Special Report: Activities Fair under the spotlight Exeposé investigates complaints over low levels of society sign-ups at this year’s Activities Fair SPECIAL REPORT: NEWS, PAGES 4-5, COMMENT, PAGES 6-7
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Monday 1 October 2012 • Issue 597 • www.exepose.ex.ac.uk • Twitter: @Exepose • www.facebook.com/Exepose
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UNI OF THE YEAR
“A prestigious award... a proud day for everyone at the University” EDITORIAL, PAGE 6
Sexual assault in Exeter city centre Beccy Smyth News Editor
Exeter named University of the Year Phil Thomas News Editor THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER has been named University of the Year in The Sunday Times University Guide 2013. This is the fourth time the University has been shortlisted for the award in the past decade and Exeter has now claimed the top prize. The University has also risen to its highest ever position in The Sunday Times league tables as it is ranked the seventh best University in the UK with the best teaching on offer in the South West region. Assisted by changes in the way The Sunday Times calculate their league tables, with greater emphasis now on student experience and graduate outcomes, the University has made steading gains
over the past five years and broke the top 10 barrier for the first time last year. The league table consists of criteria including student satisfaction, teaching and research quality, entrance qualifications held by new students, degree results achieved, studentstaff ratios, graduate unemployment levels and university dropout rates. Professor Sir Steve Smith, University of Exeter Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, said: “I am absolutely thrilled that the University of Exeter has been named University of the Year. This is an extremely prestigious award and reflects the hard work and dedication of all our staff and students. This is not only a proud day for everyone at the University, but also for the region and for our many partners here in the South West and across the globe, who are crucial to our success.
Features: Exeposé grills Liam Burns, NUS President - PAGES 8
Nick Davies, Guild President, commented: “This is fantastic news for the University and for students, and reflects what we already know - how outstanding our student body is as well as the hard work put in by the staff of the University and the Students’ Guild”
“Exeter has consistently embodied the very best in British higher education” Alistair McCall, Editor of The Sunday Times Alastair McCall, Editor of The Sunday Times University Guide, said: “Exeter’s success as The Sunday Times University of the Year is richly deserved. “Shortlisted for the top award no less than four times in the past decade, it has consistently embodied the
Arts: Comedy and poetry with Tim Key - PAGE 26
very best in British higher education. A key player regionally, nationally and internationally, it has responded to the challenge of £9,000 fees by raising its game more than any other university. Imogen Sanders, VP Academic Affairs, said: “This is fantastic news proving Exeter’s progressive attitude and commitment to increasing all aspects of the university experience, not just learning and teaching but also overall student satisfaction. “This shows that we are not only a research intensive university but a rounded institution which recognises and respects all aspects of student life, working in partnership with the Guild to put students at the forefront of the their decisions.” The 64-page guide, now in its 15th year, is published this Sunday, September 30, with The Sunday Times.
Sport: Interviews with Exeter’s Olympians - PAGE 33-36
TWO men have been arrested after a rape was reported in Exeter city centre. The incident took place in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday 25 September, between 1.00am and 2.00am, in a walkway that connects Sidwell Street and King William Street. The victim was a woman, who is believed to be in her mid-twenties. The two suspects, who are both in their early twenties, have now been released on bail until November. A final-year student commented: “Such a crime happening so close to the centre of town is shocking. I often use King William’s Street as a short cut home, but now I will think twice.” The report comes several months after a woman was sexually assaulted on the Prince of Wales Road near Streatham Campus. The police are not searching for further suspects in relation to the reported rape, but have appealed that any witnesses to come forward with information. A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “I would like to ask for the public’s help, for anyone who saw or heard anything suspicious in the vicinity of this incident in the early hours, no matter how small it might seem to them, to contact us without delay.” The police investigation is ongoing. Those with information are requested to phone 101, quoting police reference 59 0f 250912. FIND US ONLINE AT
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The team consists of Exeter University staff and Paul Gibbins from local butcher and supplier J&A Gibbins. The ride is in memory of Karen Fogett, a former employee of the University who worked for the campus retail team. Before Karen passed away in April 2012 she was provided with care by Hospiscare, who support people diagnosed with terminal illnesses. Phil Rees-Jones, Assistant Direc-
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>> Paul Gibbins, Rob O’Connell, Nick Denning, Aaron Tong, John Glasper, Phil Rees-Jones
tor of Retail, Campus Services said: “We are all very excited, but also a little daunted, to be cycling so many miles in such a short space of time. The hills around the University have prepared us well and we have been training as much as we can to ensure our trip is a success. “We are hoping to raise as much money as possible for Hospiscare. They are such a worthwhile local charity who really looked after Karen. To give something back to them will be wonderful.”
There has so far been a lot of support, with many students recognising it as a worthwhile cause. Alex Davidson, a second year geography student said: “1,000 miles is an impressive distance. Many of my friends and I believe this is a brilliant cause and will definitely be supporting it!” To support the event via Just Giving go to: http://www.justgiving.com/ KarenFoggettMemorialCycleChallenge.
THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER has been ranked in the top 200 universities in the world, according to the latest QS Top University statistics. Exeter rose from 207th place in 2011 to 182nd place this year, out of 2,500 universities. Exeter is now a top 200 University according to two major international league tables. In addition, the University has been nominated for the accolades of “Top university” as well as “Business school of the year” in the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2012, the results of which will be released in November. THE commented that, in the current climate of financial and political difficulty, the nominated universities “continue to rise to every challenge”. Harry Penrose, a third year Business Studies student, said: “It doesn’t surprise me that the Exeter Business School has been nominated for an award.” He continued: “The combination of state-of-the-art facilities, fiercely competitive entry standards and tirelessly devoted professors makes for a fantastic learning environment.”
RAG donate £28,000 to Help for Heroes Photo: David Rogal
led a team of 14 students on a 4,054 kilometre cycle from Westminster to Istanbul.
Photography Joshua Irwandi photography@exepose.com Senior Proofreaders Elli Christie, Megan Furborough & William O’Rourke
“We at the Guild are immensely proud of each individual that helped to organise and take part ”
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Exeter Uni ranked in top 200 Maddie Alexander-Finch
AN Exeter team aim to complete the impressive feat of cycling 1,000 miles in ten days to raise £10,000 for Hospiscare. The team will set out from Land’s End on Monday 1 October and hope to reach John O’Groats on Wednesday 10 October.
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Exeter team to cycle 1000 miles in 10 days to raise £10,000
“We are all very excited, but also a little daunted, to be cycling so many miles in such a short space of time. The hills around the University have prepared us well”
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Harry McCarthy RAG’s International summer event has raised a total of over £28,000 for
military charity Help for Heroes. Over the course of 40 days from July to September, International Event Co-ordinators Ollie Cooke and Charlie Griffin
The international event was the biggest the University has seen, and was also the largest student-led expedition to date in support of Help for Heroes. The money raised will be used to build a new rehabilitation centre in Plymouth. The team received an overwhelming amount of support from friends and family on individual Just Giving pages and social media, and also benefited from the backing of local and national press. Griffin commented: “There were
times when it was unbelievably difficult, but knowing how much support we had every step of the way from those at home gave us the boost we needed to continue.” The mother of Lt Daniel Clack, an Exeter alumnus who died in Afghanistan in 2011, pledged her support to the cause. Rodgers said: “Sue’s continual supportive messages over the course of the trip added a really personal element which none of us were expecting. The bravery of the Clack and Boyce families was an inspiration to us all.” VP Participation and Campuses Jon Bagnall described the event as “a great example of Exeter students taking the initiative to come together for a great cause and do something that goes far beyond the norm.” He continued: “We at the Guild are immensely proud of each individual that helped to organise and take part.”
Exeposé
| Week two Photo: Josh Irwandi
Student arrested for drunken behaviour Tom Payne Editor A STUDENT was arrested on the evening of Sunday 16 September for drunk and disorderly behaviour. Police arrested the 20 year old male outside Club Rococo and Mosaic nightclubs on Mary Arches Street, after the student’s behavior was deemed a danger to himself and others. Drunk and disorderly behaviour covers the offence of using threatening, abusive or disorderly behaviour in a manner likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to members of the public. PC Alex Kennedy said: “The ar-
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rest became necessary after the male’s behaviour escalated to a level where officers needed to ensure the safety ofboth the arrested male and other members of the public”.
“The arrest became necessary after the male’s behaviour escalated” PC Alex Kennedy The student was kept in custody overnight and was issued a warning with an £80 fine. The event was an exception and Welcome Week was otherwise quiet and non-eventful. PC Alex Kennedy has praised the Welcome Team for their efforts during the week.
James Owen Court closed until further notice Raj Kular Senior Reporter THE UNIVERSITY has made the decision to temporarily close James Owen Court, a University owned off-campus accommodation block, for the current academic year of 2012/13. The reason behind this decision was confirmed by a University Spokesperson, who stated: “Unfortunately, the residence did not prove to be a popular choice for students applying for University accommodation this year. “We had 28 students choose James Owen Court as their first choice which meant we would have only filled around 10 per cent of the rooms. We also considered 35 Erasmus students who have short-term contracts using James Owen Court. The total number of rooms is 275.” The spokesperson went on to comment: “To ensure that all students get the best out of their university living experience it was decided that it would
be better to group students together.” In light of the temporary closure, it has been suggested that the University is also struggling to fill available rooms on campus. This all follows the University’s decision last academic year, to close down accommodation on St Luke’s campus. However, the University has confirmed that there has not been a drop in overall applications for accommodation this year.
“It feels a little bit wrong to have perfectly good accommodation going empty” A previous James Owen Court resident A previous student tenant of James Owen Court stated: “The closure does sadden me a bit. James Owen had such a great community. It was a very friendly halls, and it feels a little bit wrong to have perfectly good accommodation going empty.”
CiN to be filmed in Forum Photo: The Students’ Guiild
Jon Bagnall THE STUDENTS’ GUILD is taking an active role in the ‘Pounds for Pudsey’ campain, a new national partnership between the BBC, National Union of Students and National Students Fundraising Association (NaSFA). ‘Pounds for Pudsey’ aims to motivate hundreds of thousands of students to get involved in raising money for local charities, through BBC Children in Need. The Students’ Guild is planning a week of fundraising events on campus and in the local community to raise awareness of Children in Need. The Forum has been chosen to host the BBC Children in Need in the South West on Friday 16th November 2012. Starting at 1.30pm, there will be live feature broadcasts by the BBC Spotlight team as well as live links to the national TV network programme throughout the evening, including a performance by the BBC regions’ 200 member children’s choirs. The event will be an opportunity to showcase the Guild’s volunteering and fundraising ability, as well as promote the University as a whole.
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National Student News
London students win reprive Lucy Gibson THE UK Border Agency (UKBCA) has conceded that non-EU students studying at London Metropolitan University can now continue their studies until the end of academic year 2012/13. This comes after UKBA originally informed international students at London Metropolitan that they had 60 days to find new sponsors or else face deportation from the UK. This was due to the lack of regulation by the University, which could have resulted in the deportation of 2,000 students. The National Union of Students (NUS) acted as a third party in the trial in order to represent the interests of students in the UK. Liam Burns, president of NUS, said: “These students came to London in good faith and had already spent tens of thousands of pounds on their education, before having the rug pulled from under their feet.” Liam Trim, a second year student at London Met, said: “Students should be allowed to study here and share in our university system. However, they should not take precedence over British students just because they pay higher fees.”
Seven marathons in seven days Phil Thomas News Editor
“We now have one standard design, strengthening the Guild identity to both students and the wider community” Nick Davies, Guild President
>> The BBC’s Children in Need bear, called Pudsey, visited Exeter University and was hugged by students throughout his visit!
AN EXETER student ran a staggering seven marathons in seven days, raising over £6,500 for charity. Josh Bone, a 21 year old Geography student, covered over 180 miles as he ran from Trafalgar Square to the Arc de Triomphe. Josh said: “The run went pretty well overall. The hardest moment was having a ferry cancelled on day three and having to play catch-up on the miles lost, starting at 4am the following day. “The enjoyable moments came in the form of a lot of support from English lorry drivers in France. The final two days had some cracking weather and I knew that each mile was one closer to finally getting there.” He chose to raise money for Cancer Research UK and the Dorothy House Hospice as his father died of cancer at the Hospice. Melaine Skinner, a Cancer Research UK’s Area Volunteer Manager, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Josh has decided to attempt such a great challenge to raise money for Cancer Research UK.”
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1 October 2012 |
Exeposé
SPECIAL REPORT
Sign-up system under scrutiny
As society presidents urge the Students’ Guild to change the Activities Fair sign-up system, Exeposé reveals the truth behind why so many societies experienced record-low sign-ups. Tom Payne, Editor, Ellie Steafel, Deputy Editor, and Phil Thomas, News Editor, report... SOCIETY presidents have blamed the Guild for low sign-ups after what was a disappointing Activities Fair for many. Syed Farrukh A Qanhari, President of International Society, said: “Yet again the Squash was a disappointment. Regardless of how efficient the new sign up system is, there were never-ending queues on the ground floor and many student ID cards were not registered in the system. It seems like the last three months of hard work and preparation have not achieved the result societies thought they would give. It has forced us to set up stalls in Devonshire House and other buildings on campus.” Fiona Steed, Artistic Director of Exeter University Theatre Company, which suffered a decrease of 60 members compared to the previous year, said: “I still think the bar code system is incredibly flawed, we should just be able to take cash-in-
hand from the students. It is so difficult to have the enthusiasm to join when the queues are 2-3 hours long for the Sanctuary.” However, the Guild have cited other factors to explain the lack of sign-ups this year. Mark Holmes, a spokesperson for the Guild argued that the poor weather, an external database issue, tripled tuition fees, the recession and higher sign-up fees, explain the poor figures. Mr Holmes went as far to say that: “(this year) can only be seen as a resounding success.” Some societies had more positive feedback to offer. Charlotte Mason, CoPresident of the History Society, which had a 280% increase in membership said: “We are delighted and we really look forward to the events that are coming up this year.” Jon Bagnall, VP Participation and Campuses, has said: “This Sunday The Students’ Guild oversaw a highly successful Activities & Volunteering Fair.
Registry office error prevents 2,915 students from signing up EXEPOSÉ can further reveal that a signficant number of students were unable to sign-up at the Activities Fair on Sunday due to a series of system errors in the University registry office. The University registration office has clashed with the Students’ Guild after a misleading question on the University registration form left 2,915 students unable to sign up to societies (see picture, centre spread). The students were aware they would not
be sharing their data, probably assuming this to refer to spam emails from the Guild. However, in ticking this box they were in fact opting out of involvement in Guild-run studemt groups altogether. The 14,267 students who registered and accepted a data share were allowed to sign up to societies and take part in a range of activities and volunteering opportunities. The 2,915 students who were unable to sign up have been informed of what went wrong and how to rectify the issue.
“Despite the wet weather and technical issues concerning the database we were provided with, which were both beyond our control, just under 4,500 students still came to campus and signed up to the huge range of societies and volunteering groups on offer.” In spite of student complaints, the Guild has insisted that the existing barcode sign-up system works effectively. Although some students complained about long queue lengths, a spokesperson for the Guild has confirmed that average queue lengths in the Sanctuary were only 20-25 minutes-long.
Editorial: The Guild shou
Who lost out? Society groups in focus...
Exeposé
| week two
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EXCLUSIVE
Outrage follows free Lib Dem Soc membership
Exeposé investigates Guild system error that caused Liberal Democrat Society to offer free membership at Squash... THE Students’ Guild has been left redfaced after an “unfortunate error” meant that students who signed up to the Liberal Democrat Society at the Activities Fair on Sunday were able to do so free of charge. Guild policy states that all societies must adhere to the latest VAT requirements which caused so many societies to up their prices this year. Jon Bagnall, VP Participation and Campuses, reiterated “as the Guild code of conduct states very clearly, all societies must charge a minimum of £3.50 for membership. This is something we are working to rectify and will be resolved as soon as possible”.
COMMENTARY
uld listen to societies, page 6
EXEPOSÉ appreciates that the Guild was overseeing a large amount of societies on an inevitably hectic day, this will come as little comfort to the hundreds of societies whose sign-ups decreased as a result of increased prices. When society money has been spent on planning publicity and events, it’s a shame when small errors like these cause such dissapointment amid societies. The decrease in memberships should not been taking lightly - the sheer number of discontent society members contacing Exeposé suggests that these issues deserve attention.
John Ashton Lib Dem Society LIB DEM SOC is new. Membership is a struggle. The aim is to provide a society for those who sympathise with Liberalism but may not be passionately committed to the Party. There are people who are interested in the Lib Dems, and perhaps why there are still those of us out there who support them, but wouldn’t bother giving us £3.50. We asked the Guild to let us offer free membership, and they agreed. Even though we decided not to charge our members this year, this year’s membership numbers are roughly the same as last year’s: between 20 and 30. The idea that we have undercut other party societies is fairly amusing. Presumably those who make this allegation are imagining that students are so feckless and apathetic that they will opt for the political party that’s cheapest to join. Or, perhaps they think we’re so similar to them in our ideology and policy that the Lib Dems are now the free version of Labour/Conservative Future/Freedom/Socialist Students. We’ve also been accused of financial irresponsibility (another
comically hyperbolic accusation). Since we don’t have a lot of money at our disposal, we intend to organise only cost-neutral projects. There’s no point having any extravagant events until you have some members to attend them. We’ve still got eight events planned for this term, its just none of them involves free champagne.
“Those who make this allegation [imagine] students are so feckless and apathetic they will opt for the political party that’s cheapest to join” We would prefer to let members choose whether their money gets spent on alcohol or whether they keep it. For the avoidance of doubt, we receive no funding from the Party, although they do provide resources for freshers. This clearly wasn’t a failure on the part of the Guild. It was a sensible decision given how difficult it would be for us to gain members while still charging a rather pointless £3.50. It’s not in the nature of our society. We just want a stall at the freshers’ fair and a mailing list! Why enforce membership charges?
“Incredibly dissapointed”: Rival political societies speak out... JAMES ROBERTS Conservative Future I CANNOT understand why, despite Guild rules, the university Lib Dem Society was able to flog off membership for free. The Conservative Future here on campus understands the annual scramble for signups as well as any, and any society with its colours pinned to the Coalition mast would expect a difficult reception this year. However, when push came to shove, we rolled up our sleeves and put in the effort to make sure people signed up - just like every other political society, from Labour to Freedom Soc. Instead, it seems to me that the Lib Dems were able to spectacularly dodge the rules and, in doing so, disadvantaged
every other political society on campus. Now, we had our fair share of problems: innumerable Guild errors, a copious amount of admin catastrophes and an awful political situation for us nationally. However, we stuck to every rule and cooperated closely with other political societies to make sure that, at the end of the day, no one could say we hadn’t done the best we could. Political societies at Exeter are lucky enough to get along very well, and that has been an important part of delivering a vibrant political scene for all of our members. But, when we noticed that the Lib Dems had effectively undercut every other political society to get members, it became clear that we weren’t all in this together. Obviously, we don’t want to see any political society close because it can’t get enough members to continue. With
a membership so dependent on the national scene, we can’t have political societies closing left, right and centre alongside the latest YouGov poll. Rather, as we all understand, you just have to do the best you can to keep yourselves afloat and be ready for the tide to change. But, by charging an irresponsible £0.00 and attempting to do well at the expense of others, the Lib Dem Society has set an uncomfortable precedent. The Conservative Future wants to know why this was allowed to happen; who authorised it and why we weren’t told. We want to know why a Lib Dem Society that promised to cooperate with other political societies has done the exact opposite by undercutting them. And, perhaps most of all, we want the Liberal Democrat Society to follow the example of its leader, Nick Clegg, and says they’re so, so, sorry.
