Venue - Issue 295 - 11 March 2014

VENUE

Ciara Jack

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11.03.14

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pills and parties Hi guys! Welcome to this year’s drugs issue (and alcohol issue, but that’s not quite as attentiongrabbing, is it?)

This theme couldn’t come at a more appropriate time – one of us has just finished binge-watching Breaking Bad on Netflix (late to the party, we know) and is still speechless after watching those final episodes.

Speaking of which, television explores the addictive nature of ondemand streaming providers. We also briefly look into why BBC Three is getting the chop. Do you feel like their target audience and will you miss it if it vanishes from our screens?

Meanwhile, if you’re into living vicariously through others then creative writing has some substancerelated prose for you, while fashion has you covered for a comedown. This issue coincides with their fabulous

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artists and their opium KAOS coverage, with catwalk pics of all the glamorous models who took part for a great cause (we spied our very own Comment editor Zoe Jones on the runway!).

Finally, we would like to express that Venue neither condones or condemns drug and alcohol use. We promote a safe and reasonable attitude towards legal substances. If you need any advice regarding substance use, please visit www.talktofrank.com for friendly, confidential guidance.

Stay cute, Ciara and Hayden

FASHION

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Editor-in-Chief | Sidonie Chaffer-Melley Venue Editors | Hayden East and Ciara Jack Music | Editors | Jack Enright and Alex Flood Music Contributors: Flo Evans, Alex Flood, Jennifer Johnson, Mike Vinti Fashion | Editors | Madz Abbasi and Ella Sharp Fashion Contributors: Madz Abbasi, Jeremy Morrison, Katie Tsappas, Helena Urquhart, Elley West Arts | Editor | Callum Graham Arts Contributors: Lewis Buxton, Harriet Norman, Madeleine Woodfield, Editor | Holly McDede Creative Writing Contributors: Elliot Gudge, Elizabeth Parsons, Gaming | Editor | Sam Emsley Gaming Contributors: Sam Emsley, Oliver Pfieffer Television | Editor | Robert Drury Television Contributors: Dominic Burchnall, Adam Dawson, Katie Dolan, Phil Turtle, Holly Wade Film | Editors | Holly Wade and Adam White Film Contributors: Ben Cheshire, Neven Devies, Josh Mott, Silvia Rose, Rowie Walsh, Freddie Van Der Velde Competitions & Listings | Editor | Saul Holmes

Issue 295

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MUSIC

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Interview: Radkey

Music editor Alex Flood had a chat with the Missouri punk rockers

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It’s early evening when Isaiah Radke’s mid-west drawl slips and slides its way onto the airwaves. Calling from a dingy dressing room at Glasgow’s famous King Tuts venue, the middle brother and bassist of Missouri punk-rock trio, Radkey, is busy preparing for the band’s headline set in the evening.

The brothers-in-arms have journeyed through the night from Leeds, where they performed to several thousand drunken Loiners at the intimate Cockpit theatre, and have been impressed by the enthusiasm they’ve been met with on stage. Isaiah comments gleefully, “they moved around a lot, they were pretty loud it was awesome.” This is a recurring theme on their British tours it seems, with revellers from Ol’ Blighty far outscoring their Yank counterparts on the vitality front. “In America there are a lot more people who try to be cool and hang in the back, and I find that over here people are a lot more appreciative of guitar music and it’s something they love so they react to it better,” Isaiah confirms. Naming a 2013 show at Camden’s Black Heart as the best they’ve played, the British have a

permanent place in this young musicians heart. That is, of course, “unless US crowds start losing their shit and having a good time, but for the moment I’d say British crowds are better as a whole on this tour at least.” Score one for the archetypal, British fourteen-year old lout, screaming his nut off in skinny jeans and a ripped Pete Doherty t-shirt, scrounging around with his mates for the last can of red stripe bought off big brother at three times the normal price the night before.

Radkey have come a long way from a youth spent in St Joseph, Missouri ,“just playing video games and watching movies pretty much all the time”. Now known in the UK as one of the leading new acts on the guitar music scene, Radkey had a rather unconventional start to life as musicians. “We were home-schooled and our dad had a really cool collection of music, so we had that to go by, and we just listened to a lot of that and that became the music we do today. He had stuff like Nirvana, the Ramones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Black Sabbath, a lot of cool classic stuff.” Eldest brother Dee Dee was the first to pick up a six-string,

filling in for a cover band when he was in his early teens called ‘Midlife Crisis’.

The band played “lame ‘Mustang Sally’ and shit like that”, but it soon became the impetus to form a band the brothers needed. “Afterwards, he was like let’s start a band. So I started playing the bass and Solomon learnt the drums, and it all rolled on from there.”

Starting out in a city like St Joseph wasn’t easy however, “there’s not really an existing scene for music in St Joseph, a lot of people won’t like me for saying that but it’s true.” Luckily there was a friendlier, more exciting city just up the road according to Isaiah, “Kansas City took us in a lot earlier than our own town actually did, which was really great.”

Since their early days, Radkey have toured both the UK and the US incessantly, releasing their debut EP, Cat and Mouse, in June last year.

Phenomenally successful, the record catapulted the band into NME induced stardom. Isaiah had mixed feelings about the recordings however, “as a band I don’t know if we’re ever going to be truly happy with a recording, but I think it

turned out pretty cool in the end. We’re always pretty hard on ourselves when it comes to performances and how things are recorded, but everyone else seems to dig it, so I dig it too!”

As for a first attempt at a full length record, Isaiah reveals “we’re currently writing it, and we’ve actually been playing a song or two from it on this tour so that’s been exciting. It should be out some time in the fall.” Genre-wise, the music comes from the same angst-driven place as Cat and Mouse, “I’d like to think it’s a mix between the EP and some new stuff as well, lots of new vibes definitely.”

Perhaps the essence of Radkey as a musical force is distilled perfectly in Isaiah’s final typically elongated response: “People reflect off you on stage at a gig, so we usually just try to put out a lot of energy and have the best time possible, so hopefully everyone else does as well.” Radkey aren’t all about brilliantly rehearsed and outrageously technical music, they play short and loud punk songs at a million miles an hour for one reason and one reason only, to have a good rock ‘n’ roll time.

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Pills and Parties

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Venue’s Mike Vinti on the ultimate meeting of drugs and music - 90s Acid House There was a time long before David Guetta dominated the charts, before there was a deep house night at every other high street club, when drugs and dance music were synonymous, a time when a yellow smiley face struck fear into the heart of the Tories: the time of Acid House. Imported from the birthplace of all house, Chicago, Acid House dominated the UK rave scene from the late 80s well into the 90s and with it saw the rise of the universal party drug, Ecstasy.

Acid House is defined by its minimalist sensibilities, over consisting of simple drum loops and synth patterns layered progressively other each other and its squelching bass, courtesy of the Roland TB-303 synthesiser, an essential piece of equipment in any self-respecting Acid House producer’s arsenal. As a genre Acid House is also known for its heavy use of samples, often from other tracks, but also featuring whistles and sirens, features that are now synonymous with rave culture.

The majority of Acid House came from producers in Chicago but a number of UK producers also gained notoriety in the genre including 808 State for their debut

album, and The KLF, one of the only acts to co-win a BRIT award for ‘Best British Group’, alongside Simply Red, the 90s were a strange time.

Debate still goes on today about how the genre got its name. The most popular belief is that, like so many genres of dance music, it was named after its seminal hymn, Phuture’s ‘Acid Trax’; however others believe the name is a tribute to the psychedelic substances involved with the scene, including Ecstasy and, well, Acid.

Thanks to the hedonistic lifestyle and neo-hippy attitude associated with Acid House, the genre quickly found itself in the firing line of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, who attempted on multiple occasions to ban the raves at which the genre thrived. Like Punk before it, Acid House transcended from genre to movement in the face of this government opposition and the British rave scene flourished, seeing Trance and Techno explode in popularity as the 90s moved on.

On the back of Acid House, rave and the drug scene associated with it became a way of life for some, travelling both the country

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and Europe to put on raves and free parties for all – a far cry from the abundance of Croatian deep house festival bundles the students of today have made their scene of choice.

Ultimately much of the dance music community has put its Acid days behind it in favour of more commercial pastures.

