Fuse issue 18

Best of 2009 / Delphic / The Lovely Bones / Internet Forever

Fuse.

Features.Short Fuse.

Editorial Christmas time, mistletoe and whine As someone with an advent birthday, I have always been slightly resentful towards the annual celebration of another guy’s birthday that completely dominates the nation. Yes, I understand that Jesus’ achievements completely better my own and I personally don’t have anything against him.

No, my only issue with Christmas is that despite it being fervently advertised as a time of giving, relatives of mine use it as a ‘kill two birds with one stone’ opportunity.

“It’s your joint Christmas and birthday present” they say as I unwrap a gift that’s half the price of something I bought them for their own birthday. “Oh you shouldn’t have,” I’m supposed to say when all I’m thinking is “why not go the whole hog when being a cheapskate and wrap the damn thing in toilet paper”.

The one I detest the most is when they actually forget: “sorry, I got so caught up in the festive hysteria gripping the country. It takes me totally by surprise every year”.

Fuse.

Friday December 4 2009

Why not wrap the thing in toilet paper

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So, as opposed to an issue devoted to looking forward to Christmas, we have gone for a look back at the year that was in this week’s Fuse as we chart the best of 2009. We surveyed the whole Forge Press team across all the sections of the newspaper to find out their favourite show, film, comedy performance, album, single, TV programme, game, and suTCo performance of the year and the results can be found, along with the comments of the Fuse team on them, in the central pages of this pull-out.

This poll is not just a product of my irritation or a decision based on the fact that everyone else seems to do it at this time of year, but because it represents a real opportunity to engage you, our readership, in a debate with us. If you disagree with the outcome of the vote then go to our website where you can have your own vote on what the highlights of 2009 were.

As this is our last edition of Fuse before the end of the semester I suppose I should wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy New Year but I am going to add one piece of advice: if you do know someone with a birthday that falls in December (or early January for that matter) make sure you get them a decent present.

Alistair White

The legacy of the CGI ’toon talking toys In Hindsight Toy Story Director:John Lasseter

Twenty-two Oscars, four golden globes and three Grammys in 15 years; we get the idea, Pixar have a knack for blockbusting.

Next summer, however, the Californian masters of CGI are once again set to dominate the world of cinema; Toy Story 3 is coming.

Does this blockbuster still soar?

Yes If we cast our minds back, 1995 was a fairly memorable year: the first OJ Simpson trial was settled in an absolute media frenzy, Jacques Chirac was elected the prime minister of France and the Shuttle Atlantis docked with Mir for the very first time, marking international space cooperation between Russia and the United States.

Obviously these events are rendered insignificant next to the release of Toy Story.

We couldn’t believe our eyes as the theatrical trailers were released. Toys

coming to life... were they serious? This wasn’t just every child’s wildest dream materialising right before them, this was the first movie ever to be animated in full CGI. Not since the development of colour television had a release prompted such excitement on a global scale.

Parents, grandparents, children; there wasn’t a single demographic to be left untouched. Buzz Light-year action figures became more valuable than star dust, much to the dismay of many kids at the time. They weren’t stupid; Pixar had every child and parent in the palm of their hands. Even the most cynical of critics were rendered weaponless.

So looking back, two sequels later, does this revolutionary blockbuster still soar? Let’s not waste time hedging our bets; the answer is a resounding yes.

Although not as advanced as the likes of Up and Ratatouille, the animation, camera angles and presentation are still mindblowing. A cast of stars, including the legendary Tom Hanks alongside Tim Allen, deliver a near-perfect script.

The intensity of the now famous moving-van chase scene is still up there with the likes of Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Some of us even found ourselves, rather

embarrassingly, calling out for Woody and Buzz to “use the rocket!” in the middle of a packed cinema. But such was the immense impact that this film had on the younger audiences.

Parents loved the film’s subtle messages Every box of the perfect animated fantasy is not only ticked, but punched to the point of a dented table.

Adorable and memorable characters

(everybody wanted a talking slinky dog), a genuinely chilling antagonist (the sociopathic next door neighbour Sid still palpitates the spine), not to mention the confrontation of real-life issues like jealousy, sentiment and growing up.

Parents loved the film’s subtle messages to children; take pride in your belongings, keep things tidy (notice how Andy’s room is always spotless?

Nobody is that perfect), don’t be envious of others as you always have a place and, perhaps most importantly, don’t bugger about with fireworks.

