The Event - Issue 146 - 15 January 2003

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02 contents

CONTENTS: 15.01.03

EVENT

THE

He llo and welcome to your all new and improve d Ev e nt . New logo, new layout, new columns and a fresh approach. This fortnight we are getting under the finger nails of Norwich's nightlife and e xamining the grime. We also caught up with Black Books star and pisshead, Dylan Moran for a c h a t . The centrespre ad is an insight into CD:UK, we chat to Cat Deele y and Craig David, and dis h the gossip on Brian Dowling's backstage antics .

We als o have exclus ive interviews with Chicago s c riptwriter Bill Condon and Schindler 's Ark a uthor Thomas Keneally. So read on, and Ha ppy New Year.

Luke Wright, Editor

Editor-in-Chief Katie Hind

Features 04 ENTERTAIN M E How entertaining is your city? What are we lacking in Norfolk for a good night out?

06 THOMAS KENEALLY The award-winnin g author of Schindler's Ark talks about his new novel, The Office of Innocence

08 BILL CONDON Chicago's acclaimed screenwriter talks to The Event about musicals why winning an Oscar can be a let down

10 DYLAN M O RAN

Editor Luke Wright Arts Editor Kathryn Hinchliff Assistant Arts Editor Nathan Dixon Fihn Editor Ryan Stephens

Star of Channel 4's Black Books talks about his comedy career and his new film with Michael C aine.

11

SEXY CITY GIRLS With the new series of Sex and The City underway we ask, is singledom really the way ahead for us now?

12 CD:UK EXPOSED We get back stage at the UK's premier music chart show to ch at to C a t Deeley and a whole host of other stars.

Assistant Fihn Editor Phil Colvin Music Editor Mischa Pearlman Assistant Music Editor Joe Minihane

Regulars 03 Opinion Deconstructing the myth of the celebrity marriage

TV & R a dio Editor Britt Juste Picture Editor Ed Webb-Ingall Listings Editor Matt Sargeson

03 Critical List Fortnightly round-up of the best in live events

05 Burn Out/Fade Away This fortnight it's demised britpoppers Lush

06 Cinefile 1990's crime-drama Out of Sight

Contributors: Simon Bre tt • Katherine Clemow • Astrid Goldsmith • Kate Herrington • Liz Hutchinson • Jon Last • Charlotte Roland • Toby Sleigh-Johnson • Gordon Smith • Jim Whalley

Sp e c ial thanks to: The electricians who let us use an emergency power cable during last week's four day p ower cut; Liz for scanning. MC RJ, for tunes and tobacco. Happy 21st b irthday Luke!!!

The Event is published fortnighrly by Concrete: Post: PO Box 4 10, Norwich , N R4 7TB Tel : 01603 250558 Fax : 01603 5 06822 E-mail : su .con crete@uea .ac. uk Printed by: Archant Newspapers, St Andrew's Bus iness Park, Norwich

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15.0 1.03

14 Albums Erasure, Bonnie Prince Billy, InMe and The Faint

15 Singles The Libertines, Supergrass, Echoboy, Wilt, and more

16 Films Chicago, Gangs of New York, MiBJJ, Reign of Fire

19 Arts Chicago, HitchHiker's Guide, The Office of Innocence

09 So You Think You Know 20 TV/Radio Fortnightly quiz. This time round it's The New Wave

1 1 Almost Famous London solo artist Bird answers the questions

American sitcoms, TV Films, Footballer's Wives

22 Listings Films, Gigs , Clubs and Arts in Norwich this fortnight

opinion 03

• •

111011

With Jennifer and Drew about to tie knot number three, ~ Minihane asks, are celebrity marriages really worth anything? do.' Two such short words, but next to 'I love you,' they are probably the most significant that you are ever likely to utter to another human being. That is, if you are the average person on the street and not an A-list Hollywood star, who can afford to throw away excessive pay cheques on lavish weddings and the ensuing divorce after a stormy four month marriage. In the past few weeks, Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Lopez have both announced their intention to marry their respective others.

That's great, right? They're happy and we get to see 'exclusive' press shots in Hello three months after the event. By this point it is more than likely that the divorce papers will have been filed and they'll be plotting their next period of partying followed by another announcement of marriage. Divorce is a fact of life, and everyone has the right to leave a marriage if they do not feel comfortable in it. Of that there's no question. The fact is, though, that you and I, or those of you reading this who are or have been married, probably plan to tie the knot just the once. And this with someone that we are absolutely certain that we want to spend the rest of our lives with. Sure, things don't always go to plan, but it is pretty clear that for many people marriage is a very serious subject. When we say 'I love you' after a few months in a relationship, it signifies moving on to the next level, making a greater commitment to your partner. In Hollywood it seems that this stage simply means let's have a really big party and get married at the same time. Drew Barrymore is the best case in point. Having got married at a young age, she divorced and married Canadian 'comedian' Tom Greene, filing divorce four months later, citing 'irreconcilable differences.' She is now to marry Fab Moretti, the mop top drummer with New York rock-

ers, The Strokes. All this before she has hit the age of thirty.

Jennifer Lopez finds herself in the same predicament, getting prepared to marry Ben Affleck on Valentine's Day. They may be happy now, but what about when the going gets tough? What if one of them goes through a period of poor health and the other finds it hard to cope? Hypothetical, but then don't you consider all eventualities before getting hitched and then state that you're with someone in sickness and health? At the risk of sounding like a Conservative Party peer waxing intellectual on the torrid state of society, isn't marriage supposed to be a sacred institution?

And when it comes to celeb marriages we can't get enough: Heat has the latest scoop on the wedding, Now has details of the prenuptial agreement and OK's got the story on how all parties are moving on after the divorce (getting married). It's great to see people getting married and living happily ever after, but we all know the truth is far removed. Marriage is something that many of us will experience, and doubtless put much effort into making it work. It all·boils down to one simple adage: a little thought goes a long way.

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Critical List A new fortnightly round-up of all

l the lie t gigs, plays, films anCI shows that any self-respecting UEA student iust can't aHord to miss •••

01 Dyla n Moran The comedy genius behind Channel4's Black Books brings his new stand-up show to our fine city. (see interview on page 10) The Playhouse, George Street, Norwich 25/01/03- £i0112 (01603 630000, for hooking)

02 The Asleep The bluesy garage rockers return for a headling show at the Arts Centre. The band are on top form at the moment.

Arts Centre, St. Benedicts Street, Norwich 20/01/03- £4/5 (01603 660352, for hooking)

03 Easyworld Sublimely controlled mayhem and effervescent melodies from the Eastbourne outfit, last seen in these parts supporting Supergrass last year.

Arts Centre, St. Benedicts Street, Norwich 27101/03- £4/5 (01603 660352, for hooking)

04 Wombat Wombat The local indie promoters return for the new year with quite a big gig on their hands: Ryan Adams' drinking buddy Jesse Malin is ready for Norfolk The Arts Centre, St Benedicts Street, Norwich 23/01/03 • £4/5 (01603 457683, for hooking)

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05 Louis De Berniere

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06 Omid Dialili The Perrier Award nominee is one of the funniest men in the country. Anyone who has seen his few TV appearnaces will that this is not be missed.

The Playhouse, George Street, Norwich 17101103-£10/12 (01603 630000, for hooking)

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I

The author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin is in town for a reading. Quite what he is going to be reading is unknown, but fans should check it out.

The Arts Centre, St Benedicts Street, Norwich 16/01/03 • £4/5 (01603 457683, for hooking)

\\

07 Dirty PreHy Thing s Omid Djalili Stephen Frears' latest offering, A multi-cultural urban thriller with agritty, political edge.

Confirms Frears as one the best Bristish directors·.

Cinema City, St Andrews Street, Norwich 10-16/01/03 Concessions £2.50 (01603 220047)

08 Chica go

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PRINTS COME WITH A WHITE BORDER OPTION (EXCLUDING 10X8)

DylanMoran

Possibly the Film event of the year. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zelwigger and Richard Gere star in the remake of the classic musical.

UCI, Ster Century Fro:r:n 26/01/03 Prices vary

HURN CHEMIST 143 UNTHANK RD.NORWICH. NORFOLK. NR2 2PE.

15 .01.03

0 4 features

Entertain Me alking to students at Leeds University a few weeks ago I was amazed at how many of them b ased their university choice on the nightlife in the city. When I was at college my plan was always to try and get on the best course possible and then worry about entertainment at a later date . It never dawned on my young , foolish mind that there might be a little bit more to choosing my home for the next three years, and judging by the fact that you're reading this , you probably made similar ch oices . For whilst UEA migh t sit among the better of the 'new' universities , Norwich doesn't exactly have a glowing reputatio n when it comes to extracurricu- 路 lar activities.

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1

When I meet people and tell them I live in Norwich they look at me in pity, as if I've just told them I have some embarrassing, yet not life threatening, disease : "What's that like? " They ask with raised eyebrows. "Oh right , so do you try to get to London as much as possible?" Is another frequent response, to which I normally just shrug with a defensive, "Oh I don't know, there ' s a quite a lot going on in Norwich." Yet, recovering from a weekend stay in Leeds , and listening to friends in Newcastle planning for the coming week, I started to wonder if we really were missing out in the East of England, and whether we would look back on our university years with a sense of lost opportunity . After all, other university cities like Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool are renowned for their club culture; York and Oxford can boast world famous culture; and Brighton and Bristol are the birthplaces of countless underground scenes . But if you asked teenagers in Britain today what Norwich meant to them they probably just say Alan Partridge. In the same way that Janet Street Porter became a Pamela Stevenson sketch for most of the 1980s, to the rest of the UK Norwich is satire first, city second. The sort of place most people like to laugh at, but few would consider entertaining.

However, for those of us who live here, it doesn't matter what the rest of country thinks, for we have a far more serious task on hands - keeping ourselves entertained.

With its sizable intake of students and the increasing amount of young professionals that settle down here each year Norwich does have a large youthful demographic that needs to be entertained and the city has had to make allowances for it . Over the past few years a number of new bars have opened up to bridge the gap between the traditional pub and the nightclub environment. Po Na Na , Orgasmic, Slug and Lettuce, Kafe Da , Ha! Ha! and Bar Maximo have all opened in the last five years , couple this with the recently developed Riverside complex and you have an impressive collection of over-priced bars for a city as small as this .

Yet the problem that a lot of students have is not the lack of places to go but the fact that they are not being offered anything new. Leather sofas, chrome plating and an extensive range of chicken club sandwiches seems to be the only criteria for a new bar in this city and the UEA students are starting to feel that they have seen it all before . " It doesn ' t matter if you've never been to a particular bar before or not , because the moment you walk in the atmosphere and feel is the same in a lot of the places in Norwich," says Simon Hooson (EAS 3) .

And whils t a good atmosphere relies as much on the punters as it does a bar's management, you feel the design of p laces such a s Norwegian Blue doesn't help matters. At times you feel like you are in a poorly lit Habitat showroom, the ashtrays and th e top 40 soundtr ack the only reminders that you are actually on a ' mad night out. ' This problem might be less noticeable if these bars operated more like they were clubs, dancing and the end of the night alcohol daze making up for the atmospheric shortcomings , but despite the trends of other cities, these places seem to serve only as a pre-club warm up here .

"When I'm at home I go out in Croydon, " says Becci Lawrence (EAS 2). "The nightlife is better than in Norwich because a ll the bars s tay op en later and there are more clubs to go choose from. Alternating Liquid and Ti m e gets a bit boring after a while ."

So , Norwich isn't on a par with Croydon, maybe some cause for concern then. Some people fee l that a few extra clubs might give Norwich the extra edge needed when it comes to the midnight hour, but with the existing smaller clubs, such as Ikon and Lockstock, empty and lifeless during the week one wonders whether another nightclub wo uld actually pull enough punters to stay open longer than six months. However, if there was another club to compete with the big boys , per haps we could continue with the concepts of physics theme . Following on from Liquid and Time, Norwich kids could b e spending future nights out at Entropy - where the action starts in order and descends into chaos over the course of the evening .

It is possible that Norwich's lack of big nightclubs is caused by the series of club nights hosted at the UEA's two venues , The LCR and the Waterfront. Union club events extend far beyond the LCR Thursday night disco .

UEA's Student Union is one of the bes t in country for putting on events and the Fresher's weeks every year is always successful. W hilst students like to have a moan about the LCR as much as anywhere else, there is something glorious about the tackiness and cheese, that we all hold dear to our hearts and the complaining becomes just part of the fun . However, the_Union also host more serious nights out. Third Year student, Bruce MacDonald (SO C 3) is fairly impressive by the all-nighters at The WaterFront, "I think the main nights they have , for example Rumble , are all pretty good. I wouldn't really want to go to any of the mainstream club s, especially not Liquid, but it would be nice to have a few more big nights up here, as they are only really fortnightly a t the moment."

Dance fans, such as MacDonald, are also keen to point out that there doesn't seem to be much musical diversity at Norwich ' s alternative dance events, " If you're not really into drum n bass, house, and to a lesser extent, garage , then there's nothing really going on for you up here."

7

"1\rl'l'll I'I''S 'l,lli\.SIIY, Nl~l\ YOitli (;Jit(;i\. I !177 I~IU~J.. '1,0 1'1', '1, 111~ IJ NJ)I~It(;ltOIJ NJ) IS 1\.S fJOOJ) 1\.S 1\.NY Lll..'l'l~llNil颅 '1,1\rl~ (;J.. IJII NJ(;JJ'I' 路 (;lri'S OIJ'I'SJJ)I~ 01~ I..ONnON" However, students don ' t really have much alternative then to get by the best they can when living in Norwich because the city is so isolated . Whilst those living in the North of England have a cluster of large towns to try and test out for nightlife , Norwich ' s nearest big town is the culturally starved Ipswich, which i.s not worth traveling fifteen minutes to for a night out, let alone fifty. Fourth Year EAS student James Whalley is originally from Huddersfield, and whilst he admits Norwich does hold it's own in terms of nightlife with his home town , he notes that there were other alternatives , "The people I knew at home who went to clubs mostly got on a train and went to either Leeds or Sheffield, but in Norwich, I suppose you haven't really got that choice , unless you go to London."

