VENUE ISSUE 289
Ciara Jack
concrete.venue@uea.ac.uk
www.concrete-online.co.uk
19.11.2013
VENUE
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MUSIC
CREATIVE WRITING GAMING
IS IN COMPUTER LOVE
GETS SURREAL
Ready, steady, go! Welcome to Venue’s exclusive throwback issue. We’ll be revisiting all the glam golden oldies from across the 20th and early 21st century. Each decade made its own signature stamp, whether it be glitter and perm in the 70s, bold powerdressing the 80s or the quirky mock-retro of the 90s. In the Concrete office this week we were trying to remember as many Pokemon as possible. There are simply too many. This issue has also prompted both of us to consider our favourite eras. Ciara: while the boldness of the 80s often relfected the gratiuitous money spending of the era, it also produced some great entertainment, Pretty Woman for
example. Yes, it’s a love-letter to capitalism, but it’s a great fairytale with a classic soundtrack. We had music that no local radiostation would be complete without today; OMD, Human League, Madonna and a new chapter for David Bowie with Ashes to Ashes. Hayden: The 90s was a crucial cultural turning point in entertainment. Bubblegum bands became the hallmark of the era and television soon followed suit (Supermarket Sweep, anyone?) We hope you enjoy looking back through the decades with equal enthusiasm. Stay cute, Ciara and Hayden
Issue 289
tries to catch ‘em all
Editor-in-Chief | Sidonie Chaffer-Melley Venue Editors | Hayden East and Ciara Jack Music | Editors | Jack Enright and Alex Flood Music Contributors: Dan Bluer, Larson Campbell, Alex Flood, Oliver Harrison, Jack Lusby, Matt Protz, Joe Tuck, Mike Vinti Fashion | Editors | Madz Abbasi and Ella Sharp Fashion Contributors: Gemma Carter, Chloe Lamb, Olley West Arts | Editor | Callum Graham Arts Contributors: Ellie Green, Steven Podmore, Victor X Creative Writing | Editor | Holly McDede Creative Writing Contributors: Georgie Currie, Holly McDede, Jake Reynolds, Peter Thorn Gaming | Editor | Sam Emsley Gaming Contributors: Sam Emsley, Joe Fitzsimmons Television | Editor | Robert Drury Television Contributors: Adam Dawson, Hayden East, Rachel Keeley, Phil Turtle Film | Editors | Holly Wade and Adam White Film Contributors: Matthew Atwood, Emma Holbrook, Jack Lusby, Harriet Norman, Eavan Ryan, Ella Sharp, Freddie Van Der Velde Competitions/Listings | Editor | Saul Holmes
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MUSIC - 70s
www.concrete-online.co.uk
concrete.music@uea.ac.uk
TOP 10 ALBUMS OF THE 1970’s
Matt Protz, Dan Bluer, Joe Tuck, Oliver Harrison and Alex Flood get together to decide
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BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BORN TO RUN
JOY DIVISION UNKNOWN PLEASURES
MARVIN GAYE WHAT’S GOING ON
THE STOOGES RAW POWER
THE DOORS LA WOMAN
From the tinkling piano intro of ‘Thunder Road’, with a harmonica part soaring over the top sending a shiver down the spine as both instruments quicken in tempo in preparation for Springsteen’s titanic vocals; to finale ‘Jungleland’, a ten minute epic that builds and builds through a heart- wrenching two minute saxophone solo from Clarence Clemons into mad piano arpeggios that Springsteen howls over before dissolving back into the opening riff. When the whole thing is over, you know you’ve been taken somewhere. ‘Thunder Road’ ends with the lines ‘But when you get to the porch they’re gone/On the wind, so Mary climb in/It’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win’, setting up the album’s themes of love, escape, youth and adventure that carry on through Springsteen declaring ‘Tramps like us, baby we were born to run.’ The first six months were spent on the title track alone, and another eight spent in a desperate yet rewarding attempt to record seven songs of equal quality, with entire weeks devoted to choosing which guitar, amp and tone would be closest to perfection. Devastatingly the Boss was unhappy with the final product. MP
Music history is overloaded with messy, sticky ends to initially promising starts. The story of Joy Division, and Ian Curtis, is perhaps the greatest of all examples of these fatalistic flashes of creativity, and the inevitable, self-destructive comedown. Unknown Pleasures was released in 1979, arriving just as punk was entering it’s final death throes. Punk had truly expended itself by this point - the visceral energy that had carried it to the forefront of contemporary music no longer inspired the shock and awe that the genre depended on. What Joy Division accomplished with Unknown Pleasures was a quite remarkable juxtaposition of punk’s primitive, animalistic energy with a self-imposed restraint - a compound that resulted in an album of quietly terrifying, barely-contained carnality. When Ian Curtis committed suicide in 1980, just a year after the release of Unknown Pleasures, music lost one of it’s most truly revolutionary figures, and Joy Division’s debut album has become one of the true touchstones of modern culture. When they released Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division kicked down doors that most people didn’t even know were closed. 34 years later, we are still exploring the spaces behind them. JT
Marvin Gaye is one of the few musicians who has had a fundamental impact on the way Soul and Motown has developed from a hit single based model to the artistic more album- based freedom that we expect today. Gaye’s defiant manner over the control of What’s Going On not only paved the way for musicians to follow suit, but also ascended him to a podium from where hecould announce his distaste of the everyday injustices prevalent in American society, especially the Vietnam War, which he drew from his brother’s experiences. Musically, one could call the record flawless. A much further developed album than That’s the Way Love is; his increased control over the subtle vocal rhythmic changes creates an almost R&B operatic atmosphere with beautiful layers of instrumentation from The Funk Brothers to the swing of the full Orchestra. What’s Goin On is simply a masterpiece of soulful, dreamlike rhythm and blues and bass- driven funk, able to convey ideas just as relevant today as they were in 1971, with the sound becoming ever more revered. OH
It was dark times for the Stooges in 1972, their career looked set to fizzle out into a damp squib of eternal, yet unfulfilled, promise when David Bowie’s management team gave them another chance thanks largely to his pleadings. Raw Power was the fruit of the new partnership’s labours. Iggy Pop sneers and snarls his way through a hazy apocalypse of soul-shattering power chords and sizzling, squealing solo’s, revealing himself as “a streetwalking cheetah, with a heart full of napalm”, never was there a more apt description. The combination of newly signed head-axeman James Williamson and deranged madman Iggy created a nonstop assault on the senses that never fails to both thrill and shock to the extreme. Raw Power is a true listening experience, bursting into life with the incomporable and exhilarating ‘Search and Destroy’ then sapping every little piece of energy from its audience through eight mindblowing tracks of raw rock ‘n’ roll (including the unexpectedly calming, yet deeply sinister, ‘Gimme Danger’). Raw Power will leave the unprepared listener broken and yearning for more, as it did many would be punks in the 70’s, effectively providing the blueprint for a whole movement. AF
L.A Woman, the last album the band recorded with the late, great Jim Morrison, was The Doors’ sixth and most consistent since their selftitled debut. ‘See me change’ barks Morrison on the title track, ‘The Changeling’, something he had done with his persona throughout the band’s career and complete with awful beard, this might have been his finest transformation (apart from said facial hair). ‘Love Her Madly’ has the band in its most infectious, blues infused mood; and ‘Been Down So Long’ is a gritty, jazz stomp (awfully sampled by Chase and Status), and with ‘LA Woman’ and ‘Riders on the Storm’ the band created two songs that encapsulate the spirit of their enigmatic front man. This is an album that demonstrated everything that was so great about The Doors. Original, classic, sometimes overblown rock and roll songs that gave Jim Morrison a platform for his wide ranging vocals and powerful lyrics. It is quite fitting that it was to be the last album they made and the band, or more to the point, Morrison, certainly went out on a high. JT
MUSIC - 70s concrete.music@uea.ac.uk
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19.11.2013
THE TOP FIVE
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Until this point punk had rejected all that came before it, something Strummer demonstrates in the title track when he snarls that “phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust.” But this lyric is something of a misnomer as the album saw the reconciling of the newly formed punk and traditional rock n roll via funk, jazz and ska. It infuses punk’s nihilistic despair with the optimism found in the black music the band were becoming increasingly exposed to, culminating in ‘Revolution Rock’ when Strummer declares “Tell your ma, tell your pa, everything’s gonna be all right”, amidst joyous rhythms, brass sections and organs; how the band could have evolved into this just two years after recording ‘White Riot’ is part of the measure of its brilliance. The album emerged amidst a backdrop of mass unemployment and racial tension, and where in previous years Strummer and Jones might have screamed in anger, they now found a new outlet for their contempt with the colour of an Elvis record splashed over the LP sleeve, but with the same level of frustration to depict Simonon smashing his bass, perhaps the most iconic photograph in rock n roll. MP
Pink Floyd’s eighth studio album is a classic through and through. Its credentials are staggering; it spent over 11 consecutive years in the billboard top 200 and is estimated to be between the fifth and second highest selling albums of all time. What gives these statistics significance is the fact that this album is progressive and psychedelic, something that it is hard to believe has permeated mass culture to such an extent. This is a testament to the immense quality of the song-writing buried beneath its exquisite looping effects and transcendental tones. The album has real direction and purpose from start to finish, something the band often lacked post-Barrett. It does not feel like an album of individual songs, but one experience. It would be hard to name more than one or two albums that are put together in so well a manner. If pushed to choose personal highlights, the instantly tranquilizing effect of ‘Breath’, the thunderous ballad ‘Time’ and ‘The Great Gig in the sky’ led by a dazzling vocal effort from Clare Tory, would get a slight nod. Nevertheless, every aspect of this album is masterfully crafted and deserving of the utmost praise, right down to Storm Thorgerson’s iconic artwork. DB
THE CLASH LONDON CALLING
PINK FLOYD THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
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DAVID BOWIE THE RISE AND FALL OF ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS Just one of the stellar catalogue of records that Bowie produced in the seventies, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars stands out from the rest simply because it was Bowie’s only concept album of the decade (as glamrock persona Ziggy Stardust) and the truest representation of what he was trying to achieve musically throughout his career. In distancing himself from the music he was able to fuse Marc Bolan-esque glam rock with the dystopian eccentricities of A Clockwork Orange to create an absolute masterpiece of popular music. Every track on Ziggy is a singular, encapsulating tale, yet Bowie still manages to make them flow seamlessly from one to the other. Beginning with the rock epic ‘Five Years’ and flowing through such classics as the orchestral, melancholic ‘Starman’, and the pedal-to-themetal thrasher ‘Suffragette City’, the record evokes all emotions effortlessly. Every song is of the highest quality imaginable and David Bowie’s soul- wrending vocals (accompanied by the exquisite guitar-work of his greatest guitar- maestro, Mick Ronson) soar to unimaginable heights atop the tallest mountain he ever traversed. AF
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LOU REED TRANSFORMER ‘Perfect Day’, ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, ‘Satellite of Love’, take your pick, Transformer saw some of Lou Reed’s finest song writing. And that’s before you look at ‘Hangin’ Round’ and the beautifully nonsensical lyrics of ‘Andy’s Chest’ (‘Well you know what happens after dark/ When rattlesnakes lose their skins and their hearts’) Kicking off with the very Velvet Underground-sounding ‘Vicious’, Lou Reed’s second album quickly becomes something so far removed from anything he had previously done that it is viewed to be as influential as his work with Cale, Tucker, Morrison, the lovely Nico and co. Leaning heavily on an obvious David Bowie influence, it manages to maintain its originality through Reed’s unmistakable rock and roll drool and its overall darker, sinister vibe; with the lyrics focusing on subjects otherwise untouched by Reed’s rival artists of the 70’s, such as transvestisism (‘Walk on the Wild Side’) and drug addiction (‘Perfect Day’). ‘Perfect Day’ in particular seems to have more of an emotional draw to them considering what happened to the man last month, and to this day both he, and Transformer, remain as influential as ever. JT
