The Event - Issue 178

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Issue: 127

18th May 2005

The only gay in the village

The Summer Starts Here...

Michael Eavis

Catchphrases

Down on Britain’s most famous farm with the man behind the festival

Yeah but no but yeah but no but what’s all the fuss about?

Mark Lawson Talking politics wtih the presenter of Newsnight Review

Contents 03

Contents Mark Lawson: The novelist and Front Row presenter speaks to The Event about writing “faction” and the benefits of working in radio...................................................4 Comedy Catchphrases: You can’t even walk down the street without hearing someone quote Little Britain, but are the jokes still funny? Computer says no.......................5 Abbas Kiarostami: A leading figure in Iranian New Wave cinema, director Kiarostami combines innovative production techniques with profoundly human subjects...............6 Michael Eavis: The legendary festival organiser on Glastonbury’s controversial new fence and the ethics of running a big-budget music event.....................................7 Music: Including Coldplay’s Speed of Sound, and releases from Mötley Crüe, Akon and The Quantick Soul Orchestra......................................................................8 Film: A big-screen transfer for The League of Gentlemen, plus Last Year at Marienbav and The Wings of Angels reviewed.....................................................................9 Arts: Previews of Jack Dee and Derren Brown at the Theatre Royal and new novels from Patricia Fara and Jaq D. Hawkins.................................................................10 TV/Digital:

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IS: concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Editor-in Chief: Philip Sainty

concrete.event@uea.ac.uk Editor: Tim Barker

concrete.eventeditorial@uea.ac.uk Editor: Sarah Edwardes

concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk Editor: Luke Roberts Assistant Editors: Niki Brown & Roanna Bond Writers: Gabrielle Barnes Daisy Bowie-Sell

concrete.film@uea.ac.uk Editor: Dean Bowman Assistant Editor: Sebatian Manley Writers: Sebastian Manley Philip Sainty

The Comedy Lab, themed Simpsons DVDs and all the soap news from

Hollyoaks and Neighbours........................................................................11

Competitions XXXTREME As you brace yourself for the onset of revision fever, Fox's has come up with what is being labelled the world's first cramming confectionery: XXXTREME. Fused with taurine and caffeine, XXXTREME is the world's first energy boosting sweet, designed to aid concentration, which is just what you need as you hit the books. Fox's is offering one weary student, and their housemates, a much needed supply of their fruit flavoured sweets.

One pack of XXXTREME contains the equivalent of 2 cans of the leading energy drinks, however, unlike energy drinks, they don't have to be consumed all at once!

Packaged in distinctive blue and red metallic tubes and retailing at an RRP of 59p, XXXTREME will be available from the end of this month, but our one lucky winner will be receiving a messenger bag containing 156 tubes, a prize worth around £115. That should be enough to make sure that you and all your housemates receive the boost you need!

To win just answer this question: What stimulants are in XXXTREME?

Debut Novels

We have two debut novels to give away this issue thanks to Canongate Books, American Purgatory by John Haskell and Hide and Seek by Clare Sambrook.

“American Purgatory is an extraordinary debut novel-haunting, comic and achingly poignant. It’s a road trip into the heart of a country and a man, travelogue of loss and redemption.”

“Clare Sambrook’s unforgettable first novel captures with startling truth and clarity the perspective of a confused nineyear-old.”

To win, answer this question: How many novels have these two authors written?

Dellacasa

Global Gathering

Dellacasa have another meal deal on offer this week if you can just answer this question: What does the tower of Pisa do?

The Event is giving you the chance to join 50,000 other party goers at this year's biggest dance event, Global Gathering.

Taking place at Long Marston Airfield near Stratford Upon Avon, you could be dancing along to the likes of 2Many DJs, Josh Wink,

Erick Morillo, Sasha, Mylo, Happy Mondays and Underworld in their only UK show this year! We've got a pair of weekend tickets for one lucky winner who can answer the question: What two days of the week does the festival take place?

Send your entries together with your contact details including daytime phone number to the address below to arrive no later than June 29th: CONCRETE GOES GLOBAL Spring PR, Studio 10, Rose Cottage Aberdeen Centre 22-24 Highbury Grove London N5 2EA

Winners The winners from Issue 177 are: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: Elizabeth Pickering, Damon Bevan Dellacasa: Natalie Evans Alton Towers: Ami Broughton C.S.I.: Daisy Bowie-Sell: Ability Office Basic: Stacy Southall, Emma Langridge.

All competition entries must include a name and contact number, and should be sent to: concrete.event@uea.ac.uk.

concrete.music@uea.ac.uk Editors: James Banks & Ben Patashnik Assistant Editors: Charles Rumsey & Suzanne Rickenback Writers: Hayley Chappell Sophie Driscoll Hannah Edney Catherine Lansdown Alistair Lawrence Amy Lowe Kat Paterson

concrete.tv/digital@uea.ac.uk Editor: Kate Bryant Writers: Mark Dishman Martha Hammond Kim Howe Chris Hyde Andrew Wensum

Design Consultant Nathan ‘Design Consultant’ Hamilton The Event is published fortnightly by Concrete: Post: PO Box 410, Norwich, NR4 7TB Tel: 01603 250558 Fax: 01603 50682 E-mail: concrete.event@uea.ac.uk Printed by: Archant

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04 Feature

Luke Roberts hunts down BBC presenter Mark Lawson for a quick chat about broadcasting and his new novel Enough is Enough.

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omerset Maugham once wrote, “There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.” There are, however clearer guidelines for conducting interviews with novelists. The Basic Bluffer’s Guide runs as follows.

‘Step one; who is the author? Find out something interesting about them.’

He is Mark Lawson, a journalist, critic, television and radio broadcaster with a string of accolades longer than Goliath’s arm. He presents BBC Radio 4’s arts programme, Front Row and hosts The

Lawson takes this rushed entry in his stride. “Yes, we’ve been up in Great Yarmouth. The Time and Tide Museum is up for an award for Museum of the Year.”

His producer Robyn Reed sits grinning in a chair opposite. But that’s not all they’ve been doing this afternoon.

Lawson and Reed had been spotted earlier by The Event photographer and Livewire’s Sounds Eclectic DJs in Take 5 having lunch. For a few moments putting step four from the guide into action ‘steer a lively and focused conversation with the novelist about their work’ founders in a sea of compliments directed towards the food and ambience of Tombland’s cosiest restaurant.

“The benefit of radio is that you don’t have to shave or dress up. It’s still performance, but nothing like the scrutiny of television.”

Newsnight Review on BBC 2. ‘Step two: read their latest book(s).’ In this case, that’s Enough is Enough or, The Emergency Government, a novel based on the conspiracy to oust Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson from office in the late 1960s. ‘Step three; arrange a suitable place to conduct the interview and get there on time.’ The Event arrives at the Hotel Nelson, at 6pm sharp, the day before another Labour Prime Minister is likely to be voted in for a record third term.

“We’re sorry sir, there’s no one checked in under the name of Lawson,” says the receptionist at the Nelson. But what’s this? Steps four to seven of the guide don’t seem to offer a contingency plan for such an eventuality. Throwing the redundant thing aside The Event reporters, photographers and old boy network frantically dial numbers, oil machines and prepare for battle. This is a code red. An interviewee is getting away.

Four and a half minutes later the quarry is located. He has been taken under protection in a concrete bunker deep within faculty territory. A line of communication is opened. It turns out there’s been a misunderstanding, and Mark Lawson is still prepared to speak to The Event. An agonisingly slow taxi ride later The Event bursts into the underground bunker in Arts II firing wildly from the hip. “Hello. Nice to meet you. So you’ve been doing stuff for Front Row this afternoon.”

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Then the conversation turns to politics. As a BBC presenter, Mark Lawson cannot disclose which party he will be voting for. “My home constituency is in Northamptonshire. But I can’t tell you whether I’ll vote Conservative or Labour or Green or Liberal Democrat.”