However, it does seem that the big leisure corporations

•

features 05

Burn Out, Fade Away whatever happened to ...

Lush

Who?

(Above) Time: just burtsing with individuality and character. (Below) UCI: the new face of day-time entertainment

haven't forgotten about Norwich. Being so isolated, the city does need to have all the main daytime leisure establishments otherwise kids would grow up devoid of big screen Disney and public swimming pool verruca.

In the last few years we've earned ourselves a new bowling alley and two new cinemas to add to the leisure pool in th~ West City. So if we have all the daytime activities sewn up, is the nightlife really that far behind?

Talking to older residents in Norwich presents a slightly different picture, and perhaps sheds some light on the sarney nights out the Riverside complex and its associates provide. Part-time EAS tutor Julian Jackson has lived in the city fo:t; about eight years and feels that Norwich is, and always has been, what you make of it, " I've always thought you have to make your own fun. But that said, there's always plenty of things going on, from little reggae nights, punk bands, and all the big DJ nights. There's always been at lot of alternative things going on."

The alternative scene is still as popular as ever in Norwich with the Union putting on big name acts such as Daniel Bedingfield and The Coral this term, to add to a list which features the likes of Robbie Williarns, Super Furry Animals, Supergrass, and Elastica. On the indie club front, the Waterfront's Meltdown nights are still packing the venue out regularly and the Light Bar's Underground nights started up again last year, with Nikki from Norwich lo-fi superstars Kaito, spinning the tunes. With it's trashy, New York circa 1977 feel to it,

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The Underground is as good as any alternative club night gets outside of London. Norwich is not short of hornegrown ·talent either: bands such as Kaito, Bearsuit and The Asleep are all receiving great acclaim and still play their home city on a regular basis. Moving away from the music scene Norwich also has strong arts scenes, especially when it comes to performance poetry. The Chill 'Ern Out Jazz Cafe at UEA is one of the best events of its kind in the country and for a small isolated city that is quite an achievement. If drinking isn't your sole form of night entertainment there is actually a whole host of little things going on to keep you satisfied.

It does seem that Norwich needs some kind of new bar or club that will break the mould and offer students a different kind of night out, but as always entertainment can only really be got if you are in the right frame of mind. Norwich has always been home to hundreds of pubs that provide the kind of night out you have to work. at; unlike a club where the entertainment is laid out, for you a pub requires it's punters to 'make their own fun. • And that is probably the best way to get by in this city, there is enough going on to stave off the boredom, and with a little. creativity and open mindedness you may never be left envying mates living in Leeds or Brighton ... well not much anyway.

In 1988 two school friends, Ernrna Anderson and Miki Berenyi, formed Lush when they were studying English at London Polytechnic University. Following a number of line-up changes in the late eighties, they were eventually joined by Chris Acland on drums and Philip King, former music journalist and member of Alan McGee's eighties no-hopers Biff Bang Pow, on bass. After a few gigs on the dingy London pub circuit they were signed to 4AD and released a number of EPs before their first LP in 1991 . Alist photographer Annie Liebowitz touted them as the face of the 90s, but the band turned down her offers to make them into marketing puppets for Gap. They enjoyed success in the mid-nineties in the shadow of the burgeoning Britpop scene and split after the death of Acland in 1996.

What?

Anderson had been in a number of riot grrl punk bands in the eighties, so the sound was pretty heavy, as loud guitars combined with poppy tunes. Their second EP was produced by the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, hence they were often name-checked by tragic genius and allround songwriting star Jeff Buckley as a major influence on his later material. Their first full-length album, Spooky, charted at number 7, and their most famous single, Ladykiller, charted at 22 in 1996. Chartwise, they weren' t the greatest band ever, but they had a loyal following and a collection of excellent pop tunes to boot.

Why? Lyrically, Lush were 'female but not feminist . ' Ladykiller was about being out on the pull and meeting chavy blokes with cheesy chat up lines. As with much of mid~ nineties pop however, they were rather bubblegurn and didn't seem to have the edge that competitors Elastica had in the bucketload. Some have even, somewhat cruelly, termed them the ' female Menswear.' However, with so many bands around at the time who sounded similar, Lush were actually a group of funky girls with true pop sensibilities.

So where are they now?

After Chris Acland died in 1996, the band spilt and went onto a variety of projects. Ernrna Anderson went on to form a band, Sing Sing, whilst Miki Berenyi moved onto solo projects. Phil King, having been invplved with a number of projects in the past joined former Creation labelrnates Jesus and Mary Chain, who reformed for a UK tour and new album in 1998. Although still viewed as Britpop losers, Lush are vastly underrated, both for their killer tunes and their influe~ce on _g irl groups.

]oe Minihane

15.01.03

06 features

Cinefile

________________________________________ no. 23

The Office of Tom

Out of Sight

Out o f sight, ou t o f mind?

Well, as far as audiences were concerned it was more a matter of 'never in mind'. The film did not exactly make a huge impact upon first release, despite much critical acclaim, which seems implausible today when you consider it boasted star turns from Geroge C looney, Jenifer Lopez, was helmed by the (now) oscar-winning director Stephen Soderbergh and was adapted from a crime novel

by Elmore Leonard, whose back cata logue had already been pillaged successfully to make Get Shorty and jackie Brown .

W ait a sec . . . Cloone y and Lop ez? Sure l y a coupling th a t would be every film produce r's wet d ream ?

Yup. And they are helped by a sparkling on-screen chemistry. Although nowadays hiring the pair would cost around forty million dollars, both were still on the ascending stage of their rise to fame. Clooney hadn't had a big hit yet and was still just that good-looking bloke off of ER who squints a lot, and Lopez, before all this J-Lo nonsense, was just a jobbing actress.

So go on, sh o ck me - what's it all about? Criminals, right?

Shrewd. Clooney plays smoother than silk bank robber Jack Foley, who becomes romantically entangled with a lady from the other side of the law, US Marshal Karen Sisco (Lopez) . She has to track him down but (dramatic pause) will her heart come before her professional duty? All very TV movie in principle , and there really isn't a lot of plot to speak of; most of the film is retold using the popular late 90's storytelling method of copious flashbacks.

t's a Thursday night in Norwich and I'm waiting for someone. As he walks through the door of the Arts Building, grinning from ear to ear offering me his hand with a " Hi, I'm Tom", I could kiss him. I don't.

Partly because I've never met him before and partly because he's not just Tom, he's Thomas Keneally.

As he opens the door he gestures for me to walk ahead sa)ri.ng "Don't mind me I'm an old sexist!"

He's the man who won the Booker Prize for the brilliant and heart wrenching novel Schindler's Ark that was turned into Spielberg's award winning film Schindler's List. This is reason enough to be in a state of serious awe. But my taxi was twenty minutes late and I didn't think I'd make it. I'm terrified the Dictaphone is going to pack up at any second, and this is my first proper interview so I'm hazy on the exact protocol. One thing I'm sure of is that it doesn't involve kissing but, at the risk of sounding disrespectful, Mr Keneally is adorable .

"IIISIIOI•S \\riiO Si\Y 'I'IIi\'1' i\ (;J\ Y (~i\N''I' JlJ~(~J~I\T)~ (~OIIIIlJNION Oil 1\ \\rOIIi\N (~1\N ''I' Ill~ OllJ) J\INI~n, nON''I' lli~St•J~(~'I' O'l'III~Il t•l~ot•IJ~ SO 'I'III~Ili~'S 1\ 'I' I~ N SI 0 N 11 lrl'\\r l~ I~ N 'I' Ill~ t•I.lJili\I.JS'I' \Ti\l~lJ I~S 01~ 'I'III~ (~ OIIIIlJNI'I'Y" 'I'IIOIIL\S Iii~NI~i\ttY The Office of Innocence is Keneally's 24th book and is semiautobiographical. In creating the character of the protagonist Father Frank Darragh he had to recall his youth studying to be a priest. A nervous breakdown just two weeks before he was to be ordained prevented Keneally from fulfilling this role; it is something for which he is now profoundly grateful.

The sympathy for the Catholic Church one would imagine necessary to write a novel about a sincere young priest is entirely absent and for all his theological training and religious background he is an ardent liberal. "Bishops who say that a gay can' t receive communion or a woman can't be ordained, (why a woman would want to be I'm not sure) don't

Thomas Keneally: from a race rockj awed, indomitable m u scular folk?

respect other people, so there's a tension between the pluralist values of the community; the better angels of the community in many ways; and the worst angels of Catholicism."

Most of the men in priest school with Keneally, either never stayed long enough to be ordained or left the priesthood to pursue other professions. He says that as young men they were often easy victims of mystery and the institution. 'We were extremely sexually repressed and extremely unworldly. That is the great problem of celibacy, it's not the lack of sex in itself, it's the continual obsession with it that leaves men emotionally immature. And yet they're telling people what to do with their marriages. It can tend to make women seem the enemy. A world in which 51 % of the population is the enemy is one in which you've already lost."

His latest heroine is based on the women who surrounded him growing up in Australia. "I particularly liked women like Kate Heggerty, the heroine of the book, who comes to a grievous end. I wanted to look at the suburban women who lived in houses like my mother did, that had no refrigerator, no in-house phone, who had no transport. If they wanted to call the department of defence th ey had to take tuppence down to the corner where they would be accosted by the Yanks". In this respect Sydney was no different to any other part of the world where men were away fighting women were alone and afraid with decreasing certainties and increasing numbers of American soldiers for company. The novel is very much about Australia. Keneally is fiercely patriot and believes that it is time for the British hold on the continent to end, but he is conscious of the fallibility of any national identity "When we thrash the England cricket team in four days we suddenly see ourselves as these rock jawed indomitable muscular folk, but as soon as there's a whiff of strangeness like boat people coming in we can become very timid. It 's partly because we're a very young political entity and when you're young you're torn between narcissism and self horror; torn between brash confidence and having your balloon pricked and all the air going out of you."

He is eccentric, jovial, warm and kindly, he is also brilliantly intelligent, wickedly funny and a wonderful writer. I needn't have worried.

So w h at e leva tes it to cin e file-warra nt ing status th en?

A number of things. Firstly , that aforementioned chemistry - sizzling. Lopez can actually act - don't forget she had dozens of films before her before she became a pop diva .

And the supporting cast is magnificent: Ving Rhames as Foley's partner and buddy, Buddy Bragg, Steve Zahn is excellent as their stoner accomplice Glenn , Dennis Farina plays Lopez's father, and Don Cheadle puts in a memo rable turn as an ex-boxing con. The y are served by a witty script and a cool jazzy soundtrack that keeps the pace casual but not lethargic . But the real plaudit has to go to director Soderbergh. His firm grip keeps the film measured and it retains a cool atmosphere throughout, his use of jump-cuts, freeze-frames and, yes, flashbacks is not gimmicky , rather just another few wrenches in his directorial tool-box. He displays a flair for cinematography that would lead to the Academy taking note for his drug opus Traffic two years later.

Rec.

A new section featuring some of our favourite pieces of city street art . If you recognise this particular piece or graffiti and can tell us where it is, then you can the single of the fortnight (see page 15). Answers to su.concrete@uea.ac.uk

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Yes , it is nice to see the talent on display when all involved were so fresh. But this is basically just a damn good film, it will never win any awards for originality as, when it comes down to it, it is just another crime thriller. But all of its elememts (script , direction, acting , soundtrack) are top-notch , and amount to a very satisfying whole. ]on Last

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08 features

Gods, M onsters and believes is responsible for much of the suc cess o f the finished film . "The images that illustrate the numb e rs are as carefully chosen as the steps of the choreography and it was important to have a visual writer, I think , a writer who understood movies. So Rob w as able to think ab o ut the numbers from a choreographer's mind set , knowing that one of us was very well-versed in movies ." Another advantage of Marshall 's involvement , e specially to a thea trical fan like Condon, was his association with the write rs of the original stage musicals of Chicago and Cabaret, John Kander and Fred Ebb . "Rob is like family with them, " Condon explains, "his first job as a chorus boy was in their show The Rink and then his first real big directing break came as the eo -director of Cabaret. So, it was important to him and obviously important to me that they be pleased with what we were doing ." Being able to discuss the story and the possibilities of the film with Kander and Ebb was undoubtedly one of Condon's highlights on the project. "I read them my initial outline and got feedback from them.

More than that , we were - at that point -we were wanting them to write a song, which has ultimately been put over the final credits because it turned out that Nowadays works better for the spot where we thought we needed a song than anything else that we could imagine . It was a dream to be able to meet those two legends, and talk to them about a song and then come back and hear it was just incredible."

Working with Kander and Ebb further convinced Condon that using Cabaret as a model for his script was the

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Bill Condon laughs as he r e a lises the comic cona tion of h is surname ill Condon is one of those rare creatures of modern cinema. A film-maker who appeared seemingly from nowhere in 1998 to both script and direct the acclaimed Gods and Monsters (for which his screenplay won an Oscar) before then dropping off the industry radar for almost three years . He resurfaced earlier this year in the coveted position of penning the script for one of the year's most awaited films , the Hollywood adaptation of the hit musical , Chicago . A film already credited with not only delivering career best performances from Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones but also re-igniting that of Richard Gere. So, in light all his success when he does produce work , where has Condon been for the past few years? "Well , there was that Queen Bess thing ," he explains in reference to his aborted period comedy which was to have featured Glenn Close and Toni Colette , "but I don't think we want to talk about that." Laughing off a doomed project is something few film makers seem able to do these days , especially one who is so selective about the projects he takes on. After more than one disappointment working in Hollywood, though, Condon has learnt to be philospophical. "I tend to get very excited about the prospect of a new film, and if it doesn' t happen I do get disappointed. But it just means I chase harder the next time."

