Catch 22 Magazine Autumn-Winter 2010 Issue

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A unique slice of young London

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Autumn/Winter 2010

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What You Listening To?

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tes: a D t r a t 2011 S RCH A M D N 2 UNE 22ND J OBER T C O H 12T

Q. Passionate about journalism but lack the opportunities?

A. Then the Catch 22 Academy is where you need to be Provides the opportunity to contribute to our commercial magazine and a one-month internship with one of our industry partners.

For more information Email academy@catchmag.com Website www.catch22mag.com or Call 020 8880 9501

The academy is primarily targeting young adults excluded from such opportunities based on their social profile and/or disadvantaged background.

EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa

It’s taken a while to get here and there have been a few challenges along the way, but the Autumn/Winter issue is finally here. And as ever it’s packed, full of varied and insightful writing from an investigative feature profiling people in relationships with imprisoned partners, to a light-hearted look at beard enthusiasts, to an interview with a upcoming ballet dancer. We hope it is a satisfying mix that will please the most demanding and savvy of readers.

ONLINE EDITOR David Barros

As usual these articles showcase the talent of our trainee journalists who take part in Catch 22’s academy programme, as well as presenting the talent of our freelance contributors - including illustrators, photographers and graphic designers, as well as writers. We hope that their work will inspire you and possibly even lead to having your name in our mag in the near future.

And on that note, if you are suitably moved to want to contribute - and add to your portfolio in the bargain - or if you just want to give us your opinion, email us at editorial@catch22mag.com or phone us on 0208 880 9510.

Priscilla

PICTURE EDITOR Laura King DESIGN Rashpal Amrit, Kieren O’Keefe, Mercedes Sadique ARTWORK/ ILLUSTRATION Rashpal Amrit, Dale C. Bowers, Andrew Clark, Stuart Kinlough, Ashley Morris, Josep Salvia, Filiz Tunali, Joe Unsummon TEXT Lauren Ashi, Thomas Bassom, Priscilla Eyles, Liz Evans, Selena Gray, Tim Horner, Sebastian Joseph, Michelle Kirwan, Stephen Isaac-Wilson, Leanne Petersen

P.S Don’t forget to check out the website www.catch22mag.com and our new blog catch22mag.wordpress.com giving an insight into all the different departments that make up Catch 22; as well as being the vehicle for all Catch 22 related thoughts.

“At our training academy we engage, nurture and champion undiscovered young creative talent from unlikely backgrounds. Along with our website and communications agency, each edition of this mag is the professional by product of their hard work, learning and dedication. As a social enterprise it is our business to make a difference.”

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ASSISTANT EDITOR Priscilla Eyles

IMAGE Andrew Attah,Oliver Bampfylde, Robin Bharaj, L C Borden, Andrew Bruce, Jody Coffey, Bill Cooper/Ballet Black, Priscilla Eyles, Laura King, Lee Lester, Levi’s, Sasha Mihajlovic, Shaziya Niamh, Magdalena Paprocka, John Ross, Run Dem Crew, David Sawyer, Kathryn Sesser Studio 3 Arts, Azza Suliman, Aris Vakas SUB EDITORS Priscilla Eyles

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Catch 22 is published by Catch 22 Magazine CIC. All material copyright © Catch 22 Magazine CIC 2010. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in print without the written permission of the publisher. While every effort is made to ensure the information in this publication is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, which Catch 22 Magazine CIC holds no responsibility. The views herein are not necessarily those of Catch 22 Magazine CIC or the staff of Catch 22 Magazine CIC.

04 They Can See The...

14 Artist Of The Month

26 What You Listening...

38 A Case Of Pointe

48 Gallery

58 Homebound

06 British Question

16 Recession Bites

28 Street Sounds

40 Your Space Or Mine

52 Skit’s All Folks!

62 Run This Town...

10 Criminal Cashback

22 Lap Dancers...

34 Caught By The Fuzz

44 The Bisexual Effect

56 Love Lockdown

64 Spellbound

THEY CAN SEE THE FUTURE Have you ever wondered why everyone always seems to be into the same things? Why the world and his wife will be eating a particular food or going to a specific place or more commonly dressing the same. Think iPads, Magners in a glass or skinny jeans on boys. This is all because we have a group of people named trend-spotters; these prodigies predict the things that will make for easier living years in advance. But how do they do this, are they simply just sharper than the rest of the nation or are we as a collective just plain predictable?

Text: Stephen Isaac-Wilson

Illustration: Josep Salvia

In industries including technology, fashion and computing, forecast analysis are essential cogs in the machine of consumerism; they not only ensure that products mirror public opinion but also that the company stays ahead of competition. According to the Urban Dictionary, “A trend is the latest style of popular culture including but not limited to: clothing, music, vernacular (common speech), and the latest TV shows.” Being extensively used by marketers, CEOs, researchers, and anyone else interested in the future of business, the role of a trend-spotter is priceless.

Future Laboratory is one of these trend spotting think-tanks, based in London the organisation was established in November 2001. With a huge client base ranging from Nokia to Lamborghini they help their clients ‘read’ the market and are certainly one of the forerunners in this fortune telling game. Max Reyner, a trends researcher and insight editor of LifeStyle: News: Global says, “Our job involves observing people who are heterophilous, open to change. We gather our findings from all over the world (cross culture analysis) and after doing extensive research we show them to an expert panel. The ideas are then homed in

and then called an emerging trend.” Changes in culture are surprisingly interconnected. “Last year we forecast that there would be a reduction in the amount of bling and glitz worn by individuals due to the recession. This wasn’t because individuals couldn’t afford it, but because fashion would move in a more sedate direction to appreciate those who had less.”

“Last year we forecast that there would be a reduction in the amount of bling and glitz worn by individuals due to the recession” Art students to some degree act as trend spotters, you only have to take a trip down to Brick Lane to see a number of kids with DSLR cameras and note pads eagerly soaking up their findings.

It is little pockets in cities like London, Paris and New York that make this possible. There are countless bloggers who scout cities in search of new trends and waves in fashion, think ‘The Sartorialist’ and ‘Street Style Aesthetics’; the former gaining a lot of publicity and recognition from the likes of GQ. For fashion however, the daddy of forecasting agencies would have to be Worth Global Style Network (WGSN). They have a 93 percent retention rate with the world’s leading brands, 36,000 subscribers in 87 countries and with The Guardian calling them “a fashion industry must have”, they are a force to be reckoned with. They also have major links with the likes as Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani and H&M, WGSN ensure their clients receive the best possible market research. Cleverly forecasting that skinny jeans for men would make a comeback as early of 2001, they have always been right on the money. “We start our research five years in advance, but start publishing at a macro level two years in advance,” says WGSN Australia and New Zealand regional director Heidi Dyt. “We act as a curator of information.”

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Trends in food can also be predicted as well, the health tip craze of sushi, frozen yoghurt and coconut water all stemmed from forecasts. JWT is an advertising agency and with 308 employees it counts Nestlé, Kelloggs and De Beers as its clients. Less obvious, non-visual examples of trends including gender role reversals, globalisation and the environment also spring to mind, confirming that some movements can be forced upon a nation.

Wired is a magazine that focuses on this. It is easy to see how the profession of trend forecasting is a “multi-million pound business”.

Forecasting agencies also come in an online form; trendwatching. com, established in 2002, is an independent trend firm. They search the globe for the most promising consumer trends, insights and related hands-on business ideas. They rely on a network of hundreds of spotters in more than 120 countries worldwide. “Our most potent tool is our ‘Happy Spotting’ network. We use this

“Our most potent tool is our Happy Spotting network” network to crowd source a constantly updated global database of innovations, which enables us to keep a broad picture of emerging trends” says Chris Turner, head of research and analysis. ‘Trend savvy’ individuals can join and spot trends and then get rewarded through a point system for doing so.

So lastly what are the big social trends for 2011? The general consensus is a greater degree of localism. “Although social networking connects us with people all over the world, it has in some ways isolated us from our neighbours. What we will start to see is a greater emphasis for people to mingle with people within their immediate area through both social media and face-to face interaction,” says Reynolds. The likes of new social networks such as Four Square and Sticky Bits will enable your friends and the general public to know exactly where you are through GPS technology. The soaring use of smart phones will also contribute to the trend’s snowballing effect.

From thinking that trend-spotters were a mixture of Mystic Meg and Professor Trelawney, I have come to realise the art of forecasting is an accredited skill. These companies don’t sit around and dictate the happenings of our future; they carry out Think this job sounds too good to be true and want to know a downside? “There are none, it’s always different and genuinely stimulating to be exposed to such a range of innovation,” says Turner. Max Reynolds thinks, “You are always on the edge of things; you meet loads of inspiring creatives and get to travel.”

Ok, so where do I you sign up?

There are many roots of getting into trend spotting; the most common is to do a degree in psychology, however this is not essential. From college students to industry experts alike, the most necessary quality apparently is attention to detail and “a passionate curiosity for the world around you,” explains Chris Turner. Nadine Grant-Peters, a fashion student at Ravensboune said, “when trend spotting it is important to have a clear mind, you can’t be blinded by you own style preference and you definitely need to think outside the box.” However Max Reyner believes that although a natural intuition is important, ‘the process’ of trend spotting can be learnt.

“when trend spotting it is important to have a clear mind, you can’t be blinded by youR own style preference and you definitely need to think outside the box” years of research so we can. It must be a wild career, living on a ‘what if’? Everything must seem old when it arrives to the rest of us mortals as new. But let’s not feel too sorry for them, the ability to forecast your every material need years in advance would be so empowering, not to mention the money you would save. The phrase, luck favours the prepared has never rung so true. Right, so where is my magic eight ball? www.catch22mag.com

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British identity can be problematic, it’s associated with right wing extremists as much as it is associated with creativity and democracy. In light of this Catch 22 asks ten creative and influential British people to ponder what it means to them to be British.

LUCY CAVENDISH, 43 JOURNALIST/NOVELIST “This is a hard one. I have thought about this question a lot.

For a long time, I thought I was European. All that stiff-upper-lip, patient, queuing polite thing the Brits do has never appealed to me. I feel more South European. I have lots of children. I cook from scratch. I drink and eat and drive like a lunatic. I am the antithesis of the reserved, formal Brit. Yet, every time I go abroad, people always know I am British. I have therefore had to conclude that there must be something about me that is inherently British.

Part of it is that I am polite. I am also charitable. These two things do, I believe, play a part in Britishness. I do believe that British people have altruistic hearts by and large.

I feel very positive about being British. We are not - as the newspapers would have you believe - home to the ‘scum’ of Europe. We live in a multi-national society where most people are happy, decent, honest, good-hearted. For all the tales of misery, pain and despair, I hear many more that are about the small every day wonders that happen in Britain. For that, I feel very happy to be British.”

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Photography: Azza Suliman, Oliver Bampfylde, LC Borden, Andrew Attah

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BRITISH?

TONY COLMAN, 49 CEO HOSPITAL RECORDS/ DJ - LONDON ELEKTRICITY “Britshness essentially means not wanting to talk about being British. Like many British people I’m proud of being British whilst simultaneously, for some reason I cannot fathom, I’m also ashamed of it. Shame is big in this country and pride is often viewed as a negative thing which can be a shame in itself. Although, of course, massively preferable to the American way of looking at things. The British love of the underdog fuels our music scene and I hope it will continue to give rise to successes both unusual and unlikely.”

JOY WILKINSON, 35 PLAYWRIGHT “The tricky thing is to reconcile what I think Britishness is with the reality I see around me. Like with life drawing, it’s tempting to stop looking at the subject and start imagining, but the reality can be more interesting. Where I live conforms to many ideas of Britishness: suburban streets with hanging baskets and twitching curtains, a small business culture, sharp class divides. But the population is mainly Asian, African-Caribbean and Polish, a very different picture from the place where I grew up and my ideas were first formed. I think the clues to our identity are all there on the map. We are an island with our own ways of life, but the jagged outline shows that we are also a jigsaw piece, part of something bigger that has moved and changed and will continue to do so. So we’ve got to keep looking around us.”

JASON LEWIS, 29 COMEDIAN “To me being British is a state of mind more than anything else.

The fact that both of my parents were born in the Caribbean meant that I was brought up in their culture, so its only over the last few years that I even embraced ‘being British’.

To me being British is a state of mind that allows us our liberty, freedom of choice and the opportunity to be somebody and make something of ourselves. After all, why else would my parents come over here? It surely isn’t because of the good weather.....”

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PINKY, 21 ARTIST/GRAPHIC DESIGNER “It’s not where you’re from it’s where you’re at. I don’t agree with nationalism of any kind. My art doesn’t feel British to me but I guess it is as I am. So maybe that’s what being British means allowing people to be individuals and embracing the new. That’s why we constantly reinvent pop culture in this country, producing art and music that can change peoples lives. My art is all about being genuine and positive without being sentimental. Spread the Love!”

CHASE & STATUS, WILL KENNARD, 30, SAUL MILTON, 29, PRODUCERS/DJS “We’re very proud to be British in the way we dress, our attitudes and being part of this amazing music scene we have. Through our work we’re fortunate to get to see much of the world, but nothing beats the feeling of returning home.

One of our favourite things about being British is the sense of humour which is very unique and we think is the best there is.

Britain is very liberal, progressive and multicultural and there’s

DAN LE SAC, 31 MUSICIAN/PRODUCER “Being British is like being in a state of constant contradiction. We have an inbuilt ability to accept opposite ideas without our heads exploding with screams of ‘does not compute’.