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THE ROLLING STONES EXILE ON MAIN ST. In 1972, from the depths of a dingy basement in Keith Richards’ Nellecote mansion (the centre of a year- long orgy of literally anything you can think of ) emerged this sprawling, majestic double album, blending soul, country, rock ‘n’ roll, blues and gospel perfectly into a sound unique to the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger oscillates between the sassy, purring yowl of a wildcat on ‘Casino Boogie’, to spitting, clawing feline on ‘Rip this Joint’, and on to the spine- chillingly emotional croon of ‘Shine a Light’; all the while backed by a crack band of the riff- meister and rhythm king, Keith Richards, and virtuoso sidekick with licks bleeding from his fingers, Mick Taylor, not to mention the mighty and metronomic rhythm section of Charlie Watts on drums and bassist Bill Wyman, (Bobby Keys ain’t too shabby on sax either). Exile is an explosion of sound, like a rainbow splattered on a canvas of silence. It excites on first listen, yet with each further play it reveals more and more about itself, a new instrumental part appreciated yet unnoticed on a previous airing, and even with the hundredth spin its murky depths are still not fully delved into. Exile sets the standard for hardblues rock and remains one of the greatest albums ever made, with new bands constantly referring to it like a preacher to a bible. AF
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MUSIC - 70s
concrete.music@uea.ac.uk
A DECADE OF INNOVATION
We take a look back at two of the 1970’s most influential acts KRAFTWERK Mike Vinti Hailed as the inventors of both Krautrock and Electronic music as we know it today, Kraftwerk are undeniably one of the most influential acts of the 1970s. From their eponymous debut album in 1970, to their recent slot as headliners at Latitude Festival this past summer, Kraftwerk have been held as the definitive example of what electronic music is capable of. Counting Bowie, Ian Curtis and Siouxsie and the Banshees amongst their admirers, the scope of Kraftwerk’s influence is near impossible to define - think of your favourite musician, and chances are they’re probably a Kraftwerk fan. So how come you’ve never heard of them? Kraftwerk’s relatively obscure nature is a strange phenomenon. They are respected universally by musicians and critics alike, yet ask your average student and probably won’t have a clue who you’re talking about. However, play someone ‘Autobahn’ or ‘Techno Pop’ and chances are they’ll find it familiar if they’ve ever listened to House, Disco, Techno or pretty much any other kind of
JOY DIVISION Jack Lusby On the 20th of July, 1976, the Sex Pistols played their second gig, at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall. What spawned from these early shows, with their raw aggression and controversial abandon, was the swirling beast of punk. With anti-
youthunitedpress
dance or electronic music then they owe it to Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk’s music encompasses all that is best about electronic music; it’s minimal, repetitive, danceable and yet still remains highly emotive, transporting the listener to a mechanical world in which computers pulse and the engines of industry hiss in time. As a band they have consistently pushed and developed the boundaries of music, experimenting with and inventing new technology in order to achieve the sounds they desired they create musical soundscapes and albumlength odysseys rather than churning out the ‘bangers’ that modern electronic music has become known for. A perfect example of this is 1974’s Autobahn, the title track of which is one of the bands most wellknown singles, which also flows perfectly into the rest of the album. Kraftwerk’s genius and continued relevance lies in this ability to craft pieces of music that work both as standalone songs and as part of an album as a whole. Kraftwerk receive their dues from many a well-known and greatly talented musician; Bowie’s ‘V2 Schneider’ from his album Heroes was named after founding Kraftwerk member Florian Schneider and New Order sampled ‘Uranium’ in ‘Blue Monday’ which has authority high on their agenda, the sound of the Sex Pistols, along with the likes of The Damned and Buzzcocks, captivated the restless English youth. Attending the gig were a young Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner who, thus inspired, immediately set out to form what came to be known as Joy Division. As the Sex Pistols burned out with the endearingly juvenile ‘Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle’, Joy Division took the dwindling
us.pointblankonline.net gone on to become one of the defining songs of the 80s. Kraftwerk’s live shows are as incredible as their studio albums; they’ve played a week long residency at Tate Modern, sent ‘robots’ to perform their shows and at Latitude this summer treated the crowd to a 3D audio-visual masterpiece of a show. Forget music for a second - Kraftwerk’s concerts could easily be seen as high art. Kraftwerk’s influence can still be seen to this day. Two of biggest acts this summer were Disclosure and Daft Punk, both seen
as forward looking electronic pop music acts. Disclosure wouldn’t have been able to create much of their debut album had Kraftwerk not experimented with electronic and synthetic sounds in their Klink Klang Studio during the 70s and 80s. Daft Punk, by their own admission, pay obvious homage to Kraftwerk with their styling as ‘robots’ and use of synthesised vocals. Kraftwerk’s influence, like the Beatles, has become so great that their interpretation of electronic music has become the foundation of the genre.
image of punk and from it crafted what would later be dubbed post-punk. Much is attributed to producer Martin Hannett who, working alongside Factory Records’ hugely influential Tony Wilson, propelled Joy Division to the fore of a developing Manchester scene. Hannett’s atmospheric production of the band’s two albums, 1979’s Unknown Pleasures and 1980’s Closer, was accented by the focus on Hook’s high bass melodies and the sparse percussion of Stephen Morris. Beyond their pioneering sound, Joy Division have since become an iconic outfit partially due to the tragic life of their frontman, Ian Curtis. Curtis’ lyrics, brooding and despairing, underpin the atmosphere of the instrumentals and his rich baritone - echoing The Doors’ Jim Morrison - provide the perfectmedium for their delivery. Curtis’ life was plagued by both epilepsy and bouts of depression, which led to the singer taking his own life on the eve of the band’s first American tour in May 1980. For those completely new to the band, 1988’s posthumously released compilation album Substance proves the most immediately engaging. Compiling tracks from the band’s debut EP An Ideal For Living as well as B-sides and non-album singles, the album gives a comprehensive
impression of the progression of Joy Division’s sound. Stand-out tracks include the punky ‘Warsaw’, the bleak yet uplifting ‘Atmosphere, and the now ubiquitous ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. The latter, released as a single following Curtis’ suicide, went on to become the group’s most successful single. It has since been covered by a plethora of bands including U2, The Cure, Arcade Fire and Bloc Party, such is its influence. Championed by John Peel, Joy Division’s post-punk sound sparked a movement in the late 70s and early 80s which included Gang of Four, John Lydon’s Public Image Limited and the aforementioned Cure. All three typify the intelligent, dark and constantly evolving sound that Joy Division pioneered. Joy Division’s remaining members went on to form New Order, and the more synthbased sound seen in ‘Temptation’ is an example of this evolution. The influence of Joy Division and postpunk can be seen to this day, particularly within the revival the sound enjoyed in the 00s. The success of The Strokes, Editors and Interpol are a testament to the continued influence of Ian Curtis and Joy Division, though he less said about The Wombats and ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’ the better…
MUSIC - 70s concrete.music@uea.ac.uk
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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
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Larson Campbell picks out the landmark 70s acts still making waves today The 70s are having a resurgence with the recent successes of some of the decade’s most iconic figures. David Bowie, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones have all made waves in the past year with tours, new releases, and festival appearances, much to the dismay of a disgruntled Yannis Philippakis of Foals. The front man claimed that he was ‘bored’ with seeing the usual big names coming back and occupying the top spots at festivals every year. The issue, he claimed, was that the older generation were out of touch with the current music industry, and therefore meant nothing to him or young listeners. However, we should not be writing off older artists as ‘boring’ simply because they are no longer the forerunners of groundbreaking music. In all honesty, the notion that older, established artists should throw in the towel once they are unable to match the excellence of their peak years is one that is both exhausted and, more importantly, consistently proved wrong. With the music industry inundated with over-produced artists with minimal musical talent, is the triumphant return of nostalgic and credible artists who have already proved themselves really so terrible? Is a slightly dodgy rendition of ‘Hey Jude’ by
Paul McCartney at the Olympic Ceremony really that much worse than paying £40 to watch David Guetta sporadically press some buttons on a stage? McCartney’s latest album proves he has yet to lose his touch. The album is perhaps a tad too transparently experimental in areas, but is a solid piece of work nonetheless. The stream of accusations that McCartney has been riding ever so slightly too long on the coattails of The Beatles’ success is getting older than he is. That said, out of the three, McCartney is the one that emanates the stereotypical ‘aged rocker’ vibe the most, and maybe it’s his seemingly frantic desperation to keep up with pop culture that is letting him down. Someone of his indisputable status performing on the X Factor finale in 2009 felt like an uncomfortable and forced attempt to remain relevant. Undoubtedly, the most elusive character from the 70s, David Bowie, has also made a mysterious, yet phenomenally successful return in the past year. After a ten year silence, leading many to believe he had retired, he returned with The Next Day, an album almost as secretive in its creation as it has been successful. The return could not be more welcome, rocketing The Next Day
to number one album (his first in twenty years) and being nominated for the coveted Mercury prize. Few present day artists come to mind that could pull off an album release so shrouded in mysticism so seamlessly. For a man who claimed that he’d rather be dead than sing Satisfaction when he’s 45, Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones tuneupmedia.com
are a prime example of a band who have weathered the rapidly changing storm of the music industry, and this summer celebrated their 50th anniversary. Performing on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury as well as two sold out gigs in Hyde Park, not to mention the world tour they just finished and the rumours of another in 2014, it’s clear the appeal of the Stones has yet to wane. Unlike McCartney, the Stones aren’t inclined to conform to the industry blueprint or adapt to the times, and that seems to be the key to their commercial success. Part of the genius of these artists is the fact that their music has the ability to transcend time; to drastically change and so to slot in with chart toppers today is cheapening their worth. Essentially, iconic artists can never recreate the perfection of their glory years, but they shouldn’t try to. Artists such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney have already proved themselves worthy of the title of musical geniuses. They shouldn’t be seeking the validation anymore, they don’t need it. They have already vastly influenced any semi decent band that is around today, and that in itself should ensure their relevance both in terms of the present and the future.