However, with the rise of EDM in the states and the seemingly infinite popularity of

house music in the UK, Ecstasy continues to be the Class A drugs of choice for many of the world’s party goers. The production styling of Acid House lives on in 2014 as well, found mixed into Four Tet’s 2 hour Boiler Room session and pumping out of parliament courtesy of Rave revivalist Fatboy Slim alike; the genre that brought Ibiza to Ipswich’s legacy is still very much intact.

Buck up, Pony up

Flo Evans introduces the new, Norwich-based promoters bringing the best underground music to The Fine City If you’re a native Norwicher and have a penchant for chords, granny knitwear and ironic animal t-shirt in the (not long enough to talk about it yet) past, then doubtless you’ll be familiar with TweeOFF – the promoters that introduced Norwich to over 90 bands, artists and performers.

Members of this once very popular promoter have reformed and regenerated their aesthetic to bring us PONY UP, a collective with a very clear vision, promising to bring in “the best emerging artists to Norwich.” This new platform can only do good things for a city obsessed with live music.

Up until now, Norwich has been missing something - and we realised what that something was on February 1st at Norwich Arts Centre - but let’s look at our other options first. On one side, we have popular music brought in by LCR and the Open. Perfectly good venues, but not always providing the most interesting bookings. If you don’t mind getting trampled on by a group of gurning Sixth Formers then the Waterfront is a possibility for new music. PONY UP offers an ‘antidote to apathy’ in the form of closely curated events, low ticket prices and a laid back atmosphere that is all about good music and likeminded people.

We’re not sure where it will go, what they will do next, but we are praying for more.

On February 1st they officially launched with an evening which filled the Arts Centre with a buzz of people and noise. The turn-out for the launch was not only impressing in numbers but for the variety of age groups and identities that turned up. The choice of sounds available that night is unrivalled by any other night in recent memory.

More importantly the sounds were closely considered, and though every musician was different, everything had an easy

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and graceful quality to it. The promoters proved themselves capable of booking some very exciting talent, with London’s Shopping and Norwich’s own Long Balls in attendance – the former a sharp and quick-witted three-piece that come straight out of all girl 80s post-punk, and the latter a home grown duo with distorted guitars, synths and video art that is so good you wonder if the music was just a live soundtrack (check them both out on SoundCloud). On the 8th of February they presented what can only be describd as a major booking coup, bringing in an incredible, high energy performance from Young Fathers and Law – two acts that are

currently taking underground music by storm. Young Fathers have recieved rave reviews for their debut long-player DEAD and look set to become a huge act in the coming year.

This group are centred on growing a scene that involves all available creatively.

They can book big names for sleepy little Norfolk and make it look like child’s play. The creative domains of video art, music and screens all come together to create something you don’t want to miss.

Information is sparse as of yet, but go to www.facebook.com/ponyupponyup to keep updated on the new noise in Norwich.

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METRONOMY LOVE LETTERS

Jennifer Johnson

Joseph Mount is surely no stranger to solitude. After all, Metronomy was originally conceived in 1999 as Mount’s solo bedroom-electropop outfit. Though he has since picked up three band-mates, it is clear that Mount’s vision is still the driving force behind the group’s creative output.

2011’s The English Riviera paid a synthsoaked homage to the frontman’s native

EAGULLS EAGULLS Flo Evans

A coiffed and quite well known bloke from Sheffield recently said that Rock’n’Roll – though it will never die, could “sink back into the swamp from time to time.” British guitar music may have been marginalised in recent years, but there is arguably reason to believe that there is a stirring in said swamp. If any band is worth keeping your eye on for this long awaited album then it is a band from another Yorkshire city called Eagulls. Eagulls released their

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Album Reviews Devon, and in many ways Metronomy’s newest record Love Letters is equally personal. This time, instead of musing on young love and sleepy hometowns, Mount crafts 10 lo-fi pop gems that lament the loneliness of a musician’s existence.

The album opens with ‘The Upsetter’, a song so interwoven with spaced-out acoustic guitar that you half anticipate a couple of lines imploring Major Tom to get in touch with ground control.

Elsewhere, Love Letters is reminiscent of late-60s soul—female harmonies and a bright, driving piano give the title track a distinctly nostalgic feel.

Joe Mount is, if nothing else, aesthetically consistent. Despite an obvious myriad of influences, from The Supremes to ambient, electronic duo Autechre, you can hear Mount’s stamp all over this record.

The catchy, repetitive hooks that helped make The English Riviera so memorable are still prominent on Love Letters. Lyrically speaking, the album is hardly complex, but it helps to bear in mind that Metronomy are crafting pop music here. Lyrics aren’t so much a separate statement as they are a feature of a song’s structure.

The drum machine beats that drove much of the band’s earlier work are still put to liberal use on ‘I’m Aquarius’ and ‘Reservoir’. Still, there’s not much of self-titled debut album on the 4th of this month via a staggering comeback from their first blunder into the public eye.

They wrote a fairly obnoxious open letter about the state of the music industry. This entertaining read that included phrases such as “beach bands sucking each other’s dicks” has been replaced by a picture of some bloke’s posterior with eyeballs drawn on it. The message is interchangeable with this new image, and both with all wellknown Punk sentiments. Regardless of what the band intended with their letter, it has been dissected and stretched out of shaped by so many music journalists that it has paradoxically become a successful publicity stunt that is to thank for much of the attention they have received since.

They also released their album as a stream on Pitchfork a week before its release – further suggestive of an attentionseeking stunt with the press. However, they still might not be the sexiest answer to your prayers. In fact, this Leeds based trio look as though they could work at your local Comet, though having swagger by the truck load. The album roars and bellows from start to finish, against a backdrop that is an angry sound with a nevertheless endless bank of perfect hooks and the kind of chorus that is so powerful it feels like it’s wrapping around your spine. It has shades of Goth and grunge, but is resolutely punk

The Guardian

this record that could be construed as particularly upbeat or danceable. Mount’s seclusion is pervasive—he has clearly spent years holed up in a tour bus away from his loved ones. On ‘Monstrous’ he implores: “hold on tight to everything you love/honestly it’s all I’m thinking of ”.

Admittedly, it would be hard to feel sorry for a man whose band opened a few arena gigs for Coldplay on their last tour, but Mount isn’t asking for your pity. Rather, he is something of a documentarian, distilling his experience into bittersweet and nuanced electronica.

Metronomy displays very little regard for current musical trends on Love Letters.

Somewhere in the reverbed guitars on ‘Month of Sundays”, the band is toying tastefully with some mid-60s psychedelic

kitsch. In a similar vein, ‘Monstrous’ features a simultaneously twee and trippy organ intro that could easily pass as something off of The Zombies Odyssey and Oracle. Mount’s melodically deadpan delivery is always going to be something of an acquired taste, but Love Letters is ultimately a tasteful (and unexpected) conglomerate of sounds and styles.

Physically and sonically speaking, Metronomy have come a long way from Mount’s bedroom in Devon, but thankfully their creative direction is still determined somewhere in the confines of his mind.

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in its core. The band has a refreshing take on dealing with the media and their ‘look’.

Trying to escape the band ‘look’ isn’t new, and when Savages did we lapped it up, but really our sense of reality was still suspended in the fact that every member of Savages is cripplingly beautiful. Eagulls’? Less so, and we can all nod our heads and smile because this guy’s made it on to Letterman and he’s wearing etnies and his mum’s cardigan.

Looking like you attend a youth centre doesn’t even seem to be a stance for this guitarist. He just really doesn’t give an shit.

This is perhaps slightly overstated because George Mitchell radiates sex appeal, but in interview he is much more interested in persuading audiences “to listen to some proper music.”

The sound is paramount, and it’s heartbreaking how novel that is. The truth is, even if Eagulls had appeared three years ago, it is doubtful they would have ever broken through the margins of the British music industry. They are now set to ‘break’ America in 2014, while on both sides of the pond we are swooning over the gritty, raw temper of ‘Tough Luck’. You are implored to seek out any single from the album, but the experience of listening to it as a whole body of work is central. Each track flows into the next in an extremely satisfying way.

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The Last of Us Movie Oliver Pfieffer The Last Of Us, one of the most successful and highly acclaimed games of last year is going to be made into a film. Screen Gems has required the rights to distribution after it was announced that Naughty Dog had been in contact with a number of companies over a possible film based on the game. Film adaptations of games are a contentious topic with many big budget productions rarely ending well.

Tomb Raider is perhaps the most famous film adaptation of a game, which stared Angelina Jolie and saw two iterations before being axed after poor reviews and failing to break even by a considerable measure.