Take the £10 note as an apt example. On one side it depicts the Queen, head of the Church of England, an institution that once held the idea of creationism at its core. On the other side is Darwin whose theories on evolution go a long way to disproving the existence of a single point of creation and even God himself.

The £10 note is illustrative of the British, we are a people that can co-exist and be educated by opposing religions and ideologies. We are a society that, for the most part, can accept and be influenced by ideas far from our own as individuals. To be British is to change the world whilst allowing it to change us.”

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PHOEBE UNWIN, 31 ARTIST “Though I was born in the UK, I lived in California from the age of one to nine. I had an American accent, learnt about American history and knew all the words to the US anthem. As an American child the idea of being British meant stories of Paddington Bear, Buckingham Palace, royal weddings and red double-decker buses.

When my family moved back to Britain and it became my home, these stories proved to be as remote to my daily life as they were in California. As I grew, the notion of being British seemed of little significance to my identity. In my art education I was particularly drawn to learning about an artist’s idiosyncrasies, and their ability to observe timeless and global human characteristics.

But of course having the opportunity to study art and to not see being British as significant to my identity is a great freedom and privilege. I think the times I have felt most aware of what being British can mean to myself and others is when I’ve been in an NHS hospital waiting room.”

TY, 38 RAPPER “To be British to me means I have a unique perspective of the world and a unique perspective in living in one of the most culturally important places in Europe. It also recognises that I have an important place as a person in this country. I am not just British, but it makes me different to just being an African man.

Being British is also a contradiction, living in this country but also seeing that you’re not really accepted and involved in the dayto-day progression of the country. I happen to be a British urban artist, which means I am not included as part of the achievements of Britain. So being British makes me cautious, because it doesn’t recognise you as an individual. You’re never quite sure whether people think you deserve to be part of the establishment.”

PATCH WILLIAMS, BAND “To be British is to sit on a cold, wet, tiny island complaining about the rest of the world and the weather, whilst maintaining the ability to make something of huge effort look like no effort at all.

And something of no effort look like Hercules rounding up the Mares of Diomedes.”

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Photography: courtesy of Studio 3 Arts

Crime never pays, as the saying goes – unless the ill-gotten gains are being used for a greater good, according to a scheme which is using criminal assets to fund community projects. But what if it wasn’t this straightforward?

Lauren Ashi goes in search for the people who’ve willingly used illicit funds to make the best out of a bad situation.

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the mainstream limelight with little negative stigma to hold them back from ‘legitimate’ commercial success.

International hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, built his first business venture Rocafella Records (an independent record label) on money earned from dealing drugs. Now at an estimated net worth of $150 million, his recent music still refers to his former street hustle.

“Turn crack rocks into a chain of 40/40’s/...You know whose game this is/ Move coke like Pepsi/ it don’t matter what the brand name is.”

Pray - from the American Gangster soundtrack.

Picture this – you’re a Russian gangster, kicking back with your cronies, toasting a Stolichnaya vodka on the rocks and smirking behind cigar smoke as your most recent drug deal has gone smoothly, undetected by the feds – or so you think. Enjoy your dirty money while you can, because soon it will be used to buy swings and merry go-rounds for kids in Edinburgh.

Sound strange? Not exactly a typical ending to a gangland tale, but a new government scheme aims to make this a more familiar endgame to illegal activity; confiscating criminal revenue for the benefit of young people across the UK. Community Cashback makes use of assets seized from criminals and gives communities a chance to decide how that money can be used in a constructive and legal way.

Still in its fledgling stage, the scheme is being piloted across the UK this year; community-focused projects can gain up to £95,000 from the scheme.

So does it really work? The Junction Project, a similar scheme running in Scotland, has already begun to make a difference. A record sum of £6.5 million was seized this year from a Moscow-based businessman allegedly using a Scottish bank to launder money. Under the Proceeds of Crime Act, Junction is channelling ill-gotten revenue into steering young people from the allure of the criminal path and into further education, employment or enterprise.

But enterprise and criminality aren’t always set apart.

Over the years, business folk from the entertainment world have made no effort to hide the fact their empires are built on illegal funds and have crossed over into

Here he refers to crack sales funding his 40/40 chain of night clubs in New York. And you can bet the coke he’s speaking about isn’t the soft drink. So, while there are criminals who become respected businessmen, there are also multi-billionaire crooks who somehow manage to blur the lines of their image, becoming both a hero and villain in one. An infamous case is Colombian drug-lord Pablo Escobar. Nicknamed the Godfather of Cocaine and self proclaimed “man of the people”, Pablo worked for the multi-millionaire contraband smuggler Alvaro Prieto and became a millionaire by the time he was 22. In 1975, Escobar began developing his own cocaine operation soon to be known as the Medellín Cartel, organising smuggling routes and distribution networks in South Florida, California and other parts of the USA. Despite this, Escobar became a hero to many in Medellín and he worked to create goodwill among the poor people of Colombia, frequently distributing money to the poor through housing projects and other civic activities, which gained him notable popularity. He built houses for slum dwellers, sponsored little-league football teams and provided many jobs. In 1982, Escobar was elected to Colombia’s Congress as part of the Colombian Liberal Party, while simultaneously becoming known as an international drug baron with a notorious empire. In 1989 Forbes magazine estimated Escobar to be the seventhrichest man in the world with a personal wealth of close to $25 billion, while his Medellín cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market.

But his philanthropy wasn’t enough to override the impact of his unlawful dealings; the war against Escobar ended on 2 December 1993 when he was shot and killed by the Colombian National Police. Even so, his Robin Hood image continued to have lasting influence in Medellín with many of the city’s poor treasuring his memory; his life story will be depicted in a film ‘Killing Pablo’ to be released in 2011, with Escobar played by Bourne Ultimation actor Edgar Ramirez.

From Robin Hood stories to government interventions, all the way from Brooklyn to Moscow, dirty money has an interesting history across the globe; but what will the future hold for illicit cash in London? And how do the community organisations benefiting from tainted dosh feel about its presence in their pockets?

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Studio 3 Arts is such an organisation – winning a grant of £23,000 from Community Cashback, they are using the money to educate young people about the perils and pitfalls of crime, amongst other pertinent issues.

“We found out about the grant through a contact who suggested it might be appropriate for the work that we do here with young people”, says Liza Vallance, project manager of the Big Deal Peer Education Project in Barking and Dagenham. “We made the initial application, we were short-listed and then we were down to a kind of ‘public vote’ if you like - the idea was that the public then voted online to decide which project should receive the funding, and luckily for us we were one of the winners.”

The project gives at-risk young people the chance to engage in the arts in an educational setting, where young people are both the students and the teachers. So far the young people have developed performances and interactive workshops that explore issues relevant to them using ‘creative methodology.’ Projects have included a piece of theatre examining criminal ventures and gang culture which toured London youth clubs. Another is a dance company that gives professional training and career development opportunities to excluded youths, as well as competitions and performance opportunities. As Liza explains, “The money helps us to further the work that we’ve established with Big Deal, to provide very real development opportunities for young people who might not get them otherwise.”

According to Liza, the criminal source of this money is an ideal cautionary tale for young people. “I mean, it’s the best kind of learning opportunity of all really, the idea that ill-gotten money is put back into community initiatives is possibly the best way of dealing with this money. And

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what it also does from an educational point of view is to show young people that, as the cliché goes crime doesn’t pay - there are consequences and effects of their actions.

It provides a very real metaphor for us to work through with young people.”

For the people benefiting from this type of cause their perceptions of illegal behaviour could be shaped by this unique funding twist. But opportunity has led others in a different direction. ‘A’, the manager of a street record label, worked his way up from street-level to registering a successful commercial business, all on the back of illicit money.“I started off as a member of a DJ collective but it wasn’t really going anywhere so I branched off alone,” he said. “I was still interested in music.

One of my friends used to be a rapper but didn’t have any guidance or anywhere to go to record his music so I decided to try and manage him even though I didn’t have any skills. I did a management course and a music business course and then I just started managing artists. I used the little funds I had to build a mini recording studio at my mum’s house and then took it from there.”

The North London based label is growing steadily, with a notable following and collaborations with well-known UK artists from both the urban and pop scene. But the question remains, where did the ‘little funds’ for his business start-up come from? “Where did the money come from?” laughs A, “it came from the roads! Drug money basically. It’s been a solution to the funding thing.

You get money from the Prince’s Trust and other trusts, but it’s such a task to fill out forms and go to meetings.

They make the whole process so lengthy that you get disheartened going through it. After taking a couple of

“It’s easy money, it comes as quickly as it goes. And I can ‘clean’ my money in a way” months for applications to clear, they do background checks and other checks, then you have to go to meetings, then your business plan has got be tight... It’s a really long process when you just wanna start it up there and then.

I tried it that way, did what they asked, but they kept on adding to the tasks; it went on and on so I just did it my own way.”

Any regrets? “Nah, not at all. It’s easy money, it comes as quickly as it goes. And I can ‘clean’ my money in a way; we’re a registered business so I can get my taxes back from money I put through it. I also get royalties from music I play on radio so it comes back clean in a way. If I could do it again or change any aspect of what I have done with the label, the only thing I would do differently would be to just put more time and money into the project. Nothing else though.”

depends on how the money is used, meaning are they setting up youth clubs for the kids or is it just for exoffenders? If it’s to prevent ex-offenders committing crime, I don’t know if that will work. The way I see it, the money came from crime, so that kinda shows crime in a positive light.”

Do the organisations involved think they are giving their service users a mixed message about the benefits of criminal funds? Liza doesn’t think so. “I’m not sure that there is a mixed-message, actually I think [this scheme] is a really good PR for the criminal justice board because they are able to show that there is genuine, positive, concrete work being done around restorative justice.

From our point of view it provided young people who would otherwise have gone down that criminal path themselves were trying to pull themselves back - with an opportunity to not follow in those footsteps. Frankly, if it means that criminal assets are facilitating that, then I don’t really think there is a mixed message, no.”

As the Community Cashback scheme becomes more established in the UK, many more community projects stand to benefit from bad money; if crime pays, at least we’ll be sharing the profits.

‘A’ has yet to face any consequences for the crimes related to his business; even so, he still sees the merit of Community Cashback, but questions its effectiveness long-term. “It is a good way to use the money but it

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ARTIST OF THE MONTH Marc Hibbert is a young London-based freelance photographer whose strikingly distinctive work covers the fields of fashion, music and travel.

Self-taught and living in Hackney, his work seeks to expose new artistic talent such as undiscovered designers and musicians who are challenging conventions. He talks to Priscilla Eyles about his path to creativity What first got you interested in photography?

I first realised I had a real interest in photography while studying something very different at university. I was reading economics at the time and was kind of feeling like it wasn’t for me. I had always been very into music and came across this new independent music magazine (Careless Talk Costs Lives) published by this photographer Steve Gullick. His work was all film and so different from anything else out there. He didn’t conform to the industry standards, where everything had to be clean, clear and immediately obvious. His work was so atmospheric, and interesting and effortlessly cool. And that’s when I realised, ‘I want to do this’.

Who was your first client - and how did you go about approaching them?

I’m not certain actually. I had some friends that owned this production company called Type2error and they did a lot of music videos and had corporate clients like Topman. I worked with them a lot on projects with big clients and got to travel around the UK without ever having to approach the client, which was pretty lucky really. But since then it has been a case of ringing a lot of people and referring them to the website. Simple really.

Who or what do you draw your influences from?

Well my early influences were music photographers like Steve Gullick, Kevin Westenberg and Joe Dilworth. They always managed to portray the musicians I loved in such a cool way.

I then discovered fashion photography and became enamoured with the freedom it enabled the photographer. People like

Serge Leblon and Guy Aroch are doing some amazing fashion photography at the moment, the sort of work that makes you want to change up your style and genuinely influence your way of working.

Aside from music and fashion I have always had an obsession with Americana, especially during the late sixties and early seventies when colour photography was just starting to get accepted as an artform. People like Stephen Shore would take these incredible pictures of these classic dustbowl towns in the midwest or somewhere equally remote. To me they seem so evocative of a pivotal time in Amercian culture.

Having not studied photography, how did you teach yourself? How has this impacted your photography?

I still love that buzz of waiting for the negatives to return.

However it’s hard to beat the flexibility of digital. The new cameras are so good you can literally get a picture anywhere.

What’s your next step?

Bigger jobs, more money. And maybe try moving abroad to work for a bit.

Look out for more of Marc’s work in his exclusive exhibition on our web site www.catch22mag.com Every month a different young creative has an exhibtion on our website.

I bought a camera, taught myself to use it and started assisting other photographers.

That’s as good an education as a photography degree in my opinion. I guess because I felt like I hadn’t made the right decisions I tried a lot harder.

What photo editing suites do you use?

I only really use Photoshop CS4 to edit images. I sometimes use Capture One to shoot tethered (straight into the computer) and manage/batch edit files.

Film or digital - and why?

Well I mostly use digital for paid jobs just because it’s better for the clients to see what they are getting. I do still use film for some personal work, mainly if I want to shoot medium format as digital medium format cameras cost like £10,000 plus!

I like working with film because you concentrate more on getting it right and www.catch22mag.com

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Retired civil servant Arthur Boyt regularly dines on it, and forager Fergus Drennan uses it as his sole meat source.