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Po o d l e Skirts Get that hourglass figure
Conical bras The foxy new ‘it’ lingerie
concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk
The Decade of Desire
Back to the 50s...
FAB
FASHION - 50s
Chloe Lamb explores the sex appeal of the 1950s Despite many associating the 1950s with conservatism before the decadent liberation of the 1960s, it’s clear it was a decade oozing sex appeal. Numerous cultural icons rebelled and broke through this conservatism, becoming timeless sex symbols. Venue cannot look at the sex appeal of the 1950s without looking at those masculine icons that still make women swoon (Marlon Brando. Streetcar Named Desire. Topless. Need we say more?) They exude raw sex appeal. In The Wild One, Brando works the biker look with his heavy leather jacket, turn-up jeans and biker boots. A figure who also adopted this bad-boy look was Elvis Presley, who was rarely seen on stage without his trademark leather jacket and black jeans. His gyrating hips were something completely new and shocking to a 1950s audience. While they had older listeners running in fear, to the teenage youth he was the ultimate symbol of sexual freedom and rebellion, someone
who dared to put overt sexuality into the public eye. Marilyn Monroe is undoubtedly the ultimate female sex symbol of all time. Her pin-up shoots sought to accentuate her beautiful curves with nipped in waists and tight fabrics. For a 1950s audience, the amount of skin bared by pin-up girls like Monroe may have been the most they had ever seen in their lives and she was undoubtedly the biggest sex icon of the day. While nowadays we are used to seeing women bare their flesh, Monroe’s healthy curves and confident sexuality make her a classic sex symbol. At the other end of the spectrum were designers who sought to radiate sex appeal whilst remaining elegant. Balmain and Balenciaga both revolutionised the silouhette with the narrow waist and full skirts, while couture houses were in the midst of their golden age. Their classy, sophisticated looks often included beautiful lace and silk ball gowns,
rendered sexy by their plunging necklines. This kind of sex appeal was more subtle in that it was about imagining what was underneath rather than laying everything bare. These iconic sexual figures and fashions have continued to influence modern day trends with their timeless styles. Using nipped-in waists and tight body-con dresses to create curves is something that has influenced the burlesque style pioneered by Dita Von Teese. The leather biker jacket also continues to be every fashionista’s staple, for both men and women. While we may never live up to the inherent sexiness of 1950s icons, by channelling their style we can attempt to re-live this gloriously sexy decade.
Famous from the 50s
Scrape back that barnett
Gemma Carter talks fashion icons
Be a slick cat
DRAB Rations The war’s over, when will rationing be?
Marilyn Monroe
Grace Kelly
With her platinum blonde hair, red lips and beauty spot Marilyn Monroe is a name and face that is synonymous with the 1950s. Women wanted to be her and men wanted her to be theirs - with those killer curves and sex appeal who could blame them? Marilyn is renowned for her glamorous wardrobe from the iconic cerise pink dress to the infamous white gown. Amongst all this glitz she also opted for chic ensembles outside of her films, dressed in beige and black her simple outfits emphasised her beauty even more.
One of the most photographed women of the 20th century was Hollywood’s own princess Grace Kelly. Grace epitomised classic and timeless beauty with her immaculate wardrobe that included cotton shirts, dresses with synched in waists and beautifully cut coats – fit for a princess. Her wedding dress is also an exquisite example of why she is a fashion icon with its intricate lace details it was the inspiration for Kate Middleton’s gown for the Royal Wedding in 2011. She’s even got a Hermés bag named after her in her honour, if that doesn’t scream fashion icon then what does?
Audrey Hepburn Smoking... Butts are bad news, despite what the ads say
Audrey Hepburn epitomised elegance and is a prime example of how less is most definitely more. Always rely on your little black dress when you’re off out on the town? Well, this wardrobe essential was popularised by Miss Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. With her beehive hair-do and exceptional selection of accessories she showed how stunning simplicity is. So much so that she was Givenchy’s muse for many years who she saw as a “creator of personality”. Her pixie cut hair-do was also a trademark of hers and is a hairstyle that remains popular sixty years down the line!
James Dean There is no denying that James Dean was one of the handsome and iconic men of the 1950’s. The key to Dean’s style was effortlessness. He rarely accessorised and his outfits were basic and minimalistic. Even though he kept it simple James still made a statement with his leather jacket and blue jean combo – making sure the collar was always up to create that effortless cool. Although it wasn’t a look he wore often he definitely knew a thing or two about formal dress but even then he kept it simple. His hair was just as iconic as his
foglobe.com wardrobe, using brylcreem and a comb to create that trademark quiff! Elizabeth Taylor Just like her eye make-up Elizabeth Taylor was bold and beautiful. Her style was brave, admirable and inspirational. She loved her diamonds and had an elaborate collection of jewels and trinkets. In the early days Taylor was often seen in dresses with straps that sat on her shoulders and risky, plunging necklines; she liked to push boundaries and start trends. Up until her death Taylor was never seen looking anything less than glamorous.
FASHION - 50s
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Photographer: Jacob Roberts-Kendall. Models (l to r): Louis Cheslaw, Lily Taylor, Sophie Orpen. Stylist: Madz Abbasi. With special thanks to Ed’s Easy Diner for the location, and Costume and Textile Association for providing the dresses modeled.
concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk
The American Jean Olley West Are you wearing jeans? We’d like to bet you are. Or that you at least own a pair. Perhaps you’re like us, and you own several pairs, having found your favourite style and perfect fit in an obscure corner of the high street a few years ago and worn only those since. Whatever your stance on jeans, you have to admit that they are crazily popular. Last week’s edition of Venue had eleven pairs of legs on show, ten of which were draped in denim. To celebrate Venue’s throwback issue, we thought we’d explore a bit more of the history behind the wardrobe staple… In the late nineteenth century, Levi Strauss was asked to make a strong pair of overalls using rivets for miners and gold-panners. Strauss, hoping to make his fortune in the Gold Rush, produced a unique garment, highly durable and made from cotton weave with a distinct indigo dye: what would become known as denim. And thus jeans were born. The overalls proved very popular with the workers for their strength and over the turn of the century the popularity of the jean would spread them across the workers of America, but it was the fifties that would see the humble blue jean rise to international fame. Jeans were going to Hollywood. Previously worn only by cowboys in big westerns, Hollywood began to use jeans as a way of making their characters cool. Stars like James Dean
made a classic example of the jeaned maverick in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Every bad boy took their cue from Dean’s denim package, which said “I’m so hardcore I’d wear out any other trouser.” Fly forwards into the sixties and the jeans became flared and embellished for the flower power movement, a stock garment for the hippy lifestyle because of their easiness to wear. A few years later and the fashion world began to embrace jeans, citing the effect of the denim shrinking to fit the wearer as a cheap way of getting a sophisticated tailored fit. Demand for jeans rocketed outside of the US, and more and more companies began offering their alternative style for the jean. In Britain, the Punk Revival saw the birth of the drainpipes, and that most beautiful of jeans the ‘skinny jean’ exploded onto the high street in the noughties. At Venue, we think it’s the jean’s customisation that is key to its success. It’s a uniform born from a hardworking America that also carries sophistication in its tailored fit. Whether you hang your jeans low, or super-stretch-skinny, when you wear your favourite jeans you tap into that little slice of the American dream and make it your own. So here’s to the future of the jeans! P.S: On this subject we feel very strongly at Venue that you can never wear too much denim. Double, triple, quadruple denim- the more the better, and we think Levi Strauss would heartily agree.