And chasing is exactly what Condon's journey to scripting Chicago entailed. "I'd heard there was renewep interest in it and Miramax had been sending me some stuff and I hadn't been very interested in anything they were sending my way," recalls Condon. "Then I heard about this and really went after getting a meeting with them and with Rob Marsh all, the director." So what, then, was the great

ii#IM!Jijยงii 15 .o1.o3

attraction of adapting a Broadway musical for a man whose previous s cripts had focused on such niche areas as the final years of an ageing film director and the story of the first Jewish Miss America? "I'd always been obsessed with theatre and musical theatre," Condon explains, "and I was in college in New York when Chicago started previewing. It was an excellent show to see, so bleak and so cynical. It was just pointing out that every public institution was corrupt, which was , of course , reflective of the time . It was brilliant and you felt kind of beaten up by the time you

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Chicago marks the directorial debut of Broadway choreographer Rob Marshal!. A move which Condon

perfect way to present the songs of the musical alongside the dramatic story. The writing, though, still provided a great challenge to Condon, but one which, drawing from his cinematic roots, allowed him to explore innovative ways of extending the musical from the world of the theatre to that of film. "These vaudeville turns are performed by people who don 't, in real life, sing and dance . It's a car mechanic and a prison matron and a lawyer and a reporter, so how do you get these people on a stage? That's sort of an easy leap -it's got to be through Roxie's imagination.

That's a device - Dennis Potter is the one you'd have to look to as the author of that , but it's a device that's become so popular with things like Ally McBeal and it seemed like one that the audience could grasp quickly." The juxtaposition between period drama and vaudeville musical could be seen as a strange one, but Condon is keen to point out that its entirely in keeping with the subject matter: " It's not any big leap in terms of Roxie Hart's character," he explains. "Roxie [Renee Zelweger' s character] is somebody who is desperate, in the play, to be famous , so to adjust that a bit so that she wants to be famous specifically because she wants to be famous on a stage wasn ' t a big adjustment in her character. Then we were off and running."

And the result of Condon and Marshall ' s labours seems to be that of a great success. Critical reception for the film has ranged from gentle enthusiasm to ecstatic reviews. And, as the Hollywood awards season warms up, it will be interesting to see how Condon reacts to the success of the film. When critical acclaim came with Gods and Monsters, for example, Condon was only mildly pleased with the result . Like many others in Hollywood, Condon felt the film's success at the Academy Awards had to be put in context of the awards it deserved but didn't win. !an

features 09

Vaudeville

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1) The auteurs of the New Wave famously wrote for which French fil:rn review during the 1950s which is still being published to this day?

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2) The New Wave was a reaction against which popular French f"J.bn move:rnent of the 195.0s, endorsed by the review above?

McKellen had been tipped to win the Best Actor award for his performance as Frankenstein director James Whales. The Academy, however, balked at the prospect of awarding an openly gay actor an award for playing a gay character.

"Winning was bitter sweet," recalls Condon, "the focus had always been on those actors, and it definitely felt that I was getting it for all of us. Oscars work that way, the writing prizes become consolation prizes." Watching the performances from his scripts being interpreted onto the screen seems to be one of Condon's greatest joys as a film-maker.

And whatever disappointment he feels in the past when others haven't shared his enthusiasm hasn 't dampened his own for trumpeting the work of his actors . In particular, he highlights Renee Zellweger's contribution to the film. "I was so thrilled when I first saw those dailies of her watching Catherine do All That jazz. Everything she's doing on her face is her telling the whole story of the movie right there.

Of course, that's the great thing about moVies- an actor' s face can do so much more than a script can."

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3) Which idiosyncratic actor and director, best known for his comedies, was held in high esteem by the auteurs?

4) Which 1950s fil:rn by Roger Vadi:rn is said to be a precursor of the New Wave movement?

5) The fil:rn above was the first screen role of which French fe:rnme fatale?

6) Name the fil:rn by Claude Chabrol which launched the New Wave movement, though to a lukewarm response.

7) What is the name of the production company est ab· lished by Fran.;ois Truffaut which applied his auteurish convictions?

8) Truffaut was banned from which fil:rn festival in 1958 for his extreme opinions as a director only to win the festival's Best Director award a year later for Les 400 Coups

hicago's prospects have been somewhat

improved by the fact that Hollywood musicals are undergoing something of a revival at the moment thanks to the efforts of Lars V on Tier' s Dancer in the Dark and Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge! And it is into this movement that Condon quite happily fits Chicago, but his preferences for particular films extend not just to the modern but also to some of the more traditional Hollywood musicals. "It's hard not to have the Cabaret as a favourite modern musical just because that still seems to me so brilliant in its use of music and the songs, which exist as a counter-point to the action. I think that's just a supreme accomplishment. Of the more traditional musicals ... I' d say Victor/Victoria is a very successful, traditional musical although, in fact, it' s mor.e in the Cabaret model where the songs do exist only on a stage and a song like Crazy World is a song that Julie Andrews' character sings on stage just to express her inner-most thoughts about the confusion she feels in the middle of her budding love affair with James Garner's character. The book musical on film that I think is the best .. . I think Oliver! is a tremendously successful movie as an adaptation of a traditional book musical/Broadway show. I think you can count on two hands maybe the adaptations of Broadway musicals that actually improve on the original material and I think that's one of them."

With his obvious love for both musicals and performance , and his somewhat apathetic attitude towards the machinery of Hollywood, it's interesting to wonder what made Condon a film-maker instead of a playwright and theatrical director. "It's interesting. I had an equal love of film and theatre, an obsession with them, sort of, but I always try to figure out why this happened, why I gravitated more towards film. It felt like the more exciting medium to get into, film seemed to h~ve unlimited possibilities and was opening up in such exciting ways. Theatre seemed to me to be more of a dying artfo;m. I guess it's always been, and has been that way for centuries now." And so has working on Chi cago helped to convince him otherwise? "Working on Chicago and getting to know real theatre professionals especially Rob - I'm excited by the fact that I've always kept it as something I'm fascinated by, but don't know much about. This is the closest I've ever come to understanding how it works from the inside. So, I've remained a true fan.

When you make movies, suddenly, it's hard to not watch the movies and not see the pieces that are going together. You start to look at them in different ways. Theatre has always been something I take in a pure way. It is something I'd love to try my hand at at some point." He smiles.

"Assuming, of course, I can find something to write that interests me."

Chicago goes on general release fro:rn January 17th

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10) What is the name of the ac:tor who played the c:harac:ter above in all five films?

11) Whic:h type of musician is threatened by a firearm in the title ofTruffaut's 1960 fil:rn?

12) The auteurs named whic:h English director as a fellow auteur?

13) Jean-Luc: Godard's Une Femme est une Femme and Jac:ques Demy's Les Parapluies de Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort are the first three examples of whic:h cinematic: genre, never before been fii:rned in Frenc:h?

14) 11. Bout de Souffle was the collective work of which three auteurs, and what function did each play in the fii:rn's production?

15) Godard's c:lassic: 11. Bout de Souffle was remade in A:rnerica as Breathless with which ac:tor as the :male lead?

16) In the early sixties Jean-Luc Godard directed Tout va bien which was a reflection on whic:h significant social event.

17) Wbic:h auteur directed an adaptation of Gustave flauberi's Madame Bovary in 1991?

18) Chris Marker's 1963 'photo-roman' La.]etee acted as the source material for which 90s sci-fi f"J.bn starring Bruc:e Willis?

Answers

Pictures: (in decending order) Catherine Zeta"Jones as diva Vel:rna Kelly; Renee Zelwigger as puffy-faced diva Roxie Hart; In court; smug faced Richard Gere as Billy flynn

1) Cahiers du Cinema 2) La tradition de qualite (the tradition of quality) 3) jacques Tati 4) Et Dieu Crea la Femme (ll.nd God created woman) 5) Bridget Bardot 6) Le Beau Serge 7) Les Films du Carrosse 8) The Cannes Film Festival 9)Antoine Doinel 10) Jean-Jacques Ikaud 11) A pianist (Shoot the Pl.arust) 12) Alfred Hitchcock 13) The musicall4) Truffaut (plot), Godard (script and direction), Rohmer (artistic superv:~slOn) 15) Richard Gere 16) The protests of May '68 17) Claude Chabrol 18) 12 Monkeys

15.01.03

10 features

Almost Don't Ask Me That Famous Looking Beyond the Top 40

no. 7 Being grante d an inte rview with Dylan Moran is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, Moran is an extremely funny comedian who has a lot to talk about. Since winning Channel Four's So You Think You're Funny award in 1994 he's gone on to win the Perrier for his stand-up, starred in Simon Nye 's BBC2 series How Do You Want Me? and won a BAFTA for Black Books, the sit-com he created with G raham Lineham and stars in with Bill Bailey and Tasmine Greeg. He has also embarked on a film career, following a small p art as Rufus the Thief in Notting Hill with a lead role in The Actors, al"o ngside Michael Caine, to b e released later this year. On the o ther, however, Moran can be a little too close to his drunken, unpredictable Black Books character to allow any conventional form of discussion . Calling in four hours late , his excuse of "sorry, a funeral came up" was a reasonable indication of what was to come .. .

Appare ntly you ' re curre ntly writing the third s eries of Blacl{ Books , and y ou 'v e g ot a film comin g out with Michae l Caine - where do you fmd th e time to write a n e w stand-up routine ?

It 's not something you sit d own and do in one g o, it 's like, sort of like scrap ing up lots of litter, and you put it in a b ig bin and then throw it all ove r p e ople .

What's the new show focu s ing on?

Oh , I don't know, it's , e r, I'm too busy b e ing in the middle of it to know wha t it's about. It' s just all my scrapings in one ... wad .

Have you performe d any of the m a te rial b e fore?

Oh no, it's a new show, a totally new sh ow.

If you had to pick b e tween stand-u p , sit-coms and movies , which would you pick?

I just try to choose b etwee n working and not working and try to p lump for work. As long as I'm doing something I d on 't re ally give a stuff.

How d i d you come to b e in the positio n that y ou 're in at the mome n t?

I did a lot of session work when I was younge r so I worked a lot singing a nd playing cello for different bands . Then I got to a point where I thought it was time to wri te for myself so I started Bird. I just thought that it was time to branch out and start writing and be a bit more creative, because it's great doing session work but you get fed up with rehashing everyone's songs.

So why the name Bi rd?

It 's short and it's at the beginning of th e alphabet! I went under my own name to start wi th but it 's so personal! kind of thought tha t if you get a bad review you feel that they 're getting to you personally. If you give yourself a name a nd a different identity, it sort of makes it more of a project. I was just sitting temping one day when I was a bit skint and it sort of popped into my head really. It seemed like a good idea and being a London chick it all fell into p lace.

Who are y our m aj or i nflu e n c es?

A lot of female singer so ngwriters. I'm a drummer as well , I used to play in b a nds wh e n I was younger so a lot of my early influences are people like The Police , those kind of ban ds that were a bit edgy b ut still had a kind of commercial feel to them . Fem ale wise a Jo t of American singer songwriters. I used to love Roberta Flack and as I g ot o ld e r I starte d to ge t into Ala nis Morrise tt e a nd Sh e ryl Crow. All those thing s a re influences , b ut the n stuff like Pearl Jam and the Chili Pep pers I was r eally into wh e n I was a b out fifteen, sixteen . It 's lo ts of different things a n d b e fore you kn ow it , th ey've all in fluenced you.

What a re your plans for the n e xt s ix months /year?

First of all I'm going off to Iceland for a few weeks to do some writing and recording , and really to start working on an album. Now that I've release d an EP, I think it's time to at least s tart thinking about getting together a larger body of work.

I've got most of the songs but it 's always good to keep writing -and keep thinking about it. I'm also doing a gig out the re and my single has been A listed on national radio which is brilliant. It 's really exciting to go out the r e. Hopefully also another UK tour in 2003 .

The Early EP is now available on Ice Cream Re c ords.

ii#IW!Mjtii 15 .0 1.0 3

I s y our stand-up routine totally scripte d or do y ou improvise ?

It 's mainly scripted, but I do improvise, I'd fall asleep otherwise.

Each night it varies a lot. I' d just b e too bored to do the same thing night after night.

When filming Black Books, do y ou, Bill Bailey and T asmine Greeg tend to stick to the script?

Well, we have done bits. But we work quite hard on the script, myself and my eo-writers, so we 're not going to throw good material out of the window just on the spur of the moment b ecause we suddenly felt like doing a riff on eagle vomit on the night. It's not the same with that kind of show because there's some kind of narrative and you've got to stick to it ..

Why d id you take sole charge of writing the scripts in the se cond series?

Well! didn't take sole charge, I wrote three of them myself and I eo-wrote the other three. Graham wanted to go off and do other things and that's just the way it happened really.

Now you're on the third series are y ou s tarting to h ave troub le inve nting n ew s itua tions surrounding a book shop?

No, I d on't think we're going to have much trouble . We have just really started, so I haven't done very much work yet. Me and the other guys have talked about what we're going to do, and they're going to go off and do bits of it, and I'll come in later and d o bits of it, and we' ll kick it around 'til it's ready.

Do you h ave a particular proces s to y our writing?

W e ll, we all talk about it, various ideas, as I say there are two othe r very talented write rs I work with. But we've wor ked on it in different ways with each series.

W e re ot h er a c tors cons idered for Bill and Tasmine's r ole s?

Wasn 't Manny originally Jewish ?

I did think of Manny, somewhe re in the back of my head, as Jewish , but it didn 't re ally w ork out that way for some reason. It wasn't important, it was just part of the description I'd thought of myself. It wasn 't exactly germane to who he is.

And how did you g et the p art in N otting Hill?

I was asked to d o it.

How was working with Julia and Hu gh?

Oh, you know, the y're just actors.

The re wasn 't any prima donna b e h a viour?

No, no, no , tha t' s all bollocks. They' re just actors, they just happen to be very well paid and well known actors.

How w as working with Michael Caine ?

That was great, he's terrific. That's it . I think. He's just very good from very early in the morning to very late at night , and you've got to try and keep up.

What 's the drunkest you ' v e ever been ?

The impossibility of the answer is built into the question.