In a time of spiralling food costs is roadkill a viable alternative? Tommy Bassom investigates Photography: Andrew Bruce The documentary was called The Man Who Eats Badgers and it did exactly what it said on the tin. It told the story of Arthur Boyt, a slightly eccentric old man whose only meat came from roadkill. His argument for eating this unusual diet was it saved him a fortune and was eco-friendly. “Something like this is natural” Boyt says, ‘it hasn’t been interfered with by humans. It is a very organic piece of meat”. This appealed to me as a financial and ecological solution.

The documentary showed Boyt skinning badgers and rifling through an old chest freezer full of roadkill. It was a strange phantasmagoria of owls, bats, badgers, otters and squirrels. This captured my imagination, and I couldn’t wait to start walking the roads in search of this bounty. However before I began, I felt a little more research was in order.

Whilst trawling the net I found an interesting character called Fergus Drennan. He has been dubbed the ‘Roadkill’ chef and is a professional forager in the UK. “It might be extreme” says Drennan, “but I know what roadkill is, I know how the animal has lived, I know its natural history. I respect it and I eat it.” In his series The Roadkill Chef Drennan takes us on a first hand guide to finding, preparing and cooking road-kill. It was here that I learned a few golden rules for checking the freshness of roadkill.

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1. Check the eyes are intact. These are usually the first thing to be removed from the animal, and are a good guide to how long its been on the tarmac.

2. Give it a sniff. If there are any strong or putrid odours then leave it well alone.

3. Is it covered in flies? This means they have started to lay eggs on the carcass, and these will give you a bad tummy ache if eaten.

4. How has it died? Check the carcass for a cause of death. If its internal organs are ruptured the meat will be tainted and inedible.

If the animal passes this quality control test then I guess it’s dinnertime.

So where do you begin on a roadkill hunt? I only had a few days to bag a critter so I needed a little help. I sent out a text message to everyone on my phone: ‘I need your help! If you see any roadkill that is fresh pick it up for me.

I’m writing an article about eating it. U can freeze it btw.Thanks.’

“I’m actually going to be face to face with a dead animal” Only ten minutes went by before my mobile phone started ringing.

It was my aunty who had replied first, she had seen a dead deer on the side of road near her house. I was over the moon because I had really been struggling to find even a squashed mouse, let alone a deer, ‘venison burgers here we go’ or so I thought.

I grabbed my old dear and shot off in her car to the village of Church Crookham ( I really need to learn to drive). I called my aunty on the way. “It’s a little baby one and it’s lying down just past Badger Road,” she said. To be honest I was kind of glad it was a baby deer, which may sound sick but on a practical note I only had two bin liners on me. Plus I couldn’t see my mum letting me ram a half decaying stag into the back of her leather upholstered jeep.

A kind of nervousness began to overtake my mind. I’m actually going to be face to face with a dead animal. In a short while I will be gingerly scraping the bloodied remains of Bambi off the hot tarmac. I began thinking about how people get into serial killing or bestiality and maybe doing this kind of thing might not be good for my mental health. It was too late. It was showtime.

We drove up the road and stopped the car at Badger Road. My mum was convinced that someone had taken it and my mood began to get a little sombre. It’s my roadkill damn it! “Someone probably took it for their dogs to eat”, my mum tried to reason with me, “gypsies probably had it”. Thanks mum, thanks for that confidence boost. I scoured the road up and down for fifteen minutes finding only rubbish chucked from car windows.

A takeaway Pepsi cup lay in the grass almost mocking my search. I began to think that maybe KFC could be a quicker and less stressful alternative than walking up and down a country road with your mum, looking for dead animals. ‘That’s not the attitude.’ I told myself inside my head. Every forager must get a taste of the roadkill blues from time to time. I got back in the car and buckled up, this search was over. www.catch22mag.com

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“There it is!” I practically screamed it out loud, “Stop the car!”

I jumped out of the door, bin liner in one hand and camera in the other, suddenly things got very real.

often hear many tales of various animals my dad had squashed or driven past. So I booked a weekend off work and took a trip into the sticks to bag me some Surrey roadkill.

I caught my first whiff of Bambi from about twenty metres away.

The aroma of death is a potent one. It fills the lungs like a cheap perfume and with every inhalation it taints the air you breath so you can taste the carcass that lies before you. I began to think back to Fergus Drennan’s advice, “if it smells don’t eat it”. I was

Dad picked me up and we began to discuss the search and whether he felt we’d be lucky. He assured me that he sees something flattened on a daily basis and there was no cause to worry. Having my dad with me filled me with a kind of confidence, if there was space to describe my dad, then you would see why. Let’s just say he is the kind of man that if he saw deer at the side of road, he wouldn’t think twice about stopping the car and dumping it into the boot whilst on the school run.

“I caught my first whiff of Bambi from about twenty metres away” still quite far away, and if the smell was this bad already then things were not looking good.

I walked slowly up to the deer and saw something that churned my guts. A feeling reminiscent of stirring cottage cheese in a bucket on a hot summers day.

There she lay on the ground curled up into what could be described as a sleeping position. The deer had been hit in the head and half the face was missing, along with some of the chest.

Following my roadkill freshness tips assured me that this little deer was literally a write-off.

I began to think that looking for roadkill was a lot more visceral than the documentaries had portrayed. Fergus had come across animals that looked pretty much intact, without huge cavities ripped out of their rotting carcasses. What I experienced had hit all my senses hard. I questioned whether I had the stomach to go out on a regular basis and face a rotting stench that made me gag, combined with an animal carpeted in fly eggs and maggots.

This game was not destined for the faint hearted.

So it was back to the drawing board for me and as time was getting shorter my quest for finding some roadkill looked almost impossible. I could only really think of one option that might guarantee success, I was going to go visit my old man.

When my folks separated my dad ended up buying a farm that backs onto Bramshot common, way out in rural Surrey. I would

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When arriving at dad’s place I was eager to start looking, I had a feeling that I would find something and this made me feel a little nervous again. No more Bambis please.

My little brothers were keen to join me so we got onto our mountain bikes and set off. After thirty minutes going along the

“I would barely be able to peddle through the carpet of roadkill that covered these quaint little roads” country lanes I began to get worried. This was supposed to be a roadkill paradise? I thought I would barely be able to peddle through the carpet of road-kill that covered these quaint little roads. I began to regret taking that extra bin liner.

After an hour the three foragers returned empty handed, bringing home only our tattered spirits. This was my last chance to get some roadkill, to try and live the dream of Drennan and Boyt. I wanted to show those that mocked my cause that I could do this, that I could stick two fingers up at the supermarket meat counter and wave my roadkill banner with pride.

My dad was in the barn when I got back, fumbling around in the chest freezer. It reminded me of Arthur Boyt. “Any luck?” he asked. I told him that I’d found bugger all and that I might go out again later. Dad closed the lid of the chest freezer and it made a heavy thud that sounded like the closing of my project. He put a

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bag on the lid and I stared in sheer amazement. Inside the blue freezer bag was a mottled brown lump about size of a chicken, written in blue marker pen was a label and it read, ‘RoadKill Pheasant 2005.’ Nice one Dad. After being given the Holy Grail, I put it on the worktop to defrost. I got on my Mac and went onto YouTube and typed ‘roast pheasant recipe’. Surprise surprise, Gordon Ramsay appeared and after five minutes it was decided. Roast pheasant covered in bacon and thyme.

“I opened the bag and a gamey waft of four-year-old pheasant passed down and through my nasal passage” After a couple of hours the bird had defrosted and it was time to open the bag. I was expecting some sort of smell, something I knew I would not have smelt before. I opened the bag and a gamey waft of four-year-old pheasant passed through my nasal passage. In other words, it stunk.

This made the whole preparation of the bird hardly the Drennan inspired culinary dream world I had cooked up in my naïve little mind, Drennen’s exploits seemed truly poetic compared to my reality. In my world I had a reeking corpse of an old bird and a pack of bacon that I had to attach to it. It went from cooking to what felt like embalming in a matter of seconds and it was a slow and not entirely joyful process.

So I guess you all want to know the answer to million-dollar question, what did it taste like? First off it looked pretty good, tasty in fact. It came out of the hot oven bubbling, the golden brown bacon shell looked delicious. The horrible gamey smell I experienced before didn’t seem so apparent or was masked over by the bacon. It had gone through a metamorphosis but in my head there was a tiny shred of apprehension about eating it.

I stood with my fork in hand. The whole bird was in front of me. This was the moment I had been waiting for so long, the moment of truth. I pushed the fork slowly through the bacon

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and into the bird, then pulled a small chunk off. I stared at the morsel for a few seconds and tried to fight my apprehensive demons. All the things I had told people about it being a good source of meat, all the ethical arguments seemed to go to the back of mind when the food was in front of my mouth. The worries shattered as I stuffed it into my face.

Well it was ‘pheasanty’, which isn’t a real word but serves as the best description of what it tasted like. It was a deep flavour, overpowering in a way that would suggest it had been matured in an oak casket. To put it into perspective, if chicken was a wine it would be Lambrini, pheasant would be Chateauneuf du Pape. I did kind of enjoy the dark flavour but found that I could not eat it in the same volume as I could chicken. It was just far too rich for me.

So is roadkill really going to help me beat the recession? The answer to that is yes and no. If I was able to spend half my day walking up and down the roadside with a bin liner and shovel, then yes I think it could be an option. The thing is most people who aren’t on the dole don’t have the time to do this and more importantly it’s not easy to find.You see, in order to eat safely there are so many limitations on the quality of animal.You might find five or six animals before one is fresh enough to consume.

Would I recommend this to anyone? Damn straight I would. It made me appreciate how privileged we are to have food readily available and what’s more you have choice. Roadkill is like a lottery and you are not guaranteed a jackpot. What you are guaranteed is a nervous excitement that you don’t know what is on menu. Yes you can save money and be completely ethical in your consumption. The question is have you got the stomach?

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LapDancersUncovered We all have desires and aspirations. There is nothing worse than going to the bank and asking for a loan, only to be denied. Have lap dancers found a way around this? There are different types of dancers; those who want to live the celebrity lifestyle, mothers who want to provide for their children, and then there are the business women. They dance to fund their higher education and then determinedly pursue their dream careers. Michelle Kirwan meet the girls who are taking this risk. Illustration: FilizTunali

Jadine “I’m a student studying A-Levels and I am totally broke, I’m working a weekend job but I know that it isn’t going to give me stability. My sister is twenty and can’t get a job cos she is not experienced in anything. I ain’t got time to be doing dead-end jobs, wasting my life away, so I’m considering lap dancing for next summer.”

Jadine is not alone, she says she discusses the matter with her friends all the time, and a few of them would consider doing it too. “I wouldn’t tell my mum till after the fact though, cos she would go crazy.”

Jadine is young and has plenty of confidence but is it as simple as she thinks?

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SamRemmer Sam is the proprietor of the Art Of Dance Pole Dancing School in Plymouth. At 34 she has seen the devastation that lap dancing clubs can cause and is totally against them. “If I sound a bit cagey it’s because I have had a lot of trouble.” Sam used to manage a group of girls in a club.

“I could not believe some of the conditions, and I’m not talking about the premises. The girls were often forced to dance on poles when they didn’t want to.

The owners took the easy approach and insisted that the girls be self-employed, so that the club would not be responsible for paying their taxes. A lot of girls are paid cash in hand.” To add to this, they also have to pay an extortionate percentage, as Sam explains: “They’re charged a rent fee and also have to give commission too. Some of the girls ended up being in debt to the club especially during the quiet periods.”

Sam eventually ended up falling out with her employer over the exploitative situation the dancers were in.

She left when her friend asked her to manage at the dance school. “My car was vandalized after I voiced my opinions about the club’s procedures to management, it’s a dirty business.” She adds: “It really annoys me when people think that lap and pole dancing are the same thing, they’re not. I would encourage anyone to pole dance, it keeps you really fit and you notice the difference in your body. The men are a safe distance away, and it is a form of entertainment.”

Sam also explains that she found that most dancers wanted to keep their lap dancing a secret so often had big holes in their CV.

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AmyJones Amy is 29-years-old and does not regret the journey she took which helped finance her career.

“It was an easy decision to make, I love singing and dancing, any type of performing really. As far as I’m concerned I was a dancer in a club.”

Amy started dancing at 18 and worked at Stringfellows.

“I watched the other girls to pick up tips and routines. I didn’t feel scared, I’m a natural performer I learnt pretty quick that I could earn a lot of money.” Amy explains,”I built up a reputation and got regular requests from clients for private dances, I never got sucked into the sleaze of giving anything extra.” There are rules in all industries even the adult ones, but sometimes they get broken. Amy insists, “I am professional so I followed the rules. I’d come in looking all glamorous, do my dances and that was enough for my clients.”

Dancing funded Amy through university and enabled her to travel too. Although she has a degree in psychology she did not use it. “I could not bear the thought of being a trainee somewhere on rubbish money.” But dancing soon began to take its toll. “It’s hard because I was practically another character in the club, always smiling having to be interested in the clients all the time, and that’s not natural but the money kept me going.”

Amy started to look to the future and decided that music was her love and eventually she would become a DJ, but again she would need to stay on at Stringfellows to fund this.

“I will never forget the day that got me where I am now”, she recalls. There was a lot of excitement because a party from Universal Records were coming in that

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night to look at girls to create a pop group. Amy along with three other girls were picked. “To be honest it just seemed inevitable, by this stage I had experienced all I could through lap dancing.” After four years working at Stringfellows she quit to become a member of Horny Culture. “I was 23 at the time with money in the bank and living the dream, we had loads of fun doing gigs and private parties.”