The first film was actually okay and was received well by critics. Although calling them adaptations is generous, as the films only took the idea and name of Lara Croft as opposed to the storylines from the games.

The screenplay for The Last of Us will be written by the lead writer for the games, which would suggest that this will follow in the same vain as the Croft adaptations, taking the idea and perhaps the main characters, as opposed to making a movie of the game.

Making these films generates huge amounts of publicity for the gaming industry.

It is likely that many people will not have

Sam Emsley Watch Dogs, one of the most anticipated games announced at E3 2013, has finally been given a release date of May 27th, but more importantly it gave an interesting insight into the storyline. But after all the waiting and delay, it is apparent the game has gone in a different direction.

The story appears to be a world record attempt for the most clichés in one minute: “I was the best at what I did”; “until I discovered something I was never meant to see”; “that’s what they came for me but killed her”.

It is disappointing to think that any story has to resort to this; a story that a child could cobble together in five minutes; vague, boring and overused. It is not even clear if the “her” they killed is his wife or daughter (the gravestone suggests his daughter), but it wouldn’t matter either way.

If there’s anything that sets a game apart from its competition, it’s a gripping storyline to support strong gameplay mechanics. The game clearly has the latter, but with such a flippant attempt at a storyline, why would anybody care about the characters? Why should I

heard of The Last of Us, however creating a movie will encourage more people to go and experience the game.

If the film is successful it may even see sequels and encourage more film studios to make film adaptations of popular games.

But the issue that arose with Lara Croft is that the public forgets the game only sees the film, which ended up tainting the franchise altogether.

Many people only think of the bad film when they think of Tomb Raider, something which negatively impacts their decision to purchase future titles. Therefore it is difficult to build a more successful franchise upon this and this is the trap The Last of Us must avoid.

Luckily it appears as if the developers are firmly behind, and more importantly involved in making this happen, which should ensure that the film becomes a continuation of the ideas and the world they created within the game. Palming off the rights to the series to the biggest name for a profit may be logical in the short term, but considering not only the long term future of the franchise, but also the creative direction of the developers, the film should be able to avoid the Croft scenario and hopefully attract a new audience to the world of gaming.

gamespot.com / Naughty Dog

Watch Dogs: Preview bother playing if I don’t care? Good mechanics only get one so far, the story has to take over and do the rest of the work, and this one just doesn’t seem like it will.

The other issue with the trailer seems to be the graphics which look remarkably worse than the teasers shown at E3.

Where once there was dynamic lighting, photo-realistic environments and endless interactivity, there is now blocky textures and graphics as well as an absence of any kind of lighting effect.

Consequently the game is left looking dry and boring that should really be more refined after 5 years of development, especially with the power of modern PCs and next gen consoles.

However the core mechanics appear to be the same. The player still controls the city through the phone and can interact with a myriad number of objects to advance the story, deter pursuers and complete missions. This has not been attempted in any other game and although it is yet to be seen how this will work, or even if it will work, this will surely keep attention and shift units.

The game is far away from what was previewed 8 months ago; the story is shambolic, a frivolous smorgasbord of clichés and boring tropes that bring down the whole game.

The reduction in graphical fidelity is also a poor showing, as the owners of next

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gen consoles, after such a long wait, will be expecting a great deal more from what was a promising title. The only redeeming feature is the gameplay, although then it will have to be some of the best ever if it is to obfuscate all the other glaring faults in the title.

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Susan Hill at UEA LitFest

Madeleine Woodfield on one of LitFest’s highlights Susan Hill, the novelist with over 150 titles and a 2012 CBE to her name delivered an engaging hour of discussion alongside Henry Sutton, in what turned out to be a real gem in UEA Literature Festival’s itinerary.

Hill began the hour with a succinct and pacy reading from her recent novella Black Sheep, a work described critically as tragic and haunting. The novel opens with compelling yet trivial descriptions of mundane minutiae in a faceless village which even Hill cannot place, yet the tone suggests that this is no light read. Hill herself describes the novel’s progression as ‘dark’.

Her selection of this piece suggests a belief that this work does her skills as a writer justice, a feat she credits to her empathy for the character Ted who has every means of escape from his circumstances, apart from opportunity.

Hill was most animated when the topic of her reputation as a ‘dark’ and

‘gothic’ writer was broached. Whilst she acknowledged her tendency towards this genre, she resoundingly stated ‘I never know what sort of writer I am’. As if to prove a point, she revealed her current project of writing a crime novel to a strict Easter deadline.

There was a genuine intimacy within this exchange, Hill was open and at ease with her audience which made for a compelling hour. When quizzed by the audience about her biggest regret in her impressive career, Hill cited the rumour that she received a £1million payoff for taking on the task of writing the sequel to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, a statement she strongly dismissed.

However, she described the writing process of this work as ‘a joy’. This answer acts as a testament to Hill’s career as this rumour does not slur her ability as a writer and its circulation was ultimately beyond her control.

Budding writers would have been set

at ease about the prospect of a career in creative writing based on Hill’s insight into the profession. She quipped that she writes

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‘when I feel like it’ and is hesitant to redraft. She stresses a desire to write on her own terms and seems unwelcoming to the idea of being a contemporary novelist. One thing to take away from such a valuable opinion in the world of novel writing, is that setting is of crucial importance, just read Hardy’s ‘The Return of the Native’.

Hill displays an endearing and insatiable desire to continue to gift the public with her novels, although remaining coy on the specifics, indicative of the crime genre she is currently embracing.

Fans will undoubtedly be excited about her current enthusiasm for the novella form which she plans to stick to, although there is definite uncertainty about her future work.

This was undoubtedly an hour well spent with Hill skilfully leaving the audience wondering; where to next for a writer who has conquered so many genres, critics and judging panels?

The Little Shop of Horrors

Lewis Buxton reviews UEA DramaSoc’s latest production Little Shop of Horrors, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s darkly comedic musical about a blood guzzling plant, met floods of laughter and almost burst blood vessels at UEA’s Drama Studio last night. As the ominous black curtains parted so did the audience’s smiles and they stayed smiling throughout the show. The director, Rob Ellis, pulls the audience head first into the tongue-in-cheek world of Skid Row, a 1960s slum district.

The three protagonists worked well together, all keeping the energy high and setting a great tone for the dark, gory humour of the show. The show goes on to reveal that the ‘Audrey Two’ (voiced wonderfully by Alex Horrox-White) can only flourish on human blood; Seymour makes a Faustian pact with the plant which brings him fame, money and love.

The whole show is bound together by the three street urchins, Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon (respectively Sarah Tattesall, Sarah Carton and Amber Muldoon). Their strong voices and perfect timing made an unbroken daisy chain between scenes.

They were part of an extraordinary ensemble cast who brought a vibrancy and vitality to the vicious tale of the Venus fly trap.

The most comic part of the show was Ed Jones as Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend. Whilst the character was wonderfully over the top and drew laughs

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from the audience there was a sense in which the character seemed too funny.

Although Little Shop of Horrors is an inherently dark comedy sometimes it felt we were laughing too much with Jones’ character than at him. However, the poses his struck were utterly ridiculous and even Jones’ silhouette was funny.

The timing of the show was a testament to both the band and the direction. For its unsubtle humour and relatively small cast the show is often used in amateur productions and school plays where timing can so easily go wrong; this show moved effortlessly in and out of songs, uncomplicated but effective dances and amusing well timed jokes.

The play is unashamedly self aware; the refrain ‘WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?’ lingered in this reviewer’s head throughout.

If you are looking for serious, poignant and a morally hopeful show then Little Shop of Horrors is probably not your best bet.

UEA Drama Society’s production has its tongue rammed firmly in its cheek and its jazz hands thrown dramatically up in the air staking no claim to severity.

None of the actors take themselves too seriously at all, but it is obvious that a lot of sweat, tears and gallons of fake blood has gone into this production.

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Artists and their Opium

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Harriet Norman gives a run through of great artists and their addiction Over hundreds of years many talented people have brought their art to us as writers, actors, singers and musicians. However for quite a few of these gifted people there was a darker substance that lurked in their life and career – opium.

Opium is a black sticky tar which is the latex (sap) of the opium poppy. It contains over a dozen drugs, but the three most common types of opiate addiction are opiate painkiller, heroin and methadone. Opium in all its various forms is a substance that so many great artists have ‘battled’ with.

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TAYLOR COLERIDGE, 1772 - 1834

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who is thought of as one of the founders of Romanticism ad wrote the poems such as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan.