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ARTS - 60s
concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk
The Nostalgia of Woodstock
Steven Podmore looks back on one of the 60s defining moments
Vintage Everyday
Upon clambering on-stage at the 1985 Live Aid concert, Folk singer Joan Baez announced to the amassed crowd of 100,000 and the millions behind there TV screens, “Children of the 80s. This is your Woodstock.” Moving past the slightly depressing nature of comparing Woodstock to Live Aid; a festival better known for securing Knighthoods and spawning The Charity Christmas Single than providing actual tangible relief for the people of Ethiopia. Baez’s statement helps to reveal the huge cultural significance of Woodstock. By citing the festival she was attempting to talk above music concerts, beyond charity drives and the fragile egos of British Rock stars. Baez was conjuring up images of a counter-culture that feels somewhat absent in modern society. The antiestablishment, psychedelic and pacifist movement came to be one of the enduring popular memories of the 1960s; a decade that holds more mythical resonance than any other post-war decade. Woodstock itself is inescapably tied to this romantic legend of the 1960s, coming in the closing months of the decade. Attempts to recreate the legendary emotional impact of the festival have ended in violence and tragedy, such as Altamont and Woodstock 1999, or in the case of Live Aid, the hollow empty feeling that only U2 can inspire in people. The memories of many who attended Woodstock are steeped in nostalgia, with many seeing it as a utopian event, not a
music festival but the defining moment of their lives. For many the nostalgia and legendary status of Woodstock and the hippy counter-culture comes from this hopeful and optimistic belief, that a simple message of “Peace and Love” could change the world. A message and subcultural movement that is tied to the 1960s, although existing afterwards, but largely limited to acid fried nudists. The creepy uncles and aunts of everyone’s family. However for those born after the event, the high spiritual ideals of the festival are lost and seen as naïve. What remains is the sense of nostalgia, and certainly the most useful tool in creating a belief in a genuinely utopian view of world peace, hallucinogens. A study of UEA students in 1999 asked them to sum up in one word what Woodstock meant to them, topping the list of words were ‘drugs’ and ‘hippies.’ The only two musicians appearing on the list were Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan (who didn’t even play at the festival). Lower down the list you find “Naked People” and “Free Love.” For our generation the idealistic vision of the future preached by many of the Woodstock era Hippies is forgotten. What remains is an understanding of Woodstock as a defining and important moment in the 1960s, and mostly a positive one. The festival’s use as a trope in journalism is long running and common, The Sex Pistols’ first gig was described as “the Woodstock of its generation” in the
Telegraph. Bill Clinton cracked jokes with Woodstock as the punchline. The term Woodstock is also used to attack those for their inauthenticity; in an article criticising Queen as a “camp shambolic showbiz outfit...removed from the true spirit of Woodstock.” The writer of this piece seeks to appeal to the idea of Woodstock as representing a genuine and authentic cultural moment. Removed from the glitzy and corrupt nature of mainstream culture, Woodstock is seen as a time before the rise of the music industry, and all the disdain directed towards it. The idea of Woodstock as an event that was unique to a time period, that can never truly happen again is not pure nostalgia. Consider the 1999 Woodstock festival, sponsored by Microsoft filmed in its entirety by MTV ended in rioting and arson; a far cry from “3 Days of Peace and Love” that the original festival offered. Even a few weeks later the positive utopian dream of the Hippy movement suffered its greatest set back in the anarchic and tragic ending of the Altamont Free concert, and the highly publicised trial of the Manson Family’s multiple murders. The Hippy movement, thereafter, was confined to punchlines and insults. Seen as childish, and succumbing to the hopelessly idealist world view that only acid and weed can provide. However, Woodstock remains mostly untainted by this association; the failures of later festivals might explain this. The image of Woodstock as genuinely utopian
and as a part of the Hippy movement seems far more romantic and attractive than recent offerings. Despite the impressive technological and charitable feet that Live Aid was, it fails to be seen affectionately in the image of the past that most people hold. On that note the less said about Woodstock 1999 the better. Woodstock’s enduring popularity and the strength of its image within popular imagination is intrinsically tied to the idea of the 1960s as a whole, with the year of 1969 the perfect moment for an event that would come to represent the synthesis of a decade of counter-cultural efforts, images of rebellion. Dissent and hope are all contained within both the decade itself and the weekend of music. Will we ever see a festival like Woodstock again? It’s doubtful. In the end peace and love haven’t prevailed, as Hunter S. Thompson reflected two years after Woodstock: “And that, I think, was the handle – that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”
ARTS - 60s concrete.arts@uea.ac.uk
www.concrete-online.co.uk
19.11.2013
The Merry Pranksters
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Victor X looks at the group who introduced LSD to the 60s The 60s was a wild decade defined by wild attitudes and wild people. The Merry Pranksters were an absolute embodiment of this and essentially threw the spark of the psychedelic era into the fire pit. Led by Ken Kesey (author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) and joined by such infamous members as Neal Cassady and Jerry Garcia, the Pranksters spent much of 1966 on a mad spree across America in a school bus maniacally painted by members of the group, named ‘Further.’ They brought horror and uncontrollable terror to small towns everywhere that had not yet been exposed to the changes happening in the country at the time. At the same time they brought delight to anybody looking for a ride into the pure unknown. If you read about the Merry Pranksters in any great depth you come to realise that they were connected to just about every counter-culture symbol of the time. Garcia’s introduction to the group was with the Grateful Dead as a kind of ‘house band’ for Kesey’s notorious ‘acid tests’, in which the Pranksters (and just about anyone who wanted to be ‘tested’) took LSD and danced and enjoyed themselves. Through Cassady they were introduced to Jack Kerouac once
Studio 360
they reached New York City, although he was less than enthusiastic towards their venture. They held parties for the Hell’s Angels and first introduced them to acid, with attendants ranging from Hunter S. Thompson to Allen Ginsberg. The tales of these parties are very well documented both in Tom Wolfe’s book The Electric KoolAid Acid Test and Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood’s Magic Trip, a 2011 documentary that retraces the bus’ journey with great
visual and audio clips of the tour. What one learns from The Meery Pranksters is that with great discovery came inevitable fear. Many original occupants of the bus left or grew disheartened with the project, their ideas fading with them. Whether it was from an overload of acid or pessimism about America’s potential to expand her mind, not everyone ended the trip as hopeful as they began it. But periods of the journey were undoubtedly
fruitful. The spontaneity of the Pranksters led to them stopping the bus wherever they felt necessary. One such stop led them to inventing tie-dye after stripping one member of his white t-shirt and soaking it in a lake with acrylic paints. So, to anybody wearing tie-dye around campus today: you are not a hippie descendant, but a Prankster descendant. Is the best way to discover the truth about your country to drive through it in a painted bus with medicine and an open mind? I think it might be, but I doubt it ever happening again. Perhaps that is for the best. The short-lived journey of the Merry Pranksters can teach us many things about the America of the time, and without it the 60s may never have progressed as it did. But for me that is all – a hugely interesting concept and an envious adventure – but one long since passed. A painted bus passing through a series of towns and cities would hardly be news-worthy anymore, for our potential to be shocked has been so far diminished since then. But for the 1960s versions of ourselves, this band of wanderers represented genuine change and an unimaginable excitement. And for this rare power we should thank them.
The Andy Warhol Screen Tests Ellie Green visits the Musuem of Modern Art in NY
In 2010 I visited the ‘Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures’ exhibition at MoMA in New York. The exhibition focused on the artist’s cinematic portraits and nonnarrative, silent black and white films from the mid-1960s. Although Warhol’s films are better known, it was the Screen Tests that really captured my attention - the large scale, slow moving, black and white images immediately demonstrated to me the banality of our lives when taken out of context. In particular it was the Screen Tests where the subjects were performing everyday tasks such as brushing teeth and combing hair, the films going round and round indefinitely, which placed an irony on our human desire for routine. Allowing for this small snap-shot of the sitters day to be repeatedly played completely removed it from the boundaries of time. The Screen Tests were originally conceived by Warhol as portraits to be done on film rather than canvas. Their nature still suggests they are portraits and his use of celebrities enhances this and links in with Warhol’s famously Pop Art orientated career. The list of subjects is long and filled with famous names such as Allen Ginsberg, Nico, Lou Reed, Salvador
Dali, and Edie Sedgewick. Overall 472 film portraits were made; in addition to ‘The 13 Most Beautiful Boys’ (the 13 in the title was most likely borrowed from a New York City Police brochure of ‘The Thirteen Most Wanted’), some of the footage was incorporated into other compilations such as ‘The 13 Most Beautiful Woman’, and ‘50 Fanatics and 50 Personalities.’ They are elegiac too, even though most of the people filmed are younger than Warhol. The youthful and vulnerable pass before his camera, are loved by it, and then vanish. Each black-and-white film ends with a silvery fade-out, the face slowly dissolving in a burst of light, as if the bomb had just been dropped. This ghostly effect could not more explicitly make us think of mortality - and of film as a fragile defence against it. Hollywood specialises in immortality, but Warhol’s use of film is more material. At the end of each film, you see the texture of the celluloid itself. These people could easily have been dead for centuries, the films found rolled up in a Ballardian desert necropolis. Accustomed to action on the screen, we are irritated to be confronted by heads that simply stare back at us. Warhol challenges
us to be bored. But if we are bored, what are we bored by? The effort of looking at another person for a few minutes? Because that is what Warhol gives us the unusual videoartisp
opportunity to do. A face becomes a play of light and shadow, Warhol does not just point his camera or light the scene casually or unfeelingly, he uses a bright, close light in a way that creates particular dramas of shadow in each portrait. This is his emotional contribution to the Screen Tests, and it is as expressive as the different intensities of silk-screen ink in his paintings. Warhol was the 20th century artist who worked the hardest to efface himself from his own oeuvre. He remains the century’s most recognisable artist. In this way Warhol is a snapshot of the 60’s, a representation of the culture. The voyeurism of such a close up film, the way it is slowed down and how you feel you are an intruder when you stand captivated in front of one of the moving portraits, presents the celebrities as human beings, vulnerable and self conscious. Not only do the Screen Tests break down the barrier between celebrity and onlooker, but they are also a rigorous reflection on the speed and slowness of thought. We can see the act of thinking so intimately rendered as Sedgewick seems to incarnate with the minutest narrowing of her huge eyes, while she wrestles with the furious complexities of looking and being looked at.
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CREATIVE WRITING - 20s
19.11.2013
www.concrete-online.co.uk
Music Box
Surrealism: A Brief History
If your life is a surrealist poem or story, life for you is going to be very, very difficult. You will wake up, only to find that your bed has become a watermellon. This will seem like a blessing (gosh, golly, you were about to go to the store to buy some watermellons! How did they know?) until you realize your feet have also become watermellons with shoe laces. However, because you are a surrealist character, you will simply shrug and say, “Huh. Go figure. Oh well, I’d better call my boss and tell him I can’t make it in today!” Surrealism, in a nutshell, is weird. Characters living in surrealist universes typically go about their merry days, pretending nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Then there’s surrealist poetry. As a rule, surrealist poetry doesn’t make much sense. Surrealism began in the 1920s and is an offshoot of the Dada movement. Think: urinals posing as artwork. Think: Let’s make art that’s against art!
