He shouted to his drummer, insulted his piano player, roared like a locomotive off its tracks - the huge angry shout of an original, contrary voice that would not be stopped.

"We're the only contrary voice out there right now that says you do need some guidance."

If there's one certainty of present-day awards campaigning, it's that a contrary voice will always be ready to burst the frontrunner's bubble.

Frequently lost in the sentimental haze that most revivals inflict upon the play is the contrary voice of Simon Stimson, the town drunk and suicide.

A14 In Irish debate over European union, a distinctly contrary voice.

They say that when everyone is raised to worship the Dear Leader, when there are no contrary voices, people genuinely revere the leader.

Of course, every now and then a contrary voice piped up.

With a reporter's passionate, relentless curiosity, Dent plumbs the reasoning behind such contrary voices, finding a variant of the individualism white America largely takes for granted.

And if their choice presents a contrary voice on the Trust, this may actually be a productive, creative, not to say democratic, outcome.

The national strategy unit, led by Howard Webber and Tim Challans, has fused its contrary voices with diplomatic panache.