Horny Culture did not get their contract renewed.

Amy had a good relationship with her manager from Universal Records, and when she told him that she wanted to DJ he guided her in the right direction. She paid for her DJ course and eventually got a slot on a Friday night in her local pub. Amy’s persistence paid off when she got a call from the manager of Aquarium Night Club in Clapham, someone had put in a good word for her. She has been the resident DJ for the past four years. “I would never be where I am today if I hadn’t lap danced. I ain’t doing it again though; been there, done that.”

Chantelle Chantelle is a lap dancer at Secrets and has been dancing from the age of eighteen, “I went on a night out with my girlfriends and one of them was ordering champagne and cocktails, I remember thinking I want some of that! Then she declared that she was dancing at Spearmint Rhino.” Now twenty-three she has two degrees. One is in Marketing and Events Management and the other in Accountancy. Her plan is to do something in fashion but for now she is quite happy to earn £300 per night. “Listen, I used to work in retail and took home £287 per month, now I get £20 to dance to one song and if I spend the night in the VIP room I could earn between £500 to £1000.” She admits that she can flirt with any guy.

“What am I going to leave this job for? One guy told me that I didn’t even need to take my clothes off because he would give me £50 regardless.” Chantelle suggests that anyone can do the job, and also states that during a night out on the town she’s likely to experience harassment from at least one man. “What’s wrong with providing the service in a secure and professional environment and getting paid for it?” She asks, before unashamedly promoting the pole dancing classes that

Secrets holds during the afternoon. “All you need is high heels and little shorts.” Chantelle’s friend and colleague, who wants to remain anonymous boasts, “I’m driving a £27000 car and I live in a plush flat in the Docklands area. I’m dancing for the joy of it and I will keep dancing as long as the clients appreciate me.”

The club is a chain of six and is the newest one to be opened. It has a friendly atmosphere and the layout is sexy with smart decor. The manager proudly claims that they have loads of girls applying, “we hold interviews once a week at our Hammersmith branch.”

He explained that he gets girls from different ethnic and educational backgrounds. Chantelle shows off the VIP room and hints, “Anything goes here but we are safe, there is always security.”

Are some of these girls trapped, trying to escape from a desperate situation? “Not at all, we just want to earn some serious money” says Chantelle.

There is so much money to be made in this industry but like most things it is entirely up to the individual to know their limits.

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What You Listening To? Quiz

We ran around town stopping individuals listening to music and asked them one very important question.

Now all you have to do is work out who gave us which answer.

Scribble the number you think matches up in the box provided.

B

A Minorv, 30, Waiter

Harta, 18, Student

C If you think you have worked it out, check the correct answers available on our website: www.catch22mag.com

Darius, 21, Student

D

Kathy, 17, Student

myTunes

E

Jake, 23, Studio Assistant

F

Jane, 27, Illustrator

G

Joseph, 16, Student

Search

Search

1

Chromeo Needy Girl

2

Abomination Protocol

3

Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road

4

Fall Out Boy Dance Dance

5

Fat Boy Slim (Original) Brimful of Asha

6

Young Guns Crystal Clear

7

Coldplay.

Hardest Part

8

Michael Jackson Bad

H

Frank, 21, Student

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Photographer: Robin Bharaj Stylist: Elouise

Second Left: Dave T-shirt by Peoples Market, Jacket by Supremeberg, Jeans -artist’s own

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Left: Matt Grey Jumper by Fila, Jeans- artist’s own, Trainers by Puma

Middle: Shi Jean Jacket by New Look, Black Jumpsuit by New Look, Black Strappie high heels by New Look

Right: Gus Yellow Jumper Peoples Market, Jeans Peoples Market, Trainers Puma

Right: Hayden Black-Framed Glasses-artist’s own, Checked Jacket by Supreme Being, Jeans by King Apparel, Trainers-artist’s own

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Polo Shirt by Supremeberg, Jeans-artist’s own, Hat by Kings Apparel

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Left: Vertex T-shirt by Sin Star Clothing, Jeans by Box Fresh, High-top Trainers by Nike

Middle: Bashir Bazanye T-shirt by Peoples Market, Jeans by Box Fresh, Trainers by Nike Air Force One

Right: Shocka Kenneth T-shirt by Peoples Market Jeans by Box Fresh Trainers by Addidas

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Cardigan by Peoples Market Scarf by Peoples Market Jeans by Kings Apparel Trainers by K Swiss Watch by Black Dice

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Left: Chris Plaid Shirt by Supreme Being Jeans by Gap Trainers by Dunlop

Middle: Ayu Dress by Peoples Market Accessories by Elouise

Right: Matt Polo Shirt by Peoples Market Trousers by Carhartt Trainers by Puma

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Caught by the Fuzz Illustrator: Andrew Clark

Photographer: Kathryn Sesser

The much heralded return of the beard - that historical symbol of non-conformism is taking facial hair into new and unexpected directions. From the eccentric ‘el insecto’ to the humble ‘soul patch’.

Sebastian Joseph meets the beardy and the weirdy from the world championships in Brighton to Fuzzy Logic in Romford 34 www.catch22mag.com

Every year without fail I read an article in some men’s magazine about how the beard is back. And every year i wonder the same thing; didn’t it come back last year?

Regardless of this fact, beards do seem to be everywhere now; they’re on our bosses and colleagues at work, our friends and relatives at home, it’s weird to think that what was once shorthand for hobos and hippies has now become another facet of contemporary fashion. You see, to many beards are fashion accessories, superficial assets to be plucked, shaved and trimmed in pursuit of the ultimate look. But to others, ‘beard enthusiasts’, they’re a way of self-expression and consequently a form of liberation. And personally, I’ve got to admire them because I’ve tried countless times to grow a beard and always shave mine at some point during week three when things get a little too itchy.

Michael Bucchino, manager and owner of Beard Revue, a blog dedicated to the “review, commentary and discussion for the beard enthusiasts” explains what being a facial hair lover means to him: “A beard enthusiast is someone who takes pleasure in beardage. My beard is part of my self identity.” This passion for all things “beardage” is evident when browsing through Beard Revue. Music, photography and poem, chances are if it’s beard-related then there’s a strong possibility Michael has commented on it. When asked where this enthusiasm comes from, he explains how as a youth he attributed the qualities of his bearded father to anyone who wore a beard: “from there it grew into a modest admiration of anyone who could grow a full on hairship”. It was only at 23, after graduating from university, when Michael was finally able to cultivate a beard of his own and start championing the beard movement.

“My beard has received compliments in eight states and three countries” As our conversation continued I had to ask Michael if being a beard enthusiast has affected his life in any way. “My beard has received compliments in eight US states and three countries. I’ve been stopped on the street to pose for a photo scavenger,” he says. “And only once has a woman not liked my beard”.

With over 600 followers on Twitter, it’s clear that online platforms are providing Michael with a great way of reaching out to other enthusiasts around the world. I asked him how important he felt the internet was to the development of the community.“Communities develop with open avenues of communication, and the internet is a gargantuan avenue”. He went on to explain that websites like www.bearduary.com are like “letters and phone calls, out in the cloud, making the heart grow fonder; while public events like The Beard and Moustache Championships are like the family reunion. Both avenues are necessary to nurture the beard community.”

Googling “beard enthusiasts” I’m given 421,000 results, a mix of societies, blogs and Facebook groups. However, many of the links I click on take me to sites that are no longer being maintained regularly or have seemingly closed down months ago. I quizzed Michael on this seemingly diminishing presence for the beard community, “I think the bearding community is stagnant” Michael answers. “With the internet beardies have www.catch22mag.com

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been able to find each other. So the illusion that a community is growing is really just a by-product of access.”

Listening to Michael speak about beardies, Twitter and his blog, it’s easy to forget about the competitive side to it all, those enthusiasts that crave the thrill of the competition and choose to sport beards that may just be the size of their egos. Alex Coleman,26, is one such enthusiast and plans on competing in The World Beard and Moustache Championships held in Trondheim, Norway.

It’s a few weeks before Christmas and I’ve travelled up to Brighton to meet Alex. As we sit in a dingy café along the pier, he explains what being a beard enthusiast means to him: “A beard enthusiast is a person who has transcended all modern forms of expression and arrived at the facial appendage – the hallmark of a true individual.” He then talks me through his preparation for next year’s Championships, which involves him not shaving for 12 months and trying to decide on what beard category to enter. “If I have a competition coming up then my beard gets attended to several times throughout the day and depending on the style, preparation involves precise trimming and sometimes dying it another colour.”

But it seems that even Alex has days when he wishes could shave off his beard due to the high amount of maintenance.

However, he later recanted this, going on to say “the lifestyle of an enthusiast is too glamorous to give up. The public adoration and the nationwide competitions are just too great to even contemplate shaving off my beard.”

“A beard enthusiast is a person who has transcended all modern forms of expression and arrived at the facial appendage” Listening to Alex talk, it’s clear that while this is something he’s taking very seriously, he also gets a lot of entertainment out of it: “Competing is just lots of fun, I see it as a chance to meet new people and get a lot of attention for something I’ve worked to maintain.” But when asked how important an event like the World Championship is to the beard community, he becomes slightly more serious than he had been all afternoon, explaining how public events are more effective at advertising the community: “Competitions are better for providing awareness, they provide something tangible that the internet cannot replicate.” Alex also thinks that groups like British campaign group, The Beard Liberation Front, are effective in raising awareness for beards, and provide muchneed opposition against the discrimination of those who wear them.

Shayne Taylor, a 23 year-old student agrees that competitions are essential, but believes a balance between offline and online activities is key for the community to develop, and feels more enthusiasts should be following his example and trying to merge the two. Shayne, along with the help of three other friends started their own beard society, Fuzzy Logic. “What began as a joke [going out with moustaches and wearing

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t-shirts that had ‘beardie weirdies’ printed on them] evolved over a year and we decided to start a fully fledged society,” Shayne recounts.

Despite being in the early stages of its life-cycle Fuzzy Logic already has an impressive following – with most of the members consisting of friends and other enthusiasts in Romford, where the society is based. Shayne hopes their site will build on their membership base and “provide both nonenthusiasts and enthusiasts with a place to learn about the community.” Adding that, “Blogs like Beard Revue and Year of the Beard is what we’re trying to emulate with our own spin on things.”

“Blogs like Beard Revue and Year of the Beard is what we’re trying to emulate with our own spin on things” Based on research, it’s questionable how much this addition is needed. There are countless societies that claim to do the same thing as Shayne and his fellow beardie weirdies, yet so many are poorly managed, how will their approach will differ?

Interesting Facts About Beards ● In 1997,Shamsher Singh of Punjab, India, had his beard officially measured at an impressive 2.36m.

Becoming the longest beard on a living male. ● Pogonophobia refers to an abnormal and persistent fear of beards. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, rapid breathing and irregular heartbeat. ● Amount of time an average man spends shaving: 3,350 hours. ● Number of whiskers on the face of the average man: 30,000.

“We’re all aware of this and to be honest I can’t say what’s going to happen in the future. I really look to The Beard Liberation Front as a group to aspire to and seeing something grow from a joke between mates to an internet site with fully fledged members is fulfilling – I guess what I’m saying is I want us to be a sleeker and hipper BLF.” Hearing Shayne talk got me thinking about how his project would fit into the beard community at large, and I asked him for his thoughts on its current status.

“I think 2010 has been a decent year for the community.

I would like to see slightly more of an online presence. Given the number of enthusiasts around the world, this is not reflected in the number of sites and blogs. I think enthusiasts need to adapt and not forget about the non-enthusiast. I’m not saying sell out and be mainstream, just be a bit more savvy with the approach and presentation of everything.”

While events over recent years have given the beard undeserved connotations of fanaticism, the beard has long been linked to some of man’s greatest achievements throughout history. From Albert Einstein winning a Nobel Prize in 1921 or Hulk Hogan close-lining Mr. Perfect to win the 1990 Royal Rumble, there was facial hair present on both upper lips during these epic feats. Coincidence? I think not.

Beards are to faces, like music is to poems.

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A CASE IN POINTE North London-born ballet dancer Jade Hale-Christofi began dancing at the Urdang Academy of Ballet, from there he eventually progressed to classes at the Royal Ballet School. He now dances with Ballet Black, a company which aims to put Asian and black dancers in the spotlight. Catch 22 meets up with him at his Archway home to chat all things ballet. Photograph: courtesy of Ballet Black/Bill Cooper

So was there anything that inspired you to dance?

I was about five when I said to my mum I wanted to be like Michael Jackson and I watched all his videos and listened to all his music. Then my mum sent me to afterschool classes and ballet was just one of the things that I did. My ballet teacher picked up on my ability and he said to my parents you should take your kid to the Royal Ballet School’s Junior Associates classes. It took me a long time to actually like ballet because it was such hard work and it takes up so much of your life. It wasn’t until I was 17 that eventually it just clicked and I thought ‘oh, I’m pretty good at this’.

Do you have a favourite ballet dancer?

It would have to be Carlos Acosta as soon as you see him in a role it just looks better than everyone else. And also he’s masculine, he’s like a real guy when he dances. People spend all their lives trying to be as good as him, we practice for years to try and get those steps as good as he does.

I’ve heard a lot about ballet being really tough, how true is this? Have you suffered many injuries?

I’m injured now at the moment and I’d say it’s probably the toughest career you could have.You have to choose your career when your 11 years old. A 1,000 students audition every year for 15 places, and if you do any mistake you’re out. I had physiotherapists around me all the time, but you can still get serious injuries.

