Roy Carr
The late Roy Carr began his career as a member of Blackpool-based band the Executives. The band supported many leading acts in the mid-1960s, including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who, and had several unsuccessful singles issued on the Columbia and CBS labels. Carr became friendly with many leading musicians, including John Lennon; in 1969, when working with a local promoter in Toronto, Carr reported on Lennon's appearance at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival.
After first starting to write reviews for Jazz News and the NME in the early 1960s, he joined the NME staff in March 1970. He contributed as a reviewer, interviewer and columnist to the magazine's relaunch later in the decade under editors Alan Smith and Nick Logan. During the 1980s and 1990s, he compiled the majority of free tape and CD compilations that were given away with music magazines such as NME, Vox and Melody Maker, including the influential C86 cassette compilation.
Carr also worked as a broadcaster, record producer, and writer of album liner notes.His career as a music journalist and magazine editor continued until his official retirement in 2006, in later years contributing as a freelance writer to jazz magazines. Roy's health deteriorated after the sudden death of his son in 2013. He died of a heart attack in hospital on 1 July 2018, aged 73.
104 articles
List of articles in the library by artist
Ace gotta play their cards right
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 January 1975
When you've spent your life on the breadline, one hit single doesn't mean a financial freakout. Our economics correspondent ROY CARR reports. ...
Report and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 10 November 1973
ROY CARR in Wandsworth with another of those up'n coming pub bands. ...
Allman Brothers Band: At Fillmore East (Atlantic T659005, £3.45)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 13 November 1971
WITH THE current output of albums at saturation point, it is extremely hard for a reviewer to devote more than just one brief hearing to ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 April 1972
TALKING TO the Allman Brothers at their overnight camp in a palatial hotel in Hollywood, it soon became obvious that everyone still thinks and talks ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 July 1972
Will CSN&Y ever re-unite and find true happiness? ...
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 June 1970
Clapton leads — and sings his heart out ...
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 25 July 1970
I THOUGHT I'd just wander down to Hyde Park, lay under a tree and quietly listen to the music. However, it seems that Blackhill organisers ...
Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Brian Eno, Nico: Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Nico, Eno: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974
Ayers puts the A in ACNE ...
Special Feature by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 17 May 1975
Hey, punk! — Didja know that... ...
The Band, Todd Rundgren: Raving Over The Runt, Alias Todd Rundgren: Rock Whiz-Kid
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
THE NAME Todd Rundgren may sound more like a catarrhal growl than the monicker of an aspiring 23-year-old young musical whiz-kid. ...
The Beatles: Apple Corps: They didn't have to be so nice... (We would have liked them anyway)
Report by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 17 May 1975
Inquest by ROY CARR ...
The Beatles, Dion, George Harrison, John Lennon, Darlene Love, Phil Spector: Phil Spector Again
Report and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 March 1976
Flourishing a revolver our weird hero enters his dark, refrigerated room to recount strange tales the likes of which may never before have been heard ...
Black Sabbath, Yes: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 25 July 1970
WITH CHAMPAGNE in hand, Herr Klook re-emerged before a capacity crowd to present his new series of Friday night scenes at the Lyceum. ...
Art Blakey, Horace Silver: Blue Note Records: The Rolls Royce of Jazz
Retrospective by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 26 October 1985
For 30 years the Blue Note label was the premier outlet for jazz. Now its catalogue is being made available again. ROY CARR breathes a ...
Profile and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 13 November 1976
THE SENSUOUS POUT FROM CBGB ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 14 March 1970
Guitar ace with Booker T, Stax producer and formerly with Otis Redding's show ...
David Bowie: The Case For and Against Bowie: Shrewd Publicity Stunt Or Necessity?
Interview by Roy Carr, Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 14 July 1973
AFTER CALLING Jeff Beck on stage to climax last week s final night of his British tour, David Bowie reappeared alone before the curtain to ...
James Brown the Cassius Clay of Music
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 March 1971
JAMES BROWN — broad and stocky — America's Soul Brother Supreme, with a warm smile etched deep into his granite face — perhaps the very ...
