Explore the Victorian Meme Machine
Special FX: “I’m working on The Avengers!”
Small Talk: A Psychologist Reads Between the Lines
Issue Four - Autumn 2014
Art of Glass: Edge Hill Uni’s Novelist-at-large Returns A Large Can of Whoopass
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Welcome
Whether you are actually starting uni this autumn, or just flicking through the latest crop of prospectuses, we hope this edition of Degree will whet your appetite for what could lie in store if you choose to study at Edge Hill University.
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A Fresh Start
We cover a lot of ground in this issue, welcoming back our peripatetic in-house novelist Rodge Glass, after a year following his muse to South America, and getting an insight into the University’s latest creative venture, The Label Recordings, our in-house music label. Elsewhere, Professor Geoff Beattie shows you how to work out if someone’s lying or not – politicians beware! – Dr Bob Nicholson tries to get us to see the funny side of Victorian society with his incredible Meme Machine, and we show how you could make it in the movies, via the UK’s flourishing special effects industry.
We hope you find it a good read, but welcome any comments, or suggestions for future content. Enjoy.
Contents 01° A Fresh Start: Freshers’ Guide
03° Welcome to Fabulous Johnny Vegas
05° Degree Ceremony: Graduation Stories
07° Defying Gravity: The Art of Digital SFX
09° The Digital Victorianist
11° Animation Comes to Edge Hill University
12° The Unspoken Word
14° The Questionnaire: Professor Geoff Beattie
15° Design-a-Label
17° Rodge Glass and the Throne of Games
20° My Life in Books: Rodge Glass
21° My Biology Heroes: Dr Paul Ashton
22° A Large Can of Whoopass
Production Team Sam Armstrong Andy Butler Nick Lodge Mark Molloy
Cover Image Michael Pennington AKA Johnny Vegas by Andy Hollingworth
Y
ou’ve listened to the advice of parents, siblings, cousins, teachers, family friends, possibly even the family cat, but at the end of the day, once you’ve unpacked your gear, and packed off the parents, finding your way at university is largely down to you.
Fortunately, there are over two thousand other people looking for things to do – and people to do them with. And the University and Students’ Union will give you a push in the right direction with Freshers’ Week, a series of events designed to put you at ease, and put you in a more sociable frame of mind.
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FRESHERS’
FRESHERS’
WEEK
ESSENTIALS
2014 Sunday
Launch Party: with DJs Jason Fubar and Elliot Smith. The only place to be on the opening night.
Monday Rave of Thrones with Kristian Nairn: promises to play “the deepest house in all the seven kingdoms”.
Tuesday Level: Edge Hill students take over a Liverpool club for the night.
Hodor, Hodor, Hodor
Wednesday Social: with resident DJ Elliot Smith. Get a taste for midweek stress-busting with this regular fixture in the social diary.
Thursday
Judge Jules
Randy Ron: featuring star guest Judge Jules. Uplifting vocal house music, electro and R&B /hip–hop, Randy Ron’s nights are guaranteed to raise the roof.
Friday Top Banana Comedy Club: An opportunity to rest your weary feet – and exercise your funny bones instead.
Saturday DJs Quad Takeover: No rest for the wicked as the Uni’s oasis of calm becomes a disco inferno.
Sunday Déjà Vu: The Return of Danny Howard Radio One’s superstar DJ – and Edge Hill alumnus – demands you hit the floor one more time.
Return of the Superstar DJ
And that’s just in the evenings. There’s also the Freshers’ Fair where over 70 societies will be competing for your attention, including many Sports Clubs. Perhaps you’d like to try something you’ve never heard of – Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, anyone? Or maybe you’re dead set on meeting fellow zombie and vampire-lovers, in which case you could be interested in our Immortal Society. And whether you’re a wannabe-hipster or a metalhead, a vintage clothes junkie or a lover of cake, the Freshers’ Market hosts a range of stalls catering to the eclectic demands of our diverse undergraduate population. And there’s always plenty of free stuff to pick up – from pizza to pens to badges to condoms. Generally stuff you might not think of, but will find useful – essential in some cases – during your first few weeks.
1. Beans You may think it’s a clichéd myth that students live off hundreds of tins of beans, but like all clichés, there’s some truth in it. You’ll certainly need to do a decent grocery shop to cover your meals as you settle into your new home – that last supper with the parents won’t keep you going forever. 2. Money Socialising can be an expensive business, so make sure you have some cash on you, just to get things going in the bar, or to decorate your room with stuff from the freshers’ market. There are plenty of cash machines on campus and in Ormskirk, so don’t carry around too much.
3. Drink When meeting new people, especially in halls, nothing breaks the ice better than being able to offer someone a drink – tea, coffee, or something a little stronger.
4. Protection Play safe. You’re now officially a grown up, with much greater freedom. But with greater freedom comes greater responsibility, so if you’re lucky enough to click with someone, be prepared, make sure one of you is wearing something – and we don’t mean socks. 5. An open mind You’re meeting new people, in a new place, away from home for the first time. Every new experience is a potential adventure. Embrace them – uni is all about trying new things. If you don’t like something, there’s plenty of other stuff to do.
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“
T
he hardest thing I ever did was write a book [recentlypublished memoir, Becoming Johnny Vegas]. Outside of my son and loved ones, it is one of my proudest achievements and I honestly can’t tell you what it means to now have an Honorary Doctorate in Literature. I’d like to thank Edge Hill for having confidence in me. I’ll have to visit my old English teacher to show her the award – it pretty much belongs to her!”
July 2014. Michael Pennington is addressing an audience of fellow Edge Hill University graduands, before receiving his honorary literature degree. But a lot of water has passed under the bridge that links Michael Pennington the unhappy seminary student with Michael Pennington the acclaimed comedian, author and auteur. Cue mists of time…
‘Michael needs to keep quiet if I am to preserve my sanity. He can talk to any person, at any given or ungiven time, willing or not to listen. Please teach him to shut up.’
He apparently never learnt this particular lesson from one of his school reports, because Michael Joseph Pennington, aka Johnny Vegas, clubland entertainer, potter extraordinaire and motormouth, became a familiar face of contemporary British comedy, the star of several successful sitcoms, and now regularly bewilders and beguiles the likes of Stephen Fry and Jimmy Carr on tv panel shows.
St Helens born and bred, Johnny largely under-achieved at school (unless you count chattiness a subject, in which he clearly excelled), but found inspiration in his English and Art teachers:
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“I had two massively influential teachers in my time who really did pull me back from the brink when I’d pretty much given up on myself. They saw that potential and nurtured it, and knew not just how to teach but how to get to me, and to bring out the most in me. Every time I pick up a book and read with my son I think about the discussions I had with my English teacher. Anything I do that’s creative it’s because [my art teacher] sat me in a classroom and went ‘I can’t make you work, you’ve got to want to work, but I’ll give you the facilities’, and it gives you that faith in your own ideas, your own creativity.”