DAN RICHARDS Labour Students AS President of Labour Students, I was incredibly disappointed at the Guild for allowing the Liberal Democrats to set their membership fee as free for this academic year. We have worked hard to plan ahead and set up events throughout the coming year so that we could promise our members value for money, if they did choose to sign up. However, when it came to the Activities Fair our society and its merits were overlooked by many students who were enticed by the prospect of the free society next door. The Liberal society had made no attempt
to harness support throughout the week, arrived at the fair thirty minutes late and still managed to attract a substantial number of members with the promise of free membership. On more than one occasion we watched potential members slip through our fingers as they learnt that our rivals were not charging for membership. It is not only Labour Students whose membership suffered because of this. .If one campaign society is allowed to attract members in this way then all other campaigns societies run the risk of losing members through no fault of their own. It was an incredibly lazy method of pulling in members and the hard work of other societies was overlooked because of this. The rules are set for a reason and I feel something needs to be done to stop issues like this from occurring again in the future.
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entry, the Forum’s grand unveiling and research income all contributing to the award, it is important to highlight the fact that student satisfaction is also a factor in the award. The National Student Survey (NSS) allows students to cast their own votes on their university experience. The NSS provides statistics based not on finanial investment, state of the art buildings or membership to an elite academic club. It celebrates the successes of a university from the eyes of the student’s themselves. This year we ranked sixth overall and third in satisfaction for teaching quality. This amongst all other statistics perhaps is the most important success and one which we as students hope will improve even further in the future.
The Guild must listen to societies
THIS week the Exeposé editors have investigated society president’s complaints over this year’s Activities Fair. As part of our investigation, we have spent a great deal of time speaking to the Students’ Guild, trying to find out more about the reasons behind the controversial barcode system, and its impact on student participation and volunteering in Exeter. It is our opinion that the Students’ Guild failed to address problems with the system. This has caused a catastrophic fall in sign-ups to big societies (including the media, RAG, International Society, Debating Socity, and numerous other groups). While we
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University of the Year
THE editorial team at Exeposé were delighted to hear the news that after three nominations over the past decade that the University has won the prestigous title of University of the Year. Awarded by The Sunday Times, this accolade serves as the cherry on the cake for the succeses of the University has received in this years rankings and awards system. Whist a ranking of 182 in the world might not sound the most impressive statistic in the world, it is nontheless a 25 place leap up from last year’s result. In the newspaper league tables we’ve made progress as well, cracking the top ten for The Guardian and reaching the highest ever ranking of 7th in The Sunday Times. Whilst the Russell Group
EDITORS
appreciate that poor weather played a factor in low footfall, we personally feel - from speaking to students, presidents and staff - that the needlessly convoluted sign-up system was the main culprit behind this year’s decrease in sign-ups. It is easy to say that students spending habits will have changed in light of increased tuition fees - but the Guild should not be citing this as a reason to accept lower participation. Rather, they should be investigating more cost-effective ways of getting students more involved in University life. The system must be reviewed.
Thanks to those who helped proof this issue: Lauren Swift, Carlo Miani, Nicole Laffan, Becki Pantling, Jack Griffiths Rhian Mullis, Will Binks, Tom Ffiske, Dale James, Dom Ford, Hernán Romero, Sophie Marston, Stephanie Gray, Harrison Jones, Rosa Brown, Kryshyna Dawson, Bakkiam Ganapathi, Toby Craddock, Ricky Freelove, Sophie Coombes-Roberts, Francesca Smith, Arthur de Weduwen, Francesca Morosini, Emma Holifield, Kim Warner, Rebecca Longhurst, George Keleny, Sarah Perkins, Alex Payne, Caitlin Austin, Rachel Woods, Rhys Mills, Leah Devaney, Lucy Porter, Lizzie Moore. Sally Medley, Milly Hindle, Chrissy Ryan, Jasleen Singh, Vanessa Tracey, Emma Marshall, Rose Roberts and members of the Exeposé editorial team
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Activities squashed?
Society presidents left indignant after disappointing signups at the Activities Fair...
Charlotte Kelly Co-ordinator, RAG THIS year the Activities Fair has left RAG with a mixed bag of feelings towards the sign up system. We experienced a decrease in our sign ups that even we couldn’t have predicted and are hoping that students continue to sign up online. On the other hand
Calum Baker Station Manager, XTV I CANNOT understand how, after last year’s ‘teething problems’ with the then-brand-new electronic sign-ups system, Guild societal membership has actively plummeted. Even after some initial troubles last year, there was still a solid number of people signing up at the Activities Fair only for even more students to join in the first academic fortnight. No such luck
Vanessa Windsor President, Debating Society I JUST wanted to express my complete dismay at the Squash yet again this year. Whilst being in the forum was a great setup, the sign up system was ridiculous. We are one of the largest societies on campus and our membership has once again been dented by the membership payment methods. I have had to deal with so many freshers emailing me this week who want to sign up to my society but cannot, either because the online system won’t work, or because their accounts are
we are hoping to use the lower number of members as a catalyst for student development within RAG. Although the rain may have stopped many students from attending the Activities Fair, our day started positively with the guild offering RAG plenty of space in the forum and any help that we needed was immediately given. Looking back on the day, whilst the Forum is an incredible space, volunteering societies lost out as students were not given sufficient information as to the locations of varying societies meaning that many students left after visiting the Great Hall or Sports Hall. It seems such a shame that the
Guild and the University appear unable to implement a system whereby students are able to sign up to societies of their choice simply and effectively without having to queue for what is quite frankly an obscene amount of time. The fact that our membership fee is only £1 meant that whilst students are more than happy to hand over the £1 there and then, enthusiasm is lost when told they have to join a queue. We understand the dilemma that the Guild faces in organising the fair each year; however we do believe that the system could be vastly improved to benefit all societies.
this year – my society is down over a hundred people. Was it the insistence that students, already facing a horrifically daunting queue, were forced to pay cash-only once they got to the end? Was it the fact that said cash-based system crashed more times than Ayrton Senna riding a partially-sighted bull in an exploding china shop? Was it the fact that the online version of the system kept telling people they didn’t exist? Oh, and more crashing? Or was it the system itself? When the University-run AU, using a different system, actually improves on its previous numbers, questions need to be asked not just of why there were such problems with the system but, crucially, how the Guild can possibly
explain away or atone for the fact that they may have just wiped the membership bases of many societies. After all, if membership has dropped that drastically, it can’t simply be an issue of “less students wanting to be involved”. How did RAG end up with hundreds rather than thousands of members? No one cares about charity? No, the problems within the Activities Fair system and strategy are too prominent to blame everything on apathy. I suppose it’s a fair cop, though: the Guild are usually so good at being progressive and unprecedented, it’s probably fair that someone decided to take it in the other direction. Help our students? Get ‘em involved? Not this year; not this Freshers’ Week.
not activated with the guild. On top of this, the huge queues for signing up at the Squash put off so many people. Freshers also end up without membership cards because they had to trapse all the way to the Sanctuary to pay, then back to the Forum to collect their membership cards from us. Some just simply didn’t bother, or gave up on paying all together! All in all, it was a shambles. We still have had a considerable number of sign ups, but nothing like what we expected. We complained last year, and it was even worse then because the tills weren’t even working! We want the old system back where freshers exchanged money with us at our stall for a membership card. The system was simple and effective. I believe the reason the system was changed was because there was
a problem with some money going missing within the AU. I find it amazing that the AU are still taking cash for membership, yet all the other societies have to suffer instead!
“We want the old system back where Freshers exchanged money for a membership card” I’m sure alot of other societies are having similar issues. I know this is a rather depressing comment, but the Guild is meant to be there to help societies, not hinder them. Lower membership means less funds for us and our society suffers as a result. Sorry for the rant, but it has to be said.
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“The prices for joining societies were fair...” Eleanor Taylor Roberts BEING a ‘keen bean’ I wanted to get to the Activities Fair early on Sunday so that I didn’t have to queue for ages or scramble my way through the overbearing crowds to get to the stalls. At 10am there was no manic rush - it was ordered chaos! As for the queues at the Sanctuary, they moved pretty fast and you hardly noticed you’d been standing there for 10 minutes already, because you were occupied munching a dozen
free cupcakes and Dominos pizza. The prices for joining the societies were fair, in my opinion - and to be honest, no one forced you to pay! And with the amount of freebies each society was giving away, it was well worth your money. I did end up purchasing a lot more than intended but I had the money so why not? With so many clubs and organisations on offer, there really was something for everyone. One aspect of the signing up system which I would have perhaps altered is
the returning to the stall to collect your membership once you’ve paid in the Sanctuary. This called for a lot of walking and, having spoken to many Freshers, it would have been much better if we could have paid the societies right there and then at their stalls. But this didn’t dampen our spirits - anyone on campus could feel the exciting Freshers vibes. I left the Activities Fair feeling content and satisfied, as did many others. Cartoon: Charlotte Micklewright
“The online process won through in the end...” Alex Payne
“SO take this barcode to the basement of the great hall. You know where that is, right?” As it happens, I don’t, still being a little unsure of campus geography; but I assure the nice society member that yes, of course, couldn’t be simpler. “Great, then you get a stamp and pay, and return here. That’s all there is to it...” I take my barcode and head out into
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the drizzle. The weather has not been kind to the fair, and I wonder if perhaps it’ll have reduced visitor numbers to the point where the queues I’ve been told to expect have abated somewhat. This rather hopeful prognosis is dispelled when confronted with the queues that inhabit the lower regions of the hall. It quickly becomes apparent that my barcode is unlikely to receive the neces-
sary stamp any time soon, so instead - armed with a slice of pizza gained in return only for worrying amounts of personal information - I set out to explore the rest of the fair. While it would be reasonable to conclude at this point that the Activities Fair had been a somewhat bewildering experience, and not an entirely successful one, that would miss the truth.
“In its execution, the event failed...” Bakkiam Ganapathi THE Activities Fair this year was indeed a spectacle to behold. Gracefully entering my 3rd year of academia has made me bitter towards many aspects of university life: I can no longer tolerate loud music, large crowds and probing questions about degree choices. The Activities Fair contained all of this, and then some. Nonetheless, I persisted as it was finally about time (and my last chance) to get immersed in something beyond roommate politics and repeats of Big Bang Theory. For experienced veterans the Activities Fair has morphed into a battlefield in which we avoid the enemy – in my case, any sports related society. The Activities Fair should only be entered with a clear and precise course of action, otherwise you’ll find yourself engulfed in a torrent of spiel from coffee-breathed guild promoters. I entered the arena with that exact mentality: get in and out as quickly as possible. The planning and foresight into the whole event, on the Guild’s part, was excellent. Society domains were listed, departmentalised and the prices didn’t seem unreasonable. Everything was going well so far, until I realised traversing the Activities Fair was going to be a greater challenge than I had imagined. Sadly, the oversight of mammoth queues and hordes of students turned Regardless of confusing sign up systems or the weather, what makes the fair great is the people involved and their willingness to devote a whole day to their respective societies. After asking around, I decide that perhaps signing up online is the way forward, and that subsequently I needn’t have necessarily have braved the rain at all. But if I
Letters to the Editors Exeposé First Years: you are here due to your academic achievements, definitely not because of the money that you will inject into the South West’s fastest growing university-shaped business. After the toil it took to get those A Levels, and the even greater work to get the IB, I am sorry to inform you that your time has been wasted as there is no qualification in the skill which is of the utmost importance to your time at university: appearing to be cleverer than you actually are. The primary opportunity for exaggerating your abilities is your academic subject. For those studying the sciences, well done, you’ve picked a degree which has a better chance of getting you a job but will make you less interesting
than someone who has studied arts or humanities. By asking questions at the end of a lecture you may think you are separating yourself from the student herd. You are not; you are merely prolonging the time that you and your fellow students have to spend trapped in the lecture hall. Everyone, including the lecturer, will think that you are an annoyance. The place for expressing your fauxintelligence is in seminars. As a rule, people do not speak in seminars, so anyone who does automatically appears to have more mental chutzpah than the student who is paying £9,000 to sit in a room in silence for three years. The conceit here is not to be the first student to speak, but to wait until some other intellectual competitor says something, then argue against whatever
they say. With written work refer to obscure academic papers by an equally obscure academic of which nobody else will have heard. Societies offer another place to promote yourself cerebrally. Student media provides a terrific opportunity; you could write a vitriolic article about the disparities of university life in a mock-cynical tone. By getting an article in a student publication you are both publishing your writing and creating intellectual prestige. If writing is not for you and you want even fewer people to see your work you could try the student radio or television stations. You may join a sports team such as the EURFC; this will not make you look any more intelligent, but it is helpful if you enjoy drinking, tackling people, and post-match pederasty. If that is not
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out to be a thorn in my plans. I often found myself having to do a sideways crab walk to slink past groups of nattering students gathered in the aisles. Looking back, a cattle prodder for crowd control wouldn’t have gone amiss; though I’m sure it would have been severely looked down upon/jailed for implementing.
“It’s safe to say I didn’t enjoy my experience at the Activities Fair, and may have discovered latent agoraphobic tendencies” There was a lot of energy and excitement pulsating throughout each hall. I couldn’t help but feel old and haggard in comparison. The Activities Fair has begun to lose its appeal; it started in my penultimate year and has worsened since. Of course I enjoyed it during my first year, but the entire event has become an ordeal now. So it’s safe to say I didn’t enjoy my experience at the Activities Fair, and may have discovered latent agoraphobic tendencies. In theory the whole event should have worked perfectly, but in execution it failed. However, this may just be the ramblings of a bitter, decrepit 3rd year, jealous of the exciting years ahead for the majority. But at least I’m now the proud owner of an Arena card so that makes it all worthwhile, I guess… hadn’t, then I’d have missed out on enlightening conversations on everything from creative writing to paella. Sure, the road to actually registering may have taken a little longer than necessary, but the online process won through in the end - I wouldn’t be writing this article if it hadn’t. Ultimately, the fair a success, if a bewildering one.
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your interest, it does not matter, no-one really does anything for enjoyment, only because whatever you choose to do “looks great on your CV”. Once you have finished your degree you may ask yourself: how else can I appear superior to others and make myself feel better about the fallacy that my life has become? You could run for a sabbatical position as it is a further opportunity for enriching yourself intellectually, socially and occasionally financially. If you want to avoid the real world entirely, then you could become an academic, the ultimate form of appearing cleverer than you actually are. You can write papers on topics so obscure that no-one else has written about, thus justifying your existence. However, due to their obscurity, very few people will fully read them, and
those who do will be overzealous undergraduates who skim-read what you have toiled over to take a few quotes for their essay to support their own argument, which coincidentally argues the opposite of what you originally propositioned. Of course there are some extremely intelligent people working as academics. Nevertheless, as you will come to realise, someone having ‘Dr’ before their name doesn’t stop them being the Dawkins amongst the Einsteins. But before the offenders open their mouths and break the illusion, the surface image is still there, and that at the end of the day is what is really important. Best, William O’Rourke
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Setting the Agenda
Photo: Josh Irwandi
Exeposé Features speaks with the NUS President Liam Burns, as he sees Exeter’s Student Guild for himself HE is a man who, with perhaps a quick Google search, may be seen as a determined radical, advocating civil disobedience as a good form of student protest and having spoken before of creating an agenda that will “live or die by the strength of [the NUS’s] resolve”. It may be surprising then that in person, the current President of the National Union of Students, Liam Burns comes across as a relaxed, friendly man, happy to answer any questions he is asked. In Exeter this week to speak at the University’s Senior Management Group meeting, Exeposé caught up with Burns to get his view on where the NUS stands in an uncertain student future.
“For once what we’re trying to do is set the agenda of politicians, rather than react to it” Despite his relaxed tone, it is immediately clear that Burns is passionate about the student population he and the NUS represent. “We have 7 million members by virtue of student unions. We have 600 student unions, who I see as my boss,” he says, and he clearly feels that the NUS has made significant headway in serving these students well. He notes their success at stopping the cutting of the student parents’ Care to Learn fund which “means there’s about 50 million now there for student parents that wouldn’t have been there”, before adding that the NUS has “managed to get millions back into bursaries from universities’ access agreements”. These are significant achievements and Burns is proud of them, adding that it “makes working for NUS worth it because you are hitting people that education can be transformative for”.
This isn’t to say that Burns won’t admit where the NUS has made its mistakes. He accepts that there were errors in the focus of his team during this first term as President. He “look[ed] for the shiny, concrete objectives, things like hidden course costs” to tackle, which in a bigger context, “can look a bit small”. Over tuition fees, he conceded that “It’s a fair cop to say that the headline objectives of the national demonstration 2010 never achieved what it was trying to achieve” but the main failure of the NUS regarding fees, according to Burns, was that they “weren’t on the ball enough around the coalition agreement; that was actually where [they] lost”. But the NUS seems to be moving on from their recent struggles. Since his re-election in July, Burns has been pioneering a new approach through the NUS. “For once what we’re trying to do is set the agenda of politicians, rather than react to it. There’s not a vote on the table, there’s no parliamentary mechanism to influence,” Burns explains. By asking themselves “what would we want education to look like in 30 years? What does that mean in what we fight for in 2015? What does it mean we want to happen on campuses this year?”, the NUS are moving beyond their old tactics and trying to target the bigger issues that really matter to students. It’s with this in mind that the NUS have organised another demonstration, entitled ‘Demo2012: Educate, Employ, Empower’ on 21 November, with the aim of raising awareness on the most pressing issues to students at the moment. Marches such as Demo2012 are another way in which the NUS are trying to keep themselves accessible and accountable to students. There have
been accusations against the union that it is hard for everyday students to be engaged with, especially because its union of unions structure doesn’t allow a one member, one vote policy for engagement in elections. Burns acknowledges this and goes as far as to say that he agrees with one member, one vote in principle, though he is wary of it. “You automatically disenfranchise some of the most vulnerable learners in our movement by saying it should be one member, one vote” he argues, due to
the fact that some deprived institutions have such low levels of engagement in student democracy. This sort of statement truly reveals what makes Burns so suited to his place in the NUS: his awareness of the diversity within the education system enables him to stand up for all students in the UK today. Although he is perfectly open about his status as a member of the Labour Party, his personal politics doesn’t affect Burns from prioritising what he believes is best for students.
Burns wants to fight for a “coherent education sector, where you can sit your BTEC and get accepted into Exeter University because the qualifications are equivalent; where you can go into the world of work and come back at 25 and do your degree, where you can start your degree, come out and come back in again”. He and the NUS are arguing for “a better way of looking at education” and their new tactic of fighting the long fight for a fairer education sector can only benefit all.
Mr Liam Burns, President of the National Union of Students Demo 2012
Liam Burns Bio
Demo2012 - “educate, employ, empower“ - is a national demonstration being planed by the NUS for the 21 November. It is an effort to get students to take to the streets of central London the exact venue to be announced - and try once again to express disagreement with the challenges facing our higher education system.