I completely tore my hamstring which was my worst injury. It was absolutely horrible and I was off for eight months. I didn’t warm up and I did the splits and I got up and it totally ripped and bunched up, I couldn’t walk for a month.

Do you find it hard to maintain a social life as a hard-working ballet dancer?

Yeah definitely. I guess the bad side to ballet is that most of your time is taken up. So, for the past 14 years my life has been just about dance and everything else is secondary, whether that’s weddings or funerals...if I’m working I can’t come. Or if I was in school that was it, there was no way you could get the time off no matter what happened.You get taught when you’re very young that you have to grow up quickly.

Why do you think there aren’t more ethnic minorities in ballet?

It’s a very hard thing to get into anyway especially for black kids because of society. And they don’t know how to get into it and also it’s really expensive, it costs £100,000 for five years. And I’m sure if there were 10,000 black dancers as there are white dancers, I’m sure stereotypes like black dancers don’t have the right bodies would go, because you’d see black dancers with the right bodies.

When I auditioned I was the only black guy from the Royal Ballet School, but I got chosen because of my body type. I think the Royal Ballet School never really look at colour, they look at how good they can make you because it’s their name.

What do you like best about being a ballet dancer?

I would say that when you finish a performance and the crowd cheer for you and you have 2,000 people watching everything you do, that is probably the best feeling. It really does make you feel like you’re a gladiator. And when you also have a piece that you like and the music is good and you’re 100% behind the choreography, that’s one of the best things.

I’ve also been all round the world, I’ve met incredibly famous people, I’ve been to Buckingham Palace and met the Queen.

You meet very rich and powerful people because they’re the people that come to see ballet. These guys have empires and yet they’re so excited to meet you because you dance, it’s really weird.

Do you have any ambitions in your career?

Ever since I was kid I wanted to join the Royal Ballet, I’ve been up through the whole entire school of the Royal Ballet and I just want to go as far as I can go.

I wanna make as big a name for myself while I’m young because it’s such a short career. I’m aiming to get in this year because I won’t be satisfied till I’m in that company.

What are the most common assumptions you get as a male dancer? Do people often assume your gay?

Yeah I get that and the amount of people that say ‘do a little ballet dance in front of me’. It just pisses me off, I could just say ‘I’m bigger than you, I could crush you, even if I am a ballet dancer.’I think you get used to it, people don’t know they’re just very silly. www.catch22mag.com

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YOUR SPACE OR MINE Bands across the UK are taking extraordinary measures to expose themselves to a generation saturated by the internet. When the Arctic Monkeys broke through in 2005, MySpace was thought to be the driving force behind their success.

Five years on, the internet isn’t as exciting as it was. Tim Horner finds out what bands are doing to get people excited now Photography: Magdalena Paprocka, Lee Lester,Sasha Mihajlovic, Aris Vakas, Jody Coffey

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Kandice Holmes is the manager of folk rock band Holden. Originally from Edinburgh, the band relocated to London in 2008 to get more gigs and gain more valuable contacts. However, trips back home have created a buzz to bring back down south. “We had all the top promoters, festival promoters, music lawyers, Radio 1 all in one room for Holden.The next week they got played

by Vic Galloway on Radio 1 in Scotland, and the promoters set up a tour for the summer,” says Holmes.

Another trip home saw the band playing a gig at a hostel in the centre of the city in exchange for accommodation for the night. Distance, it seems, makes the fans’ hearts grow fonder. “I called up a hostel and did a deal. We stayed in the centre of the city for free, which would have cost like £400, just for a gig. They gave us full artistic license. There was a festival going on in the city in the daytime. We racked up a load of musicians, got a load of people, it was like a warehouse party in the middle of Edinburgh.”

The next stage is bringing the hype down to London. “We’re playing in Beyond Retro’s Shop’n’Roll event. It’s such a good venue for the band’s style and they’re getting paid in clothes,” explains Holmes. And more warehouse-style parties, in actual warehouses are set for the future. “We’re looking to set up a really big gig in East London. Get two or three coach-loads down and create a mini adventure. It’s far more exciting doing things to write home about.”

Once you’ve got people’s attention, keeping it is crucial. As tracks can be accessed for free, innovative merchandising is also playing an important role. And to that end, Holmes pulls out a miniature harmonica on a necklace and plays a few notes, explaining, “We’ll be giving them out at gigs.” Fans are getting involved too. At a recent concert, Holmes met a woman doing a sketch of the lead singer on her mobile phone. “It was so cool,” Holmes says. “We’re going to get her to do more and send it to fans straight away. Live art sent to your phone!”

Bands are taking the initiative in marketing themselves because the music industry is in crisis. Last year the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) reported that 95 per cent of music downloads were unauthorised, with no payment going back to the artists and producers. Music sales have been declining as a whole since the end of the last century. If that’s not enough proof, consider the opinion of Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. In a school textbook he has warned young musicians not to tie themselves to the “sinking” ship of the corporate music industry. www.catch22mag.com

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And being a female drummer it’s easy to be recognized,” says Annie O.The band is also working on visuals for their gigs, some of which have taken place in Annie’s own warehouse apartment with a distinct fairytale theme.

Annie O adds, “I was featured in a Levi’s advert, as a female drummer.The posters were all around London and people recognize me from that which is good.” The Levi’s website also linked to the band’s website providing valuable free publicity. And the band are now looking into getting red hoods made to give out at their shows, “T-shirts are boring,” Annie O confirms.

Another band getting creative with their image and their marketing is Rotkäppchen. Ian Barber and Annie O are behind the East London based, two-piece electro outfit. They consider themselves to be an electro version of The White Stripes. The name, which is German for Little Red Riding Hood, is the inspiration behind the band. Dressed in red capes and custom-made leotards, the band play live electronic music in venues around East London. “We’re breaking into the East London scene for sure. It’s so easy for us to be recognized with the red hoods.

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“This really is the public attempting to defy the traditional music business” The music business is becoming more creative in its approach to the internet as a marketing device too. Mark Gurney of Music 4 Good,

a social enterprise that helps young people get into the music industry, explains: “It’s a fantastic way of getting to a large audience easily and for free.” In the past, labels would hire a few people to make the odd website and they were slow to react. Now companies have entire social-media departments working on micro sites, blogs and viral marketing.

Rock Control is a project that has launched summer 2010. It is an interactive project that allows users to play the part of band manager, like X-Factor but cooler and more hands-on.Artists have the opportunity to upload their audition tapes to the website. Users, or ‘managers’ as the site calls them, will make the decisions as to who gets into the band, how the band looks, where the band plays and what the band will release. Cofounder, Mark Bowness (creator of BBC2 reality show Paradise or Bust) explains: “This really is the public attempting to defy the traditional music business, in order to take over every number one slot on the face of the planet. It’s got rock ‘n’ roll attitude, and if it works, we’ll create music history.”

Thomas Middleton is a guitarist taking part. “The project is an awesome way

competed in battle of the bands before but nothing quite on this scale.”

of showcasing talent. Since auditioning, hundreds of people have seen my videos and the links to my MySpace.There are a lot of ways to promote yourself through the internet, but this is the first where people come looking for you, rather than you trying to push all the time to create attention.”

Live and Unsigned on the other hand is the UK’s biggest live music competition.

It offers the opportunity for original acts to perform in front of industry executives, producers and promoters.

Sandfire Siren is a band based in Newquay, Cornwall. They won their regional final in Portsmouth and went on to play in the national final at the O2 Arena in the Alternative category. “It was an opportunity for us to gain some exposure for the band outside of Cornwall, and to put ourselves up against some of the best unsigned bands and artists in the country,” says guitarist Mat Stanton. “We have all

One artist using the internet as well as innovative marketing ideas is 36 yearold Jonathon Mark Smith Whittington, otherwise known as Jont. A poet turned musician, he held a residency night called Unlit at the 12 Bar Club in Soho. In 2006, he developed the Unlit format, in which he invited friends to perform, into a tour of the USA. He used MySpace to contact fans in America that would be willing to host his nights in their own homes. The New York to Los Angeles tour was a success and as a result of filming it and posting it on Youtube under the title The State We’re In, he was invited to perform an Unlit event for the BBC Electric Proms.

He has recently released a new album entitled Set It Free.The CD is sold with a visitor’s book as an insert.The idea is to pass the CD on to a friend, who then passes it on to another friend and so on.

The process is repeated until the visitor’s book is filled up, at which point it is returned to the person who first bought it. It is a brave attempt to overcome the piracy that is plaguing the music industry.

Jont explains the thinking behind the concept on his website, “You’re implicitly

saying, ‘If it doesn’t come back, that’s ok.’

Because I’d prefer to live in a world where I can trust people rather than not.”

It would seem that while the corporate side of the music industry is in crisis, the creative heart of it is beating strong.

Because there are more opportunities for bands to be heard than ever before, they have to come up with exciting ways of being a cut above the rest. They are taking matters into their own hands by putting themselves out there and catching the consumer’s eyes and ears.

But the old elements of the industry remain integral to success and being proactive is only the start. Mark Gurney agrees, “It’s very much about who you know. If you can get your music to Zane Lowe or his producer you’ll do all right.

It’s about putting yourself out there. Not a lot’s changed in terms of networking.

It’s as simple as that.” www.catch22mag.com

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E T TH HE X L X B U L BIIS E U A E A S E E T T F E F C EF C F Illustration: Stuart Kinlough

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While it has been largely accepted that there is a significant population of homosexuals in the UK whose identity is, at the very least, not questioned by the average person; the acceptance of a bisexual population is another matter altogether. Many people still remain confused as to what being bisexual means, while others don’t believe it even exists. Priscilla Eyles investigates the assumptions

“A “A lot lot of of gay gay people people use use the the identity identity as as aa safe safe way way house house in in the the process process of of coming coming out” out” What do you think of when you hear the word ‘bisexual’? Sleazy fame hungry celebrities like Jodie Marsh perhaps? Or maybe your immediate thought is that bisexuals should all stop being so indecisive and pick a side dammit! Whatever your reaction, it is clear that bisexuality is a very divisive and misunderstood subject, as evidenced in the Stonewall report of 2009, ‘Bisexual People In The Workplace’, which found that there was a lack of support and awareness for bisexual participants from colleagues, LGBT network groups and equality and diversity initiatives; which meant that participants felt “marginalised and stigmatised.”

Assumptions can be particularly problematic for bisexuals when it comes to partners. As Kitty, 26, a sex therapist from Stamford Hill, relates: “Partners generally say 'yeah, I'm getting a threesome!' Which is horrid to deal with.” Keiichi found that some of his partners got suspicious: “When I was with a girl she was weird about me because I had really close male mates and she was always saying, ‘I’m not sure if I’m comfortable’, even though there was nothing going on. And I've had boyfriends who've also been suspicious of others.

Because it’s like saying your bisexual is the same as saying you can’t commit.”

Keiichi, 25, a cinema manager from Leyton, has experienced this confusion about his sexuality on coming out and says that while a lot of his friends are “open-minded”, some of them found it “a bit strange.”

For Ben, 30, a social worker from Wood Green, he found that cynicism usually comes from the “queer community”, a reaction he puts down to the fact that “a lot of gay people use the identity as a safe way house in the process of coming out; there’s also a lot of gay people who feel somewhat used by partners who might’ve been with them for a while and then gone back to the safe haven of heterosexuality.”

It seems that stereotypes about bisexuality relating to promiscuity or confusion are pervasive in our culture and have largely remained unchallenged. As Dr. Christian Klesse, a senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University states: “There’s not a very nuanced understanding of bisexual identities and bisexual people’s lives...It is fair to argue that people think there is something wrong with them.”

The dominant belief that bisexuals are greedy, Klesse believes comes from the idea “that bisexuality is only possible if a person maintains relationships with men and women. So there’s this mistrust, can a bisexual person really be monogamous?”

Keiichi has also felt this cynicism from gay people who he figured would be more open-minded: “I’ve had it a couple of times where people have said ‘nah, it’s not real, it doesn’t exist’. It’s like for them it’s the cowardly way of being gay.” This 'double discrimination' may explains why surveys such as a 2002 survey on sexual orientation and mental health, published by The British Journal of Psychiatry, found that bisexuals had the highest measures of anxiety, depression and negative affect.

Dr. Meg Barker, a lecturer in Psychology at the Open University and co-founder of BiUk (a bisexual research team), also thinks that there is a ‘monosexism’ when it comes to bisexuality: “There seems to be a very strong tendency to view sexuality as a 'dichotomous' thing.

This is the idea that people can only be gay or straight.

Bisexual people trouble this understanding. This is why they are often seen as 'in denial' or 'going through a phase.'” The greedy stereotype, Barker thinks, is part

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of the problem of bisexual visibility: “Bisexual people who are single or in monogamous relationships tend to be invisible. So it is really only bisexuals who have more than one partner, in quick succession or at the same time, who are visible.”

idea of patriarchy and sexism. It’s alright for women to be bisexual because men love the idea of having a threesome with two women. For men the perception’s more that it’s a guy who’s not quite together, probably actually gay or confused.”

Kitty knows too well what’s it like to be seen as a ‘typical’ bisexual, as someone in an open relationship: “It's like 'oh ok so you have one of each.' Like no! I have open relationships regardless of how I identify, it's another part of my orientation.” She also finds the 'greedy' label illogical, “people have a really hard time understanding that you might be bisexual and have an open relationship, that doesn't mean you’re slutty. I mean just because your straight that doesn't mean you sleep with everyone of the opposite sex that you meet, I'm picky!”