James Brown: Hot Pants (Polydor 2425086 £2.15p)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 6 November 1971
IF YOUR big turn on is leapin' n' boogalooin' about in stuffy, sweatin' coalbunker discotheques while having your ears and mind blown by a thundering ...
James Brown: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 March 1971
"I WANNA know... do I you feel alllllrrriiiigggght?" "Yeaaaaahhhh," roared the audience in reply. "Did yaa bring your sex machine with you?" The affirmative cry ...
James Brown: The Cassius Clay of Music
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 March 1971
JAMES BROWN — broad and stocky — America's Soul Brother Supreme, with a warm smile etched deep into his granite face — perhaps the very ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 12 May 1973
This is the man Presley's musicians turn to when they're sick of those Las Vegas riffs. ...
Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Lindisfarne: Bob Johnston: The most envied man in pop
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 19 June 1971
Roy Carr talks to the man who records Dylan, Cash and Cohen ...
The Chi-Lites: Roy Carr in Harlem sees the Chi-Lites
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 5 February 1972
IT HAS TAKEN the Chi-Lites ten years to become an overnight success. A decade of dues playing on the Chitlin' circuit which helped justify their ...
Merry Clayton: Gimme Shelter (A&M Ode 70 series, stereo, AMLS 995, 39s 11d)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 21 November 1970
OVER THE last year or so Merry Clayton has graduated in status to the almost royal ranks of the fashionable clique of international sessioneers. Her ...
Jimmy Cliff, Cat Stevens: Jimmy Cliff Has No Plans To Do Another Stevens Song
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 August 1970
WHEN I ARRIVED at Island Records' outpost, which is just a stallholder's cry off the colourful Portobello Road street-market in West London's Notting Hill Gate, ...
George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Funkadelic, Parliament: The Creation of Dr Funkenstein
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 7 January 1978
The scene: Maggotropolis, Hollywood. The target: the infamous Mr. GEORGE CLINTON High Priest of a Black Unholy Trinity. Enter a reporter clutching a clove of ...
Cockney Rebel: The Human Menagerie (EMI)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 26 January 1974
JUDGING FROM the mass of press coverage that Cockney Rebel are currently grabbing for themselves, it would appear that their verbose frontman Steve Harley is ...
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 January 1977
'Dock Of The Bay' was never like this! Soul Music shifts a gear ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Creedence's "Band" Tribute To Rock Stars
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 April 1970
"IN THE States, they tell us Creedence Clearwater Revival are the stop-gap between the Beatles and the 'next Beatles — whoever the next Beatles may ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: John Fogerty: I've always wanted to be a rock 'n' roll star
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 September 1971
IF THERE has been one solitary factor which has completely dominated John Fogerty's lifestyle, it has been his insatiable desire to be a successful rock ...
Miles Davis: A Tribute to Jack Johnson (CBS 70089; £2.19)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 September 1971
FOR WELL over two decades of music, trumpeter Miles Davis has remained as one of the few unchallenged innovators and to this day he still ...
Miles Davis: Montreux Jazz Festival, Casino de Montreux
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 3 August 1985
DADDY COOL! ...
Deep Purple: Lyceum Ballroom, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 July 1970
Deep Purple at riotous best ...
Desmond Dekker Is To Reveal His Two Sides On Double LP
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 26 September 1970
THE WHOLE economical structure of pop music is to seek out an acceptable format and then market it for mass appeal and consumption. So what ...
Derek & Clive: The Worst Job I Ever 'Ad
Report and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 September 1976
Derek and Clive and the rich panorama of sub-human life ...
Dire Straits: A Poor Man's Guide To That First Million
Report and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 9 June 1979
ROY CARR gives DIRE STRAITS a lesson in market forces. But M. Knopfler Inc. need no telling. ...
The Doors: L.A. Woman (Elektra EKS.75011; £2.15)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 24 July 1971
CONTROVERSIAL DOORS ...
The Doors, Jim Morrison: Jim Morrison, Dec. 1943-July 1971
Obituary by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 17 July 1971
AMERICA DIDN'T have a Jagger. It did have Jim Morrison... the first major American male sex symbol since James Dean. ...