LIAM BURNS, 26, has been the NUS President since 1 July 2011 when he was first elected. He has since been reelected, and is now serving his second term. Although an independent, he is affiliated to the Labour Party, as has almost every president for almost 30 years.
National Union of Students He studied Physics at Heriot-Watt University, then went on to become president of the Students’ Association. He used this as a springboard to delve into the upper echelons of NUS politics, being deputy president then president of NUS Scotland before being elected to his present position.
The NUS is a confederation of Student Unions and Guilds accross the UK. It has over 600 members. We as students are not members of the NUS, but are represented by it through our Guild, of which we are all members. In this way it furthers the interests of seven million students.
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Topless Kate photos: Tabloids go tits up
While foreign medias publish the topless Kate photos, Caitlin Edwards savages their exploitative attitudes Photo: lifestyle.inquirer.net
near-naked body has been viewed by complete strangers without her permission. I for one am supportive of the tabloids’ strong stance against violations of privacy and the exploitative attitudes some publications have towards women and their bodies.
“These women didn’t pose for these photographs; like Kate, they were caught unaware by a media that doesn’t care about privacy or embarrassment or consent”
UNLESS you’ve been living in a cave for the past few weeks, or have been suffering from a particularly nasty bout of freshers flu, you can’t have failed to notice the blurry topless images of the Duchess of Cambridge racing their way around foreign papers and dominating the internet. In particular you can’t have missed the uprising this has caused in the British media, particularly from the tabloids. Their outrage towards the photographer who pho-
tographed Kate was obvious and they openly condemned the French Closer for daring to print the images; rightly so!
“I for one am supportive of the tabloids’ strong stance against violations of privacy and the exploitative attitudes some publications have towards women”
The British tabloids are so evidently right here. Of course it was wrong for someone to breach the privacy of a young woman sun-bathing in a private holiday home. It was wrong of French Closer to publish the images when they are so clearly not in the public interest. It is wrong that thousands of people get a kick out of looking at images on the web of a young woman whose privacy has been violated and who is, assumingly, embarrassed and angry that her
Or I would be if I wasn’t gagging from the sheer hypocrisy of it all. The Daily Mail, who refused to publish the photos and who have openly criticised those who have done, run a website which thrives on photos of the same ilk, albeit of women who are not going to be the next Queen of England. On the very web page where they have reported on the on-going legal battle and police investigation, they have also advertised many of their other articles. A random selection of these includes holiday snaps of Kate Moss which look as though they have been taken without her knowledge, photos of the American Horror Story’s Alexandra Breckenridge as she “flashes her nude underwear” at an awards ceremony and ar-
ticles dedicated to actresses’ choice of low-cut dresses. These women didn’t pose for these photographs; like Kate, they were caught unaware by a media which doesn’t care about privacy or embarrassment or consent. And it’s not just the tabloid papers. Magazines that refused to run Kate’s photos regularly dedicate pages to ‘wardrobe malfunctions’; a dress falling down to reveal a woman’s nipple, a sudden gust of wind flashing knickers, an unfortunate camera angle as a woman steps out of a car. These women have a right to privacy and dignity in the same way that Kate does. They have the right for people to find it equally unacceptable that they are exposed when they have not given their consent.
“Women have a right to privacy and dignity in the same way that Kate does” So whilst the British tabloid press have responded well to Kate’s violation of privacy, they should look closer to home and begin to practice what they preach. They should not view the majority of women as fair game, treating their privacy and their bodies as commodities whilst Kate is too posh to perve on.
Awkward gaffes: is Mitt in a pit of despair?
Dale James asks if Mitt Romney’s gaffe-prone nature will finish his presidential hopes ELECTIONS in America are always an interesting affair; invigorated campaigners, heated debates between candidates, impassioned speeches, and promises of a brighter tomorrow; rather than the doom-and-gloom David Cameron preached when he entered No. 10. However, the biggest highlight of this year’s eagerly anticipated faceoff between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney so far is seeing just how badly the latter can impale himself on his own sword.
“There is a considerably large line between calling an old woman a name and calling for yet another conflict in the Middle East” Over the past few months news outlets worldwide have been cluttered with gaffes attributed to the Republican candidate. First was his catastrophic overseas tour in which Romney was meant to display his foreign policy credentials but instead questioned whether England was ready to host the Olympic games, openly called
for war against Iran whilst in Israel, and stopped journalists from asking him questions whilst touring in Poland. Next came the secret recording that caught Romney telling his donors that his job as President would be to “not worry” about the “47%” of people who did not vote for him, the same people who he also said were nothing more than welfare scroungers and “victims”. Then came the even more damaging recordings that show him depicting how he would “bomb America”: “If I were Iran, a crazed fanatic, I’d say let’s get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we’ll just say, ‘Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we’re going to let off a dirty bomb’.” As if Romney could not shoot himself in the foot any further he then went on to say, with regards to the situation on the Gaza Strip, that he “look[s] at the Palestinians not wanting to see peace anyway”. All of these recordings can be found on the internet. The electorate here in England is of course no stranger to such controversies as many remember the ‘Big-
Photo: mildlyrelevant.com
otgate’ incident when then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught retro-actively calling an elderly lady a “bigoted woman”. This, however, is an entirely different ball game - there is a considerably large line between calling an old woman a name and calling for yet another conflict in the Middle East that may well end up causing the biggest war since World War II. Now that I have seen just how shambolic Romney’s foreign policy credentials are, I have no more reservations in wishing that he stay well clear of the Oval Office. We can only hope that the American people can recognise this as well because the stability of the world as we know it may well hinge on the result of November 6th 2012.
“The Republicans need to stop adhering to the whims of religious fanatics” With the Republican Party shamelessly self-destructing in this manner, does President Obama have to do much work at all on the campaign
trail? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not 100% Anti-Republican; I just despise what has happened to the party over the years. Historically the Republican Party stands for a prohibitive military, common-sense and smaller-scale government, limitation of social programs (some of which are unnecessary), law & order, and the survival of the capitalist system.
These values can be appreciated and are what the Republicans need to get back to. They need to stop adhering to the whims of religious fanatics and xenophobic reactionary groups such as The Tea Party and return to what they once stood for. Until that day, I will not lend them my ear.
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Outrage at Prophet video as violence erupts across the Muslim world Photo: digitaljourney.com >> Violent protests have erupted accross the Middle East in reaction to insults to Prophet Mohammed. The publisher of the Charlie Hebdo (above right) has had to explain his magazine’s cartoons and his reasons for releasing them
Jack Griffiths asks if freedom of expression can ever excuse the deliberate provocation of illfeeling and violence IN response to accusations that the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed was a deliberate provocation, the editor of French magazine Charlie Hebdo replied “freedom of the press, is that a provocation?”, as if to imply that never the two shall meet. The purpose of the principles of freedom of expression, speech, the press, etc., is to prevent state censorship of public debate and to help ensure that ideas that may be in the general interest are discussed and heard as widely as possible. These freedoms are important, but they do not stand alone as moral principles; they come with re-
sponsibility. Just because it is not illegal in France, and many other countries, to publish satirical drawings of a religious icon doesn’t mean that doing so cannot also be irresponsible, ignorant, or motivated by the desire to stoke controversy and make a quick profit. Laughing in the face of someone holding a gun and
“This latest offering is not only deliberately provocative, but dangerous” then putting up your hands and squealing ‘freedom of expression!’ does not entail that you couldn’t possibly have been laughing in their face, or exempt you from stupidity. With dozens of people already killed in violence sparked by anger at the absurd (not to mention poorly produced) ‘Innocence of Muslims’ film, Charlie Hebdo’s latest offering (to the Prophet profit?) is not only deliberately provocative (what would be the point in it other-
wise?), but dangerous. This is not to say, of course, that the violent reactions of some Muslims are not similarly condemnable. They are partly born of the same kinds of ignorance and fundamentalism that in ‘Innocence of Muslims’ paints Muslims as peace-hating witch-burners in patchy brown face-paint. By all accounts neither extremity – indiscriminately anti-Muslim nor indiscriminately anti-American – is representative of the people and communities taking the fallout from the whole surreal debacle. For example, as far as I know, the former US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens had nothing to do with the production of said film. There is no need to kick a hornets’ nest in order to prove the freedom of one’s feet, and rubbing salt into wounds will not help them heal. Further, doing so whilst claiming immunity from criticism by hiding behind the platitude ‘freedom of expression!’ only adds conceptual confusion to the list of ways in which the makers of Charlie Hebdo made a poor
In a week where Muslims have been insulted twofold by the West, Harry Parkhouse explains why we should not subdue free speech
FRIDAY 21 September saw at least 55 people in Islamabad being injured in unrest that came as a reaction to the sordid, religiously intolerant film known as ‘The Innocence of Muslims’. This piece of socalled ‘cinematography’ cooked up by Coptic Christian fanatics has instigated what can only be described as mass protest, with sporadic acts of violence across not only the Middle East, but also places such as the Philippines and central Africa. Over the weekend, the numbers of dead and wounded have increased, with the worst of the violence stemming from Peshawar in northern Pakistan where al-
ready 19 have been reported killed. The film not only contravenes one of the primary tenets of Islam, namely that images of the Prophet are forbidden (this is not the case for all sects of Islam), but it also depicts him as a womaniser, a child molester and a killer. I saw parts of the film myself, and I first ridiculed it and laughed at its blatant ignorance and low-budget, manic attempts at traducing the Prophet Mohammed, but then, I read of its effects. “Was this spurious rubbish really causing all of that?” I asked myself. Aside from opportunistic attempts at rally crying by some extremist Islamic groups, yes it really was. Things have not been helped either by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo which later published scatological images of Mohammed. Both works can be seen to be insulting, silly, unnecessary and crude, but they also are a test of the limits of freedom of expression. Immediately, the response from western governments to this was one
Exeposé
| week two
Photo: movieline.com so recently fought and died for.
The Pakistani cabinet minister for railways, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, has also placed a $100,000 fatwa for the head of the filmmaker, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. And, like the reaction of western politicians and public figures to the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie in 1989, some would rather protect the right of the extreme to violently protest and advocate murder in the name of ‘being offended’, rather than the right of free expression (Rowan Williams’ response to the fatwa was that Rushdie should be more sensitive to blasphemy, omitting any criticism
“So, are the film and the cartoon tripe? Yes. Do I want to see the writers arrested? Definitely not” about the ordered threat of violent death by Ayatollah Khomeini). There have been calls for the filmmaker, the satirist and the novelist all to be killed by religious extremists, but even more alarmingly, there have also been calls for their arrest or ‘less harshly’ the banning of their respective works by western critics due to religious sensitivity. One example is how Google, who owns YouTube, was ordered by the White House to ban the film in the USA, although it outright refused on the grounds of the First Amendment (a very good show by Google, if you ask me). The split is a tenuous one; it always is when differing rights have to be balanced. However, the former camp consistently
of quivering apology, epitomised by the American-funded adverts of Barack Obama publically condemning the film being screened across Pakistan. Fair enough, it is a form of international diplomacy to try and retain some support from the Arab world; however, it does seem a little unfair, considering the respective governments had absolutely no knowledge of the film or cartoon. Moreover, it’s a good thing they didn’t; it isn’t and shouldn’t be the state’s responsibility to police all potentially
“It’s not and shouldn’t be the state’s responsibility to police all potentially contentious forms of expression” contentious forms of expression – doing so would be an affront to all the democratic values and rights we affirm daily, the same values and rights revolutionaries across the Arab world have
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“Religious apologists need to realise that they should not sacrifice hard-earned freedoms on whimsical threats” display a guilt-ridden and capitulating attitude, an attitude in stark contrast to those who fought and still fight for our religious freedoms. These freedoms are not things that once attained, can be safely stored away forever; they have to be constantly fought for and this is just another example of a different arena of conflict. So, are the film and the cartoon tripe? Yes. Do I want to see the writers arrested? Definitely not. Is the reaction to these publications even worse? Yes. Would I like to see those who advocated the murder of said writers locked up? Yes. Safe to say, however, this will never happen until our content silence concerning inviolable principles breaks, and the cultural and religious apologists realise that they should not sacrifice hard-earned freedoms on whimsical threats.
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The decade-long fight to prevent Hamza’s extradition is nearly over... James Bartholomeusz explains that, though Hamza may be gone, extradition is still an issue THE case of Abu Hamza al-Masri is unlikely to provoke much sympathy. A radical cleric, associated with the worst excesses of extreme Islamism including inciting terrorism, will now stand trial in the USA. Who’s complaining? Well, very few people, but Hamza’s imminent dispatch the States should not be seen as an isolated incident. Glancing over the headlines the day he lost his appeal, there was an almost selfcongratulatory sense of ‘we finally got him’. Not only that – ‘we finally taught those liberal snobs in Brussels a lesson about how to deal with bad people’; ‘we have a proper justice system’. Again, Hamza’s extradition is justified, but the ability for governments to ship people across the world at whim is one of the more worrying aspects of contemporary international relations.
“A radical cleric, associated with the worst excesses of extreme Islamism, will now stand trial in the USA. Who’s complaining?” Since 9/11, Western leaders and their allies have continually spoken of the imperative to ‘balance liberty and security’. It is hardly controversial to claim that the so-called ‘war on terror’ has coincided with a repatriation of powers from the individual citizen to the state – policymakers and their apologists are quite candid about this. When, in 2008, the British government looked to increase the legal length of detention without charge to 42 days, The Sun claimed that it had “always been up for 42 days and perhaps even 420 days”. CCTV rollout has kicked into overdrive, constraints not seen in peacetime have been placed on public assembly, and prisoners can now be held indefinitely without knowing why. One such case is that of Shaker Aamer, the Brit imprisoned without charge or trial in Guantanamo Bay since 2002. There is most definitely cause for concern. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is not perfect. It, like everything else produced by humans, arose from a particular set of historically contingent conditions and the concerns that accompanied those. However, in the case of the UDHR, this contingency is redressed to a certain extent by the ‘when’ and ‘why’ it arose. The horrors perpetrated in the 1930s and ‘40s, not only in Auschwitz and Siberia but across an entire planet caught in its most destructive war to date, finally shocked Western policymakers into empathy with those whose oppression they
“The ability for governments to ship people across the world at whim is one of the more worrying aspects of contemporary international relations” had directly or indirectly caused. After centuries in which the dominant narratives had been of progress and humanistic utopia, the West had reached a genocidal rock bottom - and out of that, against all odds, came an unprecedented compassion for humanity. In response to the way in which ‘undesirables’ - particularly certain ethnic minorities - had been trafficked and ghettoised by the totalitarian regimes of the era, Article 13 of the UDHR guarantees the rights to “freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state” and to “leave any country, including [one’s] own, and to return to [one’s] country”. The Sun and its fellows like to mourn the ‘spirit of Blitz’ – a mythical time where people worked hard and lived in accordance with tradition, before the evils of the welfare state, positive discrimination and single-parent families. They should perhaps pause to consider other manifestations of human solidarity engendered by the Second World War, now threatened by today’s policy. Though in many respects the two men could not be farther apart, it is difficult not to compare Hamza’s case with
that of Julian Assange. Both have been a persistent irritation to Western governments, employing any and every loophole of international law to escape being silenced. Regardless of what you think of Wikileaks and its impact of global affairs, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Assange has been stitched up. Sex charges that were dismissed years ago, described by the investigative journalist John Pilger as “absurd”, have conveniently re-arisen just as he is deemed to pose a threat to ‘the international community’. He too faces the prospect of extradition to the US, where he will presumably meet the same fate as his co-conspirator Bradley Manning and disappear into the opacities of the American security system. Whether he is a crusading liberator or irresponsible narcissist (or both), it should surely be an article of faith in any country that the government doesn’t interfere with the law to serve its own interests. There has been a tendency in recent years to write off objections to extradition and other security measures as melodramatic conspiracy theorising, a relic of Cold War paranoia. What harm could the postmodern, Blairite state of the Diamond Jubilee and London 2012 possibly will on us, its respectably docile citizens? Perhaps none, but the doctrine of ‘you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide’ facilitated the most destructive acts of the 20th Century. Few of us will miss Hamza, but let’s not be too hasty in signing away our rights. Photo: rawstory.com
This article was written on behalf of the Amnesty International Society. If you’re concerned about extradition and other issues, send them an email.
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London Fashion Week: Review Sorrel Cookson gives her view on the high points of one of the biggest events in fashion LONDON’S fashion week was filled to the brim with colour, texture and of course, beauty. Firstly, the big question on everybody’s lips is ‘Is Christopher Bailey still the King of the catwalk?’ and the answer is simple: yes. Each year Bailey manages to outshine previous shows, making a ticket to the Burberry Prorsum show one of the most coveted. This year’s Spring/Summer show saw metallic trench coats and delicate
whites watched in awe by the star-studded front row. Bailey experimented with a rainbow of colour, from fuchsia to green to gold. Interspersed with his striking use of colour were angelic whites shimmering down the catwalk, contrasting with the daring blood-red lips the models were wearing. Bailey, inspired by 40s and 50s British fashion photographer Norman Parkinson, took a playful twist on his photography, incorporating huge bell shaped and cape
Coming up this term: Lifestyle needs you! IT’S set to be a huge term for Lifestyle and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved!
Winter Fashion shoot
The annual Lifestyle fashion shoot is set to be the biggest yet, and we need your help! Whether you’re a budding make-up artist, fashion stylist or wannabe model, the fashion shoot is a not-to-be-missed date in the Exeposé calendar. If you’re interested in fashion or just want to make some new friends, get in touch to let us know how you think you could help out! Columnist wanted! Lifestyle is now looking for a new columnist! It really is an amazing opportunity to regularly have your name published regularly in the paper and applying is a great idea if you’re thinking of becoming an
editor next year. So, if you’re the next Caitlin Moran, Victoria Coren or Charlie Brooker then this is the role for you.
Illustrator wanted!
We’re always keen to put some tasteful drawings alongside our recipes and other articles and now we’re looking for a regular contributor to provide regular pics. If you’re arty and love Lifestyle then this is a brilliant opportunity for you! This is a chance for your pictures to be regularly published and it’s an overall great way to get involved in Exeposé! If you’re interested in getting involved in Lifestyle and want more information about any of these positions then email us at lifestyle@exepose.com or join our Exeposé Lifestyle facebook group.
inspired shoulder detailing to his more traditional coats. Burberry’s vibrant palette progresses on to an English country garden with Mulberry’s show. The entrance onto the catwalk was framed by a romantic waterfall of roses, but in typical Mulberry quirkiness hidden amongst the roses were a number of lizards, giving Mulberry’s show its humorous element that has become a staple each year. The 70s were a clear influence for Mulberry featuring capes and floral touches to each outfit. Mulberry’s show saw a slight sophistication from previous years, however it remains casual and pretty with its beautiful pastel palette of soft apricots and flushes of pink. From delicate floral patterns we then move onto the surprisingly refined Topshop Unique show. This year the looks resembled something of the space age future with a dominance of monochrome colouring, however, the show still managed to retain elegance and uniqueness with its surprising splash of vibrant yellow or royal blue amongst the heavy black and white tones. This year’s London fashion week exceeded expectation with all the exciting new trends it showcased as well as the revamping of more traditional styles. What we can expect to see for Spring/Summer 2013 are lots of summer bright colours, hotpants, sheer panels and the classic trench coat with a 40’s twist.