Clock Jake Reynolds Factory of cogs prancing foxes laugh ha-ha-haflat a disc a dinner plate dinner time it’s time for dinner time’s for dinner writhing writhing on its own plate ha-ha-hait laughs, the arms, ‘they’ moving in Nazi salutes time bombs it’s a bomb having a bomb a bomb a bomb of a time licking pages flicking thumbs hours laugh ha-ha-haseconds skip like cuckoo faces counting own demise our demise ha-ha-ha- suns go down stones hot wall clocks watches the watches (fat gold) paupers plead butlers sigh engines go all melt we tut clock laughs ha-ha-ha-
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Passing Over Georgie Currie Last night I dreamt a sleepless dream, A dream sleepless, dreamt I night last. Images, sounds or colours there were nought, But drenched in dread and disgust. Down I fell, farther than I had ever fallen before, Fell down, fallen and farther. Spiralling in circles, Round and round And the further I fell, the faster I slipped into darkness. Alone and so terribly lost in blackness, Blackness within, I am lost terribly and alone. With that familiar dread lurking; I can smell him on my shoulder. Naked and vulnerable as a newborn babe, Only the mother’s embrace is missing And I crave it. I fever, I hunger, I twist and turn, Fever I, hunger I, twist I turn and Wake into the murkiness thus. Sharp and splintered me thought, I think, I thunk, I thought Disaster. My death is a breath of air, Air’s breath is death mine. The eternal slumber, Etched into a watery dream As I float alone down the river.
Flickr: Chapendra
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Peter Thorn
Think: World War I was really confusing, and seemed sort of pointless, so let’s make art that’s a bit similar! Think: Random juxaposition of images. That’s surrealism for you. Major surrealist writers, some who say they are not surrealist writers at all because writers are argumentative like that, include Gertrude Stein, Franz Kafka, and Leonora Carrington. This concludes this brief history of surrealism. And now onto the Creative Writing section: 1920s edition. - Holly J. McDede, Allegedly the Creative Writing editor of this fine, fine newspaper.
Flickr: Moonlight Potpourri
concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk
On the weed-choked verge of some lonely dry Nevada highway, hidden like the Stork’s secret under a maternal nest of grey scrub, a faint glint of metal catches your eye as you pull up your grumbling, red-hot vehicle. What you are seeing, though you do not know it yet, is a little turn-the-handle music box, purchased in a Dime Store in Los Angeles one wintry November evening. It was bought and paid for by an on-the-breadline clerk who wanted to give his Jenny a present, who walked into that cracked and hokey pawnshop and found this little plinking, plunking symphony of the spheres. If you were to pick it up and crank the little handle (though the blistering heat of the metal might leave your fingers burned and sore) you would hear the tune ‘Greensleeves’ playing in mild metallic tones, an empty echo in the arid, red and isolated horizon that surrounds you. Pick it up. When you do, you will see there is a faded picture of a medieval English fop, complete with a scratched mauve feather in the cap, frilly stockings, garish jewellery and the like. He is a peacock, a bourgeois dandy, a multitude of offensive and unlikely colors purchased with the blood, sweat and trade of a dozen countries out in the East. The ballad, presumably, is his anthem, the signifying force through which this vain little man is supposed to represent. All of this is quite hard to tell as it is, scratched and worn by the uncaring surface of the road. * John, our frozen clerk, thought the man was quite funny, when he was freshlyminted and resplendent on his little plastic display. It had caught his eye in the window of Darcie’s, the store just out from the tram station where he usually got off. Stepping out from the smelly carriage and into a city-sharpened wind that threatened snow, he decided to go in for a closer look. On inspection, he, thought, well, isn’t that just dandy? After all, Jenny was a big fan of English history, and a knick-knack might brighten up her desk at the temping pool, or ‘the pen’ as she liked to call it. John never found out why. “I’ll take two,” he tells the shopkeeper, a ruddy glow across his lean city-boy face. The eponymous Mr Darcie, a squat, grey-haired belly of a man whose voice is all cigarettes, tells him. “Shure, kid. Five-fitty and I’ll throw’n a brown bag for all the good it’ll do.” John smiles. “Not much, but thanks for the offer.” “You’re welcome. Go’un hunker down someplace warm. Man’ll freeze his ayse off for being out in that,” Darcie nods to the door, outside of which the fine spitting snow is flurrying down again. “I might just do that,” returns John amicably, before putting on his hat and stepping out into the void beyond. Darcie merely smiles. Like a connoisseur with a nose for fine wine, he can taste the flavour of a customer, and the tall young man putting on a brave face as he leaves from behind the red door has all the rich notes, the slightly bitter flavour of a moron in love. Mr Darcie could always turn a profit from morons in love. He’d never been one of those happy fools himself. He was a man with too much vinegar in him, so for him love’s palate was always slightly soured, if financially viable. One day, maybe, someone may come along to clear it. He has yet to meet this person, but he keeps his shop clean and he goes to his bible group on Saturdays in the hope that he meets that one special man. Mr Darcy is a strict Christian. * The arid waste of dry, burnt vegetation and scudding dust seems out of place with ‘Greensleeve’s’ gay refrain. This is after all a tune for feasts, for crackling fat, flowing wine and the warm meaty waft of suckling pig as it is set down in the midst of the table. There are no eateries this side of the road, and to travel to the next one on your journey you would need to drive a good half-hour. Once there, a neon- pretty waitress would dance around you with sunny contempt before dumping your ass down at a table, where the milkshake is thick and the burgers greasy. Occasionally, we need these moments of loneliness to make sure that civilisation is worth coming back to. As the handle makes its second turn, the melody of ‘Greensleeves’ starts afresh. * Jenny’s small coo of delight at the box as it chirps out its little tune is quite literally music to John’s ears. “Aww gee, honey it’s so sweet, where’d you find it?” “That store I’m always passing on the way back here,” John smiles, and draws her in. She is petite, blonde, and she stares up at him loving through horn-rimmed glasses. She is a vain little thing, but loved well enough and loving in return. “So,d’you like it, Jenny-wren?” “I love it, John-boy. And the man who gave it to me.” He gets a smart peck on
Flickr: Tim Lukeman
the lips for his trouble. They have dinner in their little garret; a stew that Jenny insists was not from a tin, though the vegetables are soft and a little too uniform for John not to be suspicious. He listens to her talk about her day, occasionally throwing in some broad, well-timed anecdote relating to this or that of the many points she raises. They are locked in a tennis of the tongues, a game with moving mouths and meanings, and later on that evening these mouths lock once, more, passionately, in the secret cold and fusty air of Jenny’s bedroom. In a cracked little outlet two blocks down, wrapped in comfortable sheets and hugging his loose breasts for some warmth, Mr Darcie sleeps alone, and thinks that love is for fools. When they are both tired-out from tumbling around, John lies back with Jenny in warm silence. Slowly, her warm little fingers reach out for his own, and draw his arm around her waist, so that he is hugging her in. And when she looks up at him, there is a tenderness, a need to love and be loved there that a thousand little musical boxes in all their tinny penny orchestra could not hope to replicate, to capture and pin down and issue out thousands of the tiny little tinkles that fill in the gaps between Jenny and John, that define them in relation to one another. * And yet, here lies that same little musical box, on the dirty, wasted roadside in the heart of nowhere America. You stopped your car to urinate, and instead found, unbeknownst to you, a part of someone’s history. And who can say how it got there, how many years it sat un-used upon that loving couple’s mantelpiece, his office desk, her study. Perhaps their little son, a freckled, brown eyed careless lump of a lad, dropped it on this lonely plain while mommy was arguing with balding daddy about the directions on a faded map broken in with coffee rings. Or perhaps Jenny, hot in the arms of some other fiery young spark, threw away that last little tie to a man she no longer spoke to in the flesh. Maybe even John himself dropped it there, when years later as a little sliver old man he drove broken away from his darling Jenny-wren’s funeral and in his scorched grief through away the last tie to a faithful and loving wife. None of this matters. You have picked up the musical box now, and are pocketing it on the way to your car, where your own bright young thing is waiting. Perhaps somewhere out there in the wilderness, the cynical spirit of old Mr Darcie, a decade’s dead from cancer, is grinning jovially at his excellent judgement of character. Or not. You drive off, the pair of you, and your car shines on up the highway, burning brightly forward and leaving a trail of dust behind it. The plain, once again, is empty.
GAMING - 90s concrete.gaming@uea.ac.uk
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90s In Gaming
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19.11.2013
Pokemon Joe Fitzsimmons
Sam Emsley/Various
Sam Emsley The 90s was perhaps the defining era of gaming. It was transformed from small hobby played by a few to a multi-billion dollar industry which paved the way for the current era of gaming that we know today. One cannot think of gaming in the 90s without the birth of consoles whose siblings still grace millions of living rooms to this day. The PlayStation saw its release in 1994 and would go on to sell 102 million units worldwide whilst revolutionising the industry. The great games released on this system are innumerable and some of the franchises created still persist to this day. Every player will have games they fondly remember, likely titles such as Spyro, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill, Grand Theft Auto, Tony Hawks, Crash Bandicoot, Driver, Metal Gear Solid; the list goes on. Few other consoles can boast such an impressive roster of titles, although the truly revolutionary aspect of the hardware was the disc system on which these games were delivered. The CD format singlehandedly ended the cartridge era which was still going strong at the time with the N64. CDs had been tried before, but not with the success seen on the PlayStation; the increased data capacity coupled with the cheap production cost encouraged developers toward the console and provide the reason for the insurmountable number of quality titles produced over its lifetime.