When you ' r e doin g you ' re stand-up routine do you c onsid e r yourself to b e acting the n ?

You see, the thing about these questions, or some of these questions- and this is my answer to this que stion - is that you just don't think about it in that way because otherwise you'd be paralyzed with self-consciousness and you simply wouldn't get out of bed. I'm probably not the person to ask.

How is the Dylan Moran your wife and daughte r k now diffe re nt?

Again, these are questions perhaps best answered by some very objective observer and I don't know how objective an observer I am. I'm like anybody else, I have a squinted view of myself. I'm in the way of looking at myself.

You g e t a lot of come dians to act in Bl ack Books , are the re any you hav en' t w orked with whom you ' d like to?

I can only take that as meaning are there any people who make me laugh a lot, who I'd like to see do something. Oh, yeah, there are loads of them, there are lots of great comics out there .

Whether they 'd be suitable for our stupid, vaudevillian show is another matter. I mean I'm sure Sean Locke would do something fairly useful if we could come up with the right thing for Sean, if he was interested. There are half a dozen people I could think of.

F in ally , do you h a v e any n e w projects lined up for the future?

I' m doing an opera set in a coal bunker.

For the stage?

No , the location is undisclosed at the moment. May 2003, the information will gradually b e disseminated on the backs of ripped Chinese menus , dropped around various towns and cities.

I s that an acting role or a writing role or b oth?

So did you alw a y s h ave Bill Baile y in mind?

No, not at all , that was a very clever and inspired casting ide a from our very talented casting lady.

No , I'm joking.

So th ere ' s nothin g new?

Are y ou most proud of your Bait a, Perrier or So You Think You ' re F unny award ?

I don't give a shit about any of that.

Off the top of my head I don't know. I'm sure some thing will turn up. I'll do some terrible advertisement for cheese spray.

Were y ou th e or iginal c hoice for How Do You W a n t M e?

I believe so, yes

Dylan Moran brings his new stand-up show to Norwich Playhouse on Saturday January 25 , 7.00pm

features 11

Sexy City Girls hey are sashaying down a New York Avenue, immaculately dressed wearing high heels, big hair and even bigger hang-ups, they look like they don't have a care in the world. Discussing everything from shoes, bars, men and sex they seem as if they are quite happy just they way they are.

Nominated for four Golden Globe awards this year and with d~zens already firmly locked in its Prada luggage set there seems to be no end to Sex and The City's popularity. Concentrated on four thirty-something single women's relationships and sex-lives - or lack of, as the case may be -this is apparently the show that all young women have been gasping for. But is four women's search for the right man and the 'p erfect orgasm, (preferal;>ly found while wearing the latest Manolo Blahnik shoes) not a little too shallow for the modern woman?

The nineties saw the birth of the sad and single Bridget ]ones. Thirty years old and in an eternal quest to lose weight and find a man to complete her, women everywhere took to her. She functioned as a sad symbol. of all the single women out there who had been too busy building a career in their twenties, and as a result now suffering the terrible consequences: unmanied, single and with a biological · clock ticking faster and faster. No wonder Miss Jone;; sought solace in vodka and Chaka Khan. Bridget ]ones lacked the drive to pursue a career that the New York quartet have. Post-grad film student Sarah Cobden, EAS, says: "Bridget ]ones didn't worry about a career, her life was all about finding a partner. Ally McBeal, on the other hand, was a successful career woman, but she was heavily criticised, because her main purpose in life was finding a man."

Lecturer in sociology Tuula Cordon uses the phrase "City Single" to describe the modern single woman. She says: "A modern single woman is seen as urban, highly educated, relatively young, ambitious, single-minded, determined, active and a career woman."

Cordon explains that by rejecting marriage and children the City Single has made a conscious choice to be single; she does not want a man - seeing herself as unattached and free."

Sarah Cobden believes the show owes its popularity to the subject of the modern woman who wants it all: "Women were having it all in the nineties: husband, children and a career. But now they are los-

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and only uses men for sex, although this season she is back with Richard whose " death the girls were plotting last year." And Carrie, who wants the only man she can't have, famously ran as fast as her Jimmy Choos would take her when heart throb Aidan proposed: "Every day millions of people suffer from monogamy. There is no known cure."

But the show doesn't just appeal to single women. Couples watch it religiously too, perhaps because no subject is taboo. At times the !?how is so blunt that even the more liberated amongst us can't help but blush. Memorable episodes have included encounters with a stuck diaphragm, a perverted shoe shop assistant and to swallow or not to swallow, followed promptly by a discussion about the pros and cons of foreskin. Maria agrees: "People in relationships love it too because it's so liberated. They talk <ibout everything." In a time where most American sh ows have been wiped free of dangers to the moral such as nudity, swearing and worst of all smoking, it is very refreshing to have real issues back in your living room. They may not be world changing, but to young people they are serious and real. These are the issues that are discussed on a daily basis, the subjects that take up much of our time.

Maybe young women today are losing out on their soul mates because they are too busy building up a career. But for the first time they are being told that it really doesn't matter as long as they have each other and a wardrobe full of designer shoes. Shallow? Perhaps, but it's fun!

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7

ing out on love, and the show explores that." But Sex and The City has a nice balance. The quartet doesn't agree on everything, and each woman has her own outlook on men and relationships. Sarah continues: "There are four women in the show, so they can play about with different attitudes and views on life."

Although the Sex and The City girls are equally obsessed with men and relationsl:iips, they differ greatly from Bridget Jones and Ally McBeal. If anyone lives up to the City Single phrase it's the Cucciclad foursome. They are perfectly happy leading their single llyes, joyfully hopping along from shoe shop to shoe shop.

Only Charlotte has displayed any interest in marriage, and even she quickly reali.s ed that all is not rosy red once you get there. After just one season of married life she and her seern1ngly perfect husband are now getting a divorce. In one episode she suggests that the girls could be each other's soul mates and men could just be in their lives for fun. Here lies perhaps the greatest difference between Bridget and the city quartet. While Bridget was very much alone, forced to share her thoughts with only a diary, these girls have each other.

And with close and understanding girlfriends who really needs a man? Maria Abrqham, EAS 3, agrees: "The show gives hope, because these girls have so much fun being on their own. It's about being independent, enjoying being you." Cordon believes that single women reinforce each other's lifestyles: "They have time, they are available, they have shared interests and they are in a similar position. Networks of friends are protective."

Frequently ranting about men's fear of commitment (the on-going saga of Carrie and Mr Big is a prime example of this) the girls' own track records are not too good. Miranda has just given birth to babyboy Brady, and has chosen to b ring him up alone rather than stay with "no prospect" Steve. Samantha, of course, refuses to commit

Carrie does the annpit thing, whatever that is.

Samanth a talks dirty a!Jain

15.o1.03 ii#IWIJiij@ii

••

Centrespread

12 Centrespread

•• " I produce a ' youth' sh ow, that's why I need this h at. I ' m s o 'street"'

Seedy:UK The glitz and glamour of the celebrity

ose rriving at l'IV's London Studios at 10 30am on Saturday morning suddenly I~X(~ J'rl~n, I'VI~ ha:i me reminiscing over the time - in my pre-teen years - when I was part of a Hl~illln NOillfi(~ D mass crowd waiting outside the BBC awaiting blacked out cars containing the SIJ(~ H I,I..Jl(~ l~, of Jason Donovan. But how I had up in the world. This time, I scootYlll~ 1\TI~ (~OIJI ed past the flocks of teeny hoppers with their Craig David loving banners who were waiting outside in the cold and was (~ I~ I~ whisked up in a lift ready to watch CD:UK. The nicest feeling, however, was that I was not only going to be part of the screaming audience, a la my Take That loving days, I was going backstage. While the line up sadly didn't feature Westlife or Blue, CraigDavid was in the building, along with she isn't always being filmed in the same place and all in a Blazin' Squad, Big Brovaz, and Destiny's Child's Kelly room where there one would have trouble swinging a cat.

Rowland.

Being quite a seasoned celebrity spotter, I thought it would Thank the Lord for camera tricks. be easy to sit and spy on any naughties they might be getWhile hopping away to my new kissing partner, Craig David, I felt a tap on my shoulder. What had I done? I had ting up to, but how wrong I was. You see, famous people spent the whole time there trying to avoid getting caught on seem to trick their fans by hanging around an entourage who look so similar to themselves that you fail to notice who the camera and now I was being asked to stand behind Cat with only ten other people, while she announced what this week's real star is. Craig David was the epitome of this theory.

Surrounded by a gang of denim clad, rude boys in their prizes would be. The runner said she wanted nice people, so she asked yours truly. Well, I suppose she doesn't know me. early twenties, it was hud to see him. But there is only one Craig David - and very nice he was too. He even planted a When the show was finished, I somehow found myself sitting with Big Brother's Brian Dowling while he smacker on my cheek. watched the morning's SM:TVshow Another trick these staxs use is to dress like any other kid on the street. Well, tha,t's what Blazin' Squad do and almost cerback. Now, I was star struck. I asked him to pose for a picture and tainly, they do it uninte:ltionally. Dressed in baggy jeans, red T-shirts and long chains heavy enough to turn them into cheekily pinched his bottom. Yes, I do know he's gay. hunch backs, they cruiEed around the backstage bar helping themselves to bottles of coke - they're not old enough The real star of the show though to drink anything stronger, they're only 17. Kee ping track is former model, Cat Deeley.

Found when she was doing a ·litof them was a nightmare, as there seemed to b e about 45 of them. But a few came o•Ter and were more than happy to tle bit of presenting on MTV, she has gone from being the girl who chat about their busy schedules - yes, even a gang. of kids who merely jump around on a stage and sing, have hectic presented SM:TV with Ant and Dec. lifestyles, you know. Urlortunately for these guys, they don't to being an accomplished pr~senter in her own right. And she has had even have time for a loTe life. no choice in the matter. In 2001, "None of us have got girlfriends, we are allowed, but we just the Geordie pair left children's' don't have time for the~ at the moment, sorry ladies," said TV to concentrate one.

But those Big Brovaz are definitely not ones to drift into on presenting the background. Dressed in massive leather coats prime time. and headscarves, I was scared to look at them-· shows - leavlet alone spe ak to them How wrong first ing Cat impressions can be. They enthusiastically behind. spoke about their impe:lding trip to a cerWlille tain city in Norfolk, yes, you've got it.

Norwich. One of them gushed: "I'm so excited, I've heard that Norwich is such a good place, maybe we could go clubbing after our show?" S:>mehow, I think not.

All of the 'trying to be interested in what pop stars are up to' began to get too much, so it was a good job it was 11.30 and time to go and watch the show. On the telly, the studio looks so glamourous, with lots of different stages and hundreds of screaming girls to make up the audience, it looks suspiciously different in real life. The screaming girls were aJI of about four rows, the studio was tin7, with a few Big Deel : Cat h as CD:UK all to herself now Ant and De c have departed. boxes which Cat Deeler stands on so

"I' ll

It 's great being in Blazln' Squad , just look at all the beau tiful, mature ladies that want a b it of me

" What y ou want me to sign m y n ame? Cos n ormally I ju st sing it."

" Do l have to sign my n ame, <:an ' t I just s ing it."

Big Brovaz is watching you .

ii:IM!JtA§ii 15.0 1.03

13

SO 'rHll 'r A (;O()n

Big Brother winner, Brian Dowling has a rather rosy future to look forward to. · He let it slip to me that he is going to present a late-night show called Brian's Boyfriends. No, don't start jumping to conclusions - they won't actually be his boyfriends. Angry girls will be able to write into the former air steward and moan about their men and Brian will have 24 hours to sort out the problem.

But it seems that TV presenting is not his first choice of job.

While watching the morning's SM:TV back on video, there was a cli.p of Mel C hinting that the Spice Girls. might get back together. Brian shouted in disgust: "They haven't bloody asked me to join them have they. For God's sake, I could be Gorgeous Spice, couldn't I?" No love, probably not.

IS

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Cra ig finds a n ew flava presenting CD:UK alone, l'IV bosses drafted in Tess Daly ·and Hollyoaks star James Redrnond to take over the early morning slot. But the fact that eat's playt'!lates have left her doesn't seem to bother her at all.

"I miss Ant and Dec but it's great having CD:UK to myself, but the best thing now that I don' t do SMTV is that I get a lie in. I used to have to get up at 5am every Saturday, but now I don't have to get up until8.30, which is lovely. I didn't go·out last night though. I still see the boys, they have been around today but I didn't see them. In fact, I haven't seen them since before Christmas, isn't that a long time? A load of us went out because it was Ant and Lisa's anniversary."

Maybe Cat's days hanging out with the double act are numbered since she met her boyfriend Mark Wheeler.

"He's not a celebrity, he has his own advertising consultancy firm and I like it like that. There are no wedding plans yet, but who knows. "Everything has been so manic lately, but now Fame Academy is finished I have time to look into doing other things."

"I IIISS 1.\N'I, ANn nl~(~ IIIJ'I, I'I' ~S (;Jli~L.\'1, Hi\ VIN(; f~n: lJii 'rO IIYSI~I.. I~, IIIJ'I, '1,111~ III~ S'r 'I,HJN(. NOlf 'rlli.\'1, I I)ON''I, no Stl'r\r IS 'I,Hll 'r I ··I~T il 1..11~ IN" nJU~I..J~Y

This brought us to an interesting area - Fame Academy. TV . critics felt it was a flop, but Cat thought the show was great.

"To be honest, by the end everyone was watching it. I just think that people don't realise that you will never have figures that the first Big Brother or the first Pops tars got because it was something so new at the time. Now, the figure.s level out to a certain position.

While Cat is obviously a celeb in her own right, she gets to meet the cream of the world's pop scene, so I couldn't resist digging for the gossip "I don't like Mariah Carey, she was really horrible to me when she was on the show, but it was really strange because I had seen her when I was on holiday in Barbados and she was really nice, so she must have belm having a ba<i day or something."