Without sounding like the head of a parenting class, Toy Story boasted a moral high ground that isn’t often replicated.

Is it really necessary to highlight the brilliance of this film though? Its influence is self evident in other critically acclaimed Pixar movies, from its successor A Bug’s Life, its sequel Toy Story 2 and more recently, the amazing Wall-E (arguably the greatest animated movie of recent years, perhaps all-time).

Even outside of the entertainment and film industry, the impact of this film is unmatchable.

In 2008, 13 years after its release, the film’s catchphrase ‘To infinity and beyond!’ was reportedly used by a father and son stranded, treading water in

the Atlantic Ocean for 15 hours, to locate each other.

Somehow you can’t imagine, ‘The name’s Bond...’ having the same effect.

Even killjoy scientists and mathematicians have gone out of their way to make statements challenging the film’s catchphrase, helpfully and pedantically reminding us that you ‘can’t go further than infinity’. Thanks for that.

No film could have such an impact if it was naff In the long and short of it, no film could have had such an impact and legacy if it was naff. Crisp animation and cutting edge production technology doesn’t guarantee a masterpiece, even in live action movies.

Take the wonderfully pretentious and diabolical The Day the Earth Stood Still as an example.

Toy Story marked a great maturation in movie-making and, although the bar continues to be raised time and time again by Pixar, they will always look back on their first project as their most important. Perhaps it’s ironic that some of the greatest animated movies of the modern era owe themselves to a bunch of talking toys.

Tom Fletcher

Putting a rocket up a hamster’s arse Clubber’s Guide Pets & Fireworks Don’t Mix The Harley Name of the night Pets & Fireworks Don’t Mix. Tagline The Harley needs your iPod. Who runs it The Harley turn the stage over to anyone with a high enough opinion of their tune selection to get up and play a five-song set from their MP3 player.

When is it on and how often is it Every Tuesday night from 9.30pm until 4am.

Where is it The Harley.

Door Tax Free entry.

People with iPods are welcome. People wanting a cocktail of dogs and sparklers aren’t.

Anyone that loves music, Just compile your playlist, What type of music will be and particularly anyone rock up, make yourself playing that’s ever bored their known to the bar staff, and Anything and everything. friends with phrases like plug in. There’s a free drink Apart from Michael Bublé. ‘you seriously have to hear in it for anyone that does. this tune’.

Standard attire/Uniform Who’s played in the past As long as you come MP3 Ethos/Motto The Harley’s manager once player in-hand, it doesn’t No mixing required. No played ‘Bat Out of Hell’. matter what you’re wearing. genre snobbery.

Who’s lined up for the Who’s it for General Info future

Anyone who fancies it.

There’s no such thing as celebrity at this night.

Recommendations for other nights Due to the opening hours, it’s a bit of a Tuesday Club pre-and-post bar.

Next event Tuesday, December 8.

Features.Short Fuse.

Old and new Mods and rockers Clubber’sGuide Brighton Beach O2 Academy Name of the night Brighton Beach.

Fuse Musings The Fuse team’s thoughts Fuse is... repulsed by the news that U2 will be headlining Glastonbury.

One member of the team has already suggested they are willing to give up their ticket and the rest of us are a little less bothered about missing out. However, without massive stage effects to hide their music behind, U2 will probably end up just blending in with the surroundings, what with them being an enormous stinking pile of cow shit and all.

Who runs it University of Sheffield graduate Mark Dennis.

When is it on and how often is it First Saturday of every month.

Where is it 02 Academy Sheffield What type of music will be playing The very best indie, britpop and ’60s soul (Northern and Motown) across two rooms. There will be some new music but it’s mostly uplifting classic tunes and timeless music; ones that are immune to going out of fashion. You could end up hearing an Aretha Franklin or Rolling Stones record played alongside The Libertines or Kings of Leon.

Fuse thinks...

Speech Debelle has made an error of judgement by sacking her record label. She blames Big Dada Recordings for her poor record sales after her Mercury Music Prize win, saying they didn’t do enough to get more copies of Speech Therapy in the shops. The fact that ticket sales for her live shows were dismal, most people found her album about as exciting as lukewarm water and that she sounds like an absolute fucking nightmare to work with are all things Debelle chose to ignore.

Not to sound sarcastic but, yeah good luck with that Speech.