Photo: AFP/ Carl Court
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The eternal pessimist. The worst thing about... public transport
In her final column, Lifestyle’s columnist, Helen Carrington, shares her joy for the great British transport system
NO one enjoys public transport, least of all us British who cling to our refusal to adopt an optimistic attitude to anything. We hate that our buses and trains are usually dirty, frequently delayed, extortionately overpriced and far too crowded. But I don’t intend to complain about these particular aspects today. As much as I sometimes hate to admit it, delay, frustration and claustrophobia are inevitable parts of life, and in many ways, very typical of the overall experience of living in Britain. However, there are some aspects of public transport that I refuse to accept as an unavoidable symptom of the public transport experience. One of these is the chronic laziness of the employees of National Rail. Perhaps I’m unreasonable, but having spent £27 on a return ticket to Newcastle, I would actually quite like to have somebody cast a cursory eye over my ticket at some point during the four hour journey, if nothing else but to convince me that integrity is a value still vaguely appreciated by our society. With the economy in such a dire state that apparently we are discussing depriving toddlers of cartons of milk, I really feel that Tesco’s policy should be more widely adopted.
“National Rail should consider investing in literacy classes for its employees” Having said that, perhaps National Rail should consider investing in literacy
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classes for its employees, or at least discounted eye tests or stronger coffee. A housemate of mine recently managed to accidentally board the train to Plymouth instead of Bristol and on passing over her ticket for inspection, acutely aware that she was travelling in the wrong direction, the conductor apparently noticed nothing peculiar in her decision to travel to Bristol via Cornwall. Travelling on a double-decker bus, despite having to do it for seven years, is still not a favourite pastime of mine. Perhaps I worry too much, but I find it immensely difficult to feel comfortable on a vehicle when I can feel the wheels occasionally parting company with the road at a particularly tight roundabout. And while I realise it would be naïve not to expect people to smoke cigarettes or other less legal substances on the back seats of the upper deck, I never understand why those same people will force the rest of the bus to keep all the windows tightly shut. Oh, the joys of hot-boxing the top deck of the number 76. For the sake of civility, for the remainder of this column, I will replace a word I would prefer to use with the word ‘muppet’. I’ll let you decide which word I would prefer to use. There are many muppets on public buses, such as the delightful man who put his cigarette out on my friend’s arm when we were fourteen, or the creepy teenage boy who came and sat very close to me after I had fallen asleep, giving me the most unpleasant awakening I’ve ever experienced, or even the alcoholic who fell asleep on the seat next to me and spilled rum all over me and my be-
longings. But the biggest muppet I have come across during those seven years of precious bus memories was undoubtedly one bus driver in particular.
“I’ve never been late to school with such a ridiculously unbelievable excuse” Now I’ve come across some unpleasant bus drivers in my time, the ones who drive past you and smirk and the ones who try to tame the crowd of school children by closing the bus doors on them. Maybe this particular driver was in the process of an existential crisis or a misanthropic realisation, when the public bus that carried me and around thirty other teenagers to school every morning approached the stop outside our school and several of the passengers pressed the red STOP button. However, the sound of the button seemed to send the driver into a psychopathic rage, and he drove straight past our stop. Of course, this was an illogical move on his part, as we then all proceeded to press the button even more violently. The bus driver then drove us for a further twenty minutes past our stop before letting us (and quite a few other incensed passengers) off the bus. And I’ve never been late to school with such a ridiculously unbelievable excuse. So that is my worst memory of public transport, and my suggestion for today; stop employing psychopathic muppets on the verge of a mental breakdown to drive public transport.
Exeposé
Easy-to-make treats Cheese Straws EMILY LUNN
A quick and simple recipe for a delicious savoury snack. Perfect for a lunchtime snack on campus. Serves 8 Takes 20 minutes
INGREDIENTS
350g ready-rolled puff pastry 4 handfuls grated cheese (Cheddar, Parmesan or Red Leicester) A sprinkling of flour
METHOD
1. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/fan oven 200°C/gas mark 7. 2. Sprinkle a bit of flour on a work surface and unroll the pastry. Cover in the cheese and fold in half.
3. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out until it is about ½ cm thick. Cut into strips and twist each strip a few times. 4. Place on a baking sheet, sprinkle over some more cheese, and bake until golden (about 12 minutes). Leave to cool. 5. To vary this recipe you could try spreading a little marmite on the pastry before folding in half.
Mushroom, Bacon & Pea INGREDIENTS Chicken stock Risotto ALEX TINDALL
Ideal for friends and using leftover ingredients, this warming supper recipe is deceivingly simple and sure to impress. Serves 2 Takes 40 minutes
What’s the point in sharking?
1 finely chopped onion 4 slices of bacon A few handfuls of chopped mushrooms A handful of frozen peas Grated Parmesan cheese 200g risotto rice
METHOD
1. Fry the bacon in some butter until crispy and remove 2. Gently fry the onion, mushrooms and rice in butter until golden brown 3. Make the stock and add gradually as it gets soaked up, stirring lots 4. Add the peas when the stock is half gone 5. Add the bacon, chopped up, when the rice is just about done 6. Serve with Parmesan
Thomas Ling, Lifestyle Editor, gets his jaws into nightclub sexual etiquette BUTTERFLIES and daisies. Strawberry ice cream. David Attenborough’s warm smooth voice. Just take a few loving moments to think about them. You finished? Brilliant! It’s nice for you to have a rest bite from the utter disappoint commonly known as reality, an unending nightmare of self-service check-out machines, Piers Morgan, child poverty, Amory C501, Piers Morgan, unnecessarily long lists and Piers Morgan. As if you didn’t need another reason to hate the world, sharking has gripped all nightclubs with all the grace and dignity of an overdunked hobnob. Yes, this is sharking, supposedly the activity of ‘coming on’ to somebody in a club, which sounds almost romantic on paper, conjuring imagery of two mushy-eyed lovers mutually declaring their love for one another across a crowded room. Although, since we’ve already established the world is a horrifically bad place, the whole sharking business is much less Jane Austen and more Stephen King. For those unaware, sharking is
solely undertaken by men struggling with a hardcore pornography addiction and mainly involves stumbling into a nightclub and staring at anything with a working orifice for a few hours, much in the style of a randy eye of Sauron. The shark (who’s not actually a shark) will then start, consensually or not, to dry hump the entire dance floor in a way that even Jack the Ripper would consider just not cricket.
“Sharks actually rarely attack humans, and species such as the Great White Shark don’t stare down their prey when hunting...” Obviously, there are several problems with this. First off, sharks actually rarely attack humans and species such as the Great White Shark (street name Carcharodon carcharias) don’t
stare down their prey when hunting, but protectively roll their eyes backwards. If you are going to impersonate a cartilaginous fish then do the courteous amount of marine research beforehand to ensure a correct representation, or simply go home. At the moment the whole shark impersonation would be more accurate if they grinded on an assortment of sushi dishes before diving headfirst into the dance floor screaming to be returned to the most convenient aquarium, which, as I’m sure you’re aware, would be a logistical nightmare. Secondly, why is it that these sharks feel the need to harass the entire dance floor in a bid to get laid? Okay, being sexually active is probably a good thing, hell, I’ve even heard some people enjoy it. Yet, as weird as it seems, I’m pretty sure it’s possible to get shacked up for the night without being a complete arse. So all in all, it’s probably best to assume there is something fishy about it. Fin.
Chocolate Truffles LOUIS DORÉ
Rich, chocolately and unashamedly indulgent, these chocolate truffles are perfect for hitting that sweet spot. Makes 15-20 Takes 1 hour preparation
INGREDIENTS
1tbsp. butter 75ml double cream 275g milk chocolate Cocoa powder
METHOD
1. Gently simmer the cream and butter 2. Whilst hit, pour over 175g chocolate 3. Keep stirring until thick and creamy 4. Put in fridge until solid but soft 5. Melt remaining chocolate in a bowl over boiling water 6. Roll lumps of the refrigerated ganache into the melted chocolate 7. Quickly transfer the chocolatey ganache into cocoa and roll until sealed 8. Dust off excess cocoa and put in fridge for 4-5 hours. Enjoy!
Pictures by Emily Lunn
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Experts in a field: the Festival Issue
To open our festival special, Callum McLean, Music Editor catches antifolk hero, comic book artist and lecturer Jeffrey Lewis at Bestival as a prime example of the season’s varied entertainments
Interview
Thu 4 Oct Gallows Cavern Fri 5 Oct Mungo’s Hi-Fi Exeter Phoenix Fri 5 Oct The Magic Hatstand Cavern Fri 5 Oct Hessle Audio w/ Boddika, Pearson Sound & More Motion, Bristol Tues 9 Oct Thick As Thieves Cellar Door Tues 9 Oct Dan Le Sac + Friends Cavern Sun 14 Oct Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs o2 Academy Bristol Mon 15 Oct Hot Chip o2 Academy Bristol Sun 21 Oct Lianne La Havas o2 Academy Bristol
Fortnightly Freebie
“I ALWAYS figured I was going to grow up to make comic books,” muses Jeffrey Lewis, perched uncomfortably on a gnarled log on the fringe of Bestival’s Ambient Woods. “I’m still making those but I’ve been spending so much time doing music that at this point it’s like music is my job and comics are my side project. At some point maybe that’ll flip around and reverse itself but I don’t know.”
“Plenty of my songs are just stories or garage rock about zombies”
Pandr Eyez Again And Again www.tinyurl.com/pandreyez Pandemic-grade infectious R&B vocal streams over bright old skool hip hop beats and pops
Antifolk icon and bandleader of The Junkyards, as well as pillar of multifaceted outsider art, Jeff’s numerous skills as artist and lyricist give his nasal delivery an air of blasé canniness, though also a limited commitment to the moment bordering on ADD. Eager to get back to the nearby Bestiversity for a talk on climate change, he seems slightly absent from much of the interview - ostensibly the less important segment of an action-packed day also promising a live show and a lecture on private press records. Nevertheless he moves from question to question with an eloquent calm, seemingly spilling
This grassroots ethos pervades his fluid aphorism and concise wisdoms without concentrating much on his re- work, his lecture focusing on the most lo-fi of independent releases, and his plies. Perhaps his mind is elsewhere? ‘antifolk’ tag drawing from punk simWhich would be fitting for a songwriter plicity. He elaborates: “I think folk and known for self-reference bordering on punk are very similar, in fact I think solipsism. Nodding with a slight gri- comic books fall into that category too. mace, he counters: “I feel like that’s They are three of the most accessible probably only about 20 per cent of the art forms that anybody can get startsongs on any given record. There are ed with”. Fittingly, his show collates (punk band) Crass covers, rousing folk plenty of other songs that are just ficditties and a sung narration of tional stories or garage rock Read about zombies or topics the extended the French Revolution using a giant comic book about history”. Rather Q&A with of his. “Folk and punk than being merely disJeff, an exclusive similarly boil down to tracted, he quickly interview with ‘here’s two chords and makes clear how relentTunngs’ Mike some stuff that really lessly his mind covers Lindsay and means a lot for me to be disparate matter. Such a more online. able to express’ and comic broad grasp of language books, similarly, ‘here’s a pen has seen him named the lyricist and a piece of paper and with zero of his generation by expert wordsmith Jarvis Cocker. “I don’t think I’m the budget… I can create an entire realm best out there,” he is quick to admit, of emotions and experiences and at“but it does seem surprising the amount mospheres”. Such an attitude seems highly fitting of bands out there… how few people into music seem to consider songs a pri- for the surrounding. Beyond the trees ority. A good song is the most important an amphitheatre boasts spoken word, thing to me. If the song is good, you can comedy and drama performed from have the world’s crappiest amplifier, or scratch, and across Bestival’s site the no amplifier. A good song is going to melting pot of creative energy across art forms thrives. Like a large part of affect people all over the world.”
Bestival though, Jeffrey Lewis’ live experience does begin to accumulate the (admirable) gloss of musicianship and production value. Like the diverse map of cultural influences picked up across Lewis’ life and fed into his oeuvre, the Junkyard have become – more than a basic platform over their long years of touring – “a pretty darn good band”, as does he “sort of know how to play a guitar solo”. A creative sponge, Jeff proves (partly incidentally) the merit of openness to his surroundings.
“I think folk, punk and comic books are very similar” “If I was a farmer then what I would be able to present to people would be the results of my knowledge about farming and here’s what I’ve harvested and hopefully you get some nutrition out of it. But I’ve steeped my whole life in farming comic books or something. That’s what goes into the blender of my mind, so that’s where my reality is coming from, a lifetime of making art and music, and records and comic books are part of my ingredients, so that turns up in the end product inevitably.” And be glad it does.
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1 October 2012 |
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Light the Beacons!
Exeposé
Tom Oberst reports: Beacons aflame with a stellar lineup dealing in atmospherics, awkward covers and blown speakers AFTER a washed out first attempt, Beacons Festival returned this summer with a lot of expectations weighing heavy on its shoulders. Working closely with a choice selection of northern promoters and Noisey, the line-up was enticing, especially considering the £75 price tag. Set amongst the Yorkshire Dales, the location was flawless. We set up camp in a near empty field in the middle of rolling hills and tree-scattered fields. Only holding 5,000 or so, Beacons seems to be one of the new-breed festivals that are springing up all over the UK which are small, grass-roots, environmentally conscious and new music-focused, a-la 2000 Trees and Y-not. There
“We set up camp in a near empty field in the middle of rolling hills..” were so many poorly named bands it was hard to find your way through the conveniently provided clash-finder so that we gave up and decided to plod around hoping to find our new favourite band.
Luckily, we stumbled into a smoke-filled tent with an eerie, reverb-laden guitar band fronted by a 20-year-old Morrissey sound-alike, also known as Great Waves. Eerie would sum up the rest of the Friday, with magnificent live sets from Factory Floor, Mount Kimbie and D/R/ U/G/S. Factory Floor synthesised long carefully crafted Berlin influenced-house songs and sent the crowd into a lethargic frenzy, and Mount Kimbie’s atmospherics and skipping drums enticed and captivated the whole tent. Unfortunately, two of the acts I was most looking forward to failed to play. Disclosure seemed unable to grasp the concept of noise limiters and blew the speakers during their soundcheck, leaving a disgruntled exodus from the tent. Similarly, Julio Bashmore had an ear-infection and had to pull out. Saturday and Sunday saw the rise of guitar bands. Clock Opera pulled out which thankfully made way for the seemingly omni-present Future Of The Left to lay down an angry and convulsive set and was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the weekend. We ran to Ja-
Off the beaten track Rachel Alcock-Hodgson sees hipster fare collide with scifi crab literature and babies in trees at End Of The Road
pandroids in time for what seemed like a greatest hits set, the crowd screaming back every syllable in one of the most joyous mosh-pits I’ve witnessed. Hookworms, Tall Ships and Koreless all put in stellar shows and Willy Mason ushered in a beautiful sense of optimism for the Sunday evening which was screamed into oblivion by Cloud
Ben Winsor, Online Music Editor, discovers that Camp Bestival’s kiddie festival punches far above its weight
LET’S get one thing straight. Camp Bestival isn’t aimed at cynical, pretentious, 20 year old pretend student music journalists. But now that’s said, it makes the fact that I enjoyed it even more impressive. Camp Bestival has cemented its position as the UK’s top family “festiholiday”, supported by that new, lucrative type of festival-goer; the middle-class, middle-aged liberal looking to reclaim the good ol’ days with Hugo and Tanya and their kids. I was concerned by the swathes of expensive 4x4s in the car park, staggering prices and herds of children being wheeled about in trailers and pushchairs, as well as the acres of grass in front of the Castle Stage claimed
by camping chairs and picnic blankets. It must be said that Camp Bestival expertly fulfils its remit as a family festival. Children can roam, safe and free range, entertained by a plethora of traditional and innovative entertainment. I hope that any child between the ages of 3 and 14 that complained of being
“Adam Ant made an appearance dressed as a pirate” bored was summarily ejected from the site, as the breadth of amusements was astonishing. The music was aimed at parents, with bands such as Kool & The Gang and the
Nothings. The only real let-down of the weekend was Toots and the Maytals, who uncomfortably sang other people’s songs
for the last hour of the set - well, the last half-hour before we left. We departed on the Monday with a new vigour for music, satisfied with what we’d seen, and eager for more. Despite toilet complaints and our relative poverty in relation to food prices it was a crazy blur of great bands and sun-kissed memories. Cheers, Beacons.
and turns full of workshops where festivalgoers are absorbed in unexpected things like early morning Qi Gong and making mirrors from vinyls. Out of hidden corners emerge magical and strange installations such as ‘Place for Souls’: illuminated cocoon-like babies looping through the tunnel of laurel trees and tiny figures roaming the branches. A seriously chilled out atmosphere created by the first full day of music
was not anticipated by the energy of ling Shakespeare’s Machiavellian baddy, Thursday night, which featured The Fu- Iago. From here on in the weekend tureheads in their acapella incarnation and the toe-tapping mop-haired King became a triumph overseen by the Charles. In fact, although Friday was soulful blues style of Alabama Shakes. curated by Bella Union and included big Banjo-wielding Abigail Washburn was intriguingly billed as combining names such as Beach House, Midlake Chinese song craft and Veronica Falls, the blissed Read traditional and American folk, performing out vibe seemed too aloof more with Kai Welsh, and did not for the complex, interacdisappoint. They managed to tive and visually stimulatfestival move from a song ing surroundings. This was reviews inseamlessly Mandarin to, a few songs remedied in spectacular style online later, a re-imagined murder by Robin Ince’s book club. A ballad. Unfortunately, Grizzly Bear festival favourite at places like Latitude, the book club focused on Night suffered from awkward programming of the Killer Crabs by Guy N. Smith, a in having to round off a day that had seminal work in the often under-appre- naturally led to Alabama Shakes’ heady ciated giant killer crab sci-fi sub-genre. sound. Hurray For The Riff Raff, friends The night climaxed with Ince reading an of Alabama Shakes, tumbled into the extract whilst haranguing his accompa- mix on Sunday and were intoxicating in nist, a strikingly expressive trombonist. their re-imagining of American folk. Finishing off the weekend in style, Amongst this hilarity nestled a set by Grace Petrie, a political folk singer who proto-punk icon Patti Smith descended enthralled the crowd with her book club on her unicorn and got new and seasoned offering, a haunting love song channel- fans dancing crazily, side by side.
Happy Mondays chosen for their past glories rather than their current musical ability. The latter put in a fantastic performance, despite being lumped with frontman Shaun Ryder, who sang as well as one might expect from a 49 year old who has led a lifetime of drug abuse and been forced into the jungle with Ant and Dec. Best act went to the slick Hot Chip, Friday’s headliners. Adam Ant made an appearance dressed as a pirate, delighting a group of drunken middle -aged women, along with the brilliant Bellowhead. Two impressive acts in the Big Top were Pearl and the Beard and To Kill a King, whilst the incomprehensibly dull Spector wowed some 15 year old girls. I guess that’s what kids like these days. The following day was (terrifyingly) themed “Saturday Night Fever”, and was headlined by a trio of acts that were booked for drunken parents to relive their youth to. The murderous
day was saved by a great set from Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, with everyone’s favourite mobile phone advert song “Garden”, and reggae icon Jimmy Cliff. Sunday played host to the eternally cheerful and pretty Lianne La Havas, who played a lovely set, and thankfully
TO arrive at End of the Road is to find yourself transported into the idyll of a Victorian pleasure garden. As you explore the festival, its otherworldly atmosphere unfolds around you; even the campsite boasts its own burnt orange ten-metre-tall Oriental folly. Not only do arty fixtures abound but peacocks shriek and macaws swoop overhead. Carefully landscaped gardens reveal secret twists
“Out of hidden corners emerge magical and strange installations..”
