Greg James
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Radio 1 DJ and UEA alumnus, Greg James, chats to Concrete ahead of his Freshers’ Bash performance.
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Tuesday 12th October 2010 • Issue 245 • UEA’s Independent Student Newspaper
INTEREST GROWS IN STUDENT FEES Pressure mounts on the coalition government to reach an acceptable compromise on higher education funding. Rob Schatten Davina Kesby
News Correspondents
The coalition government is moving to finalise a deal that will restructure the way graduates repay their student loans. A new ‘variable interest rate’ could be introduced whereby those who secure higher-paid postgraduate employment will be required to pay back loans at a higher interest rate. In practice, this could see loan repayments mirroring the national interest rate (currently at 0.5%), rather than following the base rate as they do presently. The base rate currently stands at 1.5%. In 2008, the national interest rate reached as high as 5%. Discussions are also focussing on the question of whether or not to remove the cap on tuition fees, a move which could see payments rise to more than double the current figure, capped at £3,290 per annum. The Browne Report into the financing of higher education, due to be published on Tuesday, is expected to advocate an increase in tuition fees up to around £7,000 per year. The report will also recommend a rise in the threshold for starting repayments, which is currently set at an annual salary of £15,000. The search for a new method
of recouping loans has frustrated Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians for months, with the two sides seemingly diametrically opposed over the issue of restructuring student fees. The Lib Dems campaigned against any rise in fees, with Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, saying during the general election campaign that any increase in student debt would be “a disaster”. It seems that such a move is now inevitable. Former Lib Dem Universities spokesman, Stephen Williams, said his party was not necessarily abandoning their pledges from the spring, but that he was concerned by the idea of a market-rate repayment structure. He also expressed concerns at the possibility of different universities being able to charge different fees. “I’m really worried and I know a lot of my colleagues are worried that we may end up with a regime that makes people take choices they’re not necessarily academically suited for,” he told the BBC. Although a raise in fees had been widely expected in the higher education community, the deal has stalled over finding a suitably forward-thinking policy to placate disgruntled Lib Dems. This apparent compromise, however, will not be greeted with jubilation by students from poorer backgrounds who may
Greg Mann
now be forced out of studying for a degree. Rachel Handforth, Academic Officer for the Union of UEA Students, said: “The Union believes that variable interest rates are a poor attempt to disguise the rise in fees that will almost certainly be recommended by the Browne Review. In the end, it will make very little difference to the final amount that students will have to pay back. The most worrying thing for students is the potential removal of the cap on tuition fees”. Aaron Porter, president of NUS, told Concrete: “There is nothing fair about hiking fees and doubling student debt, whilst also increasing interest payments for those who have to borrow the most in order to fund their way through university. It would be an insult to the intelligence of those who voted for the Liberal Democrats to attempt to rebrand the regressive and deeply unpopular top-up fee system”. He went on to say: “Liberal Democrat MPs have long opposed tuition fees and at the general election each of them signed a pledge to vote against higher fees in Parliament. It would be a complete betrayal of the electorate to abandon this flagship promise”. Turn to page 3 for Concrete’s coverage of the NUS battle against the Browne report.
Students face higher tuition fees and a larger amount of debt
NEWS: NUS vs. the Browne Report
NEWS: Freshers left alarmed
NEWS: Sportspark brand Norwich streets
FEATURES: Do you back the coalition?
SPORT: Meet UEA’s Boat Club.
As the Browne Report is released, the NUS have been leading the fight against higher fees. Page 3
Freshers are being disrupted by older students setting off fire alarms in halls. Page 4
The Sportspark have used innovative marketing techniques to spread their new logo around the city. Page 6
Students give their views on the coalition and what it has achieved so far.
Concrete Sport catch up with one of UEA’s most popular and successful sports clubs, the UEA Boat Club.
Page 12-13
Page 23
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NEWS
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ISSUE 245
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Chris King Rob Schatten Greg Mann
Laura Smith Jean Wills
Ross Grant
Contributors:
Robert Keeler, Claire Price, Susanna Wood, Stacey Knapp, Tim Bates, Oliver Steward, James Schofield, Jess Collett, Barbara Orth, Jack Brinded, Henry Croft, Nathan Willcock, Alex Ross, Duncan Smith, Tom Cannon, Cathy White, Marylise Shmid, Tim Marsh, Will Lacey, Emma Williamson, Luke Mendoza, Lisa Stevens, Georgie Adolpho-Couling, Charlie Wallace, Lauren Carter, Gabriella Colasurdo, Christine O’Sullivan, Anna Eastick, Megan Pennell, Chris Teale, Matt Philcox, Dominic Smith, Fiona Howard, Matt Scrafton, Simon O’Meara, Ed Powell
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UNION NOMINATED FOR TWO AWARDS Robert Keeler
News Reporter
The Union of UEA Students has been nominated for two prestigious national awards for its overall excellent performance as both a venue and in offering a diverse range of clubs and societies, as well as support, to UEA students. The first nomination is for the upcoming 2010 Club Awards, an event hosted annually by the popular Club Mirror magazine which covers UK nightlife as well as sports and societies. UEA has been nominated in the category of ‘Best Student Union’ with the winner being announced on 10th November 2010 at the Manchester Palace Hotel. The award represents
the Union’s overall strength as an organisation. With over 200 clubs and societies available to members during Freshers’ Week this year, Union staff are confident the Union will be able to claim this prestigious award. The second nomination came from magazine LIVEUK, a publication celebrating the best of live music across the UK. The nomination was for UEA’s LCR as one of the top campus live music venues in the country, with the awards ceremony being held on Thursday 7th October. The LCR has previously won this award, and with the likes of Plan B and Pendulum having already played this term, with Example and Manic Street Preachers still to come, the Union’s entertainment
Feeder play the LCR in 2008
staff were confident of once again lifting this award. Unfortunately, the LCR finished as runner up on the night, losing out narrowly to the University of Central Lancashire’s brand new venue 53 Degrees. With regard to the nominations, Tom Dolton, Communications Officer for the Union, said: “The Union of UEA Students is delighted that our Union is even being considered for these awards and we feel that the fact we have been really reflects positively upon us”. He went
on to comment further that “The Union is really proud of the diverse range of events our entertainments team put together, catering to both a changing student body and a vibrant arts culture in Norwich”. This is not the first time UEA’s Student Union has been nominated for awards with it having won the Whatuni Student Union of the Year award in 2009, and it is hoped that over the coming years the Union will continue to grow from strength to strength.
added in June this year. Suzy Gook, Head of Marketing and Administration Services, reported that registrations this year were up by 50% and applications had increased by 30% - a figure that rates above the national average. In order to manage an occasion of this size, over 100 staff and more than 200 student ambassadors and helpers were employed to help direct visitors and answer questions. Extra carparking was also needed with some visitors arriving from a nearby park and ride service. In addition to this, faculties reported that subject talks were so well attended that in some cases, parents of visiting students were asked to step aside in order for all the students to gain access to the lecture theatres. Open Days rank among the most important events in the university’s calendar as they offer a unique opportunity for prospective students to explore facilities, meet current students and staff and learn about the courses on offer.
Accommodation and campus tours available on the day also allowed visitors to visit the university departments and investigate teaching facilities, as well as view the accommodation. This Open Day also gave the University an opportunity to showcase new developments such as the Thomas Paine Centre and the refurbished and re-organised library. Additionally, this Open Day coincided with the university’s Live Learn campaign which promotes both academic and social aspects of university life. The Market Research Team spoke to a number of visitors on the day and found that many were impressed with one parent describing the marketing as ‘fresh, a great campaign.’ It is expected that the turn out for this event will translate into applications making this Open Day a highly important part of the recruitment process. The next Open Day is for postgraduates and will be held on the 10 November from 2-7pm.
RECORD ATTENDANCE AT UEA OPEN DAY Claire Price
News Reporter
October saw UEA host one of its most successful Open Days with over 6,000 students and their families pre-registering for the event. The number of attendees
grew on the day, with many prospective students turning up without having registered. This record breaking event reflects a recent trend of increasing interest in the university which has resulted in a third Open Day being
ISSUE 245
Tuesday 12th October
EARLHAM ROAD FATALITY A man died on Wednesday as a result of a road accident that occurred last Monday (27th September). The collision took place at approximately 3:50pm on Monday on Earlham Road. A blue Peugeot 306 was travelling along Earlham Road out of the city when it collided with a green bicycle, near the junction with Alexandra Road. The rider of the bicycle was John Rudledge, who was 76 and from the Norwich area. He died in hospital on Wednesday 29th September from the injuries he received as a result of the collision. Any witnesses of the collision should contact PC Richard Peck on 0845 456 4567.
GOLDEN TRIANGLE HIT BY LAPTOP BURGLARIES
Students are being urged to keep on their guard after a spate of burglaries in the Unthank Road area. The first offence took place on Thursday 30th September on Cambridge Street between 8pm and 9.20pm. A black HP Pavilion laptop and black leather Radley purse containing about £40 in cash and cards was stolen after an intruder gained access to the house through an open ground floor window. A second theft took place on Thursday 7th October between 7pm and 9pm on Gloucester Street. A laptop, its charger and a phone charger were stolen after access was seemingly gained through an upstairs bathroom window. The victim of this crime was 3rd year student, Kristina Stephens, who said: “It seems to have been really quick and opportunistic, the rest of my room is in the same state, my iPod’s still in my drawer”. She expressed further concerns about the circumstances in which the theft took place: “It all happened whilst one of my housemates was in her room downstairs. I was quite shaken up by the burglary as I’ve always felt really safe living in Norwich. It was something I’ve never been aware of any of my friends at UEA experiencing”. Anyone with information should contact DC Sharon Wright at Norwich CID on 0845 456 4567 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
NEWS 3
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NUS BEGIN BATTLE AGAINST BROWNE REPORT Susanna Wood
News Reporter
The National Union of Students has reacted with “horror” to an independent review published next week which is likely to lead to dramatic changes in the way universities in England are funded. The Sutton Trust is warning that the review, which has been led by former chief executive of BP, Lord Browne, will suggest a rise in the cap on fees from the current £3,290 to up to £10,000 per year. A statement from the NUS has said that their evidence shows that nearly three quarters of students would have to reconsider their plans if universities were allowed to saddle students with even higher levels of debt, and have labelled the proposed fees as “regressive”. The Union of UEA Students has also reacted with dismay at the “unrepresentative” nature of the review. Rachel Handforth, the Union’s Academic Officer, offered these comments: “[The review] should have contained the voice of students through the NUS rather than purely those with vested interests. The Union of UEA Students believes that higher
education should be free”. This comes in the wake of a new university year that has left thousands of school leavers without a university place. Those who make it to graduation are becoming apprehensive about finding employment in an increasingly bleak job market. NUS President Aaron Porter has demonstrated his “absolute horror” at the proposals. “Lord Browne’s dream to embark on the road to a market in fees would be a nightmare,” he said, citing fears that allowances will not be made for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Speaking on the Politics Show, Porter explained, “I think if students are going to be asked to pay more, they might ask how universities are going to improve what they offer”. He pointed out that the lack of improvement in university services since 2006, when the cap was trebled from £1,000 to over £3,000. The Liberal Democrats in particular have come under fire due to their perceived policy turnaround regarding this issue. While the Liberal Democrat website reads that they are the “only party which believes university education should be free”- their stance against
FRESHERS LEFT ALARMED Stacey Knapp
News Reporter
Freshers’ Week saw a spate of deliberate fire alarm activations across campus as 16 incidents were reported. Each occurred between 22:00 and 05:30, often after LCR nights and mostly in the newest residences across the UEA campus. It was initially believed to have been an initiation type prank for second and third year students. However, according to Nick Jope, the security team leader, this year’s Freshers’ Week has been especially bad. With one third year student apprehended and facing, as of yet unknown disciplinary action, the negative reaction to such antisocial behaviour is widespread and increasing throughout the University. Dan Youmans, the Community and Student Rights Officer for the Union of UEA Students, condemned the pranksters for, “wasting the fire services time and distracting them from real emergencies”. He
also criticised the offenders for “massively disrupting students’ lives, for example, having to evacuate in the middle of the night when students have lectures early in the morning. The most pressing danger is cultivating complacency amongst residents”. This view is seconded by the security team who are concerned that in the event of a real fire or emergency, students will fail to evacuate their residences, risking more serious and potentially lifethreatening circumstances that could easily have been avoided. The campus security staff wish to therefore encourage students, especially first years, to take basic safety precautions. Freshers are urged not to invite older students who may have previously stayed in their halls into flats, to maintain awareness of suspicious strangers, and close easily accessed windows and doors, particularly in ground floor rooms. The Dean of Students, Dr Annie Grant, has told Concrete: “We would have hoped that our
Aaron Porter, President of the National Union of Students
tuition fees being a big feature in the general election - NUS believes that not enough Liberal Democrat MPs are protesting against the rise in fees. Porter also expressed concern that decisions regarding the pricing of fees in different universities would be based on the university’s “history and perceived prestige” rather than the quality of life for the students. There are fears that a ‘university free market’ could lead to a two-tier system similar to that which existed between universities and polytechnics prior to 1992. There have also been suggestions that a rise in fees may see in a system similar to that in the USA,
The fire escapes in Nelson Court
students are mature enough to recognise the impact of their behaviour on others, and that it reflects badly, not only on them, but on the University as a whole”. Dr Grant also encouraged students to be cautious, telling them to “ensure that they do not set off the alarms through carelessness, either by leaving shower doors open or spraying
where top Ivy League universities such as Harvard expect fees of £34,976 for one year of tuition. NUS has often suggested a graduate tax as an alternative to a rise in tuition fees, which would be paid after graduation alongside income tax. The Union, while not formally endorsing the graduate tax, has stated that “it seems difficult to imagine a worse system than one of exorbitant tuition fees”. However, graduate tax will be dismissed by Browne in favour of a structured tuition fee system. NUS have organised a national demonstration which will take place in Central London on Wednesday 10th November.
Greg Mann
aerosols near the sensors”. She also expressed thanks to the Student Union for reinforcing this message. The Dean went on to stress that there are strict disciplinary procedures in place for those who are found deliberately or recklessly setting off alarms, ranging from a £500 fine to potential eviction from residences or even a referral to appear before the UEA Senate.
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NEWS
CHARLES CLARKE CALLS COALITION INCOMPETENT Tim Bates
News Reporter
Former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke has accused the coalition government of blanket incompetence. Speaking last Tuesday at a Fringe meeting at the Conservative Party Conference, Mr Clarke accused the government of mishandling almost every major political issue since coming to power in May. He said: “I think there are early signs that the coalition hasn’t got hold of some of the key problems about how you govern and how you run the country”. The attacks mark one of the first serious challenges by Labour politicians to the incumbent government since the resolution of the Labour Leadership Elections. Clarke challenged the Conservatives on policies as wide as the elections of police chiefs, to the decision to give GPs control over health commissioning, saying these decisions would cause “serious problems”. He also accused Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, of “messing up” on his ambitions of constitutional reform. Charles Clarke is the former MP for Norwich South.
ISSUE 245
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SPORTSPARK BRAND NORWICH STREETS Oliver Steward
News Reporter
The UEA Sportspark has commissioned its new logos to be placed in 28 places around Norwich as part of its 10th anniversary rebranding. This unusual form of advertising uses a Clean Graffiti plastic stencil and a pressurized hose to clean away dirt. The result is an image which looks painted on but is nothing more than a clean pavement in the shape of a logo or message. By building on the new logo the UEA Sportspark employed the advertising agency Euro RSCG Riley with a total cost of £1500. The adverts were placed in popular locations around Norwich city centre, including Gentleman’s Walk, Prince of Wales Road, outside The Forum and by Norwich train station. Contrary to outside belief the UEA Sportspark is a self-financing operation which is dependent on the wider community using it. Through market research the UEA Sportspark identified a popular held myth that it is only open to UEA students and perceived a need to overcome such a perception. Keith Nicholls of the UEA Sportspark argues there is a “need in immediate locality, something that’s innovative and attractive.”
The Sportspark logos that have been placed around the city
The short term goal of such a project was to make an impact, and the UEA Sportspark is confident that has already been achieved by its feature on the front page of Norwich Evening News. However, when remarking on the use of the word ‘graffiti’ Keith Nicholls argues this form of advertising “is not disfiguring anything. All you have done is taken away dirt.” The reception of such adverts has been positive overall. A spokesperson for Norwich City
Council, said: “We haven’t heard any complaints at this point about these, and it doesn’t appear to be harming the city at the moment, but it is something we will keep an eye on. While we don’t want to stifle creativity and sustainable practices, there is a balance to be struck between these, and having a city overloaded with advertising.” Julian Foster, chairman of the central Norwich Citizen’s Forum, said: “It’s a wonderful idea. When people started getting excited about graffiti we said there is good
graffiti and there is bad graffiti, but this is good art and it’s even better that it washes off after a while - I’m all for it”. Mariah Rowe, assistant director of the Sportspark, said: “The nice thing about it is the clean graffiti aspect. You’re actually cleaning something away and it just fades away”. She added that the campaign would “bring the logo into peoples’ minds. After 10 years we felt the logo still looked good but could look better. Quite a few people have seen it and said it was interesting”.
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NEWS
CAFE DIRECT TRIALS LATER OPENING HOURS Café Direct will be trialling later opening hours to give students an alternative meeting point in the evenings. Until the end of October, Café Direct will be open until 9pm every evening. If the facility is used enough, this later closing time could be extended indefinitely. Head of food and hospitality services, Stephen Wright, said: “We want to offer students a nice setting to meet friends and have a snack without having to spend the evening in the bar. We hope lots of students will take advantage of this as we would like to make this a permanent feature”.
UEA SCIENCE SUCCESS
Professor Phil Jones, director of research at UEA’s Climatic Research Unit has been named one of the most important figures in British science. Eureka, The Times’ science supplement, published a list of the top 100 most influential people in contemporary science. According to The Times editor, James Harding, the list features those who are “pushing back the boundaries of scientific understanding, transforming our lives through innovation and changing our attitudes to science, each other and the world”. Professor Jones appeared at number 43 in the list and is described as a “controversial climatologist”. According to the list, he appears because he is “renowned in the science community for his work on hemispheric and global surface temperatures”. He is also described as “one of the most cited researchers in geosciences”. Eureka acknowledges the impact of the “Climategate” scandal on Professor Jones, who has spoken of his thoughts of suicide during the inquiry. After being exonerated from any wrongdoing, Eureka says he will be “welcomed back to the fold”. Number one in the list was Sir Paul Nurse, who gained his PhD from the School of Biological Sciences at UEA. He is a geneticist and cell biologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Leland H. Hartwell and R. Timothy Hunt for their discoveries regarding cell cycle regulation.
ISSUE 245
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UEA’S OPENING WEEK AS FRESH AS EVER James Schofield
News Reporter
The new university year kicked off in eclectic fashion with UEA’s Freshers’ Week. A host of acts graced the hallowed stage of the LCR to get the autumn semester off to a great start for both Freshers and returning students alike. A few early hiccups in the online ticketing service left many students panicking over the availability of the sought after tickets. The release of tickets online was a more convenient option for those not yet back at university, but the service was not without its problems. Due to phenomenal demand, the UEA Box Office website was briefly taken down the day on which tickets were released, leaving many students struggling to buy tickets for the events that they wished to attend. This demand meant that most of the nights had sold out before Freshers’ Week had begun; hardly
surprising with a line-up including Pendulum and Zane Lowe. The week went by without much incident. The atmosphere at each night was friendly and goodnatured, with new and returning students relishing the opportunity to enter or simply get back into the university routine. Rumours of drug use during the Pendulum DJ set, unconfirmed by UEA Security, have been the only blip on an otherwise untarnished record for Freshers’ Week. The acts themselves were met with good reception. Zane Lowe’s DJ Hero II tour saw a packed-out LCR treated to the surprise support act of Shy FX. Lowe himself played an electric set that was heralded by David, a 3rd year PSI student, as “the third best LCR” he’d ever been to. The atmosphere inside the LCR was commented on by the New Zealand DJ himself, who posted on his Twitter the day after that “UEA last night was incredible”. Radio One DJ and former
UEA student Greg James also had praise for the LCR atmosphere, calling himself a “very lucky boy” on Twitter after headlining the Freshers’ Bash to a rapturous response. The week gave a great taster of what the University of East Anglia has to offer on a social level. Louise, a 1st year HIS student, said: “despite a lot of people having
trouble getting tickets due to the speed of the online ticket sales, it was a very enjoyable week’ – a sentiment that has been echoed by many others at the university. Once everyone has recovered from the inevitable Freshers’ Flu that few have been able to avoid, the week will be looked back on with a fondness that is hard to match.
Ex-UEA student and Radio One DJ Greg James entertains the crowd
10:10 CAMPAIGN STEPPED UP FOR 10/10/10 Mia Wecker
News Reporter
A global warming campaign to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 has stepped up its campaign. 10:10, the UK global warming mitigation campaign, successfully coordinated 10:10:10, the biggestever day of positive action on climate change, on Sunday 10th October 2010. The project included events in countries around the world, ranging from sumo wrestling in Japan to 10,000 schools planting trees in Croatia and Russia to a carbon-cutting telethon on national TV in the Netherlands. The aim of the worldwide spectacle was to further encourage individuals, as well as organisations and governments, to make efforts to cut their carbon footprint. The day also celebrated the results obtained so far, and those have been manifold. To date, 10:10 campaigns have started in a total of 40 countries including the UK, Nepal, France, Germany, Ghana and New Zealand. Globally, around 30,000 businesses and 80,000 individuals have signed up, with numbers still rising steadily. In the UK, the government and 45% of all councils have already pledged their commitment to the 10:10 mission. Eugenie Harvey, director of the 10:10 campaign,
estimates that over half a million pound have already been saved by the measures taken. At UEA, the Student Union is also supporting the mission of 10:10. Tom Doloton, the Union’s Communication’s Officer, said that “we are always looking into ways to reduce both paper waste and general waste. We have worked closely with the university to recycle student waste; a great example of this was the UEA cleanup which cleared the University’s accommodation.” Green Wing, the Union’s green arm, is coordinating events in the context of 10:10:10, including a two-hour bike ride through Norwich and a Freegan Ball in the Hive.
The campaign organisers welcome the enthusiasm for 10:10:10, especially after being heavily criticised for publishing a controversial campaign video two weeks ago. The short film No Pressure by Richard Curtis shows school children, corporate employees, former French soccer ace David Ginola, and X Files star Gillian Anderson being blown up after having refused to sign up for 10:10. It was withdrawn less than 24 hours after its publication, yet caused a considerable amount of damage to 10:10, which lost the support of some important members including Sony Europe and 350.org, an international environmental organization which had been significantly involved in
the organisation of 10:10:10. Yet, Eugenie Harvey said if the campaign is successful, 10:10 will definitely go on far beyond 2010. To date, 3,000 businesses and 80,000 individuals have signed the pledge. Among those companies making the commitment to cut their carbon emissions are several London Underground stations, including Liverpool Street and Bank. The tube stations will be attempting to reduce energy consumption through use of lighting and escalators more efficiently. The measures will save around £70,000 and over 500 tonnes of CO2 per year, with the tube network being responsible for around 640,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
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INTERNATIONAL
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ISSUE 245 concrete.international@uea.ac.uk
Education, Life and Money What does it mean to pay international fees? Isabelle Carty International Writer
With regards to international fees, universities in the UK follow strict guidelines for fee assessment set out by the UK council for International student affairs. In any given year, at any UK university, international fees for one student can range from £4,000 to £20,000 depending on the institution, the type of course and the level of the course. Fees for international students are decidedly different from fees paid by Home or EU students. To qualify for Home or EU status (and subsequently pay lower fees), students must be British or EU nationals with a passport to attest to that or be a resident of the UK for three years prior to the start of their course, as long as they were in the country for a reason other than the purpose of receiving full-time education. Some international students are accorded financial aid in the form of grants, loans or scholarships by their countries. In return for an overseas education, some are expected to return and work for their respective governments for a specified amount of time. Some, on the other hand, have no financial aid available to them and must make ends meet once they are here by attempting to find jobs, which can be difficult, if not impossible.
Notes on Africa Ebikabowei Bozimo International Writer
The African culture is rich and vibrant. The culture boasts approximately 200,000 years of tradition from when homo sapiens emigrated from Ethiopia and inhabited most of the world gradually. Some, of course, remained behind, making the African culture one of the oldest cultures in the world. Indeed, there is an African in each and every one of us! The culture holds on to its central element in that it is still very much family oriented. With the generational eldest son being the head of a very extended family, problems within these extended families are shared and the burden is carried by the wider family if it proves difficult to cope with for the immediate nuclear family. There is a great deal of diversity in the people and the culture, for instance in Nigeria alone there is an excess of up to 510 languages,
Meet, Greet and Eat
In addition to tuition fees, there is an approximate minimum cost of living of £7,000 per year for one student. Many students supplement their income by working part-time or during holidays, which means more time away from home leading to the added stress and pressure.