Surely he won’t be voting… But then he says it, “…or UKIP. Why I shall vote Veritas,” he jokes, drawing an imaginary headline in mid air. “I think that’s a sufficient smoke-screen.”

Speaking of smoke-screens, The Event quizzes Lawson about a mode of writing he employs which blends fiction and history. In an interview with The Guardian he termed this technique ‘faction’.

“I’ve written a lot about it as a critic. I have a view of what faction can and can’t do. I would try never to have a historical character behaving in a

Photos: Dean Bowman

The Emergency Interview Mark Lawson:Well read. way they never did, although the laws of British libel would allow me to do so once a person is dead. Nothing is going to happen to you legally if you do that.

But morally it’s obviously wrong.” To claim that Neville Chamberlain used to while away quiet moments eating babies, for example, would be morally wrong. But theoretically, a novelist could get away with it.

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s in Lawson’s novel, Harold Wilson was actually accused of being a soviet spy and a serial adulterer.

At the heart of this conspiracy to force the Labour leader from office was MI5 agent Peter Wright, immortalised in Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer (1987). In Lawson’s novel Wright tries to feed these accusations to Mirror reporter Bernard Storey, hoping to get the backing of Cecil King, the powerful publishing tycoon, and then owner of the populist newspaper.

“The publicity and notes [for Enough is Enough] state pretty clearly when I’m using faction,” Lawson says. In the afterword he has clarified this point, by referring to a specific incident in the book. “It would, in my view, have gone beyond the limits of even a biographical novel to have invented meetings between Cecil King and Oswald Mosley. But in dramatizing the established fact of their encounters, the scene expands on the small surviving record of what passed between them, while attempting to give neither man a view which he would not have held.’

The aptly named Bernard Storey and his son Dermot are almost the only truly fictional characters in the novel.

Perhaps this is why Bernard’s sex life is more graphic than those of the characters based on historical figures.

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Lawson shied away from anything too risqué? “Well there’s isn’t that much [risqué material].You simply can’t write this sort of book about politicians, journalists and those in the public eye, if you’re not sticking to what has been documented. The book is set mostly in 1968 and there’s so much information available now. The people involved have all written their memoirs. So there’s a lot of material to go on.”

In the final chapter of Enough is Enough, Lawson brings the narrative up to date. The novel closes with a BBC interview with Dermot Storey. In the post-Hutton Enquiry climate of early 2004 the BBC are still feeling jittery. The producer is petrified that Dermot’s book Octopus, about the MI5/Wilson scandal his father became involved in, could spell further trouble for the corporation. Small wonder then that BBC employees will not disclose for whom they vote.

Changing the subject, The Event wishes to know which side of his multifaceted work as a journalist and broadcaster Lawson enjoys most. “Well I’ve got my producer here, so I have to be tactful.” Everyone in the room laughs.

“But what I will say is that the benefit of radio is that you don’t have to shave or dress up. It’s still performance, but nothing like the scrutiny of television. It’s much more intimate. I can go down to the studio a few minutes after finishing my scripts. I write my own scripts.

Whereas in television you have to worry about the camera angle and whether the take will come out ok. But in the end it’s writing that I most like.”

“I like writing in lots of different forms,” he continues with enthusiasm.

“They’re all different disciplines because writing a radio or television script, an article, or a novel have different demands. But I enjoy them all.”

At this point, the interview closes, with Lawson hoping that The Event has managed to get what it needs. Half way out of the room The Event remembers the entry in the guide about ‘using the correct etiquette’ and wishes him good luck with his talk for the Arthur Miller Literary Festival. Enough is Enough is a treat to read, for its insight into journalism and politics, its scandals, intrigue and its real life characters. It is the work of an accomplished, witty and understanding author.

Enough is Enough is published by Picador in hardback priced £16.99.

Feature 05

Yeah...we know!

Hardly a day goes by without at least one social interaction being infiltrated by a Little Britain catchphrase. To honour this phenomenon, Mark Dishman has a look at the impact catchphrases have made on our lives...

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t’s strange how comedy can quietly infiltrate our lives. Harry Enfield can claim responsibility for a generation of parents referring to us as “Kevin”, whenever we felt the need to yell “THAT’S SO UNFAIR!” at them, and thanks to The Fast Show, it’s possible to get measured up at a tailor in Norwich called “Suits You”.

The latest comedy to have such an impact on our lives is of course Little Britain. This show is the reason you have a mate who says “YES!” in an excited Scottish accent every time he agrees with you. It’s the reason your indecisive Auntie humorously witters “but yeah but no” every time she can’t make up her mind about something. Most of all perhaps, it’s the reason almost everyone you know adopts a slightly funny voice and utters those three little words, “yeah I know”, whenever they, er, know something.

These are the same people who still snap their fingers like Ali G when they think no-one’s looking, and shout “wassup!” every time they crack open a beer. They must be stopped.

Now, let’s not forget, in all this dashing and damning, that Little Britain is funny.Vicky Pollard in particular is a brilliantly realised satire of that girl in your class at school who smelt of chips and seemed to permanently reside by the bike sheds. Matt Lucas is great as Daffyd, the precious “only gay in the village”, David Walliams is a joy to watch as Sebastian, an aide obsessed with Anthony Head’s Prime Minister, and it’s all wonderfully linked together by an onform Tom Baker, perhaps more even more suited to his role than he was in Doctor Who. However, Little Britain has fallen headlong into a self-made trap. It’s come a long way from the “alternative” comedy that first surfaced on BBC3 in early 2003 (that’s two years ago, all you impressionists), and now resides in its second series in pride of place on the beeb’s numero uno channel. Nothing wrong with that, you might say, and you’d be right. But little has changed. Lou and Andy are still the funniest thing about the show, but the inevitability of Andy changing his mind about something, or Lou being momen-

tarily distracted whilst his friend does something hilarious (usually standing up) is now beginning to tire. A welltrained chimpanzee could write one of these sketches.

Of course, it would be a bit unfair to say that nothing at all was different.

Walliams and Lucas were forced to incorporate canned laughter into their second series, which unfortunately ruins the enjoyment of such a surreal show. Part of the pleasure of the first run was finding perverse enjoyment in something disgusting, weird or downright wrong, and it’s no fun when you realise that everyone else finds projectile vomiting funny too.Whilst this intrusion is understandable – the BBC must have been taking a risk in taking a sub-

This show is the reason you have a mate who says “YES!” in an excited Scottish accent every time he agrees with you. versive programme mainstream – it never happened to the vastly superior The Office, which would have suffered similar disastrous consequences had the laughter can been opened.

We have seen the introduction of some new characters, though tellingly these haven’t had much of an impact.

The best of these is the sulky Walliams/woman who consults her computer for a response on anything, before responding in the negative. The following “I love you” as a punchline has yet to wear thin, but persistent use of it means it probably will. Other new characters include the two ladies who graphically throw up whenever they come into even the slightest contact with foreigners, homosexuals, or the terminally ill. As good an idea as this is, it’s a bit disappointing to realise that the main point of humour is drawn from the sheer volume and realism of some sick.

Once again, after the first few sketches, the joke ceases to go anywhere, and becomes predictable. Walliams and Lucas seem to think that making their

sketches more and more grotesque is a good foil for their lack of imagination. It hit a high (or low) point in the second series when a monstrous (and naked) exercise in anatomically correct female fat suits attempted to seduce a doctor.

Almost equally, in a scene where the girlfriend of Walliams’s character meets his parents for the first time, he successfully requests breast-feeding from his mother, by whining “want bitty”.

Without wishing to sound prudish, the gross-out element of these sketches far outweighs the comic side.