On the other hand, Cat loves Will Young, Kelly Osboume, Craig David, Westlife are "lovely boys" and "she loved Kelly Rowland today, she was lovely." She also seems to love the word love. ith the highest viewing figures in · Saturday morning television, there must be s~me exclusive formula which bosses of the show use to ensure ils success.

While it was Ant and Dec t.lemselves who came up with the original idea, Executive Producer, Conor McAnally and his team are responsible for keeping it at the top.

"In the beginning it was going to go on air on Sundays, but at the time the vie'wing figures for the Chart Show were decli.ning, so there was room for a live music show. First of all, they weren't going to present it because they were in the music indu.s try themselves, but we persuaded them," said Conor. · "Obviously the shq_w is seriously establi.shed now and we are plugged by record companies, so we rea.lly can get the best guests. In the early days, we had to chase the acts, but -now we affect record sales and chart positio:lS, people will see the act on a Saturday morning and go and buy it in the afternoon. We can afford to be a fussy now, we want the best acts so that we can make the best show that we can."

In September 2001, the BBC launched a rival show, but instead of being threatened by them, CD:UK producers made a decision to increase the quality of the show.

"The Saturday Show hasn't really hurt us bec1use when they were launched we decided to up our show. It is more like a performance show now, like today Big Brovaz were lowered down onto the stage. We also have :he best prizes on television and we get the best interviews. Bu! in a business like this you need to keep improving, and if we can keep doing that then I don't see any reason why the show can't go on for a long time."

Another one with a bright future is the lovely Cat Deeley.

Not content with fronting the most watched Saturday morning TV show, she will be presenting another spin off show called CD:UK Hotshots -which starts this Friday.

"We will be able to have bands on who are not quite so pop orientated. It will be aimed at people who have just got in from a night out, so we can p lay a variation of music which you can't really do on a Saturday morning," revealed a CD:UK insider.

Btit that's not all. Cat has already filmed two pilots for new shows - one with the BBC and another with rrv.

"I can't tell you what they are, but I am still presenting. I will not leave CD:UK though, I love it too much," she said.

W

Poor old Ant McPartlin.

I spotted him walking from his dressing room to the toilet which is all of about a metre. Unfortunately, so did hoards of teenage girls, who decided to ambush him inside the door and demand he signed an autograph for them.

Ten minutes later- and probably-after much leg-crossing, Ant finally was able to go and relieve himself.

Stars are known for their irrational behaviour and when they appear on CD:UK, they don't make any exceptions.

While the Brit celebs are generally well behaved, those who hail from the USA tend to be a little more awkward.

"They don't have so many live shows like CD:UK in America, so the Americans don't understand the concept of live television. They'll say things like do we have to film today, can't I do it tomorrow?. There was one pop 'star once who literally had to be carried from her dressing room to the stage because she just wouldn't be told that she had to be performing at that particular time," revealed Conor McAnally, the show's Executive Producer.

15 .0 1.03 IIIIM!itij§ii

14 Alliums

Erasure Other People_'s Songs Good cover versions can be great. Take, for example, the Jimi rated with synthetic beats, beeps and noises. There are Hendrix rendition of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower, or moments when this treatment comes close to being dreadful Gary Jules' incredible rendering of Tears for Fears' Mad World, the horrible Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), the cringewhich was used to great effect in the final few minutes of one of worthy Everyday, the appalling Solsbury Hill (the album's first last year's best fil.m:s, Donnie Darko. However, as Will and single) and the hideous Video Killed the Radio Star being the G.areth regularly demonstrate, and as Robbie Williams conclu- · very worst offenders - but there are a few nice covers here, the sively proved with the musical travesty that was Swing When best of which are the gorgeous Can't Help Falling in Love You're Winning, bad cover versions can be, to put it bluntly, (though this is such a great song in its own right that it is diffiabsolutely fucking awful. It's a dangerous game to play. · cult to ruin) and the gentle, lulling Goodnight.

Erasure are not newcomers to the cover version game, but While these songs don't save the album, credit should be given have actually had some previous experience with it, releasing to Erasure for at least attempting to reinvent the songs and an EP of Abba songs in 1992, and having had their own A Litue make them sound different. The irony is that, by giving all the Respect given the cover freatment by pop-rockers Wheatus less songs the Erasure treatment, the originality of that reinvention than two years ago. It is not surprising, then, that Erasure's new· is lost very soon and the covers all end up sounding very simialbum, consisting entirely of cover songs and inventively-titled lar. The couple of good songs suggest that this had the potential Other People's Songs, does not fall anywhere near as flat as the to be a very good and interesting album. As it is, it falls way efforts of Will, Gareth or Robbie. It is, however, probably just short of that mark, but it's still much better than Robbie. as unsurprising that the album is also not a work of genius and brilliant reinvention.

M iscb a Pearlman Other People's Songs does exactly what you would expect - it takes twelve well-known songs and gives them the full Erasure treatment, turning them into pure synthesised pop songs satu-

InMe Overgrown Eden Whether it be in music, film, art or fashion, there are inherent problems with trends.

They drain life out of originality, decimate individuality and, to invert the wonderfully ironic Hugo Boss slogan, imitate rather than innovate. Each trend, of course, has its trendsetters - those who, for better or worse, break new ground and try new things - and its subsequent followers, who replicate, plagiarise and copy said trend to cash in on its. success, commercial, social or otherwise.

Which, in the case of music, leads to a lot of bland and uninspired albums and songs by bands who should know b~tter.

lnMe, unfortunately, is one of those bands.

Their debut album, Overgrown Eden, could not be more generic if it tried, taking that alltoo-popular over-produced and insincere numetal I heavy alternative rock sound and dishing it out by the bucketload. Cue, then, twelve songs that merge together elements of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Slipknot, Incubus, Halo and Creed, yet sound much, much worse than any of them (yes, even Creed). A severe lack of variety and originality renders the songs practically indistinguishable from each other, and the grating vocals and repetitive riffs do little more than annoy. At least they don't rap.

M ischa P earlman

Bonnie Prince Billy Master and Everyone If Sunday mornings involve your waking moments discovering a blinding headache, followed by a trip to Vomitsville, then Bonnie 'Prince' Billy has returned to ease your considerable pain. Will Oldham's notoriously elusive folkie incarnation has returned with a third album, which sounds akin to Nick Drake at his most reflective and reverential. The songs here are majestically quiet, picked on a single acoustic guitar and accompanied by a wonderfully tuneful voice, which soothes in a way that the people at Halls throat sweets could only dream of. Opener The Way imme-

The Faint Danse Macabre Take some acid. Take some more. If necessary, take a bit more after that. Just keep going until something really nasty happens in your head. Okay, done that? Now, swallow a mobile phone (if this doesn't seellllike a good idea, you haven't taken enough drugs go back to the start). Now, use another phone to ring the m obile. You should find the resulting combination of rele_ntless beeping and nightmarish hallucinati.ons unsettling yet strangely compelling. Yes? Well, you have just recreated to a fair degree of accuracy the experience of listening to The Faint's Danse Macabrif. Congratulations.

]oel Stickley

Releases.

Teenage Fanclub

Mary Star Of The Sea

4766 Seconds

Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins returns with a new band and a much antcipated new album. Watch out for gigs too.

Northern pop meisters come back with another mix of groovy tunes and jingle jangle guitars

Reef

R Kelly

Together • Greatest Hits

Chocolate Factory

Ratings: Mich ael Moor e

15.01.03

Like a serial killer who quotes from the book of Revelations, Danse Macabre is at once sinister and comically pretentious. One minute you're happily nodding along to what can only be described as the 'blinky-blonky' sound of an electronic dance beat, chuckling to yourself because 'it's so eighties'; the next, you're wondering who taught the eighties to be so... well, weird. This is the kind of the music you can imagine someone going on a killing spree to, especially if it was a killing spree involving lots of jerky arm movements.

Then again, maybe that's just the drugs talking.

Zwan

Hairy front man and friends put together a collection of stonking numbers to remind you of the mid nineties. Nice.

L:: V E. NT.

] oe M inihane

Signific:~nt

Other

Th E

diately creates a blissful atmosphere which fills the darkest shadows and Wolf Among Wolves is gorgeous in its simplicity. The two highlights though are Ain'l You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise? and Lessons From What's Poor that for a small while put the world into perspective. So after reaching for the headache tablets and the washing up bowl, don't pick up that Datsuns LP to remind you of what 'a beauty' last night was. Instead, pick up Master and Everyone, stare at the ceiling and chill. It won't just make you feel b etter, it may even make you a b etter person too. All hail the return of the quiet revolution.

No it's not about Oompa Loompas, just aimed at tempting young p eop le with sweeties.

Michael Banytnore

M ich ael Ja ck son

M ich ael Cain e

St. Michael

Singles 1 S

Going Live

Single Choice The Libertines Time for Heroes East London has become, over the past few years, home from home for the trendiest set in the capital: bnt-artists, Alist celeb parties and a burgeoning music scene, of which the Libertines are now, without doubt, the main players.

With one of the best LPs of 2002 and a handful of high profile gigs, which were well received, but in fact an absolute sham, The Libertines are living proof that British music doesn't suck like a cheap Dutch hooker. Time For Heroes is no shock departure" in form. A very British affair down to the Britpop na nas and ahas, it jumps about like a monkey on speed (in no way a reference to pie-eyed lead singer Pete Doherty, who doesn't really jump, just stares) and gives two fingers to the assertion that it's only bands with good haircuts and cool T-shirts who come from New York that make decent music these days. All things going to plan, there'll be more from the Libertines over the next year, perhaps a new LP and maybe even a return to Norwich Arts Centre for a repeat performance of sadly the shittest gig of 2002.

Whatever happens, they ain't going away fast. Whoever said the drugs don't work?

]oe Minihane

Jesse Malin 路 You press play. The beat starts. It is relentless and constant and screams New Order. Then the vocals pitch in. Low and muffled, they cry Joy Division. But this is neither. This is Automatic Eyes, the first single from Echoboy's new album, Giraffe. And far from suffering by showing its influences so overtly, it benefits - the music is intense and passionate, the lyrics ambiguous, walking that fine line between fragile hope and abject despair. This is dark, brooding, intelligent pop at its very, very best, and the b-sides follow suit.

The year has only just begun, but this is its best single so far.

Mischa Pearlman

路 "

Rarely are drinking buddies so productive. Perhaps because in this case, Jesse Malin's boozy partner is alt.country God and general all round genius, Ryan Adarns. Christ, he seems to get everywhere these days. In this case he's playing producer/guitarist on Malin's debut single, a pretty slice of jangly guitars and cheery lyrics New York style. It's straight forward, basic, but it works and will doubtless having muses everywhere creaming their pants and discussing where he nicked the chorus from (Ryan Adarns).

Guarantee: this guy will be as lauded as his wonderful producer soon. Buy this record and be first on the bandwagon!

Christmas. The time of year when the hideously-commercial and prominent pop world becomes even more hideously commercial and prominent and totally overshadows any decent , worthwhile releases by inflicting the general, brainwashed public with the Christmas single. This past year was worse than most with the abomination that was Popstars The Rivals. Luckily, however, for the more discerning music fan, the gigging season at this time of year is just as vociferous as ever.

December 19 saw a benefit gig for Shelter at the Bull and Gate pub in Kentish Town, London, where The Wow, Smother, Reuben (who also played the Arts Centre this past Monday) and Jetplane Landing each played short, intense and excellent sets (though Reuben's perhaps left a little to be desired). All the money raised from ticket and merchandise sales went to the charity, showing that, even in this horrible climate of greed and bland pop, there are bands who still care and who still write good songs .

New Year's Eve always provides us with a good set of gigs too . Whilst we sadly didn't make it to The Beatings at The Garage in London, Annex in Shoreditch provided ample entertairunent with Leads being hot tips to steal The Libertines title as the coolest, though not necessarily the best, band in London. Annie from Elastica was there looking moody, but ultimately her new band were almost as bad as Girls Aloud singing in the shower. Trust us!

]oe Minihane

Seen the Light ........

Supergrass have reached that stage of their careers when they could just sit back and let the royalties trickle in. Even if they never recorded another decent song their place amongst the respectable britpop survivors would be assured. With that in mind it is refreshing to hear Seen The Light. A short glarnrny number complete with obligatory hand-claps and a delicious bowie-esque guitar solo. The annoying self-parodying nasal tones from third album-era Gaz Coornbes are all gone, leaving an understated but killer pop tune . Alright.

Luke Wright

19-year-old Martin Grech has already had a sell out UK tour and performed with artists such as Jeff Buckley. His sound has often been compared to that of Radiohead, and in latest single Push he adopts a vocal tone not dissimilar to that of Chris Martin. Push is taken from his critically acclaimed debut album Open Heart Zoo. You need to listen to this song several times to really get to grips with it. It sounds ever changing and the instrumentation is musically inventive, as are the sonorous tones of the melody. Push has grown on me the more I've heard it and I think it will appeal to a wide variety of people.

Charlotte Roland

I thought I was listening to an early R.E.M. song when I first heard this track. It 's undeniably catchy and definitely easy listening.

Wilt seem to represent the sound that is typical of the young, American, guitar-based groups that are currently on the scene.

They are becoming well known for supporting bands such as Idlewild and Sum 41. Understand is taken from their second album, My Medicine. This isn't a complex song. It's simple and quite pop-like. I'd probably play it in the background when drinking with friends , but not really pay much attention to it.

Pictures: (in descending order) Supergrass; Jesse Malin

Charlotte Roland

So with all the festivities out of the way, it's back to gigging in Norwich. As always The Asleep are here to provide us with joyous fratrock entertairunent, this time around headlining the Arts Centre on the 20th of this month. Support comes from Five Acre Lights and Elis. Then on January 23 our buddies Freefall play at The Ferryboat . Teenage rockers/ wannabes InMe hit the Waterfront on the 26th (read this issue's review of their debut album before you decide to waste good money) and the 27th sees Queen Adreena play the Waterfront and Easyworld the Arts Centre. After support slots for Supergrass, the latter seem destined for great things. They're definitely worth checking out, both for their musical talent and the fact you can then brag to your mates that you saw them before they hit the big time. They'll respect you loads. Honest.