“UEA is pleased to welcome students from over 100 different countries”
Even though the financial burden hangs like a cloud over the international students, it does not prevent them from applying, attending and enjoying both their stay and their education. UEA is pleased to welcome students from over 100 different countries and there is even an international student support system in place to provide an accessible network of advice and information. Though international students may be far away from home and already in debt before they even begin, the education they achieve undoubtedly makes them rich in both experience and knowledge.
not to mention a wide array of rich and exotic food of the continent. Indeed, tourists are known to come from far and wide to destinations like Morocco for a taste of some of its native cuisine. The African people are also known to be warm and welcoming; this is deeply rooted in the culture. The climate being tropical/subtropical, it provides the ideal living environment for some of the most mysterious wildlife on earth. From the coral reefs of South Africa to the Safaris of Kenya, Africa prides itself on a diverse wildlife and is also one of the richest in terms of the natural minerals it houses. Popular religion mostly consists of a mixture between traditional beliefs with external influences. The continent’s culture is also one of the most expressive in terms of dance and art. Indeed, the art is as diverse as its peoples, ranging from the bronze heads of Ife to the velours of Kasai, allowing for tourists to be mesmerised by the ancient pyramids of Egypt or the constellation of terrains of Nigeria.
Krishnaveni Padaa International Writer
There has been so much happening around campus this month, including the traditional ice-breaking, meet-and-greet social events held by societies for a fun introduction. This week, two societies organised such encounters; namely the South East Asian Society and the Hindu Society. The Hindu Society is a group of students who believe in, or are interested in, the Hindu religion. The Hindu Society’s meet-and-greet event was held in an Indian restaurant, Spice Lounge, located in the city centre. Over 75 people turned up to this event where they were greeted and placed randomly on tables. Here they had a chance to mingle with people who they had not previously met and what’s more, be quizzed on how much they knew their neighbouring member as the night started. Some recalled amazing amounts of information! The samosas came as starters and two mouth-watering curries were later served with nan bread and rice. After the food, accompanied with a set of noisy discussions around tables, the society presented an entertaining quiz around the Hindu culture and religion. The night ended with thanking members and
“The samosas came as starters and two mouth-watering curries were later served with nan bread and rice”
acknowledging the committee for organising this vibrant event! The South East Asian Society’s meetand-greet event was very different. This society consists of members from all sorts of
backgrounds and cultures from the Far East such as Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia to name but a few! This event was held in Constable Terrace where over 100 members were greeted by a band that performed oriental and English songs. Later, food specially made by the committee members of the society was presented and
“The night continued with games that included a quiz on the South East Asian countries and several other fun and spirited games involving balloons and sticky
was devoured at an impressive speed. The night continued with games that included a quiz on the South East Asian countries and several other fun and spirited games involving balloons and sticky post-it notes. The night was over before you knew it and all that was left to do was collecting all the used party poppers. There have been many events in the past two weeks which constituted a new experience for most people, coming from abroad. Those who haven’t yet had the opportunity of such enjoyment will be pleased to know it’s not too late to join societies that interest you! There will probably be many more fun and exciting events throughout the year for you to take part in, so students, before you get busy with assignments, make sure you make the most of the freshers’ month!
ISSUE 245
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Tuesday 12th October
WTF - what’s, like, the matter with slang? Jess Collett Opinions Writer
Actress Emma Thompson has criticised the use of sloppy English, citing that it drives her “insane” and makes young people sound stupid. How infuriating it must be to live in a world where everyone jabbers on incomprehensibly, a never-ending stream of drivel gushing forth from their mouths. Excuse me if my sarcasm seems a little thick here. It is, of course, unintelligent of Thompson to make such comments; slang and vernacular expressions are used by everyone in the world, no matter their age, social background or creed. Modern slang used by teens may seem unfathomable to those ‘outside the know’, and it is an easy to thing to criticise – until it is remembered that
slang is not a concept thought up by students and Facebook to bamboozle sensible adults. Slang has been part of the English language since before the English language existed.
“Language, as a concept, is in a constant state of change, constantly evolving and adapting”
Language, as a concept, is in a constant state of change, constantly evolving and adapting. There never has been, nor will be, a definite fixed language; constant adaption makes our language rich. Words change meanings within the space of a decade. What once was common jargon may now be a serious academic term. Slang is needed, innit?
COMMENT AND OPINION 9
A happy, multicultural Europe? Barbara Orth Opinions Writer
Wearing a veil covering the face and body will be subject to a fine of €150 and a citizenship course as punishment. Anyone forcing a woman to wear a niqab or burqa might face imprisonment for up to one year or a €15,000 fine. Does this sound like a Western European democracy that guarantees freedom of religion in its constitution? Yet, as of the 14th September 2010, these will incorporated into French law. Given the fact that this law applies to only 1900 women, a mere 0.03% of France’s population in total, and just 0.04% of its Muslim population, one might ask, why does the French government need a specific law to deal with this issue?
The answer is simple: it doesn’t. However, it is becoming increasingly popular to criticize immigrants for practicing their customs and traditions. This debate has been raging for years across Europe, and politicians never fail to kindle people’s fear of “Islamic terrorists” by imposing such nonsense laws. We need to realize that we cannot reverse immigration. We cannot stop globalization, and we certainly cannot condemn people, living far away from home, for clinging to their traditions. Anyone who has ever lived abroad will know how important it is to keep a little bit of your own cultural identity with you in a foreign environment. So instead of wasting time with an issue that does not affect 99.07% of their electorate, politicians should perhaps
instead be busy working on new integration schemes. How can we make our immigrants feel at home in Europe? How can we help them to deal with cultural differences? And maybe even more importantly: all of us need to accept the status quo of modern western society. This is our diverse and colourful society that speaks in many different languages and in many different types of attire. Sometimes, we might have to accept this may even take the form of a fully-covered woman.
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The ‘Compassionate’ Conservatives? As the Conservatives hold their first annual party conference in power in 14 years, Concrete looks at their policy announcements and speculates as to the effects of such widespread public spending cuts. Jack Brinded Opinions Writer
Before May’s election the Tories claimed they were the only party with the bravery to make deep cuts. Five months on and it is clear they were mistakenly using the words ‘bravery’ and ‘stupidity’ interchangeably, as their government lurches towards alienating masses of the electorate. Popularity ratings were in steady decline before the official opposition even had a leader, and with the arrival of Ed Miliband, arguably the best of a bad bunch, but by no means the saviour of the exploited working class, the Tories are behind in the polls to Labour for the first time in three years. Seemingly unaware of this newfound unpopularity, the Tories used their week-long conference to financially cripple every member of society - outside of their friends in the City - with savage cuts. ‘Radical’ welfare reforms were announced, as the government proclaimed that thanks to slashing the last-resort-income of the needy, people would henceforth be better
off in work. This is nothing short of an Orwellian lie: people in work will see no improvement to their situation. David Cameron has no intention of increasing the minimum wage - they’ll simply be even worse off on the dole.
“The Tories used their weeklong conference to financially cripple every member of society, outside of their friends in the city, with savage cuts”
Later at the conference, Boris Johnson appeared in all his imbecilic finery to despair at the irresponsible unions daring to represent the interests of their members and claiming we should further restrict the unions’ right to strike. This was, of course, worrying the CBI, responsibly representing
the needs of themselves. Would this be part of the government’s promise to tackle the issue of civil liberties? By liberating the few who have everything from the needs of the many who have nothing? Cameron’s “Compassionate Conservatives” also announced plans to liberate mothers from their child benefit payments according to how wealthy their husbands are, completely ignoring the possibility that a stay-at-home mum does not necessarily see anything of her husband’s pay-cheque. But this lunacy is not going unopposed. The people are becoming keen to show Dave and chums that not everyone is in agreement about the coalition government’s slash and burn policy regarding services that ordinary people actually rely upon. On October 4th, thousands of demonstrators from across Britain descended on Birmingham, braving the elements and the police to march on the Conservative party conference. This is not something you will have noticed from the BBC’s chief political correspondent, Laura
Kuenssberg, whose misleading coverage of the conference would lead you to believe that one man and his dog were stood outside the conference, barking madly, whilst the ‘sensible’ majority waited in silence for the axe to fall on their heads. But despite the best efforts of the Beeb, trying its hardest to appease the Tories by condemning others to cuts before itself, the Conservative government (sorry Liberals, but your rosettes are just another shade of blue now) is floundering in the eyes of the public.
Desperately, Dave tried the “we’re in this together” ploy one last time, speaking of national interest and the ‘big society’. But whose nation is it, if its sole interest is to rob the poor? Not ours, this writer would argue. The hypocrisy of the Tories will ultimately only succeed in creating two big societies. Firstly, a society which unites against the old Etonians, and then, when the dust settles, one which lives by the principle of ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their need’.
Pornography for IVF couples: ‘adultery of the mind’? Henry Croft Opinions Writer
Last month, the NHS was criticised by a recent think-tank for providing pornography to assist sperm donation in fertility clinics. The material, used to aid IVF treatment, has been condemned as unacceptable because its wastage of taxpayers’ money, and its promotion of unhealthy attitudes towards women. In light of this, Julia Manning, the ex-Conservative MP in charge of the think-tank, 2020health.org, has called for an immediate ban
on the provision of such material, suggesting that men should masturbate using willpower alone. Firstly, I would like to point out that in no way do I endorse pornography. I agree that it objectifies women and is a slimy by-product of our society. However, in the case of assisting couples through stressful IVF treatment and helping them to achieve significant goals in life, such as the ability to have children, I believe this think-tank is severely misplaced. IVF exacts a troublesome mental strain on couples, and
being asked to produce semen on demand in a cold and unpleasant atmosphere is not as simple as just pulling a pint of beer.
“An inhospitable white room simply is not the same”
An inhospitable white room simply is not the same. The bustle of hospital routine, with nurses loudly discussing last night’s
episode of Eastenders, patients milling about noisily and, to top it all off, a plastic cup, hardly have the same combined effect as a warm bed, some candles and Marvin Gaye playing in the background. Therefore, research that pornography eases this traumatic procedure should, in spite of the nature of the material itself, be addressed sensibly and with a sense of proportion. There may be other ways to produce samples, but this would require the NHS to over-spend on the necessary equipment for electroejaculation, a procedure
which I cannot imagine to be comfortable. The cost of pornography is comparatively minuscule. We’re not talking about the NHS blowing funds on a Michelin-starred, gourmet menu selection here - it’s just a few magazines that have cost the NHS £21.32 per trust per year. Ultimately the reaction against men using pornography in the hope of becoming a father seems to be cruel and misjudged. A few quid a year on some seedy magazines is not excessive, and if it helps couples realise their dreams, than I am all for it.
ISSUE 245
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The Debate: Ed Miliband
On 25th September, Ed Miliband became the leader of the Labour Party, having narrowly beaten his brother, David. Given the nature of the defeat, with Ed’s votes coming primarily from trade unions, Concrete debates whether Ed Miliband will make a good Leader of the Opposition. THE FACT BOX AGAINST
FOR Nathan Willcock
Opinions Writer
The Labour leadership contest has just finished, and my God, hasn’t it been exciting. I’m interested in politics, but have no strong political allegiances. So the reasons as to why I am happy that Ed Miliband has beaten his brother David lack any political or ideological analysis. In this way, I suppose I am much like the majority of the electorate. Ed seemed like the less dull of the two. Ed has a slight speech impediment. He is certainly less attractive than his brother David, who is built and moulded in the image of Blair, Cameron and even Clegg: model politician 2.0.
It’s good to have someone like Ed with his slightly unsymmetrical face to break the mould. In fact, I secretly wanted Dianne Abbott to
“It’s good to have someone like Ed with his slightly unsymmetrical face to break the mould.”
win, to really disrupt the status quo. I can imagine Ed getting drunk one night and urinating up against the post office. David, on the other hand, would most likely be incapable of urinating because he was created in the style of, and subsequently with the anatomy of, an action man.
Ed and David did the same course at Oxford University: Philosophy, Politics and Economics In meetings, Ed used to introduce himself as “the other Miliband”
In the final round of the leadership election, Ed received 50.65% of the vote and David received 49.35% Ed is not in favour of tuition fees but has shown support for the idea of graduate taxes
Ed is the 10th elected Labour leader . Of these, just 5 have been Prime Minister
Alex Ross
Opinions Writer
Sadly, Miliband Jr represents nothing new for Labour or for Britain. His rise to Leader of the Opposition is a product of the party’s archaic electoral voting system. Without constant pandering to the unions, the erroneously dubbed ‘Red Ed’ would more than likely still be on the backbenches. In truth, many feel betrayed by the 13 years endured under Blair and Brown; a choice between two brothers fighting over the same centre ground is hardly the inspirational illumination of liberal political debate that our country’s supposed leftist party needed.
Nor is it the clean slate that was so essential to it regaining public faith. Dianne Abbott’s fall at the first hurdle of the leadership election and Harriet Harman’s continually narcotic presence seems the perfect reflection of a party unwilling to present a substantial alternative to the coalition. Instead,Labour seems to aim to sit in the centre until the Cameron/Clegg (civil) partnership hits the rocks.
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FEATURES 13
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Caught in a bad bromance
Do you ConDem the coalition?
Sam Lewis reflects on how the government has performed and what the changes could mean for students.
Duncan Smith, UEA Labour committee member, and Tom Cannon, Vice President of UEA Conservative Society, recall their experiences of election night and give opposing views on the outcome.
The honeymoon period is most definitely over. We have already had nearly half a year of the coalition government, and hasn’t time flown? Let us briefly cast our minds back to May 6th, the day of the highly anticipated General Election. As polling booths opened their doors across the country and Britain began voting, things were still looking very uncertain. The day did not pass without its problems, as many eligible voters were turned away when stations closed at 10pm. The public were spoilt for choice with election night coverage - this writer opted for the BBC which had pulled out all the stops, and as ever David Dimbleby put in a sterling performance. Unfortunately, with a politics exam
the next day this writer wasn’t able to wait tensely as the rest of the results came rolling in and was forced to call it a night. It was revealed that the deal wasn’t going to be sealed when I woke and spent most of that day refreshing the Guardian homepage for the last few seats to be announced. As a hung parliament was looking inevitable it was clear there would be interesting times ahead. Initially, a progressive alliance between the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats was thought to be a distinct possibility, but in the days that followed we waved goodbye to Gordon Brown - if only we had seen a bit of that emotional honesty as Prime Minister. The country was moving into uncharted territory.
It had certainly been an interesting and unpredictable election campaign. With the historic television debates, the odd blunder and some blindingly brilliant headlines – “Scrambled Clegg on toast… but Cam’s full of beans”, being one of the best, courtesy of The Sun. So, as David Cameron, the youngest Prime Minister for 200 years, stepped over the threshold of number 10 with Nick Clegg not far behind - the rivals became colleagues. It was certainly a historic moment, as Britain had not seen anything like this in the post-war period. Cameron claimed it would signal the birth of “new politics”, but many feared for the stability and effectiveness of the newly formed government.
On reflection this writer must admit that the duo aren’t doing too badly, but then again most of their time in office has been during the summer months, usually a relatively dull time in politics. Broadly speaking, the coalition appears to be united and there seems to be a good mood between the parties. As expected, the chancellor’s budget made some bold decisions, and freezing child benefit for the next two years was sure to set the cat amongst the pigeons. However, the Liberal Democrats seem to be appeased for now at least, with Cameron sticking to his word and setting a date for the alternative vote referendum. It is something of a surprise that there haven’t been more resignations,
and, although the party line, that all remains harmonious behind the scenes, remains, it is a highly unlikely scenario. Many of us would like to imagine Dave and Nick hanging out eating breakfast in their boxers, comparing their favourite X Factor contestants and spending the day BBMing each other, but it just doesn’t seem plausible. Who knows what the future will bring? If the legislation is passed constraining prime ministerial terms to five years, then perhaps the coalition will see out its full term. Maybe this new era of politics really does signal the death of the single party government in Britain, or maybe Ed Milliband is the man to tell us that “things can only get better”.
What will changing our electoral system mean? One of the key provisos of the coalition was that electoral reform would be placed high on the political agenda. Currently elections to Westminster are conducted under �irst-past-the-post, whereby voters place a single cross against their preferred candidate. The Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for change, as they believe this system af�irms the dominance of the Labour and Conservative parties. It has been agreed that on May 6th, 2011 a referendum will be put to the electorate, which will allow us to support or decline plans to adopt AV (Alternative Vote) for elections to Westminster. AV requires voters to rank candidates in order of preference and a winner is elected once they receive over 50% of the overall vote. If no candidate secures a majority according to �irst preferences then the least popular candidate is eliminated and the votes are redistributed until there is an outright winner. This system is more proportional and less wasteful of votes but in theory could do very little to level the playing �ield.
What does the coalition have in store for university tuition fees?
Economic guru, Vince Cable, has put forward radical plans to scrap the current tuition fees, made payable directly to universities, in favour of a graduate tax. The idea behind this is that once graduates begin working, they would contribute a level of taxation in line with their earnings. The Liberal Democrats claim this would be a fairer, more progressive repayment scheme. However, it could end up penalising successful graduates demanding they pay back more than the value of their degree. The parties toe very different lines on the cost of university tuition and this could be the issue that tests the coalitions durability. The Conservatives were unsurprisingly quiet on this issue in their election manifesto, and have long supported tuition fees. The graduate tax idea is looking increasingly unlikely and by the time this edition goes to print we will know whether Lord Browne’s report has suggested that the cap should be lifted off tuition fees; it is thought he could propose fees as steep as of £7000 per year.
How will the emergency budget affect students and universities? As expected the Chancellor’s budget announced huge cuts in order to deal with the government’s budget de�icit. Higher education is likely to feel the strain in the coming years, as many institutions could be forced to lay off members of staff. With more young people �ighting for university places, this could lead to larger class sizes and an incentive for the government to raise tuition fees. As of January 4th 2011 the main rate of VAT will also rise from 17.5% to 20%, putting more pressure on student budgets. Despite the poor state of Britain’s �inances, students will be pleased to hear that George Osborne decided not to declare any new duties on alcohol, dropping Labour’s plan to increase the duty on cider by 10%. He also increased the amount you can earn before paying income tax to £7475, which could bene�it students once they enter the workplace.
O
n May 6th, I made myself a deal - I could stay up late to follow the results so long as I made a page of notes every twenty minutes. This was the climax of four weeks of juggling campaigning with revision, and the 9am exam the next day wasn’t going to put me off. So I settled down with a Red Bull, a pen and David Dimbleby for the long night ahead. There were no surprises in the �irst few results, all traditional Labour strongholds. Then somehow, in a blur of swing-ometers, soft voiced BBC presenters and Liza Minnelli on a Thames barge, it was �ive in the morning and I had spent the night glued to the screen of my laptop. Whoops. In the morning we found that a
H
alf a year in and still going strong. The coalition government has defied the critics and produced not only the most radical and exciting political drama for half a century, but also a government that has a thirst for change, and the dynamism to make a better and stronger Britain. On May 6th, election night was in full flow. I, like many others, chose to enjoy the momentous event in the Blue Bar with friends and a couple of pints. Having only ever voted in the local elections the year before, the general election had all the more significance. The evening started optimistically, but as the results began to flow, combined with a hung parliament exit poll, all my hopes of a Conservative majority government were being shattered. Hope was replaced by fear, a fear that Labour would cling on to power - perhaps even with a Labour/ Liberal Democrat coalition. But my fears would not be realised. Over the following days it became clear that the Liberal Democrats, although surrounded by
combination of the least slippery landslide ever in politics and a collapse in the Lib Dem vote had robbed us of the conclusion we were expecting. The media were loving it - rumours and speculation were �lying everywhere. Twitter almost went into meltdown, and the conversations in my house were about nothing else until eventually Gordon and Sarah left Number 10 to be replaced by Nick and Dave. This was the day that the Lib Dems lost the respect I had for them. The arguments that a coalition had to be formed for the stability of the country have never convinced me - an agreement of supply and con�idence would have provided the same, and still have given the
Lib Dems the opportunity to further their aims, but without having to alienate their members. More importantly, it wouldn’t have left the MPs needing to choose between their new partners and their principles. The HE funding vote is going to be interesting to watch - we haven’t forgotten Vote for Students, Nick! And now, here we are, nearly six months later. We’ve had scandals, cuts, resignations and some really foolish decisions. Everything seems to be back to normal. Yes, the coalition has held together for this long, but is that really an achievement? There has been no real issue to divide the parties - we have just been ignoring things like HE funding, proportional representation, inheritance tax,
claims to be ideologically closer to Labour, were not going to agree with the discredited, overly centralised, and top down government they had on offer. Instead, the negotiations between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats proved successful, and on May 11th David Cameron became Prime Minister. But was this a victory? It was hard to tell at first - my guy was in number 10, but he didn’t have his full team. It soon turned out that it was a victory, not at the expense of the Liberal Democrats or even the Conservatives. The coalition had somehow produced an agenda in the national interest that satisfied myself as a Conservative and appears from the outside to have pleased the Liberal Democrats. Already the coalition is tackling head on the shameful budget deficit left by Labour. It has accepted, unlike most of the Labour diehards, that our country must not spend more on interest payments than it does on education and defence combined. Of course the re-adjustment to rational economics will be painful. But the
coalition has already taken action to help to protect the most vulnerable in society. The new £10,000 tax threshold will help many people by lifting them out of tax, and the benefit reforms will help people out of benefit dependency by making work always the better option. However, it would be wrong to assume that the coalition only represents cuts; it has also shown itself to be a champion of freedom, with the government plans for a freedom bill: a much-needed piece of legislation that will restore lost freedoms and civil liberties, create greater accountability of the state to citizens, and among other things reduce the burden of Government intrusion into their lives. David Cameron has shown that he has the skills and conviction required to carry out these difficult tasks ahead, and together with Nick Clegg, I truly believe that the agenda of the coalition is without a doubt the best result for the country considering the outcome of the election. Duncan Smith
Trident and a hundred other issues. That can’t carry on for the four and a half years we have left. I wonder if Nick’s still sure it was the right decision? I’m sure he’s enjoying getting round the table in Number 10 - something he probably never thought he’d do - but his party’s collapsing poll �igures must make him stop and ask himself whether, come the next election, he’s going to �ind his party still sat in any of the seats they just managed to cling to this time. His party �inds itself trapped - to break the coalition now would likely just lead to another election and a more decisive Tory victory at their expense. So has the coalition been a success? Yes, for the Tories, it got
them back into Downing Street. Yes, for Labour - our party membership has gone through the roof. But for the Lib Dems, I can’t say that this looks like the start of a new political era for Britain. Tom Gannon
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Q&A with Norwich Famous Faces First memory of UEA as a Fresher: “Stevie Starr throwing up goldfish on stage,” says Greg James. Livewire Station Manager, Cathy White, catches up with the Radio 1 DJ before his performance at the Freshers’ Bash.
Ella Chappell
It’s Saturday, 2nd October and Greg James has walked into the Livewire Studio for the first time in three years, after signing off as Station Manager in 2007. Greg is walking around slowly looking at his old haunt with a glazed expression, pointing out all of the changes, and some things that have never changed. “Isn’t that my clock?” he says, pointing at a digital clock hanging above the studio, and it certainly is. The infamous Greg James clock still hangs, bought for
the Livewire Studio when Greg graduated and left for a career at Radio One. While studying drama here at UEA, Greg became heavily involved in Livewire 1350 and rose through the ranks each year to first become the Head of Daytime, and in 2006, Station Manager. During this time he also won an award at the Student Radio Awards for Best Male, where his prize was a one hour recorded show, broadcast nationally on Radio
1)
5) If you could pass a new law
Will Goulding?
you
share
Ellie
Sexually? No.
That DJ Gav gets his own hour show on Radio One.
2) In another life I’d be: I’d be Stevie Starr, just to see how he does it. I’d hide loads of engagement rings in my stomach, and then I would have a massive dump and make a fortune.
3)The
best university was:
thing
tomorrow what would it be?
about
Livewire, and it has to be, because it’s where it all started, and I loved the days where you had nothing to do, having everyone living near you, and living with your best friends. I lived on Cambridge Street off Unthank, and everyone was so close.
4)
The worst thing about university was:
Washing your clothes. I took washing back home to my mum all the time, I hated it. And Pam’s House, that’s like hell.
6)
To a fancy dress party I would go as:
I would go as a massive chicken and eat a massive pizza in front of everyone. Or, I’d go as a Rod Hull Emu. I should have come as an emu to the Bash and upstaged Stevie Starr!