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alliams and Lucas hardly inspire confidence when they do attempt to further an existing joke, by giving Emily the unconvincing transvestite a companion, with – get this – a moustache. Again, this may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but the sight of two blokes crying, “we’re ladies” is unfortunately not twice as funny as one.

Lack of development is Little Britain’s main failing. Other sketch shows with recurring characters either developed into well rounded, fullyfledged spin-off fare (The Fast Show’s Ted and Ralph), or killed them off, because they were annoying (when was the last time you heard anyone say “you don’t wanna do that”?)

Of course, Little Britain hasn’t stopped at a second series. Red Nose Day is a teeth-clenchingly excruciating experience at the best of times, but usually all we have to put up with are weathermen wearing lederhosen and falling over. The popularity of Little Britain led to the inclusion of celebrity fans (keen to appear down with the kids) like George Michael and Robbie Williams, for a special edition DVD to raise money. Whilst the intention was doubtless honourable, the sketches themselves were imagination-free: “Look! We’re ladies! And so is Robbie Williams! And he’s dead famous!”

Strangely, the association with the former Take That member led to a reprisal of the Rock Profiles characters played

by Walliams and Lucas, namely Howard

Donald and Gary Barlow, as they presented an award to Robbie at the Brit Awards. Their performance, as they dribbled over him, reminded us that both are more than capable performers, and fine writers. It also stood in stark contrast to their appearance at a comedy awards ceremony a few months ago, where as Lou and Andy, the pair hammed their way through a desperately unfunny set-piece which involved Andy begging Lou for an award, before (gasp) changing his mind with the words “don’t like it”.

Still, the Little Britain steamroller continues. Earlier this month, Channel Four viewers voted the sketch in which Andy jumps off a diving board whilst Lou is explaining to a lifeguard how he has trouble getting into water, the greatest British sketch ever. Ever. That’s better than The Dead Parrot sketch – or anything the Pythons could come up with for that matter. Better than The Four Yorkshiremen, better than the Two Ronnies’ Mastermind sketch, or anything from the mind of Spike Milligan, The Goodies, or the Not The Nine O’Clock News team.

To be fair, in a similar programme, Channel Four viewers voted Star Wars the greatest movie ever made. They also cruelly overlooked the advert for Smash in favour of the silly Guinness promo with all the horses in it, so their opinions hardly put an obscene amount of pressure on Walliams and Lucas, but the extensive Little Britain Live winter tour surely will.The tour is virtually sold out, and will provide real Little Britons with the chance to holler their favourite catchphrases back at their heroes. But, as the fake vomit is scrubbed from the stage floor on the last night, will Walliams and Lucas see fit to make another series? For the sake of comedy, chaps, thank you but no. You’ve moved things on a bit, now it’s time to stop. A world where you can wait at a bus stop with a girl exactly like Vicky Pollard, as I once did, who then phones her friend (whose ringtone was probably “eh eh ehhh”) and does an impression of Vicky Pollard, is a world that has got the joke so much, things have gone horribly full circle.

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06 Feature

Feature 07

Close-up on Kiarostami

Best. Farm.

Ever.

Dean Bowman pays homage to the genius of Abbas Kiarostami, a key figure in Iranian New Wave cinema.

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his month London has been celebrating the work of Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who is widely regarded as one of the most important directors currently working in art cinema.

As Werner Herzog once commented:“We are living in the era of Kiarostami, but don’t know it yet.” There has been a complete retrospective of his work at the NFT, an Iranian cinema series on Channel Four, displays of his landscape photography and recent theatrical work at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a threeday critical symposium on his films.

Taken aback by the scale of the festival, Kiarostami commented that this kind of thing doesn’t usually happen until after you are dead. It is just as well this is not the case, for Kiarostami himself has been present at the festival, giving a series of interviews and even running a filmmaking masterclass with a few lucky students.

In one such interview at the Institute Français last weekend, Kiarostami wryly commented to Jean-Michel Frodon, the urbane editor of Cahiers du Cinema (the French equivalent of Sight and Sound “only much better”), that “its not the camera that’s heavy, it’s the producer.” This is certainly true of his most recent film, Five, which was shot on DV without a producer in sight. The film is set on a beach near the Caspian Sea and consists of five long takes without any actors. Although its abstract nature initially strikes one as a significant departure from style, Kiarostami emphasises the personal

‘My films seem incomprehensible for their simplicity, not their complexity.The audience brings too many expectations to the cinema.’ nature of the project, insisting that he didn’t have an audience in mind when shooting. Frodon viewed this creative independence as a return of auteurism in cinema, an opinion that might be expected of the editor of Cahiers du Cinema (the journal that coined the term “auteur” in the 60s). However Kiarostami prefers to view it as an artistic striving towards minimalism and quoted Robert Bresson, saying: “We create by reducing.”

Before the interview there was a screening of the documentary A Week with Kiarostami by Japanese director Mohara Yuji (Kiarostami is greatly admired in Japan ever since Kurosawa became the first to publicly champion his work), which gives us a rare glimpse of Kiarostami at work behind the camera, directing his child actors with paternal pride and obsessing over the tiniest details of the mise-en-scene.

The film is set behind the scenes of The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), which explores the ethics of filmmaking by telling the story of a film crew who have come to a remote village to film the funeral of its oldest inhabitant; the only problem being that she is still alive.

Frodon sees Abbas Kiarostami

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Indeed Kiarostami is renowned for casting young children as the protagonists of his films and started his career in filmmaking at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (or Kanoon as it is known in Iran), a children’s production house that none-the-less had a cultural clout in Iran that is incomprehensible from a western perspective (imagine Ken Loach beginning his career in Blue Peter as an equivalent).

Although the use of children provides a perfect means of reducing reality to an innocent perspective, Kiarostami’s tone is never condescending and they never become mere symbols, but real human characters.

Kiarostami’s films show a concerted attempt to reinvent film language from its roots, which is what principally makes him one of the most original directors at work today. In order for his cinema to be appreciated the spectator should come to it with the perspective of a child, carrying no preconceptions.

Mr Badii drives around trying to find someone willing to help him commit suicide in A Taste of Cherry.

The Wind Will Carry Us as something of a turning point in his cinema, by “announcing an abandonment of traditional production techniques.” Of course Kiarostami’s films have never been traditional in the widest sense of the word, but since that film Kiarostami seems to have put aside 35mm for DV and a smaller scale type of filmmaking, as seen in ABC Africa or Ten, which takes place entirely within the front of a car as a woman taxis various friends, relatives and strangers around Tehran, their conversations slowly revealing a complex political map of post Islamic revolution Iran.

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s beautiful as The Wind Will Carry Us is, Kiarostami’s masterpiece arguably came in the form of A Taste of Cherries, which won him the Palme d’Or in 1997. In it the enigmatic Mr Badii drives around the outskirts of Tehran trying to find someone to bury him after he has committed suicide, or to pull him out of his grave if he has not gone through with it. We don’t know why he has resolved to kill himself and the ambiguous ending leaves us unsure whether he has or not, but this does not stop the film from being an ultimately life affirming experience.

Throughout the film Mr Badii talks to a cleric, a soldier and an intellectual, all of whom react differently to his request, and as the film progresses it becomes apparent that he is merely searching for someone to give him a reason to go on living: the taste of cherries. But in Kiarostami’s unique method the film is always half finished, and must be completed by the spectator in an intimate dialogue. Thus The Taste of Cherries also becomes a deeply metaphysical experience, for it rather daringly throws the question out to the audience, prompting us to a reevaluation of our own lives.

In his article Seeking a Home (which can be found in Projections 8) Godfrey Cheshire aptly demonstrates how daring the film was, not just by dealing with the theme of suicide (a massive taboo in Islamic Iran), but in relation to his festival reputation. Kiarostami had been making a name for himself in the festival world

since his Where is the Friend’s House?, a charming film that followed a young boy attempting to return a borrowed text book, a story which, despite its simplicity, was rich in drama and tension.