However Coleridge was widely known as a consistent user of opium as a relaxant and antidepressant as well as for the treatment for several health concerns.

But for Coleridge’s career the more he became reliant on the drug the more his

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work suffered. Many have argued that for an analysis of Coleridge’s life it must be looked at against the background of his opium usage. To help cure his addition his friend Joseph Adams put him in touch with a doctor James Gillman whose household Coleridge lived with for the rest of his life.

Although Gillman was never able to fully cure Coleridge of his addition he was able to bring it under greater control.

On many occasions when Coleridge was away from the Gillman household he fell back into excessive opium use and despite Gillman’s care Coleridge was overcome with lung and heart problems. He died at the age of 61.

PABLO PICASSO, 1881 - 1973 Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, stage designer, poet and playwright known as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century who co-founded the Cubist movement and the invention of constructed sculpture. Picasso is another artist who had an involvement with opium, but only for a short period of his life. He is known to have smoked opium three times a week between

the summers of 1904 – 1908. According to his biographer John Richardson, it was not a belief in the ‘derangement of the senses’ but an innate curiosity that made Picasso try drugs. In June 1908, Picasso renounced opium; one of the believed reasons was because he was extremely shocked by his drug confused housemate’s suicide.

JEAN COCTEAU, 1889 – 1963 Jean Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, playwright, artist and filmmaker.

Some of his work included his novel Les Enfants Terribles, and the films Blood of a Poet and Les Parents Terribles. The young death of Raymond Radiguet a close friend of Cocteau’s in 1923 was a severe blow to Cocteau and can be seen as driving him to use opium. Cocteau’s most notable book, Les Enfants Terribles, was written in a week during a strenuous opium weaning.

In 1929, Cocteau wrote Opium, The Diary of His Cure which vividly describes his extraordinary experiences while taking opium, the drug which he owed his ‘perfect hours’ and an account of his recovery from his opium addiction. However

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Jean Cocteau did relapse in his life to his recurring addiction and is famous for quoting, “The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.”

JANIS JOPLIN, 1943 - 1970 Janis Joplin was an American singersongwriter and an iconic singer of the 1960’s. Unlike the previously mentioned artists Joplin’s addiction lay not in the more natural form of opium but the synthetic chemical made from morphine which is still derived from the opium poppy - heroin, a much stronger form of opium. Joplin was a major heroin user and was often forced to cancel shows because she was too heavily under its influence to take the stage.

In 1970 producer Paul A. Rothchild became concerned when Joplin failed to JMACfor a recording session. Upon seeking show her he found her dead in her hotel room from an overdose of heroin. The music world and fans were stunned at her death at the age of only 27 especially as only sixteen days earlier another musician had died, rock icon Jimi Hendrix also at age 27 and another user of heroin.

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CREATIVE WRITING

11.03.2014

www.concrete-online.co.uk

concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk

Drugs.

(and alcohol, too) Everything is in conflict: a defence

Elizabeth Parsons

Everything is in conflict, From the resolutely happy music Clanging out of my earphones Against the blaring choral music in the car, Jangling in my ears and against my Fiery, determinately miserable State of mind And most obviously Against the conflicting wills Swirling around the car, In the cloying stroppy aftermath Of a barely resolved disagreement.

From the angry black hole under the Itchy picnic blanket, Sweltering under the magnified sun, I have emerged, of course, (As I had to at one point or other) But I am reformed And my will is as iron as ever.

I cannot go to the top of a mountain and scream, And I am now not allowed Even to drink away my consciousness, Or laugh with my friends, Because I am in a Ridiculous Establishment Where drinking is Absolutely Intolerable, And yet also it seems to be the only way people can have fun!

Flickr: Thomas Hawk

With a Glass of Wine At the reception after I found myself chatting away to some Very nice people And found I had gone Quite Spectacularly From utterly miserable and self-deprecating To Self-confident and happy!

Wow, magic ‘spirit-water’.

(As the Red Indians used to call it, As they begged the cowboys for more liquor, So, the observed effects of people Capering about Joyfully and confidently while drunk Seen both in real life And on Facebook – (This dreadful thing Through which it is possible to see other people’s good-times and photos With the click of a key) – Was put to test, and worked.

I just wanted to be happy and that was a shortcut.

I just wanted to have gypsy parties Surrounded by friends Ride bare back across the moors (Etc.)

How can you blame me, When everyone else seems to be so happy On their diet of cigarettes and lager, Sambuca and wine?

And then well, when I tried it myself it seemed to work!

Then, Someone else, Who is slightly mad underneath their Quiet exterior, Who wants to be a gypsy, Be free, Do something crazy just for the sake of it, Because it makes good memories, Because you’re sixteen, Because it’s romantic and hippy-ish.

A concert at which I was feeling Miserable throughout

“Come on I haven’t done anything crazy for ages!”

“Let’s go skinny dipping!”

Because of the idea I had Febricated for myself That I was somehow Genetically at a disadvantage Because I was born ‘Shy’, ‘Introverted’, ‘Lacking in Self-Esteem’ – Into a society where People Like That Are at a distinct disadvantage And end up feeling unaccepted and out of it.

I didn’t go in completely – Finally it had filtered through the Fuzzy unconnected ends of my brain That I should be getting home.

“But who cares?

Why can’t I live in a world where I never have to get home?

My parents can go to bed and I’ll let myself in, that’ll be fine.”

Ruined Easter.

CREATIVE WRITING concrete.creativewriting@uea.ac.uk

www.concrete-online.co.uk

Only Human

Elliot Gudge

11.03.2014

11

The rest of this excerpt can be found online at http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/

Richie has returned home for the summer from his first year at university. Having recently consoled his friend Marianne through a breakup, he now finds himself in a love triangle with Florence and Charlotte…

Saul’s parents are away which naturally means there’s a party at his place tonight. Of course, he doesn’t want to throw a party, but he knows Matt would kill him if he spent a weekend with a free house wanking in his room instead of having everyone over. On the phone earlier Florence asked me if she could come and then I told her that I guess she could and then she asked me what time she should get to Saul’s for and then I said I didn’t care and she could come over whenever so she said she’d drive over after work. Alex comes over to pick me up at around eightish and we drive straight over to Saul’s. When we get there people are only just starting to arrive and the party hasn’t really started yet so Alex goes outside for a spliff and I grab a Budweiser from Saul’s garage (which is totally loaded with booze), have a fag, and then head back inside and sit down in Saul’s living room. All the walls are coated in a really dull beige paint and are covered with professionally taken photographs of Saul and his family that make them all look like mannequins. I’m thinking about grabbing a fresh drink because I’ve almost finished my beer when a hand clasps firmly over my eyes and another hugs me around my chest.

‘Guess who?’ I hear Marianne’s voice ask from behind me.

‘Jennifer Lawrence?’ I say.

Marianne laughs. ‘In your dreams.’

‘Tracey Emin?’

‘Closer, but think younger.’

‘Alice Glass?’

‘Fucking hell, this is going to take all night, isn’t it?’

I take Marianne’s hand away from my eyes and then turn around to look at her; she’s wearing an oversized red chequered shirt and has a big black flower in her hair.

‘Hey,’ she smiles.

‘Hi,’ I say, getting up.

‘Listen, about the other day-’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ I say, finishing my Budweiser.

‘I just wanted to say thank you. I mean, it was really embarrassing having you see me like that, but I’m really glad you came to talk to me. It meant a lot.’

‘What are friends for?’ I say, shrugging slightly. ‘You want a drink? I’m going to go grab another beer.’

‘A Strongbow would be nice,’ she smiles.

‘Wrongbow? What are you, fourteen?’ I say, pulling a stupid exaggerated face.

Marianne laughs. ‘Hey, I like cider.’

‘Then don’t drink that shit,’ I say, ‘at least let me grab you a Bulmers or something instead.’

‘Okay,’ she grins, ‘fuck it, right?’

‘Right,’ I say, pointing at her as I walk away, ‘fuck it.’

I head back into the garage, which is ridiculously clean and organised, grab myself another Budweiser and a Bulmers for Marianne and then I’m about to go back inside when Nick pulls up in Saul’s driveway, nearly crashing into Alex’s car. He winds down his window, shouts ‘Niggas in Paris!’ at me and then stumbles out of the car with Matt, Bale and Daniel. The setting sun glints and shimmers off of the gloss paintjob Nick got for his car last summer so I have to hold my hand up to my eyes just to see them.