7)
Three people dead or alive you would like to invite to dinner:
DJ Gav, I’d have Steve Penk from Capital FM in the 90s because he’d do pranks on everyone and be wacky, and Richie Benaud, so I can talk cricket. Picture the scene, I’m sat down in a chicken suit eating a whole pizza with my hands, DJ Gav is playing retro hits, Richie Benaud is tossing a cricket ball and knocking a bat in the corner, and Steve Penk is just going through
One. After working at various radio stations, Greg James was contacted and offered the early morning breakfast show, which he still counts as the highlight of the last 3 years. “I’ll never forget the moment I got the phone call, saying, ‘would you like to do it?’ And that was the best moment, actually getting the first early morning breakfast show.” It’s not every day that you graduate and suddenly you’re doing crossovers on air with Chris Moyles, and following that, 3 years down the line, you’ve been booted through the schedule to lunch time. “It was bizarre, because they were all the people that I’d listened to at school and throughout university. I was now working with them and I was their colleague, so I was handing over to Chris Moyles everyday, and that was the weirdest thing because I’d always listen to him and he’s someone I look up to a lot, and still do. But I got over that, probably about a year and a half in...I’ve now become good friends with them and
it’s kind of like just going to work, but not at the same time - you’re not looking over at Sue from accounts, but instead it’s Fearne Cotton!” Since UEA was where it all began
for Greg, we wanted to find out what his first memories of Freshers’ Week
were. “He was on in 2004 when I was a Fresher, eating Goldfish and throwing them up. I looked to see who I was on with, and Stevie Starr is on again” At the mention of Stevie Starr and Freshers’ Week, Greg’s face has lit up. “This place is so special to me, the LCR, Livewire and Union House, because it’s where I saw some of my favourite gigs of all time, it’s where I fell in love with certain bands.” It’s clear to see when talking to Greg just how much he loves UEA and his experience here, and this was also clear when watching him DJ at the Freshers’ Bash. Greg has remained down to earth, even after his rise to fame and gaining a celebrity girlfriend in the form of singer, Ellie Goulding. “I never wanted to be famous, I only ever wanted to be famous for something I was good at and it wasn’t a wanted thing.” Tune in to the Cathy White Show on Thursday 14th 1-2:30 to listen to the full interview.
the phone book and phoning people up saying they’ve been arrested.
8) My most over used word or phrase is: Lovely.
9) My guilty pleasure is: Katy Perry’s new album. Katy Perry’s breasts and Midsummer Murders, one of my favourite things in the world. It’s been with me forever.
Ella Chappell
10) Over rated public figure:
DJ Gav...(joking). All of the Loose Women, that’s a horrendous programme.
11) To a UEA Student I would say:
Join Livewire, and just try everything! And explore Norwich, because I had the best years of my life there.
Ella Chappell
ISSUE 245
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Tuesday 12th October
Green Capitalism: Does It Work?
I
n this age of economic downturn, where the phrase ‘climate change’ has become a media buzz word, green capitalism is being hailed as the solution to all of our problems. Loosely defined, the concept of green capitalism is the belief that the market will eventually prevent global warming without the need for large-scale structural change of the economy. In other words, the market will self-regulate itself as pressure for sustainability increases: as resources like fossil fuel grow scarcer, their price increases and then there is an economic incentive for businesses to make the transition to renewable energy and greener technologies. Sounds almost too good to be true? Tim Marsh and Marylise Schmid debate the reality behind the concept.
Yes, the market is the solution Despite its flaws, the capitalist system is wholly able to make the shift towards a greener economy, and not only that - the transition has already started. There are countless indications that the market has begun to shift; a few years ago organic and fair trade produce was nowhere to be found, now they are springing up like mushrooms. The same is true for wind farms and solar panels, which are multiplying around the world. However, it is not a magical solution; a change in people’s behaviour is also important if the process is to work. The challenge is not simply to increase awareness, but
to instigate a motivation to act upon that awareness. This is really the crux of the problem - people, business, governments right now simply don’t care enough.
would need to fall by 95 per cent. In addition to this, increasing a country’s wealth without improving technological efficiency leads to more environmental damage - yet improving efficiency triggers more growth, which leads to the same result. It is not enough to rely on the market to have a ‘green shift’; to believe that the world can keep producing, consuming and growing at the rate it is currently is madness. As economist, Kenneth Boulding, once said: ‘Only mad men and economists believe in infinite growth in a finite world’.
“working within the system is a more realistic way of achieving transition to a sustainable economy”
The shift-to-green includes every spectrum of society; businesses need to start investing in green technologies and sustainable modes of production; governments have to provide legislation that will set direct incentives and penalties for noncompliance; and finally the public/ consumers have a great role to play as they can send the correct market signals to businesses (literally voting with their own money and creating a demand for more sustainable and ethical goods). Although there is a definite need for opposed views on the system to point out its inadequacies, working within the system to promote change is a more efficient, a more pragmatic, and a more realistic way of achieving the transition to a more sustainable system, rather than orchestrating huge economic structural change and trying to find a viable alternative to the capitalist system.
Marylise Shmid
British Petroleum or Beyond Petroleum? Can the market save the environment?
No, a bigger change is needed Moving beyond a system of growth is the only way to solve the climate crisis in the long term. The causes of climate change are systemic in that capitalism is based on resource unlimited consumption, so rather than just dealing with the symptoms of climate change, the root cause needs to be challenged. In the modern world, prosperity is measured by how fast and to what extent a country is growing - growth equals progress. Unfortunately,
growth also equals ever-increasing consumption of resources, most of which are finite, resulting in resource depletion and continued destruction of the natural environment. Even a modest rate of economic growth for example 3% every year - doubles the economy every 23 years. In reality that means that resource wastage is also doubled. A recent report by the New Economics Foundation found that, to stabilize carbon emissions at 350 parts per million by 2050, the carbon intensity (CO2 per unit of production) of the global economy
“If climate change is truly to be tackled the entire global economic structure needs to change.”
If climate change is truly to be tackled, the entire global economic structure needs to change: less focus on the production and consumption of so many carbon intensive goods, and the acceptance that neverending growth is impossible. Grassroots movements like transition towns, which promote the idea of ‘local living’, e.g. growing your own food and buying local produce, are beginning to provide alternative solutions to the energy intensive global economy. This needs to replicated on a worldwide scale if change if is going to happen.
UEA Clean Up Is A Winner Will Lacey
Environment Officer
These last two weeks have been a storm of activity for this reporter, as Lydia Headden and Jo Spiro of the Advice Centre have sought to shift thousands of kitchenware items in sales to students. Where did this incredible stash of quality kitchenware come from? The UEA clean-up initiative is responsible. Two days after the official end of term, a team of UEA students and staff began collecting green bags provided to students in campus accommodation. The LCR was filled to the brim with items in need of sorting, the vast majority of which
was re-useable. Approximately four fifths of our collection were made up of items such as clothes, books and shoes. This hoard was all donated to local charities such as The Big C, who were overwhelmed by the huge contributions. The other fifth was made up of kitchenware, all of which was cleaned, sorted and stored. Some being kept in Union House and the rest being stored in a shipping container generously provided by Andy Watts and UEA Estates. More importantly, all collected items would have otherwise been thrown away. Through the sales of kitchenware (at very low prices) over £1,300 has been raised. However, the hoardes of cutlery
are not saved every year from the landfill sites. Hundreds of fine pots and pans being dumped and wasted every year is a grim prospect, but unfortunately a very real one! This year was a success thanks to the vital assistance of the Union Advice Centre, the student workers, the assistance of the UEA cleaning staff and bags provided by estates. It was a massive team effort on all levels, and a high standard has been set for subsequent years to follow. Everyone did themselves proud and a massive thanks goes out to all those involved. It is hoped that the Union in conjunction with the University, can do the same every year in the future.
Part of the culinary hoarde which filled the LCR
Tim Marsh
16 LIFESTYLE
ISSUE 245
www.concrete-online.co.uk
concrete.lifestyle@uea.ac.uk
Family values: a part of life that’s priceless Enrolling Concrete covers student’s relationships with their families during a time of great change Emma Williamson
Lifestyle writer
University is one of the biggest lifestyle changes that many people have to face, and for some students the concept of being away from home for the first time can be daunting. Yet, for others, the freedom of university life promises is tantalising. From the nervous, to those who are raring at the bit, the importance of family can change for anyone at university. Home comforts such as mum’s Sunday roast, fuss-free laundry and, let’s not forget, a free roof over your head, are often unappreciated at home. At university it dawns on students that such entitlements are in fact privileges. Even sibling rivalries and overbearing parents begin to be missed by some first year students, who might find daily
life without their family hard to adjust to. Other students may miss the support offered by friends in times of need, finding it difficult to decide between a night in on Facebook or a night out in the LCR. Homesickness at university is often overshadowed by the chaos of student life; however, although it is kept quiet, missing home certainly isn’t uncommon. Staying busy and meeting new people are the best cures for freshers’ blues. In contrast, many students feel liberated by the freedom moving away from home offers them. Chores, nagging and annoying little sisters all seem like a thing of the past, whilst Domino’s, ‘ring of fire’ and student loans become the immediate present. To many, university is about much more than academic pursuits, rather it is about living independently and managing
Luke Mendoza
Lifestyle writer
yourself and your time singlehandedly. Those who perhaps have been on gap years or taken time off from the academic world may find university life easier to adapt to, seeing it as the next logical step in establishing themselves outside the realm of their parents. One of the most important things any student can do in their
first term is to establish a surrogate family in the form of friends, course mates, clubs, societies and, most importantly, flatmates. This support network will prove invaluable in times of illness, stress, or whenever you may simply need a shoulder to cry on. Although family may seem far away right now, by Christmas, UEA will be a home away from home.
students, but what is difficult for Hindus is the absence of a Temple for Worship at UEA. Although the Hinduism society is perhaps not as large as other religious sects here at UEA, it is important that every student should be able to practice their faith in an open public place of worship. UEA attracts a socially diverse scope of students each year and encourages acceptance and
interaction amongst its population. There is a currently a campaign for the addition of an independent Temple of Worship on campus or within the local vicinity led by the Hinduism Society. If a success, the Temple will make it easier for practicing Hindus to congregate and form a greater sense of identity amongst the student community at UEA.
Student’s lifestyle labels: being Hindu Lifestyle explores a side of university life that is often overlooked but is, nevertheless, prominent. Lisa Stevens
Lifestyle writer
Hinduism is one of the smaller faith communities at UEA, but you’d be mistaken if you thought this made for a restricted university experience. Rajan Mistry, President of the Pool Club, comments that he involves himself in the day to day activities of any student, but finds the expectations and beliefs of his faith provide a familiarity that instils a comforting sense of self whilst living independently. Rakhee Ghelani, a third year student, makes the point that there really is no stereotypical student as “everyone has their own views on life and religion”, and we all continue on in that capacity. Rakhee has found that being a Hindu has helped her “keep inner peace when times are tough”, and reminds her of “roots at home” providing a stability amongst the chaotic temporality of university life.
Like any faith, being a practising Hindu requires a degree of dedication that can be difficult, for non believers to comprehend but Rakhee explains: “I still do all the things that I want to, enjoy all the things that I want to, and at the same time keep my faith”. It is a common misconception that faith defines a person, often we forget that we’re all individuals wanting to be accepted as we are; Rajan puts it as a desire to “blend in”. Following a religion is just a
“Following a religion is just a lifestyle choice”
lifestyle choice based on a belief in fact many Hindus are practicing vegetarians or vegans. Trying to maintain a level of normality with one’s studies, social and religious life is a daily reality for many UEA
in the school of hedonism?
There is an opinion widely held throughout British society that students are embroiled in a world of alcohol, parties and sex. Whether this is, in fact, the case is obviously debateable, and at UEA there is no doubt that much of the entertainment on offer includes alcohol fuelled partying; however, whether sex is a major factor in a student’s entertainment, is unclear. Of course if you consider all the students at any university there will be single guys and girls going out to ‘get laid’ throughout their first semesters. Whether this is specifically because they are at university is likely, as it certainly provides the right environment for sex to be rife amongst modern day youngsters. Interestingly, the latest thestudentroom.com poll suggests that opinion of freshers as to whether they would have sex during freshers’ week is split almost perfectly, between those that wanted to and had had sex (49.5%), and those that were not interested or would actively refrain (50.5%). If nothing else this shows that sex remains a hot topic amongst students, but the view that most go out to get drunk and have sex could have weak foundations. Before any opinion of sex amongst students can really be formed, one must consider whether people of the same age outside of tertiary education are as likely to have “casual sex”. If so then our entire age group could be considered at least in part hedonistic, and one would imagine that this would only be encouraged by the new found freedom of many new students at university. However, the ever present idea of safe sex in modern day society should at least ease any worries over the impact of such a common activity at university; for sensible sex is a natural and wonderful thing.
ISSUE 245
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TRAVEL 17
High-Rise Hong Kong
A Pint in the Pennines
Tuesday 12th October
Georgie Adolpho-Couling explores the bustle of Hong Kong and all it has to offer, from neon lights to Chinese cuisine, discovering that the city truly comes alive when the Sun goes down... If you crave those neon lights on a city skyline, or feel inspired by a row of five hundred foot buildings towering towards the sky, then look no further than Hong Kong Island. This glittery island is one of two regions of the People’s Republic of China - well-known for its beautiful natural harbour and its breathtaking buildings. Hong Kong is a city that comes alive at night, and there are plenty of ways to make the most of it. What can you get in England for twenty five pence? A small chocolate bar? A reduced loaf of bread, if you’re lucky? On Hong Kong Island that same twenty five pence will book you a seat on the double-decker Star Ferry, an imitation of the ferries that crossed Victoria harbour in the 1920s, that will take you across to Kowloon. At night, enjoy the dazzling city lights spread out across the skyline, reflecting shimmers of reds and blues along the water. It takes about ten minutes to cross the harbour to the Chinese mainland and every minute you will be cursing yourself for not bringing a better camera. An absolute must-see on this side of the island is a bar called Aqua,
located in Kowloon’s fashion capital, One Peking Road. Take the lift to the very top floor and prepare to be dazzled by its black and red interior, its panoramic views of Hong Kong harbour, and its inventive and stylish range of cocktails. Aqua is also a great
“At night, enjoy
the dazzling city
lights spread out
across the skyline,
reflecting shimmers of reds and blues
across the water.”
place to see the ‘symphony of light’ show, which takes place every night at eight. A laser show, accompanied by theme music, it is one of the main attractions in the city. With its breathtaking views and overpriced cocktails, the sky bars in this area definitely give New York a run for its money.
Mong Kok, home of the wellknown night market, is only a short ride away either by taxi or tube. Taxis are very cheap – never usually coming to more than three pounds for a lift around the city. Alternatively, if you are familiar with London’s less than charming underground, then you will be pleasantly surprised by Hong Kong’s MTR. It is spotless and modern, not to mention there are flat screen televisions inside the trains, and an electronic subway map that lights up when you reach each station. In other words, it is extremely straight-forward to get from A to B. Stepping outside on to the streets of Mong Kok is like stepping on to Oxford Street at Christmas when the whole world is doing last minute shopping. The main attraction here is the night market, or Ladies’ Market, which is a haven for handbags, shoes and jewellery. Prices usually start quite high, but haggling is simple – whatever they say, halve it, and then halve it again and ninety-nine percent of the time you will win the battle. The atmosphere at the night market is fantastic – and once you have had enough of shopping, you can take your pick of the traditional Chinese cuisine that is available in countless restaurants up and down every street. Don’t be afraid of a restaurant’s exterior. Head inside and find out what all the locals are eating and you’ll be surprised at how tasty it is. If you want a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, Stanley is a perfect getaway. On the northern side of the island, it is home to the well-known Stanley Market, which is famous for its inexpensive Chinese souvenirs and textiles. However, it will provide you with more than just shopping. If you catch the number sixty-three bus, you will have a memorable ride away from the city around all of Hong Kong’s bays and beaches. As you drive up and away from the city, you will be in the best place to see mesmerizing views over the sea and the skyscrapers – admiring them in quiet, undisturbed surroundings. Hong Kong is full of surprises – no one day will be the same. It is impossible to fit everything into a single visit, but one thing is certain – you will be dreaming of that magnificent skyline for weeks after you leave.
Charlie Wallace
Travel writer
Approaching across miles of open moorland, the remote speck on a rise ahead expands as the Pennine Way winds up to the Tan Hill Inn. At an altitude of five hundred and thirty metres, this is Britain’s highest pub. It features in double glazing adverts and television programmes, and even made headlines earlier this year when thirty people were snowed in for three days in the mother of all lock-ins. It has hosted weddings, functions, frequent live music events and, on one occasion, saw an impromptu gig by The Arctic Monkeys. While the Inn offers a variety of accommodation, financial restraints forced this writer to pitch a tent outside, which the Inn allows you to do for free. It is an island of warmth and activity, tired walkers practically falling through the door laden down with backpacks and equipment, dazed but relieved at this warm and cosy contrast to the harsh conditions of their journey. Bare stone walls and a constantly burning coal fire, hot meals served in large portions and a fine range of ales make the
traveller feel they have arrived. It’s certainly a strange place to find yourself in after miles of nothing. Richie, the barman and local DJ, usually has something northern and witty to quip, while the landlady is friendly but has a foul mouth which she takes pleasure in using (punters come from miles around to experience a tongue lashing). On a windowsill sits a glass jar of pickled mobile phones, a hint as to the barman’s chief bugbear. Inside, kittens gambol about the place, while outside sheep and geese strut around uncontained. A sense of jovial chaos pervades the place which any pub lover can sit back and savour, a pint in hand, satisfied that the Tan Hill Inn is a worthy shrine to end their pilgrimage.
The Best Bits of Berlin Lauren Carter
Travel writer
Berlin is indescribable. Run-down and disjointed; beautiful and evolving. The history and culture of the city bombards you as soon as you step out of your hostel. The Friedrichstadt neighbourhood is a good place to start. Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous crossing point between East and West Germany during the Cold War, is today immortalised by a replica of the Americans’ wooden hut, the original signs and a uniformed guard. It’s great for some touristy photos, but stands as a reminder that this city was recently two. A short walk away is the Holocaust Memorial, consisting of over two and a half thousand smooth stone slabs, none of which bear markings or inscriptions. Although it has been publicly criticised for its anonymity, it is definitely worth a visit, as you can stroll unimpeded through the maze of monuments, losing yourself in the blank blocks. Also throughout Berlin there are remaining strips of the dilapidated, wall which are unbelievable to see.
However, if you want a break from historical sites then visit the district of Kreuzberg. With a nonconformist background, it is innately cool and the perfect place to relax in cafes and people-watch. The area is also home to two murals by the Italian street artist Blu. Incredible in both their size and detail, they are definitely something to hunt down. The night life is also good. Cassiopeia, a renovated train-repair site, is now an exciting two-storey club, complete with climbing wall attached. Covered in graffiti, it like the rest of Berlin, is a beautiful mix of the modern and the decrepit.
18 FOOD
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Spaghetti and Meatballs
Food Writer
Food Writer
Serves two hungry people, or four adults with small appetites, so why not club together with a friend or two and enjoy this Italian classic together.
INGREDIENTS:
• Oil (splash a bit in) • 1 onion • Garlic (optional) • Basil (optional) • Dried oregano • Meatballs- Allow anywhere between 3 and 6 per person • 1 carton of Passata • Salt and pepper (to taste) • Sugar/HP sauce/ketchup/Worcester sauce • Spaghetti (as much as you want) 1) Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat and add about a teaspoon of the oregano. The point is to create an oregano-infused oil to cook the onion in (this is to achieve that fake-Italian Subway taste that we all love). 2) Peel and chop the onion as small as possible (use swimming goggles to stop stinging eyes), and add to the oil. Don’t make it too hot or your onions will become like those from the post-LCR burger van. If you want a bit of garlic then peel and chop some in to about 4 or 5 slices. 3) Sauté the onion in the oil until it becomes clear, and then add the passata. Passata is finely sieved tomatoes, which simply makes your sauce a bit richer, but by all means use plain old chopped tomatoes.
4) Whilst bringing this to the boil, add salt
and pepper and a pinch of sugar to make it a bit sweeter, or any other sauces. Also add the basil at this point. You don’t need to pay attention to the sauce having brought it to the boil. Turn it down to a very low heat, and let it simmer with a lid on until ready to use it again. 5) Meanwhile, set your meatballs out evenly on the grill - lined with tin foil for minimum clean up after - and cook on a high temperature until they begin to brown. It’s important to watch them closely and ensure they don’t begin to cook the whole way through.
6) Now place all the meatballs in the tomato sauce. Once again bring the sauce to the boil and cook for about ten minutes - or until the meat is cooked the whole way through. Make sure you check by cutting one in half. It would now be a good time to get some spaghetti on the boil. Spaghetti takes about 5-10 minutes, depending on how you like it. Remember, lots of salty water, and keep it moving. However, if you can bear to wait, continue to simmer your sauce with the meatballs in it, and allow them to cook slowly, checking to see when they are cooked. This will give the sauce a really lovely meatiness, and your meatballs with be very tender. Once both the sauce and pasta are ready, serve it up, and ideally sprinkle some parmesan on top.
Make Me a Sandwich! Kyle Spencer Food Editor
Does anybody remember the days when your mum used to pack you off to school, complete with lunchbox in hand, yes? Then surely you remember the feeling of opening it at lunchtime only to discover that you have the same old sandwich that your mum had made for you every day that week, and every day the week before as well for that matter. Fast forward to now and we can imagine it’s not much different, albeit that mum is now several miles away. When it comes to lunchtime and sandwiches in particular, we just don’t have that much imagination.
So here at Concrete Food we intend to remedy the situation by bringing you an interesting idea every fortnight, and when we say interesting we don’t mean gross, just something a little out of the ordinary. So why not give them a go, maybe even experiment with your own ideas. Just remember if you find a great combination, share it with us!
Chicken tikka and mango chutney:
Pretty much what it says; take your chosen bread, add a generous layer of chicken tikka a liberal serving of mango chutney, more bread on top and voilà. Your sandwich is ready for you to enjoy.
concrete.food@uea.ac.uk
The Decline of the Dinner Table Christine O’Sullivan
Gabriella Colasurdo
ISSUE 245
In today’s world, it’s very easy as a family, with all the different schedules and demands of work and school, to quickly nip to the drive-through on the way home instead of all sitting round the table together to enjoy a meal. But surely our increasing culture of microwave dinners eaten in bedrooms and meals on the run are not helping our family bonding time.
Let’s picture a 1940’s kitchen: Mum in an apron cooking a wholesome dinner, Dad in a sweater and tie after a day at work, the children are smiling and even the dog is listening intently. Seventy years later, this concept is probably a little out-of-date
to base family meals around. However, the concept is still a dying tradition and it’s the essence of all eating together that many people argue should be captured once again. This is where you come in. University is the perfect opportunity to have a sit down meal. Let’s picture your flat now: everyone in the kitchen, all taking a part in cooking, sharing utensils, perhaps some lighthearted banter and finishing with sitting round the table enjoying the fruits of your collective culinary labour. It’s the perfect time to talk about each other’s day, discuss the dress-up theme for the next LCR and bond as a flat. Studies are usually based around your typical 2.4 family, showing that the children are healthier and happier, and that the family dinner becomes better the more often it occurs. Although, if someone were to base this study on students, the results would probably not be far different, with more communication between flatmates producing closer and stronger friendships, and with collective inspiration, something delicious can often be created. So let’s try not to make the concept of the family dinner fade out from our society, and instead set the example to families who believe their schedules make evenings together a challenge.
Chorizo and Three Bean Stew Anna Eastick Food Writer
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes (800g) • 2 medium onions, chopped • 1 clove of garlic, chopped • 1 red pepper, chopped • Salt and pepper to taste
1. Chop the chorizo ring into 1cm thick slices, and then quarter.
2. Fry the chopped onion, garlic and red pepper in the olive oil until softened.
3. Add the chorizo and cook for a further 2 minutes. An easy twist on a festival warmer, packed with flavour and cheap to make. This simple one pot dish is perfect for the colder months, and unlike typical stews, does not need cooking for long periods of time. Chorizo is also a great meat source for students; it’s readily available in most supermarkets, full of flavour and cheaper than your ordinary purchases. Serves 4
INGREDIENTS: • 2 tbsp olive oil • 1 tin of butter beans (400g) • 1 tin of red kidney beans (400g) • 1 tin of chickpeas (400g) • Chorizo ring (225g)
4. Pour in the chopped tomatoes, butter, kidney and chickpeas and bring to the boil. 5. Finally season with salt and pepper, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with rice.
ISSUE 245
Tuesday 12th October
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EDITORIAL 19
Editorial So as the dust settles on what was a predictably unpredictable Freshers’ Week, attention turns to the rest of the autumn semester. Of seismic consequence to the higher education community, tomorrow’s Browne Report, which is expected advocate a signi�icant rise in tuition fees, has the potential to change the face of the British university system as we know it. Pick up the next issue of Concrete for full coverage of the report’s �indings. The NUS’s response is already in motion, with a planned rally in Trafalgar Square planned for the 10th November. Led by NUS president, Aaron Porter, the demo is aiming to bring upward of 30,000 students together in protest at the potential rises. Again, Concrete will be there reporting on proceedings. Have a great fortnight, Danny
Greg Mann
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Concrete is published by UUEAS Concrete Society ©2010 Concrete. ISSN 1351-2773 Letters should be addressed for the attention of the Editor, Danny Collins. Letters must include contact details, but we will consider anonymous publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity as necessary. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Publisher or Editor. No part of this newspaper may be reproduced through any means without the express permission of the Editor, Danny Collins. Printed by Archant.