This formed the first part of a loose trilogy, the Koker trilogy named after the area it was set, which self-consciously explores the role of the filmmaker and blurs the relationship between reality and cinema.

Thus in the second film, And Life Goes On, we follow a director (representing Kiarostami) who returns to Koker to discover if the child actor from the previous film has survived a devastating earthquake that really did hit the region. As if the incredible fusion of documentary and fiction that follows wasn’t ingenious enough, the third film, Through the Olive Trees, took a sequence from And Life Goes On, in which two newly weds resolve to go on with life despite the chaos around them, and follows the director’s attempts to film it. Beginning, therefore, as a kind of fictional behind-the-scenes documentary, it turns into high drama when it is revealed that the actor playing the husband really is in love with his on-screen wife, but has been rejected by his would-be bride’s family because he is illiterate. The final scene, in which the boy chases the girl through the olive trees in a long shot, as the director watches from on top of a hill, is one of the most beautiful and iconic shots in contemporary cinema.

Instead of playing it safe by producing a similar piece of self-conscious cinema, something which is always popular at the festivals because it recalls the modernist art cinema of the 60s and because it shows a complex awareness of the medium itself, Kiarostami chose to make self-doubt the subject of The Taste of Cherries, stripping it of all overt references to the art of cinema and implicitly putting the politics of the film festival into question, whilst still winning its most coveted award.

Kiarostami’s films have developed an undeserved reputation for being difficult, which is no doubt an unfortunate result of attempts to canonise him, though he rightly attests that “my films seem incomprehensible for their simplicity, not their complexity. I have gained this simplicity from working with children. The audience brings too many expectations to the cinema.”

Select Filmography 1970 Bread and Alley: Kiarostami’s first short. A young boy carrying bread home attempts to pass a dog in an alleyway with hilarious results.

1974 The Traveller (Mosafer): A football fanatic goes to extreme measures to attend a match, only to sleep through it.

1987 Where is the Friend’s House? : A young boy attempts to return a borrowed school text book in order to stop his friend being punished, but he doesn’t know where he lives…

1990 Close-up: Kiarostami’s favourite film. It follows the real life trial of a man accused of impersonating acclaimed director Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

1992 And Life Goes On: A pseudo-documentary in which a director returns to Koker to determine whether his childactor has survived an earthquake.

1994 Through the Olive Trees: A love story filmed on the set of a scene from And Life Goes On. 1997 Taste of Cherry: Winner of the 1997 Palme D’Or. Mr Badii has decided to commit suicide and drives around to find an accomplice, or perhaps merely someone to reaffirm his passion in life.

1999 The Wind Will Carry Us: A film crew travel to a remote village to film the funereal procession of its oldest inhabitant, only to find she is still alive.

2001 ABC Africa: Kiarostami’s moving documentary about AIDS orphans in Africa.

2002 Ten: Shot entirely from the front of a car, a woman drives ten different people around Tehran and talks to them about life.

2003 Five: Five long takes of abstract subjects.

2004 Tickets: Kiarostami’s latest work is an episode of a collaborative film, shot with Ken Loach and Ermanno Olmi.

A full list can be found in The Cinema of Abbas Kiarostami by Alberto Elena.

Amy Lowe sits down with Glastonbury founder and organiser Michael Eavis to hear his thoughts on rumours, competiQ.What did Michael Eavis say when he lost his tractor?

A. “Shit, where’s my tractor?”

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he Event meets Glastonbury organiser and living legend Mike Eavis on what is probably one of the most famous farms in the world. It is clearly a working farm machinery and mud are both clearly visible - and Mr Eavis is a hard-working man: he has to be, with one of the world's largest, most prestigious and most popular music festivals to organize every year. So is this why he is taking a break from the festival next year?

Or does it have to do with the spring he has reportedly found on his land?

"No, no, no, that's rubbish. Every fifth year we give the festival a break so that the animals, the land, and the village have time to recover. We found a spring that we're thinking of turning into a reservoir to supply the festival's water needs, but the two are completely unconnected." Of course Mr Eavis' environmental and ethical concerns are well-documented. Finding and harnessing a natural spring to supply the festival's water certainly shows that plans are in place to ensure the festival remains environmentally sound. Are there similar plans in place to continue to support charities and causes such as fair trade? "We always donate to charity. This year we're donating £1m to various charities, and we give a similar amount most years."

Mr Eavis clearly does his best to give back to the community, both at large and locally. Building the contro-

tion, and why this year might be the last Glasto ever. versial wall and helping to reduce noise pollution to ensure minimum disruption to the surrounding population have both solved a lot of problems associated with the festival. However, many Glastonbury veterans feel that the wall detracts from the spirit of the festival. Isn't it possible to find a less intrusive way to deal with the problem? Mr Eavis is vehement in his denial of such suggestions and his defence of the wall. Clearly he feels the sting of being criticised and questioned about this subject. "Without the wall there would be no festival. We wouldn't be able to get a license. The police wouldn't let us do it. The fence is the most positive and significant thing to have happened to the festival since it began. It really is a wonderful thing," he says earnestly. "It is the only way to do it, and it's the only way for the festival to continue. We've tried various sizes and heights of fence, but the current one is really superb. The fence saved the festival."

So things have improved for the local area? He shrugs noncommittally. "[The festival] has a tremendous effect on the village in many ways. We get about twelve to thirteen complaints a year, but it's always the same twelve to thirteen people. Most people really like the festival because of all the life and activity it brings to the village, but also for all the money it generates for causes in the area. Some people have a chip on their shoulder about it and complain, but they are a minority." Mr Eavis goes on to say that this year a

system has been developed for dealing with extra noise. Does this have anything to do with the internet rumours of wireless headphones? "No, no, that's just for the dance tent, so they can carry on a few hours into the morning. The main problems come from the main stage, but we're dealing with noise levels this year."

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peaking as a man who was himself influenced by other festivals, and who was inspired to start Glastonbury because "it was the time of Woodstock and the Isle of Wight, and all that, and it sort of kicked me into action", how does he feel about younger festivals? Now more than ever the Glastonbury festival is competing with other, more modern festivals, such as T in the Park, V, and the Reading festival. How does Mr Eavis feel Glastonbury holds up against its younger rivals? "A few weeks ago an American website voted Glastonbury

“This year’s festival sold out in three hours. Says it all, really.” the best festival in the world. I think overall we have more history than the others, and because of that we have a better atmosphere. We also have a greater range of activities, and I suppose that's why tickets to this year's festival sold out in just three hours.

Says it all, really."

Yet he's often said that the current

festival could be the last one, so does he see the festival still going strong in ten year's time? "I think its more exciting to think it's the last one. I always think it, but I don't know if I ever really believe it. The thing is, the festival needs good management in order to function, and if I got sick, then I can't imagine who would care enough to make the festival work. It takes lots of time and effort to organise it all, and a lot of organisation to get people to work on it for next to nothing. If I died or something I can't imagine anything worse than the festival petering out due to bad management, with bands refusing to play and attendance dropping. So it's good to think that each festival could be the last. I never like to look more than a year ahead. I think its better to concentrate on each year as it comes than to start worrying about the future. This could be the last one, who knows?"

So can a man who has been at the forefront of the music scene for so many years remain enthusiastic about the music around at the moment, compared to what was around when the festival started? "Yes, I mean we have to be. We go to see bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs, see their shows, and if we like them we ask them to play at the festival. Have you heard the new Bruce Springsteen single? It's fantastic. We've been in contact with his people to see if he wants to headline Glastonbury in 2007.

There are a lot of exciting things around at the moment.”

Heaven on earth.

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18.05.05

08 Music

Singles

Albums

Coldplay - Speed of Sound

Akon - Trouble

A lot has changed since The Scientist turned your drab stereo into something beautiful: Chris Martin has got married and has started to call his children after fruit; Chris Martin has fronted every charity going; Chris Martin has given away his music to the likes of Embrace (who, lets face it, needed something to reignite them), and the other three Coldplay members probably got drunk.