He eventually made his way to Middlesex Polytechnic at the start of the 90s where he studied art, and found a second home behind a potter’s wheel. Here he began to mould his future stage persona, Johnny Vegas, a hard-drinking would-be stand-up – or should that be sit-down? – comedian.
Johnny Vegas would eventually become a household name in the years after his triumphant appearance at the 1997 Edinburgh Festival, where he garnered the Critics’ Award and was the first newcomer to be nominated for the Perrier (now Foster’s) Comedy Award, but he admits he wasn’t born to perform, and initially “hid” inside his creation:
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Benidorm - Tiger Aspect/ITV
“Whatever you think of Johnny, he was fearless. He was a natural on stage, and I never was. [Stand-up felt like] an out of body experience – something I could never take credit for," he’s admitted.
Since that first career peak, Michael, (“Johnny has been in a box for a couple of years," he says now) has been busy augmenting his stand-up career with increasingly confident acting appearances, not to mention his supporting role in an ad campaign alongside thespian heavyweight Monkey.
In Happiness (2001-2003) he appeared alongside Paul Whitehouse, and received a British Comedy Award, and played Geoff ‘The Oracle’ Maltby in Benidorm (2007-2009) and Moz in Ideal (2005-2011). Pennington has also received acclaim for straighter roles in, for example, Bleak House (2005), David Walliams’ Mr Stink (2012), and Moone Boy (2012).
More recently Michael’s found great satisfaction in moving behind the cameras with two dramas for BBC1’s Moving On series and the Sky Arts drama Ragged, as well as music videos for Billy Bragg and Paul Heaton. “If you write, produce and direct, you own things and see them through to the end," he says after the ceremony. “I think I’ve
Bleak House - BBC
achieved a lot as Johnny Vegas, and in the last couple of years I feel, with my directing work and with the book, and getting this Honorary Doctorate, I’m achieving things as Michael Pennington, and it empowers Michael and I don’t have to be Johnny. And as great an impact as Johnny had, it was also a very self-destructive lifestyle, and days like today give me a lot of faith in myself that I can achieve things with Michael.”
Speaking to the latest generation of Edge Hill University teaching graduates, Michael was passionate about the importance of education for all:
“Education should be available to all rather than a luxury, and the responsibility falls on you to inspire the people you teach – especially those who may see college or university as unavailable to them – to pursue it. Education is what determines us as a society and a civilization. Education is not a privilege, it’s something that we’ve earned. We can’t afford to take any more steps backwards. We have to keep educating across the classes, not just the privileged classes. For me education is a fundamental cornerstone of society.”
PG Tips 'The Great Get-Together' - Mother/Unilever
“They don’t realise just how much they know. They wouldn’t be graduating if people didn’t have absolute faith in what they know, and that they’re taking more out into the world than they realise. My advice is: have faith in yourself and your abilities to be able to do something with this.” At heart, though, Michael’s still a comedian, and he ended with a personal message to his sister, ‘the really clever one’:
“I’ve just been looking forward to this moment where I can take the MA off her wall and put mine there. I don’t think I can justify it with an altar boy award, but I do think a Doctorate in Literature beats an MA in Fashion hands down!”
And with that Michael slipped from the spotlight, smiling broadly, to rejoin his fellow Edge Hill University graduates.°
Describing teachers and nurses as ‘the real day-to-day heroes’, succeeding in spite of the pressures put on them, Michael felt our graduates had earned the right to believe in themselves, as others had believed in him: Michael receives his Honorary Doctorate from Edge Hill University Chancellor, Professor Tanya Byron
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Edge Hill Graduation Summer 2014:
Ceremony
The Numbers Almost
4,000 students were presented with their qualifications ceremonies in across days
16 5
8
inspirational individuals were presented with honorary doctorates
3 1
I
t may seem a long way off now, but graduation is the culmination of at least three years hard work, and a rare opportunity to legitimately dress up in robes and don a mortar board. Graduation is a moment to savour with your friends, make plans for the next step in your life journey, have a drink with your lecturers, and take some final photos on our beautiful campus (although our alumni team will be keen to invite you back at every available opportunity). And this year the sun had its hat, sunglasses and factor 50 on all week. Amongst the crowds of beaming graduates this year were a few familiar faces – our honorary graduates, individuals whose outstanding achievements resonate with the ethos of
Chancellor’s Scholarships and Adam Bell Scholarship were awarded to third year students for the first time study prizes were presented for high performance and academic achievement
Edge Hill University. In this issue we chat with one of this year’s recipients, Michael Pennington aka Johnny Vegas, and he was joined by: composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle; musician and artist John Foxx, an original member of Ultravox; third world development campaigner Dr Helen Pankhurst, great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst; philanthropist and entrepreneur Barrie Wells; Wally Brown CBE, Principal of Liverpool Community College from 1992 until 2008; and Colin Drummond OBE, who has contributed so much to recycling and renewable energy in the UK. Previous recipients include Frank Cottrell Boyce, co-writer of the London Olympic 2012 opening ceremony, and who has recently penned an episode of Doctor Who for the first series featuring Peter Capaldi’s incarnation of the time traveller.°
10,000 guests visited our Ormskirk campus – the University’s biggest ever graduation week More than
1,000 tweets from graduates and family were sent using #EHUgrad and
500
photos uploaded to Instagram – check them out @ instagram.com/edgehilluniversity
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edgehill.ac.uk/graduation
The stars of the show were our 4,000 graduates, who had washed away the sweat and tears of the previous three years in order to collect their glittering prizes. They brushed up remarkably well. Here are just a few of them… Malachi Simmons graduated with a first class BA (Hons) in Dance: “One of the biggest things Edge Hill gave me was experience – not just of form and dance practice, but by having access to a lot of external work with choreographers and links with the dance industry. That’s been really useful in getting me teaching performance work and other dance jobs.”
The talented dancer and teacher arrived from Bermuda three years ago. During his time here he’s barely stopped for breath, becoming a key member of Edge Hill’s all-male dance company, Edge FWD, and founding the University’s Hip Hop Society. And he’s just finished a stint performing in the criticallyacclaimed adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel Lord of The Flies at Salford’s Lowry theatre, directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne. Not surprising then, that he was also awarded the University’s Adam Bell Scholarship in recognition of his achievements and contributions to the student community.
“I’d only done six weeks of ballet lessons in my whole life so I never thought I’d be working with Matthew Bourne. Working with professional dancers showed me that a rewarding career in dance is achievable.”