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20 FOCSOC
ISSUE 245
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BLACK HISTORY MONTH
concrete.editorial@uea.ac.uk
Afro-Caribbean Society President Jade Tucker explores why celebrating Black History this October is such an important event for Britain.
It seems like, since the beginning of time, ‘history’ has been his-story. And this story has always been told from the perspective of the white winners - those who supposedly won all the battles and had enough intellectual knowledge to document it in different forms of literature and art. While this was being done, ‘black history’ was always confined to the story of chattel slavery and the various struggles which followed such as lynching, the civil rights movement etc. Martin Luther King Jr has always been the face which represents blacks around the world. The only problem with this is that he only represents one ideology, which often gets attached to the majority of black people; Black History Month was created in order to give black people a voice in telling their own history, from their own perspective, to give a voice to Black Nationalist voices - in other words, to celebrate their achievements
with the rest of the world. However, whilst this all seems amazing, Black History Month has still not gone far enough. While their story is being told, it is still not the whole story. The narrative still seems to be the same. To truly find the glory in black history, we have to travel further back and explore the life led and the empires and riches they held before they were ever visited by foreign lands. To be honest, having a Black History Month sometimes seems offensive. The title suggests that they are still removed from others living within Britain. Why can’t black history be included in the general history of Britain, instead of having a particular month focused on their achievements? Why not interweave it throughout the entire year? It is often commonly assumed that black people came to Britain in the 1950s on boats such as Windrush; however, there have been Africans in Britain since the Romans. There have been
UEA LINKS member Chris Clare is preparing to take on Mount Everest next March to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. On 17th March 2011 Chris will be flying out to Nepal to spend nearly three weeks trekking up to eight hours a day to reach Base Camp Everest. Flying in to Lukla he will spend ten days ascending from the ‘foothills’ of the Himalayas to the summit of Kala Pattar (5623m above sea level) before going on to Base Camp the following day. While Chris is looking forward to this journey of a lifetime, he knows it is also going to be an incredibly tough challenge. He is currently training five times a week - a combination of cycling, training in the gym, Capoeira with the University group and attending training weekends with fellow expedition members. “Having been raised
in Germany I spent a lot of my childhood trekking through the Alps,” Chris explains. “So this isn’t the first time I’ve been walking at high altitudes - although this is far bigger than anything I have tackled before!” “The BHF is a charity that I have supported over the years - from partaking in the London to Brighton Bike Ride to training as a Heartstart trainer. Being given the opportunity to do something that I have dreamt of since my teenage years, whilst also raising money for charity, was an irresistible challenge.” Chris aims to raise over £3,500 for the BHF through a mixture of personal donations, company sponsorship, collections and fund-raising events. He says: “Every penny of sponsorship raised for this venture goes straight to the BHF so they can
Moors in Spain for hundreds of years. There has been an African pope, black characters in Shakespeare (Othello), and even a Roman General. Africans have played a huge and integral part in European history for centuries. Even since the 1950s, black culture has had a huge influence on every aspect of British cultural identity, from music (Ska and the Skinheads, Bob Marley, Hip Hop), clothing, hairstyles (the curly perm of the 80s), food and sport (Linford Christie, Chris Akabusi, Usain Bolt etc). To be an American Studies student, or indeed a student at any University, is to be granted an opportunity to read and discuss matters pertaining to black history in great detail. As a black British female, in particular this education is indispensable in creating a future - not only as an academic but as an individual within a wider community. During a ‘Slavery in the USA’ seminar this week, it was concluded that if every Secondary School teenager were able to receive a fraction of the knowledge obtained about black history at UEA, there would be a much greater understanding of what it means to be black in the UK and the rest of the world. That’s why this year, the African Caribbean Society is trying to give everyone at UEA a taste of their culture during this Black History Month. Hopefully, everyone will have so much fun that they want to continue learning and coming to events throughout the entire year! Some of the society’s events have already passed such as the Meet, Eat and Greet (which offered a selection of African Caribbean foods and icebreakers), and its first successful party of the year, ‘Rep Ur Country’. Held in BarX, the venue was awash with flags and Soca, R&B, Hip Hop, Bashment and Afrobeats blared out of the sound system all night long. There are still lots of upcoming events to get involved
with this month; coming up we have: Monday 11th October: ACS Charity Bake Sale for ACLT (African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust) -Held in The Hive, this charity bake sale is in aid of the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust, which aims to raise money and awareness of the lack blood and bone marrow donations within the African and Caribbean community.
Monday 11th evening: BHM Debate Taking place in LT4, the debate aims to discuss matters which affect the black community today.
Monday 18th - Caribbean Showcase in the Blue Bar Named ‘Satisfy My Soul’, we aim to showcase the best of everything Caribbean, including rum punches, snacks, reggae, soca and calypso! Sunday 24th: Sportsday! Organised by the NNREC (Norfolk Norwich Racial Equality Council), this event will see the UEA ACS compete against other teams within Norwich. Sunday 25th: BHM Film ‘Good Hair’
So make sure you check your diaries and keep you schedules clear! We want to encourage debate, free thinking and the proliferation of knowledge. Black History Month is not the only time to show the world our strengths, but we will most definitely be taking this amazing opportunity handed to us to show that our culture is open for absolutely anyone to enjoy! You can buy your membership to ACS for £5 at any time, and don’t forget to add us on facebook: just type in ACS UEA. Or check out some entries on our blog: www.ueaacs. wordpress.com
EVEREST CLIMB FOR BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION continue with their research into the UK’s biggest killer – heart disease. Ranging from funding research projects to nurses to the Heartstart UK scheme, the money raised will help benefit the lives of many. So please, donate what you can to this cause, no matter how little it is – and I promise to bring back pictures!” The British Heart Foundation (Registered Charity No. 225971) seeks to play a leading role in the fight against disease of the heart and circulation, so that it is no longer a major cause of disability and premature death.
To sponsor Chris, please go to his JustGiving site: http://original.justgiving. com/christopherc
ISSUE 245
SPORT 21
www.concrete-online.co.uk
Tuesday 12th October
Delhi Builds on Shaky Foundations Sports Correspondent Megan Pennell documents the infrastructural difficulties surrounding the 2010 Commonwealth Games It was meant to be the moment for India to step proudly onto the world stage, an opportunity to say goodbye to the ‘old’ India of poverty and chaos and to showcase the ‘new’, powerful and in�luential India. Instead, the 19th Commonwealth Games have been plagued by one disaster after another. Earlier this year the attitude towards the games had been almost universally positive. However, as the event drew nearer the headlines gradually turned sour with reports of corruption, poor hygiene, shoddy construction and mismanagement as well as security fears. Just 12 days before the games were due to begin, a footbridge collapsed, causing 23 injuries. This was followed by athletes’ rooms being labelled as ‘unsafe and un�it for human habitation’ and reports describing toilet facilities as ‘�ilthy’. On top of this, poor ticket sales and the withdrawal of big sporting names added to the pressure. Hope was brie�ly restored by a
‘glittering’ opening ceremony that was widely praised. However, as the Games began, new problems continued to emerge. At the half way stage spectators were still witnessing signi�icant glitches, such as dozens of cases of sickness suspected to be induced by contaminated swimming pool water and a ‘major communication blunder’ on the athletics track.
“Delhi 2010 still has the potential to be a brilliant games”
Undoubtedly, the situation has been exacerbated by natural elements such as the prolonged monsoon, but it cannot be denied that the majority of the blame lies with the organisers. The state of the Games has understandably brought into question India’s ability to host an event of such magnitude. Obvious comparisons have been drawn
between the resounding success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the contrasting situation in Delhi. This has ignited fears that India’s image as a rising economic power will be tarnished. Yet, the games have also brought to light a darker side of this economic giant. Perhaps the only silver lining is that the state of the Games has succeeded in bringing international attention to the problems that continue to exist in the capital and throughout the country. Media coverage has highlighted the reality of child labour, poor wages and substandard working conditions. It is estimated that nearly 100 construction workers have died on site from accidents or contagious illnesses. On many of these sites children were recruited in a desperate attempt to �inish building the stadiums, sidewalks and athletes’ accommodation on time. In order to create an impression of Delhi as an economically preeminent city, thousands of slum-
Monty’s Europe Ryde to Victory at Celtic Manor
Chris Teale
Sports Correspondent
Europe, under team captain Colin Montgomerie, seized back the Ryder Cup in the most dramatic fashion at Celtic Manor in Wales, clinching the trophy by virtue of Graeme McDowell’s long putt at the 17th hole in the �inal singles pairing. Friday was dominated by the poor weather, which curtailed the day’s play, and meant that the Fourballs and Foursomes were played out simultaneously on Saturday morning. The �irst session of play ended 2.51.5, in favour of the Americans, and the second session continued in a similar vein, with the USA leading 6-4 after the second session of play. A European revival, begun by a rallying cry from Montgomerie to his team, saw the home side �ight back into the contest in the third session on Sunday, winning it 5.50.5 a lead overall of 9.5-6.5. More rain meant a historic Monday �inish for the �irst time in the Ryder Cup’s
history, with the twelve players from each side playing the singles matches. The USA started poorly, but rebuilt their challenge through the day, and it was left to the �inal singles tie between 2010 US Open champion, McDowell, and American, Hunter Mahan. In a tense match, McDowell held his nerve and secured the win for Europe by a �inal margin of 14.5-13.5, one of the closest margins of victory ever.
The footbridge collapse was just one in a long line of issues with the Games dwellers have disappeared after being quite literally ‘removed’ from the streets. Homes and schools located on land needed for the Games, or simply branded as eyesores, have been demolished. The �inancial cost of the Games will far exceed estimates, but it is the human cost that will be most signi�icant.
This Ryder Cup will be remembered for many reasons: the players’ passion, the originality of the crowd chants, the rain, and one of the tensest and closest �inishes ever. However, Mahan’s tearful appearance at the news conference showed how much professional golfers still care about the Ryder Cup, which retains its magic and prestige despite the riches on both the European and PGA Tours.
McDowell kept his cool at the end as the Ryder Cup returns to Europe once again
Despite all this, Delhi 2010 still has the potential to be a brilliant Games. The South African World Cup earlier this year attracted the routine negative press in its build-up and yet proceeded to become an incredible success story. It remains to be seen as to whether India will be able to bring about a similar turn-around.
Seventh Heaven for WRC’s Loeb Matt Philcox
Sports Correspondent
Sebastien Loeb secured his seventh successive WRC title with a victory in the Rally of France, his sixth win of the season, with two rallies in Spain and Great Britain still to take place. The 36 year old needed only to �inish the race on the third and �inal day having brought forward a 43 second lead from the previous two days. The closest competition for the WRC crown came from compatriot Sebastien Ogier, who had fallen behind on day two due to a suspension problem. Loeb �inished 35.7 seconds ahead of his fellow Citroen driver Dani Sordo in the race, in doing so recording his 60th career win, an all time record.
Since joining Citroen in 1999, the Frenchman has enjoyed an illustrious career and has often been referred to as the Michael Schumacher of rally driving, achieving legendary status in his hometown Strasbourg.
“He has often been
referred to as the Michael Scumacher of rally driving”
Loeb currently stands 60 points clear of Ogier, an insurmountable lead with only two stages left. Ogier, whilst being unable to catch the Frenchman, has enjoyed his most successful season to date, clinching his debut WRC victory in the Rally de Portugal.
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U:EA
Update: East Anglia Dominic Smith
Sports Correspondent
Third-placed Norwich City put the final nails in coffin of Leicester City manager Paulo Sousa, who was dismissed by Chairman Milan Mandaric following a 4-3 defeat to Paul Lambert’s men at Carrow Road. The Canaries started poorly as they fell a goal behind in the opening minutes but quickly roared back to go 3-1 up, before making it 4-2. The
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Foxes did manage to claw another goal back, but it still wasn’t enough to ruffle the Canaries’ feathers, and prevent them taking another important three points. Norwich’s impressive form continued at Ashton Gate as Wes Hoolahan and Simeon Jackson combined to put three past England international David James and his struggling Bristol City side. Stuart Pearce has praised Norwich City and their supporters
for selling out Carrow Road for England’s European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Romania. “You can do no more than sell a stadium out and that’s exactly what the people of this region h a v e done for us”, Pearce said after England’s 2-1 victory. Former Tractor Boy Alex Bruce saw red as Ipswich Town beat Leeds United 2-1 at Portman Road. Town went ahead through a Jason Scotland strike early o n , but it
wasn’t until the 77th minute t h a t the game really got going. Robert Snodgrass equalised for the Yorkshire side,
concrete.sport@uea.ac.uk
a goal quickly followed by Bruce receiving his marching orders for a second bookable offence. Tommy Smith, only in the side due to Darren O’Dea picking up an injury in the warmup, then scored the winner s e v e n minutes f r o m time. Just four days
before, Ipswich suffered their first away defeat of the season, losing 1-0 at Reading. However, following this defeat Town were boosted by the prospect of returns to First-Team action for Shane O’Connor, Damien Delaney and Luciano Civelli, all of whom came through 90 minutes for the reserves . Youngster Connor Wickham (pictured), won his second cap for England Under-19s as a substitute in a 4-0 victory over Cyprus.
A sporting chance for all This year Concrete Sport is looking to make a lasting impact on the lives of fanatical sports fans a little less fortunate than those of us here at UEA. We are looking to collect old replica football shirts from UEA students in order to donate them to disadvantaged children in Africa. The collection will run until Sport Relief comes about in the Spring, so there’s plenty of time to dig out your old shirts. More details will be released in the near future, but in the meantime please bring your shirts to the Concrete Office in Union House, or send us an email at concrete.sport@hotmail.co.uk to arrange for collection.
Liverpool’s gift of new Red Sox Fiona Howard
Sports Correspondent
Having suffered their worst start to a season in the top flight for 57 years, and currently languishing in the relegation zone of the Premier League with just six points to their name, things could hardly get worse for Liverpool Football Club. These problems have been confounded by the continuing financial difficulties plaguing the Reds, despite them being the sixth most valuable football club in the world. Despite the current malaise, news of Liverpool’s potential sale to New England Sports Ventures (NESV) could bring about a dramatic change, at least to the club’s financial situation, with the potential to see their huge debts wiped out. Following their purchase of the club in 2007, things quickly turned sour for the club’s outgoing American owners George
Gillett and Tom Hicks, who have faced a complete lack of support from fans and regular protests demanding the pair to sell the club. Last week NESV, the owners of Major League Baseball team Boston Red Sox, agreed to purchase the club after the outgoing board voted to oust Hicks and Gillett. News of the sale, although greeted with almost universal relief by Liverpool fans, has thrown up a plethora of problems. Two board members, Christian Purslow and Ian Ayre, have already been sacked as Hicks prepares to fight Executive Chairman, Martin Broughton, to retain control of the club.
“Things quickly
turned sour for Gillett and Hicks”
Hicks’ resistance to the sale has been motivated by his belief that the offer from NESV undervalues
the club, and will see himself and Gillett lose around £140 million. Hicks has also vowed to fight the sale in the High Court, with Broughton claiming that the American pair do not have the authority to alter the Executive Board’s make-up. Currently the deal still stands, but the pressure will continue to mount, not only on Broughton and Hicks, but also the club, which has until Friday to pay off its debts. Further misery beckons for the Reds, who are likely to face a points deduction if the club’s parent company, Kop Holdings, goes into administration. If Hicks and Gillett succeed in their attempts to block the sale to NESV, Liverpool’s debts of £280 million could see its parent company go under. However, the takeover has been given official sanction, with the Premier League giving the go-ahead to NESV’s £300 million bid. Their experiences with Hicks and Gillett mean Liverpool
Initial optimism turned to enmity as fans lost faith in their American owners supporters have every reason to be wary of NESV, despite its many successes with the Red Sox. With talk of a new stadium, wiping of the club’s debts and bringing back “the culture of winning to Liverpool FC”, fans could be forgiven for salivating at the prospect of a return to the upper echelons of the Premier League.
Unlike the present incumbents, NESV has a long-standing record of success with its sporting endeavours, but this is by no means guaranteed, and is unlikely to stop Liverpool fans worrying that they’ve swapped one set of American owners for another, and wondering if the change will make any difference.
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Tuesday 12th October
So You Think You Know UEABC? Sports Correspondent Matt Scrafton presents the inside angle on a UEA club which has continued to work hard over the summer... Spare a thought for those who are part of the UEA Boating Club. Whilst the semester is now firmly back up and running – new students are overcoming their fun-filled first few weeks - and returning students are comfortably back in to their old routine, the UEA Boating Club has already been hard at work for several weeks. But you won’t find them complaining. Many members returned to the city early in the summer holidays to embark upon crucial training sessions. With over 90 members across both male and female boats, UEABC is establishing its rising reputation as an organised club with a devoted following. The club had an extremely impressive summer with its competitors performing very well, winning several classes at the BUCS Regatta. Despite
their success, UEABC secretary, Sarah Ellero, talking to Concrete Sport, commented that the club “are keen to improve on our performance”. With such a refreshingly ambitious attitude, the Boating Club are bound to see even more success in the future. Boating is widely known to be one of the more gruelling sports around; therefore it comes as no surprise to hear that the members in the top boats partake in training six days a week. These training sessions occur either at the river or the gym at Whitlingham, a small village on the outskirts of Norwich. For even further training and gym sessions, circuits are held at the Sportspark on campus. Sarah points out that the club are “very lucky to have partnerships with so many gyms”. Just like any other sports club at the university, social events are
an important method of ensuring a strong team spirit at UEABC. The club holds several events throughout the year, particularly after races, where all of the members unite together to reflect on the day’s activities. Generally, these events occur on campus and at the LCR, whilst a Christmas Ball is held each year. The club has certainly had a busy holiday period. UEABC devised a new rowing course designed at training beginners, named the ‘learn to row programme’, which “will be a comprehensive eight week course that offers an introduction to rowing, culminating in a mini regatta,” according to Sarah. In addition to this, the women’s squad announced a new coach, Gerry Hughes, who Sarah says will bring “a great deal of experience. His arrival allows the squads to
have more separate and more comprehensive coaching”. If you are interested in boating and are looking in to the prospect of signing up to UEABC, then you
Athletics President Simon O’Meara previews an eventful forthcoming season for his popular club of abilities over almost all athletic disciplines. Some veteran athletes have returned to the sport after years of absence, taking on the challenge of regaining their former fitness levels with impressive zeal, and they will be quickly reaping the benefits. Competition-ready athletes, for the first time, are racing indoors in two competitions before Christmas
– a great incentive to get up to speed in the first semester besides being an opportunity to familiarise with competition. Included in the track team is Ruth McKellar, who, in August, translated a determined summer’s training into two speedy club records over 100m and 200m, recording 13.0 seconds and 26.7 seconds respectively.
Emma Bird
UEA’s athletes are already in training at the Sportspark, with a long and competitive season stretching out before
Hugo Pollock
The hard work never stops for one of UEA’s most up-and-coming sports clubs
Athletes Take Their Blocks An influx of eager freshers, along with committed returners, has created a very energetic membership around the UEA Athletics Club at the beginning of the 2010-11 season, motivated by the splendid prospects that the club offers. The club has an established team of coaches on hand to provide quality training for an extensive mix
should contact the men’s captain, James Hooten on mens.captain@ ueabc.co.uk or the women’s captain, Kat Bruce on womens. captain@ueabc.co.uk.
For the cross country and road runners, another year in the East Anglia League beckons with a very inviting challenge for both the men’s and ladies’ to relinquish the team title. Cross Country captain, Alec Beaney, will be hoping that the talents of Nick Earl, who ran a club record of 15 minutes 21seconds in the 5000m over the summer, and Sarah Burdett, who won the individual league title last season, overcome injury woes. Joining them will be sprightly newcomers endeavouring to once again establish UEA dominance over the country. Training for, and completion of, the Norwich Half Marathon will give several runners a great endurance base; running for the ladies will be the distanceexperienced Heather Fisher, who ran the Peterborough Half Marathon in one hour fifty minutes last Sunday. For those who pondered signing up for Athletics at the start of the year, or are feeling they have missed an opportunity, the club continues to accept newcomers - experienced or otherwise - throughout the year. The club offers a series of socials throughout the year, as well as the opportunity to get fit(-ter), fast and compete in local and regional events. On your marks, get set...
Vettel Re-ignites Title Challenge Sebastian Vettel put himself firmly back in the World Championship race with a convincing victory in the Japanese Grand Prix. The German driver finished a second clear of Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber in Suzuka, after heavy rain had delayed qualifying until Sunday morning. Fernando Alonso followed closely behind Webber, and currently sits 14 points behind the Championship leader with three races remaining. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth and fifth places respectively, the latter falling behind his team-mate after losing third gear with just 10 laps remaining. Hamilton’s recent run of poor results appeared almost certain to continue when he opted to start the race with a new gearbox and suffer a five place grid penalty as a result. Both McLaren drivers were equally frustrated after the race, with Hamilton admitting that his title chances are slipping away, and Button bemoaning a strategy which saw him stay out far longer than his rivals on hard tyres. Vettel’s victory sees him go level on points with Alonso, but the question remains as to whether the ambitious Red Bull driver can claw back the deficit with only three races to go.
BOATING
RALLYING
LIVERPOOL
RYDER CUP
Concrete previews UEA Boating Club in ‘So You Think You Know?’
Matt Philcox reports on Sebastien Loeb clinching his seventh WRC title
Concrete takes a look at the takeover issues surrounding Liverpool FC
Chris Teale documents Europe’s return to winning ways in Wales
RUGBY ANNOUNCE LINK WITH TIGERS Ed Powell
Greg Mann
Sports Correspondent
The University has announced that the rugby union club Leicester Tigers will form a new partnership with the UEA Rugby Club. The scheme will involve the current Aviva Premiership champions sending first team players down to the University to coach and train with the UEA Rugby squad. “The club are thrilled to announce this collaboration with Leicester Tigers,” said UEA Rugby President Charlie Dower. “It will give us so many exciting opportunities throughout the season and will be great for everyone involved at the club. Having 1st team Leicester players come along to our sessions will be an honour and will really help us as a team progress. The UEA men’s rugby club has seen so much progression in the last few years and the future is looking bright for rugby at UEA.” Ian Welch, the Union sports club co-ordinator, agreed that the deal will be a great boost to the reputation of UEA RFC. “There are many benefits – firstly, obviously, it gives us a bit more standing in the community to have an affiliation with the Leicester Tigers. Their players will come down, make themselves available for award nights and dinners for the Rugby club, also we can sell tickets for the
UEA Rugby (left) have announced a community partnership with Guinness Premier League outfit Leicester Tigers and may receive coaching from England’s Toby Flood (above)
The announcement of the partnership with Leicester will be a welcome boost for UEA RFC going into the new season. Leicester Tigers games and from that we get a £5 rebate from every ticket we sell. The other benefit we’ll get is coaches – [Tigers personnel] will come down and do coaching sessions on nutrition, speed work, fitness work and
things like that.” “The RFU has said that all its professional teams need to put so much money and time back into the community. The players who are injured are required by their contracts to do a certain number
of community coaching hours, so that’s what Leicester get out of it – doing their bit for the community and obviously we benefit from a strong link with the Tigers.“ The partnership, suggested by the Tigers, comes as a major
for the 2012 Olympic Stadium, the BUCS Outdoor Athletics Championship’s promotion to the high table of British sport will widely be seen as the litmus test for BUCS’s fast-growing popularity. As the governing body of university sport, covering 48 sports and over 100 higher education institutions, BUCS’ influence is both far-reaching and influential. With alumni as illustrious as
Sebastian Coe, Matthew Pinsent and Jessica Ennis, it has a gravitas that, while not comparing to the American National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) equivalent, is still an essential and expanding foundation to the British sporting landscape. UEA finished 60th in the BUCS standings last year, and will undoubtedly endeavour to improve on this placing in the coming year.
With weekly Wednesday fixtures held at the Sportspark and at the Colney Field pitches, there is ample opportunity to support UEA’s many and varied sporting teams. Alternatively, turn to Concrete Sport every fortnight to follow the progress of UEA’s teams as they compete with the very best the British university system has to offer.
boost to the first XV as they begin their new campaign looking for promotion from the BUCS Midlands 2B Conference. The Rugby Club is the largest sports club on campus, training every Monday from 7-9 pm at Colney Fields. The Tigers are currently 6th in the Aviva Premiership, and boast internationals such as England’s George Chuter, Dan Hipkiss and Toby Flood. Currently on the injured list at Oval Park, Flood may be among the first professionals to offer their hints and advice to UEA’s finest.