Speed of Sound is the latest single from the upcoming album, which is set to become another eagerly awaited release of 2005. And it does not disappoint. Coldplay have moved back into the vacuum that ‘bands’ like Keane, Athlete and Embrace have tried to fill. But they could not fill it, and Speed of Sound is a wall of emotive sound, a wall of lyrical beauty, and a wall of enlightenment. What is good to know is that Speed of Sound is probably not even the best song on the album, much like In My Place was on A Rush of Blood to the Head. So go out and enjoy the five minutes of beauty, and let Martin and company uplift you before it turns into an annoying BBC digital advert. Welcome back Chris Martin [and the rest of Coldplay].

Slithering from the bowels of the most corporate of "hip hop" laboratories comes one of the most lyrically unchallenging emcees since Fisher Price's My First Ghetto Flava hit the streets. But on the upside - he's got a nice torso, hasn't he?

Like the most insipid of acquaintances, Akon pretends at notoriety like Pop Idols pretend at relevance. The best part of the whole experience is when the drink that you've rested on Trouble (as befits its natural role as a coaster) slightly spills and your tasteful oak side table is preserved. But that really is it as far as actual pleasure goes, because Trouble is the aural equivalent of actually dying. No, really. Not existing any more. Nay, cynical reviewer (comes the inevitable protest), surely a life lived in the shadow of such an abomination is better than no life at all? Well, no actually. Claw your way through the criminally uninspired production, the energy-sappingly horrendous rhymes and the just-really-bad wordplay and it becomes obvious - this is not music.

Come on people, did we beat Hitler just so we could import this hideousness from our erstwhile masters across the Atlantic?

James Banks Likwit Junkies One Day Away/Strength In Numbers Ironically, it's about as popular to bemoan hip-hop's slide into crass materialism and rappers who can't rap as it is to indulge those artists all the way to platinum sales. The Likwit Junkies are a duo who claim to be the alternative. What grates is that their counterstrike is riddled with just as many formulaic clichés, albeit of the opposite type, as the music they decry.

This 12" single is perfectly listenable but not involving or innovative, which rather makes you think they've missed their own point.

Alistair Lawrence

Ryan Adams Let It Ride In a word: dull. Hmmmn… not exactly the most auspicious opening line for a review ever, and yet that's just what this single is.

Western-style guitars, a folksy drum beat, and Adams' vocals all push this single firmly into Country territory. This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, except it's all quite bland both music and lyrics are just that little bit too cheesy, that little bit too trying-really-hard-to-be-cool to take seriously, or gain Let It Ride any serious recommendation. A disappointing entry from the Adams corner, and an instantly forgettable one.

Kat Paterson Turin Brakes Fishing For A Dream Turin Brakes: that whineyvoiced band that had a few semi-hits three or four years back and then disappeared, or so they left us thinking.

Forthcoming album JackInABox is set to

renew their popularity, with single Fishing For A Dream being our first taste of what to expect. A band that suffer that you-either-lovethem-or-hate-them problem, they've delivered a somewhat more mainstream song here, perhaps in an attempt to tackle this stigma. This catchy track has less whine and more substance than previous material; we await the reemergence of this forgotten band.

Sophie Driscoll

Mötley Crüe If I Die Tomorrow You know them - the infamously debauched, in eyeliner. The womaniser, the one that died briefly, the reality TV star who married Pammy and um, Mick Mars.

They're back on tour and hence releasing singles. If I Die Tomorrow is a great rock song, it avoids traps they could have easily fallen into sounding their age, or just sounding like the 80s. Instead they're fresh, heavy and almost modern (except for that twinge of epic extravagance that is unmistakably Crüe - think synth strings intro). Of course no one will buy it, no one in this country ever did buy glam metal. But it's a wicked track all the same.

Catherine Lansdown

Gavin De Graw Chariot If you've never heard of Gavin Degraw don't go to New York. Believe me, you're not very cool there right now. This guy is in fashion. His album sounds like an earnest, emotional Maroon 5, only less funky and more mellow, less sleazy and more piano-y. It takes a few listens to start distinguishing between tracks, but eventually Chemical Party becomes as

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interesting as it should be and Belief becomes a proper ballad. In general his self-effacing soulful pop vibe is cheery and relaxed, and he doesn't take himself as seriously as everyone seems to think he does.

Catherine Lansdown Leaves The Spell This is the first single to be taken from the Icelandic band’s forthcoming album The Angela Test ahead of their support slots with Thirteen Senses later this month. With a sound that is reminiscent of the Doves’ latest release, we could be hearing a lot more from Leaves as the year progresses. The song is a layered mix of soft vocals and calm electronics, which are so deeply relaxing (almost spell-like if you please) that the end of the song might slide by unnoticed.

Hayley Chappell The Funky Lowlives Sail Into The Sun The Funky Lowlives have been busy producing in recent years, and have made a name for themselves in the realm of laidback dance. This single is essentially Stone Roses with a Groove Armada backing, but has a much richer production than Groove Armada usually present. It has a simple bassline with orchestral bits thrown in and a very Ian Brown-esque vocal style. The remix by chillout veteran Nightmares On Wax features a simple change of beat and bassline and is not too inspiring. The second, by King Unique, is a better effort, with chunky production, 80s synthesiser and clapping beats.

Hannah Edney

Ben Patashnik

Adam Beyer Fabric 22 Is it common knowledge that Adam Beyer is the forefront of the Swedish dance and techno scene? I accidentally ended up in Berlin for last year’s Love Parade but I am in no way a connoisseur of the finer tastes of Techno. A layman's analysis would probably not be too harsh for this smooth and seamless compilation; the deepest spirits of European demented dance are versatile enough for chill out or rock out.

Honestly dance music need not be limited to Germans in shiny suits with glow sticks. Adam Beyer shows us that musical roots can be manipulated into whatever we want.

tend to boil down into roughly two categories: those who specialise in the highly polished, deceptive intricacies of high-end pop while, at the other end of the spectrum, just as laudable are those whose popularity and survival is maintained in smaller circles by their intention on providing the proverbial Something Different. Cult British beatmakers The Herbaliser have always fitted firmly into the latter category.

Take London continues their journey into the unknown alongside the obscure, mixing their sample-heavy instrumentals to create an end product that is frequently all of dark, jazzy, turntablised and, conversely, exhaustingly upbeat in places.

Charles Rumsey

Alistair Lawrence

Smother Great White Hoax Great White Hoax was funded by cleaning toilets and undertaking, basically crap jobs. Well there is something that Smother certainly learnt through those menial jobs, and that was how to polish a great record. The Mr Sheen in this record is Dave Eringa, who helps to provide the 'Manics' feel to the album - the album certainly sounds different to the recent London-sound.

GWH certainly has it moments of white hot ingenious: curiosity killed the senses, a new formation of the truth and understand all bite hard into your arm without letting go. When they finally have, you are scared with bite marks.

James Banks

Mudvayne Lost and Found Shedding their extraterrestrial make-up and pseudonym monikers (e.g. Güüg) Mudvayne give us the fourth instalment of kinetically metallic trickery.

They might have rediscovered their familiar chaotic passions but this is not a literal back to basics attempt.

But why they need to resort to lame attempts at melodic emotion in the middle of their songs I have no idea, it's that generic trait that never really clicks. Where the alien prequel covered backs with electronica and funk the latest issue replaces breakdowns with cut outs. But don't worry the familiar ringing in the ears should cover that up in no time at all.