Although the cartridge format didn’t stop the N64 as the system also showcased some of the finest games of its generation. Super Mario, Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time, Banjo and Kazooie, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark; all released on the same console, all true masterpieces. The 3D graphics exhibited in Super Mario 64, released as a launch title in 1996, are absolutely second to none; the gameplay and scale of Ocarina of Time was simply breath-taking, and one cannot forget the jovial exploration of Banjo and Kazooie. Although it wasn’t all about the consoles as PC saw the likes of Rollercoaster Tycoon, Diablo, Warcraft, and Unreal. Two special games must be emphasised for their lasting legacy: DOOM, released on floppy disc in 1993, is the prototypical FPS which others have attempted to match ever since. The other is Quake which also spawned some fantastic sequels and provided a truly manic experience. Quake III: Team Arena engine, released in 1999, even provided the basis for the Call of Duty engine up until the latest Ghosts, although perhaps it is about time to let go of this homage. The 90s set the trend for everything which has been attempted since and was the catalyst to allow gaming to become an ubiquitous industry enjoyed by billions of all ages all across the globe, the games still being played and inspiring people today.
Going back to a game from your childhood is a dangerous adventure to take. Long ago when we were innocent, naive and had yet to discover the joys of sarcasm and cynicism it was easy to enjoy a game. We didn’t care about graphics or intricate mechanics, we just wanted to kill monsters with oversized swords or by jumping on their head. Revisiting in your early adulthood usually leads you down two roads. Either you get the chance to rediscover a forgotten gem, or even those rose tinted glasses won’t be able to hide the glares of poor game design that your eight year old self couldn’t have cared less about. There is, of course, always an exception to the rule, and that is Pokemon. Since the European release of Pokemon Red and Blue in 1999 the series has become the butt of many jokes for spawning a series now in its 6th generation with little change to the core gameplay mechanic. What this means then is that for those wanting to re-visit the series’ roots, they are left with something both oddly familiar and frustratingly alien. Booting up Red for the first time in years, one thing instantly becomes clear. This game moves slower than a Snorlax after a heavy lunch. Long before the inclusion of the running shoes, players had a long, long wait before acquiring
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the bicycle, which meant that initial treks through Viridian Forest and Mt Moon now feel much longer and much more arduous. Another thing that is easy to forget is just how bare bones the gameplay of the first generation was, such that the actual combat was more complex than your third year physics lecture. But outside of battles the game is pretty much an exercise in walking from encounter to encounter. People are often quick to complain about gimmicks such as Poffins, super contests, and berries, but looking back on a game where they are absent it seems they really do enhance the gameplay, preventing it from becoming a slow methodical grind. Perhaps, the judgment passed on Pokemon’s refusal to budge in terms of gameplay innovation is ultimately unfair. Whilst it is true that the series has never had a massive overhaul of its gameplay is it the measured steps forward, the ironing out of the creases and the refinement of the experience that has given the series its longevity. Many contemporary franchises would do good to take note, particularly with the current trend of yearly updates of established franchises becoming dominant in major developers’ release schedules.
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19.11.2013
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TELEVISION - 00s
concrete.television@uea.ac.uk
Big Brother is Watching You
We look at the reality series that revolutionised british television Phil Turtle It’s hard to believe that Big Brother first hit our screens way back in 2000, fronted by a fresh faced presenter named Davina McCall. Here, for the first time, was an opportunity to see ordinary people, struggling to live in a house with a bunch of strangers; whilst being filmed twentyfour hours a day. What started out as a social experiment gave way to a show that brought together some of society’s oddest, outrageous characters, but what characters they proved to be. From the start we had the infamous ‘Nasty’ Nick Bateman; his plotting and dastardly schemes propelled the show to the front pages of the papers, and were like nothing anyone had seen before. Fortunately, the public saw through his actions, crowning builder Craig Phillips their first ever champion; he donated his winnings to fund a friend’s lifesaving surgery. The stage was set, both for the programme itself and all those imitators that would later follow in its footsteps. Who could have predicted what would become of the 20 year old dental
Digital Spy nurse Jade Goody when she entered BB3? Here she was, displaying her ignorance on a grand scale - “East Angular? Isn’t that abroad?” - yet the public took her to heart. Her rise and fall, followed by her tragic death, was played out almost entirely on television, cementing her as a representative of a generation where
media recognition is the ultimate achievement, irrespective of talent. Ask people for the moments they remember most from Big Brother and you’ll likely receive hundreds of answers, whether it be Kinga and that wine bottle, or Makosi claiming she was pregnant after a fumble in the jacuzzi. Fight Night – as
it was christened in BB5 – was also an alltime highlight, two evicted housemates returning to confront those they had secretly been watching from the comfort of their adjoining bedsit. This proved a step too far; security had to intervene in an incident which was the talk of the nation for days. Almost as notable were the characters that decided they didn’t want to be there, scaling the roof or destroying the fire doors in an attempt to escape their temporary prison. The inevitable celebrity versions have also given us so many great TV moments, whether that be Vanessa Feltz’s breakdown over the shopping list, or the sheer joy offered when a former Hollywood superstar realises they have to spend the next few weeks sharing a house with the latest X Factor reject. Big Brother was, for its day, ground breaking. Many viewers have drifted away in the years since it began, but few can claim to have never watched an episode. Even now, there still persists a curious enjoyment in watching others getting up to the most mundane of tasks. Just what would George Orwell make of it all?
Will & Grace: a landmark in comedy Hayden East With eight consistently comical seasons from 1998 to 2005, Will & Grace exists as one of the most successful sitcoms to date, winning an Emmy for ‘best comedy’ in 2000 over landmark series such as Friends, Frasier, and Sex and the City – an achievement all the more remarkable given its position as one of the first shows to prominently feature gay men. Sure, its central premise was the platonic relationship between a man and a woman, but that was precisely the reason why the show was crucial in helping close the socio-sexual apartheid. Its regular cast was a small one. Will, a handsome downtown urbanite who’s unlucky in love, and Grace, a downto-earth interior designer, are rarely separated. Through eight seasons their friendship is tested as the show takes us through bad boyfriends, moving out (and moving back in again), familial mourning and attempted surrogacy. Indeed, theirs is a friendship that transcends the stereotype of one woman and her ‘gay best friend,’ despite the producer’s best attempts to present them like a married couple.
Never far away are Jack, Will’s flamboyantly camp struggling actor of a friend, and his sidekick Karen, a wealthy socialite with a penchant for vodka and designer drugs. It’s the slapstick interplay between these two characters that generates much of the show’s heart,
Wikia almost resulting in their own spin-off show. Megan Mullally shines in her respective role, turning what normally would have been mere comic relief into one of comedy’s most revered characters. Such a tight-knit cast allowed the show to feature some of the greatest celebrity
guest-stars of all time. Ironically, a stillcloseted Neil Patrick Harris played the founder of ex-gay group ‘Welcome Home.’ Then there were the cameo appearances, where legends such as Cher, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopex and Kevin Bacon simply played themselves. And it worked, precisely because the gay community has always been the most effective foil for portraying popular culture. It was far from a perfect show – Jack was often relegated to the ringleader in a queer circus while Will spent the majority of his time without a stable partner – but we have Will and Grace to thank for LGBT television’s development from the noughties onwards. The L Word, for example, originally aired from 2004 to 2009, enjoyed six critically acclaimed seasons depicting lesbian, bisexual and transgender life with honesty and humility, while Channel 4’s Queer As Folk received a stateside adaptation between 2000 and 2005. In other words, what it occasionally lacked in political power it made up for by simply existing. As one TV critic Andrew Holleran once argued: ‘It was our gay sitcom, fearless and tacky and lewd.’
TELEVISION - 00s concrete.television@uea.ac.uk
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19.11.2013
A Decade of British Comedy Rachel Keeley British humour is renowned for being “dry”: filled with sarcasm, satire and stereotyping, we’ve certainly got our mark. The Noughties were seen as a decade famous for UK sitcoms, with Mitchell and Webb’s Peep Show (2003-2014) being a prime example. The Guardian dubbed it “the best comedy of the decade” back in 2007, and with the show ending on its ninth series next year, it also makes it the longest-running comedy show in Channel 4 history. Following the lives of sensible, business-minded Mark Corrigan (Mitchell) and unemployed wannabe-musician Jeremy “Jez” Usborne (Webb), the show gained humour in the comedy duo’s natural pairing. With each character focusing on their own goals, the show became popular for highlighting human self-interest; whereas stylistically it was known for its use of point of view filming, with the voices of Mark and “Jez” being dubbed over the visual, allowing us to hear their thoughts. Peep Show also gained critical acclaim from other comedians, such as Ricky Gervais, who during British Comedy Awards in 2005 stated that it was “the best show on television today” and that it was a “debacle that it did not win an award”. In the following two years, Peep Show won “Best TV
The Independent Comedy” at theBritish Comedy Awards. Gervais himself is a household name in the comedy world, most notably for his creations of The Office (20012003) and later Extras (2005-2007), both with co-star Stephen Merchant. The shows can be seen to represent the development of sitcoms throughout the decade, with The Office being filmed mockumentary-style and set
in the office workplace; in contrast to Extras, filmed in the traditional sitcom style and focusing on the role of extras and their longing for fame. Extras also introduced the concept of celebrity cameo appearances, where the guests parody themselves. Both sitcoms were later transferred to the US, showing that whilst Britain is famous for its dry sense of humour, its sitcom characters and
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plots are a transferable form of comedy. Another development of comedy during the Noughties was the popularity of family and relationships within sitcoms, reflected in favourites such as My Family (2000-2011), Gavin and Stacey (2007- 2010) and Outnumbered (2007- present). But Britain’s sense of humour doesn’t just lie with sitcoms; another duo who greatly contributed to comedy in the UK during the Noughties are David Walliams and Matt Lucas. Their sketch show Little Britain (20032006) found popularity with the British audience through exaggerated parodies of British stereotypes, allowing the audience to connect with situations and characters they could relate to; this is a show which also later transferred to the US. With recognisable catchphrases such as “Computer says no”, “I’m a lady!” and “I want that one”, it’s seen to be one of the best recent sketch shows, with satire nowadays having been transferred onto panel shows like Mock the Week (2005- present). Overall, from sitcoms to sketch shows, the Noughties brought us some of Britain’s most loved comedy characters that will forever be in the Nation’s hearts. Comedy in the UK of all forms is celebrated annually at the British Comedy Awards, which will be broadcast this year on 12th December on Channel 4.