CONCRETE SPORT’S INTRODUCTION TO BUCS Danny Collins
Concrete Editor
When in May 2012 student athletes step out onto the track of the Olympic Stadium, London before a crowd of 30,000 people, it will be testament to the esteem in which BUCS – British Universities and Colleges Sport - is now held. Chosen as the official test event
venue
VENUE Editor-in-Chief>Danny Collins| concrete.editor@uea.ac.uk Venue Editor>Duncan Vicat-Brown| concrete.event@uea.ac.uk
concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk| Fashion Editor>Kat Jones Deputy Fashion Editor>Hannah Britt
Fever.. In the mornin’.. Well done; you’ve made it to the other side of Fresher’s Week. Doubtless you’ve collected some battle scars along the way, whether they be from Fresher’s Flu, cooking injuries or mercilessly murdered brain cells. And what better way to keep your frail grey matter occupied than with the latest issue of Venue, where we’ve got interviews with The Joy Formidable and Architects, a look forward to the upcoming Man Booker Prize and a guide to the best British telly currently gracing the small screen. Aren’t you lucky? Cor, wish I was ill. Have a week..
n a c un
Fashion Contributors> Kat Jones, Hannah Britt
concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk| Arts Editor>Liz Jackson Arts Contributors> Christophe Pierre Young, Hazel Compton, Victoria Highfield, Stephen Pester, Imogen Steinberg, Liz Jackson
D
concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk| Creative Writing Editor>Robert Van Egghen Creative Writing Contributors> Hannah Griffin, Hasina Allen, Stephen Pester, Robert Van Egghen
concrete.tvdigital@uea.ac.uk| Television Editor>Tasha Golley Television Contributors> Natalie Stephenson, Paul Turtle, Beth Wyatt, Kate Allen, Tom Theedom, Yvonne Popplewell, Helen Eaton, Adam Fenwick
concrete.wired@uea.ac.uk| Wired Editor>Vaughn Highfield Wired Contributors>James Schofield, DJ Turner, Stephen Pester, Emma Garrett, William Moran, Vaughn Highfield
concrete.music@uea.ac.uk| Music Editors>Alec Plowman & Alex Throssell Music Contributors>Carmina Masoliver, James Woodward, Steph McKenna, Alex Ross, Emma Webb, Fiona Howard, David Murphy, Alec Plowman, Alex Throssell
concrete.film@uea.ac.uk| Film Editor>Paul Martin Deputy Film Editor>Catherine Watts Film Contributors> Tim Bates, Jonathan Brady, Lorna Pontefract, Andrea Taylor, Helen Jones, James Dockeray, Duncan Vicat-Brown, Michael Lovelock, Josie Lister, Tom McInnes, Amy Griffins, Beth Wyatt
concrete.event@uea.ac.uk| Comedy Editor>Fiona Howard Comedy Contributors>Tom Theedom, Hannah Speed, Sarah Arnold
concrete.listings@uea.ac.uk| Listings Editor>Georgina Wade Listings Contributors>Ian Hobbs
concrete.competitions@uea.ac.uk| Competitions Editor>Henry Croft Competitions Contributors>Henry Croft
The delectable Ritzy Bryan from indie rockers The Joy Formidable. Hear what she has to say about being in a band on page 18. Go on, run along you little scamps...
12OCT10 ISSUE 245
concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk
Woman’s World
fashion
Fashion Editors Kat Jones and Hannah Britt take a look at the trends of Autumn/Winter. Hannah focuses on the importance of embracing your femininity, while Kat shows the importance of a good suit with reference to a Great British film icon.
Gregg Mann Photography, 2010.
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Gregg Mann Photography, 2010.
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A big thank you to Prim for lending us the floral 1950s dress pictured above. Browse their vintage finds at 14, St Benedicts Street...
Best Dressed The eclectic style of these two lovely ladies caught our eye this week. Watch out as next issue we’ll be shaming UEA’s worst dressed. Don’t say we didn’t warn you...
James Brown once crooned, “It is a man’s world”. Well right now, Mr Brown, your words are out of place. Pipe down. This season, it is most definitely a woman’s world. And she’s sensual, she’s stylish and she’s stacked. Yes, this autumn, ladies, it’s all about embracing the curves that God gave you. Down both the Louis Vuitton and the Prada Autumn/ Winter 2010 catwalks, the bones of the super skinny were shunned in favour of the breasts of the voluptuous. Models such as the shapely size 14 Lara Stone shouted loud and clear to the fashion world that the star of size zero is fading. In the 1950’s, celebrated photographer Norman Parkinson championed curvaceous women in British Vogue. The same vibe of attire can be watched weekly in Mad Men, arguably the most stylish programme on television. Christina Hendricks’ hourglass figure is the epitome of femininity- her clothes are prim yet womanly, they reveal everything and yet nothing. Harking back to the femininity of the 1950’s, the skirt shape of the moment is midi. Take a moment now to hide your summer mini-skirts at the back of your wardrobe (along with your Ugg boots, while we’re at it). The midi
skirt can be hard to wear if you’re conscious of chunky ankles. If this is the case then play with the proportions of the skirt, adding an underskirt to volumise, drawing attention away from that ankle area as well as making your pins appear slender by contrast. Cinch in your waist with a skinny belt to emphasise your hourglass. And legs should be tightless, although on a particularly cold Norwich day, the sheerest natural shade will suffice. Goldie Hawn once said, “I’m not afraid of my femininity and I’m not afraid of my sexuality”. This season, wear her words stitched into your hems. Embracing one’s sexuality should not be confused with dressing for men; it is about dressing for yourself. For further inspiration, look no further than Nigella Lawson to show you how it’s done. Sexy, not slutty; men fancy her, women want to be her. She makes men hot under the collar whilst making women feel good about themselves. Oh, and she makes a good lasagne too... The winds are changing, and they’re blowing in the direction of dessert. Sod what Marie Antoinette says - don’t let them eat cake, eat it yourself. Make mine chocolate fudge. Extra sauce. Hannah Britt
concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk
The Hot List Smokin’...
Beauty Bite In the Concrete office, we’re loving the new solid gel eyeliner-in-a-pot phenomenon. Easier to apply than its liquid counterpart, we recommend you stock up!
Leopard Print
COMEDY
Boobs
Pale Skin
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Chokin’... Metallic Ugg Boots
Sean Connery as James Bond in 1960s Dr No Tom Ford’s take on the classic suit.
Levi’s Lock-In.
Teaming up with Red Bull, the Levi store in Chapelfield are hosting a student night on Tuesday 12th October. With complimentary drinks, a live DJ and (most importantly) 30% off everything in store, it is a fashion must. Be there.
Dates for the Diary...
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Kat Jones
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Matt from The X Factor
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it retains sophistication in the gentle sheen of the fabric, appearing crisp, defined and untouchable. As well as this colour, the line shows an ensemble in royal blue with the addition of a very gentlemanly overcoat in the same striking tone. There is also a deep aubergine sample for those who bring a natural swagger. These suits are statements, the colours are the focus, the power, the choice of the beholder, and Paul Smith certainly provides a magical realm of chocolate box delights for every aspiring Bond to delve into. The purple one, the green one, the blue one, they each will a provide special quality to the wearer. So men, save up a note or two each week and come Christmas you’ll be able to ‘suit up’ in style.
Emma Watson’s new hair
Katie from The X Factor
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a vital part of his persona. He goes by the name of Bond, James Bond. While many men have played this role, Sean Connery, in the very first film adaptation Dr No, provides excellent inspiration for how to wear the suit of this season. The 1960s movie shows Bond in a stone blue suit with a white shirt and red tie. The slim line trousers adhere to his trim figure and the contrasting of hot red with cool blue is evidence that his style is as shaken as his martini and goes down just as easily. The Paul Smith collection mirrors the shape and cut of the Bond suit, the trousers in particular. The jackets are modernised to be slimmer fitting over the shoulders and there is less emphasis on the lapels. The collar of the white shirt has been smoothed into a curve and the red tie follows a thinner form. The blue of the suit is much more decadent and indulgent, pushed to a brighter turquoise;
CREATIVE WRITINg
For those not familiar with this term, ‘suit up’ is frequently heard by the character Barney in US sitcom How I Met Your Mother. The sitcom, love it, loathe it, or not heard about it, is not up for discussion, but the statement is very important to men and is a concept that Venue thinks all those born with the Y chromosome should live by. Barney implies the phrase as a verb, i.e. ‘to suit’, merely omitting the ‘to’ for the slang connotations that the audience it’s aimed at can only function by. ‘To suit up’ is the masculine response of what to do when a certain situation should arise, be it a crisis, a celebration, an interview, a date etc. When such an occurrence happens, the man will stride over to his wardrobe and put on (you can imagine it being lasered on for optimum effect) the most powerful, luxurious suit ever, woven in confidence and dripping with sex appeal. This man is now ‘The Man’, and can conquer the world. ‘Suit up’ is the masculine, nononsense equivalent of when women say, “let’s have a cup of tea” or “a bottle of wine will do the trick”. For us women, a good chat over a beverage will solve any drama life has to offer, and if we’re in a real pickle then only a large tub of vanilla Häagen-Daz or a spot of retail therapy is the solution. ’To suit up’ is a definite plan of action which can be carried out individually or with an army of men, all of whom are to be ‘suited up’. The suit is, of course, the key to the new strength a man acquires, and the catwalks and designers brandishing their Autumn and Winter collections have done men proud. The line that Paul Smith has to offer is reminiscent of the style of a truly iconic Great Britain. He is the man every young boy wants to be and yes, you’ll be pleased to know that women drool over him, he really does have that all important ‘Lynx-effect’, and his constant wearing of a really good suit is
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Venue celebrates the return of the Great British suit.
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Suit Up!
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14th October Gok Wan Book Signing “Oh, he’s so lovely” are the words of my mother, and she’s so right. Who can resist taking fashion advice from our favourite gay best friend? Well, he’s coming to Jarrolds to promote his book at 1pm-2pm on Thursday 14th October. Don’t worry if you can’t make it as Venue will get the story and signed books are kindly being provided by Jarrolds as prizes for readers in the next issue.
Harem pants
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concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk
ARts
Arts>Literary Beginnings Event>UEA Literary Festival>Jonathan Franzen Jonathan Franzen is a modern literary hero. He is currently more of a celebrity than most authors could dream of and his latest novel, Freedom, is garnering immense praise. The Guardian, for example, somewhat riskily hails it as “the novel of the century”, New York Magazine calls it “a work of total genius” and the The New York Times labels it “a masterpiece”. The notoriously picky novelist Bret Easton Ellis, via his twitter, called it “the best social-realist novel since [he] started publishing books.” Franzen is also a major idol to many; his 2001 novel The Corrections (which has now sold almost 3 million copies) was the novel that made this take literature seriously, providing the inspiration to study literature and to write. But they do say never to meet your heroes. Franzen has a reputation as a prickly character, famously snubbing Oprah Winfrey in the wake of the release of The Corrections which caused controversy in the US (that’s right, he spurned a slot on Oprah, but not at UEA - crazy). Alongside this, recent events have conspired to push his temper as far as it will go: the first UK edition of Freedom, which was nine years in the making, was an accidental print of an early, mistake-ridden draft. His trademark black-rim glasses were also stolen off his face at his London book launch last week, and held for ransom before finally being returned in what appeared a frankly farcical
event. So it seemed inevitable that this reporter’s hero and the literary colossus of the moment would prove to be an immense grouch. Thankfully when he came to open the
“A painfully acute understanding of human flaws, cultural sensibility and [...] dry, mordant wit” UEA Literary Festival Franzen was nothing of the sort. In front of a packed out lecture theatre he read a short extract from Freedom that demonstrated his painfully acute understanding of human flaws, his cultural sensibility and of course his dry, mordant wit. This wit remained while, after the reading, Franzen fielded questions on his novel, his disastrous UK tour, about US culture and even on whether or not he wanted to be a rock star (he doesn’t, thank goodness). Given his run of luck at the moment, it was also nice to see that he was not attacked by a rogue kestrel, that his chair didn’t collapse beneath him, and that his shirt didn’t spontaneously combust.
So a successful opening to the Literary Festival then. The reality of the author lives up to the greatness of his work, continuing to encourage embarrassingly geeky fanboys to get hold of yet another of his signed books rather than creating disillusion. And these are books which, by the way, you must read. They are landmarks of modern literature - truly wonderful novels for our time - and what an honour it was to have encountered their creator. Christophe Pierre Young
The UEA Book Group Society is holding an informal discussion on Franzen’s Corrections on the 28th October in the Hive at 7pm. For more information contact Alannah at a.chilvers@uea.ac.uk, or visit their Facebook group.
Literature>Ashley Stokes>Touching the Starfish Not many books are set at university, much less our own, UEA. Even fewer are written from the point of view of a cynical creative writing lecturer. Touching the Starfish follows Nathan Flack, failed novelist and condemned lecturer of adult education creative writing seminars at UEA, as he goes insane. The storyline hangs upon a unique idea: Flack and his ex Francis once discussed the possibility of a literary genius coming to their classes, one who would reveal Nathan as the counterfeited bluffer he feels he really is. This character infiltrates Nathan’s mind, turning him into a puppet and creating a dramatic fight within Flack for his sanity as he attempts to carry on his mundane life around the UEA campus. Stokes has created a first person narrative in a character everyone can relate to: the underdog. Nathan Flack hates his job, hates himself and hates what he is becoming, for he realises he is now the kind of lecturer he never wanted to imitate, sitting on the side of his desk with that stereotypical slant of the head, making “go on” noises to every awful entry his students read. Stokes’ brilliance
is in the novel’s style. Flack has become the routine lecturer to such an extent that he has written his own story in the exact specifications of a creative writing
“The plot is remarkable, twisting in ways that surprise[...] highly poignant” handbook, complete with footnotes and a “create-your-own-storyline” exercise. This book teaches you all the rights and wrongs of the craft, giving examples from the lowest form of style to the hidden tips and tricks of impressing the tutor, the agent and the publisher. It tells you all about the plight of giving readings and of the unfair nature of the business. It is comparable to Stephen King’s memoir On Writing, a respected and recommended work, and Touching the Starfish is on a par with its teaching methods, ideas and encouragement. The plot is remarkable, twisting in
ways that surprise with no implausible issues in its writing; the story itself is full of highly poignant comedy, making the reader’s emotions flow effortlessly from pity for Nathan to laughing out loud at his dilemmas, whilst Nathan himself is a character with a drollness grounded by his cynical views. The setting of UEA is thrilling; it’s painstakingly accurate, from the concrete walkway to the grad bar, all of it easy to place. The book was written a few years ago and a few places in Norwich have changed, but if you have lived in Norfolk all of your life it evokes a strange nostalgia as it reminds you, for example, of how the Costa Coffee in Waterstones used to be filled with the bigwigs of literature as they looked down upon your lattes. To top it all is the lecturer’s code for the students around campus, guaranteed to have you fretting your position and laughing at the definitions of a ‘folder holder’ or a ‘sensitive plant’. And if that doesn’t get you, the relations between the lecturers are certainly hilarious enough to keep you desperate to know who ends up getting their comeuppance. This unique novel will change the way
you see the tutors, UEA and your fellow students. It will also inspire you to act on your own creativity. So grab a copy, pick up a pen and start your creative writing lesson. Hazel Compton
Literature>Booker Prize
The latest exhibition to grace the walls of the magnificent Norwich Castle Museum (free with a campus card) brings together a multitude of artefacts of different media, from the region and from different eras including Roman pottery and more modern digital art. It travels chronologically through six different periods beginning with early Pagan worship and Anglo-Saxon work and explores the relationship between belief and the act of making objects, encompassing many religions such as Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhism. There is an emphasis on the importance of creation as an act of faith, as the exhibition effectively conveys how extensive craftsmanship was put into works with no actual purpose other than to function as devotional objects. This idea that only the most beautiful objects were used for worship is highlighted
and poignant text, making the novel a highly refreshing read and one that this reporter predicts will be a strong contender if not easily the overall winner of this year’s Man Booker Prize.
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Victoria Highfield and Stephen Pester
Imogen Steinberg
As some of the more literary-minded amongst us may know, National Poetry Day was this week. This year’s theme was ‘Home’, an important one for many people given the increasingly multicultural and multi-identity population of the UK, and the continued close relationship between family and friends as valued sources of support through tough times; whether financial, emotional or otherwise. However, these interpretations of the themes were by far not the only ones, and selections for the website this year took the idea of home from a physical room to a landscape, a recipe and even music, images and smells.
Perhaps most interesting were the other aspects of the event, which asked individuals to include a line from some of their favourite poems as their Facebook statuses, and the conversion of the winning
poetry entry into a short film - highlighting the fast-changing means of communication by which we can all keep in touch and access ‘home’, in addition to expanding the traditional reach of NPD so that as many different people as possible all over the country could get involved. Events up and down the country also took place including tea parties, poetry readings, activity days and cake sales advertising ‘edible poetry’. This year’s specially featured poem was one by Phillip Gross’s The Room Inside, a simple yet powerful poem which highlights the hugely varied role just one room can play in many individual’s lives. Yet undoubtedly one thought which springs to mind is the importance of the idea of ‘home’ for our nation as a whole. Whether the idea of home conjures up traditional military images of the British Empire, a simple memory of Sunday Roasts with the family, or reminds us of Rupert Brooke’s infamous poem The Soldier, it is a theme which recurs throughout British history and is perhaps a unique obsession of ours. When we consider it in detail it’s easy to come to the same realisation as NPD in deciding upon the theme of home; and it’s not just because of the role it plays in British national identity. As they state on their website, ‘poetry helps us to revive, heal or endure’ – and in the same way, home does too – whatever it means to us. Liz Jackson
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in the exhibition as a way of pushing forward technology and skills and advancing society as a whole as these skills become transferable into other aspects of culture. Moving into the medieval period, the tattered faces of the angels on an intricately patterned velvet cape demonstrates the aspect of religion as destructive, using the Lollards as an example of iconoclasts who destroyed ‘idolatrous’ artworks. After a mummified cat from the 18th century and a gigantic oil painting there is a case full of objects on loan from ordinary people’s homes, where a Catholic devotional icon sits happily between Baha’i prayer beads and a Jewish mezuzah. Finally, there is Chris Newby’s Something Understood, a specially commissioned film about personal and communal acts of worship interspersed with serene scenes of the East Anglian landscape which demonstrates continually changing relationships with faith: in this case, how the natural environment has the power to inspire religious awe. If you are in Norwich and have a spare few minutes I would recommend looking around this small exhibition, even if you don’t identify with an organised religion. In particular the last two stages in the exhibition really represent its focus which seems to this reporter to both demonstrate the huge variety and effort that is put into the religious art, and to argue that spirituality is an innate human quality that art with its unique power to ‘convey and provoke emotions that words cannot’ provides a fulfilling medium to express this in every individual.
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Poetry> National Poetry Day
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Art>’Art Of Faith’ Exhibition
before, in The Paris Review. It was also published in three short stories in its original form, before being united in this format. The unusual way the book as a whole is structured is reflected on a smaller scale in the narrative itself. Notably, the story drifts from third person to first, reflecting the seeming disassociation between the narrator and his confused, isolated past self. Further, Galgut constructs a narrative where significant periods of time pass in the course of a paragraph, leading to a sense of drifting and a feeling of emptiness in the main character’s life. Yet the separation into these three journeys - ‘The Follower’, ‘The Lover’ and ‘The Guardian’ -demonstrates the dramatic changes in the narrator’s life and the revealing truth behind his travels: the way in which the land around him might change with periods in his life, but ultimately, he never does. Perhaps most notably of all, Damon Galgut has the ability to express profound emotion with very simple language. Short, sharp sentences express much of the meaning of the story with words no more complex than an unassuming use of ‘circumstances’. A deceptively simplistic narrative structure and use of language belies a much more profound
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Story’and Tom McCarthy’s C. The winner will be announced on October 12th, 2010. The Man Booker judges are selected from the country’s best critics, writers and academics to ensure consistency in the prizes reputation for excellence. The judging panel for the 2010 Man Booker Prize will consist of: former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion (Chair), Rosie Blau, Deborah Bull, Tom Sutcliffe and Frances Wilson. All the judges have years of experience in the literary section, and will have some extremely tough decisions to make before they announce the winner on October 12th, made more difficult by the remarkable selection of novels to choose from. However, one novel in particular stands out. In a Strange Room is the story of a man who is possessed by the need to travel, from Greece to India and Africa. His journeys both end in disaster and change his life, yet all the while he is still disconnected and, in a sense, alone. It is also Concrete’s favourite to win the 2010 Booker Prize. Why? Because In a Strange Room is a brilliantly unusual book, in a way which is both gripping and fascinating. This novel is surprising in several aspects – firstly, in that it has actually been published
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The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best novel of the year. The much talked about prize is the world’s most important literary award and has the power to transform the fortunes of authors and even publishers. The prize, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2008, aspires to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. The prize consists of a large £50,000 sum, plus guaranteed worldwide readership as well as increase in book sales. The history of the previous Man Booker Prize winners speaks for itself. The 2009 winner was Hilary Mantel with her novel Wolf Hall. Aravind Adiga won the prize in 2008 and his impressive novel, The White Tiger, went on to become one of the fastest selling novels in the prize’s history. Anne Enright, who won the prize in 2007 for her novel The Gathering, embarked on a world tour following her Man Booker triumph, proving how winning the prize can elevate authors to stardom. The authors and novels shortlisted this year are: Peter Carey’s Parrots and Oliver in America, Emma Galgut’s Room, Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question, Andrea Levy’s The Long
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concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk
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12oct10 television ISSUE 245 9 TWO AND A HALF MEN... AND TWO MORE MEN, TWO WOMEN AND FOUR MORE KIDS...
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out over such a large number of episodes. But one thing’s for sure; the ratings aren’t showing any sign of giving up. The first three episodes of the new season are up from the first three of the previous one by several million – it can’t be bad, then.
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first season last year, Modern Family was picked up by ABC for a full second season. But can it pass the test of time, especially in a TV market that demands around 24 episodes per season? The genius of the mockumentary is in its simplicity, and it is questionable whether this can be carried
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their families and looking after their sometimes needy partners, particularly Phil, who appears to be constantly going through a mid-life crisis, providing a range of laugh-out-loud, cringe-worthy moments. Claire’s family is a rather stereotypical one; the dumb younger boy, the intellectual ‘middle-child’, and the coming-of-age young woman. Perhaps even more stereotypical is the portrayal of the gay couple, Mitchell and Cameron. Although camp, and sometimes effeminate, the couple manage to transcend the obvious and all too often used ‘gay character’ and turn it into so much more. Mitchell’s relationship with his father (Jay), and the adoption of baby Lily are subjects that would not have been covered by US comedies years ago. Maybe this positive portrayal will help to change some minds and break down certain clichés. After winning an Emmy for ‘Outstanding Comedy Series’ after its
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You’d have been forgiven for thinking that it was another American show to jump on the British bandwagon of the hugely successful ‘mockumentary’ format, but Modern Family is a refreshingly different take on suburban family life, compared to the recent spate of devastatingly unfunny US sitcoms. The show ‘documents’ the lives of three inter-related families: the archetypal nuclear family, Claire and Phil (and children); the classic ‘older-rich-husband and young-attractive-wife’, Gloria and Jay (with son Manny); and newly-adoptive gay parents, Mitchell and Cameron (with Lily). The basic plot is a ‘show within a show’, as the families are being filmed for a reality TV show. Think The Office meets 8 Simple Rules and you’ll have the general idea. The somewhat large main cast is unusual for a comedy, yet each plays their own part and they complement each other perfectly. Brother and sister Claire and Mitchell spend most of their time raising
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Adam Fenwick takes a look at Modern Family, an unusually good American sitcom.
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concrete.tvdigital@uea.ac.uk
television
What’s On the Box?
There’s been a noticeable spike in the quality of British television lately. Here’s our pick of the litter.