It’s a family affair
“Japandroids led to one of the most joyful moshpits I’ve witnessed”
I avoided Rolf Harris. The morosely Scottish King Creosote impressed, and Scroobius Pip invigorated the crowd by running through it. The day closed with the Happy Mondays and the incredible firework and animation mapping show from Lulworth Castle, a mind-blowingly awesome display.
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A whole lotta Lovebox Daisy Meager, Online Music Editor finds Victoria Park’s Lovebox full of tricks
OVER one weekend in the middle of June, London’s Victoria Park was transformed into a festival playground. Lovebox was a decade old this year and boy oh boy does the urban dance festival know how to celebrate in style. Exeposé hit the festival on the Friday to discover what it had to offer. One of the first noticeable things on entering was the diverse audience that the festival drew. From Essex boys to hipster darlings to toddlers sporting multi-coloured ear defenders, the festival attracted an eclectic mix of people of all ages which I found refreshing, especially considering the niche genres that Lovebox represents. The enthusiastic energy kicked off as soon as people were in and stages filled up within minutes with everyone raving at three in the afternoon, without a care in the world. Onto the music. Friday was very aptly named “Bang The Box” (with Saturday being “Music Safari” and
Album Reviews The xx Coexist Young Turks Out Now
Muse The 2nd Law Warner Out October 1st
Sunday, “Out And Out Fierce” – well what else would you name the day headlined by Grace Jones?). The day showcased talent from across the spectrum of dance music, mixing some new kids on the scene with firm favourites. Disclosure put on a brilliant show which has persisted through the summer and Crystal Castles came up trumps with a set spanning their repertoire and including hits such as “Untrust Us” and “Baptism”. Alice Glass, with a rather fetching lilac bob, was on top form. The day was, however, undoubtedly stolen by headliners Hot Chip and key member Joe Goddard’s side project The 2 Bears. Goddard and Raf Rundell provided the best enjoyed couple of hours with non-stop dancing throughout. A stage invasion and the hugging en masse that ensued during “Bear Hug” secured The 2 Bears’ spot as one of the best performances of the day. Whilst there were some
questionable acts (namely Devlin) when Lovebox got it right, they got it spot on, and who better to close the day than Hot Chip? The guys delivered a stormer of a show, playing some old classics and also tracks from In
Our Heads which was released only days before. Highlights were ‘Night and Day’ and ‘Over and Over’ which got absolutely everyone singing and dancing. Alexis Taylor worked his magic on a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s
‘Everywhere’ and was part of a perfect close to Friday’s festivities. And it only drizzled for ten minutes the whole day. What more could you ask for? Lovebox, I will be back next year.
keep track of exclusive competitions, review and interview opportunities on facebook IT feels like an age since the 2010 Mercury Awards, yet The xx have been ever-present: on the radio, relaxing in parks and at parties. Their minimal reverb-laden brand of indie pop has seeped into the collective consciousness of the nation and now they’re back. Coexist follows on from their eponymous debut continuing the theme of evocative minimal instrumentation. Tracks rarely have three different textures at a time, drums giving way to bass, giving way to echoing guitars, coagulating with detached vocals. Jamie Smith’s development of his production as Jamie xx has clearly been a huge influence, nowhere more clearly than on ‘Reunion’ - the echoed steel drums reminiscent of his early 2011 release ‘Far Nearer’. Dance music has always been a vital influence for him, since precipitated down to Romy and Oliver, whose subsequent worldwide
tours and partying together has mutated The xx’s aesthetic. The rattling house beats, the echoes, the nostalgia. Heavily mixed bass drums throb as though through club walls, and the record at times has a similar post-club haze to Burial. Though the songwriting is simplistic the production is exceptional. The syncopated ticking of ‘Chained’ gives way to Jamie’s signature rhythms. Glowing sunrise landscapes are separated by and then roll into warm bass lines, and the percussive sound effects in ‘Angels’ and ‘Tides’ accentuate their personal, timid openness. The songs are all carefully mapped and every synth line, every click or pop is ultra precise. Coexist is hugely personal, yet it gives little away – a candid nod to a partner coyly reflects the personality of the melodies. As with the songwriting, the lyrics are almost overly simplistic
Some are calling it ‘pretentious cockrock’ while others prefer ‘21st century Rush’. Either way, Muse’s 6th album The 2nd Law has, as per usual, resulted in controversy. In some ways this was to be expected when in June this year they released what the Guardian is calling ‘brostep’ in the form of ‘Unsustainable’. Whilst it is fair to say that Muse has indeed ventured into the club scene, with dubstep influenced songs like ‘Follow Me’, there still remains a reminder of their original sound. The opening track, ‘Supremacy’, is both fresh and rewarding for veteran Muse followers. ‘Save Me’, however, could result in the self-proclaimed ‘most dedicated fans in music’ becoming slightly less fanatical. As the band themselves have said, the album is an eclectic mixture of various rock genres, including strong elements of funk in ‘Panic Station’. For some this will result in a jarring, inconsistent experience, but for others it will present
an enjoyable variety of what could be deemed Muse’s best work to date. One explanation for the diversity in sound is the fact that the band’s bassist, Chris Wolstenholme, wrote and sang two of the songs – something he has not done before. Although my first impressions of his vocals included the idea that he had been listening to (too much?) Pendulum before his studio sessions, I am sure it will make for a colourful live performance. And while we’re on the topic of influences, it has been pointed out that Muse are trying to become a modern day Queen, which when listening to ‘Survival’ and ‘Big Freeze’ seems like a completely fair judgement. Is this album worth buying? If you enjoyed Muse’s previous album, The Resistance, absolutely. But if you have been continually disappointed ever since Absolution in 2003, then perhaps you should look elsewhere. LAURIE POPE
and vague. No one ever claimed the The xx were great lyricists, but you would expect more from a beautifully conceptual band who take such great care in their production and songwriting. This being said, it would feel wholly unnatural for The xx to suddenly break into imageladen, heart-on-sleeve poetics; their brilliance is in their simplicity. Despite all this, I still can’t get used to Oliver Sim’s voice. Whilst Romy Croft’s breathy low notes bring a subtlety that comes as standard with any xx track, and has a quiet, yet soaring higher register,
his voice has no emotion whatsoever. This betrays the one problem I had with their debut album, and many similar hazy post-recession albums, the numbness and the detachment brought about by the overuse of delay and reverb. Overall, this album does breathe emotion, the highlight of which comes in the form of ‘Missing’ which sounds like late night ambles through tunnels, and sums up the sonic unity of this record. Clinking bottles, distant cries and the glow of city lighting. TOM OBERST
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Exeposé Screen meets Ethan Lawrence Owen Keating, Screen Editor asks Joe from Bad Education about bullying, cancer and The Human Centipede.
All-round manly man Tom Hardy is in talks to make a film about George Mallory’s attempts to climb Everest in the early 1920’s. Whether or not Mallory made it to the top is shrouded in mystery, since his body was found in 1999, with no conclusive evidence of whether he was on his way up or down.
Hathaway, Hemsworth and Spielberg set for Robopocalypse Anne Hathaway and Chris Hemsworth are in talks to appear in Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi film, the curiously titled Robopocalypse. Described by outgoing Fox chairman Tom Rothman as “a big film with big ideas”, it’s due to hit our screens in 2014.
Jim Carrey to star in Kick Ass 2 Fans of superheroes, eclectic storylines and Jim Carrey’s facial expressions will be delighted to know that he’s set to star as Colonel Stars in the upcoming sequel to the kitschy, teeny superhero smash of 2010. Director Matthew Vaughn has teasingly promised more of a focus on Chloe Moretz’s Hit Girl, as well as returns for Aaron Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
FREE FILM TICKETS Exeposé Screen has a limited number of free tickets for Exeter Phoenix. For more info and schedules visit exeterphoenix.org.uk. First come, first served; book by calling 01392 667080 and quoting ‘Exeposé offer’.
Joe (left) stars alongside Jack Whitehall in Bad Education which is on BBC iplayer and will be back for a second series.
Your character in Bad Education, Joe, doesn’t seem to have the best time of it at school. Hopefully your own school experience wasn’t as bad as his? In truth I was a surprisingly high achiever. I’ve always been chubby so in the early days I was a victim of bullying. This stopped because I found that being funny and acting the fool made people less likely to discriminate. It also helped being quite a dramatic person; by Year 9 everyone knew me as Drama Boy. Many of Joe’s bad experiences come from his dysfunctional relationship with his teacher. We’re not looking for a tell-all confessional, but any weird relationships with teachers from your own school? Nothing as creepily ingratiating as Joe with Alfie, but I always got on fairly well with my teachers. I was always willing to learn, but at the same time, quite relaxed; I didn’t stress myself over things which led to me perhaps coming across as cocky to some teachers. Possibly the darkest
relationship I had was with an art teacher. I was never a good artist, but I really tried. This teacher totally had it in for me however, and took any opportunity to belittle me. I wished her dead. Two years later she died of cancer. As terrible as that is, it was something of a victory for me. What’s it like working with Jack Whitehall? It was a lot of fun. The guy is a proper grafter. For the six weeks we filmed he was in every day. I understand he did a lot of the editing too, but he was always up for a laugh which meant that no day was a chore. The classroom scenes took a while to film because of all the angles, but, being a comic, he was constantly improvising so it never got dull. He’s very professional. You’re a budding stand-up comedian. No pressure, but best one liner? This is always a tricky one! Like whenever someone finds out you’re a comic its like “make me laugh then fat boy”. It’s practically unique to comics
TV Review: Bad Education Everyone remembers their worst teacher; the bumbling, hideously awkward/ineffectual/uninterested creature who was about as useful in the classroom as Joey Essex would be on Mastermind. Bad Education’s Alfie, played by Jack Whitehall, is that teacher. Doubled. Despite being a dysfunctional manchild with a silly beard, Alfie teaches a class at the local comprehensive. He
and his troop of variously beleaguered, bullied, and brash youngsters go from school trip to sex education class to prom, with increasing levels of comedy. As well as following a syllabus (well, kind of), Alfie finds the time to pursue Rosie (Sarah Solemani), his straight-laced colleague, and also manages to wage war with Stalinist deputy headmistress Miss Pickwell, played by the genuinely terrifying
Michelle Gomez. Bad Education is nearly amazing; the kids are funny, especially Joe, played by Ethan Lawrence, who unstintingly finds himself bearing the brunt of Alfie’s ridiculous attempts to engage in extra-curricular activities with Rosie. At varying points Joe ends up sacrificing pigs, claiming he’s gay, and faking the death of his own mum, only for Alfie to somehow manage not
as well. If you’re at a social occasion and you meet a plumber, you don’t ask him to take a look at your pipes... unless you’re in a porn film. So if I was to drop a one liner now it wouldn’t be funny. Youtube me though. It’s better when I do the actions.
how far someone is willing to go. As a comic, I’ve seen performers really push the level of offensiveness and it’s fascinating. If I had to name my all time favourite film, it’d be either The Butterfly Effect or Spaceballs, although for vastly different reasons.
You’re a university student yourself, has it been hard balancing your studies with your acting?
Biggest professional inspiration?
I was very lucky in that respect. Filming started during the Easter break and my degree is one of those good ones where there’s nothing to do in the summer. The only thing I missed was a marked presentation, for which I was given zero, but I still had enough from all my other units to get me a 2.2 for my first year. Hopefully the filming schedule for the second series will allow me to be equally jammy.
Comics like Dylan Moran or Sean Lock inspire me, especially Dylan Moran since he does stand-up, acts and writes. That’s something that I find amazing and would love to do myself. Dream collaboration?
God I love films don’t you? I quite like horror movies. Films like The Human Centipede fascinate me, only in the sense that I like to see
I think a sitcom with me and James Corden would be hilarious due to our physical resemblance. I’d also be interested in directing a music video, one of those great videos where footage of the band is intercut with something completely irrelevant, like a guy painting a weeping swan onto a van. I’d love to direct such a video for Lana Del Rey, because the idea of her mournful ambient pop being juxtaposed with something utterly random amuses me.
to even go out on a date with Rosie. Add to this mix a hilariously slutty Chantelle (Nikki Runencles), and a class full of hardmen, dancers, and exchange students, and it’s easy to see why Bad Education is BBC3’s highest rated hit since Horne and Corden. Speaking of Matt Horne, his own portrayal of wacky headmaster Fraser nearly steals the show. Fraser is genuinely a total idiot, as well
as the self-acclaimed creator of the “WASSUPPPPP!” craze. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right. Fraser is a knob. But a funny one. This show is well worth a watch, if only because it’ll remind you of all the awkward lessons and even more terrible school trips that made school as great as it was. OWEN KEATING SCREEN EDITOR
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Bestselling smash to box office cash: Can it be done? Megan Furborough discusses her best (and worst) book to film adaptations THIS term of film is an exciting one for book adaptations. With Stephen Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower and Jack Kerouac’s On The Road just two of the most hotly anticipated, the question of what makes a successful book to film adaptation is raised again, with a critical eye cast over previous literary offerings. Some are good, some are terrible, and here are three of my most notable adaptations. John Hillcoat’s 2009 adaptation of The Road is one of my favourite examples due to the excellent realisation of McCarthy’s haunting descriptions of the blighted landscape of a modern society reduced to savagery and despair. The sense of finality that The Man and The Boy display through the strippeddown language was cleverly portrayed on screen, with Viggo Mortenson a perfect choice for the anonymous father driven to extremes in order to keep him and his son alive. By not attempting to elaborate on the type of global disaster alluded to in the novel, the focus remained on the characters, with an expansion of The Woman’s role a useful addition to the film’s plot. Visually stunning, this adaptation is a clear example of the features crucial to a successful adaptation – a sympathetic rendering of the novel’s plot and well chosen actors.
“Writers are left battling with a studio, having to downplay so-called ‘risqué’ elements of a story in a bid to increase box office sales The manifestation of Northern Lights as 2007’s The Golden Compass is one of my most hated book to film adaptations. Despite impressive, award winning visual effects, the exclusion of key scenes from the novel, including two in anticipation of a shelved sequel, left Chris Weitz’s The Golden Compass a poor imitation. However, my biggest criticism comes from the massive downplay of the atheistic element of Pullman’s narrative, especially when you consider the role of the Magisterium (a fictionalised Catholic Church) which has abused its power in Lyra’s pursuit of the truth. With a budget of $180 million at stake, this example clearly highlights a problem with film – and particularly in Hollywood – that too often directors, producers and writers are left battling with a studio, having to downplay socalled ‘risqué’ elements of a story in a
bid to increase box office sales. Let The Right One In is an interesting example as the screenplay for the film was written by the author of the novel, John Ajvide Lindqvist. The film, whilst removing most of the sub plots and character back stories still proves to be a successful adaptation due to the realistic portrayal of L i n d q v i s t ’s writing. As a very visually written novel, the cinematograp h e r ’s direction of lighti n g
and camera shots only intensifies the descriptions of settings and characters further. However, I would consider that this is clearly in part due to the role the author had within the film ,who has said that he was insistent
about particular scenes being included. I doubt whether the film would be so faithful to the novel if another writer had taken charge of the screenplay. This element was particularly interesting as it showed how Lindqvist had to adapt his style to suit different media, something which will be particularly apparent in The Perks of Being A Wallflower film, which is directed and written by Chbosky, the novel’s author.
“There are key things a studio should remember when adapting a novel into a film” However, the thing to remember is that books and films are incredibly divisive, and what will impress one person will undoubtedly outrage another. Whilst there are key things a studio should remember when adapting a novel into film – namely being sympathetic to the plot, characters and themes – I still believe that bringing a book to life on screen is a worthy and fascinating way of seeing a story in a new light.
What I’ve been watching: Breaking Bad TV Review: Doctor Who IT has been several weeks since I went completely cold turkey, yet however hard I try, I am still struggling to accept the fact that it will be a whole year until I can finally put my mind at ease. This is of course the unfortunate reaction to AMC’s staggeringly intense Breaking Bad, which has left millions across the world anxiously checking their calendars in preparation for the series conclusion next summer. After high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Brian Cranston) is diagnosed with stage three lung cancer, he makes the decision to start cooking crystal meth with former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to help support his family after he dies. Your first thought may be, ‘since when did the goofy dad from Malcolm in the Middle start cooking meth?’ but after a few minutes it becomes very clear that Cranston has well and truly broken away from his more comedic roots and has flourished as an actor. Each performance is consistently captivating and as the story progresses and Walter becomes more deeply entwined with the criminal underworld, his character gradually becomes distorted from a mild-mannered teacher into a te-
nacious criminal. The various interactions between each character are without doubt what makes Breaking Bad’s plot feel so rich in detail. With each season passing, every relationship, be it between Walter and his family or simply between two supporting members of the cast, experiences highs, lows, complications and revelations, all of which tie exquisitely together to form a robust story arc and phenomenally deep characterisation. In short, the entire series is a masterclass in action, drama and dark comedy, and should not be
missed. Currently, the latest series has an aggregated review score of 99/100, which is frankly astonishing, but still not hard to believe. With so many stunningly crafted scenes spread throughout the show I am still struggling to pick my favourite episode, something which is surely a clear indication of how truly engaging Breaking Bad manages to be. Be warned however, once you are in, you are well and truly in. ROBERT J HARRIS
THE series so far is more changeable than normal for Doctor Who. As ever, Matt Smith is stunning as the Doctor. Once again he is able to encapsulate every aspect of the Doctor into one – from the most feared being in the cosmos to painting the Ponds’ garden fence – but it is when you catch those fleeting, unscripted looks on his face that he simply shines. Karen Gillan is also marvellous, particularly when stepping up to the Doctor in a Wild West showdown – which is definitely one of Amy’s starring moments – and Arthur Darvill is top-notch in his continued portrayal of the confident side of Rory. Similarly, the cinematic scale and production are magnificent, especially in an era of budget cuts; all episodes feature some great scenes. But the problem begins when the weak, rushed plots of the first two episodes fail to match the expectations generated by the Daleks and a title like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. They suffer too from underdeveloped characters, although I make exceptions for Rory’s dad and Asylum of the Daleks’ Oswin Oswald. With the sudden appearance of Jenna-Louise Coleman, who is due to take over as the
companion at Christmas, as that nowdead human-turned-Dalek in denial, Steven Moffat has some explaining to do!
“The pace and jumping across timelines can leave you feeling a little confused” “A Town Called Mercy” and “The Power of Three” are much better; it just shouldn’t take three weeks to get there. With more sharply-focused storylines, they are gripping and analyse the ridiculous and dark sides of the Doctor in equal measure – which seems to be a theme this series. Of course, the pace and jumping across timelines can still leave you feeling a little confused (and therefore all of the episodes benefit from a second viewing) but I’m left wondering if this isn’t done on purpose, in some way setting us up for the Ponds’ dramatic departure from the show in New York. Only time will tell. Or has told… IMOGEN WATSON
As Hot As... the hot or nots of this week’s film news OLIVER STONE - The reliably mental film director has topped even his own impeccably crazy standards with Savages, a film bad enough to make even hardened critics desperate for it to end. Apparently...
