/Wearside links, but should it really be in question? I thought it was common knowledge. I've heard it referred to in a number of music magazines including Q and NME. You can hear it in his accent and singing voice, just as much as his Glaswegian accent. Anyway, I've found a Guardian article written by him which tells of his links with the area

http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1655966,00.html

His grandmother is from South Shields, so he obviously spent a lot of time them. There is also this

http://homeboynet.wordpress.com/2006/11/05/the-greek-arch-cook-franz-ferdinand/

“My dad played guitar. He used to play in beat groups in the 1960s. He’d play R’n’B and blues in the working men’s clubs of South Shields. I have very early memories of my dad holding down chords and me strumming."

Is this adequate?

hedpeguyuk 09:33, 11 Feb 2007 (UTC)

The "Sunderland" reference comes from the fact that he lived in Washington for a while, not the city of Sunderland itself (administratively it's part of the Sunderland borough, though it's closer to Gateshead). So if someone wants to adequately cite that fact, along with the South Shields stuff, you'd do better searching for Washington than Sunderland. I saw this in an interview in local newspaper the Evening Chronicle (Newcastle) about a year or two ago when they played here. Don't know whether the article is online, but inevitably most of the interview was him talking about his local childhood, as you'd expect from the fluff pieces you get in local-paper music sections..

[edit] Slash

There seems to be a debate emerging the relevance of so-called "slash" fiction, written by teenage girls who fantasise that their idols are homosexual in order to gratify themselves.

Whether this has any relevance to this article is highly questionable. It appears to have been added to assuage the egos of the protagonists of this fiction. It has no direct relevance to Kapranos himself.

Agreed. --DavidShankBone 19:46, 11 February 2007 (UTC)


Well said. BK

The above 2 (or 3?) partly/uncertainly unsigned messages (1 or 2 sock puppets?) indulge in ad hominem arguments and feeble speculation unworthy of an FF fan. The FF slash is a big phenomenon and AK has talked about it more than once. The quotes are there. It seems entirely 'relevant' for a trivia section therefore. Soane 16:09, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
Trivia sections are discouraged, see Wikipedia:Avoid trivia sections in articles and are often used to justify inclusion of various bits of information that may or may not be interesting for an encyclopedia entry. What would make the Slash Fiction notable on this page is if there are newspaper or magazine articles talking about what a phenomenon it has become in Alex Kapranos's life. Thus, this may be better suited for the Franz Ferdinand page. Regardless, I do feel that a Live Journal site of fiction casting the band as gay doesn't merit entry into Wikipedia unless it truly is a phenomenon. Having the band mention it may thrill the Slackened Ties participants, but it hardly makes them noteworthy to the rest of the world, for whom Wikipedia is written. Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not should be read. --DavidShankBone 17:01, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

A fan site is not included, even in a trivia section or an external link section. Unfortunately, the only people slackening their ties at slackened_ties are the contributors to that site. Please, gals, find another venue for validation. This isn't the place, and if we allowed you all to be included, it would open floodgates that would thus make your inclusion here meaningless. This is a community effort to share serious information; not a fan forum. That said...I completely understand where you all come from - ha! Just the wrong platform here. Please stop. --DavidShankBone 01:42, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scottish or English?

I don't personally have an opinion on this, but others do. How does one decide if a person is Scottish or English? It can't be discerned genetically, so is it a parental thing? If so, does his father actually make him Greek, or is there a rule similar to the Jewish tradition that his mother is the one who decides his status, which would then be English? Or is it a cultural issue, which would undoubtedly make him Scottish. I personally have no horse in this race, but it needs to be decided to stop the revert back-n-forth. And does anybody have a linke to what he considers himself (which is only incidental to this discussion, since subjects don't decide their own WP entries, but it does inform us on the matter). --DavidShankBone 01:42, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

His heritage CONSTANTLY changes on here from English to Scottish, then British to Greek, and sometimes a few combined. I don't think it should be included in the article until someone can find an honest source that states his true heritage because no one can seem to agree... --HarmoniousSky 05:28, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Images

We can not use copyrighted photographs when we have our open-use photographs, per Wikipedia:Fair use. I understand that every fan with a camera phone wants to put a grainy band pic up from the show they attended, but perhaps instead create a gallery. Right now, the best photographs available of Kapranos are the book store shots, several angles of varying quality can be found here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Alex_Kapranos. But this artcle is not about Franz Ferdinand, it's about Alex Kapranos, the singer, the writer, the person. So a "band shot" is not necessary, just like a book store photo of Alex Kapranos is unnecessary on the Franz Ferdinand page. Get a better close-up, quality photo of Kapranos, put it up. But let's take the page a little more seriously than every fan with a camera phone who wants to see the "concert that changed their life" on the page. --David Shankbone 12:42, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

How about Image:Alex Kapranosconcert.jpg, or a cropped version of it? Shows him fairly clearly. Archibald99  13:01, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
The problem with that photo is it is grainy, it's not nearly as clear as the bookstore shot, and it is of unknown copyright. --David Shankbone 13:53, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Broken Link

The bisexual citation doesn't link to anything and doesn't correspond to any external links, and I seem to remember it used to link to the interview. Can anyone fix this? Vanityjunkie 15:01, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bisexual edits...