‘Please allow me to introduce myself: I’m a man of wealth and taste,’ Matt says, bowing, before he walks over to me with the others.

‘So the pick-up went well?’ I ask.

‘A bit too well, actually,’ Bale says, and then everyone starts laughing.

‘I’m so fucking high,’ Nick shouts into the sky.

‘You see, Richie-Boy, it’s like this;’ Matt says, putting his arm around my shoulder, ‘we were just going to pick up from Daniel here but then I thought, “Fuck, isn’t it just, like, totally unfair that we never invite him back to these things after we’ve grabbed our, y’know, ‘stuff’?”’

‘So here I am,’ Daniel says, stretching his arms out.

‘So here you are,’ I say slowly, nodding. ‘How many lines did you guys do on the way over here?’

‘Four?’ Bale says.

Daniel pulls a face. ‘No way man, it’s gotta be five.’

‘Who fucking cares?’ Nick says, grasping at the air above him as if he’s trying to pull some clouds down from the sky.

‘Nick’s right,’ Matt says, ‘the most important thing to do right now is to get Richie-Rich here on our level.’

‘What about Saul?’ Bale asks.

‘Fuck Saul,’ Matt and Nick both say at the same time, laugh, and then high-five.

We head inside and all go into Saul’s father’s study. The desk is taken up by the biggest Apple computer I’ve ever seen and the bookshelves are lined with the autobiographies of Alan Sugar, Steve Jobs, Theo Paphitis, and pretty much every other money whore that’s ever lived. Bale grabs a Margaret Thatcher biography from the shelf, throws it onto the desk, and then Matt crushes and cuts five lines and positions them across Thatcher’s face on the book cover so it looks like she’s locked behind grainy white prison bars.

‘I personally cut this mandy with a load of K, so it’s got quite a kick to it, man,’ Daniel says in his signature slow voice, looking pretty proud of himself.

‘Chickity-check yourself before you wreck yourself,’ Bale shouts, ridiculously high-pitched.

‘Just do the lines,’ Nick says, patting my back, ‘checking yourself is for fucking puss-ays, boy.’

Matt hands me a tenner and it’s really crumpled and scrunched up so the Queen’s face looks all contorted and disfigured. I roll it into a tube and then take a deep breath.

‘Fuck Queen and country,’ Matt nods.

‘Fuck Queen and country,’ I say and snort the lines as quickly as I can, making sure I delicately hover over them without the tenner touching the book. My nose burns and the taste of the mandy goes straight to the back of my throat so I down my beer. Everyone cheers and then we leave the study to join the rest of the party.

Flickr: P - A - S - T

12

FASHION - KAOS SPECIAL

11.03.2014

www.concrete-online.co.uk

concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk

Running order: French Connection, Retreat Vintage, New Look Swimwear, Love From Matte, Crew Clothing, House of Fraser, Mango, New Look, Ann Summers, Ti'en

House of Fraser

Mango

New Look Swimwear

New Look Swimwear presented us with a delightful show – retro is back! The sweetheart necklines and high-waisted bottoms were enough to send us straight back into the 1950’s.

There was an array of patterns in the collection from polka dots to leopard print to aztec. Floaty layers seemed to be all the rage with geometric patterned joggers to create a cool summer coverup, as well as ombre dyed sheer maxi dresses over a chic cut out swimsuit. Like New Look, make sure you pair every swimsuit with a long chain necklace for laid back vibes this summer.

The go-to department store when you’re looking for a more formal or special dress, House of Fraser worked to this theme with their runway collection of prom dresses and suits. Longer dresses took the focus, with gowns suitable for a red carpet and not a whiff of princess dresses in sight. The slightly more mature cuts of the garments were jazzed using bright colours and faux gemstones, such as the leopard print with chunky diamonte or the bright fuchsia number. Very thin pinstripes were seen on the men, and darker suit colours were paired unusually with yellow suede shoes, think timberland goes smart.

This year Mango succeeded in putting a young twist on the corporate woman.

The brand’s colour palette varied from neutral creams to bright reds and corals. The tailored structure and cuts of the pieces accentuated the feminine silhouette. If you’re that girl who loves to look sophisticated but doesn’t want to lose that stand-out edge, then get yourself down to Mango and indulge in the chic range they have to offer.

Ti'en

Shamir Sami’s collection involved beautifully patterned and embellished Pakistani designs. Male models coolly walked the runway in modest sherwanis, accompanied by female models dressed in brightly coloured and beautifully cut churidars. Accessories included matching bangles and crystal tikkas. A few male designs involved the shirt and tailored trouser look – a more modern take on Asian menswear. We loved the casual simplicity yet effectively stylish nature of the high-waisted, jacquardprint harem trousers.

Elley West

Jeremy Morrison

Katie Tsppas

Madz Abbasi

New Look Feel good vibes were key with the New Look collection. Using many trends of the season including tartan, oversized blazers and khaki parkas it had something for everyone.

The maxi skirt/denim jacket ensemble was perfect for any festival goers this season, and the preppy tweed blazer and oversized bag combo for the boys showed New Look at its best. Rucksacks and oversized bags were the vital pieces in this collection so be prepared for more of these gracing our high streets!

Helena Urquhart

Ann Summers As soon as the Ann Summers models swept the stage, it was clear things were taking a rather steamy turn. Frills seem to be the way to go this season: every piece was garnished with ruffles. Big, small, subtle, or obvious – they were everywhere. Lace was another texture that emblazoned this season’s collection, although everything remained mostly monochrome, except for a singular hint of navy and plum hues. The majority of the collection was twopiece parts with boned corsets and Brazilian briefs to create a sexy yet implicit look for the lingerie lover this season.

Katie Tsappas

All photos: Jacob Roberts-Kendall

Crew

Set to a high energy soundtrack, the Crew collection was one of the highlights of the evening. The key Crew staples that we know and love were there; chinos, boat shoes and plenty of blazers all round. A navy blazer paired with a pink floaty dress and satchel was a winner for the girls, and an effortlessly cool nautical combination of chinos, striped sweater and sunglasses stood out miles for the boys. As expected all the Crew models exuded class and confidence – this collection was fun and at the same time displayed the key trends, expect blazers and tailoring this Spring/Summer!

Helena Urquhart

Love From Matte This collection personified cool.

Couples rocked the catwalk in matching his and hers styled outfits, namely tattoo-inspired print t-shirts and denim – skinny jeans and cut-off shorts.

Colours of the t-shirts ranged from black to white and they were styled to the sex: tucked in by the female models and untucked by the male. It’s the sort of look you’d catch Kate Moss in during a casual night out at a festival, so of course, we loved it.

Madz Abbasi

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14

FASHION - KAOS SPECIAL

11.03.2014

www.concrete-online.co.uk

concrete.fashion@uea.ac.uk

Best Dancers: Outfit ACS ladies of the night: Mango Cutest Couples

JAM photos

JAM photos

JAM photos

JRK photos

BEST IN SHOW

Hottest Entrance

Biggest Posers

JAM photos

JRK photos

JAM photos

We would like to thank Gabrielle Harding, president of KAOS, and her team for organising such a brilliant show. All the money raised will be used to fund the charity's ongoing projects including help for orphanges in disadvantaged countries.

JRK photos: Jacob Roberts-Kendall JAM photos: Jemma Hardy-Goddard and Max Hetherington

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11.03.2014

TELEVISION

www.concrete-online.co.uk

concrete.television@uea.ac.uk

Drugs: The Fallout

TV’s portrayal of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of sides of Drugs Adam Dawson Pretty much each and every one of us enjoys a drink. Alcohol has many upsides, like making us think the LCR is actually the best place on Earth (which it is). It also has a couple of downsides, like making you think you’re invincible until you wake up the next morning with a mysterious, deep wound in your leg that you have no memory of getting.

Lately there’s been a trend of TV shows showing the results of going too hard without going home. They show us the unfortunate accidents other people get into as a result of their booze-fuelled self thinking it would be a good idea to leap in front of a bus, or other such dangerous activities.

It’s best to look at shows like What Happens in Sunny Beach and Kavos to get a real sense of the after-effects drinking and taking drugs can have on a person.

Whilst everyone goes a little bad on drinking holidays, the show does not glorify the antics of drunk and high people. It does show that you can have a great time if you take of yourself, but can have the worst holiday imaginable if

Channel 4/Digital Spy

you don’t.