Malachi’s commitment to dance has led to a variety of job opportunities – teaching hip hop at the Lowry, working with The Warrington Wolves Foundation, and the prestigious 12 Degrees North training programme, which helps dancers make the transition from students to practitioners.
“Ideally, my long-term ambition is to join a professional hip-hop or contemporary dance company and tour nationally and internationally,” he said. “I’m meeting lots of people with an interest in dance all the time, so who knows what might happen in the future.”
Lucy Bramley, Natalie Horne, Tom Hart and Emma Weston all graduated with first class honours in Public Relations.
Lucy: “The PR course offers everything you need to take into a job, including a month’s work experience placement. My favourite part was the client-led campaign module – I helped run a campaign for a charity putting events together and getting coverage.”
22-year-old Tom is looking forward to an exciting career in fashion PR. He’s joined the press office of high-end department store Selfridges: “It’s so busy at Selfridges, and I’m currently working on the Christmas campaign. I graduated at the start of the week, and now I’m thinking about Christmas!”
Both Emma from Ormskirk and Liverpudlian Natalie also intend to build careers in the PR industry.
Emma: “I’m really proud of getting a first. We all worked on a live campaign together, so it’s great that we all did so well.”
Meanwhile Natalie has accepted a job with an online marketing agency working on social media and content marketing: “I completed an internship in the Easter holidays, and after working for them part-time they offered me a full-time job. All the hard work has definitely paid off.”
Matthew Hirons, BA (Hons) Film and Television Production, was awarded the prestigious Chancellor’s Scholarship in recognition of the outstanding industry experience he gained during the course: “I hope to become a screenwriter so the scholarship money will be very useful in working toward this goal.”
Aspiring screenwriter Matthew secured several industry placements during his time at Edge Hill, mixing with the writers of This is England, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Shameless, Broadchurch and Skins, and putting together a pretty impressive CV.
He worked on the critically-acclaimed BBC documentary Britain in a Day which used footage supplied by the British public to create a crowd-sourced documentary film. In his second year Matthew volunteered to work on the 14th International Keswick Film Festival, where he assisted its patron, actor John Hurt. He also won a placement at the BBC Writers Room Conference, where he mixed with internationally-acclaimed screenwriters, some of whom offered their services as mentors as well as invaluable advice. Matthew also found time to work for BBC Radio 4, and take up a four-month internship with a local film company:
“I’m very happy and surprised to have been given this award, and feel like the volunteering opportunities within the media that I’ve taken up while studying at Edge Hill have really enhanced my experience.”
In a highly-competitive industry Matthew will use the £1,000 scholarship award to support himself while he works on unpaid placements, enters writing competitions and attends interviews.
Defying Gravity 07°
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the art of digital sfx
M
arch 2014. Gravity, starring Hollywood heavyweights George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, and directed by Mexican Alfonso Cuaron, is up for several Oscars. What makes the film, though, are its brilliant digitallydesigned visual effects, something duly acknowledged as Gravity bags the Academy Award for Visual Effects. What may surprise many is that the truly ground-breaking effects of this global blockbuster were home-grown here in the UK, using British talent, techniques and technology. Edge Hill University is at the centre of this explosion of expertise, offering the BA (Hons) Digital SFX Animation, an exciting new degree designed to enable practitioners to exploit new digital technologies, and take advantage of new opportunities in film and tv production. Edge Hill University lecturer James Snazell:
“There used to be this idea, which still persists, that digital SFX only sits in the realm of CGI and sci-fi/fantasy blockbusters. In fact, digital SFX animation is used in every production, particularly period dramas. I’ve had many arguments trying to explain the fact that there is no more or less digital SFX in films such as The King’s Speech or Lincoln than there is in The Life of Pi or Gravity. The only difference being that these latter films look to push the
Gravity – Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
envelope on what can be done production-wise.”
Part of the development of such environments includes the creation, manipulation and integration of characters to be part of these sort of moving image environments.
“No more wobbly scenery, sellotape and toilet rolls, or barely-contained pyrotechnics. This is a serious business, with serious career potential...” “Digital SFX animators create imagery by manipulating and integrating different types of media to form a seamless, integrated whole, creating environments which the viewer accepts as plausible in whatever form they take,” says James Snazell.
“Digital SFX used to be something that happened once filming had finished, now it’s involved at every stage of moving image production. Actors are filmed against a green backdrop in a studio, where lighting can be controlled, then this footage is placed against a background/environment created using digital SFX animation. The days of going out and filming on set are long gone.”
It may be a bit like finding out there’s no Santa Claus, but the key word here is ‘plausible’. The viewer has to believe, and it’s testament to the quality of the UK’s talent pool that it’s done so well. No more wobbly scenery, sellotape and toilet rolls, or barely-contained pyrotechnics. This is a serious business, with serious career potential, and James wants to let you in on the secret:
“It amazes me that so many students should only look at film production courses when there is so much more work and employment within the field of digital SFX, particularly when you start to relate the field of digital SFX to that of motion graphics.
“Career possibilities range from film production to tv production to web production to games design, which increasingly employs digital SFX. Other interesting possibilities include museums and galleries looking for production work that displays information as moving images, work within the advertising industry, and developing production work for displays outside the context of film, tv and mobile devices. There’s also production work needed on an educational and architectural basis, perhaps involving simulations.” So how do you go about preparing for a career in this industry?
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edgehill.ac.uk/media “The industry is looking out for people who are able to research and gather information, and then use that information to create a plausible moving image composition, so you need to have a passion for understanding how things work,” advises James.
“For instance, if you’re going to have Harry Potter flying around on a broomstick you’ll need to know how somebody would react to being on a broomstick, you’re going to have to work out how that broomstick is going to move through the air, and how the wind will impact on somebody as they move through the air. Or if you need to create a medieval village you need to know exactly how a medieval village would look, down to the fine details, which you can then re-present in digital form.”
James’ own interest in this area was sparked as a bored youngster, forced to watch films on a Saturday afternoon, waiting for the wrestling to start. Occasionally they’d show films like Jason and the Argonauts or a Sinbad film, and like any youngster he was captivated. But it was the split-screen sequence at the start of 2001 which ‘really blew [his] mind’ and set him on a collision course with a career in visual effects. That, and seeing the video for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody on Top of the Pops. It’s all moved on a little since then, though:
“The course gives you a grounding in the basic principles of Digital SFX Animation and gives you a basic portfolio of skills, including the key discipline of compositing – integrating different media together, such as digitally-filmed footage, still images, and CGI. As students progress they specialise in a particular area as it’s impossible to get to grips with all of it.”