It seems that the media has a lot to do with these assumptions, what with high profile bisexuals being constantly misidentified - for example prominent bisexual activist Robyn Ochs was ironically called a lesbian by The Washington Post. They are commonly referred to as attention seekers trying to promote themselves (see the recent coverage of Christina Aguilera’s bisexual revelations). Or made to look as if their bisexuality is part of their general immorality or rebelliousness (see coverage of Lindsay Lohan's personal life). Further, the Stonewall report of 2006, ‘Tuned Out’ showed that portrayals of bisexuals remain largely negative with the exception of Captain Jack in Torchwood.You only have to look at popular soaps like EastEnders with characters like the mentally unstable Steven Beale, to see this. Keiichi also believes that bisexual representations on TV are problematic: “Anytime I've seen any sort of bisexual activity it's

Miranda, 21, a retail assistant from Old Street, gets particularly annoyed at being told that bisexuality is “just a phase”- a reaction that lead her to concealing her sexuality initially for some time. However she can also see why people think this: “Lots of teenage girls do go through phases of experimenting with each other or

“It’s “It’s like like ‘oh ‘oh ok ok so so you you have have one one of of each.’ each.’

Like Like no! no! II have have open open relationships relationships regardless regardless of of how how II identify” identify” making out to get boys' attention, which skews peoples' ideas a lot.”

Which leads us to another issue, namely just why is it that female bisexual behaviour is treated so differently to male bisexual behaviour? It is certainly evident that women (regardless of sexuality) making out is a much more common sight than men making out. Just try to imagine Justin Timberlake and Kanye West snogging at the MTV Awards. It seems then that Western society is much more lenient towards bi women, a fact not helped by a 2005 survey (conducted by psychologists in Toronto and Chicago) which suggested that bisexual men may not even exist.

Keiichi agrees: “I think girls getting off with girls is more accepted. I think if a guy tried to kiss another guy for fun it would be like ‘what’s going on it’s going a bit weird now’. Whereas with girls your having a good night. For guys being bisexual it’s basically saying it’s gay and it’s opening yourself up to so much more stuff.”

Ben thinks that this greater acceptance of women is “a double-edged sword. I think that comes back to the

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usually either some sort of experimentation, or it's confusion. It's never someone willingly saying I stably like both. It's always some sort of crazy drug-fuelled or alcohol-fuelled thing. It doesn't seem like it's a stable way to have a relationship.”

On a more optimistic note although these stereotypes persist, most interviewees could appreciate their bisexuality. As Ben puts it: “I’m not confined to a particular gender, it’s not relevant to who I might fall in love with or be attracted to. So I’m opened up to experiencing other things that other people are generally unable to do or at least not willing to do.”

Here’s hoping more people see it this way.

SOAP BOX Vishal, 20, Bio-medical Science student, New Cross “Each to their own, people can do what they what they like. I’ve heard people say that it’s greedy, but I’ve heard from my bisexual friends that it’s more about the person than the gender and I think that’s true.”

Edward, 32, Gym receptionist, St John’s Wood “I’m gay myself and they confuse me. I don’t know whether a lot are homosexuals who can’t fully say that they are. Because a lot of bi people are in relationships with the opposite sex. So I don’t know whether they are homosexuals who haven’t come to terms with it.”

Louise, 28, Business owner, Finsbury Park “People are free to do what they want. But perhaps the person who is bi is oversexed and I’m not sure it’s more to do with sex. I don’t think they could love both genders.”

Vicky, 18, Pet shop sales assistant, Sydenham “I think they’re greedy I had a relationship with one but I wouldn’t do it again because I feel they go behind your back to boys. I wouldn’t trust them, nine times out of ten when they cheat on you it will be with a boy.”

Andrew, 18, Accounting and Finance student, Poplar “I think it’s a weird concept, I can’t really relate to it.

Even being gay is hard for me to understand, but can get that it’s just like being straight but the opposite. To me they just want everything and I think it’s driven by sexual desires. I don’t understand it.”

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GALLERY

Untitled Cameron cuts ‘council homes for life’, and says that his cuts will not be restored to what they were, even after deficit is reduced.

Ben Jennings

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Smoke This piece of work was based on a small text I wrote: A lit cigarette A smoking gun A wanted man And a pair of size 9’s.

I wanted to create an image that was atmospheric and captivating.

I always like to create strong and believable characters in my work that portray a certain amount of narrative. Film is a huge inspiration for me and with this image in particular I tried to push the cinematic feel and scope.

Dale Bowers www.catch22mag.com

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GALLERY

Born Into This Photography is for me, as well as for you who observe, a way to meet people. Their glance is their definition of themselves, in front of us. We are already here for them, before looking at them on the picture. There are so many situations or ways of life which are not explained as they should be, so I try to capture those glances in order that they start to tell us ...

I walked in the streets of London to understand this town which is not where I am from and let people tell me about it, about them.

The more mysterious for me was some youth’s glances, the way they look at us, the way they question us. What I think, is that it might be their way to tell us about ourselves.

Chole Meunier

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Untitled This piece explores the esoteric and seductive language of the fashion industry, it’s terminology, associations and relationship with words. Through a mixture of pen, ink and digital illustration I aim to appeal to the tactile sense of the viewer.

Deidre Breen www.catch22mag.com

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Skit’s all folks!

If the questions “What does ‘touche et lellet pou’ mean?” and “You want beef?” make you nostalgic, chances are you are a fan of the hip-hop skit – those spoken-word interludes that no rap album used to be complete without.

But has the ‘shuffle-isation’ of music killed the practice stone dead?

Lauren Ashi goes in search of a gone but not forgotten art form…

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Illustration: Ashley Morris

racially offensive, packed in huge numbers of spectators.

De La Soul are thought to be the first to put a hip-hop flip on skits, introducing them to the game in the late 80’s – producer Prince Paul peppered their 1989 debut album 3 Feet High and Rising with a series of gameshow-themed interludes that still inspire a wistful twinkle in many Gather any group of hip-hop heads in a room and talk of skits is likely to inspire nostalgic conversation about the early days in rap, where MCs used miniature plays sandwiched between tracks to give their albums extra oomph.

Usually written and performed by the artists themselves, these short sketches appeared on albums as individual tracks, leading into or fading out of a song.

Throughout the nineties and much of the noughties, a skit was like the plastic wrapping around a brand new CD (remember those?) – an album didn’t feel complete without one.

Sometimes they develop a fan club in their own right, think The Madd Rapper, who featured on Biggie Small albums. He became so popular, the skit character ended up releasing his own album.

But the origins of these add-ins came way before the first hip-hop block party, turntable showdown, or breakdance battle. Their roots can be traced back to the blackface performers of minstrel shows, such as Emmett Miller’s ‘The Minstrel Man from Georgia’ that despite being

a hip-hop lover’s eye. “3 Feet High is the earliest example that really sticks out in my mind”, says DJ Spin Doctor, connoisseur of all things hip hop, and founder of The Doctor’s Orders events. “I think they reflected the wacky character of Prince Paul and are still so memorable to this day.”

“For me, back in the day skits brought a light hearted comedy element to hip-hop music. Then you have other cases, where skits help to solidify an album – they can links songs together and can transform an album into a body of work instead of just a track list – like on Midnight Marauders by a Tribe Called Quest.” www.catch22mag.com

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Many other artists have used skits for this purpose. From Eminem’s regular conversations with manager Paul Rosenberg, to French trip-hop producer Wax Tailor’s skits mixing beats with 50’s movies cuts; skits can contribute to an album’s concept, helping to deliver a narrative or theme.

Common scenarios are telephone messages, sexual acts and mocking rival artists.Another popular motif features young children using adult language or introducing the next track on the album.

“There is an interlude on a Snoop Dogg album where a schoolteacher is asking kids what they want to be when they grow up,” Spin Doctor recalls,“and the little boy says in a baby voice ‘I wanna be a m*therf*cking hustler, you better ask somebody!’ Funny, but very messed up!”

The skit reached its zenith on The Fugees ‘96 album The Score – a comedic scene sees the owner of a Chinese

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restaurant exercise his ghetto credentials.

But beyond this, the art form began to dwindle. So who turned around and said “That’s (sk)it!” Is it really over and do people miss them?

special to the album, sometimes it’s better to just have the music without the interruptions.”

Spin Doctor does – well, at least the good ones.“Skits can really add character to a piece and I miss that – like on Public Enemy’s Takes a Nation of Millions, their album opens with sound bites from their live show at Brixton Academy.You can hear Tim Westwood introducing them and Flavor Flav shouting,‘Get some bass in your face London!’ Those memories will always be captured on that album; it brings a sense of excitement, of context.

This impatience towards skits could be further testament to the fact that the way the world consumes its music has changed. From downloading, internet radio and YouTube, instant gratification leads consumers to get a track, when, where and how they want it. The option of buying an album where you like eight out of 13 tracks of is no longer a fan’s obligation – but has a stick-of-gum-size MP3 player, namely the iPod shuffle, single-handedly snuffed out this story-telling device in hip hop?

“But at other times they can just be a pain! If the skits aren’t adding anything

“I don’t think downloading alone has caused the reduction of skits on

hip-hop albums,” Spin Doctor says.

“When you make an album it’s about the whole thing, not just the individual tracks, at least that’s the way an artist should look at it.You want people to buy the whole album, not to just download the hottest track of the moment. If anything, downloading should encourage people to buy the whole album – individual tracks are the preview for the whole thing.”

“Labels now find it cheaper to put out shorter albums,” says Londonbased MC Mystro. “So to release an album of 12 songs, rather than 17 tracks where five are skits, is way more cost effective.”

“Why did you call it a skit?

It’s a like a proper song!”

But beyond the glaring eye of the industry and the immense reach of the web, there’s an aspect of skits that can’t be ignored – content. With many venomous music critics citing them to have been “popular ten years ago with 13 year old boys,” maybe hip-hop skits just became a bit...lame. Their absence might not be such a bad thing, as subject matter often verges on the vulgar, crude, or just plain ignorant

– maybe drawing parallels to the minstrel show days?

So with Mystro continuing to fly the flag, does anybody else see a future for skits?

“I guess it got to a point where skits became very formulaic – you’d get the phone conversation with a girl, or guys in a car planning revenge on some other crew – it was just the same old, same old. The scenarios became played out and skits stopped being inventive.”

“I hope there is a future for them,” Spin Doctor says. “As skits are fairly unique to hip hop it would be a shame for them to disappear – you don’t really hear them on rock or indie albums for example. But if they’re no good there’s no point really, is there? I mean, unless someone can come with something new, then why bother?”

But despite collective disillusionment, some artists are still skitting – Big Boi of Outkast has a skit on recent release Sir Lucious Leftfoot – The Son of Chico Dusty entitled M*th*rf*ckin’ Henry. However, we hear some of the same motifs as mentioned before – a telephone call referring to sex acts, and a whole lot of swearing.

So is progressive movement possible?

Or is the skit confined to the same repetitive conventions for eternity?

Another proprietor of the skit is doing things a little differently.

“I use skits a lot on my albums,” says Mystro. “They help to separate ideas and even tempos, throughout. I always come up with fresh ideas. But this time round I fancied a change and decided I would cut back on them – and to be honest, I missed doing them! Definitely felt like something was missing – breaking up songs with a joke or instrumental really makes a difference.”

“There is one on my latest EP though – a track I did called Moan, Moan, Moan, where as Digmund Freud, I’m having a go at one of my fictional psychotherapy patients. It was so short I ended up calling it a skit. The feedback I got was people asking, “Why did you call it a skit? It’s a like a proper song!

“I will definitely keep making skits in the future. This time round I pushed myself to let the songs tell the story, but if I want do skits on other projects nothing would stop me.”

“People want killer, not filler” Mystro agrees. “If they’re sticking around they have to be fresh and entertaining. I did a radio skit on my last EP and a lot of people loved it. I think the survival of skits depends on relevance, length and quality. Rising Down by the Roots has some nice examples, which show that if you know how to do it right skits never get old.

So the jury is hung. Some say skits are dead, others live in hope. But if this hiphop tradition is heading for the burial ground, I’ll let UK MC Yungun provide the autopsy: “I think hip hop artists killed the skit themselves - they literally did it to death. De La Soul and Wu-Tang had incredible, unusual skits on their early work. Unfortunately they inspired swathes of pale imitations - lame, un-funny skits that just get the skip now that we’ve all got iPod shuffles and goldfish attention spans. People want killer, not filler. So if skits are dead, I doubt many people will bother turning up for the funeral.”

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Love Lockdown

Illustration: Dale Bowers

What would you do if your partner was doing time in jail? Would you wait for them or let them go? Leanne Petersen investigates.

With over 85,000 prisoners in the UK, recent statistics show that 55% of men and a third of women are in a relationship before their imprisonment. So what is it like to wait for a partner who gets sent to jail, what challenges do they face, what motivates them to stay faithful?

Three different stories speak of the realities of having a partner in jail.

Elle, from London met her partner Kevin 28, when she was in her teens. Now 25, she and Kevin have decided to get back together while he’s still serving a two and a half year jail sentence.

Elle’s Story I was told that he was serving his sentence for armed robbery about a year and half ago through a friend of ours. I was shocked when I heard, it seemed out of character for him but I didn’t have any contact with him until February this year.