What Happens in Sunny Beach and Kavos takes care to show both sides of the drinking holiday. It has interviews with steely-livered reps, who drink so much it’s almost admirable, and with the doctors

who have to deal with drunken injuries on a nightly basis. The doctors provide the most interesting glimpse into what it’s like to deal with the consequences of drinking too much given that they are the ones who actually have to deal with

it. The people with the injuries just get on with it, probably hitting another bar or club after they leave the surgery.

Showing both sides of the drugs and drink culture of young people abroad is refreshing, and not at all as preachy as some documentaries tend to be when dealing with the same subject.

Drama-wise, Fresh Meat gets the drink and drugs culture of university about right. Apart from exaggerating Vod’s drug habits, all of the characters are shown at one point or another high or drunk or any combination of the above. Nothing terrible happens to them, apart from the odd drunken mistake. Fresh Meat also shows the hangover and comedown afterwards, which more dramas about students should be doing. Drinking is great, but the hangover isn’t.

More drama dealing with drugs in general needs to show the negative side too. It’s all fun and games when you’re drunk, high and sweaty, and the DJ drops your tune and you go wild. It’s not so fun when you’re so hungover the next morning you can’t move without violently chundering everywhere.

Television Binging

We take a look at the Habits of TV Viewing Phil Turtle The word ‘binging’ carries with it significant connotations in today’s society, whether applied to food, alcohol or drugs. Yet binging on television has become a common phenomenon in this modern era of box sets and streaming sites like Netflix; can this be considered a rare example of binging as a positive experience?

Purists may argue that television should be enjoyed as originally intended, i.e. when the TV schedulers dictate that you should watch it, typically on a weekly basis for most drama series. This has been, after all, the way in which television has been enjoyed for the best part of the last 50 years, before technology caught up with our desire to have access to our favourite shows whenever and wherever we want them.

Netflix has led the trend; releasing whole series in one go, as witnessed with the latest series of Arrested Development, or in its treatment of the final season of Breaking Bad in the UK. With the

The Telegraph/Associated Press latter particularly, there was the obvious incentive to binge on the series, given the inevitable spoilers that spread on the internet immediately after such a series is made available to the public.

There is something oddly satisfying about knowing that, rather than

having to wait a whole week for the next episode, you are nowadays free to indulge in several episodes of a show in the same sitting; no waiting to see how that cliffhanger resolves itself, or whether the lead character survives the previous episode’s dramatic explosion.

Another argument in favour of binging is that television viewing nearly always reflects the mood the individual is in. Sometimes, after a hard day, you want to relax and watch episodes of a sitcom, whereas on another day you may want to be challenged by a complex detective series. When such a mood takes you, the urge is to watch a show for as long as you are possibly able to; nowadays, that desire can be a reality.

Of course, much of the great television produced today can leave the viewer in need of a rest period; thoughts such as ‘what on Earth have I just witnessed?’ need time to circulate in the mind, and this is part of the enjoyment of watching shows in the mould of Lost or 24. Soaps, or continuing dramas as they are now referred to, also exist for those who yearn for the old fashioned manner of television viewing. The very nature of such shows means there is always a new episode to catch up on.

The message to communicate to all television bingers is thus: enjoy your binges, but please, binge responsibly!

TELEVISION concrete.television@uea.ac.uk

www.concrete-online.co.uk

11.03.2014

Elaborate Alcohol Advertising

17

The Glamorous and Expensive selling techniques

Katie Dolan

Alcohol advertising in the UK is strictly regulated to prevent the encouragement of youth binge-drinking. These rules have made advertising a tricky business, resulting in some pretty interesting TV ads. Some take a similar angle to sexualised perfume ads, leaving you wondering whether to drink it or splash it on your neck; whilst others are reaching new levels of innovation. So here are a few of the best and bizarre alcohol adverts around: Smirnoff Apple Bite: So far removed from reality it becomes hypnotic, the beige imagery and the eerie soundtrack give it an unnerving atmosphere.

Set in a neo-classical unnamed decade, the bar is reminiscent of Kubrick’s The Shining, adding to that creepy overtone. The themes are based on a Biblical reference to Adam and Eve, with fig leaves covering a couple as they walk through a hall, to a snake squeezing the apple into the vodka in a bid to state that we should give into the temptation of this particular sin. These themes are again far removed from the contemporary vision many of us have of alcohol, the exclusive

their advert which explores a sub-culture of men from Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, called the ‘Sapeurs: the society of elegant persons of the Congo’. With its beautiful cinematography the advert encapsulates the spirit of these men, who embody elegance through flamboyant attire as form of resistance to the hardships and surroundings of their lives, uniting to bring peace. The advert is accompanied by a short documentary of the Sapeurs, found on Guinness-Europe’s YouTube page; definitely worth watching. The advert actually has few links to drinking Guinness, but at least they are doing something worthwhile with their budget.

Wordpress (Cellardoorfam) nature suggest a more exclusive market.

Southern Comfort: Heating things up is Whatever’s Comfortable from SoCo. This slogan is indeed embodied in this visual celebration of a scantily clad oiled-up man; but instead of the usual smouldering six-pack, he proudly displays his porkier beer belly as he struts down the beach. But what makes this advert so

intoxicating is the sheer happiness and relaxation with the self. Strolling along in such ease, carefree, unjudged and quite fittingly sound-tracked by Odetta Holmes’ soulful music, this makes an entertainingly joyful advert, and is certainly not promoting binging.

Guinness: ‘Sapeurs’: Guinness has surpassed expectations with

Jonathan Creek - Review

Goodbye BBC Three

Creative Review

Dominic Burchnall With the BBC’s Director General Lord Tony Hall looking to make £100 million worth of savings, the news broke recently that the channel BBC3 was included in the cull. While he may save the £85 million a year it costs to run the channel, he’s also earned a substantial amount of ire from audiences and celebrities, particularly those who found their way to fame from piloting their shows on the channel.

Some of the most well-known and iconic British TV shows of recent years began on BBC3, with Little Britain, Gavin and Stacey andThe Mighty Boosh being some of the most successful of recent memory.

While also featuring some lower brow content in the past eleven years (My Man Boobs and Me being one of the less provocative) it has also broadcast 7

BAFTA winning shows in its 11 years on the air, as well as earning accolades from numerous institutions.

While Lord Hall attempted to pacify critics, saying the cuts are necessary to keep programmes like Sherlock and Doctor Who funded (and that the channel will continue online) several celebrities have weighed in with their support of BBC3. Matt Lucas, Jack Whitehall, David Walliams and Russell Tovey made their names on the channel, and have all tweeted backing the saving of the channel.

UEA Alumni Greg James pointed to the “uninterrupted and unrivalled coverage of the big music festivals” being another point in its favour.

With a petition to save BBC3 having garnered over 128,000 supporters at time of writing, the future of BBC3 is yet to be decided.

So is advertising responsible for unruly kids? Perhaps not. Television and film content aimed at young people is much more accepting of binge-drinking culture, but that’s a whole other story. The elaborate and sometimes glamorous nature of these adverts is far away from inspiring bingedrinking among youth, but instead about developing the product to be more than just a brand.

BBC

Holly Wade As the title music begins, you know you’re in for a treat with Jonathan Creek.

From the very first moment chaos and comedy ensue with Alan Davies, who plays the eponymous amateur sleuth, watching a musical, surrounded by people who insist on filming the entire thing on their phones. Creek is agitated by this and ends up in a brawl with the man seated next to him, resulting in a vampiric neck bite. Where else would you find this kind of scenario? To take the show as a serious piece of drama would quite frankly just be silly.

In the first episode of the latest series another ‘impossible crime’ occurs, with the cast of the musical Creek has just watched of course involved. Sadly the audience witness the entire escapade

long before Creek does. A budding Sherlock appears in the form of a friend’s son Ridley, but he does little more than render himself completely inane and pretty annoying.

Sarah Alexander, as Creek’s wife Polly, does a sterling job, but throughout there does feel like something lacking; something in the shape of the wonderful Sheridan Smith, who quit the project due to other acting commitments on stage with well-known actor, David Walliams.

Though this was not the best episode the show has offered it was still a great watch, with the actors excelling and the comedy rife. The whole programme is just a good bit of fun Friday night viewing and the other two episodes in the series will surely prove to be a hit; we certainly can’t wait.