If that doesn't sate your appetite for rock'n 'roll debauchery then hold out for some absolute blinders in the coming weeks and months, especially the small matter of The Datsuns playing the LCR and The Coral returning to Norwich with their psych-pop. And if an indie night is what you're looking for then forget the LCR and head down to the Light Bar for The Underground this coming Thursday (16th).

It's now on every other week so there 's absolutely no excuse not to go .

Releases may be a bit low on the ground at the mome nt so live music is definitely the way to go. Let the Popstars have their charts and their inspid, manufactured crap- we'll take the real thing!

15 .01.03

ii#IW!Jij搂ii

16 Film

â&#x20AC;˘

1cago

Director: Starring:

.-

Rob Marshall Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere

To say that I was a bad choice of reviewer for this film would have been an understatement. You see, I don't like musicals.

I've never been able to suspend my disbelief long enough to believe that normal people would spontaneously burst into song and dance. Plus, after the dismal piece of cinematic masturbation that was Moulin Rouge, I craved a lobotomy more than another film musical. But I had seen the trailers for Chicago and was actually intrigued, even if it was the same feeling of intrigue that provokes someone to poke road kill with a stick.

Thankfully, Chicago isn't road kill. From Catherine Zeta-Jones' opening rendition of All That jazz, I was taken into the movie and it held me totally absorbed for the two hours it played. My main misgiving described above was explained away nicely all the singing that doesn' t take place on the stage is a product of Roxie Hart's (Renee Zellweger) imagination. It's a device used in Ally McBeal, though the dancing baby thankfully doesn't make the transition.

The story itself isn't typical musical fare. Those expecting a Mary Poppins clone where everyone is lovely though misled or misunderstood, will be disappointed. Having murdered a few close friends and family , Catherine Zeta-Jones (Velma Kelly) and Zellweger play two jailbirds using the notoriously successful attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) to try and escape conviction. The heart of the movie is deeply cynical as expressed by Gere delivering one of the best thematic lines: " In this town, murder's a form of entertainment." But the cynicism, while not as low-key, dry and understated as I may have liked, is played straight enough to provide many of the comic moments in the fi.lm . In the scene which explains why Roxie and Velma 's fellow inmates were locke d up - for killing their husbands- one prisoner states , "He ran into my knife ten times. Ten times! " without a single hint of an ironic tone. There is also the wonderfully creative marionette sequence where everyone is on strings in a perfect metaphor for corrupt Chicago. This shows a use of musical turns in service to the plot and themes of the fi.lm rather than an impulsive choral outbursts that seem attached to the script with a rivet gun. The film 's themes are the evanescence of celebrity and the showbiz nature of the justice system; not themes traditionally found in musicals , and some may find the film jarring because of this.

I, however, found it a refreshing change from the usual saccharine that only inspires my venom or indifference .

While Zeta-Jones has been the primary focus of the trailers , the film really belongs to Zellweger. As the only member of the main cast who has never appeared in any type of musical , she proves she can sing and dance throughout , while looking hauntingly like Marilyn Monroe. She brings just the right amount of confusion to the character and acts skilfully in the character's transformation into a two-faced bitch. The seemingly miscast Gere gives Billy Flynn just the right amount of

THE

EVENT 15 .01 .03

sleaze and greed while still keeping him strangely likable, and when he's called upon to sing and dance he does an excellent job, particularly in his tap-dancing scene. He grabs the role and runs with it and seems to be having a ball, perhaps realising it could resuscitate his waning career. Zeta-Jones, though admittedly overshadowed by Zellweger, acts, sings and dances well during the entire film. While Queen Latifah is granted only one big musical number, she astounds with a characterisation that will make your jaw drop . Other supporting cast members such as Taye Diggs , Dominic West and Lucy Liu - though very much in the same league as the principle cast- are sadly wasted by the fleeting nature of their appearances.

The sets of the films are pure eye candy and the choreography

is equally astounding. The film manages to be visually appealing without being over the top . One small complaint on the camera work - it contains too many jump cuts, and the result is rather frenetic and distracting. I understand that the director is attempting to capture the style of a music video, but it grates outside of its MTV context. But that's my only complaint of a film that I was expecting to hate. Director Rob Marshal! and scriptwriter Bill Condon deserve a lot of praise for this fi.lm , and judging by many other reviews, they're getting it. This is simply stunning cinema.

Film 17

Gangs of New York Director: Starring:

Martin Scorsese Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz

As chaotic and bloody as any of the confrontations depicted in the film, the story behind Gangs of New York's production is an epic tale of artistic integrity's struggle against the financial realities of modern Hollywood. Would Martin Scorcese succeed in realising his dream project of the last three decades?

Or would the combined pressures of star comebacks, budgetary constraints and one movie mogul's desire for a marketable running time crush his lofty intentions?

Thankfully, this is one occasion where the little guy (literally in Scorcese's case) comes out on top . For long sections of Gangs of New York, the film displays all the brutal power and wider significance the director always knew the concept promised Raging Bull with knives in a city-size arena. Yet it remains a closer call than it should have been, with a lurching narrative and inconsistent pace betraying the project's tortured passage to the screen.

At over two and a half hours, Gangs is still a substantial piece of cinema. But, as with Casino, Scorcese is aiming for more than the lives of his characters, intent on capturing the essence of a time and place. In his 168 allotted minutes , he attempts not only to follow one man's quest for revenge but also the birth of the New York we know today .

The action begins in 1830 with gang war at The Five Points, the heart of the city's slums. William - Bill the Butcher - Cuttings (Daniel Day-Lewis), flamboyant, terrifying leader of area's 'native ' hoodlums, is wary of the growing Irish population. As he puts it, in a typically grandstanding announcement , the battle will "decide for good and all who holds sway over The Five Points" . Bill is correct- the Natives' victory is at least temporarily decisive, as the Irish's inspirational leader, Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) dies at Bill's own hands. Unfortunately, Vallon's death is witnessed by his young son Amsterdam, who duly swears to slay his father's murderer.

Sixteen years later, Amsterdam has grown into Leonardo DiCaprio and Gangs' story has become his mission to kill The Butcher. We learn路as he does of Bill's association with corrupt politicians Gim Broadbent), immense charm and unpredictable temper. Scorcese's Five Points is a bizarre world of grime, poverty and garish plaid trousers that Bill rules by staying that bit crazier than everyone else. At the outset the American Civil War is kept deep in the background, though it gradually increases in prominence until a genuinely startling event when the gang members realise just how unimportant their petty feuds really are.

While DiCaprio is technically 'the lead, Gangs is Day-Lewis' film. With his huge moustache, glass eye and an accent like Vie Reeves' Kinky John he dominates every scene. There is a moment when Amsterdam awakes to find Bill sitting wrapped in an American flag that contrives to be horrifying, hilarious and tragic all at the same time . Even when he isn' t present, the other characters seem to be expecting a cleaver in the back at any second.

Titis isn't to say the rest 路of the c ast are poor, just that the ir work is necessarily less showy. DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz (who plays a street-thief embroiled in complicate d relationships with both male leads), spend most of the film trying to stay out of Day-Lewis' way. They also appear to be the worst victims of the editing demanded by Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein. Huge chunks of their characters' development are missing, creating an imbalance in the second half of the picture . New York, the film's posters claim, was made in the streets; Gangs was nearly destroyed in the cutting room.

...

]im Whalley

The Banger Sisters Director: Bob Dolman Starring: Goldie Hawn, Susa n Sa randen The Banger Sisters opens with Goldie Hawn getting fired from the club she has always worked at. Dressed in rock-chick black leather, with her standard mane of blonde hair, she throws up her arms in protest, " But I'm Suzette!" The owner shrugs - the club has changed witt the times, Suzette has not.

It can be no accident that Goldie Hawn chose to make this film.

After watching her young, beautiful daughter Kate Hudson shine as a 70s rock groupie in Almost Famous , Hawn decided to make what is effectively Almost Famous 2 - The Retirement Years . Suzette used to be one half of the infamous Banger Sisters - two young, crazy rock groupies who worked their way through every famous cock in the music industry Gim Morrison, Led Zepplin etc.), 20 years down the line and Suzette is broke. She decides to find her old best friend and banging partner in crime, Vinnie (Susan Sarandan). After a short but eventful roadtrip to Phoenix - during which which Suzette picks up a stranded and slightly psychotic Geoffrey Rush Goldie rolls into town to find that Vinnie, now a happily married mother of two, has changed beyond recognition and wants nothing to do with Suzette or her own past.

There is nothing technically wrong with The Banger Sisters.

Whilst there is huge potential for cringey scenes of past-it, saggy women acting 'zany', we are spared the torture. The trailers were very keen to inform us that the three leads are all previous Oscar winers (Hawn, Sarandan and Rush), and they all turn in mature, credible - and funny- performances. The inevitable rekindling of Suzette and Vinnie's friendship does

get a little mushy at times (the slow motion dance sequence being particularly unnecessary), but the scenes between Hawn and Rush are beautifully played out and truly touching. In addition, the younger generation of the film , Vinnie's two stroppy teenage daughters, contribute comedy to the plot, and sets of the older women's relationship nicely.

What is frustrating about the film is the way in which it defines the comedic female. It seems that in Hollywood, once you're past 40 you have the choice of being the uptight, repressed mom (Sarandan) or the embarassingly slutty, mutton dressed as lamb (Hawn). Titis is even more depressing when the talent in this film is considered; Sarandan is a powerful and successful, whilst Hawn invented the fluffy , ditzy blonde well before Meg Ryan ever met Harry. Plus the fact that both of them are incredibly well-preserved - Sarandan has looked pretty much the same for the last 20 years and Goldie Hawn looks like she's just stepped off the set of Private Benjarnin (apart from slightly damaged skin and a shocking boob job) . It must be annoying to look that good and still be denied your sexuality.

The Banger Sisters is an average comedy, a good buddy movie, and a great chick flick . But the most important thruth about the film is the insight it gives into women facing their own age. But the truth is, if I look like Goldie Hawn when I get to 50, I wouldn't want to give it up either.

Astrid Goldsmith

15.01.03

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18 DVD/Video

Men in Black 2 ...

Director: Starring:

Barry Sonnenfeld Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith

After the great 'commercial and critical success' of the first Men in Black (read: big pay cheques all round) both Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have been successfully recruited for a sequel in which they must battle a femme fatale called Selena because .. . Look, they just have to fight her, okay? Men in Black// has one great strength at its disposal, and that's reminding us what a great piece of casting was done with the leads the first time around . And since Smith, especially, has since gone onto better things, retreading precisely the same movie with their continued screen chemistry will do neither of the two leads any harm.

Except, hopefully , to their consciences.

Aside from fun chemistry, though, the film is a clunking great pile of turpitude with little new to offer and even less which is funny. There was some potential here for the character of Selena, who shares a truly bizarre interaction with Jones. Unfortunately, Laura Flynn Boyle, being an actress of questionable talent, never really gets beyond pouting with a scornful expression. The original choice for the role was the wonderful Farnke Jannsen, an actress

Reign of Fire Director: Rob Bowman Starring: Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey

with a truly insane streak (see, for example, her performance in Goldeneye) but a last minute family emergency meant we were denied the pleasure of her man-crushing thighs.

This leaves us with redundant characters wandering around and making a routine pass at the material. Like most comedy films written by people who aren't actually very funny, MlB2 plays like an episode of Friends: with dialogue delivered as a constant stream of so-so gags and the odd 'hilarious' quip by Smith about his race. The one unique comedy gem on offer is the return of Frank, the talking pug dog. Who can be as obnoxious and sexist as he wants and get away with it. Why? Because he 's a dog .

Poor script and workmanlike execution, though, have never stopped blockbuster sequels from succeeding. So why did MiB2 sink without a trace? One of the biggest reasons for the original film's success was its tim e liness. Riding on the success of The X-Files (at the height of its powers, when David Duchovny was managing to produce at least two different facial expressions per episode) the summers of 1996 and 1997 had seen a whole spate of movies and television taking the whole idea of threats from space being concealed by the Government very, very seriously. And somewhere betweenthelndependence Days and the Contacts of this world there was an audience waiting for a comedy with a genuinely sharp script and clever design grounded in fifty years of B-Movie ethics.

Whereas in 2002, with intellectually minded blockbusters leading the way and the comedy honours snatched up and firmly belched upon by A ustin Powers 3, there really is nothing relevant or funny to say about aliens or G overnment conspiracies at th e moment.

What is disturbing about MIB2 and Austin 3, though, is what they demonstrate about our current choices in the world of cinematic comedy. Either we can enjoy an overabundance of fart gags or the obnoxious quips of a talking pug dog.

Suddenly I find myself warming to the idea that annihilation by an alien race may, indeed, be just around the corner.

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Phil Colvin

Before this film was first released at the cinema, there was a great deal of anticipation over an apocalyptic future where drag ons have destroyed the earth. Dragons causing gloriously destruction all over the world was simply a recreation of every action or fantasy fan 's soggiest wet dream. Indeed, there was potential for some amazing action scenes, and the film should have been a huge success because of it. Sadly there's perhaps 15 minutes of action scenes in the entire film and while they're very nicely animated, they're ultimately too short. The opening scene in particular is wasted; rather than seeing the dragon destroy the Earth, we simply get newspa. per headlines of the events. This is why the film was such an abject failure at the box office and why the video release will be as poorly received.

The alternative after failing to get any kicks from mindless devastation is looking for an intelligent script, but that isn't here either.

The script is confused and often makes no sense whatsoever. For example, the combined military might of every country in the world cannot stop the dragon's rampage.

It's all ridiculously contrived and makes the suspension of disbelief completely impossi-

ble. The characters are as unbelievable and flat as the plot - the writers even churn out the old cliche of having a family member killed by the threat to provide a motivation. The dialogue is equally as poor, ridden with cliches and generally stilted.

While Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey play the leads well they can't salvage the film .