What hasn’t changed is that the UK – and by extension Edge Hill University – has been an industry leader for almost 50 years, taking students and practitioners, and ultimately viewers, on a continuing journey into unknown territory. Limited only by your imagination, where might you take us next?°
Marvel's The Avengers – Courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic
Profile
Liam Brown - BA (Hons) Digital SFX Animation
“I have a placement with Industrial Light & Magic, run by George Lucas. I'm working on The Avengers. The University helped me with my showreel – what sort of stuff I should put on it, and they helped me with guidance.
“During my time on the course I've learnt a lot about animation and the skills required, and I’ve learnt a lot about myself.”
A Brief History of the Special Effects Industry Leading industry practices originated in the UK. Back when legendary film director Stanley Kubrick was putting together his sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), he also put together a crack team of engineers, scientists, inventors, researchers, boffins and geeks, and brought them all together in the UK to create the stunningly original sequences which remain popular cultural visual references to this day.
His blueprint was taken up by other filmmakers, notably Star Wars mastermind George Lucas, who formed Industrial Light & Magic in California in order to be able to provide the effects which would make films such as the original Star Wars trilogy and Jurassic Park game-changers. Before this industrialisation, maverick geniuses such as Ray Harryhausen worked in isolation to produce memorable sequences, such as the fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts, which continue to delight children of a certain age (and their dads) to this day.
From Industrial Light and Magic grew Pixar. Pixar’s collection of geeks and boffins, with a little help from keen-eyed Apple visionary Steve Jobs, was originally tasked with researching the possibilities of computergenerated effects. Given time to develop, their subsequent roster of animated films – Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Brave, Monsters Inc, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up – suggests they have been quite successful. ° 2001: A Space Odyssey © 2014 Warner Bros. Ent Finding Nemo © 2002 Disney/Pixar
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Victorian 1:
What did the American undertaker have on the sign outside his shop? Victorian 2: No idea.
Victorian 1:
You kick the bucket, we do the rest.
Not amused? Well, amusing the Victorians wasn’t easy either, apparently. Regardless, Dr Bob Nicholson, History lecturer and Edge Hill University’s resident joke detective, is on a mission to compile the great Victorian joke book, and prove that our 19th century ancestors had serious funny bones: “While the great works of Victorian art and literature have been preserved and celebrated by successive generations, even the period’s most popular jokes have now been lost or forgotten.”
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edgehill.ac.uk/history Rib-ticklers such as?
“A woman from Chicago goes to see a lawyer and says, 'how much for a divorce?' He takes a good look at her and says, 'one hundred dollars, ma'am, or four for three hundred.'”
Perhaps Bob needs to talk us through that one.
“The idea is that you can essentially buy a divorce in bulk in America, and particularly Chicago, which had a reputation for women marrying and divorcing at the drop of a hat. I think the Victorians really enjoyed that, because it gives them a chance to laugh at America too.”
To help him in his quest, Bob applied to, and won, the British Library’s Labs Competition, which invites academic researchers to suggest innovative and transformative ideas for bringing their extensive digital collections to life.
“Thousands of endangered jests have been preserved within the British Library’s digital collections,” says Bob. “I applied to this year’s Labs Competition because I wanted to find these forgotten gags and bring them back to life. Over the next few months we’re going to be working together on a new digital project – the Victorian Meme Machine VMM].” Something from HG Wells?
“The VMM will create an extensive database of Victorian jokes that will be available for use by both researchers and members of the public. It will analyse jokes and semi-automatically pair them with an appropriate image (or series of images) drawn from the British Library’s digital collections and other participating archives. Users will be able to re-generate
Corpse Reviver Ingredients:
2 parts cognac 1 part apple brandy or calvados 1 part sweet vermouth Preparation:
Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve without ice.
the pairings until they discover a good match (or a humorously bizarre one) – at this point, the new ‘meme’ will be saved to a public gallery and distributed via social media. The project will monitor which memes go viral and finetune the VMM in response to popular tastes. Together, I hope we’ll resurrect some of these long-dead specimens of Victorian humour and let them live again – if only for a day.”
Dr Bob Nicholson
Bob’s interest in popular Victorian culture doesn’t stop at jokes, and his blog contains plenty of other fascinating curiosities which shed light on a side of Victorian life slightly at odds with the stereotypical one of Dickensian poverty and disease, imperial wealth, and dark, fog-shrouded London streets.
Dr Nicholson has been researching the Victorian relationship with American popular culture, and discovered some surprising ways in which the Victorians encountered America, from performing cowboys with troupés of American Indians riding through the streets of Liverpool, to the Victorians' weakness for American cocktails during the 1890s (over-18s should check out our recipe for the Corpse Reviver below), probably concocted during the American Civil
War, hence its suitably macabre title, although we suspect it’s also a wickedly entitled reference to a ‘hair-of-the-dog’ remedy to a particularly indulgent night before.
Victorian-era American slang also fascinates Dr Nicholson, a subject he came upon almost by accident, flicking through old newspaper coverage of the American Civil War: “I happened upon the story of a Victorian gentleman who was reading reports coming from America, and in the midst of that he encountered a word that he'd never seen before – 'skedaddle', which apparently is an Americanism. The story goes that he went to pretty much all the gentlemen's clubs in Victorian London, using this word on pretty much anyone who would listen. They were incredibly shocked, and he became a minor celebrity. I didn't imagine the Victorians to be the kind of people who would speak in American slang, so I got a dictionary of American slang and started searching through old newspapers, and to my surprise found hundreds of these words in circulation during this period, so 'a real eye-opener' is an Americanism, 'to go the whole hog', even the word 'ok' is an Americanism, apparently.”
For more links to the Victorian’s special cultural relationship with the US, “keep your eyes peeled” on Bob’s blog and you may “strike oil”.
Read all about Bob’s further adventures through the Victorian looking glass on his blog: www.DigitalVictorianist.com or follow him on Twitter @DigiVictorian for more amusing playground insults.°
Some Victorian Americanisms you may know OK * Skedaddle * To go the whole hog * To strike oil * A real eye opener * Keep your eyes peeled * Dog eat dog * Hoodlum * High falutin’ * Have an axe to grind * To face the music * Toothcarpenter (dentist) * Got the mitten (rejected by a lady) * Smooched (kissed) Explore more at : bit.ly/usphrases
bit.ly/usisms
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lex Jukes, Head of Animation, is justifiably proud of the University’s new cutting edge media facility:
“Creative Edge is a really important development for us. It allows us to encapsulate the major resources that we need for animation production under one roof, giving students the opportunity to use green screen or motion capture. We also have a dedicated studio for stop-motion which is quite unusual. But the real hub for animation is the animation studio, a space that we use for life drawing and traditional animation, but it also has the
Home, Dir. Anthony Price
Wizzard of Codswollop, Dir. Jonathan Redmond
Sleeping With The Fishes, Dir. Yousif Al-Khalifa
The Plum Blossom, Dir. Yu Jin, Fang Jianguo
latest animation equipment. It's a space which students are allowed to take ownership of.”