Andrew Mitchell
MAGGIE GYLENHAAL -The problem about making a film about sex toys is that if it all goes wrong, you’ll look ridiculous. Unfortunately for Maggie, Hysteria went wrong. Badly.
BRAD PITT - Superstar serial adopter Pitt is back, this time in Killing Them Softly. His own performance has won praise, but the film itself tends to slip from sharp cynicism to inane crassness.
ADELE - Rumour has it that the flamehaired songstress has been revealed as the artist who will sing the theme tune to Skyfall, cementing her place as one of Britain’s cultural icons.
HOMELAND - With typical power and verve, Homeland cleared up at the 64th Emmy Awards. The show won four gongs, including individual awards for Damian Lewis and Claire Danes.
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Books Who do you think is the weirdest literary character? 1. Peter Stillman in City of Glass (part of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy). Literally a still man, he was locked in a basement for most of his life by his father and speaks in cryptic glassy-eyed monotone. Creepier than a tiptoeing millipede. CALLUM MCLEAN
2. Gollum from Lord of the Rings, a creepy, demonic, almost hairless hobbit that whispers to himself about a piece of jewellery. Plus, he lives in a cave, the nutter. I suppose you can’t really blame him for ending up a bit crazy... TOM BOND
3. Definitely Count Olaf from A Series of Unfortunate Events. His character metamorphosises from book to book, all of them as convincing as a cardboard cutout. Most importantly, no matter how much his appearance changes, he’s evil every single time. CLARA PLACKETT
4. Lieutenant Scheisskopf from Catch 22. No man should love military drills that much. So much so that he really doesn’t seem to care that everyone’s had his wife. And I mean everyone. LOUIS DORÉ
5. Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s because she’s... well, not mentally unstable, but pretty odd. She lives a kind of double life leaving a husband back home whilst she swans around Europe, the poshest nomad in existence. EMILY TANNER
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Has Dave Morris created a monster?
Tom Bond and Emily Lunn, Books Editors, interview the writer of a new interactive Frankenstein app on graphic novels, the classics and the merits of mash-ups DAVE Morris is a writer of novels, comics, and the co-creator of the gamebook Fabled Lands series. He also designs computer games, role-playing games, and has penned several TV and movie novelisations. This year, he published an interactive reworking of Frankenstein in the form of an app. We spoke to him about his latest work, graphic novels, and why Shelley’s original needed an update.
appoint. If I’m going to pick my desert island read it’d be Neil Gaiman’s tourde-force run on The Sandman.
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We notice that you studied Physics at Uni: how did you go from that to what you are doing now? 0 I’d have done an English degree too if I’d had the time. I’ve always been on that cusp between art and science, which probably explains why I’ve ended up gravitating towards the games industry, where I can indulge my passions for storytelling, visual design, logic, physics and maths all at once.
“Critics view graphic novels with the classic cocktail of fear, loathing and fascination” What attracted you to graphic novels? What do they give writers and readers that traditional books don’t? If you look at it from a practical point of view, some stories are easier to tell visually. At the same time, you might not want to do it as a movie because your story needs more space and depth than you can fit into two hours. Or, of course, you might not have a quarter of a billion dollars to spend. In fact, though, I just start working on a story and you either feel it’s right for prose or you start blocking it out in comic panels in your head. Your muse decides for you whether it’s going to be a graphic novel. As for what graphic novels have that traditional books don’t – they’re different, both equally to be cherished as modes of expression. Do you have a favourite graphic novel? If so, why? I like the works of Daniel Clowes, Adrian Tomine, Alison Bechdel, Posy Simmonds, Matt Kindt, Alan Moore… A bunch of diverse comics creators who don’t have anything much in common, except that they rarely dis-
Do you think graphic novels are taken seriously enough as a form of literature? Not in the UK, that’s for sure. Here, a graphic novel has to be freighted with literary significance for critics to get past their aversion to the medium. UK critics don’t have a cultural lineage to fit them into, so they view them with the classic cocktail of fear, loathing and fascination. The only graphic novels they review seriously are the ones that fit in an illustrated literary tradition rather than being unashamedly comics. Britain punches way above its weight in comics. You’ve got Gaiman, Moore, Ellis, Millar, Ennis, Quitely – too many to list, and many of them among the most successful in the profession. But they’re all working mostly outside the UK because comics here are barely a cottage industry. It makes it difficult to get a British voice and sensibility across in comics. It’s very different in France, where four out of every ten books sold are graphic novels. There’s a nice an diverse range of genres: thrillers, romcom, whodunits and science fiction. You often work in collaboration with other writers and artists, what do you enjoy about these collaborations and what do you find more challenging? Has there been a collaboration that has been particularly interesting for you? My name may be alongside somebody else’s on the cover, but I rarely collaborate that closely. Comics like Mirabilis are the exception. Those are interesting precisely because the creative collaboration is so challenging. Sometimes it feels like we’re coming from opposite ends of the
spectrum. I go for sexy, dark, dramatic with close ups, upshots and wide angles; but the penciller Leo Hartas goes for funny, sweet, diagrammatic with medium shots, flat/diorama staging, and so on. But that cycle of thesis, antithesis, synthesis can throw up some nice creative surprises, I think. A lot of your work makes literature an active experience, and puts the reader in charge. What do you hope to achieve by giving the reader a central part? What any writer wants – a connection. That’s why the interactivity in Frankenstein isn’t about solving the plot, it’s about the relationship you develop with Victor and his creature. The choices you make affect their degree of empathy, alienation and – most importantly – the extent to which they trust you. Do you think it is difficult to adapt such a well-established story? Has it been well received? Very well received, especially among younger readers who probably wouldn’t crack open a 200-year-old novel if they’re not doing an Eng Lit course. Frankenstein is one of the modern world’s defining
myths, a story that everyone thinks they know but is rarely read in the original. I hope my version will encourage more people to take a look at it. Now the but: it was well received for a book that was only released on iPad and iPhone. I’m working on epub3 and Kindle versions but it was a big mistake not to bring those out at the same time.
“Frankenstein is pretty much the worst classic novel ever written” The adaptation wasn’t hard because, seminal work though Frankenstein is, it’s pretty much the worst classic novel ever written. I should qualify that. Mary Shelley was eighteen years old when she wrote it, and I certainly don’t want anyone seeing my teenage scribblings. I felt completely free to take liberties with the text in a way I wouldn’t have done with Austen or the Brontës, for example. My version is much more modern. There’s a lot of Mary Shelley’s prose still in there, but I fleshed out the characterisation and the relationships as we’d expect in a novel these days. A large part of that is because I cut all Shelley’s travelogue stuff. Boy, she really padded that thing with chunks of a Grand Tour guide book... Turn over for the rest of our Dave Morris interview...
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Oh, and I set the action in Paris during the Revolution. That’s because Mary Shelley had Victor creating the monster in 1792, but for some reason had him at university in Ingolstadt – which seemed a bit of a waste of a rather wonderfully serendipitous dramatic setting. Do you see interactive creations such as Frankenstein as the future of the publishing industry? Not in the slightest! My version of Frankenstein is an experiment, that’s all. Literature has always been experimenting and always will. But God help us if publishers suddenly start churning out ‘classics interactive’.
“God help us if publishers suddenly start churning out classics interactive’” With the growth of the digital publishing industry, how do you think the issue of piracy will be handled? Publishing is going to have to learn to get along with digital piracy, unless
Frankenstein Dave Morris FRANKENSTEIN is the latest interactive novel app produced by Cambridgebased studio inkle. Written by David Morris, the app takes its own spin on Shelley’s classic gothic tale of life, death, and science, placing the reader directly into the story as they make choices and shape their own narrative experience. The app is really easy to use, with stunning illustrations and a slick visual design meant to mimic Frankenstein’s notebooks. The novel is broken down into six parts of three chapters each, making it simple to pick up and read in short bursts, and you don’t need to be worried about straining your eyes on the tiddly phone screen. But does the adaptation live up to the packaging? The majority of the app is written in dialogue, as Frankenstein attempts to explain and justify his story to you, the reader. Each chapter features a dozen
Recipes From the Kitchen Drawer: A Graphic Cookbook Helen Ashley
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they have a trick up their sleeve that the music industry didn’t. But it’s not all bad news. We need to look at ways to extend the usual revenue model – slipcase editions with extras, for example, and pre-subscribed serials. Digital can be seen as part of the wide mouth of the funnel that draws paying customers in, whether or not they pay for the digital experience itself. Do you have any exciting plans for the future? I’m currently working with my business partner, Jamie Thomson, on a slate of interactive ebooks that we’ll be releasing next spring. They’re not interactive literature like Frankenstein, though. They’re more like the roleplaying gamebooks we wrote back in the 1990s. Also our company owns the Dark Lord series, co-created by the two of us and written by Jamie, which has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Prize and is in development as a TV series at NBC. And we have a couple of new series that are about ready to go in book form. We tend to use print as a springboard for properties that we want to go on to choices for you to make, and it’s up to you how you respond – berate him, support him, even try to persuade him to do ‘The Right Thing’. Morris’ adaptation really shines in these parts, giving plausible explanations for Frankenstein’s irritating behaviour and letting you call him out on it. Don’t expect to change his mind though, as Morris’ scientist remains just as stubborn as the original.
“The app is really easy to use, with stunning illustrations and a slick visual design meant to mimic Frankenstein’s notebooks” The creature’s chapters are a little different. Written in second person, they remain as heart-wrenching as the original text with the added twist that you feel even more involved as you help the EVEN the least culinary orientated person would do well not to notice the trend for amateur home-cooked food that has grown over the last few years. From the “food revolution” of Jamie Oliver’s school dinners, to the more recent success of The Great British Bake-Off, food has got people talking. Helen Ashley’s Recipes from the Kitchen Drawer is another expression of the trend to get more people cooking in their own homes.Yet Ashley’s creation is a little different, as it takes the form of a graphic cookbook. It aims to make recipes less intimidating to new cooks, by illustrating each step. Each recipe has a “shopping list” of in-
develop in other media, which is either cynically manipulative or far-sighted depending on how much of a fiction purist you are. Add to that my ongoing work on Mirabilis – which was conceived as a 260-page graphic novel saga but is growing to more like a target o f 8 0 0 pages. And I have a longcherished videogame project for kids that would be built around forging a real relationship with the characters. So I have more exciting projects than I have time to work on them, that’s for sure.
creature make his decisions. Should he approach others, or remain in hiding? It’s even worse if you already know what’s going to happen, although you can make a few minor plot changes. I did stop the creature burning down that house, but it didn’t make a huge impact on his character (he was unfortunately still quite keen on killing people). You can change things, but it won’t completely alter the story. Interactive stories, particularly adaptations, are hard to get right. You must be simultaneously new and interesting enough to gredients, the occasional “post-it” note of advice, and a graphic cartoon for instruction. Each step fits into the picture as a whole, creating a detailed but clear image. This is cooking in action, and a refreshing break from the glossy photos of a perfect end product. The layout is probably more appealing to a younger audience, and the uncomplicated, reasonably thrifty recipes would be well-suited to students. Although not specifically aimed at student cooks, it is accessible, yet avoids the patronising feel of other simplistic cookbooks. The recipes aren’t breaking any culinary boundaries, but they don’t need to: this is a book for comfort food, with a few challenging dishes to keep the more adventurous cook entertained. It is refreshing to see recipes without nutrition values, though my only complaint is that the lack of overall timings is not so helpful. Emily Lunn books EDITOR
Exeposé
What would be your dream mash-up novel? I think mash-ups are a great modern art form, like that sublime moment in The Sopranos where you realize that, yes, they really are crashing the Peter Gunn theme into “Every Breath You Take”. But I have to say that mash-up novels aren’t books, they’re just marketing gimmicks, a formula to get the attention of the dumbest guy in the room. Why, if mash-ups work so well in music and art, do they come across so lame in storytelling? You’d think it would be the easiest medium to do a mash-up in. Maybe that’s the problem. It feels like creativity by numbers.
attract people put off by the original text, and close enough to the original story to attract its fans. Frankenstein succeeds on both these points and strikes a good balance between giving the reader options and making sure it still stays true to Shelley’s original vision. It may not be a massive revolution in reading, but it’s definitely a step in this new, and exciting, Becky Mullen
Any Last Words? This issue we asked for your dream mash-up novel I’d like to see the characters from The Great Gatsby take part in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Obviously. OWEN KEATING
A Game of Holmes - throw Sherlock and Watson into Westeros and let them muse about how every single character has died. MEG DREWETT
Beatrix Potter’s Animal Farm. How Piotr Usavich defied Tsar MacGregski II and led an ill-fated uprising. CALUM BAKER
Jane Eyre and Matilda, a young governess uses her telekinetic powers to attract the attentions of a stony faced aristocrat in 19th Century England. BEN MURPHIE
The Diary of Anne Frankenstein. The Nazis are all zombie-esque constructions made by Hitler. Anne gets bitten. ZOE BULAITIS
The Picture of 50 Shades of Grey. It’s basically just a copy of Playboy. TOM BOND
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The Key to Success
Clara Plackett and Emily Tanner, Arts Editors, chat to Perrier Award winning comedian Tim Key about his comedy, poetry and love of baths...
Art Exeter Contemporary Open @ Phoenix 13 September - 1 November John Court @Spacex Gallery 29th September – 24th November
A Symphony of Curves @ RAMM 18 August - 11 November
Comedy Tim Key @ Northcott: 1 October Stewart Francis @ Corn Exchange 3 October
Drama Agent @ Bikeshed Theatre 9-13 October Botallack O’clock @ Bikeshed Theatre 3-6 October
Dance Classic Cut @ Northcott: 11-12 October
Exeposé
TIM Key is not a man regularly seen on TV yet on the live circuit his tickets are like gold dust and just the mention of his name on a mixed bill causes the show to sell out within hours. He has published three books, won what was once the prestigious Perrier Award (now the Fosters Comedy Award) and is currently working on a new radio show. This is a man of many talents. After returning from a limited run of his 2011 Edinburgh show, Masterslut, at this year’s Fringe, Key is about to embark on a mammoth tour across the country and we were lucky enough to catch up with him this week. Key’s comedy can be described as nothing other than intelligently unique. In his own words Masterslut is “a kind of fusion of poetry, comedy, talking, clambering, film and hot water. Lots of hot water.” Key tells stories, reads aloud his poetry and often interacts with the fully filled bath which takes pride of place on stage throughout. It’s definitely not the sort of thing you see every day. But after over a year of performing the show, surely it can become tiresome?
“No,” Key assures us, “I still like doing it. There’s a lot of room in it to have fun, to talk to people and discuss baths at length! There’s plenty going on for me, lots of stuff where I have to be on my toes or the whole thing falls apart.”
“Like a lot of comedians my first gig probably had the same building blocks as my 500th” In a show that relies on audience interaction and connection to individuals surely moving venues when on the road will affect the show. This year in Edinburgh Key performed to an audience of about 150 in an intimate venue and over 700 people in one of the festival’s largest venues, The Grand. “I used to think it would only work where it was meant to be performed,” Key muses “but as you become more experienced you work out that that’s actually not the case. The best environment might actually be different from the one you first conceived it in.” He also explains
Art Attack THIS week’s ART ATTACK is a piece from the series Dots Obsession by contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama. On the surface it seems bright, almost childish and quite fun but can you see the darker underside of obsession in the piece? Do you think it is an effective portrayal of an obsessive personality or is it just a room of polka dots to you?
that he finds the transition to a different venue reinvigorating: “it breathes new life into it”. Yet even for a comic as well respected, though truly humble, as Key the move to such a large venue at this year’s Fringe and the fact that people wanted to “see my shitty show,” was “overwhelming.” As is the case with many comics, Key’s journey to such an overwhelming experience has been long and varied. The process has clearly allowed Key to formulate a unique brand of comedy whereas, he comments, “If I’d just done stuff and then got on telly, I would have never had the chance to work with the people I work with, try stuff that didn’t work and find stuff that did. For the first five years I was doing a lot for no money, but that was probably the best way to learn. If you’re not being paid there’s no expectation, you can do your own thing.” And Key certainly does do his own thing. This alternative combination of poetic musings and comedic chat isn’t something many would think to put together, but after Key had “given up
TOM BOND: It feels like I’m inside a Big Lebowski dream sequence. I think I’d get a headache pretty quickly sitting in there...
MADDIE SOPER: To me, it almost looks like one of those inflatable simulations of inside the human body they have in the Science Museum. I can’t really form any deep artistic thought about it as I’m too distracted imagining bouncing around the inflatable alveoli like a 5 year old.
on stand-up,” he had “this little book of poems, read them and it worked.” As for the chatter and use of film which distinguishes Key’s show from simply a comedic poetry recital he explains that, “I was apologising for the poems, pointing to the poems, talking about the poems. Like a lot of comedians my first gig probably had the same building blocks as my 500th. The poetry thing worked and it’s what I do now.” The bath, however, is something entirely different. Sitting on the stage as the audience of Masterslut enter, it has an almost ominous presence throughout. As he thought up ideas for the show Key, “just had this image of a blank stage with a bath and people coming in. Then after that the lights changing and me coming out of the bath. I thought that was quite good. It’s not actually anything to do with the show now but the bath part of it stayed. I thought I’d just have it there in case I needed it!”
“For the first five years I was doing a lot for no money but that was probably the best way to learn” After a well-earned rest in November, Tim Key, a man who seems to have done everything from sketch to stand up to doing poetry beside a bath, has plans to work on some new live material and a radio show which has been commissioned. But first he takes the wonderful Masterslut on tour across the country to share with the world his poetry, chat and to “discuss baths at length.” Tim Key, ‘Masterslut’, Northcott Theatre tonight, 1st October, at 8PM. CLARA PLACKETT & EMILY TANNER ARTS EDITORS
ELLI CHRISTIE: It reminds me of a
traumatic childhood experience of chicken pox when I was told I was very spotty by a random old woman. Never been able to look at spots in the same way again.
ZOE BULAITIS: No child’s play would
be this intense!!
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Art and Culture explosion in Exeter Zoe Bulaitis, Editor explores the expansion of arts and culture at the University with new degrees and famous figures on campus. 2012 has already proved to be a momentous year for the University of Exeter. From the Forum’s right royal opening in May, to the news that Exeter is one of the top 200 universities in the world (182nd to be precise) the year has been marked with structural success and academic progression. With the campus environment being much improved and the accolades of the educational institution flooding in, Exeter students can rest assured in the knowledge that their £9,000 fees are at least visible in the improvements to campus life. However, this sense of development and improvement is set to spread further with the revitalisation of Arts and Culture at the University of Exeter. New pathways of learning, exhibition spaces, sculptures and volunteering opportunities are set to change the creative art at the university for the better. From 2013 students will be able to study a BA in Art History and Visual Culture or a BA/MLibArts Liberal Arts within the College of Humanities. This is a programme that will offer students interested in Arts and Culture from an academic perspective a chance to study culture in an interdisciplinary way, quite different from specific de-
Agent Bikeshed Theatre 9th-13th October 2012 ON Thursday 26 October 1939, the Express and Echo printed a gruesome tale. Two severed legs were found by the police deep in the depths of the canal. It was unlikely that the legs had been in the water for long but the local authorities were left confused and with a puzzle on their hands. This tale from the darker side of Exeter’s past, is the backbone of new theatre company Reverb’s original play Agent, which is to be performed at the Bikeshed theatre this October.