Lamont Dozier: Holland-Dozier-Holland
Interview by Roy Carr, Gavin Martin, Uncut, September 2004
They were pop's most prolific hit factory, producing 70 US Top Ten singles and 20 No. 1s. On the 45th anniversary of Motown, we meet ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973
SEX, DRUGS, VIOLENCE AND THE MAFIA? FORGET IT. THIS GUY'S THE SAVIOUR OF NEW ORLEANS. ROY CARR reports from Montreux. ...
Dr. John: Dr John: In A Sentimental Mood (Warner Bros LP/Cassette/CD)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 May 1989
FUNNY OL' game the record business! First, we have the triumphant return of the Neville Brothers to the A&M stable after a ten year absence ...
Ian Dury: New Boots And Panties!! (Stiff)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 1 October 1977
WHAT WE have in New Boots And Panties!! is a long overdue solo album from one of Britain's most unique and uncompromising talents. ...
Ellie Greenwich: Leaders of the Pack
Interview by Roy Carr, Andrew Tyler, New Musical Express, 3 November 1973
Ten years ago the American pop scene was dominated by two opposing song factories — KIRSHNER'S Krazy Kids and the Behemoths of the BRILL BUILDING. ...
Emerson Lake & Palmer: Pictures At An Exhibition (Island, HELP. 1; £1.50).
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 December 1971
"HANS, IS das cheering on zee stereo gramafunken for zee Furhrer at zee 1937 Nuremburg Rally?" ...
Fleetwood Mac: Fleetwood Mac (Reprise)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 27 September 1975
Have the Mac lost the knack of attack? ...
Aretha Franklin: Young, Gifted & Black (Atlantic)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 25 March 1972
THIS NEW album once again illustrates Aretha as one of the finest interpretive artists of this era and the diverse material — beautifully arranged by ...
Free: Fire and Water (Island stereo, ILPS.9120. 37s. 5d.)
Review and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 July 1970
FREE'S FASTEST-SELLER Roy Carr's track-by-track with vocalist Paul Rodgers ...
Free: Live (Island ILPS 9160. £2.15)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 12 June 1971
Free's last album — their finest ever? ...
Marvin Gaye: Trouble Man (Tamla Motown)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 13 January 1973
THE GAYE JAMES BOND ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 8 February 1975
SO GRAHAM CENTRAL STATION RUNS TO SCHEDULE... ...
Grateful Dead: Grateful Dead (Warner Bros. K66009. 2-album set, £3.75).
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 December 1971
IT'S A SAD but true fact. There are not many people in this country who have had the enviable pleasure of actually seeing THE Great ...
Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia: A Rare Interview
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 5 February 1972
Roy Carr in New York: the problems of making the Dead NOT happen ...
Grateful Dead: The Grateful Dead: Empire Pool, Wembley, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 April 1972
SINGIN' AND BOPPIN' WITH THE DEAD ...
Al Green: Let's Stay Together (London)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 April 1972
WHILE SUPER Spade and Mighty Whitey have been down in the alley battling it out to see who has the most soul n' funk, Al ...
Emmylou Harris: Luxury Liner (Warner Bros.)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977
While the Hot Band get hotter, Emmylou just gets better... ...
Isaac Hayes: Black Moses (Stax)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 5 February 1972
HAYES SPREADS IT THIN ...
Jimi Hendrix: Rainbow Bridge (Reprise. K44159, £2.15)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 27 November 1971
THIS IS the second album of hitherto unreleased Hendrix material put out by different companies in as many weeks, three if you count the duplications ...
Hotlegs' hit more atmosphere than songs says Lol Creme
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 August 1970
"I SUPPOSE you could say that 'Neanderthal Man' is really a freak record... Well, it's hardly a song, is it?" ...
Hot Tuna: Burgers (Grunt Records)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 April 1972
DESPITE THE fact that Hot Tuna are a direct off-shoot from the Jefferson Airplane hanger, they have managed with discretion to avoid any obvious hype, ...
Jermaine Jackson: My Name Is Jermaine (Tamla Motown)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977
COULD BE that marrying the boss's daughter has caused Jermaine Jackson a few problems. Not only is the boss' son-in-law expected to try that much ...