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11.03.2014

www.concrete-online.co.uk

Director Jim Jarmusch Starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, John Hurt, Jeffrey Wright Cert 15 Runtime 123mins

Freddie Van Der Velde Jim Jarmusch, auteur of Coffee and Cigarettes and Dead Man once said that he’d ‘rather make a film about a guy walking his dog than the emperor of China’, and this can be appreciated throughout his film repertoire.

Although often focusing on the fantastic

The Book Thief

Director Brian Percival Starring Sophie Nélisse, Geoffrey Rush, Emily Watson, Roger Allam Cert 12A Runtime 131mins Rowie Walsh I attempted this film twice. I could not believe that a novel so incredible, so mind-opening to my thirteen year old self and so poignantly educational could be transformed into a sort of creepy new version of the Anne Frank story, with sloppy and simple dialogue and a blatant disregard for its best-selling source material.

Taken from Australian writer Markus Zusak’s novel of the same name, The Book Thief tells the tale of Liesel, a young Aryan girl whose mother is a communist and is thus taken away to live with two new foster parents in Germany during the Second World War. Despite the literary bonfires throughout Germany and her participation in the Hitler Youth,

concrete.film@uea.ac.uk

At Cinemas Near You

Music4Meez

Only Lovers Left Alive

FILM

and the absurd, he turns what could become contrived and clichéd into an atmospheric and highly absorbing character study. This is the case for his latest film Only Lovers Left Alive, focusing on the relationship between Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as two ancient vampire lovers.

Hiddleston and Swinton’s performances bring an air of age old weariness trapped inside youthful and intelligent bodies that could easily have become annoying if not handled correctly by both actors and the writer/director.

Hiddleston’s Adam is portrayed from the start as a gloomy hipster musician, the anonymous creator of brilliant music he does not want to be linked to, secluding himself from the mortals (the ‘zombies’) outside. He lives in a house Liesel’s love of books grows and grows, tended to by her foster father, a poorly underused Geoffrey Rush, and Max, the surprisingly healthy and handsome Jewish refugee hiding in the basement of her foster parents’ house.

Though barely any reason is given as to how or why, Liesel’s understanding of right and wrong remain rigid throughout and her moral compass points steadfastly north. Instead of encouraging the audience to feel admiration towards her, however, this brand of unfaltering morality makes Liesel annoying and unrelatable and further makes her choices seem false and her relationships even more so.

Despite this, the young actors throughout give stellar performances, or try to, amidst the confusing rubble that is the writing and directing of this overpoweringly obvious Oscar-bait movie. The production value is also eye catching and the whole aesthetic is entirely pleasing, with a nice colour palette and scenery and very pretty children, yet one wonders if the povertystricken German children of the Second World War should in fact look like

full of decades-old music relics that span back to the fifties and creates his own power source from the work of his old friend Nikola Tesla. He’s also been pals with George Byron and Mary Shelley, to name drop but a few, and resembles an English Julian Casablancas.

Swinton’s Eve acts as foil to Adam’s reclusive and depressive nature, with her calm, curious and whimsical personality, and both seem to treat blood like heroin. Yep, the two characters are antiestablishment, nocturnal drug-using hipsters who drive around at night and look down on the rest of the world with elitist attitudes towards art and literature.

Even co-star John Hurt’s blood-sucking rendition of Christopher Marlowe expresses a negative attitude towards some of the greatest writers of all time, claiming to have written the works of Shakespeare, who he sees as a ‘philistine’.

This would be enough to repel even the biggest hipster vampire fans (if that exists as a trend) but it must be kept in mind that Jarmusch uses these clichés in character to paint a picture of two people who, if their biblical names tell us anything, have seen human civilisation grow into what it is today from perhaps the dawn of time and deserve to hold a certain weariness towards humanity.

Adam’s Attitude towards twenty-first century society is one of despondency at what our culture is turning into, the slang

term ‘zombies’ arguably not far off from the truth. The film is at heart a character piece about somebody who does not find the world amazing anymore, a comment on the predictable path Western culture is confidently striding down, unaware of its own impotence and fate.

The script is filled with Jarmusch’s trademark dry wit and the main character follows the model many of his protagonists are built on, the loner who holds a passion for a form of art. For Forest Whitaker’s hit man in Ghost Dog, it is the ancient code of the Samurai, and for Adam it is music.

Jarmusch often uses musicians in his films, and Only Lovers Left Alive does not fall short on music and pop culture references from Jack White to Faustus.

The reflective nature of the film leads to philosophical discussions on art and quantum entanglement and the film absorbs the viewer into Adam and Eve’s stark world, giving us brief glimpses into the bigger picture of vampire society and what it is like to live as a bloodsucker in the modern world. Slow paced, reflective and hypnotic, Only Lovers Left Alive takes the vampire movie and upends it, managing to create something far more thoughtful and witty.

9

Notre Cinema

they’ve stepped directly from the pages of a Boden kids catalogue.

The film, just like the novel, is narrated by Death, a fact that is understandably chilling within the novel yet within the film, with the voice of Death being the adoringly British and comforting tones of Roger Allam, this narration casts a sprightly, fairytale and Harry Potter-esque sheen over what should be a torturous and bone-chilling subject matter. This here is the root of all evil in terms of The Book Thief.

Everything is too nice: everything is

black and white and nothing hits you or affects you in any way, despite the fact that this is a film set during Nazi Germany, and concerns loss and death and the harrowing ordeal of growing up in a world that cannot and will not make sense.

When a film is such obvious Oscar-bait, it says something that the only category it was nominated for was Best Score.

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FILM

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Nymphomaniac

Director Lars von Trier Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf Cert 18 Runtime 240mins Neven Devies From his polarising, excessive, shockto-the-system chef d’oeuvre Antichrist, to the satirical anti-Semitic comments which lead him declared official persona non grata at the Cannes film festival during the première of Melancholia, acclaimed auteur Lars von Trier has never been one to shy away from controversy.

Now, two years on from his last film, Von Trier finally returns to screens with Nymphomaniac.

It’s a stark inevitability that controversy dominates the critical dialogues of a Von Trier film and Nymphomaniac fared no differently. Between the discussions of a seemingly interminable run-time and the utilisation of excessive, unsimulated sex scenes which blurred the lines between art and the pornographic, Von Trier’s latest was subject to the hype wagon even during the stages of pre-production. And yet, surprisingly so, this latest offering is undoubtedly his least offensive yet.

Spared from the purposeful audience provocation which permeated his recent films, Von Trier has produced a searingly

powerful examination into the darker depths of addiction.

Divided into two distinct volumes, Von Trier’s staggering pseudo-porn epic draws a very fine line between the genius and the capricious. Whilst a 240 minute long personal odyssey may appear rather intimating to the casual movie-goer, it’s a welcome relief to find the film void of the pervasive, suffocating atmosphere which saturated the two prior films in his trilogy of depression. Even more surprisingly, the film is laced with a wicked, deadpan sense of humour throughout, heightened by the wild, borderline absurdist sexual anecdotes which create the foundations of Von Trier’s epic.

‘I discovered my cunt when I was two years old’, Joe (played alternately by Stacy Martin and Gainsbourg) calmly exclaims in her clipped, matter of fact tone as she retells the origins and discovery of her sexuality. Dictated by a jovial sense of angsty, youthful innocence, the first volume, set primarily within Joe’s younger years, is undoubtedly the most playful of the two. Even when her outlandish behaviour begins to destroy those around her, the film firmly remains within a stern, comedic framework, most notable within Uma Thurman’s hysterically bonkers performance as a scorned wife who takes her young children on a visit to the mistress’s home. Yet for all the carefree, whimsical atmosphere the film portrays, the kernel of self destruction

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Non-Stop

Director Jaume Collet-Serra Starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o Cert 12A Runtime 106mins Ben Cheshire Liam Neeson on a plane. That’s the premise of Non-Stop. Fans of the actor’s recent action-thrillers will know that they want to see it, regardless of its critical

reception, and the good news is if you go in with the right expectations you’ll have a good time. Directed by Jaume ColletSerra (Unknown, also with Neeson as the lead), Non-Stop is non-spectacular, but it delivers cheap thrills and is paced well enough to hold your interest throughout.

Neeson plays a US air marshall who finds himself caught up in a murdermystery during a flight to London. The small confines of the setting gives the film a lot of excitement and, without making use of a particularly predictable pun, this excitement is continual from beginning

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After Dark at Cinema City A special late-night screening of Aliens: The Director Cut (Friday 28th March, 11pm)

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is firmly planted within this first half, foreshadowing an inevitable downwards spiral which commands the second volume.