It was the ideal setting for Creative Animation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) 2014, an animation festival and conference, part of an ongoing British Council initiative to nurture relationships between the UK and Chinese animation industry and education sectors.
The five-day festival and conference involved a series of workshops, presentations, screenings and exhibitions, and discussions around
creativity within animation, technology, good practice, and collaborative animation opportunities between the UK and China.
It was a great opportunity to show off the creative environment our animation students work in, while bringing some outstanding examples of this increasingly popular art form to a wider audience.°
edgehill.ac.uk/cake
BIG HERO SIX... Six of the biggest animated films to look out for
THE NUT JOB
THE CONGRESS
An action-packed comedy that follows Surly (voiced by Will Arnett), a mischievous squirrel, who must plan a heist to get into his town’s biggest nut shop in order to help his pals in the park gather food to survive the winter.
More than two decades after catapulting to stardom with The Princess Bride, an ageing actress (Robin Wright, playing a version of herself) decides to take her final job: preserving her digital likeness for a future Hollywood.
August 1st, 2014
August 15th, 2014
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
Four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) to save the city and unravel Shredder’s diabolical plan. October 17th, 2014
BIG HERO SIX
The yellow henchmen return when Gru (Steve Carrell) is recruited by an organisation to stop Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), a super-villain with a plot to take over the world.
February 13th, 2015
June 26th, 2015
Robotics prodigy Hiro Hamada finds himself in the grips of a criminal plot that threatens to destroy the city of San Fransokyo. With the help of his closest companion, a robot named Baymax, Hiro joins forces with a reluctant team of firsttime crime fighters to save the city.
THE MINIONS
INSIDE OUT
Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. The emotions live in Headquarters, the control centre inside Riley's mind. As Riley and her emotions struggle to adjust to a new life in San Francisco, chaos ensues in Headquarters. July 31st, 2015
Degree째
The Unspoken Word
Ask a professor of psychology what he does, and by the end of a fascinating conversation you may well be practicing your best poker face and sitting on your hands. Discovering how our innermost thoughts and emotions are unconsciously hidden in plain sight in every facial mannerism and hand gesture would test the confidence of Kanye West, let alone this humble writer...
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rofessor Geoff Beattie may be familiar to some from his many tv appearances on news programmes and shows like Big Brother, or as a national newspaper columnist. He’s also written over twenty books, on topics as varied as boxing, racism, family relationships, even climate change, all viewed through the psychological prism. Basically, he knows what he’s talking about.
He studied psychology not only because it is ‘incredibly intellectually exciting’, but because, growing up in the Belfast of the Troubles he became fascinated by how a community could change from law abiding to ‘something different’ in such a short period. He was convinced it was ‘partly political, partly sociological, partly cultural, and the main part psychological’. He wanted to understand it, and psychology offered the best solutions.
edgehill.ac.uk/psychology do it quickly. This connection between the two systems of the mind seems to me to be absolutely core to psychology.”
A hug a day...
How do our faces betray us? “There are certain kinds of smiles you need to look out for which are deliberate smiles, and then you should try and note the emotional facial expressions as the smile fades. Deliberate smiles fade very quickly, so they have quite an abrupt end, then you look for the facial expression.”
Essentially, there’s a psychological aspect to everything we do, and understanding this is important in many walks of life, and you can follow careers in all types of psychology – occupational, clinical, forensic, investigative. But it also feeds into other areas of work, such as advertising, human resources, and, of course, the sporting arena where many sportsmen and women have sought psychological answers to help them achieve greatness. Some, like Sir Alex Ferguson, instinctively know that the difference between a good team and a great team is found in the brain, and he has used various methods during his time at the top of football management to give his teams a psychological advantage. Others, such as snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan, have sought psychological help to bolster their winning mentality. Geoff cites the work of psychologist Steve Peters, author of The Chimp Paradox, and Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman:
“Kahneman says we don't behave in rational ways. We have two competing sets of thinking processes going on, and psychology has been very good in the last few years at recognising the implications of those for many aspects of everyday life. Peters has come up with a great metaphor to describe that process, he calls it the chimp paradox. So we have a set of more primitive processes within, and all his training methods are about getting people to control that inner chimp, those automatic processes. When to let those automatic processes go, and when to inhibit them. I'm interested in climate change, and why we as consumers don't do more – that's got the chimp paradox written all over it, because when we go into supermarkets we know rationally what we want to do, yet we seem to buy the wrong things for the wrong reasons, and we
On a slightly more popular level, psychology is no less fascinating. Most of us love people-watching. It’s almost a national – global, maybe – sport. Non-verbal communication also intrigues Professor Beattie. The publication of the new Little Miss Hug book was an opportunity for him to talk about how the UK is no longer ‘a zero contact culture’ (as suggested in a 1966 study), and commonly uses physical contact such as hugging as a form of stress reduction, as well as a self-esteem, and consequently mood, enhancer.
Ok, “smiling” nervously and moving on… what can body language tell us? “We've done some prize-winning work showing that when people are lying the hand movements can be very revealing. When you make a meaningful hand movement you hold the gesture, but when people are lying they hardly ever hold the gesture, they get rid of their hands really quickly. Sometimes the content of the gesture contradicts what people are saying in speech. We call those gesture-speech mismatches, and when you watch them in action it’s extraordinary. “Hand movements are very hard to inhibit. We often try to inhibit them when we're lying, so people make fewer of these when they're lying, because if they don't inhibit them they can be a bit too revealing.”
We’d surely be lying if this didn’t make us – and politicians – just a little self-conscious, but at the same time it’s also riveting stuff. Hopefully some readers will be interested enough to explore the subject further, especially given we still know so little according to Professor Beattie:
When people are lying they hardly ever hold the gesture, they get rid of their hands really quickly.
“Human beings think they know themselves pretty well, and they think they know what motivates them and why they do what they do, and generally speaking, they haven't a clue.” °
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The Questionnaire Tasty on porridge, apparently
Professor, author and broadcaster Geoff Beattie talks about chicken gizzards, nutella and spitting on tv Best part of your job? I love new ideas, having them, discussing them, writing about them and persuading others that they qualify as both ‘new’ and as ‘ideas’. Universities are essentially in the ideas business. Describe yourself in three words. Hopefully, quite creative (three words, but I wasted one). Holiday destination of choice and why? California, running up the Santa Ynez mountains as the sun comes up. It’s uplifting and genuinely spiritual. You arrive at the top and you feel different about yourself and life from when you started out down by the pier in Santa Barbara. Who, alive or dead, do you most admire? My older brother, Bill, who died climbing Nanda Devi in the Himalayas when he had just turned thirty. He always lived a different life to me, and I admired his attitude, despite what happened to him. He taught me to grasp the moment, and that life really is too short. I presented a tv series many years later with that title, and thought of him throughout. Culturally, I never miss…? Getting my ideas down on paper. A very egocentric cultural life but it works for me!