Charles Rumsey The Herbaliser Take London

Big Strides Small Town, Big Strides

Cool hip-hop producers

Instantly endearing from

their album cover (complete with Grolsch-embracing frontman and two perplexed sidekicks), the fun continues into the music with the forthcoming release from London beat combo Big Strides. Anyone familiar with obscure Cornish band Rootjoose will realise that this is the band those pasty-munchers always wanted to be. The gamble pays off, however, and if this album doesn't elicit an urge to either dance suggestively or pretend that you're a beatnik in a slinky club I'd be very surprised - and then offer you my Rootjoose CD to prove just how well the Big Strides boys have done.

Kat Paterson

The Quantick Orchestra Pushin' On

Soul

And swooping like a heavenly dove through the sheer painfulness of this week's albums comes that rarest of things - a funk album that isn't just background music.

The Quantick Soul Orchestra numbers eight extremely talented musicians, and the music they make is the most joyously energetic version of funk to have been released in the last decade.

Updating a musical form that's been revered for over thirty years isn't exactly an easy task, but QSO manage it by retaining all of funk's most pertinent traditions (bass slapped more than a hyperactive toddler, enough wah to stun a small horse) and shoving it alongside some innovative song structures and a frankly immaculate sense of style. The biggest compliment is that Pushin' On brings their live sound into your home, and for that they deserve some serious boogieing.

Ben Patashnik

Cinema/DVD 09

Main Feature

Director’s Commentary

The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse

Last Year in Marienbad

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ritish comedy has returned in all its bizarre and absurd glory.

Inheriting a Modus Operandi reminiscent of the halcyon days of the handmade production house (responsible for Time Bandits and Life of Brian), The League of Gentleman's Apocalypse draws on previous influences from British embargos into the world of the entertainingly surreal.

Anyone expecting an extended episode from the sinister acitivites of Royston Vasey will be disappointed. Apocalypse escapes the criticism levelled at previous TV to movie crossovers by introducing us to three different worlds - the real world, Royston Vasey and the Seventeenth Century. Each realm has a set of characters, from the real-life writers, through to dark sorcerors, that

are able to interact with each other by virtue of constant re-imaginings of the storylines that created them.

Confusing? On paper, yes; but if there's one thing The League does well, it's pushing the boundaries of the believeable. As with all League creations, as you watch it, you simply accept it for the peculiar thing that it is and enjoy the jokes. While the narrative approach is not altogether unique, drawing on, for example, Jonze's Adaptation, it does manage to maintain a sense of freshness that would have been lost with an 'extended episode' approach.

Part of this originality is the period narrative created by The League. Originally conceived as a separate project, 'The Kings Evil', set in the Seventeenth Century, is truly entertaining and fleshes out a sketch that was originally platformed during the live shows at Drury Lane. The use of stop-motion animation is also a welcome approach in the bluescreen digital age.

Some fans of the series may be surprised to see the characters that the film is centred around; but this too is in favour of keeping an original approach to the film. Forgoing the popular choices, like Papa Lazarou (clown-minstrel wifeabductor) and the Tattsyrups (inbred local shopkeepers) in favour of Herr Lipp (german paedophile), Hilary Briss (psychotic butcher) and Geoff Tipps (lonely, angry, sad act) allows room for development that would have been impeded by the more... odd residents of Royston Vasey.

Philip Sainty

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lain Resnais’ Last Year in Marienbad, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1961, has lost none of its enigmatic appeal over the years. A landmark film, Marienbad perfectly reflects the modernist and formalist aesthetics of the age, whilst also influencing films such as Kubrick’s The Shining. It was written by Alain Robbe-Grillet, pioneer of the French Nouveau Roman (The New Novel) of the sixties, which rebelled against conventional modes of storytelling, and has been seen concurrently as a dream, a labyrinth or an intellectual game, much like the one the characters play in the film itself.

In the setting of a baroque hotel and its formal gardens, a man designated ‘X’ (Giorgio Albertazzi) attempts to seduce a woman ‘A’ (Delphine Seyrig) away from a man who may or may not be her husband ‘M’ (Sacha Pitoeff). He does this by attempting to convince her that last year at Marienbad they had had an affair and that she had promised to leave her husband exactly a year from then - only she seems to have forgotten their encounter, leaving us uncertain whether the man is making it all up or that she is attempting to give him the brush off. Throughout the remainder of the film he attempts to plant memories in her mind, which she resists, a process that is borne out on the screen in the form of an ingenious struggle between the film’s soundtrack and its mise-en-scene. At one point, for example, the man tells her that she goes to lie upon her bed, when instead we see her edging her way towards the door, fighting the ever more demanding narrative voice.

Student Film

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The Wings of Angels

s a site of both new independence and pervasive authority, the American college setting has long provided horror and comedy films with a rich mix of youthful tensions. In The Wings of Angels, a 45-minute film

by UEA visiting student Jon Stout, college tensions are fixed more unusually within a noir mode: an innocent freshman stumbles into a murder enquiry and must negotiate devious women and arch-manipulators in order to get at the truth, and get himself out of trouble. As the young hero, Jake Mahogany (‘sounds like a porn star name’, observes one character) is affable, anxious and unsure – a ‘detective’ lacking

the worldly experience of Bogart and the rest, and also the lust for knowledge that gets Jeffrey in so deep in Blue Velvet (Lynch’s films, and particularly the TV series Twin Peaks, are the most obvious sources for the blend of noir/horror/ comedy on show here).

The Wings of Angels doesn’t delve as deeply into the dark subconscious as Blue Velvet, and it lacks the formal stylisation of many film noirs. But it has its own pleasures to offer, ranging from some likeably off-key performances – Joel McCance as Jake is vulnerable but smartly open-minded, and stage-actor Andy Vaught brings some unnerving aggression to the investigation as Dep-

Competition

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n anticipation of the forthcoming Union Films screening of The Life Aquatic on Thursday 9th June, the Filmbank network has some exclusive Life Aquatic merchandise to give away, including an official Team Zissou t-shirt, a Life Aquatic keyring and also a copy of The Royal Tenenbaums on DVD. To win, simply put down your harpoons and answer the following question: Q: What is the name of Team Zissou’s boat?

Send your answers to Concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk

uty Roach – to a brilliantly absurd scene that sees Jake interviewed by the college principle across a huge expanse of table; the distance between them so great that overhead speakers are needed to communicate. The climactic resolution is slightly more conventional, but Stout manages to keep the final scenes fluid and thrilling, despite the limitations of his standard camcorder and $600 budget.

Sebastian Manley The Wings of Angels will be screened on Saturday 21st May at 7pm in Lecture Theatre 4.

What plot there is, however, is sparse and inconsequential. Instead the film proceeds to utilise every trick to disorientate the spectator, such as the use of repeated images, match cuts and unannounced flashbacks to destroy any sense of chronology. The characters themselves are mere ciphers devoid of emotion and move around like statues, occasionally pausing completely, thus giving the film a sinister atmosphere.

The deliberately stilted acting also constitutes a rejection of naturalism and the neo-realist tradition that was prominent at the time.

This is the work of a progressive maverick pushing at the boundaries of cinematic representation in a period that was already seeing great upheaval in the form of the French New Wave. Resnais had made a film that attempts to deconstruct cinema from within, just as the protagonist seems to have taken on the role of director, especially in his manipulation of the woman, in order to resist the dehumanising structure of the film that contains him.

But this is only one of many interpretations and it is a testament to the genius of Resnais and Grillet that something so ostensibly empty and simple can be so rich in meanings, as one critic claimed: ‘in a film that is so closed in on itself, Resnais and Grillet have crafted something open to all fantasies.’ The regimented formal garden that becomes a symbol of memory in the film has thus paradoxically become a labyrinth and the only thing to do is to enjoy getting lost in it.

The film’s sumptuous cinematography has made the transition to DVD superbly and Resnais’ elegant tracking shots of the hotel’s baroque interior, which juxtapose so intriguingly with the stilted characters that inhabit its endless corridors, are breathtaking. There is also a very insightful accompanying documentary, which offers various interpretations of the film, and a rare short by Resnais about the Bibliotheque National called All the Memory of the World.