AN IDIOT ABROAD: Sky One, Thursday 9pm
SPOOKS: BBC One, Monday 9pm
The premise is simple: put a narrow-minded person in places full of strange things, and, naturally, let the fun unfold. The person also has to be round headed and unintentionally hilarious. Karl Pilkington came into our lives through Ricky Gervais and comedy partner Stephen Merchant’s (loving) public mocking of him, seen in books, blogs and The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts. In the first episode, Karl is in China taking on various tourist activities, and in the second he’s in India to ‘find spirituality’. But that’s not the point; it’s his behaviour and absurd narration of what’s going on that keeps your attention. He finds some public squatting toilets in China that don’t have doors, which really
For those who haven’t seen it, Spooks can loosely be described as a British 24, following the efforts of the team of agents tasked with protecting Britain. Gone is the steely Ros (Hermione Norris), afforded the traditional, series-opening funeral. In her place are the mysterious Dimitri, and Beth, whose entrance to the service comes around in peculiar circumstances. Each episode contains a specific threat that the team are attempting to face down, as well as several ongoing storylines, the most prominent involving the curious reappearance of characters from Lucas North’s (Richard Armitage) past, not least his ex girlfriend (played by Laila Rouass). So far, the series has already offered an attempted coup in Western Africa, a bomb
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disturbs him; “Those are the easy parts, you’ve got the walls,” he says. When in India, he’s horrified that the cow sanctuary workers call hand-shaped cow dung slabs ‘cakes’, because they are definitely not food. He also smells his hand afterwards, to check that it is actually poo, not mud. The thing is that Karl tries to be philosophical (somehow, he concludes that spiritualism is like friendship), but it could never work with Gervais and Merchant undermining him with fact and logic, and all that. Shame. Next time, he’s in India, where he’ll have ample opportunity to criticise the toilet facilities… Natalie Stephenson
plot aimed at the Houses of Parliament and a WMD located somewhere in the city of London, as well as issues in the personal lives of those working on ‘The Grid’. Spooks has always been known for its high production values, utilizing techniques such as split screen to convey the fast paced nature of the unfolding action. This willingness to try different storytelling methods is also demonstrated in the second episode, with a Vantage Point like narrative, telling the story from the viewpoints of several characters. For those with an interest in conspiracy drama, or just a general interest in the often hidden world of the security services, then Spooks is definitely worth a watch. Paul Turtle
MERLIN : BBC One, Saturday 7:45pm
THIS IS ENGLAND ‘86: Available on 4OD
With the demise of Robin Hood, the BBC needed an exciting new show to wow audiences on Saturday nights. In autumn 2008, Merlin, the story of the warlock as a young man, hit screens, and was a massive success. Now in its third series, Merlin still constantly provides electrifying drama. The programme aims to dazzle you with its intense battle scenes and devious sorcerers. However, it’s the comedic elements which steal the show. The love/ hate relationship between resident heartthrob Prince Arthur and Merlin is hilarious, especially the recent episode when Merlin fights off a new rival in order to remain Arthur’s favourite. Also, Arthur believes that Merlin is a senseless idiot, when
This is England ‘86 revisited the likeable skinhead gang from Shane Meadows cult film (winner of Best British Film at the 2008 BAFTA’s), three years on from Combo’s brutal attack, which crushed Shaun’s world. What started off as a nostalgic, humorous return to the lives of Woody, Lol and Shaun was quickly replaced with a darkening sense of unease as Meadows revealed the cracks that would soon fracture the group’s happy world of football, video games and waiting in line at the dole office. Written by Shane Meadows & Jack Thorne, the television series moved away from the films focus on Shaun and provided an opportunity to explore the lives of the other characters. Thorne, who has written for Skins and Shameless, brought his own
actually he often saves the Prince’s life. More great comedy followed when Gaius is possessed by a Goblin who plays tricks such as giving macho Arthur the ears and voice of a donkey. In addition, the future romance between Arthur and Guinevere was hinted at once more, with Merlin teasing the prince about his jealousy when he spots her talking affectionately to Gwaine. This jealousy could spark again if the lovely Lancelot rides back into Camelot to complete the eminent love triangle. There are many reasons to watch this fresh take on the legend, with more thrilling plots to unravel this series. Let’s hope it’s recommissioned for a fourth. Beth Wyatt
unique wit to the series, most notably Shaun and Smell’s romantic barking session. The rape scene, uncompromisingly directed by Meadows, proved difficult to watch, and the dialogue resonated with uncomfortable undertones. Meadows has a fantastic grasp of the power of silence and guttural sounds; the use of the same song over the world cup final, the rape and Combo’s return proved truly chilling. British TV needs more strong dramas like this; with fearless directors like Shane Meadows and brilliant writers like Jack Thorne, it’s a crying shame that Britain isn’t producing more television of this calibre. Kate Allen
concrete.tvdigital@uea.ac.uk
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DOWNLOAD: TRUE BLOOD
Yvonne Popplewell
3D TELEVISION: THE WAY FORWARD, OR JUST ANOTHER NOVELTY PRODUCT? Kicking off with the Ryder Cup, the new Sky 3D channel boasts an impressive lineup, including Monsters Vs Aliens and Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, along with three sporting events a week. However, will the nature of 3D technology simply detract from what is happening on-screen? 3D films have been a success in cinemas nationwide, and will most likely have the same fortune on the small-screen. However, it is difficult to conceive how a rugby match will work in 3D; will it not simply lead to a focus on the way a sporting event looks rather than the outcome? How long will it be before 3D television branches out into the world of hard-hitting dramas, soaps and reality? At some point the focus will surely shift from the content of a television programme
to the aesthetics of the 3D format; while episodes of top US dramas, such as Lost and Heroes, could have reaped the benefits of 3D television, it is difficult to see how the UK could possibly keep up. The focus of much of Britain’s television drama is on plot, mainly due to considerably lower budgets than US dramas. Would Miss Marple really work in 3D? Though it is clear that the film industry can benefit from 3D features, could it be a step too far for the world of television? Watching a football match in 3D may well be incredible initially, but eventually the novelty of the experience will surely wear off. The real question, therefore, is not if, but when, this will happen. Helen Eaton
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Jessica will not be left disappointed, as they all have their own storyline this season. Of course there's plenty of Sookie and Bill, who seem to spend most of their time breaking up (and having creepy make-up sex), but it is Viking vamp Eric's revenge plot that steals the show. There are plenty of things that have people talking this season, but anything that involves Denis O'Hare's Russell Edgington, the kick-ass ‘King of Mississippi’, warrants special consideration. His love for his husband Talbot, a crazy vendetta against the human race and what is arguably the best news report ever to air on television help make Russell Edgington one of the most intriguing villains of the year (luckily, he's rumoured to be returning next season). So, put on your Fangtasia t-shirt, grab a bottle of O-Positive and find a light-tight room because, love it or loathe it, True Blood certainly gives you something to talk about come Monday morning.
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True Blood may have ridden in on the coattails of the recent vampire craze, but anyone looking for an innocent romance is in for a surprise. Created by Alan Ball, of Six Feet Under fame, and based on the popular Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris, True Blood follows the exploits of waitress/telepath Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) as she negotiates a world in which Vampires have 'come out of the coffin'. Season three loosely follows the plot of Club Dead, the third novel, but deviates from the book a lot more than previous seasons (as any avid Charlaine Harris fan will tell you, very loudly, and without warning). But do not fear, all the key elements are there, including the introduction of broodingly handsome werewolf Alcide Herveaux (Joe Manganiello), who takes Sookie on an eventful road trip to Mississippi. True Blood has one of the largest casts on American television and, to his credit (or detriment) Alan Ball employs a 'no man left behind' policy. Fans of Jason, Tara, Sam, Arlene and Terry, Pam, Andy or Hoyt and
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For all its contrived storylines and planted characters, it cannot distract from the serious subject matter that constantly grounds the show. For every moment of humour (the reveal of the freezer full of pizza’s in episode one), there are moments that shock; the child who mistakes a bunch of tomatoes for potatoes, the school that serves pizza for breakfast, the supersized coffin and an emotional scene in which a morbidly obese girl explains how she was given only a few years to live. This is the programmes’ saving grace and its main appeal. No matter how many times the show has been fed through the American dramatisation machine, it cannot hide the fact that Jamie is trying to achieve the seemingly impossible and change the eating habits of a nation. America loves superheroes, and as we’re reminded from the start, Jamie is there to save the lives of our friends across the pond, and for that he deserves our undivided attention. Tom Theedom
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Could Jamie Oliver please step forward? The Naked Chef’s 2006 British campaign to change the eating habits of schools has crossed the Atlantic, in the guise of Jamie’s American Food Revolution. The setting is Huntingdon, claimed to be America’s most unhealthy town, where over half of the adult population are medically obese. He faces obstacles in the form of stubborn dinner ladies (sound familiar?) and local radio DJ Don Willis, who takes immediate opposition to his campaign. Here lies the shows main weakness; firstly, we’ve seen all this before in Jamie’s School Dinners where he faced all the same issues. As with Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, which was given a dramatic makeover, Revolution’s noble and sobering cause has been trivialised in order to create 43minute dramas. In the first episode we see Jamie immediately face resistance, break down in tears and have to explain himself to the press, but ultimately he succeeds in his first task of turning around the eating habits of an overweight American family.
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PRIMETIME: JAMIE’S FOOD REVOLUTION Channel 4, Monday 10pm
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Rockband 3 preview
Format: 360, PS3, Wii Release Date: 29th October Price: starting from £39.99 (RRP wii) and £44.99 (RRP 360 & PS3) The music video game genre is big (big boxes, big games, big fanbase), and when Rockband 3 hits UK shelves on the 29th October it’s going to get a lot bigger. With two main releases to its name (and a tasty host of song packs and software titles) the Rockband franchise has been entertaining fans of plastic instruments for
almost three years. Between Guitar Hero upping the ante with full band play and Rockband’s successful track record you may find yourself wondering what you can expect from Harmonix this time around. The most obvious addition to the franchise is a brand new instrument: the keyboard. This is a two-octave ‘half’ keyboard which comes in the handy form of a keytar, and yes, it looks awesome. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to bust out some funky keyboard riffs alongside Morrissey and Elton John, now
is the time to find out. The eclectic range of songs that Rockband 3 has to offer is, in part, due to the arrival of the keyboard, but there are plenty of other reasons to admire the extensive track list: David Bowie, Metric, INXS, B-52s (Rock Lobster!) and The Doobie Brothers all make an appearance. Salivating? Perhaps the most exciting development in Rockband 3 is the advent of ‘pro’ mode. For those who have conquered expert difficulty in the previous games, ‘pro’ mode will offer a unique and innovative challenge that requires you to actually ‘play’ your instrument. This will rely on the individual playing actual notes opposed to the old familiar button-bashing found in standard modes, and once you have seen the Fender Mustang controller with its 102 buttons (designed to simulate frets and strings) you will see how fun and diverse the game could be. So while ‘pro’ expects you to have previous knowledge of actually playing the instrument (whether this be guitar, keyboard or drums), it is also a great way to
James Schofield
http://mylifeisaverage.com Short, user submitted stories that are at best funny and interesting and at worst a distraction from doing any work! There are many similar websites to explore too. http://explosm.net/comics A ‘mindless fun’ kind of comic, called Cyanide & Happiness. Warning: can get hilariously random and violent at times! http://www.jabberwacky.com This is an AI you can talk to, and compared to most others online, it is fairly sophisticated. You can choose an emotion with your text, and although none of these websites feel like real conversations, they can be anything from interesting to funny! Stephen Pester
learn and develop your musical skills in the real world. Furthermore, the game gives you the ability to mix and match modes as you please, so a ‘pro’ and a beginner can jam together without feeling the heat. By making these two modes available and compatible together, Rockband 3 should appeal to a wide audience, from those who are simply curious about the game to those who consider themselves passionate guitarists and riff-masters – that’s right hot stuff! In summary: 80+ starter tracks, plus the option to upload songs from previous titles and downloadable content (that is over 2000 songs!), the freedom to bash buttons or be a pro and play some actual chords, the introduction of the keytar and authentic stringed guitar controllers and... erm... Amy Winehouse’s Rehab (?) will make this one for the Christmas list. The music video game genre is growing up. DJ Turner
Free and Easy
Tweet This!
Some of the best, most interesting or just down right funny people tweeting right now.
Defraggler
iAntiVirus
Spybot Search & Destroy
Defragmenting your Hard Disc Drive (HDD) makes it perform far more efficiently. By keeping data fragments for individual files closer together on the drive - the read/write head doesn’t have to move around as much therefore it works faster, and the HDD has to endure less movement. As one of the only moving parts on a computer, your HDD is something you should take good care of and, in the long run, making it work less is good for it.
A handy piece of kit from the popular PC tools company, iAntivirus provides Mac users with the best free antivirus and anti spyware protection available for the Mac. Allowing you to change your scan settings, set automated virus scanning and with regular updates, this is really all the antivirus protection you will ever need. With a growing uptake of Mac computers the chances of catching viruses are increasing. Having that extra protection for free is always worth it!
Spyware is similar to a computer virus except, instead of destroying your computer, it just bombards you with adverts or tracks details you enter into web sites so it can gain access itself. Spybot S&D searches your computer and destroys these malicious applications (as the name suggests). It can also immunise your PC from future infections too. Available to download in over 30 languages with regular updates for all versions this is an essential piece of kit for any windows user.
[piriform.com/defraggler]
http://www.iantivirus.com/
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/ download/ Vaughn Highfield
William Moran
Emma Garrett
Vaughn Highfield
@brian_badonde - everybody’s favourite Facejacker character has his own twitter! Follow the escapades and general insights into the mind of an art, film, food and drink connesseur. Boh! @s**tmydadsays - Some key insights from a great parent to his son, an ever growing collection of wise words that will have you on the floor in pieces! Hopefully you can figure out what two letters to replace the ‘**’ with. @charltonbrooker - You may recognise him from great TV shows such as You have been Watching and Screenwipe, and now you can follow his condescending journalistic attitude as he makes extremely valid quips about some of the most major issues of the news. @chucknorris_ - All those brilliant Chuck Norris jokes bundled up into one easy to find twitter account. Oh Chuck Norris, is there nothing you can’t do?
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COMPS Yet having all the knowledge available on the Internet residing permanently in your pocket has its drawbacks. Whilst being able to answer any question more or less instantly may be convenient, this information saturation only feeds a tendency to become reliant upon it,
instead of using our own minds. The sheer immediacy of communication via smartphones engenders impatience and increases the expectations opon individuals, both socially and professionally. It is expected that someone will reply to an email within a few hours and being away from your computer is soon to be an excuse of the past. Today, 37.6% of handsets sold in UK are smartphones. A considerable number, but clearly they are yet to convince everyone. The increasing diversity of smartphones available will help them appeal to a wider audience. Those of you who dislike touchscreens now have the option for both keys and a large interactive screen. As the Internet continues to become more important in every aspect of our lives it is probable that more and more of us will conclude it is impractical to be separated from it. It seems likely that within the next decade the smartphone will become the default when considering which phone to buy. A smartphone is an essential tool to facilitate the immediate transfer of knowledge and information in our never-sleeping globalised world. Owning one is becoming not only practical and entertaining, but in many ways is a necessary symbol of being an active player in the competitive, fast-paced society of the 21st century.
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This is for all of you out there who want to read, but never seem to get around to it! It’s exactly what it says on the tin – quirky, funny and occasionally serious stories of exactly fifty words. For a sense of just how short that is, this description is longer!
(small bitesize computer programmes) allow the user to tailor their new phone to exactly the tasks they intend to use it for. Efficient, intuitive and timesaving the smartphone is, so far, the technological icon of the 21st century.
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http://www.fiftywordstories.com
Since the turn of the century, smartphones have been taking the mobile phone market by storm. For one reason or another, mobile phones are no longer just for making calls or texting. They are taking on functions that make them almost unrecognisable from the brick-phones of the 1980s, and even the fancy flip top phones of the 90s, and it seems that the market is showing no sign of slowing. Soon to join Google, Nokia and Apple in the race is Microsoft, with the release of its new Windows Phone 7 Series. As with any innovation, there is excitement in some quarters and mistrust in others. Declarations that, “the world will never be the same!” come from many iPhone lovers, and each upgrade of the Blackberry manages to ignite a flurry of handset upgrades; however one thing that is evident is the fact that all fans love to propose radically different visions of what this smartphone future will involve and whether they approve of it. One of the biggest possible changes to everyday life is that with a smartphone in your pocket, there is no more wasted time in the day. Spare moments on a bus or between appointments, that would previously have been wasted, can be used instantly to perform any number of tasks. If a news story is breaking on the other side of the world, there is no longer any need to check Sky News or the BBC website, an update can come right to your pocket, and your incredibly interesting and urgent life can be tweeted to the rest of the world wherever you are! Downloadable ‘apps’
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Fun links to pass the time between socialising and learning.
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players to skip it due to its content. The pressure to remove the Taliban from the multiplayer mode increased when the US military confirmed that it was banning sales of the game from all of its bases. As a business, EA’s reaction was understandable – to remove the explicit use of the word Taliban, otherwise stores and perhaps governments may follow suit, thus affecting sales of the game. The phrase “all publicity is good publicity” could not be more true with Medal of Honor, and those at EA are likely
to be more than happy with the level of interest in the game that has occurred due to the Taliban controversy. One crucial fact still remains, however: players are still able to shoot and kill US troops, simply under a different name. The Defence Secretary Liam Fox argues that it is “shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban against British soldiers”, yet very little was made of the fact that in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, players could do the same, simply under the different name of OpFor (a move that EA has also taken). It seems that EA has buckled under the pressure of sensitivity. It was inevitable that a game such as Medal of Honor would face opposition, mostly due to the content of the game, although very little has been mentioned about the level of realism in the violence of Medal of Honor, even though the source of the violence has been the key issue. It seems trivial that opponents of the game would take issue with the name Taliban: surely, if they were truly offended, they would call for the game to be scrapped altogether.
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the inclusion of the name “Taliban”. The publisher argued that, as in most video games, “if someone’s the cop, someone’s gotta be the robber...in Medal of Honor multiplayer, someone’s gotta be the Taliban”. Sound reasoning, one would feel. For EA, sensitivity is not the issue; if they are to achieve the level of realism that will propel their franchise above the ranks of Call of Duty (a tough task), then every detail of the game must be as close to reality as possible, including the proper names of the combatants fighting in the
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Electronic Arts’ latest instalment in the Medal of Honor series, simply entitled Medal of Honor, sees a reboot of the brand from the classical scenario of the Second World War to the contemporary setting of the current Iraq War. The game draws many comparisons with Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, both take place around the idea of an Afghanistan war, pitting UK and US troops against an Islamic terrorist force. After the controversy around Modern Warfare 2, it is now Medal of Honor’s turn, the latest of the releases, to draw in the most damaging criticism. The controversy began when it became known that players could take on the role of the Taliban in the online multiplayer mode, a feature that under heavy pressure has subsequently been removed. Families of current soldiers, along with senior figures such as Liam Fox, the UK Defence Secretary, expressed outrage that EA would allow players to
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war which the game portrays. This is not the first time that a game such as this has attracted criticism for its content. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s mission “No Russian” essentially placed the player in a position of a terrorist, allowing players the choice to mercilessly gun down innocent civilians at an airport. Although the use of the word Taliban has been removed from online multiplayer play, “No Russian” made the final cut of the game, albeit with an option for
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A Tale of the Taliban
emulate the actions of a group who are currently fighting, and killing, British and US servicemen, even though no British troops feature in the game at all. At the same time, others have argued that the name change from “Taliban” to “OpFor” (Opposing Force) represents a drop in realism; after all, a war is fought on two sides and, if one force is represented, then surely the other must be represented also, in order to truly recreate the scene. EA’s initial response was to defend
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Buried Director: Rodrigo Cortés Release Date: 29/09/10
There is a small subgenre of films that exist outside of mainstream Hollywood that take place almost entirely in one location, such as 12 Angry Men. Buried enters that category as probably the most limited one yet; a film that takes place entirely in a box the size of a coffin, with a single character. This is not the film to see if you are claustrophobic. The character in question is Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds in a role very different from his usual romantic comedies), an American truck driver
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FACT: Ryan Reynolds was offered the part of Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, back in 1997. Good move, seeing as Nicholas Brendon, who eventually took the role, has, as far as we know, never married Scarlett Johansson.
on contract in Iraq, who wakes up ‘buried’ six feet underground with only a zippo lighter, a mobile phone, and a knife. From there we follow him as he makes a series of calls in which he is put on hold, calling all the ‘helplines’ he knows, and his family. Finally, he makes lasting contact, first with the kidnappers, then with the hostage relief service set up in Iraq, and they all have their own plans for him... The real drama in Paul’s situation is that it’s a great mixture of genius and incompetence; being buried underground, he can make calls, and listen to the kidnapper’s requests, but can’t tell anybody where he
Made in Dagenham
is. However, as the agent with the Hostage Special Service tells him, these men aren’t particularly organised; they are farmers and common criminals, just trying to get money out of the government. They don’t have any grand scheme; their demands are uncertain
and unspecific (they initially want five million dollars, but lower it immediately to one million), which only makes the prospects for Paul more terrifying. For their part, all the behind-the-scenes work is expertly done, which is good because this is a film that lives off its script and
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
direction. The script, written by Chris Sparling, pushes unbelievable constraints onto the director, not allowing him any shots of the people on the other side of the phone. Yet, despite that, it’s a script that works, and which knows the value of quiet moments as well as intense ones. Clearly this is something that director Rodrigo Cortés understands as well. However, his real achievement is being able to simply film ninety minutes of one man, in one tiny location, and keep the audience interested with a wide variety of shots which are punctuated by flashy close-ups of Paul’s eyes or mouth. The music
outside of the film’s many silent interludes is punchy, and carries weight, and the lighting editor gets the easiest job in show business, as the only lights are provided on screen. But, of course, this is a film that lives or dies on the performance of Ryan Reynolds, and he brings out one of the tightest and best performances of the year. There isn’t a single shot in the film without him in it but he never gets tiring; he completely understands the subtlety and weight the director and scriptwriter are trying to convey here, and that’s why this film works. This is the best pure thriller to come out in a long time. Tim Bates
Takers
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Director: Nigel Cole Release Date: 1/10/10
Harking back to 1960’s East London, Made in Dagenham shows the booming industry, suave haircuts, and union strikes that heralded a revolutionary era for Britain. An era when labour could be unskilled, black and white TV’s were rented, children were taught by corporal punishment and inequality was not just a workplace problem. Sally Hawkins (HappyGo-Lucky) plays Rita O’Grady who fronts a strike demanding gender equality at the Ford motor factory in Dagenham. Hawkins settles into the lead role with a quiet confidence that beautifully reflects the rags to roll-ups story of the working class
seamstresses who fought to be recognized in a maledominated workplace, and, indeed the world. As production at Ford stalls, the bosses soon realize where their chauvinism is getting them. Bob Hoskin’s character arrives as a refreshing advocate of the strike, providing light comedy scenes and a penchant for that 60’s working class spirit, fighting not just for equal pay, but equal opportunities. Yet it is even less a film about women’s rights than a documentary - that is a documentary with dramatic license - which is unafraid of stereotypes. This film is archetypical in celebrating the solidarity of small communities overcoming large social problems. Jonathan Brady
Director: Oliver Stone Release Date: 6/10/10
Gordon Gekko is back. It just took Oliver Stone 23 years to revive him. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is the much belated sequel to the 1987 original which won Michael Douglas his first Oscar as the slick, egotistical trader. But it is Shia LaBeouf who takes centre stage this time round as Jacob Moore, an ambitious young Wall Street trader working as the market wavers on the point of collapse in 2008. Unsurprisingly, it just so happens that his pro-green girlfriend Winnie (Carey Mulligan) is Gekko’s very own resentful daughter. So when Jacob’s mentor is forced to commit suicide, Jacob uses the
fragile father-daughter relationship as leverage to conduct a series of ‘trades’ with Gekko in order to exact revenge. But can Jacob really trust a man who introduced the motto ‘Greed is good’? Occasionally this film feels slow, dawdling over countless pans of the New York skyline and indulging heavily in long sequences of unnecessary cinematic effects which make it seem like Stone is trying a little too hard. Yet it creates an interesting insight into the world of stocks and shares without succumbing to the easy mistake of getting lost in a sea of trading jargon and figures. Lorna Pontefract
Director: John Luessenhop Release Date: 1/10/10
Takers tells the story of a group of elite bank robbers (Chris Brown and Michael Ealy) who plan their heists carefully to avoid capture by the police. The film opens with a predictable and poorly scripted ‘tough guy’ conversation between the robbers which pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the film. Whilst the thieves concoct a plan with an exteam member to steal $20 million, a troubled and selfdestructive detective (Matt Dillon) is hot on their heels. The story unnecessarily relies upon exposition to centre on the characters’ personal lives, adding little to the overall plot which is somewhat lacking in
depth. Further headaches include shaky camera work used during fight scenes, doing little else but to disorientate the audience who struggle to keep up with who’s shooting who. The flimsy plotline is almost saved by impressive stunts, frankly unnecessary car chases and a few wellblanced gun fights, which gives the film a fun and frivolous feel. A film which requires minimal concentration, Takers is a safe bet if you’re looking for explosions, guns and Russian gangsters. Andrea Taylor
THE HOLE 3D
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DVD RELEASES THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE
4.3.2.1
Director: Tom Six Release Date: 4/10/2010
Director: Noel Clarke Release Date: 4/10/2010
A grotesque slice of gruesome body horror, The Human Centipede is the tale of Lindsay and Jenny, a pair of American tourists who, after a flat tyre, find themselves stranded in a forest somewhere in Germany one dark and tempestuous night. Foolishly seeking aid at a nearby house, the two are soon in the clutches of Dr Heiter, a sadistic and psychopathic surgeon who intends on using the girls, and a third victim – a hapless Japanese man - in a horrific scientific experiment. Heiter plans to turn
4.3.2.1 (co-directed, written, produced and starring Kidulthood and Adulthood’s Noel Clarke) shadows the individual stories of four best friends with the plot centred around a diamond heist that they all manage to get muddled up in. Though the acting is dubious at times, and the plot consists of one cliché after another (as every possible storyline has been chucked in for good measure), the film does develop well. In the end, underneath the gritty, London subculture that has been done to death in
them into ‘Siamese Triplets’, connecting them by their gastric systems to fulfil his demented lifetime fantasy of creating a human centipede. Whilst the premise may sound disturbingly original, The Human Centipede in fact plays out like a tedious checklist of every horror cliché known to man, a mercifully short ninety minutes of screaming women, frantic chase scenes, gratuitous violence and jolts that fail to be particularly jolting.
