A Gift from the Culture
"A Gift from the Culture", published in 1987, is a short work of space opera, by the Scottish science fiction author Iain M. Banks. The story is an early venture into the "complex and unusual and very distant" setting of the Culture, which Banks would further develop through various of full length novels, stories, and his essay "A Few Notes on the Culture".
Culture (band)
"Two Sevens Clash" meanwhile had become a big seller in the United Kingdom, popular with punk rock fans as well as reggae fans and boosted by the support of John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 show, and reached number 60 on the UK Albums Chart in April 1978. This prompted Virgin Records to sign the group to its Front Line label, releasing "Harder than the Rest" (1978) and "International Herb" (1979). Culture also released records on other labels in Jamaica, including a dub version of "Harder than the Rest", "Culture in Dub" (1978, High Note), and an album of different recordings of the same album, "Africa Stand Alone" (April 1978). An album recorded for Pottinger in 1979 with a working title of "Black Rose" remained unreleased until tracks emerged in 1993 on "Trod On".