Dean Bowman Last Year in Marienbad is released by Optimum on 23rd May.

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10 Arts

Book Reviews

Exhibition Küba: Entrance free

Fatal Attraction

by Patricia Fara

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Witness the testimony of 40 Küba residents.

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f you are short of pennies but blessed with time in central London, The Event recommends Küba. Not Cuba, which is an expensive jaunt, but Küba, a utopian community from Istanbul restored in London by Turkish artist Kutlug Ataman. “Oh that Küba,” you say, nodding sagely.

Küba has taken up temporary residence for six weeks in a disused postal sorting office on New Oxford Street, two minutes walk from Tottenham Ct Road tube station.

Entering Küba through an unobtrusive doorway in the side of large wooden clapboards, boarding up the ground floor of the old postal sorting office, is quite something. All of a sudden the bustle of central London seems like a half-forgotten dream.

Explanatory leaflets handed out inside inform visitors that: “The area known as Küba first emerged in the late 1960s as a neighbourhood of safe houses in a dangerous time.” An iron stairwell leads upwards.

The crumbling walls are daubed in graffiti where founding members and supporters of Küba have stencilled their names. New entrants thrill with the discovery of this squatter’s outpost: “Home to non-conformists of diverse ethnicity, religion and political persuasion united in their defiant disregard for state control.”

On the first floor is an enormous, eerie chamber. This chilly expanse, where 1-2 million items of mail were sorted on a daily basis, is now almost empty, aside from the Küba Kafe. A further set of stairs lead up to another derelict chamber. In the middle of this cavernous space sit rows of chairs placed in front of cabinets. Atop most of these cabinets are televisions. Ataman has attempted to map the psychological and physical terrain of Küba in a series of short testimonials captured on camera.

From each screen emanates the tale of a Küba resident, lending sound and flickering light to the surrounding dimness. The tales are deeply personal. A ten year old girl testifies to the regular beatings her mother gives her. Arife, a statuesque, grinning matriarch, narrates bizarre tales of murder, suicide, artificial insemnation and dinner in Küba. “She made me go milk the bull. She fed me hedgehog,” cackles the old crone.

Arife’s friend Hatun, (who may well be responsible for the bull milking and the hedgehog dinner), sits listening. A few television screens away Hatun tells her own story of life in Küba. Exhibitions can be so very tiring - all that standing around. But in Küba you can sit in a comfortable chair and hear the sometimes disturbing, at other times hilarious, tales of this intriguing community.

ver wondered about the history of magnets? Thought not, and unless you’re an enthusiast, magnets probably represent one of many inventions taken for granted. In Fatal Attraction Fara manages to expose the wonderful history of the magnet. She follows the lives of three scientists who each aided the search to discover the truth behind these mysterious phenomena. The book is set at a time when people believed the earth was a big magnet, and that magnets had the power to attract lovers.

Fatal Attraction does not alienate the reader with strange magnetic and scientific language, and tries to present the history of magnets in a down-to-earth way. Fara takes the reader through the tumultuous age of the enlightenment, framed by the revolution in magnetism.

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f you enjoy novels where the protagonist is a magical creature bearing a name that sounds more like a sneeze, this is certainly one to consider. Haghuf is a goblin who has become friends with a human magician, Count Anton, who rather disappointingly does not turn out to be a vampire to boot. The third plot-driving character is Talla, a shapeshifting goblin who has a predilection for seducing humans, and thus provides the most entertaining scenes of the book.

Be prepared to fight your way through incomprehensible nouns though – the place names read as if a couple of pixies have foxtrotted across the author’s keyboard, making this novel truly a dance of the goblins in form as well as content.

Gabrielle Barnes

FAVOURITE BOOK Trainspotting

by Irvine Welsh

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est known by most, of course, for the film of the same name, the book upon which Ewan McGregor’s plight was initially based is equally as shocking as its cinematic counterpart. Irvine Welsh’s incredible novel altered the face of British fiction when originally published and remains one of the best novels to have been written in recent years.

Though the style of narration may sit awkwardly with some, as it is written in the Scottish dialect, this seemingly incomprehensible stream of consciousness is one of the novel’s best features, serving only to enhance the stark realism of the book.

Welsh’s writing is infused with energy, wit and above all, a supreme sense of style and imagination that lingers in the mind long after the last page has been turned.

Daisy Bowie-Sell Fatal Attraction is published by Icon £9.99.

Roanna Bond

Dance Of The Goblins is published by Norwich-based International Waters.

Ballet, Theatre & Comedy A night out at Matthew Bourne’s Highland Fling

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ighland Fling is a brilliant moulding of old and new styles which amalgamate into an experience not to be missed.

Originally a ballet first performed in 1832, Matthew Bourne manages to transpose this old Scottish tale of witchcraft onto the setting of a group of disenchanted Glaswegian youths. When, on the night before his wedding, James, the main character, takes acid in the toilets of a club, he is visited by a vision of a Sylph (like a Fairy, but Scottish). Unable to forget his experience James becomes obsessed with the Sylph who then proceeds to torment him on his wedding day and after.

James decides to leave his new spouse in an attempt to obtain the Sylph. When he does, his search leads to the destruction of both himself and the thing he yearns for the most.

Matthew Bourne manages to bring social relevance to this old ballet, giving it a refreshing, humorous atmosphere. The score,

by Herman Lovenskiold, is the score of the original ballet called La Sylphide, and its presence in the ballet is awe-striking. It is credit to Bourne’s ability as a director that he

is able to compliment the intensity and beauty of the music with the humour and relevance of his re-styled plot. Bourne keeps the essential ideas within the ballet; that of a mixing of the spirit and human worlds, and shows the audience that a human being’s greed can easily become an inherently destructive force.

Swathed in Tartan, the scene is occasionally reminiscent of the Glasgow represented in Trainspotting, and Bourne says himself that he was aiming at times to give a similar effect to Danny Boyle’s film. Showing a youth culture who work all week and just wait for the weekend, the protagonist’s plight is recognisable today as an attempt to escape the hum-drum existence of the working culture surrounding young people.

The beauty of this dance is the thing which makes it a must-see, the dancers are admirable in their grace, and they mix ballet with modern everyday gestures thereby bringing a ballet filled with vitality and enchantment.

Daisy Bowie-Sell

Jack Dee and Derren Brown? Not in Norredge?

Luke Roberts A trip to Küba at 21-31 New Oxford Street, WC1 1BH is free. The community is open 11.00-1900 Tuesdays- Sundays until June 4th.

See www.kuba.org.uk for more details.

Dance of the Goblins

by Jaq D. Hawkins

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xam season is almost over. Now it’s time to celebrate. Aside from the supping of several alcoholic beverages,

more exciting entertainment lies in store in Norwich during the coming weeks. To fill up the days previously spent buried deep in books, the more cultured (perhaps sober) and newly carefree student could take a wander down to the Theatre Royal and spend an evening in the company of either Jack Dee or Derren Brown, both of whom are shortly to be appearing there.

Jack Dee appears at the theatre on May 22nd and 23rd. Having been absent from the road for the previous three years, Dee once more returns to the stage with this new national tour. One of Britain’s best loved comedians, his bone-dry sense of humour and deadpan delivery always amuses.

Although a man of few smiles himself, he’s guaranteed to produce near hysterical laughs from his audience and his shows are well worth a visit. So if you’ve got a free evening, join this talented grump as he takes

a walk through his life’s pet hates. If stand up comedy isn’t quite what you’re looking for, then Derren Brown is appearing the following night (24th) at the theatre, with his new touring show Something Wicked This Way Comes. The star of countless Channel 4 programs involving mind control, Brown’s combination of psychological illusion, perceptual manipulation and persuasive techniques has pioneered a new form of entertainment that is both provocative and powerful.