He’s in an open prison, so this means that he can come out on home visits every 28 days for five days: time which

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he mostly spends with me. Leading up to his monthly release, I get excited, we both do. Driving to pick him up, showing my passport to the security and our first embrace are moments that keep me going. But when he goes back, dropping him at the station or back to the prison it’s very hard and it is usually harder the first week or so as it seems to drag.

“ He treats me better than anyone else has and although he is banged up, he is there for my daughter. ” Knowing that he is going to be coming out in the next four weeks keeps me going, and I just try to keep myself busy with work and looking after my daughter.

I have had support from my family, even though they were a bit hesitant at first about me being with someone in jail.

But after I explained to them that I had known him for years and they met him, they could see that I am happy. We stay in contact, speaking occasionally on the phone and writing letters, which say what we have been up too and how we feel.

We constantly talk about our future and discuss ideas and plans for us in the long term. Last week we argued about what car we should get. I said that I wanted a Ford Puma, and he turned and said to me, ‘What are we going to do when we have another baby, that type of car has no space!’

See, we are currently trying every month when he comes out to have a baby. I trust him more than I have done in other relationships, because I know where he is for 28 days; I know that he is not on road. And when he does come out, he stays with me every day. It also helps that I have known him previously, so I know what kind of person he really is. He treats me better than anyone else has and although he is banged up, he is there for my daughter. He looks after her like she is his own. If I was inside, I don’t know if he would wait for me. Personally, I don’t think I would try to have a relationship with anyone, I don’t think I could deal with it mentally. I’ve been with Kevin for three months now; I’ve just had his initials tattooed in a heart on my hip. I’m in love.

Lucy from London met her partner Martin, both 25, when she was in college aged 18. The pair were introduced to each other through a mutual friend, and their seven year relationship has seen Martin in prison up to nine times.

Lucy’s Story Martin’s first prison sentence while we were a couple was about a year into our relationship. It wasn’t the first time he had been inside though. At first it was not a big deal as we hadn’t been together that long, but it has never been easy. We would write to each other at any opportunity, and he would send me cards, not always just for special occasions; sometimes just to say he misses me. It was made harder still, because the longest we could speak on the phone was 10 minutes. And then it would cut out and we would have to wait another 10 minutes before he could use the phone again. It was very frustrating.

he probably wouldn’t be so loyal. But I wouldn’t blame anyone for walking away.

He’s now been out for three months after serving a two year sentence, the day he came out I was really excited. The first time is the most amazing, best feeling in the world, but when you’ve done it a few times, it’s like with everything else, the excitement tends to wear off. I think I was dreaming for the past two years of how it would be this ideal when he was released and it’s definitely not. He has had to adjust which is something I forget - little things that I take for granted, like going to see my friends. I have to check myself and think he’s missed out on a lot, but in the same breath I didn’t put him where he was.

Samantha is 23 and from London met John 27, when she was 18 years old through a mutual friend. At this time John was serving a potential 10 year sentence.

“ I wouldn’t blame anyone for walking away. ”

Samantha’s Story

I went through loads of emotions whilst he was inside. At times I’d feel angry, and then feel really upset, and also really lonely. And then there came the feeling of I’ve got to tell people; having to explain to friends and family took its toll emotionally, as obviously you can sort of see people

I met John while he was still in jail; he was on day release with his probation hearing looming. He had been arrested for GBH, where they had gotten him as part of a group brawl and it was proved intent. He was sentenced to 10 years, but was trying to get early release for good behaviour.

questioning you. I was lucky in that people respected my judgement enough to not question me too much. I mean I’m sure they had their opinions, but overall friends and family were really supportive. I did try for a while to do my own thing; I did end the relationship at one point. But we still ended up back together.

We had breaks where I saw other people, but his reaction always made me feel like I was cheating on him. I tried to forget him, but it just didn’t feel the same. So in the end we eventually just got back together.

I think if the tables were turned, without a shadow of a doubt, I don’t think he would wait for me. Not for this amount of time.

He probably wouldn’t be so patient and

able to do what normal couples do, like going out regularly to dinner and cinema trips was very hard at times.

“ The courts figured he hadn’t yet learnt his lesson and that he had no regard for authority, and me for that matter. ” I think my biggest challenge during the relationship was not so much that he was in jail, because he was close to release. It was the fact that so close to his release, he did some stupid things like getting caught with phones and weed on him; which then jeopardised his potential early release date for good behaviour, which we were both looking forward to. The courts figured he hadn’t yet learnt his lesson and that he had no regard for authority and me for that matter. When they denied his application for release, we sat down one day soon after, on a visit, and decided that we needed to part ways. It was a very sad, but mutual decision.

We have remained friends and speak regularly, however I have responsibilities now in the form of my son. Having seen children going to visit their fathers or other family members. I do not believe that prisons are places for children. I would not want to put him through that at all, regardless of whether I could cope or not.

I was quite weary of him at first, as although I had a thing for bad boys I had never been with someone quite this bad; someone who was in prison. But we got along really well, so I decided to give him and the relationship a chance. A lot of my friends were worried about me and I had constant reminders to be careful.

We would write to each other as much as possible, as phone calls were few and far between. And I would see him every month or so either on his day release or on a prison visit. I never felt that I had a need to cheat even though I didn’t see him as often as I would have liked, but I understood the situation, so I just kept going. However I found that not being www.catch22mag.com

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Many of us long for a journey of self-discovery in the land of our forefathers. But is going home always all its cracked up to be? Selena Gray investigates Some people say that, to know

For many young people, although they

where you’re going in life, you need to know where you’re from. It seems as if going back ‘home’ is the thing to do these days, but what actually happens when a Brit makes the journey to the place their parents were raised?

grow up immersed in London culture and partake in all the British traditions, when they step through the front door at home they are exposed to food, music, languages, traditions, and annual cultural festivals that provide them with a glimpse of the home of their forefathers. And these glimpses play a huge part in building a person’s cultural identity.

I grew up in London with Jamaican culture always in the background of family life. I, like many first-generation people in my position, have never been ‘home’, so I can’t help but wonder if I am missing out? According to Hannah Pool, the author of My Father’s Daughter, I am.

“It’s incredibly important for firstgeneration people to go home; everyone gains self knowledge and a greater sense of self-respect. It’s incredibly empowering to be somewhere you feel you belong. I’d love to see going home on the national curriculum,” says the author of a warm, funny, personal memoir documenting her journey back home to Eritrea.

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There are 300 languages spoken in the capital and around one in three Londoners belong to an ethnic minority and many of these people are curious about what their life would be like if their parents hadn’t been immigrants.

Victoria Gardener, 32, grew tired of the shocked facial expressions from people whenever she said her father was from Trinidad and that she hadn’t been to visit. So, one day, she decided to make the journey. Victoria set off to Point Fortin, the small village in south-west Trinidad, where her father grew up.

“I stepped off of the plane and the heat hit me for six”

“I stepped off of the plane and the heat

“Trinidad is very industrial, it is not a

experience there has changed the way

hit me for six,” she remembers. But more shocking than the heat were the cultural differences discovered by the public sector manager from London.

beach destination and it’s not a place to go swimming and snorkelling.” She soon began craving life in London. “I missed blending in the background without being noticed, I missed my Sky TV, soaps, hairdryer, internet and my friends.”

By day four of her two-week trip, she was longing to get home.

she feels about her family. “Before my trip, I thought of my family members in Trinidad as my dad’s family. I see them as my family now.”

Victoria stayed with family. “It was a big culture shock,” she explains. “It was like something out of The Colour Purple. I thought to myself, ‘What the hell is this?’ Some of the houses were built from wood; I was expecting Whoopi Goldberg to come around the corner at any moment.” To add to her woes, skin colour fast became an issue, making it difficult for Victoria to relax.

“I felt as though I was being stared at everywhere I went,” she says. “I felt very self-conscious; everyone was either dark skinned or Asian.” Victoria is mixed-race; her mother is white British. Looking back at her own journey of discovery, Victoria reluctantly concludes that there just wasn’t enough to discover. The exotic Caribbean scenery she dreamed of, simply didn’t exist.

The highlights of her trip were catching up with family members she’d never met and visiting neighbouring country Tobago.“It was beautiful, out of this world, if I had not gone there, I would have really considered ringing BA to come home [early].”

Victoria admits looking back; she feels no cultural identity connection to Trinidad.

“I felt I had to go there and I feel better within myself now that I understand where my dad is from. It was nice to see where he grew up and meet my family.”

But beyond that, Victoria says she doesn’t see Trinidad as her home, although her

It took 18 months in Kenya for another Londoner, Pambana Kihoro, 27, to discover there was more to his identity.

“I think to get a full experience of any homeland you need to spend time there.

It’s a good idea to work or volunteer for six months,” says the civil servant.

British-born Pambana returned to Mombasa when he was four, staying for five years before returning to London.

“The schooling system was different to London, seriously painful, [they used] a ruler against the knuckles and they used these bamboo-like branches that whipped forward on impact, so basically you get hit on your arse and your hip,” he recalls.

As a teenager, Pambana returned to live in Nairobi for 10 months to re-do his A-levels, it was during this time that he

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“If a person is seeking a cultural-identity connection, this is not likely to be formed in one short trip” gained a better understanding of his

to go, although obviously there are little

as if the experience can vary depending

identity. And it was spending time with his peers that brought about the change in his thinking, “I noticed there was no real difference between me and them, apart from being born in London. I felt a sense of belonging,” he says. Although the bulk of his life was spent in the UK, Pambana realised that he no longer defined himself as simply black British. “From the age of 13 I would have identified myself as British because that’s what my passport said I was. But now I class myself as Kenyan-British, and going home helped me to identify with my nationality, more than my race.”

things that I end up missing – silly things like bacon, Marmite, vintage shops.”

on the individual. If a person is seeking a cultural-identity connection, this is not likely to be formed in a one-off short trip.

One thing is for certain though and that is that every person will be guaranteed an experience – a journey that will help to build relationships with family, while exploring ideas of culture and heritage.

At the very least, you will return to the UK with a greater understanding of the land of your roots. And talking to Victoria, Pambana, and Susie has inspired me to finally embark on my own journey, ‘home’ to Jamaica.

Susie Lau, 25, was born in London but her parents are from Hong Kong. Susie, who edits the fashion blog stylebubble.com, can relate to Pambana’s story. “From the time I was born I went back and forth between Hong Kong and London many times.” Susie says that although she feels London is ultimately her true home, she never feels homesick in Hong Kong. “It’s a treat for me

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Susie, found growing up in London with Chinese culture in the background of her life largely positive. “My parents always ensured I integrated well with my English peers and that I experienced British culture as well as Chinese culture,” she says. But despite this, she found that there were always things that marked her out from her friends at school. “I went to Chinese school on Saturdays so missed out on things like lying in bed and watching programmes like Live & Kicking.”

On the subject of her cultural identity she says, “It’s pretty evenly split between being Chinese and being British, there are parts of me that are very connected to my original culture although most of my identity is influenced by living in London.”

Victoria, Pambana, and Susie are three Brits with three very different experiences of going ‘home’. So it seems

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RUN THIS TOWN TONIGHT So your feeling unfit and guilty? Maybe you also feel like you should be meeting new people who could get you out of your uninspiring dead-end job and into that dream job in the media?

Fortunately, help is at hand in the form of pioneering running group called Run Dem Crew Text: Priscilla Eyles Photography: courtesy Mark Fleming

people around my age, who have businesses and opportunities, like an unofficial mentoring scheme.”

He also thinks that running can powerfully transform your mindset: “If you can run a distance you’ve only ever gone by car or by bus you can do anything in life. So that running distances, even if it’s just five miles, means that my whole outlook on life has changed and it’s much more positive. That’s the idea of ‘We Run The City’.”

Charlie tells me that some amazing things have come out of Run Dem Crew so far, including the Tied Together project which raised money for Nike’s HIV campaign and involved a 48-hour race through London with different teams. They also have themed runs and have had “weird mystery runs” and “night-time runs”.

RDC was formed by writer, musician, DJ and Blacktronica founder Charlie Dark in 2007, it was in response to the Olympic stadium being built right in front of his window; motivating him to aim “to have a group of 4,000 people actively running once a week to take advantage of the facilities, once the Olympics come and go.”

Shoreditch based Run Dem Crew is no ordinary running club. It is a community, set up in order to aid young creatives, hosting talks, workshops and films alongside 2-7 mile long runs through City, Central and East London. It caters for all

levels whatever your running ability and here’s the really cool part: it costs nada.

Charlie, 39, explains that RDC started off as a way of improving his fitness levels for a one-man show and a way of reconnecting with friends and “exchanging ideas”. It quickly turned into “a reaction against the traditional idea of running, this very quaint English middle-class idea.” As a creative writing and poetry tutor at schools and universities, it also meant that he came into contact with lots of talented young people: “The idea is to try and connect some of those young and creative people with older

Midway through chatting Turner prize-winning artist Chris Ofili calls Charlie’s mobile, I learn that he also happens to run with the group. Duly impressed I ask Charlie who else members can expect to be mingling with?

“We get film directors who come including Garth Jennings, who directed The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. A lot of pop promo people, we have musicians and DJs from various different genres. We get 1Xtra people who come, Radio 1 people who come, Rinse FM people who come. It’s a great mix of people.”

RUNNING TIPS Bananas and nuts are the best source of energy before and after running.

Go to a running shop and ask for a pronation test or gait analysis, in order to get the correct pair of running shoes for your feet.

Change your trainers once the soles show signs of wear.