What would be your ideal last supper – and who would you invite? I would probably dither. Something familiar or something new, one last great adventure, or not? I would probably end up with nothing. I wouldn’t invite any guests until I’d decided, so the invitations would go out late, and they wouldn’t be able to make it.
Growing up I dreamt of being…? George Orwell, but without the old Etonian background. I wanted to write more directly about my own working-class background in Northern Ireland – and I did, in journalism, non-fiction and a novel.
What has been your most embarrassing moment? There have been many moments, but perhaps my first tv interview. I arrived late and my forehead was shiny from all that rushing around. The sweat dripped into my eyes and I blinked uncontrollably. I’d asked my mother to watch the live interview and she said that she liked it, but I seemed awfully nervous because I kept blinking all the time. She also pointed out that at one point I spat when I was talking. Her friends had all come into her front room and watched the spit in slow motion on the video. That was the start of my tv career.
What is the worst job you’ve ever done? Skinning gizzards in a chicken factory as a student. The gizzards came down a chute; my job was to turn them over and press them down onto a rotating blade. I came out in a rash from head to toe and only stuck the job for eight days. I still dream about that endless repetitive pattern. Guilty pleasure? Nutella on my porridge every breakfast. How do you relax? I run every day. What’s in your iPod/CD player at the moment? Van Morrison, Nick Cave, David Bowie, Blondie, Led Zeppelin, The Stranglers…in no particular order, but always the same playlist more or less, moments of a life. What book is on your bedside table? I’m reading a new book about the rise of narcissism in society. The argument is quite compelling and sometimes a little close to home!
Her friends had all come into her front room and watched the spit in slow motion on the video. That was the start of my tv career.
Before starting university, what piece of information would have improved your own undergraduate experience? I wish that someone had told me that all undergraduates are a little unsure of themselves, even those that appear incredibly confident. Finally, tell us a joke…. It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally.
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t’s an odd statement, from the director of a new recording label. But Carl Hunter is midway through describing the philosophy behind the University’s latest musical venture, The Label.
“A friend of mine, Alan Wills [founder of Deltasonic, the label that launched the careers of The Coral and The Zutons], said probably the most important thing I've ever heard anyone say about music, he said 'musicians make terrible records, people who are interested in culture make great music.'”
It’s a punk-y DIY aesthetic that puts the song and the message before any kind of muso posturing – “you've got to go for a good song not a good guitarist. If you're a good guitarist go and join Pink Floyd”. This philosophy chimes with that of Daniel Miller, founder of Mute [Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Goldfrapp, Moby and Richard Hawley, amongst others]: “What’s great about independent labels is that they’re all different from each other, but without the music there’s nothing.”
It’s an approach that’s already paying dividends, judging by the response to the two first bands signed to The Label – Hooton Tennis Club [HTC] and The Inkhearts. They’ve already secured national and international airplay, with endorsements from the likes of Stuart Maconie at BBC 6 Music, hosted a stage at this year’s Liverpool Sound City music festival, and attracted the interest of several larger music labels. Doesn’t that concern him?
“Success [for The Label], I think, is launching a band's career. I was talking to HTC the other night, and I said to them, 'My dream is to get rid of you forever.' But I mean that in the best way possible.” So, as a not-for-profit enterprise, it’s not their money Carl’s after:
“The Label Recordings isn’t interested in taking a slice of the band’s music or earnings, quite the opposite in fact. Imagine that, a record label that will put out a band’s song, package it, shoot a video, and help with distribution. We’ve outFactoried Factory records. It’s a chance not to be missed.”
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“It's a shame music has to have instruments.”
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The Inkhearts
April saw the bands release their first singles – Kathleen Sat on the Arm of Her Favourite Chair by HTC and Keeping Up by The Inkhearts – just four months after the bands were selected as The Label’s first releases. Pretty impressive and testament to the work of Carl, fellow director Clare Heney, and the students who have thrown themselves into the project with such enthusiasm.
And the project is as much about giving our students a taste of life in a notoriously competitive industry. Students from any programme of study have the chance to gain practical experience in the realities of running a record label: music and video production, graphic design, copywriting, A&R (aka talentspotting and networking), and marketing.
“In my experience the first foot on the ladder is either too high or in someone else’s garden,” says Carl, who is very familiar with the industry as erstwhile bassist with late eighties/early nineties indie chart botherers The Farm. “The music industry is in a strange place, there’s a great fear about not seeing a return on investment. This means creativity is ignored. What we’re trying to do is remove the fear and create opportunities.” The project is also about giving students confidence to operate on a professional level in the real world, and to enable them to follow their passions once they leave the secure environment of the University:
“The Label is a place where you can try your hand at anything. You can direct a video, work in A&R, package a sleeve, organise a club night, book the band and promote it. The Label operates like an industry work placement for students who want to become an insider and get a flavour of what all the people behind the scenes really do.
During the course of our conversation Carl cites several influential labels – Domino, Bella Union, Factory, Rough Trade, but he was also inspired by the professional approach of Electric Honey, a student-run label based in Stow College, Glasgow, set up in 1992 as part of its HNC/D Business course. They have a similarly industry-focused attitude, and have been responsible for the earliest recorded output of many bands, including Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol and Biffy Clyro. Now whatever happened to them…
All the latest news and views: facebook.com/TheLabelRecordings °
Labelmates English Lit student Adam Walker’s love of music and journalistic aspirations made him a shoo-in for staff writer: “It’s already opened doors for me into journalism, a career path that’s notoriously difficult to break into.” Music obsessive Daniel Cain studies Music, Media and Sound. Getting involved with The Label has opened the door to the professional recording studio: “Getting an insight into the recording and mastering of music tracks has been invaluable.” Film and TV Production student Phil Curtis has helped shape the visual image of the bands, taking photos and being a leading member of the video team: “I’ve really benefitted from the blend of teaching and industry practice. Collaborating with the bands has been a real pleasure.”
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Throne of Games Sir Fergie has ruled the House Manc since almost anyone can remember. Now he seeks a successor. Step forward his trusty lieutenant, a man who holds the respect of his own men, but is treated with scepticism by supporters of the old king, a mighty warrior skilled in the black art of mind games. With threats from all sides – overseas, the wild north, his enemies within the ranks of the feared but somewhat over-the-hill Knights of Manc, and a fickle public – he must rise to every challenge, show no weakness, and make some very difficult decisions. Can he wear the crown with ease? Will he survive the winter? Or, like many before him, will he lose his head? Welcome to the Throne of Games.