This inventive national tour, culminating in a West End run, promises to amaze and unsettle audiences equally, just as much as his previous material has done. With his surreal mixture of magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection and showmanship, this should prove to be one of the most controversial nights out that Norwich has offered for a while.

Roanna Bond

TV Preview: The Comedy Lab Weeknights, 11.40pm Channel 4

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hannel 4’s The Comedy Lab has finally returned to our screens, letting another bunch of lesser-known comedians show us what they’ve got. The concept behind the programme is simple – people that haven’t yet made it in the world of comedy send Channel 4 ideas for shows, with the best of the bunch receiving funding to turn the concept into a proper TV show. It’s a fantastic idea and these comedians are often funnier than better-known “comedy” shows (see My Hero and My Family).

Last week’s programmes got the series off to a fine start, with Tuesday night showing a TV version of hilarious cult comic Modern Toss. Not for the prudish or the easily offended, the comic features an array of strange characters swearing, killing themselves and being very aggressive – as well as extremely funny. Character highlights include Mr Tourette, Master Signwriter, who creates signs for businesses that bear no resemblance to what they do yet are absolutely hilarious (e.g. when

asked to write “Welcome to Merlin’s World” on a theme park entrance, he paints “Piss Wizard”), Prince Edward the Royal Entrepreneur (who tries to flog mats made of Prince Andrew’s back hair at a market stall) and 999 (in which a man saws his leg off, causing blood to spill everywhere, sets the severed limb on fire, then phones a doctor to tell him “I’ve really shitted my leg up”). The randomness of the deliberately crudely animated cartoons adds to the humour and strange charm of the programme and, with sequences directed by Joe Cornish of Adam and Joe, “Modern Toss” added a touch of surreal humour to an otherwise dull evening on Channel 4.

Wednesday night’s show, “Speeding”, was a parody of speed dating, with eight men and eight women meeting each other in turn. Each character was highly exaggerated to make the programme funnier, such as the stereotypical Russian and the flagrantly gay man, but the ways in which the people interacted with each other created natural humour regardless – with per-

haps the most funny being the meeting between a man obsessed with anal sex and an organised matriarchal figure.

The fact that the viewer was thrown into the middle of the speed dating with no introduction to the characters, and that their names were not mentioned specifically, meant that it was realistic and the comedy was created by the personality of each of the participants. Very different and amusing, this was thoroughly enjoyable.

The last series showcased a huge variety of comic talent, from a slapstick Star Trek parody to a strange story about a man who fell in love with a chicken. The episodes already shown have been similarly fantastic and, with future episodes like “I’m Spazticus” (in which a hidden camera films disabled comedians playing pranks on members of the public) and “Skin Deep” (featuring a day in the life of two tattoists from Leeds), prove that The Comedy Lab is unique, entertaining and very watchable.

Chris Hyde

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Martha Hammond and Kim Howe

Kate Bryant

Street, and Hollyoaks’ Ben resists Lisa’s feminine wiles...

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The Simpsons Themed DVDs 2 for £20 Released: 18th April

Lassiters complex from now. People in glass houses and all that...

Lisa Hunter on the other hand has moved away from being the other woman to being a lovelorn teenager again – hurrah. If only her intended beau was not another of dead Dan’s friends: are there no other single goodlooking men in Hollyoaks? It would seem that broken-legged Ben is doing a good job of running away from the situation in spite of his incapacity. Despite their growing attraction Ben has decided that nothing should happen between them, mainly because of the stick that he gave Jake for getting involved with the teenage temptress. Oh well, The Event is sure that it will all work out for the best.

Love may be back on the cards for Karl and Susan in Ramsey

Doc survives this first attack. Of course, The Event cannot guarantee Karl’s safety once Paul lets on Izzy’s baby father secret.

Izzy must be feeling rather low as her boyfriend (and we use this term loosely) is in hospital and her lover, power-mad Paul, reveals that he knows her dark secret. Is she going to stay true to Karl and shun Paul regardless of the consequences? Or will she play along with Paul the Pratt in order to keep Karl from another heart attack? Watch and learn dear viewers.

It seems that Lynn Scully has been taking a few pointers from the heartless harpy Izzy when it is revealed that she is about to embark on a torrid affair with a married man. The former ‘Moral Highness’ will have to curb her grimaces as she parades round the

TV DVD: The Simpsons

nyone who has a telly will have a healthy supply of The Simpsons direct to their front room free of charge. For that reason, it’s difficult to imagine anyone (bar the die-hard fan) deciding that they’d rather own a new The Simpsons DVD than go down the pub for a bit. Even with the ‘2 for £20’ bargain basement style offer, the temptation is just not great enough. With such a vast ocean of episodes to choose from, it makes for an even less attractive offer, as whatever DVDs you do end up taking home there will inevitably be several more you want just as much and wish you had bought instead.

Whilst they may be a criminal waste of money and shelf space in many senses, The Simpsons are often amongst the most fulfilling DVDs in terms of special features with documentaries and commentaries and lots of other-aries to boot. The DVDs of seasons 1-5 have been everything you may expect from them.

Regardless of the fantastic quality of the episodes, each DVD is packed with extras that add a new dimension even for the seasoned fan. The themed DVDs, however, have nothing more than a trailer in terms of special features, and with only four episodes on each DVD there is very little to escape the impression that these DVDs are on the market to catch out those of us who don’t want to fork out for an entire season.

Soap News: Hollyoaks and Neighbours ow do you mend a broken heart? Good question, and one that Dr. “my young lover has nearly killed me” Kennedy will be looking to answer. There is high drama in Ramsey street when Karl (the lynchpin of the community don’t you know?) has a heart attack and believes that he is dying. What does our intrepid doctor do? Ring for help? Nope, he calls his exwife to confess that he still loves her despite the fact that he left her because he felt tied down (three kids and an 18 year marriage can have that effect Karl). After calling his true love, Karl then calls his young, pretty, fiancé, Izzy the Witch, and both women rush to his side.That is what is commonly known as having your cake and eating it. Karl fans need not fear too much as the dithering

TV/Digital 11

Digital Stuff: Replay Radio The Event declares: The radio is dead, long live Replay Radio!

S

ince the radio, in its physical form, has gone the way of the Dodo, the internet has ably stepped in to fill its shoes. The potential for internet radio is vast and thousand of sites have popped up covering every area of interest from electronica (www.soma.fm is an excellent example of commercial free internet radio) to speculative talk radio focusing on crop circles and alien abductions.

The only problem is that whereas in the past you could easily tape your favourite radio shows, media players

like Winamp frustratingly don’t come with that ability. The solution has been provided by Replay Radio, a simple yet ingenius piece of software from Applian Technologies that enables you to record internet radio just like a VCR. Like the recent Tivo, Replay Radio operates with an intuitive GUI that allows you to schedule recordings weeks in advance and it holds a database of over 1000 radio stations to choose from. Replay Radio records your favourite shows as MP3 files, so that you can easily burn them to disc or down-

load them onto your i-pod (if you’re posh).You can even tinker with the files after they’ve recorded with the Replay Player add-on, split the shows into smaller files or edit out annoying adverts and moments of silence (or just that breakfast show DJ whose voice really pisses you off).

Replay Radio is available to download or mail order from www.replayradio.com for just $29.95 or you can try a 7 day demo version.

A Radio (Musicus Morticus) now considered extinct.

Andrew Wensum

Event the

18.05.05

n o r w i c h t h e at r e r o y a l BOX OFFICE (01603) 63 00 00

THURSDAY 26th MAY 2.30pm & 7.30pm

An eBay evening with Dan Wilson Tuesday 21 June, 6.30pm- 8.30pm Restaurant on 3 Norwich is the eBay capital of the UK, with over 44% of the Norwich population registered to trade with them.

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