Video on Demand’s rise to power Adam Dawson
Reuters
Raise your hand if you’ve watched iPlayer or 4oD in the last two days – that’s most of us then. Now, raise your other hand if you’ve used Netflix – that’s the rest of us. Ten years ago, at the start of the Noughties, no one would have known what those words meant, let alone used them in everyday conversations. Video On Demand is the best thing to happen to TV watching since sliced bread (you can try and work out how they’re connected). It means none of us have to go without glorious television at all! iPlayer and 4oD seemingly appeared out of nowhere one night in the noughties, and now we all use them both all the time. This isn’t so much the case with ITV Player, mostly because their programming (except Broadchurch) just isn’t worth catching up on; but that’s another matter. Having online catch up is brilliant – not only does it give you the chance to watch things that you missed when you were sweating blood to get your essay done by the deadline,
it also provides a platform for riskier shows to be given a chance without clogging up the main channel. BBC did a set of exclusively online comedy shows, released through iPlayer. 4oD give you exclusive content, though have recently started showing hit comedy Fresh Meat a week in advance. It’s a rather good
way to drum up interest and to test the waters of what viewers actually want. Though Netflix isn’t as popular in the UK as it is in the States, it seems, it’s certainly trying to change that. Netflix got Arrested Development another season; if that was a good or bad thing, you can decide for yourself. It was the gateway to
Netflix original programs though, and the two best ones really are very good. They’d be Orange Is the New Black, and House Of Cards, in case you’ve been living a sheltered life and haven’t heard of them. Shame on you; now go and and watch them. Orange is the New Black is perhaps the most interesting one, given the cast are almost entirely women, and most are lesbians, with a transsexual member in the ensemble. With perhaps just four important male characters, can you see why this would be a hard sell to a network? Leaving the cheering for its female and gay representation to Tumblr for now, it’s genuinely a good show too. It almost definitely wouldn’t have been picked up by a network given how risky it sounds on paper, but that’s why Netflix did it. The Beeb lead the way in Video On Demand services, but don’t turn your nose up at the other options available. Netflix’s original programs are pushing it out of the purely online business and into the program making game. The more great TV we get, regardless of where it comes from, the better.
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19.11.2013
FILM - 80s
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Ahoy, Eighties!
Emma Holbrook took a look back at the decade in film An eclectic and innovative era for film, the 1980s managed to shape the landscape of popular culture for years to come. As the Cold War lingered on, audiences often turned to films for escapism and, alongside a boom in action films such as Top Gun and Die Hard, the decade saw a huge increase in the number of sci-fi and fantasy movies. Following on from the prototypes of the late 1970s, Hollywood also truly defined the concept of ‘blockbuster’ during the 80s, most notably with the Indiana Jones trilogy and the original Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, which were critical and box-office successes. The innovation in special effects kick-started by Star Wars continued throughout the 80s and consequently science fiction movies were finally integrated into the mainstream. The likes of Blade Runner and The Terminator used the genre to explore the possibility of dystopian futures but sci-fi films were generally designed for easy consumption. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial took an optimistic approach to alien life, and this heart-warming tale for children and adults alike is widely considered one of the best science fiction movies of all time.
1984’s Ghostbusters, meanwhile, parodied the fascination with the supernatural and was a rare case of a successful big budget comedy. Where would we be today without Marty McFly and his flux capacitor? Back to the Future – arguably the most iconic film of the decade – blended the sci-fi, teen and comedy genres effortlessly in order to craft a perfect time-travel narrative and a new teenage hero in the form of its skateboarding, guitar-playing protagonist. The 1980s were an unashamed celebration of the rebellious teenager, rife with coming of age stories, the most famous being John Hughes’ classic The Breakfast Club. The group of high-school misfits who discover themselves and find common ground in a library detention were indicative of a playful rejection of authority, characteristic of the decade and its youth. This theme was also found in fellow cult classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Matthew Broderick’s role as the titular slacker soon became the archetype for 80s cool. The trend for subverting tradition also made its mark on children’s films, with The Princess Bride parodying longstanding fairy tale clichés and The Goonies
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putting the kids in charge of their own adventure. Whilst the films of the 1980s largely shied away from serious topics, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing expertly and honestly examined the continuing racial tensions in America whilst remaining a nuanced and entertaining watch. The 1980s remain a decade of film that
stubbornly rejects a single definition, but it is also one that is undeniably unique. From timeless classics like Raging Bull to countless easily accessible blockbusters, the confidence and economic prosperity of the time created a cinematic landscape where cool was key and where the hero’s victory was never in doubt.
They’re Here...
Freddie Van Der Velde compiled a list of the most iconcic movie characters of the 80s
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Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman Dirty Dancing (1987)
Ferris Bueller Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
The Terminator The Terminator (1984)
Marty McFly Back to the Future (1985)
Jennifer Grey’s Baby comes from a privileged background and seems to have her life plans laid out for her – until she meets Patrick Swayze on a summer vacation. Expect lots of steamy Mambos and a ton of quotable dialogue, depicting a coming-of-age story that never “puts Baby in the corner”.
Matthew Broderick, the young man who taught us to “look around once in a while”, bred an entire generation of free-spirited youths when he skives off school for the day. Why go to school when you can lip sync to the Beatles’ Twist and Shout in downtown Chicago?
James Cameron’s cyber-punk sci-fi sees Arnie’s infamous robot assassin, with minimal dialogue, bar his catchphrase, “I’ll be back.” With a body-like-a-tank, he goes back in time on an assassination mission. The Terminator cemented Germany’s Ubermensch as a Hollywood icon for years to come.
Michael J. Fox is the eighties youngster who revisits the fifties, a time of the birth of the teenager, of rock n roll, and apparently the Oedipus complex. Often credited for the rise of the skateboarding sub culture, Marty McFly is the coolest kid to time travel and simultaneously create “that new sound you’re looking for”.
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19.11.2013
I feel the need, the need for sleeves
From leggings and leg warmers to permed hair and aviators, 80s cinema goes hand in hand with 80s fashion. Ella Sharp lists the most iconic of the lot, so get your sea-shell bras at the ready and don’t be afraid to get dynamite on your tutu cdnvideo
Heathers (1988) The evil big sister of Mean Girls, Heathers showcases the best 80’s high school looks. Winona Ryder’s shoulder pads are a danger to society, and paired with Christian Slater’s literally smouldering leather jacket and good looks, they are a couple not be messed with.
Back to the Future (1985)
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The famous red body warmer may not be the most fashionable look the 80’s gave us, but if one person can pull it off it is Marty McFly. We all know the one thing we really want from this film is the silver, automatically-lacing high tops. And thanks to Nike, these are now a reality, although we can’t promise you’ll end up jetting off to the future if you can get your hands on some.
Flashdance (1983) The simplicity of the baggy jumper and legwarmers is what makes Flashdance such an 80’s fashion classic. This movie paved the way for the likes of Top Gun, which not only followed suit with music video montages but also the simple yet stylish wardrobe set precedence for many films that followed.
The Little Mermaid (1989) Girls, grab your seashell bras, we’re heading under the sea. The first redheaded Disney star sacrificed her rather fabulous sequined tail for love, and we just don’t understand why. Combing your hair with a fork might not be the best idea, but Ariel’s luscious locks and sea shell bra didn’t look nearly as good on dry land.
Nobody puts ladies in the corner
Forget your Arnies and your Slys, Eavan Ryan talks up some of the era’s finest females XOJane
The 1980’s: a decade where loud mouths, quick talking moneymen and glitz reigned supreme. The smell of sweat and cologne wafted from every machomovie screen. With John McClane, Gordon Gekko and Maverick Mitchell dominating the box office, you might be forgiven for forgetting female characters existed amongst all the raw machismo. Perhaps that was Total Film’s excuse when they compiled their top 50 characters of the 1980’s, a list that included a grand total of three female roles. Yes, three whole women-characters made the cut. Scratch that, one of them was animated. Total Film seems to have forgotten there was more to 80’s women than Bunny Boilers and girls named Heather. They chose, for example, to include John Bender as the sole representative from The Breakfast Club. Yes, Bender was a fantastic high-school rebel, but surely the most entertaining of the Club was Allison, the kooky, wacky recluse every weird girl aspired
to emulate. And while we’re on John Hughes films, not a single mention of one of the many powerhouse parts played by 80’s favourite Molly Ringwald. Turning away from the much-loved high school corridors of John Hughes, catch a ride on the nearest available Delorean and you’ll see the vast range of lady characters the 80’s had to offer. How about Aliens’ Ellen Ripley? 57 years drifting around space, cryogenically frozen and she hasn’t aged a day. Sarah Connor and Princess Leia aside, Ripley was the real icon of 80’s science fiction. She bettered a team of rugged marines with attitude, experience and a killer maternal instinct. Who can forget her face off with the mother-alien at film’s close: “Get away from her, bitch!” Don’t get between Ripley and her kid. Or, from one mother to another., there’s Meryl Streep’s Sophie Zawistowski, surely the greatest tragic mother of them all. Rumour has it Meryl Streep begged on her hands and knees for the Sophie’s
Choice role, and who could blame her? The complexity and emotional depth of the character was a young, Oscar-loving actress’ dream come true. In a different genre all-together, no character has made a diner blush quite like When Harry Met Sally’s Sally Albright. The ultimate rom-com heroine, Sally had substance and sass in bucket-loads. The ideal match for any 80’s cynic, she was both best friend and bombshell. Sally set the bar for all romantic comedies that followed with just a pearly white smile and a fake orgasm. Then there’s Blue Velvet’s Dorothy Vallens. In this surreal and twisted journey down the rabbit hole, it’s not Kyle MacLachlan’s Alice that draws us in, but the most twisted Mad Hatter of them all. A masochistic seductress and emblem of everything weird and wonderful about David Lynch, Dorothy is the ultimate 80’s siren. For this femme fatale’s nightclubsinging alone she warrants a mention. So choke on that, Total Film!