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his is a precis, of course, of “the Moyes Season of Grim Death”, Manchester United’s 2013/14 season under the reign of David Moyes, as imagined by author Paul Harrie in his new book Throne of Games. And Degree can exclusively reveal the identity of the mysterious Mr Harrie – none other than the leader of our undergraduate Creative Writing programme, and a lifelong Manchester United fan, Rodge Glass:
“The last time United had a change of manager before Ferguson, I was eight years old. I don't remember anything else! So, Godfather-like, it was hard to adjust to the loss of a leader, and the rest of the season unfolded with such strange drama, it seemed impossible to resist as a subject.”
Throne of Games evolved quickly from lightbulb moment to reality, as it needed to be to maintain its relevance, riding Game of Thrones’ huge wave of popularity while Man Utd’s disappointing season was still fresh in the memory:
“I was in the pub with the publisher who’s done a series of successful humour books for Christmas. We started talking about seeing the season through some over the top, medieval, blood and guts version which brought out the absurdity of the thing... and from there it was only a hop, skip and a jump to Throne of Games.
“Game of Thrones is such a gift, it's asking to have the mickey taken out of it, I think – all I had to do was tune in to that OTT medieval voice, and we were away.”
Able to adapt his literary skills to the demands of an audience, or a particular genre, to seize the moment, Rodge is very much representative of the modern writer. It’s the kind of writer nurtured by the University’s Creative Writing team, which now totals seven tutors, each covering a style, format or genre they themselves are expert in: novels, short fiction, scripts, plays, poetry, translation, and now role-playing and computer games. This is a course designed for the 21st century wordsmith.
“I've been engaged for the last year on a new novel Once a Great Leader, which will be big, and may take me a few years, and it's pretty heavy in subject matter in places. So it was a great relief to have some fun with Throne of Games. I'm looking forward to seeing the final [artwork] to go with my text – the artist Oli Ninnis is very good when it comes to heads on spikes.”
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edgehill.ac.uk/creativewriting Rodge’s latest project, the aforementioned Once a Great Leader, to be published under his real name, is an ambitious, sprawling synthesis of fictional autobiography and biography, demanding of its author far more patience, and attention to detail. The protagonist is Gabriela Moya, a future British Prime Minister, born into chaos in Chile and the Pinochet coup of 1973, exiled to Scotland, raised on a Glasgow housing estate, and who eventually returns to her homeland following a fall from grace. Consequently Edge Hill University’s resident novelist has spent the last year on sabbatical in Latin America, researching this labour of love:
“I read an article about the 40th anniversary of the coup in Chile, and it said there was a small community of Chileans in Scotland. Scots had paid for people to come over, it was like a solidarity movement, and provided homes, furniture and a welcoming party, very different to the immigrant experience now. And I thought, what would that be like if you were an immigrant to Britain and were treated in that way?”
The idea had been coalescing in his imagination for several years, but Rodge didn’t feel ready to write something on this scale until he had more experience under his belt. Now, with several novels, an award-winning biography and graphic novel, and a short story collection behind him, he obviously felt that the time was right. The impending 40th anniversary of the coup proved to be the catalyst, and he packed his bags for the Andean heartlands, making sure he was there for a public re-enactment of [president at the time of the coup] Salvador Allende’s final speech.
Rodge visited ‘every museum and every library and every everything’, the houses of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, surrounding countries – Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, making sense of the continent’s cultural and political
ties because ‘their sense of symbolism is strong’.
To be honest, all this sounds like a great holiday – did he really need to actually spend time there?
“The second you hit the ground you realise your original ideas are nonsense. But what you realise is that it's also very important to be here, rather than look things up in books. They use different words for body parts, food, places, the way you greet people, none of that you would get in an official book. The second you see it you think, 'ah yes, I really need this detail or else I'm going to convince nobody'.”
Is the search for authenticity important for writers?
“[Scottish Booker Prize-winning author] James Kelman famously said 'I've never done research in my life, I just sit down and write stuff'. But it does mean that his territory is rather similar. I really don't want to be one of those writers who you can look back over their work and say 'well, it was obviously all about his mother'.”
Ultimately, it’s about keeping the subject matter interesting: “My books have been consciously a jump, and that's a way of testing myself.”
Now back at Edge Hill, Rodge is determined to maintain the Creative Writing programme’s good reputation for providing a rounded, global approach to great writing, avoiding any constraints on the curriculum some would like to impose:
“We're constantly influenced by things happening in other countries and other cultures and other time periods. The Iraqi Christ by Hassam Blasim won the International Fiction Prize. I can put that on the course, and my students will see an Iraqi writer writing about Iraq from the inside instead of hearing about it from our perspective all the time – why wouldn't you give that to students?”
He’s also a keen advocate of live performance, despite the potential for stomach-based accidents, building confidence and helping them shape their future writing:
“If you want people to be interested in your work you need to take it to them. I tell students that's something to stop being nervous about now because it can be a really rewarding thing, and it's another way of earning money. You can't earn £150 an hour as a writer in any other way apart from performing the work.”
The core skills – ‘the mechanics of the story’ – and instincts of the successful writer remain timeless, but the life of the writer has changed almost beyond recognition. Expert direction, then, is a key element of the course, says Rodge: “I was mentored by other writers and where I was encouraged and shown what was possible, and shown examples of what you could do, I was inspired. I see this as my role now.” ° Throne of Games is published by Freight Books in October 2014.
“The second you hit the ground you realise your original ideas are nonsense. But what you realise is that it's also very important to be here, rather than look things up in books.”