Direction comes from Rob Bowman of XFiles: The Movie fame and is almost as bad as the script. His shaky camera work and light-speed cuts just don 't work. He's obviously attempting a more realist, documen- 路 tary feel, but it comes across as absurd considering that the script has already rendered the whole affair so unbelievable.

Usually, a bad script can be overlooked for the magnificence of the explosions and general havoc of the action scenes - especially as they would have featured dragons -but this film has neither , making it a huge disappointment.

Ryan Stephens

His Girl Friday Director: Howard Hawks Starring: Cary Grant, Rosaling Russell In Howard Hawks ' comedy masterpiece His Girl Friday, the nice guy not only finishes last, he's sent home crying to his mother.

Set in "the dark ages of the newspaper business" , it's a film where only the quickest and the suavest survive. Naturally, Cary Grant walks off with both accolades.

Grant play s Walter Burns, editor of the Chicago Morning Post, a man who will go to any lengths for a story, even at the expense of his marriage. As the film opens, Burns' usual news- gathering momentum is interrupted when his ex-wife (Ro salind Russell) wanders into the office with her new fiance in tow. He suddenly realizes how much he needs her, both as a wife and "the best newspaper man I ever had."

His Girl Friday starts at a blinding pace and just keeps getting faster. All the actors spit out words as if they're being paid by the sentence. Grant has never been better than as the editor desperately trying to rescue Russell from a life stuc"k with a good, honest man. That he succeeds is the perfect illustration of Hawks' somewhat amoral take on relationships. Russell is equally

superb, managing the thankless task of giving a pitch-perfect comic performance while maintaining an excellent impersonation of Katherine Hepburn (Hawks ' first choice for the part).

On DVD, the film is presented with four short documentaries providing background information on the main participants and a commentary by Variety critic Todd McC arthy . McC arthy, who has edited several volumes on Hawks as well as writing a sizeable biography, is a mine of valuable information, seemingly able to explain every decision the director made.

Up to now, Hawks' films have been poorly treated by the DVD format, with disks for The Big Sleep and Bringing Up Baby among others containing the feature and nothing more. Hopefully this fine example of how archive releases should be handled will persuade others to try a little harder. ]im Whall ey

Arts 19

Book Reviey,: The OHice of Innocence

Chicago - The film is ltetter

Theatre Reviey,:

Chicago

Theatre Royal, Tuesday 14 January Unfortunately Chicago was a lot like roast dinner. You think it's going to be a taste sensation and afterwards you realise it's a bland and ~ushy concoction of nothing.

Set in the Roaring Twenties, Chicago is centred round Roxie Hart (Emma Clifford) and Velma Kelly (Lisa Donrnall) both aspiring to become famous singers, and both in prison awaiting trial for murdering their other halves. Roxie quickly steals Velma's limelight as the hot celebrity murderess of the moment, and what follows is a battle between the two for the newspaper headlines and with that hopefully acquittal and a place on the vaudeville tour. Shaiing a prison cell with a handful of other leggy viperous vixens assisted by ten muscular male dancers the scene should be set for a two-hour sexily sassy' show. But despite all the long legs it never reaches those heights.

The two major letdowns are the two most important ingredients in a musical: the music and the dance routines. There is not one song the audience can tap or hum their home way to. Who can forget

Book Revievr.

Pretext Six:

lhePu kofMe It is not altogether clear why Pretext 6,

the latest offering from the UEA's own acclaimed small press Pen&Inc, is subtitled Punk Of Me. Yes, there are poems and lyrics by Howard Devoto of The Buzzcocks, the first of which lends it name to the collection, yet most of what follows bears little resemblance to punk as a movement or a mentality. This said, guest editor D. J. Taylor has pulled together an eclectic and intelligent crew of contributors to make an impressive instalment in what is an increasingly reputable publication.On one end of the scale, D. J. Taylor himself has a thought-provoking e-mail debate with Somerset Maugham Award winner Philip Hensher about experimentalism in the novel, and both John Murray and New Statesman editor Jason Cowley contribute interesting essays reflecting the turbulent state of the current literary climate. Carol Birch provides an intriguing glimpse of domestic life in 1950s in an extract from her forthcoming novel, Some of These Days, and Bernardine Evaristo's forthcoming novel

the haunting theme of Phantom of the Opera or the chilling and crisp Midnight from Cats? A musical needs a hit,, a song that makes the audience's hair stand on end.

There are somehighlights though. Cell Block Tango, where eight prisoners sing of how they killed the men in their lives, has quite witty lyrics. "I swear to you" says one of the women, "if you pop that chewing gum again I'll kill ya!" "And he did ... " Equipped with canes, chairs, top-hats and a big brass band in the background you'd expect the dancing to be sultry and seductive. But it's as plain as an over cooked parsnip. The choreography lacks imagination and innovation; the routines are so similar it is difficult to distinguish one number from the next.

Chicago fails to create the hot and humid atmosphere it aspires to and although you will no doubt have a roast again, the next time you're in London and want to catch a show go see Phantom of the Opera instead.

In Thomas Keneally's 24th literary offering we are shown the world as it looks in 1942 through the eyes of a young priest living in Sydney under the constant threat of Japanese attack. A young Australian priest is not the obvious choice for an everyman character but his failings and his honest humanity make him an accessible, trustworthy and a highly likeable one. Keneally has

Books Re-revieY#ed: Hitchhiker~

Guide To

The .Galaxy

Britt]uste

Soul Tourists is also previewed in a

short sample.

The poetry front is equally impressive, with new work by Alan Jenkins and a beautifully written sequence of poems

by Eric Gregory Award winner Hillary Davies. Howard Devoto's mix of lyrics and poetry perhaps suffers from its detachment from the music it was written with, but it is still an interesting and entertaining insight into the mind of one of the founding members of Manchester's Buzzcocks.

Pretext's greatest strength lies in its knack of picking some of the best new writers on the block just as they are about to peak, and this edition is no exception. There is impressive work by relative newbies Charlie Boxer, Andy Brown and Lynn Kramer, all writers who we expect to see a great deal more from in the future. More established talent Annie Murray and Joolz Denby are also present, both contributing excellent short fiction.

Pretext 6 certainly lacks the literary heavyweights of its predecessor, but neverth~less D. J. Taylor has compiled an admirable mix of new and recognised writers in what is one of the best issues yet. Punk it is not, but impressive, undoubtedly.

Cordon Smith

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy is a trilogy in five parts, which follows the intergalactic travels of Arthur Dent, a human in a dressing gown, who escapes from Earth with an alien called Ford Prefect (he mis-

often confessed to a weakness for fa路c eless peripheral characters such as Schindler in his Booker Prize winning work Schindler's Ark. In The Office of Innocence Frank Darragh acts as a lens, an observer, and through his eyes and the confessions he hears we come face to face with the realities of the anxieties and fears of the ordinary and not so ordinary people of suburbia. The novel is semi-autobiographical.

Keneally trained to be a Catholic Priest but dropped out two weeks before he was due to be ordained. The novel focuses on the doubts that rise in people when they are faced with imminent assault and occupation.

The widespread loss of innocence is personified by the heroine of the novel Kate Heggarty whose murder throws Frank into turmoil, and she is one of several female characters who provide wonderful examples of those Keneally considers the real heroes of the war. The book is an adult story which was written as an exorcism of Keneally's childish nightmares. He re.members the night Sydney was attacked acutely and has described it as the 'night of bloody terror'. It is lovingly researched and brilliantly executed and he succeeds in mixing deeply personal and wryly humorous observations of both his characters and the time in which the story is set. He has an oldfashioned regard for language and happily mixes profanity with poetic metaphor in beautiful prose wonderfully true to the complexities of the war and the Australian chapter of it.

The time it has taken to produce the work is a measure of both how difficult and important a story it was to write. Thomas keneally is interviewed on page 6.

Katharine Clemow

judged the dominant species) just before it is destroyed to make way for an interstellar bypass. A mixture of the absurd and the truly profound, it combines Adam's knowledge of science and technology with his extremely witty use of language.

Here is an extract to whet your appetite: "'I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing." '"But," says man, "the Babe! fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't." "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.'

The story started off as a radio series.

Adams would finish off each script minutes before they went on air, subsequently the storylines twist and turn in bizarre directions. The result is an exciting but tiring roller coaster ride through the galaxy.

During the novel Ford Prefect encounters the 'Restaurant at the end of the Universe' the answer to 'Life the Universe and Everything' and God's final message to his creation. It is a story that is not so much science fiction or comedy but a parody of science fiction with some great insights into life on Earth, all from a very Britisl:l perspective (tea, cricket etc). The Hitchhiker's phenomenon has been dutifully exploited by publishers over the years and now a new hardback version of all five books in one is available from all good book shops. The Hitchhiker movie, which Adams spent years trying to get made prior to his untimely death in 2000, will hopefully soon be gracing our screens in the near future.

The novel is the work of a great mind, one full of a wit, humour and a profound understanding that is out of this world.

Toby Sleigh-]ohnson

Have you got a favourite book you would like to review for the event? If so contact us at su.concrete@uea.ac.uk 15.01.03

20 TV

Essential TV:

Friends Reunited

!Ul the路, wincl' is howling outside we can ~iflagain'; talle' comfOr:t~in ~the: fact that

In mid-winter there is nothing better than cu ddling up with a cuppa and th e remote con trol. There is somethin g consoling and hearte ning about sharing an e venin g with c ountless numbers of people who all seem to have busier and more exciting lives than yourself. But when the people you watch are as familiar to you as your own family , and you know all the ins and cuts of their love lives, their pregnancies and their problems the feeling increases ten fold .

This winter sees the return of Friends, Frasier an d ER. And how we have waited. And waited. It has been like waiting for your exams results , an agonising and painful wait that has tested our patience to the limit. But will we be disappointed?

Some of you may argue that the shows aren't what they used to be . That the Frasier Crane of today is not the same as he was nine seasons ago. Certainly, I for one, feel that not only has the dynamics of the sh ows changed b ut the characters, my friends, have changed too.

I will never forget sitting down to watch the first episode of ER. I don' t think I breathed for the first fifteen minutes. The show was so cutting edge, so new. It was simply the most exciting television I had ever witnessed. There was a nice balance of hospital drama mixed with the characters' persona:! problems, but they never took over - the show was first and foremost about the ER. Now, of course, nine years later the doctors and nurses have been shot, stabbed, addicted to drugs and last season of course, saw the untimely death of Dr. Greene. Although, ER is still very watchable indeed, it's a shame that the writers feel comp elled to come up with more and more bizarre storylines to keep the show going. This season won' t be an exception. In the first

The cas t of Frasier wait in airport departures loung e for ratings to rake off episode a mysterious and deadly illness is having its rounds in the hospital causing several doctors to be quarantined.

Hmm ...

The writers on Frasier seem to hav e reacted to the success of the show in the opposite way . Stay ing in tune with the psychiatrist's stubborn and conservative views of life, it took

Essential Soaps

them years to finally match up Niles and Daphne, a union that ended in marriage last season. And now things just aren't the same anymore. The tension between the two and the jokes surrounding Ni!es's obsessive love have all been lost as he and Dap hne are in the middle of living happily ever after. But just because things aren't the same anymore , doesn' t necessarily mean that they are bad. The fact that Niles and Daphne are now a married couple will open up for a new bantering between them creating new and funny angles .

When Monica and C handler found eternal sit-com love in Friends I was the first to sigh and giv e up in advance. This was bound to change the show for the worse, of this I was certain. But Friends is as popular as ever. The actors keep signing up for "one more season" being paid huge amounts each time they put their pens on the dotted line causing all of us to draw a huge sigh of relief. The NBC factory , then, must be doing something right . And, boy, are they ever.

Millions, myself included, tune in each week. Each season I feel compelled to watch the goings-on in my extended circle of friends . This time round Rachel is forced into a marriage proposal showdown after the longest labour in history. Who will she chose? Ross, the father of baby Emma and exboyfriend extraordinaire, or Joey, the eternal bachelor with a heart of gold?

Yes, they have all changed since we last caught up . But, then so have I. With Frasier in its tenth season and Friends and ER in their ninth, I feel I have grown up with these people . We have experienced so much together, shared so many things , and I'll be darned if I am going to let them down now . I know them too well for that. So this winter I have several dates with my sofa and my remo te . God Bless American Television! Or as Chandler Bing might put it: oh my god, could it BE any better than this?

Frasier, Channel 4 , Monday s 10.35prn Frie nds , Channel4 , Frida y s 9pm ER, Channe l 4 , season premiere March Britt ]uste

Films On TV 01 Quick a d the Dead Before he was unleashed on Spiderman, Sam Raimi was allowed to make this bizarre western, with Sharon Stone acting like Glint Eastwood. Leo Dicaprio and Russel Crewe both appear pre-fame Channe14,SahudayJanuaryl8,10pm

02 Da ces With Wo ves Kevin Costner wasn't always a boring failure . In the early ninties he was a boring success. 路This was the highest grossing independent film of all time until last year's My Big Fat Greek Wedding ChanneiS,TuesdayJanuary21,8pm

03 Last Action Hero One of those films that was meant to be huge but eventually just collapsed under its own weight.

Amie plays an action film character who ends up in the real world. Not as funny as it sounds.

ChannelS, Wednesday January 22, 8prn

Lou and Harold t a lk it out in N eighbours You' d have thought that New Years Eve would have given everybody the chance to wipe a clean slate and call it quits with their ongoing enemies, but this does obviou sly not apply to soap characters. However, who have refused to let any New Years Resolutions spoil a perfectly gritty feud . It 's hardly a revelation to find that !an Beale' s still the sour faced wily little weasel he was before the clock hit twelve last year , and just to prove my theory , Phi! Mitchell's still the red faced bulky big baboon he used to be too.

This week's action is centred once again on the Slater house where Lynne looks like she might let Carry off the hook after all, but only if - and what a hard life! - he agrees to go on that two-week holiday to Mexico so they can spend some quality time together. A few things stand in the way though: Carry couldn't rub anything , sticks or Lynne, the right way up to save his life. Cue walking piggy bank Phi! who 's only too happy to lend his old mucker the 500 pounds he needs.