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For an industry that churns out more films than Hollywood, it’s pretty shocking that more Indian cinema (alright, Bollywood.. look, technically it’s not, there’s loads of different.. fine, whatever) doesn’t break out to a global audience. Discounting the crossover atrocities of Gurinder Chadha, which you pretty much have to, you could probably count them on one hand. Peepli Live has, in it’s own small way, made a splash further abroad. So what is it about this low key comedy that makes it stand out? It becomes obvious almost immediately. A far cry from the camp
theatricality we’ve come to expect from Indian cinema, Peepli has more in common with Chris Morris than Shahrukh Khan. Brimming over with a kind of dark humour rarely seen outside Europe, Peepli is fearless and witty, somehow drawing humour from some pretty serious issues (the recent spike in suicides amongst Indian farmers; dark enough for ya?) without getting too cynical or preachy. It’s not perfect; the script runs out of steam in the last act, and there are some distinctly amateur performances. But this still beats the majority of western comedy, and only Four Lions tops it for satire in 2010. India’s government and press, consider yourself told off. Duncan Vicat-Brown.
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Director:Anusha Rizvi Release Date: 24/9/10
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The 12A has come a long way. Deep in the murky depths of Hollywood’s condos producers have decided to unleash some genuine horror on the delicate imaginations of young teenagers. The Hole features some of horror’s most long standing motifs; walking and talking dummies, dead children, a conspicuous use of blood and lighting and camera shots that make you want to scream “Look behind you!!!”. But what really makes it special is that, surprisingly, The Hole can also be characterised as a family drama. Moving home, absent father figures, young love,
and sibling rivalry all take place in a separated sphere to the horror elements. There is even a cameo by Alan, mum’s new boyfriend. This is something of a schizophrenic film, and characters such as Alan come and go, but don’t let the duality of the film put you off. The makers of The Hole have dreamed up a sub genre of their own, unleashing Chucky, The Candy Man and that dead girl from The Ring on to a conventional 90’s drama. Not surprisingly, the result is highly watchable. Know any 6 year olds with fragile minds? Now is the time to turn the screw and welcome them in to the modern age (in 3D).
That said, the centipede itself is a stomachchurning creation and when Heiter begins to train his creature like a domestic pet, things do become more interesting, if extremely bizarre. Yet the whole film is drastically overacted to the point of cringe-worthy hysteria, and its claim of being “one hundred percent medically accurate” is, frankly, laughable. Overall, a terrible disappointment. Michael Lovelock
modern British cinema, the touching truth of the girls’ friendship surfaces. This is where the rough, grimy London scene comes in useful as it prevents this subtlety of the plot from being nauseatingly sweet, with it instead succeeding in being quietly powerful. The beauty of this DVD is how it masks this subtext with the thriller/drama tone making it suitable for all audiences rather than alienating male viewers who may not find these friendships as poignant.
The film as a whole is a clean production,; well directed, with sharp camerawork managing to stylishly sew the four separate accounts together. All in all, a perfect film if you want something good but easy to watch on a night in, but not so good that you’ll go out and get Fresher’s Flu just so you have an excuse to stay in and watch it from the comfort of your bed. Josie Lister
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Helen Jones
Director: Joe Dante Release Date: 22/9/10
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Realising that she has lost her appetite for life, recently divorced Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) decides to leave her American life behind to cross the world in search of herself. She finds food in Italy, prayer in India, and Love in Bali. Eat Pray Love could have been wonderfully original, with a big star heading it, and a lovely idea behind it, the film had all the ingredients for great success. However, the reality was very different, and having to sit through two hours of this film was very difficult. The film sparked no emotion whatsoever. From start to finish the film did nothing, achieved nothing, and
evoked nothing. It wasn’t the acting that let the film down, Julia Roberts did what Julia Roberts does, it was the script and the storyline that tore this film apart. Eat Pray Love was cheapened when after an hour and a half of the story being about escaping men, self discovery and finding inner peace, it is turned into a romantic comedy, with all the trimmings.
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Director: Ryan Murphy Release Date: 24/9/10
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Up and Coming... The Coen brothers, whose prolific careers have spanned over two-and-ahalf decades at this point, have only really dropped the ball twice – the ‘meh’ of Burn After Reading and the ‘eh?’ of The Ladykillers. Their eclectic backcatalogue is a rattlesnake of consummate excellence weaving its way through the dark undergrowth of genre definitions, art-house sensibilities, mainstream staying-power and Steve Buscemi. In 1996, they made one of the best films ever. Yes, it’s Fargo (though Barton Fink is actually their best film, by… not a considerable margin, but a margin). They rocketed
back into the mainstream again in 2007 with No Country For Old Men – a bleak, violent neo-western with Javier Bardem doing his ‘I’m not from here’ thing with a wig on (it might not be a wig; we can only hope it is). It seems the critical and commercial market leans pretty strongly towards the quote-unquote ‘serious Coen pictures’, the ones with wood-chippers and long, ponderous desertscapes and a pressure canister that shoots holes through people’s heads. True Grit is a neo-western remake of a revisionist John Wayne western, starring Jeff ‘Lebowski’ Bridges, Josh ‘No Country’ Brolin and
Talking Movies
Twenty-five years have passed since Back To The Future first skidded onto the silver screen with blazing tyre trails. To commemorate this milestone Universal has re-released the first of the trilogy into cinemas. The rerelease of this 80’s classic raises the question of whether or not re-releases are just cash cows. Is it worth paying for a cinema ticket in order to see a film that could be bought on DVD and watched at home? All three Back To The Future films will soon be released on Blu Ray with digitally remastered audio and visuals. Is the choice
to show the first film in cinemas again an elaborate promotional event for the upcoming Blu Ray release? Theatrical re-releases can be incredibly lucrative. There is still a large demographic of cinemagoers who will pay to see a good film, be it contemporary or a classic. When Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange was re-released in 2000 it grossed a further £2.1 million on top of its original profit. While film companies are losing a lot of money through piracy , can fans understand that the film industry needs all the money it can get? If this
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True Grit > Tom McInnes looks forward to the Coen Brothers’ first western (sort of)..
Matt ‘I Haven’t Been in a Coen Brothers Film Before’ Damon. The brothers have stated that, much like No Country For Old Men, the film will be a more-or-less entirely faithful adaptation of the original novel. From the looks of the trailer, it will also look and feel entirely like No Country for Old Men. Which is great, right? I mean, that’s what we want, yeah? Well… What really places the Coen Brothers above their contemporaries is a consistent and immediately distinguishable voice – a sound, a rhythm - the heart of their pictures is dancing to quite different beat. Their first novel-
A teen phenomenon, the Twilight Saga has received some scathing reviews yet has been lapped up by the public. Cinemas played victim to all the screaming Twi-hards fans practically hyperventilating when Robert Pattinson appears on the screen (or when Taylor Lautner takes his shirt off). Twilight is a classic guilty pleasure, because even though it is sickeningly cheesy and Bella needs a slap, it brings you into a fantasy world of sexy vampires and werewolves. What more could you want?
Scary Movie Franchise
The Scary Movie films have been a massive hit, collecting around $818 million at the box-office. The franchise has also led the way for more spoof
films, such as the dismal Epic Movie. Critics have
adaptation, No Country is a good film, but it’s not really a Coen Brothers film. Cormac McCarthy’s voice is too strong, and it permeates every scene with its existential gloom. No Country is a great novel, from a powerful novelist, shot through a filter of topnotch cinematic technique – it’s a beautiful portrait of a person you don’t know. True Grit will, no doubt, be much the same – a great film, for sure; but not a Coen Brothers film. Still, at the rate they’re firing them out these days, maybe it’s good we’re getting a more eclectic selection. The brothers are at a crossroads in their careers;
no longer the new kids on the block, not nearly the old guard. They seem to have subscribed to the middleaged-filmmaker-as-shark philosophy, in constant fear that they’ll keel over dead if they stop working. Morgan Freeman appears in every other film you see for the same reason; same with
Christopher Walken. If the two ever met on screen, it’s totally plausible that they’d either immediately die, or turn into some sort of celestial bird. Tom McInnes
Amy Griffins debates whether the Back to the Future re-release keeps this 80’s classic timeless or the cash flowing for the film industry.
is the case, then can they be forgiven for rather blatantly trying to increase an old
re-introducing classic films to a younger generation. The film may focus
film’s profitability? A less cynical way of looking at the re-release of Back To The Future is that the film companies are simply
heavily on the concept of time, but it remains quite timeless. Today’s teenagers can still relate to Marty’s fear of rejection, and the
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skateboard stunts will always be impressive. The pop culture references continue to be appreciated by most of the audience. After twenty-five years the humour is relevant and even the slightly dated jokes entertain the generation who experienced the 80’s first-hand. With one fifth of all moviegoers being aged over 45, the theatrical rerelease of this classic film can provide a nostalgic night out. It makes sense for a cinema to offer the older generation of cinema-goers the chance to see a film that they know that they will
definitely enjoy. In spite of the recent advancements in home theatre technology, the atmosphere of the cinema is unmatched. The experience is infused with the scent of popcorn and the great feeling of laughing along with fellow fans, not to mention the unrivalled sound quality. Anyone who has always wanted to hear Alan Silvestri’s memorable score roaring out of a cinema screen’s sound system is lucky enough to have another chance – don’t miss out. Amy Griffins
Do you have Reservoir Dogs down as your ‘Facebook Favourite’, when you really mean Dirty Dancing? This week Beth Wyatt discusses her Top Five Guilty Pleasures of film.
universally poured scorn on these films. But for teenagers, the Scary Movie franchise is entertaining – with the Scream parody being one of the best known – and fans will be pleased that a fifth addition is due to hit screens next year.
Evelyn) it still features fun moments such as the entrance of giant Yetis, and Evelyn’s hilarious brother Jonathan still features. In my opinion, the original film is the best but beware if you are squeamish – the scarabs are not pretty.
The Mummy Franchise The Mummy films offer action, exciting plots and exotic desert locations. The third film was especially mauled by critics, but although it was the weakest of the three (one reason being that Rachel Weisz is replaced in her role as
Snakes on a Plane
This comedy/horror show was an internet sensation before it was released. For snake-phobics the premise of the film wasn’t enticing, but actually it is a hilarious ride. Samuel L. Jackson has fun as an FBI agent, and so do the writers – constantly
The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels
in competition to find disgusting ways for the cast to become snake food. The toilet scene, in particular, earns the ‘disgusting’ tag. So, if you want to watch a film which doesn’t take itself seriously, then this is the one for you.
My final guilty pleasure is the sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl. I have not included the first film in this list as it is adored by critics and fans alike. The sequels are viewed less favourably for their length and ‘confusing’ side-plots. However, I personally love the sequels as Johnny Depp is still spot on as the lovely Captain Jack Sparrow, and the introduction of the tentacled Davy Jones is very interesting (but slightly scary). Beth Wyatt
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Bryan has the lungs and the gusto that some twice her size may lack, bassist Rhydian is a picture of cool, and drummer Matt, with his hair flying around his kit, kept the frenetic three-piece together. They play a hazy mix of pop and grunge that coaxes you in and then fires you back out in a cathartic surge. Sample-oriented The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade was a fan favourite, ending with a refrain of “Happy for you, happy for you…” And indeed people are. The JF have come this far on the back of incessant touring and are finally getting recognition. On the evidence of this gig; a triumphant show, ending in a riot of feedback, crashing cymbals and a military siren wound by Ritzy herself, they are definitely ones to watch. Alex Throssell
Despite having a cold, singer-songwriter Marie Uzor, aka Girl In A Thunderbolt, was a brilliant start to a threesome of talented Norwich bands. She began with her own songs, her voice warbling over acoustic guitar, then halfway through explained that all the acts that night were performing covers of each of the other band’s songs. Using a loop pedal, she covered the headliner’s song Six Noughts with her own unique style. She spent the rest of her set with three more members playing guitar, drums and flute, as the already busy Arts Centre filled up. Sargasso Trio blended 1980’s synth sounds with contemporary twists, with members hopping on various instruments such as the keytar, and switching
microphones. It was easy to see from their smiling faces that they were really enjoying themselves. This energy bounced back into the audience as the band members joked with the crowd, who laughed along to lines such as “just stick it in the hole”. Although you couldn’t call any of the bands polished, it was the rawness and frivolity of each act that made them so likeable. The Trio ended their set on a high with The Drum, at which point the crowd was moving along in full swing. The Neutrinos provided an eerie sound and broke into the atmosphere with Horse Pills and Dog Meat. The lead singer Karen’s voice, reminiscent of PJ Harvey, ranged from high and soft, to low and loud in a heartbeat with her next song Mother’s Mother Tongue.
A personal highlight was Sharkbait, with its sing-a-long chorus. It would have been nice to hear a few more favourites, but at least they left you wanting more, shown by the eruption for an encore as they left the stage. They returned moments later and the camaraderie between the bands was shown as the female members of the previous two bands joined Karen at the microphone, dedicating their final song to a drunken group of friends dancing at the front, one of whom invaded the stage to sing with them.
This Will Destroy You - Arts Centre 29/09/10 Herefordshire six piece Talons had the honour of taking the main support slot at the Arts Centre tonight. With their debut album set to drop before the end of the year this ambient-rock act are in the process of making waves all over the country, and this was evident in the size and response from an audience that obviously came with high expectations. With an unorthodox string quintet consisting of two guitarists, a bass player and two violinists, Talons stood out from the off. Backed up by powerful rock-laden drumming, the unusual mixture sparked into life with Isis. From then on their nerves evaporated and their sheer musicianship took over. Their mix of string driven classical
warmth and heavy edge is unique and will develop with maturity, making Talons a band to keep an eye on. Main act This Will Destroy You were greeted by a stillness settling over the crowd. As the Texan post-rockers took to their instruments a sense of intimacy between them and their audience became apparent. The band played a set dominated by material from their highly anticipated album Tunnel Blanket; the vast dynamic changes and hauntingly beautiful melodies that drive tracks such as Freedom Blade become even more vivid when heard live. With few of This Will Destroy You’s tracks being shorter than five minutes long each song they played took you through a journey
of emotion with a majesty that befitted the vaulted wooden arches of the old church. On a rare occasion one of the members would use the microphone to address the audience, but then only to show their appreciation of the amazing support. With This Will Destroy You’s other UK dates being in Manchester, London and Glasgow, the number of people who attended this gig shows how well supported and diverse Norwich’s music scene is. Bands of This Will Destroy You’s calibre are not a common occurrence, and for them to play to a highly appreciative and numerous crowd demonstrates how lucky we are to have a scene of this strength on our doorstep. James Woodward
Carmina Masoliver
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The Neutrinos - Arts Centre 25/09/10
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and flooded the Waterfront with a wash of sound. Lewis Bowman stood serenely at the mic, juxtaposing Alex Parry’s frantic guitar strumming, which invigorated the band, seguing into O Maybe I with consummate ease. Lewis’s vocals bowed the set toward old Joy Division records and Paper Thin, with its intertwining, chiming guitars, was technically adept, but some of Chapel Club’s songs verged on becoming a bit dull. All The Eastern Girls was the height of their set, and wonderfully written, but they perhaps haven’t convinced everyone yet. Headliners The Joy Formidable were anything but. Their friendly disposition and endearing charm meant the crowd were already on their side, not that they needed any help. Diminutive frontwoman Ritzy
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Tonight The Waterfront hosts the first iteration of the NME Radar Tour for this year and the usual question comes to mind: is tonight a true showcase of talent, or simply another ‘bands of tomorrow’ gig that never comes to anything? With funky bass riffs, off beat hi-hat provided by their female drummer and full band vocals, Wilder delivered a sonically pleasing set of alt-pop songs and impressed in their half hour opening slot. Flats then provided an anarchic blow to the head of the indie hordes and blitzed through their dizzying punk set in just over 20 minutes. The discerning fan could probably have found flaws, but the crowd won’t forget them anytime soon. Chapel Club distinctly calmed the mood
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NME Radar tour - Waterfront 28/09/10
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Interview: The Joy Formidable When The Joy Formidable headlined the NME Radar tour at the Waterfront on September 28th, Venue’s own Alex Throssell was there to witness the madness unfold. He even managed to catch up with them for a few words before the show... Define your sound for those that don’t know you; have you got a party line?
You seem to always play better live and have a fantastic reputation for it.
Rhydian (Bass) - No, I we wish we did! Ritzy (Lead vocals, guitar) - I don’t wish we did, I’m really glad; I like that fact that people get easily confused by the sonics. Ry - I don’t know, you write what you write, I think when you start defining it, it becomes limited in some senses. We do things more on a song by song basis but I like to think we would be capable of doing anything. Matt (Drums) - The next album might be ragga!
Rz - (Laughter) I don’t know about that! There have been plenty of mistakes, but we are a three piece you know, you are quite naked, you have to maybe work at it a little bit harder. We certainly make sure we are as powerful and as dynamic as we can be. Ry - Really just so much gigging has been the key thing, that’s where you really hone in on things. We have been rehearsing incessantly before this tour but we have been saying, nothing compares to actually doing a couple of shows and getting back into it.
Have you been to Norwich before? Rz - Yeah, we love Norwich, this is practically our adopted home. Ry - A lot of people in the media even think we are from Norwich. Rz - We have done a lot of shows here though, especially at the Arts Centre, even some of our very first shows were in Norwich. Ry – it’s just great to be back here, the crowds are always amazing, people are always saying that but they really are.
How does it feel to now be headlining the NME Radar tour? Rz - It means that we can run over and not get into as much trouble; we have plenty of songs, so it’s easier to please everybody when you aren’t just given half an hour! It’s just nice to know that maybe the audience is a little bit more yours if you are doing a headline show. Ry - You have more control of the atmosphere, lights and things. I mean we
aren’t really the type of band that relies on that kind of stuff, but it’s nice that the ideas we have can be given a bit more thought and freedom. Oh and you get a half decent sound check, instead of being thrown on and not really hearing a thing.
Do you put in more effort live now physical albums sales seem out-dated? Ry - I suppose there is no doubt that the live side of things is thriving, but in terms of longevity they have to be great songs first. Rz - I think with this album, we want people to enjoy it, there is the eternal optimism, we want people to start going back and actually find an album that they want to invest in, not just flick in and out. The whole fickleness, how everything is quick and just a quick fix, I think it’s difficult to know how it will resonate, but that’s something we have certainly thought about; that we want this to be a listening experience and something that has got a lot of depth and meaning to it, and hoping that in some way it’ll be more of a proper album, rather than just a collection of songs that no-one really connects with.
Interview: Architects
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best live, how can we be selling out?
Architects new album, The Here and Now, is due out in early 2011. How was that process for you personally?
You have said that there is a theme of ‘questioning what you do’ on this record. Can you expand on this?
I feel that on this record I had more of a creative input, that I was working hard and making something important at an important time. This record definitely has a whole new sound for us - it’s a progression, like every Architects record. The way we worked in the studio this time was completely different; every song has got a different guitar sound, none of the vocals have been touched up, its all 100% natural. It’s nice to say that this is completely us, as if you were just walking into band practice.
Anyone who is in a band sees it as the best job in the world, but if you’re touring ten months out of the year, it’s extremely difficult to hold down relationships. You go away from the people you love, do your job and then come home to have to try and rebuild those relationships. It’s the same as those people who go to university really. You have to put things into perspective, and the record straightens out a lot of questions we had about what we were doing, and maybe about eachother. It was a nice positive vibe at the end.
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we’re a band, we’re friends with them.
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Tech-metalcore five piece Architects threw down at the Waterfront on October 8th, and released their latest single, Day In Day Out, at the end of the summer. Steph McKenna talked to Sam Carter from the band in anticipation of the gig.
You are halfway through your first headline tour of the UK for what seems like a long time. How are you feeling? It feels pretty good! London and Manchester sold out and everywhere else is extremely close, which hasn’t happened before, so things are really going somewhere for us. We’ve spent about 9/10 months of this year touring in other countries, and after these UK dates we will be in America and Canada for seven weeks before hitting Australia. We finally head back home in December. It’s crazy!
Why do you think that your fans have such a close affinity with you? We’re five guys who love playing music and having fun, and we’ve somehow managed to get away with it. I think that’s what people want. We’ve never taken ourselves too seriously, or been the kind of rock stars that sit on the bus and shut the door. No matter how many people are at the show, I want to hang out with people. I’ve always wanted to be the guy who hangs out with a kid at the end of a show and then when they go to school the next day they’re stoked, you know? Which is why I think people can relate to us- it’s not like
The new single, Day in Day Out, has received a mixed fan reaction. How do you feel about that? One thing that always blows my mind is people saying that we’ve ‘sold out’. We haven’t, this sounds exactly like Architects. People who criticise in that way…they really haven’t listened to us properly before. There is a change in direction on this album, but if anything, it’s heavier and rawer than some of the songs off Hollow Crown. Maybe the fact that we’ve moved away from the technicality of things has scared people a little but it’s just like Follow the Water! If that song goes down
You seem to creep up on a lot of other band’s records? I seem to be like ‘Rent-a-Vocalist’! I sang on the new Your Demise record, on Comeback Kid, I’ve sung with Bring Me The Horizon. It’s so flattering and a lot of fun, you get a new perspective with other musicians. We have guest vocals on our new record, and when people hear them they are going to be shocked and very happy…I know I definitely freaked out!
Ever get the feeling that you’ve been cheated? Sometimes, your favourite bands just go ahead and make albums that just plain suck. While it’s inevitable that not everyone is going to be great all the time, it still annoys us here at Venue. That’s why, this issue, we’re taking aim and firing at the cretins who had the guile to not remain at a consistent level of awesome throughout their long and varied careers. A middle finger salute to you all! Try being less rubbish in the future...
HOLE: NOBODY’S DAUGHTER BY ALEX ROSS
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Apparently, this parrot is auditioning for the new Hole lineup. Eric Erlandson will be thrilled.
CHRISTINA AGUILERA: BIONIC BY EMMA WEBB At one time or another, the majority of the world’s favourite musicians have some kind of slump – whether related to an embarrassing public scandal, a disappointing album or a regrettable navigation away from their signature sound. One time ‘Queen of Pop’ Christina Aguilera has achieved two out of three this year, with her fourth studio album Bionic failing to even scratch the surface of her multi-platinum past. It’s had critics slamming her new sound as ‘robotic and noisy’, and attracted comparisons between her new wilting dance image and the sensationally eccentric Lady GaGa. It is possible that Aguilera was trying to appeal to a new wave of dance music that has catapulted the likes of Iyaz and Tinie Tempah to global stardom with just a handful of hits. More likely, though, Christina Aguilera’s career is in genuine peril of the same curse that turns so many high hopes into faded one-hit-wonders: is our blue-eyed soul singer simply going out of fashion? Dubbed a ‘new Madonna’ in her early years, Aguilera sat comfortably in a small niche of powerhouse women with the likes of Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. Now, thanks to the X Factor-induced success of Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke, bolshy women with big voices are popping up all over the music industry making claims to her throne. It seems the Queen was toppled only by the arrival of a true musical magnificence, and has made all the wrong moves to win back her status. The disappointment surrounding Bionic aside, it seems absurd that a woman brimming over with exceptional talent would ever feel a need to replicate another songstress in such
a way. It is easy to forget that whilst her big and memorable number ones – Genie in a Bottle, Dirrty and Beautiful to name but a few – guaranteed her commercial success in Great Britain and the USA, it was Mi Reflejo, her little-known Latin album, and collaborations, such as the Lady Marmalade video for the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge, that fast-tracked her way to stardom. It was also Aguilera who chose to break away from her original management, insisting she didn’t
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the public’s perception of a once great band, and that is surely the ultimate disappointment.
see herself as a ‘bubblegum pop singer’ and was capable of writing her own hits, which she has repeatedly proved to be the case. Also a hugely generous and active philanthropist, Aguilera donates hundreds of thousands of her star salary every year to charities supporting women in violent relationships; she also served meals to Haiti survivors and donated all her wedding gifts to charities supporting those devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It is surely not in the interests of either her or those whose lives she has contributed to so selflessly, to chase the image of a woman currently wearing an outfit made entirely of raw meat. Whether a victim of changing trends or an excusable human error in judgement, Christina Aguilera fans everywhere are waiting for her to dust of her perfectly-executed legato and return to being the singer we know and love – after all, why be GaGa when you can be Beautiful?