Jefferson Airplane: Bark (Grunt Records. FTR 1001. £2.15)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 September 1971
Airplane: One of year's best LPs ...
Jo Mama, Carole King, James Taylor: James Taylor, Carole King, Jo Mama: Royal Festival Hall, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 17 July 1971
FROM THE outset you just can't but help having a warm affinity for James Taylor. Seemingly all arms, legs and baggy trousers, Taylor shyly lopes ...
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 16 August 1975
YOU KNOW when you're frantically searching for a specific waveband on a cheap pocket transistor radio, and no matter how hard you try to tune ...
B.B. King: Question & Answer with B.B. King, legendary guitarist
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 19 June 1971
IT'S NOT every day of the week that one gets the rare opportunity of meeting a legend, let alone a childhood idol. For that is ...
Carole King: Subtle, Intense: Carole King: Fantasy (Ode Import)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 23 June 1973
AFTER THE DISAPPOINTMENT of Rhymes & Reasons, I found myself approaching this album with a certain degree of trepidation. For, having failed to ignite any ...
Jonathan King: My Ego? Its Still Huge Says Jonathan King
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 24 July 1971
Each week Roy Carr puts an In-The-News name in the NME Hot Seat ...
Led Zeppelin: Thirty Years Gone: Remembering John Bonham
Book Excerpt by Roy Carr, 'Talk on the Wild Side' (EarBooks), 2009
WELL, THIS IS L.A., so I assume we're being hit by an earthquake. What else could cause the walls of my hotel room to vibrate ...
Led Zeppelin: Gassin' With Zeppelin
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
HOW ROBERT PLANT STAYS FRESH ...
Led Zeppelin: Houses Of The Holy (Atlantic)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 31 March 1973
Zep make masochism worthwhile ...
Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin IV (Atlantic Deluxe, 240.1012 £2.35)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 November 1971
A GUARANTEED million seller well before it's release, perhaps in theory even before it was recorded, this, the long-awaited fourth album from Led Zeppelin is ...
Led Zeppelin, Stone the Crows: Empire Pool, Wembley
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 27 November 1971
Zeppelin circus roars into town ...
Linda Lewis, Jimmy Webb: Jimmy Webb, Linda Lewis: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 April 1972
THERE MAY BE something extremely valid in a composer performing his own highly successful material in concert, and though Jimmy Webb accomplished this to a ...
Report and Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 12 June 1971
In true Mickey Spillane style, Roy Carr investigates the case of the six-year-old hit. ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 19 June 1971
And ROY (Humphrey) CARR is very glad about it! ...
Charles Mingus: Charlie Mingus: April 22, 1922 — Jan 5, 1979
Obituary by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 January 1979
SOME TIME back a 'friend' borrowed a large number of my jazz albums — and sold them. All I can say is that the rip-off ...
Keith Moon, The Who: Keith Moon: The Chancellor and the Drummer Boy
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 17 January 1976
Is KEITH MOON The Biggest Loony in the World? Or is DENIS HEALEY Even Dafter? ROY CARR tells the heart-tugging tale of The Chancellor and ...
Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey (Warner Bros. K.46114; £2 15)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 December 1971
THERE ARE those albums which one enjoys so much that one doesn't want to review them, but just play continuously. This, Van Morrison's latest epistle, ...
Mott the Hoople: Royal Albert Hall, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 17 July 1971
WHEN MOTT the Hoople took the dear old Albert Hall by storm on Thursday evening it was like a return to the halcyon days of ...
Mott The Hoople: Mott, Working Class Heroes
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 December 1971
IF IAN HUNTER'S vision becomes a reality, then we are about to witness the first generation gap within the new rock culture. For Hunter states ...
Mountain, Wishbone Ash: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 November 1971
WISHBONE ASH are without a doubt one of our finest new bands — they make good albums, and their ever-increasing following is loyal. However, at ...
Art Pepper, Before And After Life
Profile and Interview by Roy Carr, Brian Case, New Musical Express, 11 February 1978
And still going strong. The alto legend is working again after beating heroin addiction and 12 years in jail. ...