“It does not only look set to be an exciting event in terms of performance but gives an insight into local history.” Reverb are a new company, recently formed by three Exeter Drama graduates, who have been working with ten local actors, a student writer and local photographer to create their innovative theatrical experience. It has been funded by a grant from the University’s Drama department and is in their own words an “immersive experience” in which audience members are invited to play the role of an agent and solve the gruesome mystery from 1939. It does not only look set to be an exciting event in terms of theatre and performance but also seems to give partici-
pants and audience members an insight into a side of local history many will not be familiar with. In fact it was an aim of Reverb to “engage audience in locational history and theatrical experience”, something seen clearly in the production of Agent. Many individuals may see the history of Devon as simply agriculture and quaint village fétes but Agent highlights some of the “unsavoury characters from Exeter’s sordid past,” and allows the audience to take a journey of dark discovery with these figures. EMILY TANNER ARTS EDITOR
Fresher: The Musical Shotgun Theatre 22nd September 2012 AMIDST the excessive drinking, awkward small-talk and regrettable romantic encounters in Freshers’ week, a cast of five were putting together their musical portrayal of the aforementioned frivolities. Under the direction of Magda Cassidy and musical guidance of Nic Craig, Shotgun Theatre’s first show of the year brought a full-blown musical to the stage with just four days of rehearsals and put on a damn good show by any standard. “I say what course I’m on and tell them my name / Make every effort to avoid sounding lame,” the show’s opening number struck a very familiar note as a sold-out theatre remembered their own experiences of arriving at university. After a night of drunkenness and fancy dress, five flatmates meeting for the first time realise there is more to each other than they previ-
gree programmes of the past. The University describes this new Liberal Arts programme as offering a unique opportunity for students “to develop into an intellectually-engaged global citizen”. For a university which had previously only offered non-accredited online courses for Art History this is a huge step forward. An increased awareness of the importance of visual culture and interdisciplinary study is a hugely positive thing for the future of arts and culture in Exeter.
“New pathways of learning are set to change the creative art at the university for the better” Outside of the classroom there are other progressions for arts and culture. With a new website launching fully very soon (minisite at http://www.artsandcultureexeter. co.uk), the University’s Arts and Culture team are working hard to make Exeter a site of ceaseless creative activity. There is so much to look forward to over the coming term, and more to be announced. Big musical acts such as Newton Faulkner and Mr Scruff are to play in the Great Hall
ously thought. The cast consistently surprised with gems such as a cosmetic-centric rap and as an absolute commitment to the absurd characters delivered in playing with familiar stereotypes without feeling predictable. Anya Williams portrays the upper middle class princess Ally with an enthusiasm and style that shone in ‘That’s a Sign’, an uptempo wordy number that teaches palefaced worrier Hollie Morgan (Hayley) the ins-and-outs of seduction. Joel Banks’ (Tuc) foul-mouthed ribbing of Tom Stanley’s freud-cosplaying geek (Basil) and Alex Alder’s publicschooled wannabe-gangster is pitch perfect every time, and would feel at home coming out of Inbetweener Jay’s mouth. The seemingly two-dimensional characters grow more as the play continues. Hayley reveals her trouble coping with anxiety as she grows closer to an unlikely partner. We feel real empathy towards Hollie Morgan’s char-
and the Lemmy. A star-studded lecture series including Man Booker winner and 2012 nominee Hilary Mantel will grace the new alumni auditorium in the Forum. Another addition to the presence of Arts on campus is the arrival of several new sculptural works added to the university’s trail. At each end of the Forum’s Street sits a new work. The front entrance off Stocker Road is the new home to Mariners Ways by Ed Crumpton (6000m of rope tied around a cannon ball) and the opposite entrance is the resting place for Rising by Dominic Welch that appears as a giant marble tear against the horizon. Both works are the first of what hopes to be a series of new sculptures to be brought to Streatham campus. On 12 October ten nationally renowned sculptors are coming to visit Exeter with a view to loaning work, and the aspiration is to equip our green campus with enough art to render it a sculpture park. It is without doubt an exciting time for the university, and it is set to benefit the students interested in arts and culture in an extra-curricular sense as much as those interested in academic study of the creative arts.
acter as she realises university might not be the fresh start she wanted, and Tuc shows that he’s more than a swearsprouting ladies’ man. Basil struggles to a hide a secret and Rupert remains an off-the-wall source of hilarity in the quest for a future Mrs. Pie throughout. Where there is character growth it seems genuine and when there isn’t, laughs were delivered. Songs are memorable, and the staging and tech direction coupled with a full house band created a thoroughly engaging evening, which gave a heady sense of nostalgia to Exeter veterans and a
“A poignant reminder that being yourself is the best way forward in the most socially awkward week of your life.’” poignant reminder that being yourself is the best way forward in perhaps the most socially awkward week of your life: freshers. Given Shotgun’s history of quirky and silly musicals, it’s reassuring to know that they can put on a sell-out show that deals with some more serious issues, particularly when their next show Zanna Don’t (scheduled to be performed in December) concerns intolerance and homophobia. MARCUS BEARD GAMES EDITOR
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GAMES EDITORS
Marcus Beard & Jonathan Jenner games@exepose.com JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP Exeposé Games Photo: Jean Frédérik
Interview
Molyneux: Microsoft Scared of Innovation Fable creator talks Curiosity, Co-operation and Milo with Marcus Beard, Games Editor
Curiosity can be dangerous. For Peter Molyneux, curiosity at Microsoft led to the rise and fall of one of the most groundbreaking interactive experiences of the current generation. In a small office in the Guildford Technology Centre, a few hundred yards from his previous studio Lionhead, Molyneux’s startup 22Cans is hard at work testing Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube. The iOS game features a giant black cube made from millions of ‘cubelets’ which, after 64 billion taps from the community, will reveal a secret so profound it will “make world news” according to Molyneux. Don’t be surprised if this sounds far-fetched, Molyneux is well known in the industry for making promises about his games that don’t end up being strictly truthful. He’s well aware of this, as the game is currently a month behind the previously announced launch date. “It was my stupid mouth that shot off and gave the date in the first place,” he says. “That was a bit silly.”
“Imagine if you could create something that felt alive” Curiosity is the first of 22 experiments the studio hopes to produce, that will eventually culminate in a final game. The studio is divided into two halves, one working on these experiments and one with a wall covered in concept art, populated with designers working on the final game. “Not every single one of those experiments is going to be a different app,” clarifies Molyneux. “The gameplay [of Curiosity] is simplistic now, but by experiment six, see how much the gameplay evolves.” While the final game will draw on all previous experiments, Molyneux explains; “It’s something that’s very different.. we’re experimenting with a different approach to entertainment that can still motivate.” Such experi-
mental and alternative gameplay is something that Molyneux explored at Microsoft before his departure this March. “The thing about Microsoft, and the thing about any big corporation, is that they’re scared of innovation,” says Molyneux, recognising the practical reason for this fear of new ideas. “You can’t have 300,000 people going off to follow their own ideas.
and none of the voice and facial recognition carried over to Lionhead’s next game (an on rails, Kinect-controlled Fable title), Molyneux was left with only the crushed dreams of his revolutionary project. “I can stay here at Microsoft for the rest of my life”, he recalls thinking, “Or I could start out with a small developer and do this brave stuff.”
“If it was an amazing and incredible experience, there are enough people in the world who would want to buy it”
“It was incredible. I showed it to people and they cried” “What would Curiosity say about Microsoft? Maybe the press will write that Microsoft are experimenting and don’t know what they’re doing,” Molyneux hypothesises. “It makes a new idea very very hard to execute in these big companies.” He mentions Google as a company that embraces such radical creation - their 10^100 initiative is a call for ‘Ideas that Change the World’. Molyneux’s last and ill-fated project at Microsoft was a Kinect-based title called Milo. “Imagine if you could create something that felt alive,” he recalls. “People could experience the joy of inspiring something.” The project was unveiled during E3 2009 alongside Kinect (then named Natal). Featuring a 10 year old boy named Milo reacting to the player’s voice, actions, and - according to Molyneux - emotions, the industry was amazed (if a little sceptical) by this groundbreaking project. “It was amazing,” says Molyneux. “It was incredible. I showed it to people and they cried. The whole experience was designed to remind the player of their own childhood,” he says. Molyneux explains how people love going back to their roots. “Everyone has these common threads [in their childhood] .. and when you read a book, watch a film, or play a computer game, it reminds you emotionally.” As an example, Molyneux describes how in one version of the game,
>> Above: Curiosity: What’s Inside the Cube, Below: Project Milo
you could hear Milo’s parents arguing. As you interacted with Milo, you would hear how this affected him emotionally. “It reminded you about your parents,” he says. “And that pulled the emotion out of people.” After sparse appearances at trade shows, a Microsoft spokesperson announced that Project Milo was “never a product” and was “never announced as a game”. Molyneux seems disgruntled at the lack of faith in the project, describing how insanely difficult it was to get through Microsoft. While they had experience in marketing shoot ‘em ups and Fable games,
they had no clue how to market this new product. “You can’t sell it at a Gamestop or Game,” he explains. Yet, Molyneux believes that, given the chance, Project Milo would have found an audience. “I believe this simple thing,” says Molyneux. “If it was an amazing and incredible experience, there are enough people in the world who would buy it.” He pauses to reflect on the nowdefunct project. “In the end, marketing doesn’t matter. Marketing lays the seeds for things, but it’s all about word of mouth.” With Milo effectively cancelled,
Experimenting with the idea of curiosity interested Molyneux first of all as it’s such a base, humanistic emotion, exhibited by humans and animals alike. “[The game] is all about how much you’re willing to sacrifice for curiosity,” he explains. “No-one is going to find out [the secret] unless everyone comes together to tap on it [the cube].” After Curiosity - and the six subsequent experiments inside the app 22Cans will be working a game called Co-operation. While Molyneux isn’t revealing any details about the upcoming app, he reveals to Exeposé that it involves “Co-operation mixed with morality. It’s what is right and what is wrong. It’s about which side of the fence you come down on.” He explains that if you imagine Curiosity as the world’s biggest game of Pass the Parcel, Co-operation is the world’s biggest tug-of-war. “It’s a crazy thing to do,” he jokes. “We should have just made a game.” As he shows us the way out, Molyneux points out where the team - now 20 strong - is relocating to. It’s back down the road toward Lionhead studios. “When you look out the window, we’re actually overlooking Lionhead,” he tells me. “It’ll be interesting to see how that works out.”
Exeposé
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Sandbox
Borderlands 2 Gearbox Software Xbox 360/PS3/PC Out Now
What was the most memorable game of your childhood? Laurie Pope: Super Smash Bros Melée, because of the hours spent trying to get rare pokemon from the pokeballs. James Roberts: Simpsons Wrestling - like WWF except it was real. Kate Gray: Super Mario 64. Before exams, Bowser was the most terrifying thing in my life. Zoe Bulaitis: Catz on PC, which had an elaborate adoption theme... I’m not proud. Becky Cunningham: Splat the cat. I spent hours looking after him, then he shrunk into nothingness. He died. Not at all scarring for a 7 year old.
BORDERLANDS 2 is the sequel to 2009’s surprise shoot-and-loot success Borderlands. The series’ second instalment returns to the gorgeously cellshaded planet of Pandora and features one to four “Vault Hunters” (depending on the number of players) who have arrived on the planet to search for a hidden vault containing untold wealth and riches! However, upon commencing their search, our heroes realise that the planet has been taken over by a tyrant who goes by the name of “Handsome Jack”, and it’s up to you to stop him.
“It forms an addictive package that has me worrying about my degree / social life / health” Those who played the original Borderlands will remember that players didn’t really have much of an incentive to progress forward other than to find the vault that everyone kept banging on
about. This led to hours of seemingly mindless killing and finished with a rather anti-climactic ending. Happily, the addition of Handsome Jack in the new game has fixed this issue and gives players a bit more of a reason to plough through the almost countless amounts of enemies that Borderlands 2 throws at you. The relationship with Handsome Jack is a bit love-hate. You’ll love him for his hilarious comments and digs at you but you’ll hate him after you re-spawn for the 20th time and you’ll just wish he’d shut up and go away. As for gameplay, Borderlands 2 is a first-person shooter with a heavy focus on character levelling and looting better and better weapons as you gun your way through a variety of landscapes and enemies. This all comes together to form an addictive package that has given me considerable reason to worry about my degree/social life/ health. Borderlands 2 takes pride in the number of guns that the player can use but to be honest I found that sometimes there was just too much choice.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 PES Produtions Xbox 360/PS3 Out Now
Just when I’d found what I’d thought to be the perfect weapon in a shotgun that shot hundreds of flaming rockets I’d be presented with another gun that would force me to stop and agonise over which one to take with me. Repeat every 20 minutes. But if you’re a fan of this Diablo style looting then it shouldn’t be a problem. Another thing worth mentioning is that Borderlands 2 does feature plenty of annoying “go here-kill this-get this” quests that did start to become a bit of a bore for me, but not enough to make me stop playing. The game also features vehicles and these sections are the weakest part of the game. They pretty much serve only to get from one place to another and whilst they are loaded out with guns, shooting enemies can be a bit fiddly and it’s nowhere near as satisfying as when you’re on foot. For the most part Borderlands 2’s writing and humour comes across brilliantly and can be considered as one of the games major successes. The game is very aware of itself and characters
can be heard referencing the fact that they’re in a video game amongst other hilarious lines. Almost all of the characters you interact with are interesting and you want to hear what they have to say rather than just skipping through dialogue to get to the gameplay.
FIRSTLY, Shay Given is a dick. That guy is impossible to score past. I’m pretty sure that speaks for most FIFA fanboys giving Pro Evo a try (I’m still bitter). The once proud rival to FIFA is back and is as infuriating to newcomers as ever, as it is almost like playing a whole new ball game. You’re not going to be scoring 30 yard screamers or splitting defences apart immediately; what’s more likely to happen is the opportunistic Suarezlike tap-ins you see in the Premiership. This, to be fair, is to Pro Evo’s credit; Konami have made a game in which the ways you score and play are fairly realistic. Even dribbling has a steep learning curve. Yes, dribbling. Don’t get me wrong, changes of direction out of danger and making runs are easy enough to do, but if you’re the kind of player wanting to feint and step your way through a defence to make the finish then you’ll spend a long time looking foolish. Whether it’s in front of AI or the online opposition, learning
the various skill moves and stepovers takes time – but it’s worth doing, as there’s a lot of impressive animations. However, that seems to be where the sheen on Pro Evo starts and ends. Whilst player likenesses are acceptable and in some big name cases even vaguely impressive, the commentary grates alarmingly quickly (you’ll be told that your scorer is a “reliable lad” a lot) as do the cut scenes and stock celebrations. There are also the usual problems with licensing. Manchester United are the only recognisable name in the English League, and whilst you still have the option to edit names, the effort required, combined with the lack of any league below the Premiership, leaves you feeling alienated as an English football fan. My main complaint with this game, however, is not the ways in which it falls down in the areas in which it cannot compete with FIFA – it’s the fact that it tried. Master League is compelling if not as in depth as the FIFA
“Borderlands 2 is at its best when exploring Pandora with other Vault Hunters” Borderlands 2 offers up to four player co-op (four player online and two player split-screen) and from what I’ve played, the game seems to be at its best when you’re exploring Pandora with other vault hunters. The split screen mechanic works really well and allows players to pick up a controller and jump straight into someone else’s game. Unfortunately my housemate/ partner-in-crime with whom I chose to conquer the wastelands of Pandora turned out to be an bit of an idiot. Thus
instead of feeling like two indestructible killing machines it felt a bit like I was dragging a toddler around a battlefield. But this didn’t really hamper the experience and even after I had to drop whatever I was doing in order to run back and revive my fallen comrade after he had shot an explosive barrel he was stood on for the umpteenth time, I still felt like I was having a good time. Despite some of these minor niggles, Borderlands 2 is a game that deserves to played by anyone with even a slight interest in guns, video games and crude jokes about body parts. Whilst the vehicles aren’t great, they don’t affect the overall quality of the experience too much and with friends they can still be a blast. Tons of content full of witty humour, addictive gameplay and a game world that feels like a real place should be enough of a draw for anyone with a console and some willing friends. Adam browner
career mode, despite the fact that selling players is largely impossible, and the Champions League remains a tournament the FIFA franchise can only dream of owning. At moments, Pro Evo gets to the core of footballing gameplay in chance shots and moments of unbearable tension. It really is a strength it should have played to, but is let down by lack of fluidity in player impact and a lack of sense in off the ball movement. You’ll howl in frustration at Jordan Henderson for weak finishing, and you’ll hate Shay Given’s guts for all the right reasons – the very essence of competitive football, but mostly, you’ll be wishing you were playing FIFA for all the wrong ones – the sheen, club names and polished (if at times unbelievable) gameplay. Louis doré screen editor
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Pedal power: London to Istanbul
Photo: Cycle Team
Charity Cycle Holly Gottlieb Team Member
HOW many times have you recently answered the question, “Had a good summer?” Ever answered it with “Yeah, pretty good, I cycled to Asia…”? Well that’s exactly what 14 Exeter students can now claim. This summer, as part of the RAG International Event, Ollie Cooke and Charlie Griffin, led a team of 12 others to cycle from London to Istanbul for charity. With a number of the team aiming for military careers, and spurred on by the deaths of the brilliant Exeter alumni, Lt. David Boyce and Lt. Dan Clack, Help For Heroes was an appropriate choice of charity as it provides such invaluable support to the wounded and their families. Alongside fundraising events which last year included a 72 hour cycle and the guys waxing their legs, you might assume we spent hours and hours together training on the road and in the gym. As usual though, Unay got in the way, and this was not the case. I don’t think any of us could say that when we left London on the 26th July, we were in any way prepared for what we were about to face. 6 weeks, with
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over 4000km to cover, in the height of summer, with a crossing over the Alps shortly to come. Hit very early on by basic problems such as food shortages and the lack of decent enough maps, we soon discovered that a; a short detour on a map is always guaranteed to be a steep climb, and b. the French really, REALLY, do not like cyclists on their motorways. I’d like to say that by the time we hit the Alps we were a lean, mean, cycling G-Unit, but I would be lying. After a solid 3 days of steady climbing, culminating in a gruelling 10km, 9% incline, we did manage to get over the top. Triumphant, as we swooped into Italy taking corners at 60kph and generally
“The last few days getting into Istanbul were tough, especially on the vast motorways coming in” feeling like serious Wiggins contenders, we were rewarded with our first experience of how good the downhills really could be. We warmed to Italy, our next stage, pretty quickly; who wouldn’t when passing through stunning cities such as Turin, Verona and Venice, feasting on all the Gelato we could get our hands on!