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More than a decade after Courtney Love’s Hole gave us the genre-defining Celebrity Skin, and almost twenty years since the abrasive and obtuse Pretty on the Inside, the least pleasant, but most made-up woman in rock music returned earlier this year with an Axl Rose-esque desire to dismantle any legacy her former band might have had. Of course, the media circus around Nobody’s Daughter was to be expected. Mellissa Auf Der Maur’s insistence that nobody had contacted her, Love’s childish
petulance; “[Hole is] MY Band, MY name and MY Trademark” and legal battles with former guitarist Eric Erlandson reminded us that, like Axl, Love’s music has been secondary to her neuroses and her public image for far too long. For proof, look no further than leading single Skinny Little Bitch which sounds like a Garbage tribute band, with lyrics written by a seven year old who stayed up late to watch The Wire. Pacific Coast Highway sees Love attempt some sort of horrible Bob Dylan impression, faking his nasal southern drawl with embarrassing and genuinely distressing results. Yet, the most remarkable thing about this record is Love’s ability to saturate every song with as many teen angst clichés as possible, whinging on How Dirty Girls Get Clean; “I’ve lost my mind yeah, I’ve lost control/I’ve the lost the feeling in my arms, I’m a lost soul”. Courtney Love turned 46 this year. Any optimists who held out hope that the addition of former Larrikin Love guitarist Micko Larkin’s involvement would provide some much needed relief to the mind-numbing repetition were only subjected to further disappointment. Having traded West London for the Hollywood hills, Larkin‘s creative flair is only notable by its absence. His guitar on the indescribably insincere Letter To God ends up sounding like the result of Nickleback and The Script playing a benefit gig for tinnitus sufferers. If Nobody’s Daughter had been released as a Courtney Love solo record, as was the original intention, it would have been quite rightly ignored, and pitied as a less than average album by a woman who long ago lost the faith of her fans. But by scribbling this new album title onto the end of Hole’s discography, Love has needlessly and cynically interfered with
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THE TURKEY LIST: 2000-2010
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Yeah, that’s right. We’re that annoyed off at the occasional failings of our favourite artists that we’ve spread this article over two pages. To every band/solo act that made this list, we say, for shame! Sort it out next time guys, lest you make this list in 2020. The people have spoken!
Greenday :21st Century Breakdown By Fiona Howard Until 2004, you’d most likely have associated Green Day with catchy pop-punk tunes about the joys of masturbation and getting high. American Idiot, on the other hand, was a plethora of hits with a hard-hitting political and emotional message of disillusionment, essentially becoming less snot-nosed and more Bruce Springsteen. For all intents and purposes the album was nigh on flawless, providing hits and awards in an overall new, more grown up and relevant manner. While most bands have to worry about the difficult second album, Green Day had proved that your eighth could be the real clincher. American Idiot sky-rocketed the band to a commercial success unlike anything they had seen since 1994’s Dookie. American Idiot had garnered enough respect and critical revenue for a sold out world tour and a spin-off Broadway musical. Four years on, however and fans were jonesing. With the announcement of 21st Century Breakdown in 2009, the question remained whether this
new album would pick up where American Idiot had left off or go back to their well-loved roots. Unfortunately for most discerning fans the album wasn’t so much a follow on but a rehash of their bigger and better 2004 hit. Being released in the wake of Obama fuelled hope and change, the record’s enthrallment with Bush hatred was no longer relevant to a new age of fans and left-wing America. The stories of St. Jimmy and Extraordinary Girl had been heartbreaking and told through beautiful lyrics over exciting and varied riffs and beats. This new album, however, was a disappointment. The distorted beginnings of Holiday that achieved an eerie feeling of a call to arms became an effect overused on songs such as Last of American Girls and Viva la Gloria!, ending up grating and overdone. Sounding like it had been made up of bad B-sides from American Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown could have been
scraped together at the last minute, rather than the four long years it took. Springsteen continues to capture the voice of the working class hero. Green Day have fallen flat. This album is destined to be part of your collection as a dedicated fan, but only ever listened to when you’re really desperate or looking for a laugh.
This man doesn’t want to be an American IdiotTM
Linkin Park :A Thousand Suns By David Murphy
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The Turkey List 2000-2010
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No, this isn’t an inkblot; it’s the actual A Thousand Suns album cover
While many recording artists would crave albums on a par with Hybrid Theory or Meteora in their back catalogue, no one would want to follow them up. Linkin Park’s first attempt to do this, with Minutes to Midnight back in 2007, was met with mixed reviews and a general conclusion that fans wanted more songs in the nu-metal vogue of their older releases. More guitars, more screaming and more energy. After a long and anxious wait what the fans have got is A Thousand Suns. They’ve still been left wanting. To its credit, ATS is not without some standout moments. Blackout has all the depth of a band on their fourth studio album with some well balanced pianos and electronic rhythms, and Chester Bennington’s signature scream on the chorus.Wretches and Kings moves to the other end of Linkin Park’s spectrum. A homage to classic hip-hop acts like Public Enemy, it blends the best of Mike Shinoda’s rapping with a distorted, guitar driven beat that begs for a hefty sub woofer. Unfortunately these are two peaks in an otherwise barren landscape of an album. Waiting for the End and Iridescent both appear to be songs meant for other artists.
They don’t hold any of Linkin Park’s character, charm or intensity. On Iridescent the band descend into banal pop melodies that could have been reeled off a computer in any adolescent’s bedroom. The soundbites of speeches from Martin Luther King Jr. and J. Robert Oppenheimer placed between songs ultimately add little in the way of substance. The closing track, The Messenger is a real horror show. A band which is perfectly suited to layered, rich and intense songs attempts a bland acoustic that feels pinned on in a last minute decision based on what other ‘established’ acts have done. It leaves listeners with the terrible notion that Linkin Park, who are often been praised for their innovation and diversity, are playing this album by the numbers. Perhaps no new album would have glowed in the shadow of their earlier work but is this disappointing attempt foreboding a disappointing trend for the band? With the group’s insistence that this is their best album to date however, we might have to brace ourselves for what follows.
Chinese Democracy: Guns n Roses By Alec Plowman So, here’s the thing: Chinese Democracy was always going to suck. If it takes you eleven years to write an album, you’re going to be in trouble. If your whole band quits/gets fired and is replaced by a plethora of bizarrely attired session musicians/circus sideshow freaks in the process, you’re up the creek without a paddle. Given that expectations were so low in the first place, can Chinese Democracy even be considered a disappointing release? Yes. A Resounding yes. Yes with bells and whistles on it. The worst thing about the album is that it’s not all bad. If you can strip back the ginger dreadlocked one’s bizarre penchant for apeggiators, hip-hop loops and lyrics about beating up his ex-wife (no joke; listen to Sorry and grimace), he’s actually written some halfway decent songs. They may be missing the welcome presence of everyone’s favourite top-hatted guitarist, but, if you can be bothered to listen to the record more than once, tracks like There Was A Time hold up reasonably well. Unfortunately, Axl put the Guns N’ Roses
No... Words...
stamp on Chinese Democracy, and it is everything that goes with that tag which makes it a car crash of a record. Guns N’ Roses called themselves the most dangerous band in the world. In their heyday two of their members were, at various points, declared legally dead. The Guns N’ Roses of 1987 wouldn’t have made an entire record that was a lament to the relationship with their ex-wife. They would have shagged her sister, raided her liquor cabinet and written a song about that. They would probably have OD’d on her lawn as well. Ultimately, Chinese Democracy isn’t an album. It’s an act of public indecency, the kind that should get you an ASBO or 30 days in a cell. What makes things even more worrying is that Axl Rose has promised two sequels in the future. We can just hope that he’ll put them out under his own name, rather than tarnishing the drug addled legacy of his former companions. Well, that or wait until there’s democracy in China before releasing them.
For this issue, we invited contributors to submit work based on this photograph... To Float Away
Breezy
I would love to float away To fill my lungs full of helium and rise above the crowds Higher and higher
It seemed best to buy her a red balloon to match the colour of her hair as her hand slipped into mine as easily as lemonade on a sticky summer’s day
Higher and higher……. Thistles and dandelions rose from the lawn by the shed with the blue door as we went through the squeaking gate while clouds skated across the sky
I would watch the people all day Never fretting about getting back down Blissfully content, not having to think about life far below I would see the world with a birds eye view My people seeming so small, insignificant, lonely How easy life seems here in the clouds, above my world
She giggled a little as I kissed her against the cream-washed walls before opening the rickety old blue door to find a man lying on the floor
Soon my blissful time is up With every breath I use to take in the wondrous view I move slowly ever closer back to my world
His eyes were locked in a lifeless stare and his mouth rolled open as we turned and ran from that place and locked the door and locked the door
As soon as I land, I crave that helium lift I want to float away, higher and higher From my world
Robert Van Egghen
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Next Issue Theme for the next issue: ‘Just a Feeling’ Email your submissions to: concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk by 20th October
Stephen Pester
Quote of the Week “Even when poetry has a meaning, it may be inadvisable to draw it out” - A. E. Housman (1859-1936) English Classical Scholar and Poet, best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad
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Mr Jefferson hadn’t noticed her. He sat slouching in his chair behind the counter, the same way he did all those years ago. At least he was one thing in the town that didn’t change – he might be greyer, but he was still the same in every other way. As she approached the counter, Mr Jefferson looked up. ‘Oh! Are you… Cloe?’ he asked. She nodded. ‘I haven’t seen you in years! How have you been? What brings you back here?’ Mr Jefferson smiled at her with animation. ‘I’m fine. I’m here for my grandmothers’ funeral.’ Mr Jefferson’s’ grin dropped quickly. ‘Of course. I should have realised. It was so tragic. So unexpected.’ ‘I remember how you used to come here so often,’ Mr Jefferson continued nostalgically. ‘You brought those packs of red balloons so often. Where do I keep them now, I wonder?’ ‘Here,’ replied Cloe. She put down a pack on the counter. Mr Jefferson looked at it in surprise, before exclaiming, ‘for old times sake, eh?’ ‘…You could say that.’ ‘Fair enough.’ Cloe held out a hand with money, but Mr Jefferson waved it away. ‘No need. Not least today.’ She thanked him and left the store, walking towards her grandmothers old house. Her phone rang. It was her mother. ‘Cloe, dearest, where are you? I thought we were going to walk together from the hotel. You do realise it’s only half an hour to the funeral, right?’ ‘Yeah. There’s something I need to do first, I’ll see you there.’ ‘Are you feeling okay? I know it’s hard,’ she said sympathetically.
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When UEA’s Creative Writing Society took over The Birdcage on 6 October to host Speakeasy - a showcase of some of the society’s best open mic talent from the last academic year. - it was packed out with keen writers and students from all over the city. Mr John Simpson Wedge - a man often accused of being Norwich’s answer to Dr. Seuss - hosted the night in top hat and waist coat, guiding the audience through a fantastic night of spoken word. There were poems about love, sex, death, and zoo escapes (every poet’s favourite things to write about), London-based prose with all the voices performed, as well as some touching fairytales. UEA CWS is soon to be holding a Freshers and Newcomers open mic particularly for people who have never performed at a CWS event before. “Like a Virgin” will be held on the 25th of October at 7.30pm in the UEA Grad Bar, upstairs from The Hive.
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CWS ‘Speakeasy’ at The Birdcage
‘I’m okay,’ Cloe replied untruthfully. Her mother was perceptively unconvinced. ‘Well, we’ve all got each other to work through this. We’ll be okay.’ Silence. ‘Oh! I’ve got to go Cloe. Promise me you won’t be late.’ ‘Of course not. Bye.’ ‘Love you! Bye!’ ‘I love you too mum,’ she said, but she had already hung up. It’s funny how rarely those three words are spoken, she pondered. Especially given how temporary everything is. Arriving at the house, it was a bleak contrast with the place of the past. The whole house was gathering dust, with wallpaper worn away. Above all, there was a sad silence, an emptiness about the place. The saddest part, however, was in the garden. The blue wooden door was battered and the walls dirty. The previously carefully maintained garden had been overrun, a single wilting flower the only testament to its former days. Everywhere the place was a sign for decline. Cloe sat cross-legged on the grass. Her balloon stood boldly defiant against the decay around her, bright red in the garden of dark greens and browns. It reminded her of those lost days in the past. Days spent running, laughing,imagining. Days when all her grandparents were still alive. Then she looked to the light blue sky, filled with birds flying in all directions. No matter how much life is taken out of this world, thought Cloe, there will always be some left in it
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Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow has returned for the second series and that is testament to the success and appeal of the roadshow formula. McIntyre shot to success thanks to his appearance on Live at the Apollo and since then he has sold-out tours, and is now hosting his own programme. The show offers comedians the chance of exposure they previously would not have received. PreRoadshow, the best that comedians could hope for is to sell out pub gigs, or to land a role in a sitcom. We’ve seen Jason Manford gain exposure resulting in sold-out tours and eventually a regular prime-time slot on The One Show. John Bishop gained enough popularity from being on the show to earn two programmes on the BBC, and a good measure of the shows value can be seen by rival channels attempts at replicating the formula (see Channel 4’s Stand Up For The Week). Before the show, the stand-up comedy market suffered from monopolisation. Comedians often had to earn their right to perform through award winning sitcoms (Ricky Gervais in The Office) or long, hard-earned careers (Billy Connelly). Comedy is very much alive at the moment, and that is largely down to Comedy Roadshow. On the other hand, is it a reflection of the throw-away
nature of society that the Comedy Roadshow formula has become so prevalent? Its popularity has surpassed that of even Mock The Week, which can only demonstrate that our attention spans have shortened further in the past three years, cheapening the art of comedy to Youtube friendly clips. This creates two problems; the first is that as a nation we are quick to jump on bandwagons and catapult people into the limelight before we’ve seen them fully. On the back of Comedy Roadshow, comedians who are not funny or talented have had successful nationwide tours. Because they have not had a chance to prove themselves over a period of time, their success will be short lived and their fame limited. The second problem that has occurred is down to the short nature of the windows on the programme. Now comedians do not have to have a wealth of comedic material in order to become successful; all they need is to fill a 6 minute slot. By digesting comedy in these bite-sized chunks we are stunting the growth of true comedians, and watering down stand-up to fit on our iPhones. Save British comedy and bring back real stand-up and talented comedians. Tom Theedom
GET TO KNOW ARDAL O’HANLON Ardal O’Hanlon brings to mind Craggy Island and endearing images of Father Dougal McGuire, accompanied by his down to earth yet hilarious sound bites, such as “Oh right, yes Ted” and “God Ted, he’s probably very cold now that his towel has blown away”. Hanlon’s role in Father Ted rivals My Hero as his most famous achievement. But, aside from these, you will find that he has made many appearances in both the British and Irish comedy scenes. Hanlon first started as a stand-up comedian whilst studying communication studies at Dublin City University. Here he founded one of Dublin’s first stand-up clubs, The International Comedy Cellar, on Dublin’s South Wicklow Street. In 1994, he won the Hackney Empire New Act Award where he was scouted for Father Ted, which ran between 1995-1998. Between 1998 and 2000 he starred in the award
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THE TV ROADSHOW: GOOD FOR COMEDY OR TAKING THE MICHAEL?
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FRINGE BENEFITS: ADVENTURES IN EDINBURGH Picture the scene: it’s eleven o’clock at night. You’re in Scotland. A man in a gimp mask has just leapt out of a laundry bag and started belting ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ in your face. If you’re finding this at all hard to picture, you either have a – fortunately – limited imagination or you’ve never been to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Despite now in its 64th year, the Fringe shows no sign of falling behind in experimental, bare-faced innovation, and Late Night Gimp Fight, a five-piece sketch troupe wearing, as you’ve probably cleverly deduced, rather a lot of leather, only served to further this opinion. Indeed, given that more than a third of the shows performed here each year are world premieres, the Fringe has become something of a home for all the envelope-pushing carnivalesque you could possibly wish for (or not, as in the case of the now-notorious Sex Idiot – a one-woman show about the perils of Chlamydia, in which the artist takes clippings of the audience’s pubic hair for the purposes of making herself a rudimentary moustache. No, we didn’t go and see it). However, for those of you who prefer your comedy pubefree (as I’m sure a healthy number of you do), the Fringe Festival also plays host to a smorgasbord of stand-up and sketch talent, many comedians either beginning or ending their annual tours here. If you’re thinking of going to see any of the myriad stand-ups visiting Norwich this semester, chances are they’ve used Edinburgh as their comedic petri
dish. We were lucky enough to catch shows from the likes of Stephen K. Amos, Kevin Eldon, Andrew Lawrence, and – albeit fleetingly and in the pitch black (as part of the fairly Ronseal-esque titled Comedy in the Dark) – Greg Davies and Josie Long, before they were let loose on the unsuspecting public this Autumn. A couple of us even had a go at a bit of stand-up ourselves and, despite the already fairly small audience being comprised of either people who wanted to get out of the rain or people who wanted somewhere to eat their tuna sandwiches, it all went down fairly adequately and we were warmed by the thought that we had become a part of something much greater than ourselves. Then it all got a bit existentialist and we went and had some Irn Bru. Our tips for next year? Book shows well in advance (the ticket office is teeming and there’s nothing quite as disappointing as having queued for an hour only to find out the only way you’ll get to see your heroes is a via quick stalk around the chip shop), don’t expect much in the way of sleep (shows can start any time between 10am and midnight. Bring Pro Plus and staple open your eyelids.) and don’t be afraid to try something a bit different. Yes, even if it does have the word “gimp” in the title. Although, in that circumstance, you should probably read a synopsis or something. You know, just to be on the safe side. Sarah Arnold
winning short film Flying Saucer Rock and Role. From 2000 to 2005 he played the lead in the BBC’s My Hero. From then on, in the UK, he has taken part in many one off projects: Ben Elton’s Blessed; Robbie the Reindeer; Skins; and Comic Relief. More recently he has had success with the Irish shows; Val Falvey, So You Want To Be Taoiseach and Leagues Apart. This brings us to 2010. Hanlon is a veteran to the Edinburgh Fringe festival, and this year his show Come in, Come in produced a narrative of everyday life and the makings of his new tour; Ardal O’ Hanlon is Trying to be Positive. His tour, which started in September brings promising new additions to his Edinburgh material. Hannah Speed Performing at the Playhouse on the 12th and 13th October.
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YOUR GUIDE TO WHAT’S GOING ON IN NORWICH Thursday 21st
* Where’s Wally’s Flange - Mercy 10:30pm (free entry before 11:30pm) * The Charlatans + Shaun Ryder - LCR 7:30pm (£23.50)
Tuesday 12th
* Local Farm Market - LCR - 11-3pm * Pyjama Party - LCR - 10pm (£3.50adv) * The MOBO Tour ft. Skepta - Waterfront - 9:30pm (£10adv) * Film - SUS - Norwich Arts Centre - 7pm
Sunday 17th
Friday 15th
* Film - Alice In Wonderland - LT1 - 7:30pm (£2.80) * The Hot-Tub Party - Mercy - 10:30pm * Bowling For Soup - LCR - SOLD OUT
* Manic Street Preachers - LCR - SOLD OUT * Twenty Twenty feat Future Boy - Waterfront - 6:30pm (£9.50) * Vampires Rock - Theatre Royal - 7:30pm
Tuesday 19th
* Totally OTT - LCR - 10pm (£3.50) * Pillowman - The Playhouse - 7:30pm (£10-£13) * Attack Attack! (US) - Waterfront 7:30pm (£8)
Wednesday 20th
* Marina and the Diamonds - LCR SOLD OUT * The Comedy Store - The Forum - 8pm
* Mercy’s 7th Birthday - Mercy - 10:30pm
Sunday 24th
* Crystal Castles - LCR - 7pm (£13.50adv) * Darwin Deez - Norwich Arts Centre SOLD OUT
Monday 25th
* Tinie Tempah + Chiddy Bang - LCR SOLD OUT
Not to be missed...
* Sloppy Flange at Mercy, Thursday 14th... one cheap, messy night out!
plished website where you can check out the latest events, reserve a table or book a party for you and your friends. It would be wise to purchase a privilege card for £4, which gives you a notable discount on drinks. They offer a wide range of alcoholic beverages, from six shot sticks to pitchers. If you’re really up for burning the student loan before Halloween you can get hold of the ‘Directors Pitcher’ for £50. This contains Russian vodka and champagne amongst other ingredients but it’s probably the kind of beverage for a Norwich City end of season promotion party rather than the average student. Add this to the open plan design of both floors and you get a communal feel, ideal for mingling students. Opposite Vodka Revolution in Norwich is Knowhere, an underground bar. If you can put up with the lack of phone signal you can enjoy student triples for £3.50. These two venues complement each other very well and are certainly worth a try if you’re looking for something a lit-
ARTS
Nightlife in the fine city of Norwich has been ever changing over the last few years. Since the closure of Lava/Ignite more than four years ago, students have drifted away from Riverside towards the City Centre. Prince of Wales Street has been the main hub for student nights out in recent years - however a new nationwide chain has brought its lot to the table. Vodka Revolution opened this month on Queen Street, in the location that was formerly occupied by the Orgasmic bar. Their first bar opened in Manchester fourteen years ago, and Vodka Revolution, known affectionately to many as Vodka Revs, now has over sixty bars nationwide. One attribute that Vodka Revolution has that its rivals Optic and Mercy lack is a wide range of food as well as drink. As well as your standard dishes such as steak and pizza, they offer unique cuisine in the form of a vodka burger and vodka pizza, which contain vodka chilli for those who enjoy a spicier dish. Vodka Revolution also have an accom-
CREATIVE WRITINg
The evolution of revolution
MUSIC
* Fozzy - Waterfront - 7:30pm (£12adv) * Word Of Mouth Presents Attila The Stockbroker - Norwich Arts Centre - 8pm (£5)
* Club Retro & Club Neo - LCR - 10pm (£4.50)
WIRED
* The Other One + Elektricity - LCR - 10pm (£4.50) * Meltdown + POW! Party Boys - Waterfront - 10pm (£3.50/£4.50 on door) * How The Koala Learnt To Hug - Norwich Arts Centre - 2pm (£6) * The Full Moon UV Rave Party - Mercy * Little Red Robin Hood - Norwich Puppet Theatre - 2:30pm (£5-£7)
Monday 18th
tV
* Film - Letters to Juliet - LT1 - 7:30pm (£2.80) * Sloppy Flange, The Gunk Tank - Mercy 10:30pm (free entry before 11:30pm) * Meltdown @ UEA feat Gary Powell LCR - 10pm (£4NUS £5 non-NUS) * Ardal O’Hanlon - LT1 - 9pm (£12.50) CANCELLED
Saturday 16th
tle bit different from your average night. While Vodka Revolution is not a night club it’s affordable drink prices and wide variety of music certainly gives it the potential to be a highlight of any pub crawl or night out. While no-one would like to speculate
when, if ever, Lava/Ignite will re-open, it’s fair to say the other fine drinking venues of Norwich need to up their game to keep up with the Revolution. Ian Hobbs
fASHION
Thursday 14th
Saturday 23rd
FILM
* Film - Get Him To the Greek - LT1 7:30pm (£2.80) * Thank F*!K Its Friday - Mercy 10:30pm (free entry before 11:30) * Mr Scruff - LCR - 9pm (£8.50 NUS, £11 non-NUS adv)
COMEDY
Friday 22nd
Wednesday 13th
* ATTACK! ATTACK! feat. Straight Lines and That Sunday Feeling - Norwich Arts Centre - 8pm (£7adv, £8 on the door) * Rambert Dance Company - Theatre Royal - 7:30pm * Example - LCR - SOLD OUT
LISTINGS
listings
LISTINGS
COMPS
24
12 Oct10 ISSUE 245
concrete.competitions@uea.ac.uk
Crossword 1
2
4
3
6
7
9
10
11
13
COMEDY
14 15
CREATIVE WRITINg
tV
WIRED
MUSIC
FILM
19
ARTS
5
8
12
fASHION
competitions
16
17
21
20
22
23
18
Across 1: The act of making louder (13) 6: Britpop band (5) 7: Name of famous postman (3) 8: Roundish reproductive body produced by the female of certain animals (3) 9:A rule or law usually expressed by an equation or formula (7) 11: To defraud; swindle (5) 12: Vehicle (3) 13: Franz Ferdinand hit, Take me __ (3) 14: A picture usually made up of small coloured stones (6) 15: The buttocks, US slang (3) 17: A small structure, usually a news or refreshment stand (5) 19: An Inuit’s house (5) 21: Something that is published or distributed (5) 22: To alter the character or structure of (6) 23: Dog house (6)
Down 1: To bring forth a fetus before viable; miscarry (5) 2: 19th century French chemist, founding father of microbiology (7) 3: The act of putting or placing in (9) 4: Not clockwise (13) 5: Female nightgown (7) 8: To vote in; Student ___ (9) 10: Small, tubular pasta (8) 12: Skull (7) 16: Usually a cold vegetable dish (5) 18: Sound of a bell, esp. at a funeral (5) 20: A clumsy, stupid person (3)
Win Sum 41 Tickets! Canadian punk rockers Sum 41 will be tearing down the LCR on 27/10/10 as part of the Eastpak Antidote tour and, courtesy of the Union, we have two tickets to give away! Best known for singalong crowd-pleasers like ‘Fat Lip’, ‘In Too Deep’ and ‘The Hell Song’, Sum 41 are renowned for their relentless touring and thrilling performances. They’ll be joined on tour by up-and-comers Black Pacific, The Riverboat Gamblers and Veara. For a chance of winning just bring your completed crossword to the Concrete Office by 3pm on Friday 22/10/10. Name: E-mail: Mobile:
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