It is in part two, consisting of three long, meandering chapters that Von Trier’s intentions become clear. Joe, now a fully fledged woman and damaged from years of abuse, epitomises a victim of addiction. And whilst the deadpan humour still remains through the usage of Seligman’s (Skarsgård) outrageously obscure digressions, it is sorrow which takes over the hopeful rebellion presented in volume one. Featuring a sequence of flesh ripping S&M, its unrelenting brutality highlighted by a haunting performance by Jamie Bell as K, the dominant ring leader, vividly portrays the dangerous depths Joe finds herself falling victim to. It is the film’s climactic moment, however, that proves most interesting in the portrayal of the

film’s recurrent ideologies. Having finally learnt to control the entity which seemed intent on destroying her, one can’t help but think of the allusion to Von Trier’s own battle with depression, one which seems to suggest that like Joe, he too has finally learnt to control and live with his illness - a seemingly fitting end to his self proclaimed trilogy of depression and one which reflects a clear deviation from the viciously bleak climaxes of the prior two films.

Raw, poetic and wonderfully performed, Nymphomaniac is one of Von Trier’s most self assured films.

Even within the framework of its lengthy run time, it never outstays its welcome and remains a taut and efficient piece of art house cinema.

to end.

However, while the film never loses its focus, there aren’t any truly shocking twists in the film. Tick off those bog standard blockbuster staples. The good guy is the only one who can save the day – check. ‘It’s a set up?’ – check. The media are evil – check. Elements like these don’t make the film bad by any means, but they do restrict it to just being popcorn fodder. Non-Stop knows what it is: a simple action-thriller, not the next Hitchcock-esque suspense masterpiece.

This film shouldn’t be overanalysed.

Bill Marks sounds a lot like Bryan Mills. The former is the protagonist from Non-Stop, the latter from Taken.

Neeson’s action heroes are all really the same character, and this is actually the core of his films appeal. Admirably committed to giving consistently good performances, he certainly knows how to make an action hero likeable. He never plays the part with cockiness; he conveys someone with a heart of gold and no choice but to use violence, forcing the

audience to empathise with every choice he makes. In Non-Stop, Neeson gives a real sense that Bill is a psychologically damaged man who wishes he could be accepted into society, further enhancing this empathetic aspect.

There are lots of things this movie does wrong. The supporting cast have underdeveloped characters. The implausibility of the plot ramps up significantly towards the end. The political message it gives is forced and generic. But in the grand scheme of things, none of this matters. Neeson’s almost a guarantee at this point of a film that will provide pure, simple, no-nonsense entertainment. This is essentially a formulaic film that has no real surprises (this is particularly true if you’ve seen the full trailer), but it embraces Neeson’s screen presence well. Non-Stop is a decent Friday night movie, nothing more.

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Addictive Personalities

For our Drugs Issue, Josh Mott explores the highs and lows of the rich and famous

Happy Otter

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Child Starlets

Fanpop

Gary Busey

Josh Brolin

Drew Barrymore

Jamie Lee Curtis

Not strictly a traditional rehab visit, Busey appeared on the US TV show Celebrity Rehab in 2008, long after his self-confessed ‘usage period’ in the late eighties and early nineties; he proclaimed he had been sober for 13 years prior to appearing on the show. Busey in fact became a sort of spiritual leader for the other show contestants with various rockbottom stories. One included spilling cocaine on his dog and then sniffing it off the dog’s fur as it frolicked around Busey’s kitchen. Busey’s career has been on a steady downward trajectory since his Lethal Weapon heyday, now he runs the gambit of reality TV shows, including multiple series of Celebrity Apprentice.

Our most recent visitor to rehab, Brolin checked in to a Northern California centre in November when his problems with alcohol boiled over after he got into both a verbal argument with a taxi driver and a physical altercation with a bar bouncer on the same night. This was the tipping point for Brolin, who had been arrested in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2013 for public intoxication.

These issues appear, so far, to have had little effect on Brolin’s prolific acting career; he has various films due out this year, including the long awaited sequel to Sin City, entitled A Dame to Kill For, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s eage r l y - a n t i c i p a t e d In h e re n t Vi c e .

Barrymore started having addiction issues when she was nine, just three years after staring in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. The child star was already smoking cigarettes by then, was a cocaine addict at thirteen, and had already visited rehab twice before the age of 15. She was the quintessential advert for the negatives of child stardom.

However, since her tumultuous youth, Barrymore has written a best-selling book chronicling her traumatic adolescence, and has gone on to become one of the most successful and recognisable women in Hollywood with a successful production company, Flower Films, and a slew of hits over the years, including Never Been Kissed and 50 First Dates.

The Halloween star battled a prescription painkiller addiction for an extended period of her career. She has since been sober for over 15 years and cites her recovery as the ‘single greatest achievement of my life.’ Curtis has since become a vocal critic of how addiction is treated in the U.S., writing in 2009 that ‘the addict gets what the addict wants, relief from the pain in their life... we all participate. We are all involved.’ She urges those affected by addiction to seek help saying, ‘[recovery] takes work — hard, painful work — but the help is there, in every town and career, drug/drink freed members of society, from every single walk and talk of life to help and guide.’

Representations: Drugs in Hollywood

Silvia Rose investigates depictions of drugs in film as our series reaches its conclusion A genre which commonly deals with drugs is the gangster film. Take Scarface, for example, which follows the rise of Tony Montana from a Cuban refugee to a powerful drug kingpin. It is laced with violence and greed. Cocaine is behind it all, and comes to represent Montana’s insatiable hunger for power. He uses it both to make money and to feed his ego, contributing to the popular notion that cocaine is a symbol of extravagant self-interest. What is significant is that, ultimately, this lifestyle leads to ruin.

Who can forget the final scene, where Montana buries his face in a large mound of cocaine whilst his mansion is invaded by a rival gang. It is a moment of desperation, of pure annihilation, and fuels the film’s final shoot-out. Viewers are not meant to identify with the main character. Rather, the film exposes how greed corrupts a person, and how the initial allure of criminal dealings is an illusion. Cocaine is portrayed here as an empty promise of success.

Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing

in Las Vegas depicts drugs in a more surreal way. Cinematic techniques are used to create a hallucinogenic effect; we see through the distorted eyes of the protagonists, who binge on a range of potent substances. It lacks any clear narrative and instead offers a blending of bizarre scenes, all against a backdrop of the city’s bright lights and carnival atmosphere.

Like the anthropomorphic visions they are subjected to, the protagonists themselves turn into animals. Similarly to Scarface, excessive drug use is not portrayed as an attractive prospect.

We watch as their grip on reality loosens and paranoia seeps

into every moment. This drug-fuelled carnage can be seen as disillusionment with the American Dream. Throughout the film, we are shown the coarse nature of consumerist culture, epitomised by Las Vegas, with its ugly decadence and lust for money. The fear and loathing that the characters feel can be seen as a product, of not only the drugs, but of Western society’s obsession with excess.

The treatment of drugs in British film is slightly different because of its focus on the everyday.

Trainspotting is the most prevalent example of this.

It is not gritty realism by any means, it is heavily stylistic. But it follows the lives of ‘ordinary’ people in the sense that the characters are all young people living in late 80’s Glasgow.

The film explores the process of heroin

addiction, beginning with the pleasure and excitement, the sense of community amongst addicts, before progressing into a downward spiral. It unmasks the poverty and depravation that can come from hard drug use, and though it is playful, there is no glamorising involved.

The main character, Renton, has to remove himself from his peers, and therefore from drugs, in order to have his happy ending.

Though these are only a few examples, we can see that Hollywood films treat drugs in a more otherworldly context, and in an exaggerated manner, meaning we can separate ourselves more easily from the content. British films deal more with real experiences and relatable characters. What connects them is the fact that most of the films end with destruction. Cinema is undoubtedly seductive, and some people may worry about its part in encouraging drug use, but it must be stressed that the danger of drugs is always exposed, reminding us that what goes up must come down.

Credit: Celeb Guide

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COMPETITIONS 11.03.2014

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the venue crossword

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Across 7. Medical pain relief (8) 8. Criminal alias of Walter White (10) 10. Anti-inflammatory drug (9) 11. High as a ____ (4) 13. Sensory alteration (11) 14. Filtration device (4)

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