Invest in some moisturewicking and thermoregulating socks, cotton socks can cause blisters.

Less about the networking and more about the running

While taking part in one of their weekly runs, some RDC members share their reasons for joining the club.

Darryl Daley, 24, a graphic designer from Stockwell, was motivated to join due to the prospect of meeting people and networking. But now thinks that it’s become “less about the networking and more about the running and the state of mind it puts you in; clear thoughts good for creativity.”

Radi Dadi, 25, label manager at Deadly People records says that her desk-bound job meant that she needed regular exercise but that she was “sick of going to the gym”, and found it more motivating to run in a group where your forced to keep up with people.

Jama Little aka Jammz, 19, a graphic design student and MC from Hackney, didn’t know about any of the networking opportunities but explained that he kept getting more things out of it. “Once Charlie

knows you’ve got talent he just kind of brings you into things which is good, he’s a good mentor. I just came back from performing at the Big Chill Festival with him this weekend, stuff like that.”

I ask them what else they have got out of the networking opportunities and Darryl tells me that he has met a lot of people he would never have had the chance to meet. And through that got an internship at design agency Rosie Lees and collaborated with people from Nike on a photo shoot. He also attests that the group has given him more confidence to talk to people and aside from that given him good friends. While for Radi meeting a girl from Channel 4, created TV opportunities for a band on her label.

Darryl says: “It’s like nothing exists, I’m just running I think every week now, I really do crave that kind of feeling, and once you’ve finished you feel like you’ve achieved something at the end of the run.” And as Jammz puts it: “It puts me in a tunnel vision state of mind and helps me focus on what I need, to do everything else in life. I just carry that feeling over into everything I do now and it does help a lot.”

What more do you need to know?

Get running!

It’s obvious that weekly running improves health and endurance levels and in Radi’s case it even lead to a change of diet: “Why run if I’m gonna go home and eat rubbish food?” They also agree with Charlie’s view that running is mentally beneficial. As www.catch22mag.com

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SPELLBOUND Witchcraft was outlawed in the UK for the best part of a thousand years. Now, it’s officially tolerated and in 2007 the national census listed 7,000 people in Britain as witches. With the BBC recently devoting airtime to the witches of Weymouth and calling the women figureheads of “a reinvented religion” Seb Joseph investigates the reality of being a witch in the Photography: Laura King 21st century.

According to Witch Kia of witchcraft.com the rules of spell casting are: “A witch may engage in any action, as long as it is carefully considered and that their actions harm nobody, including themselves. Any action taken by any witch that affects another person will come back to the witch threefold. Magic is not a hocus pocus way of bending the laws of nature to suit your needs. The magic of witchcraft is to raise and channel energy within you to bring it in harmony with nature to achieve the desired

“I disagreed with many of the things said in the Bible, particularly in regards to women”

result” …..No chance of me being cursed for misquoting anyone in this feature then.

Although the earliest forms witchcraft date back to almost 30,000 years ago, the first documented evidence of it being practised as a religion was in England during the 1930s.

After the repeal of The Witchcraft Act of 1735 in 1951 it became more prominent as people all over the world including archaeologist Gerald Gardner and occultist Alex Sanders began propagating their own interpretations. This modern form of witchcraft is

called Wicca (the Old English term for witch) and its pagan influenced beliefs have lead to many dubbing it a neo-pagan religion.

“For me, Wicca means a belief in the sanctity of the natural world and a belief in their being a Goddess as well as a God or at least a female as well as a male divine essence,” says Isobel Parker, a 19 year old Wiccan who lives in Dulwich, South-East London. Although neither of her parents are religious, Isobel was a Christian for a short while before converting to Wicca. “I disagreed with many of the things said in the Bible, particularly in regards to women,” she explains. It was during a random visit to an alternative bookshop five years ago, that Isobel first became interested in Wicca, saying that despite Wicca’s similarities with Christianity, “it’s more fluid and does not say that anything is the absolute truth, which I have fewer problems with.”

“devil worshippers” and “child murderers” immediately come to mind

According to the Pagan Federation there are currently 10,000 initiated witches in the United Kingdom and more than 100,000 pagans. Compare this with 6,000 practising British Druids and 4,000 Buddhists and it’s clear that what was once prohibited is now becoming more commonplace. Although no one knows how many witches there are worldwide Isobel believes that “the number is easily over a million”.

Despite being less of a taboo now, definitions are still called for. It goes without saying that not all pagans are witches and vice versa, but while all wiccans are witches not all witches are wiccans. There are also witches who are agnostic, while others choose to remain devout followers of other religions.

“I was and still identify myself as a Muslim,” says Aisha, a 29 year old from Afghanistan, who “occasionally” practises spells, “Culturally it’s easier for me say this, it is the religion I was raised in, but if practising witchcraft means I am one, then I guess Wicca is a part of me too.”

This approach has allowed Aisha to successfully straddle between both religions for nine years; it’s a rarity though, as witchcraft has frequently come into direct conflict with other religions since the 16th century, including both Christianity and Islam. It’s arguable that this has resulted in some negative connotations for witches over the years, - “devil worshippers” and “child murderers” immediately come to mind – but recent (well relatively) portrayals in the media that include

“Can you conjure green fire with your hands?”

Although Aisha hasn’t experienced any hostility either, she feels that this is only because she doesn’t readily volunteer her spiritual beliefs to others.“I think maybe if I was more open about my unconventional religious beliefs I would be up for a lot of abuse.” Aisha went on to explain that while her friends have accepted that she practices witchcraft her family would disagree.

“I have always been considered quite rebellious by other members of my family,” she concedes, “although I do not think they would be surprised by my practices, I know they would not agree with it as it is not easily understood.”

“As I am currently looking for a husband, I’m pretty sure the last spell I performed was a love spell,”

In a similar way to how Buddhists regard karma and interactions with the world around them, Wiccans have an intimate connection with nature and seasonal rhythms, which they celebrate with festivals to mark certain points in the agricultural calendar, such as springtime and harvest. There are eight seasonal festivals known as Sabbats, which can either be celebratory or involve rituals, depending on the time of the year. All Wiccan rituals are held within the confines of a magic circle and are performed by either a Coven or by a Solitary.

“In solitary magic your approach will be very different to if you were part of a coven. It’s much quieter and involves more personal spellwork,” reveals Caroline Robertson, who started her own Coven four years ago. “Many Wiccans will spend a lot of their magical life working outside a group or a coven for various reasons.”

Owner of Westbury Music, the UK’s leading independent dance-music label, Caroline Robertson first became interested in the occult in 1987 and was particularly drawn to Wicca because of it’s affinity to nature and insistence on spellwork. Caroline was first initiated into a Coven in 1997 and almost a decade later after becoming a High Priestess started her own coven that is still running today and has 10 members.

Churches, Mosques, Covens; communal places of worship have been a fundamental aspect of all religions for centuries, yet despite this, Isobel feels that her spells and rituals are “private, personal things” and as such are not a group activity. “I have only once felt the need to join a coven and when I tried to start one with others I found I disliked discussing my spells and beliefs with them,” adds Isobel.

“The person who does not want to share with others, may be just the sort of person who would be a real downer in a coven and will work better alone,” responds Caroline.

“Wicca has a style which is warm and boozy and intimate and that works really only in a coven. It tries to be loose-limbed, fun, sexy and honest. It is hard to be these things when you are alone.”

So does magic work? Aisha thinks so. After being introduced to witchcraft nine years ago, Aisha regularly performs spells both alone and with friends.

“As I am currently looking for a husband, I’m pretty sure the last spell I performed was a love spell,” she muses. “Spells are just spells to me. If it is termed as witchcraft then so be it, it is just another way God has given me to bring a positive and spiritual aspect to my life.”

Did you know…… ● The Salem Witch trials of 1692 are known for the burning of so-called witches.

Actually, not one ‘witch’ died by burning; most were put to death by hanging.

One unfortunate ‘witch’ was ‘pressed’ to death and several died in prison of natural causes. ● The Wiccan New Year of Samhain is considered a precursor to modern Halloween. It coincides with Halloween on October 31. ● Witches do not practice ‘black magic’, as there is no such thing. Magic is neutral it has no intention of its own. ● The majority of witches do not hold any belief in Satan or any kind of devil, as Satan is a Christian concept. ● Witches do not claim to have ‘supernatural’ powers.

They work with natural earth energies. ● The witch’s hat at one time represented authority and respect in the local community. ● The broom stick was used for cleansing rituals not for flying.

Although it has been 60 years since Wicca first broke into the public consciousness, the fact remains that Wicca as a religion is still widely misunderstood by the general public. Whether this is due to dated perceptions or low public profile, it’s clear from the answers provided by Isobel, Aisha and Caroline that there’s more to being a witch than wart covered faces, pointed hats and Melissa Joan Hart. Here’s hoping that the next census provides a more accurate account of the number of witches in Britain.

● There are still witch hunts in parts of the world today, including Tanzania and Uganda. ● For the record witches cannot fly on broomsticks.

CD: Lacrymosa-Selah Lacrymosa is the moniker for 20-year-old Virginian Caitlin Pasko, a precocious talent who was taught classical piano from a young age. Her strong piano playing ability is certainly what comes to the fore on this her debut album; reminding you of the virtuoso talents of Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Regina Spektor, with her ability to deftly shift moods from grand to playful, frenzied to delicate.

She describes her music as “whimsical forest music” and in this aspect she bears a strong resemblance to that other queen of whimsy Joanna Newsom. Her songs feature “tiny horses”, “fields of gold” and “lilies”, “buttercups” which can decide whether someone loves you, and “lions” who are “afraid of humans”, you get the picture. This naïve pastoral imagery can sometimes get a bit much, like the musings of a pre-adolescent who spends too much time daydreaming.

Her voice at times can sound a lot like she’s half-sighing halfsinging which can get distracting. Given that, it is also often an achingly beautiful voice, her pure far-reaching soprano tones strongly resembling great singers such as Marissa Nadler, Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan or Hanne Huckkelberg.

The arrangements for the songs sensitively complement her voice and are usually limited to the piano with the occasional addition of a chamber group of strings, wind and percussion.

The chamber group in particular lend a wonderfully otherworldly aspect to album highlights such as wistful opener ‘Not About Want’ and the elegiac ‘Simple Questions’, and add a richness to the jaunty and charming ‘You Put Me There’.

Selah then, certainly isn’t flawless or entirely unique but it does show lots of promise.

Priscilla Eyles

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Club Night: God Don’t Like It @ Corsica Studios

Cinema: 54th BFI London Film Festival Shungu:The Resilience Of A People

GDLI promotes underground music of the mostly experimental variety which can either mean music that’s inventive and ingenious or it can mean unlistenable noise. Luckily this night mostly fell in the former categories and consisted of some interesting live electronica bands, who set out to make the concept of guys hidden behind laptops passé.

Shungu is the first feature documentary by Saki Mafundikwa; a renowned Zimbabwean graphic designer and educator. The film came out of frustration with Zimbabwe’s terrible economic situation and a desire to show the world what exactly is happening in Zimbabwe, now that the media have lost interest.

The first act on in Room 2 at the studios was a male/female Italian duo called Husband who played some atmospheric vocal-led percussive electronica similar to Telepathe. All to a background of home video footage of random old Italian men.

The delayed vocal effects were overcooked at times, but they were definitely engaging and the crowd wanted more by the end.

This is done by focusing on the stories of people in Zimababwe who represent the struggle, frustration and determination of Zimbabweans, embodying the meaning of the title Shungu. So we learn about the lives of a metalsmith and opposition supporter trying to keep his business going amidst government supporters attacking and threatening him and his family. Meanwhile people steal his equipment and don’t pay him.

A middle-aged widower, who is trying to manage a run-down farm (empty from looters) she took over from a white owner, but struggling with a lack of resources such as seed and fertilizer, promised by the government. An anaesthetist trying to maintain her middle-class lifestyle in the wake of the healthcare system collapsing. And particularly painful to watch, a 25-year-old girl suffering from AIDS related Kaposi’s Sarcoma without basic medical treatment.

Next act up in Room 2, after some laid back jazzy electronica from Rocket Number 9 in Room 1 of the studios, was Devil Man. An act featuring the bassist from headline act Drum Eyes, alongside beats programmer Gorgonn. What ensued was an aural assault of industrial/heavy dub with dirty bass lines. The bassist told the sound guys to turn it up and then jumped on the speakers, really getting the crowd going.

By the time it came to Nedry in Room 1 expectations were high. But they met them with a set of songs which were dubby, haunting and glitchy. All set off by the captivating presence of lead singer Ayu, whose beautiful soaring vocals and energy on stage was what helped make Nedry such a great live act.

The night culminated with some ‘heady proggy’ electronica from Drum Eyes, whose set included two drummers and a violinist.

It built to a frenzy of sound which was intense and absorbing to watch. I’d recommend this night to anyone looking for refreshingly new and unique music.

The stories are well-chosen and really illustrate Zimbabwe’s dire situation where there is 90 per cent unemployment and widespread poverty and crime. However I found that Mafundikwa’s continuous narration could get pedantic and come from the basis that the public didn’t know anything about Zimbabwe. He also kept talking about the contrast between Zimbabwe as the ‘bread basket’ of Africa and what it is now, which was unnecessary. Mafundikwa needs to learn that sometimes images can be more powerful than words.

Priscilla Eyles

Priscilla Eyles

www.catch22mag.com

69

Text: Elizabeth Evans Illustrator: Joe Unsummon

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