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My Life in Books: Rodge Glass The first book I remember reading Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield and Michael Foreman. I must have read many things before this, but that’s the one that sticks in the mind. They were modern in style, fable-like retellings of Shakespeare stories for children. Still have it on my shelf in the office at Edge Hill. The first book I fell in love with 1984 by George Orwell, when I was 13. I wasn’t doing very well at school but my English teacher could see I was interested, and had a curious mind. He handed me a copy like he was handing over a bomb and said, ‘There you go, that’ll blow your head off.’ And it did. The first book I bought I was quite a late starter, so didn’t really start buying my own books until I moved out of home. It was probably Lanark by Alasdair Gray. I moved to Glasgow at 19, and people said to me, ‘If you want to know about Scotland, this is the place to start.’ I ended up writing Alasdair Gray’s biography, about a decade later. Spooky, eh? The book that made me want to be a writer It wasn’t a book, it was a person – Robert Alan Jamieson, who was then Writer in Residence at Strathclyde University. He encouraged me, invited me to his writing groups, and showed me there was a writing community of good, ordinary people who were not from privileged backgrounds and I thought, ‘Hey, I could do this!’ The book I’m currently obsessed/impressed with I’m reading lots of Latin American works as I’m writing a novel partly about the Chilean coup of 1973. There’s a brilliant book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez called Clandestine in Chile, which is about an exiled director who smuggles himself into the country he has been expelled from, pretending to be a Uruguayan director making a tourist film to promote the Chilean government’s regime. He was actually secretly making a film exposing the horrors of Pinochet’s regime. He has a fake passport, a fake accent and backstory, even a fake wife. It’s brilliant. The book I wish I’d written None. I admire others, but only wish to write my own. The book that reminds me of growing up All my Alasdair Gray collection. His work was my education, my obsession (for a few crucial years) and also my model for the writer’s life. That was when I really grew up. The book I would give as a gift 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. It’s the greatest novel of the last ten years, and it’s a thousand pages long. You get your money’s worth…
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BIOLOGY
HEROES This year we unveiled our new BioSciences Centre, containing vital facilities, from scanning electron microscopes to DNA labs to insectaries, bringing breadth and depth to the biosciences student experience. The new labs are all named after scientists, some better known than others, and we asked department head Dr Paul Ashton to tell us about some of these heroes of Biology.
edgehill.ac.uk/biology Nikolai Vavilov (1887-1943) “He was a Russian geneticist who was the first to realise that the wild relatives of crops were potential sources of useful genes for plant breeders. He built this amazing collection, so barley, wheat, oats, rice, he went all round the world. That in itself is quite outstanding. What's remarkable is that Vavilov kept his beliefs in a time in communist Russia when a belief in Mendelian genetics was liable to land you in prison – and that's what happened to Vavilov, and he ended up in Siberia, starving to death during WWII, an ironic tragedy. What's even more remarkable is that the specimens he put together were kept in the institute in Leningrad, and while Leningrad was under siege with people starving, Vavilov's colleagues and fellow scientists, rather than eating them and assuaging their own hunger, protected his specimens knowing they'd be valuable for Russia and the world after the war. That's a remarkable belief in a man's work.”
Dr Paul Ashton
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) “He came up with the system of classification that we have. For example, the Latin name for dog, canis canis, is something that Linnaeus gave to it. Linnaeus was working in the 1700s, and there's very little that we have still in general use from the 1700s, so the longevity of the system is quite amazing. He was also a bit of a character. He insisted on his books being quite cheap so that students would buy them. He was fond of using shocking sexual terms in his scientific language. He used to lead plant identification expeditions with a band that would come out from Uppsala University, and they would come back celebrating the day's finds. He also had a habit of naming plants that were unpleasant after characters that he thought were unpleasant, so people who'd crossed him professionally would find their names attached to a particularly nasty species.”
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) “Theodosius Dobzhansky said 'nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.' What he meant by that was that biology can seem a set of amazing facts which are quite staggering in themselves, but if you understand how evolution works then you can understand the processes which led you to that point. Darwin, obviously, is recognised for The Origin of the Species and theory of evolution, along with Alfred Russel Wallace. What isn't always recognised is the entire breadth of work that Darwin did. So his work on the formation of coral reefs is still one of the main theories of today, along with his work on human expressions, human emotion, soil science, ecology – he was a pioneer in so many ways.”
Explore our new facilities at one of our Open days: edgehill.ac.uk/opendays
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A Large Can of book launch in a record shop might sound unusual, but for music industry executive turned Creative Writing student, AW Wilde, it was the perfect way to celebrate the publication of what he calls his “latest release”.
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song lyrics, you have to pack as much as you can into a small space. It’s a kind of maximal minimalism, you can’t waste anything and you have to know what not to say.
“When you’re writing a novel, the endless possibilities can rub up rough against the sheer amount of information you need to retain – and leave you crumpled on the kitchen floor, asking the dog why you bother. Some days it’s great to start a story you can see an end to – this is a release in itself.”
The launch of Wilde’s first collection of short stories, A Large Can of Whoopass, had all the hallmarks of a music industry event. Held at Rough Trade West in London, it featured DJ sets from BBC 6 Music’s breakfast show presenters Shaun Keaveney and Matt Everitt, providing a suitably rock ‘n’ roll backdrop to Wilde’s readings from the book.
“I just stuck to what I knew,” said Wilde, whose former life as Creative Director at EMI Music Publishing saw him help the careers of Lindstrom, Duffy, Joanna Newsome and Beirut. “As a self-published writer, I was responsible for promoting the book so I approached it as I would a record launch.”
Wilde, who cites rapper Chuck D and writer Juno Diaz among his creative influences, spent 15 years in the music industry, six of those at EMI. He was responsible for the acclaimed Another Late Night and Late Night Tales compilation series, and the UK releases of the Nike + original running music app that featured dubstepper Skream.
“Once I found out about the music industry, working in it was all I ever wanted to do,” said Wilde. “I grew up in a small town in Essex so moving to London to work in the music industry was a dream come true for me. I loved the excitement of hearing a great song for the first time. The first time I heard Rockferry by Duffy, for example, the hairs on my arms stood up and I knew there was a chance she could sell some records.
“The short story format really appealed to me. Maybe it’s because, like
Wilde is currently working on a novel entitled Deeds that is due for completion later in the year.
“One of the stories in A Large Can of Whoopass is a section of the novel,” said Wilde. “The two brothers in That Black Leather Jacket and their lives growing up in London are central to the novel’s thematic principle of change, both genetic and through gentrification.
“I enjoyed the creativity of the job and working alongside passionate people, a handful of whom became close friends. But the industry was severely hit by downloading. When EMI was bought by private equity, the suits’ economics superseded a desire for nurturing artists’ long-term. My father died in the middle of my most successful period and it made me re-evaluate my life. In the aftermath of grief, I decided to follow my gut, rent out my flat and focus on writing.”
“When practicing in any creative industry, I think it’s important to show that you’re committed to what you’re doing. Releasing a short story collection is, in some ways, a statement of intent. A statement of intent with a drawing of a soup can on the front.” For more info about AW Wilde’s work visit: awwilde.co.uk thejudasgoat.tumblr.com wildwriters.co.uk
Wilde moved up north and enrolled on the MA in Creative Writing at Edge Hill University.
“I had written a couple of things before,” says Wilde, “but I was insecure about my writing because I was terrible at English at school and I hadn’t been to university. The Edge Hill University course gave me the skills and confidence to attempt to write for a living.
A Large Can of Whoopass is published by The Judas Goat Press
edgehill.ac.uk