I don't see how people can take the fact that he said, "Either" when asked "Boys or girls?" here: [[1]] It's open ended really. Maybe he meant he likes either sex better as friends, or possibly wants either boys or girls for children. Don't insinuate that he's bisexual from that though. Unless he comes out and actually says he is, it doesn't belong in the article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by HarmoniousSky (talk • contribs) 22:53, 13 April 2007 (UTC).

Agreed. This is a tenuous inference - sex or sexuality is not mentioned in the question or answer. If this is the only 'evidence' for the subject's sexuality, then there is nothing to support it. Besides, this form of speculation is not suitable for an encyclopedia - more for the realm of speculative gossip tabloids or fan-sites. It appears to be added by editors who, for some reason, wish he was bi-sexual. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wardroad (talk • contribs) 15:08, 21 April 2007 (UTC).
It does seem to be a theme that keeps coming up with him, so it should be addressed - if only to show how limited to evidence is. He has 'thematized' it in songs and interviews. I don't see that any inference is drawn. 88888 15:40, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
Precisely. Only the most tenuous inference of bisexuality can be drawn from the fanzine interview. There are no other interviews where it is mentioned. The only interview that is being quoted here is not evidence enough to support the theory. There is only one song (Michael) which is sung from the perspective of another person (Michael). Even if there were other sources, this issue relates to the personal life of the subject and is therefore not suitable for an encyclopedia. Incidentally, this all seems reminiscent of the previous debate over the issue of so-called "slash fiction". Wardroad
I think this issue became overblown because of the silliness with that slash fiction stuff where those girls who like to fantasize about Kapranos fucking guys, and they compose fiction around the idea. That said, there is light play around the idea of bisexuality, but I read it more the way David Bowie used to talk about it to play around with people's notions of him. Later on he said it was all a bunch of talk. But it's notable as a mention, since it keeps popping up and there's a history of this adding an "edge" to a person's public persona. But to call him bisexual is simply ridiculous. --David Shankbone 19:33, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
" I think this issue became overblown because of the silliness with that slash fiction stuff where those girls who like to fantasize about Kapranos fucking guys, and they compose fiction around the idea." - for goodness´ sake, a bit of decorum, please.


Though, think about it. He was having an interview and was asked to choose between boys or girls. What would you say if someone asked you that? I wasn't there to detect the "irony", but he replied, "either". In the light of his songs and the press the band receive and the slash fiction, I would have thought it wasn't unreasonable to note it in the article. Why censor him? Soane 00:47, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
This is really not an issue. He's not gay or bisexual, but wrote a song from the perspective of a man dancing with another man. He also wrote Take Me Out from the perspective of a sniper - that doesn't make him a soldier. There's an interesting article here [2] which talks about it. It's not a case of not 'censoring' him, but of not mis-representing him. Wardroad

In reply to Soane...they just asked him, "Boys or girls?" not, "Which sex are you attracted to?" There you go assuming things like everyone else who changes his article. All I'm saying is that people shouldn't ASSUME that he's bisexual from that. Unless he actually SAYS that he is, it's all gossip and it makes us no better than tabloids. By the way, he's the lead singer of the band, but that doesn't make the songs about his own personal experiences. He just sings the lyrics and he's even said that some of the songs are from other people's point of views or conversations he and his bandmates have overheard. HarmoniousSky

Oh, I wasn't drawing inferences, just suggesting that the interview, the lyrics, the slash are enough to warrant a small paragraph - even if just to show that the 'evidence' is less strong than people thank it is. Most of my friends (of all preferences) assume more is going on. Soane 09:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Slash is totally irrelevant. Assumptions aren't what we base additions on. Most of what is proposed here, anyway, is more appropriate for the band's page than for Kapranos's page. --David Shankbone 15:51, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
I think perhaps some people are becoming a little overheated and unfocused. No one made any assumptions - at least I didn't - perhaps you are thinking of someone else. I said that there was enough - the 'either' interview, the lyrics, the slash (remember his comments on slash everyone?) - for a small paragraph about his repeated "bi-teasing" (hope everyone will agree on calling it that officially), enough for a small paragraph, homophobes and self-appointed censors notwithstanding. Soane 16:59, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Don't be insulting towards other editors, Wardroad.~ZytheTalk to me! 21:08, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

Gosh, just noticed that! I honestly can't see how I insulted anyone. Hope you're feeling better now ;) Wardroad 22:27, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
I'm not "overheated and unfocused" if you were directing that towards me... I just dislike that so many people keep changing the article when there's no real proof saying that he is. Don't take what I say personally.  :) HarmoniousSky


[edit] Category:English atheists

Is this category relevant? There's nothing in the article to suggest so. -88.110.221.64 11:25, 17 October 2007 (UTC)