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Inventor of the Party, Pal
John Hughes birthed 1980’s teen cinema, Matthew Atwood explores his legacy Deviant Art
John Hughes dominated the 80s, plain and simple. He captured those awkward American high school years by seamlessly meshing the awkwardness, the drama, and the humour that comes with being sixteen. His films explore what it means to be a teenager, along with themes of self-confidence, love and family. Granted he did make other movies that didn’t deal solely with teenagers, but even those have similar ideas at work. Before Hughes there were not many films that dealt with the life
and high school politics of an adolescent. Hughes’ most notable film, The Breakfast Club, explores the relationships of students from diverse home lives and social standings. While there is humour throughout the film, the main point is to show the depth of people beyond their most superficial definitions. Other films such as Sixteen Candles, Weird Science and Pretty in Pink deal with similar issues yet focus more heavily on trying to find love or becoming popular. However, each ends
in a similar fashion - happily, and with the main character having a realization of selfconfidence. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off moves away from the ‘awkward main character’ archetype and replaces it with a cool, laidback teenager who can persuade almost anybody. But like The Breakfast Club, the film’s authority figure is portrayed as a clueless adult who has no control of the students he is supposed to lead. This film also marked the end of Hughes’ interest
in solely high school adolescents, quickly moving towards films focused on adult figures as well as their extended families. These films include Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Music is another staple of John Hughes. His soundtracks fit perfectly to his films and his characters. The deep voice saying “oh yeah” and “chick, chicka, chicka” throughout Ferris Bueller stay in the audience’s heads for an entire day, whilst Simple Minds’ Don’t You (Forget About Me) perfectly sums up The Breakfast Club. Hughes’s impact on 80’s cinema was immense, from the content of his films, to their style and even the music. They gave way to a film genre that fuses both the comedy and drama of adolescent years. His films have truly lasted the test of time, and give hope to all of those who don’t feel like they fit into the stereotypical “cool” model of a sixteen year-old. Whilst there are many directors who consistently dominate at the box office and during awards season, there may never be one person who dominates and speaks to a decade quite like Hughes.
I’ll be Brat
Jack Lusby wonders what ever happened to the teen icons of the 1980’s A by-product of John Hughes’ success in the 1980s, a group of young actors were collectively labelled the ‘Brat Pack’. Consisting of Emilio Estevez, Antony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, arguably amongst others, these actors enjoyed great success in Hughes’ The Breakfast Club and Joel Schumacher’s St. Elmo’s Fire. However, success has been fleeting for some ever since. Stars of The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire respectively, Ally Sheedy and Andrew McCarthy were never considered the focal point of the group and, rather unsurprisingly, their careers have panned out as such. Judd Nelson, perhaps the most talented of the group, as exemplified with his portrayals of the anarchic John Bender in Breakfast and determined yuppie Alec Newbary in St. Elmo’s, has endured the most disappointing career trajectory, diminishing into myriad TV roles and bargain basement film. Most intriguing however, is the demise of Brat Pack “it girl” Molly Ringwald. Making
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her name with the lead role in Hughes’ Sixteen Candles along with Breakfast, many would have predicted her career to take off from there. However, after apparently turning down lead roles in Pretty Woman and Ghost, Ringwald’s career waned. Coming from good stock as son of Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez has enjoyed a varied level of success since his Brat
Pack days. His post-adolescent offerings peaked with his role as Gordon Bombay in 1992’s majestic Mighty Ducks, but more recently he received critical acclaim as director of the RFK biopic Bobby. Anthony Michael Hall could also be considered a marginal success, evolving from his typecasting in the works of John Hughes as the endearing geek to enjoy a long-term role in USA Network’s The
Dead Zone. Whilst not quite achieving the success of peripheral figures Kiefer Sutherland, Sean Penn, or Estevez’s brother Charlie Sheen, the only integral members of the Brat Pack that could be genuinely considered success stories are Rob Lowe and Demi Moore. For Lowe, who came to the fore alongside Estevez in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders, success has mostly come through TV roles in The West Wing and, more recently, NBC’s comedy Parks and Recreation. Demi Moore’s career flourished somewhat at the expense of Ringwald, actually taking that aforementioned role in Ghost, but she is now arguably most famous for her respective marriages to Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher. Whilst some have blossomed and others shied away from the limelight, it is commendable that unlike many modern young stars, the Brat Pack have managed to maintain their dignity and, on the whole, their integrity, a notion possibly indicative of the lasting influence and stewardship of John Hughes himself.
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Gravity
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19.11.2013
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Director Alfonso Cuarón Starring Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, Ed Harris (voice) Cert 12A Runtime 91mins Harriet Norman Alfonso Cuarón’s heart-racing, distressing film is about two astronauts floating in space. It is a film where the audience are taken from all they know and understand. Instead of the very earthbound fear of falling from a great height, the fear is drifting endlessly into a void. Gravity opens with the obvious shot of Earth, moving very slowly on to NASA medical engineer Dr Ryan Stone (Bullock) and experienced astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) working on a space station, engaged in both serious and playful communication with Houston. Stone struggles on through space-sickness whilst Kowalski relaxes, listening to country music, creating an eerie emptiness against the silence of space. Subtly wrapped in his anecdotes, Kowalski says “I have a bad feeling about this mission”, a hint for us that doom is not far off. And, sure enough, doom arrives in the form of debris
flying as fast as a speeding bullet towards them. Gravity in its essence is a film about survival, scattered with looming disasters and unravelling hopes, with everything that could go wrong going wrong. Stone is the central character battling not only with the adversity of space but her own inner turmoil. Although Cuarón veers dangerously close to the sentimental with the snapshot of a dead astronaut’s family and the revelation of Stone’s own personal loss, it can be seen as giving an intimate touch to the film. Enhanced by the huge close-ups of the astronauts contrasted with the stunning views of Earth and the dancing Aurora lights, the insignificance of one person in the dark lonely vacuum of space is particularly emphasised.
Clooney is effortlessly charming, seeming to glide on pure magnetism alone. He not only calms Stone down but is the much needed antidote for the fear, panic and restlessness the audience also feel. He has the classic qualities of a hero, relentlessly making light out of dark and bringing humour to tense situations, whilst maintaining practical coherence in the midst of chaos. Bullock, who has the most prominent role, evaporates memories of Miss Congeniality and other light-hearted roles with this deeply intense performance. Stone’s evolution into a determined woman intent on surviving adding a greater depth to the film. The scene where Stone floats, curled up like an unborn child in the womb, signals that this is a film about rebirth and new chances.
Perhaps the most terrifying thing about Gravity is that the notion is real. There are no aliens attacking or even other hostile humans. It is the helplessness of man when severed from the technology that we rely upon, and the inner battle to survive although darkness is waiting to engulf us. With its spinning camera shots, Gravity takes us more petrifyingly close to the disorientating sensation of space than any film before, and closer than any of us will probably experience. It makes us appreciate Earth and supports one of the film’s best lines of dialogue: “I hate space”.
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LISTINGS
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19th November - 3rd December live music 19th November
23rd November
26th November
29th November
Big Tent & The Gypsy Lantern The Bicycle Shop £5
The Naked And Famous UEA LCR £15
Ms Mr The Waterfront £11
Lene Lovich Norwich Arts Centre £15
Foy Vance Norwich Arts Centre £12
King Prawn The Waterfront £15
Julie Dexter The Bicycle Shop £8
ABBA Reunion – Tribute EPIC £16.50-18.50
Keep It Cash (Johnny Cash Tribute) St Andrew’s Hall £19.50
Black Star Riders UEA LCR £22.50
Blood & Bones OPEN £7
20th November The Fratellis UEA LCR £23
MENTALLICA (A Tribute To Metallica) The Brickmakers £5
The Meteors EPIC £10-12
Tigertailz Waterfront Studio £10
Yuck Norwich Arts Centre £9
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel EPIC £22.50 21st November
Low Norwich Arts Centre £19.50
Exit Calm Waterfront Studio £7
25th November 22nd November
FLASH – A Queen Tribute EPIC £16.50-18.50 Agonyst / Obscene Entity / Daemona / Fallen Humanity King Edward II £3
Ocean Colour Scene UEA LCR £25
Palma Violets The Waterfront £11
Howard Jones EPIC £20-22
theatre 19th – 23rd November Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake Norwich Theatre Royal £6.50-38.50 22nd November Gossamer Thread’s Curious Cabaret Norwich Arts Centre £10
Wild Beasts Norwich Arts Centre £13.50 Ramonas (Tribute To The Ramones) Waterfront Studio £7.50-10
Whole Lotta Led The Waterfront £11-12 Clive Gregson Bedford’s Bar £8
London Grammar OPEN £10 Mindless Self Indulgence The Waterfront £15
Ruarri Joseph Norwich Arts Centre £8
Happy Mondays UEA LCR £28
Foreboding Ether B2 £3 30th November
The Lindisfarne Story OPEN £16
The Heavy Norwich Arts Centre £12
Heart Of A Coward Waterfront Studio £7
Ethan Ash The Bicycle Shop £5 28th November
24th November
Wille & The Bandits The Bicycle Shop £7
27th November
1st December Le Juki The Bicycle Shop £5 2nd December Jonathan Wilson Norwich Arts Centre £12
comedy 24th November
Luna Norwich Arts Centre £6-8
23rd November Andy Kershaw Norwich Arts Centre £12-14
30th November The Snail And The Whale The Playhouse £11
29th November Rob Newman The Playhouse £10-12
28th November Steve Hughes The Playhouse £13-14
30th November Paul Foot The Playhouse £12.50
COMPETITIONS 19.11.2013
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the venue crossword Across 1. Measurement of liquid mostly used in pubs (4) 5. The most important meal of the day (9) 6. Baby’s bed (3) 8. Surname of TV presenter from Norfolk (9) 11. Recently announced supergroup (8) 13. The UEA campus lake (5) 14. Home of bees (4) Down 2. High resolution film format (4) 3. First British club to win a European cup (9) 4. Famous explorer (8) 7. Playing in Union facilities as of this week (8) 9. Breed of pony (8) 10. One hundred (7) 12. Mix (5)
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VENUE Jacob Roberts Kendall