Professor Longhair: Longhair, the man who started it all
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 14 July 1973
ROY CARR MEETS PROFESSOR LONGHAIR, THE WORLD'S MOST RIPPED-OFF LEGEND ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 5 August 1978
CONTRARY TO legend, out on the road the Rolling Stones attempt to lead as normal a life as one can expect when living out of ...
The Rolling Stones: Eight Stone Exiles
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
IT COULD TAKE the Rolling Stones' new double-album Exile On Main Street, says NME's ROY CARR, to awaken those members of the rock nation so ...
The Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street (Rolling Stones Records)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
And here, a track by track of the upcoming Exile On Main Street set three weeks before release ...
Jimmy Ruffin Forecasts Motown Sound Chances
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 April 1970
"WITHOUT A doubt there is going to be a big change in the Motown sound as we know it. And many of today's 'happening' names ...
Todd Rundgren: Something/Anything? (Bearsville Records)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 15 April 1972
ENTER, ONE lanky fair-haired youth called Todd Rundgren weighed down with an armful of instruments, a clear head filled with sun-blessed songs 'n' sounds, a ...
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 25 March 1972
SLADE: BRASH, RAW, FLASHY — AND GREAT ...
Slade: Bovver Boys Who Grew Their Hair And Got A Hit
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 17 July 1971
SLADE, BRITAIN'S first skinhead band — were launched just over a year ago in the true tradition of eye-catching pop publicity. But the implications of ...
Sly & The Family Stone: Not Only Sly, But Sometimes Just Plain Damn Evasive
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 July 1972
ROY CARR talks to Sly Stone — why he missed Bardney and other tales ...
Sly & the Family Stone: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 26 September 1970
Sly and Family Stone send Lyceum ravers berserk ...
Soft Machine: Robert Wyatt — an out of work singer currently on drums with Soft Machine
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 16 January 1971
WHEN SOFT Machine aren't packing concert halls across America and Europe, their extremely good humoured drummer Robert Wyatt, and part-time Centipede luminary, can often be ...
Interview by Roy Carr, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1975
A brief clip where Roy Carr listens as a drunk Phil Spector rants.
File format: mp3; file size: 4.3mb, interview length: 4' 29" sound quality: ***
Phil Spector: Upstairs, downstairs and in my mixing chamber
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 6 March 1976
DATELINE: MARCH 31, 1974. ...
Bruce Springsteen: Born To Run (CBS Import)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 6 September 1975
Roy Orbison makes big comeback ...
Edwin Starr: Involved (Tamla Motown)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 5 February 1972
THIS ALBUM'S title is Edwin Starr — Involved, but somehow it comes across as being a token gesture. Black white soul at its most blatant ...
Ike & Tina Turner: Tina Turner: Get Your Eyes Off... and Listen
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 26 May 1973
THE MAKING of Tina Turner — was it the singer or the song? Well, we all know the answer to that one don't we? The ...
Junior Walker & The Allstars: Back To School For Jr. Walker!
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 April 1970
DROP INTO any discotheque you care to mention in any city or holiday resort in Europe and you can bet safely that at least three ...
The Who: Live at Leeds (Super Deluxe Edition)
Review by Roy Carr, Classic Rock, January 2011
IT TURNS OUT that the greatest live album in rock history was only the soundcheck. Actually, Live at Leeds was the second choice – a ...
The Who: The Who By Numbers (Polydor)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 October 1975
Once upon a time Pete Townshend was young and full of hope. That was then. ...
Wings: The Trial of James Paul McCartney
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 29 April 1978
IMAGINE THAT Paul McCartney didn't bury himself in hermit-like seclusion in Liverpool after the assassination attempt by Jack Ruby that followed the break-up of The ...
Yes: Time And A Word (Atlantic stereo, 2400.006; 42s. 6d.)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 22 August 1970
YES, IT'S SUPERB! ...
List of genre pieces
Sweet Little Sixteen making out on Sunset Strip
Report by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 30 June 1973
FROM ROY CARR A KEYHOLE GUIDE TO THE GROUPIES OF L.A. RESEARCH: CHARLES SHAAR MURRAY, NICK KENT ...
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