This in turn serves to wipe the annoying smirk off Beale 's

ii#IW!MJ搂ii 15 .o1.o3

face who was hoping everything would go pear-shaped for them like it has for him. Meanwhile Kat hasn't changed much either deciding to ditch demure Anthony and fulfil her destiny of one nightstand singlehood. Forbidden love is of course very exciting as well: Ricky and Nat are still at it like rabbits .

In N eighbours things are hotting up. Rumour has it that Harold and Lou are about to fall out over a packet of jelly beans - is it that they're feeling particularly hungry or could the jelly beans be an ingenious symbol for Rosie? And Dr Cook inappropriately com es onto Dee during what looks to be a serious lung transplant operation.

Up in Chester, Ellie "have a go" Hunter tries to woo Scott at The Loft in a bid to get her stiletto up another rung of the career ladder. Jodie lures Jack back to her love nest and Ch loe goes in for the Jock Idol competition.

Kate Herrington

04 A Study in Terror Here 's an odd idea: have the fictional Sherlock Holmes track down the real Jack the Ripper. The Result is a reasonably entertaining thriller with some surprisingly gory deaths.

BBC I, Wednesday January 15, Midnight

05 Wild, Wild West Truly awful, big budget comedy adventure consisting of Will Smith and Kevin Kline running around the desert chasing/escaping from various giant machines. Should never have been made.

ChannelS,ThazsdayJanuary22,8prn

T:V/Radio 21

TV & Radio Highlights Text: Britt Juste, Kate Hel'l'ington, Liz Hutchinson

The American Music Awards C4, Sunday January 19, 10.55pm It's that special time of year again when America's leading music artists race to pile on those diamante medallions and slip into those slinky outfits parading their booty on stage in a bigger than ever effort to dazzle. This year marks the Awards 30th birthday with performances by Christina Aquilera as well as nominations for Ashanti and Erninem on the cards. But it's not the artists we'll be keeping our eye on for entertainment value - it's the show's hosts The Osboumes.

And after hiring dancing midgets and the Village People to help celebrate their renewed wedding vows this New Years Eve, who knows what to expect?

Shooting Stars BBC 2, Mondays, 9.30pm The sweaty fox, True or False and other various surreal antics are back as Shooting Stars are being repeated on BBC Two. On Monday England supporter number one, Ulrika Johnsson, struggles to keep up her status as the show's original blonde beauty as Reeves and Mortirner happily welcome Swedish model Victoria Silvstedt. Also appearing in the hilariously bizarre quiz are Eddie Grant, Johnny Vegas and Misteeq band member Sabrina Washington. As usual the scores are kept by George Dawes in that particular way. All I can say is: Uvavu.

and Dec's Saturday Miss This: Ant Night takeaway ITV, Every Saturday, 7 .30pm As the winter nights grow colder, the temptation to spend Saturday night in front of the TV rather than venturing out into the big, wide world and being sociable presses on us all. And perhaps it's this desperation the TV executives count on when producing shows like Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

Now, don't think I'm getting on my intellectual high horse and looking down on people who enjoy TV that's simply entertaining and nothing more. I'm Neighbour's biggest fan.

My reason for chosing it isn't the hosts either - they are, after all, the saviours of trash TVbut rather the contents of the show. The preview for the new series promises such outstanding ideas as ]im Didn't Fix it For Me, where those who wrote to Jim in the 80s and didn't have their wish fulfilled finally have the opportunity for their dreams to come true; Quiz Show Loser!, which takes failures from other game shows and gives them another chance to win some dosh (sounding very samey, isn't it?); and finally Ant and Dec Unplanned, which is pretty sell-explanatory, though, seeing as it was far from successful when the vastly funnier Baddiel and Skinner attempted it, seems ill-advised at best.

Ant and Dec are very amusing and have successfully dropped the failed popstar stigma and proved themselves as engaging entertainers on such shows as SM:TV and Pop Idols, and they certainly bring in viewers, this being ITV's main purpose, after all.

However, this is the bane of ITV's viewing schedule; they've taken two entertaining (though admittedly overrated) hosts, and given them a show full of rehashed ideas fro~ other trash TV to present. Yes, it was entertaining when we saw it the first time - I spent many hours as a child watching Jim fix it and many a fixed gameshow, but there's a

reason why Jim'll Fix It was cancelled, and that's because people didn't care any more.

Why we should care about this purile nonsense, I don't know. ITV need to learn that it isn't smart, it isn't clever, and it certainly isn't watchable.

Ryan Stephens

Ant and Dec: give up the day job

Footballers' Wives ITV, Wednesdays, 9.00pm It's back, and be prepared for more glam, pouts and silliness than before. The first episode saw the discovery of a body in Chardonnay's pool? No doubt a whodunnit plot to shame Taggart... 'there's been a murder' ... will ensue. Do not be fooled, the footballers featured here are less Becks and more the ones who think that as footballers, they are automatically attractive, whereas in reality they are unfortunate looking defenders who play for Scurntown FC. Nonetheless, their plump-lipped other halves more than make up for their lack of attractiveness and provide a welcome distraction from the fiaring of Gary Lucy's nostrils.

Wife Swap C4, Tuesdays, 9.00pm Sticking two fingers up at smug marrieds, Wife Swap served as a warning against eating ready meals every day. (See quadrupled chinned man, right). Watching Dee and Dave attempting a bear hug and unknowingly inventing a new form of wrestling called belly bashing was quite funny as was 18 year-old Mary screaming for her Westlife posters. Actually, that was scary.

There were some poignant moments such as Charlotte telling fishnet vest-wearing Lance what she really thought of him and his Poundstretcher shades (so not a good look). Keep watching and thank your lucky stars your parents didn't agree to this ... or did they?

Comedian's Comedians Radio2, Saturday January 18, 1 pm Returning from the Christmas break the prospect of having four months left of essays, deadlines and boring books have probably quickly wiped the December "I am so relieved I have finished my coursework" smile off your face. Guaranteed to put it back on though is Radio Two's new series Comedians' Comedians. With in-depth interviews and classic performances from Monty Python, Eddie Izzard, Mel Brooks and Robin Willianl$ who each take their turn in the spotlight, you will promptly forget the looming coursework and presentations due in week five. And as for the exams? Well, they are months away ...

15.01.03 <

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22 listings

All films start at 8.30 pm and are shown in Lecture Theatre 1 unless otherwise stated. Tickets £2 .75 Mem.ento Tue 1411 I've forgotten what this film's about Insom.nia Thur 1611 For those who can't sleep Lantana Fri 1711 Critically celebrated aussie drama The Guru Tue 21 11 Jirni Mistry stars in 2002's comedy romp My Big Fat Greek We dding Thur 2311 Starring that bloke from Sex and the City 0 Fri 2411 Othello updated for a teen audience Talk to Her Tue 2811 Pedro Alrnod6var's latest

· UCI

16:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 22 :45 Sat 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 19:00 19:30 20 :00 20:30 22:45 Sun 11:00 12:00 12:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20 :30 Mon-Thur 12:00 12:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 Star Trek X: Nem.esis Fri 12:15 13:15 15:15 16:00 18:00 18:45 20:45 21 :30 23:30 Sat 13:15 16:00 18:45 2 1:30 23:30 Sun-Thur 12:15 13:15 15:15 16:00 18:00 18:45 20:45 21 :30

Am.adeus: Directors Cut Tue 15:00 19:00 Chicago Thur 12:30 15:00 17:30 20:15

Sweet Hom.e Alabama Fri & Sat 12:45 15:15 18:00 20:30 23:00 Sun-Tue &Thur 12:45 15:15 18:00 20:30 Wed 12:45 15:15 The Quiet Am.erica n Fri-Wed 18:30 20:45

The Tuxedo Fri & Sat 13:45 16:15 18:45 21 :15 23:45 Sun-Thur 13:45 16:15 18:45 21 :15

·From 17/01 The Master of Disguise The Transporter

From 24/01 The Pianist Ghost Ship

~inema City Dirty Pretty Things 10-16/l

Die Another Day Fri-Thur 12:15 15:15 18:15 21: 15

Sherlock JunioriStean\boat Billy Jr 1211, 1411

Gangs Of New York Fri-Thur 12:45 14:45 16:45 19:45 20:45

SMile Chicago

Harry Potte r and the Chan\ber of Secrets Fri & Man 13:15 15:00 16:45 20:15 Sat&Sun 11 :2013:1515:0016 :45 20:15 11 :20 13:15 15:00 16:45 20:15 Tue and Thur 13:15 16:45 20:15 Wed 13:15 15:00 16:45 20:15

Ster Century

Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers Fri 12:00 12:30 15:00 15:30 16:00

ii#IW!Mj§ii 15 .o1.03

Charty Handbaggy The Loft Gay night

In Me W aterfront Sunday 26 January

Liquid

Queen Adreena Waterfront Monday January 27

From 16/01 Die Another Day Gangs Of New York Harry Potter and the Chan\ber of Secrets Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Star Trek X: Nem.esis Sweet Hom.e Alabama

9.30 pm until 2.00 am £2 students Rebel Lion Bank

Fridays The Asleep Norwich Arts Centre Monday January 20 Easyworld Norwich Arts Centre 27 January

Delirium.

The C oncept House, garage and R&B

Clubs Wednesdays Superfly LockS tack Funk and Hip -Hop £3 Jitterbug I Jam Po Na Na F~ drum 'n' b ass & house Free b4 10 pm, £2 after Classic Hits Ikon 10 p m until 2 am £2 b 4 11 p m

Isotonic Kafe Da Progressive trance & house Free The LCR disco LCR £3 The Underground Last thursday of every month From 10 pm £3

Playhouse Ornid Djalili 17January C ircus of Horrors 22-24 January Dylan Moran 25 January

Charts and Dance

Liquid 9.30 until 2.00 £2 students

Free fall The Ferryboat Thursd ay January 23 Wednesdays

Life Time 9pm until 2am £1 students

Ministry of Cheese

Thu 7111 The great reggae night £4

The Santa Clause 2 Sat & Sun 11 :45

City Of God Fri-Thur 12:45, 15:30, 18:30,2 1: 15

Like Mike Satand Sun 11:10

Fish Fest W aterfront Thursday 23 January

Stuart Little 2 Sat & Sun 11 :00

From 10/01 8 Mile Sat 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 23:15

Girls and Boys C omercial Pop and Chart Time £2 b4 1 LOO £3 after

Chart Hits & Class ic Anthem.s Ikon 9.30 til 2.00 £4 b4 11 pm Marvel I Gas Station The Loft Hip hop & funk £3 b4 11 p m , £4 after Skill Waterfront Beats, funk 'n' hip-hop featuring Da ddy G (Massive Attack)

Now That' s What I Call the 90s UEA/LCR 19th October 9 .30 pm - 1.30 am £4 adv Saturday Rewind Bar Metro Chart , dance, garage

Sunday Service Manhattans £2.50 HotZTrot

Liquid 9 .30 pm until 2.00 am £2 students

Loaded LockS tack

Theatre Royal Jack a nd the Be ansta lk Till 19 January The Mysteries Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 January My Fair Lady Monday 27 January till Saturd ay 1 February

Louis De Berniere Thursday January 16, 8pm All Tickets £3.50 The author of Captain Corelli 's Mandolin comes to Norwich to do a reading. It is still unknown wh at he is going to be reading.

Krazy Kat present Little Red Riding Hood Saturday January 18, 2.30pm All tickets £4 The show features fully integrated British sign language Junk Truffle Saturday January 25, 8pm £5 advance Multim e dia hip-h op experien ce with the 2-Bit TV people and guest DJs.

111e York Tavern Aislel6 Tuesday February 4, 7 .30pm £3 on the door Join the award winnin g performance poets aislel6 and their extremely funny friends , as they put on another poetry cabaret. "I lov ed it" - The Scotsm an

listings , 23

...

Livewire Schedule Monday

Thursday

8-10: Fresh OJ 10-12: Armed & Dangerous 12-2: Magical Mystery Tour 2-4: Vanishing Point 4-6: Far From Home & Far From Talented 6-8: B.E.A.T.S. 8-10: Daydream Nation 10-12: Drop tha Bomb! I Hip Hop Trax

8-10: Trans-Atlantic Express 10-12: Tasti 12-2: The Undecided 2-4: The Vanessa B Show 4-6: Mark Boutros 路 6-8: The Reverends' Revival 8-10: Rebel Lion Roots 10-12: The Funk Connection

Tuesday

Friday

8-10: Sound Advice 10-12: That Show 12-2: "Look, a Squirrel!"

2-3: After Lunch with Miss Nicki 3-4: Culture Shock I S.E.E.D. 4-5: Matt Brown 5-6: Kill an Hour

8-10: Where the Wild Things .Are 10-12: illegally Blonde 12-2: Essential Selection 2-4: Simonson & Nickelback

6-8: Dancing Round the Borders of the Curfew 8-9: Contemporary Music Society 9-10: Evening Please 10-12: We the Funky Foo

4-6: You Don't Know You're Born 6-8: SKILL and Superfly 8-10: Progressive Minds 10-12: Rebel Soldier

Saturday

I SSOAIP

I SSOAIP

9-11: The Hook 11-1: Alternative Session

Wednesday 8-10: Eastern Exposure 10-12: The Grapevine 12-2: The Tom & ]oe Show 2-4: Frontier Psychiatry 4-6: Mad Man Dan & His Musical Monkeys 6-8: The Mental Institute 8-9: The Untitled Show 9-10: Sports Report 10-12: T with the Vicar

Kings of Comedy: Dylan Moran and Omid DjalUi

1-3: No More Barbie P*rn 3-5: The Groove Bus 5-7: Sports Frenzy 7-9: Underground Session 9-12: TSN I Digital Nightmares

I SSOAIP

Sunday 9-11: Think!

11-1: Soundtrack to the Revolution 1-3: Sunday Review 3-5: The Incident Room 5-7: SBN Chart Show 7-9: Livewire Chart Show

Fr

7

EATON PARK

and many mo Tel: 077

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