Although we’d been warned before, nothing could have prepared us for the heat – in fact we timed the trip so well that it coincided with a heat wave in Europe, throwing dehydration, sun stroke and forest fires at us with every turn. When cycling through an ex-war zone in Croatia, Chushey (Charles Bushe to everyone else – the name will catch on) informed us that the mercury was hitting 48 degrees. The heat was completely debilitating, draining every last ounce of energy from your body, making you feel as if there was literally no more you could give. Repeating mantras, such as Kit’s favourite ‘Kill the Hill’ in your head over and over, was one way we got through, as well as constantly reminding ourselves of who we were cycling in aid of. At times though, cycling in the heat would have been lethal, and we had to stretch out our cycling hours over the cooler parts of the day. This meant that at times we struggled to find campsites, in which case we resorted to pitching on the side of the road. Although amateur would have been a grand understatement of our cycling tekkers at the beginning of the trip, the transformation over the course of six weeks was sensational. We finally did achieve our G-Unit. Sitting half a foot from the guy in front’s wheel, we got the meaning of slipstream down to a T. 40kph on the flat was no stranger to us in Greece. Battered by headwinds in Turkey, the last few days getting into Istanbul were tough, especially on the vast motorways coming in. Yet with balls of steel and a swoop of his hand, Rogal had 5 lanes of traffic whipped. Throughout the weeks, horns were honking wherever we went. People would lean out their windows shouting support. We didn’t understand a word they said but we got the gist. A day after finishing, when sat on the steps of the Blue Mosque, we couldn’t quite believe what we’d just done. On the off chance, if ever someone says, “Asia’s not that far,” we’ll simply go, “Yes it bloody is, I’ve cycled it.” The team have raised in excess of £25,000, but are still taking donations at www.justgiving.com/teams/londonistanbul2012”
60 seconds with...Varsity special Peter Beadle
Josh Madden
EUAFC
EUAFC Club Captain
1. Centre midfield
1.What position do you play?
1. Centre midfield
2. Eating well and getting mentally and physically ready for the match.
2.What will be your pre-match preparations?
2. Eat well, long sleep the Tuesday night before
3. It’ll be a close game but I think the University will win 4-2.
3.What is your score prediction for Wednesday night?
3. 2-1 to the University
4. Roger Federer
4.Who is your sporting hero?
4. David Beckham
5. When Liverpool beat AC Milan on penalties in the Champions League final 2005
5.Best sporting moment?
5. Beckham scoring his free kick against Greece to send us through to the world cup back in 2002
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Crossword No. 36 by Raucous
Across
Down
1. Used to make domestic alcohol (12) 7. & 6. Down. a.k.a Joseph Anton (6,7) 8. Fuel, clothing company, actor (6) 10. Despise (6) 11. Rice field (5) 12. One of the Brontë sisters (9) 16. Figurative expression (5) 17. Mythological bull (6) 18. Egyptian President (6) 19. River (6) 21.To be physically insensible (12)
2.Tax free account abbr. (3) 3. Replay (7) 4. French happiness (7) 5. Racing dog (7) 6. See 7. Across. 7. Anthropomorphic toy families (9) 9. Non-professional (9) 12. Red; Harvard newspaper (7) 13.Without purpose (7) 14. Blooper (7) 15. Destructive wave (7) 20. Poem (3)
Promote your society here. Email editors@exepose.com
34
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The University of Exeter
Will Kelleher looks back at the Exeter Alumni who were involved in the summer medallist, Robin Williams, Statistics PHd student and Paralympics GB blind foot Sarah Thomas IN the second of two gruelling weeks of the London 2012 Olympic Games former sports scholar Sarah Thomas achieved a lifetime ambition. With the GB Women’s Hockey team she accomplished something that most Exeter alumni can only dream of, an Olympic Bronze medal. Having first picked up a hockey stick as an athletic 13 year old in Wales it has been quite a journey for the former St Luke’s student. Sarah was always a keen sportswoman having tried a variety of sports at a young age including netball, cricket and touch rugby but hockey was the one she really shone at; “It just all came quite naturally to me and I just really, really enjoyed the game. It sort of consumed me while I was playing and I just loved it so I carried on!” Thomas excelled at the game she loved and within six months she was already representing Wales U16s. During her time at Exeter Sarah balanced her studies, University and international hockey as well as her social life. Thomas was keen to highlight the importance of sport in her early days at University as a social opportunity: “[Hockey] allowed me to bond with others at Uni and gave me that fun side as well as the academic side. Not knowing anyone is quite daunting and so to go to hockey trials and to meet people and kind faces in the first couple of days is very nice.”
“It is something we’ve never experienced before and will never experience again. It was just phenomenal” After an enjoyable stint in Devon the medallist was picked up by the GB set up in 2003, only three years after having left Exeter. This is where her career started to blossom. After the disappointment of non-qualification to the Athens 2004
Rob Walker FORMER Student Guild President Rob Walker has had quite a summer. The ex Duryard Halls resident has been at London 2012 commentating and summarising for the BBC and Channel 4 at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Walker, whilst still at Exeter started writing sport’s articles for the Exeter Express and Echo and stayed involved in student media up until he left Exeter with a degree in English and Drama in the late 90s. He balanced his media and Guild work with running in cross country and athletics meets for the university as well as captaining the
Olympics, Thomas decided to ply her trade abroad and for the next few years played in Holland. “Being in Wales there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to keep improving so to go to Holland and play with people who already had experience of winning a Gold medal, day in day out, was great. It gave me something I hadn’t had exposure to before. It meant my game had to improve and it did, fortunately.” Thomas then stayed in the GB set up for Beijing 2008 and had the chance to play in front of a home crowd this summer at London 2012. “After Beijing I thought I wouldn’t get an experience like that again in my life but having played in the London 2012 Games it was above and beyond what Beijing was. “I had my family and friends there supporting in the Riverbank Arena, in which we played, with 16,000 people cheering for Great Britain. It is just something we’ve never experienced before and will never experience again. Regardless of how we did they were always on our side, it was just phenomenal. The two week showpiece was the end of a long road for Team GB and Sarah Thomas and it was never only about the sport, certainly Sarah feels her job has only just begun as they look to ‘Inspire a Generation.’ “We’ve been training day in, day out for three years and not just because we wanted to win a medal at the Games but because we want other people to get involved in a sport that we love. If we win a Bronze now and it takes another twenty years to win another medal then we’ve not done our jobs. Yes we’ve been successful and yes it was a wonderful experience but it’s of no use if that’s it now.” It seems there is a strong sense of the wider picture with Thomas and that can only be a good thing; but can other sports learn from this attitude? Maybe football for example? “Obviously footballers are going to stay popular just because of how many 5th XI Hockey team. Walker certainly enjoyed his time in Devon; “I would say that my year as Guild President in 1997-8 was one of the best in my life, I learnt so much about public speaking and life lessons. I learnt not to sit around waiting for an opportunity, but to go and make one for yourself. “I am biased but for my money you are going to struggle to find a better Uni than Exeter.” For Walker, life after Exeter was all geared towards a career in journalism and broadcasting after a sudden realisation. “I was filling out all the forms [for multinational companies] and then I suddenly thought ‘this is not me at all I want to be a broadcaster and get involved in sport.”
Photos: Sarah Thomas and zimbio.com
“We’ve been training day in, day out for three years not just to win a medal but to inspire others to get involved” people watch it and as much as we say “bloody footballers”, we all still end up watching Match of the Day. I think there’s a lot to learn. We lost our captain [Kate Walsh] in the first game with a fractured jaw; a four hour operation and three days later she was back on the field, that in comparison to when a footballer gets kicked in the shin and is on the ground for ages! “We’re amateur athletes, we get paid hardly any money to do what we do and we do it because we love it. It would just be nice sometimes if footballers showed the same amount of desire as some Olympic athletes do. “Lots of comparisons have been made and obviously it’s not going to change but it would be nice to think that more youngsters will want to pick up a hockey stick rather than kick a football.” The Olympics was certainly a positive experience for Thomas but also an emotional one. “Being in an Olympics is not easy, your emotions are unbelievably up and down but that’s just the nature of sport. It’s about how quickly your turnaround is. You participate for two weeks, you have seven games in eleven days, it’s one day on, one day off. The days off are all about recovery and getting ready for the next game. “Every time you have a moment where you miss things you just have to remind yourself how wonderful it was, how good it felt to walk out in front of 16,000 people and what it felt to score in front of them with friends and family watching.” So what now? It will be her last Olympics but currently she is relaxing in the USA! She will be looking for an equally inspiring profession when she returns. He never looked back and joined BBC Sport as a staff member having worked on several local media outlets, including West Country Television after gaining a diploma from Falmouth College of Arts in broadcast journalism. After almost four years at the BBC Walker then went freelance in September 2006.
“If you’re lucky enough to do something you love as a job then you’ve hit the
Walker’s first love is athletics; “It’s my number one passion definitely. I have run five marathons and still run
the 1500m now.” Athletics is by no means the be all and end all for him though, he benefits from his versatility and has commentated on the Winter Olympics, sailing, rugby, football, darts and snooker. Certainly enjoyment is top of the agenda for Rob when it comes to his job. “If you’re lucky enough to do something you love as a job you have hit the jackpot. I urge people to not get sidetracked by fat numbers and always keep sight of what you want to do. Job satisfaction is worth more than any money you can throw at me.” Rob was part of the Sailing team down at Weymouth and Portland during the Olympics and naturally ranks Ben Ainslie’s Gold as one of his
“Ainslie created Olympic history. For someone to be the greatest of all time in the modern era is very rare.” highlights. “It was very, very special especially because he almost didn’t win. He created a piece of Olympic history; in the modern era for someone to become the greatest of all time is very rare. Obviously people like Michael Phelps are absolutely phenomenal but he gets seven or eight chances every Games whereas Ainslie has one every four years. His longevity is unquestionable.”
Exeposé
| week two
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35
at the London 2012 Games
Games. We talk with Sarah Thomas, sports science graduate and GB hockey Bronze baller, and finally ex-Student Guild President and freelance broadcaster Rob Walker Photos: Robin Williams and globalsnooker.com
Paralympian Robin Williams talks about his experiences at the 2012 Olymic Games. AFTER two years of dedication to five-a-side blind football, I competed in the London 2012 Paralympics as a member of the Paralympics GB team. Having trained both here in Exeter, where there are three members from the city, as well as travelling to GB squad training on a frequent basis, my selection was confirmed in April of this year. At the London Paralympics 2012 Games, we eventually finished seventh out of eight competing nations, which on the face of it was a bitterly disappointing result; having been targeted a medal. This was an ambitious target given that we are yet to win a major trophy, having come third in the European Championships last year. Nevertheless we felt there was enough potential in the team to realise this ambition. It would be a matter of whether that potential could be harnessed in time for London 2012.
“We felt there was enough potential in the team to realise our ambitions” After only managing a draw in our first game with Spain in a fairly disappointing performance (not least from myself), we took a point from Argentina for the first time in the sixteen years that international blind football has existed. The Argentina game was my best performance in the group stage - I got some joy running at them without ever really threatening the goal. With other results not going our way, we had to beat Iran by two clear goals to make the semi-finals but at least our medal chances were in our
“The crowd on the Nothe [Weymouth’s answer to Henman Hill] was amazing. They relayed my interview with Ben Ainslie after he won Gold to the big screen so we could hear the roar every time he answered a question!” For Walker, Jessica Ennis’
“Ennis demonstrated how to turn home advantage from pressure into support” heptathlon triumph was another stellar moment of London 2012. “The way she put together those seven events was absolutely phenomenal, especially with the added
pressure of being the poster girl for the Games. She demonstrated how to turn the home advantage from pressure to support.” In terms of the ‘Inspire a Generation’ mantra that has been at the forefront of everyone’s minds during the sporting summer, Walker hopes that the nation will turn itself “into a nation of doers not just supporters. We need to stem the tide of becoming a nation of couch potatoes.” He was delighted at how the Olympics showed Britain in such good light: “We shone to the world. We showed everyone all that our country is good at when we put our minds to it. “We’ve raised the bar for the Olympics and the
Paralympics and it’s up to the rest of the world to keep up the momentum. “We will probably never have a year like this one in British Sport in our lifetimes. “I think the Paralympics has changed the goalposts on a variety of levels. No other Paralympics has been sold out and when we did it it was every bit as supported and embraced as the able-bodied Games. Walker certainly thinks London has left a legacy: “When people look back in 20 or 30 years time I think they will realise that what we have done in the Paralympics will have much more resonance than what we did in the Olympics. We have
hands at this point. Sadly we reacted badly to this added pressure The first half was a very nervy affair. We conceded several fouls and Iran took the lead through a long penalty as a result. We dominated the second half, hitting the woodwork twice. It took an outstanding performance from the Iranian keeper to stop us from going
“It took an outstanding performance from the Iranian keeper to stop us going in front” in front. This is an example of what a cruel mistress sport can be. Having been a game away from a shot at a medal we found ourselves playing the 2008 silver medallists, China, in a match for the minor placings. China themselves were expected to make the semi-finals, so were equally disappointed. After an exciting 1-1 draw, probably our best team performance, we lost on penalties, as you would only expect from a Great British team! We managed to beat Turkey 2-0 for 7th place which was probably my best performance of the week at the Paralympics. Brazil won the Gold medal and were worthy winners. Their number 10 is probably the best player in the world at this moment in time and lit up the final with a fantastic display. He is certainly something to aspire to for me. I left the Paralympics with mixed feelings over my personal performance as I had played some of the best and worst games of my short career.
ripped the rule book to shreds in terms of the Paralympics.”
“We have ripped the rule book to shreds in terms of the Paralympics. We shone to the world” When it comes to the nigh-on impossible task of picking the Sports Personality of the Year, Walker backed Bradley Wiggins to take the award due to his likeable nature and historic achievements in such a short period of time. Having said that, as a runner himself he would “love to see Mo Farah
“The support was superb throughout, the 3,500 seater stadium full to the brim for all our group games” I believe this inconsistency is a result of still being fairly new to the game and having to cut my teeth at the international level. There is a domestic league in this country but the step up to international level is so large it’s like playing a different sport. I have a lot to work on, not least my game awareness, speed of thought and of course the constant drive to improve my all round skills. The support from all the British fans was superb throughout, with the 3,500 seater stadium full to the brim for all of our group games, and almost full for the 7th play-off game even though it was a 9AM kickoff. All our games were shown live on the Channel 4 network; I believe three were shown on Channel 4 itself with the others on a temporary Sky channel. The coverage has certainly raised the profile of the sport. Hopefully we will reap the rewards of this with our up and coming young players in the future Stepping outside of our football bubble, it was a fantastic privilege to be a part of the Paralympics, which were certainly the best Games ever. They pushed Paralympic sport to a level far beyond anything previously seen, both in terms of public profile and sporting ability. I hope to compete in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
win the award”. It has certainly been a marvellous Olympic and Paralympic summer in the history of British sport, showcasing everything that is good about sport and Britain as a country and Exeter University Alumni have been right at the heart of the action, fingers on the pulse. We will all move on, memories in our heads and memorabilia in our pockets but we should never forget that we may have witnessed the greatest summer in British sporting history. Exeter students are right up there when it comes to sport, and the sporting media and this summer just proves that if you stick to your guns and work hard who knows what you will achieve!
36
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It’s the Big One: Town or Gown? Exeter’s
Blade Runners Roller Hockey
V Football
Magnus Assmundson
EUAFC Publicity Secretary
IN the summer of 2001, Mike Polden, a popular football club member who had completed his first year at St Luke’s Campus studying sports science, died of a shock heart attack whilst out on a run. It was later confirmed that he was suffering from cardiomyopathy, so it is in order to commemorate this popular student’s life that the annual football varsity is played to raise money for two great charities, The Cardiomyopathy Association and The Adam Stansfield Foundation. For the fifth year in a row, EUAFC face local rivals Exeter City in a game hosted at St James’ Park, right in the centre of town. Last year the Uni managed to let a 2-1 lead slip, in a match
played in front of 3250 buzzing students, resulting in a 3-2 loss as City retained the Varsity Shield. The atmosphere on the night was electric, both at the 8500 seater ground and at timepiece afterwards. At the end of last season City were relegated into League Two, however, they have started their season positively, currently sitting third in the table. Despite their current form, the fact that City have dropped down from League One realistically gives the Uni their best chance of victory in this annual fixture. EUAFC come into the fixture on the back of a mixed set of results. Captain Jesse Wilson has lead the side to only one win, but the side have been extremely unlucky not to come away from more of their SW Peninsula League matches with three points. Centre midfielder Pete Beadle has been firing in the goals for Uni, scoring a hat trick in his last game. The Uni will miss the presence of club captain J.Madden, responsible for
“There will be a cheer routine by Exeter Cheerleading squad, prizes raffles and The Voice singer Hannah Berney ” much of the event organisation and the teams ever improving performances over the past few weeks, who unfortunately suffered a broken ankle just two weeks before the match. With a very strong squad this year the 1st team will also be looking to take the football club back into the BUCS Premier South Division after a few years absence. 3 October will not just be about football, there will be a cheer routine by the Exeter Cheerleading squad, prizes and raffles, live music from Exeter student and The Voice UK finalist Hannah Berney and a stop off for most Club socials before the night culminates in Timepiece.
Don’t miss out on what could potentially be the biggest student event of the year, with an expected turnout of 4000. Be sure to buy your tickets for this evening of sporting exuberance. This event means much more for the EUAFC than just winning on the night. The University’s eighteen man squad is as follows: A. Wilson, R. Pardo, A. Higgins, J.Micklen, O.Rossiter, J.Wilson, N.Thompson, R.Fellingham, M.Dale, P. Beadle, M.Assmundson, M.Marriott, S.Hodge, B.Miles, M.Langley, J.Madden T.Lees and N.Blackie The match kicks off at 19:45 at St James’ Park on Wednesday 3rd October. Tickets are available from EUAFC members all over campus.
DESPITE its size, Exeter is one of the few universities in the country not to have either an Ice or Inline Roller Hockey team. In a sense this is not surprising as the nearest ice rink suitable for hockey is at Bristol, but there is a thriving local inline roller hockey league. Exeter Storm are the nearest local club to the campus and have offered to help the University establish its own inline hockey club. Andy Goddard, Portuguese language student and Chairman of Exeter Storm told Exeposé: “Several Exeter University students have trained with us last year. “It wouldn’t take many more members to start up a full varsity team for the 2012-13 season. “We have some starter kit available and would welcome both beginners and experienced players. Training is at 11:00am on Saturday mornings at St. James’ School Sports Hall in Pinhoe”. Essentially inline roller hockey is like it’s sister sport, ice hockey, but on wheels. Many players actually state that it is both faster and more skillful than its ice equivalent. The main difference is that it is played as a low contact sport and therefore teams can be easily made up from both men and women. Furthermore, as all games are played indoors, unlike field sports, play is not subject to the possibility of cancellation due to our uncertain Devon weather! A huge positive when you’ve psyched yourself to get up from a warm bed in mid- winter! There is a British Universities Inline Roller Hockey (BUIR) Championship and local rivals such as Southampton University and Portsmouth University currently have mixed teams. Any Exeter University students who are interested in joining the the up and coming Exeter Storm roller hockey team, want to be involved in forming a new roller hockey club or even just want to attend a training session with their local club should contact Andy Goddard via email at yegods@aol. com. Exeter Storm welcome all standards of player- we would love to recruit as many students from the University as we can so get involved in a fun, exciting and relatively new sport!