Door Tax £5 in advance. Tickets available from Freshman’s Boutique, Academy Box Office and www.lunatickets. co.uk.

Standard attire/Uniform For the girls it’s all about shift dresses, clutch handbags and vintage accessories and for boys try suited and booted or Fred Perry polos, skinny jeans and shoe-shined brogues.

psychedelic visuals and DVD projections of cult ’60s films. Doors are 11-3pm.

Recommendations other nights

for

Check Death By Shoes at

The Cremorne which plays post-punk, new wave, ’60s garage and rock ‘n’ roll and has been in Clubber’s Guide before.

Next Event Saturday, December 5.

Lots of Plug tickets up for grabs Competition Your chance to win Annie Mac & NYE tickets

when you arrive. All you have to do to be in with a shout of winning is answer this simple question: who is Annie Mac’s co-presenter on BBC Switch? Is it: a) b) c)

Nick Grimshaw Greg James Zane Lowe

Send your answer to f u s e @ fo r g e t o d ay. c o m , along with your contact details by midnight on Monday December 14 and this wonderful prize could be yours.

But if this offer doesn’t tickle your fancy then not to worry; listen to competition number two. Plug’s New Year’s Eve party is a great way to usher out the old and bring in the new with

style and this year it’s a circus-themed fancy dress occasion. With all of Plug’s residents controlling the decks, this is bound to be a great night. We have three pairs of tickets to give away and if you want them then all you need to do is, you’ve guess it, answer a simple question: which of these would you not expect to find at a circus: a) b) c)

a tent a clown a golf course

Same rules apply; send your answer to fuse@ forgetoday.com, along with your contact details by midnight on Monday December 14 if you want to be a winner. Good luck.

Fuse recommends... this little piece of trivia: type ‘I like’ into Google and await the drop-down list of suggestions. Hopefully you will be as surprised and amused as we were to find that the number one was ‘I like to tape my thumbs to my hands to see what it would be like to be a dinosaur’.

Just a little anecdote for your amusement but don’t ask us how we found this out.

Fuse sniggered... just a little bit at the claims made by Timberlake Wertenbaker, the West End playwright who suggested that the critics who came to see her play were too intoxicated and tired to review it properly after going to an awards lunch prior to the show. Here at Forge Press, we try not to fall foul of free alcohol at awards ceremonies, however last year’s editor may have had a glass too many at the recent Guardian Student Media Awards.

Fuse.

As it’s our last issue of the year, we have not one but two very special competitions for you, thanks to our friends at Plug. On Saturday December 19, Shuflle along with Radio One’s own Annie Mac have put together a Christmas cracker of a line-up including Toddla T, Boy 8 Bit, Riton and Delphic performing live as well as the first lady of the airwaves herself.

If that’s sounds like a night not to be missed to you (and frankly why

wouldn’t it?) then delay your plans for going home for the holidays and see if you can get your hands on the prize in our give-away.

For one lucky winner and three of their mates there’s not only VIP queue jump tickets up for grabs but a bottle of champagne to share

Fuse laughed... when it heard that Zac Efron wants to be a villain in a Bond movie.

We are trying to imagine a menacing Zac Efron as the baddie but no matter what possibilities we come up with (an American spy gone AWOL and a deranged OCD computer genius being just a couple of suggestions) it’s just too absurd. Frankly, the day Efron is cast as a 007 villain really is the day the franchise should be decommissioned.

Fuse will be... spending its last Christmas with David Tennant, as the two-part Doctor Who special that will be shown over the holiday will be Tennant’s last appearance as The Doctor.

We already know the identity of the new Doctor (I personally received about a half-dozen texts along the lines of “who the fuck is Matt Smith?” when he was announced as the 11th Doctor) but without Tennant it just won’t be the same.

Friday December 4 2009

Who’s it for The night is tailor-made for lovers of ’60s style and music with a modern twist.

General Info The club features two rooms of floor pounding music with indie, Britpop and ’60s soul in room one, while in room two, DJs spin northern soul, garage and psych all on beautiful 45s. Also expect

Fuse is... looking forward to Christmas television. For about two weeks we can fill ourselves on some great TV, though we will have to pick it out from mountains of rubbish as every show from the past decade is given an outing in a festive costume for a Christmas special.

However, this Christmas also means that...

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Interview.Internet Forever.

Long live lo-fi

My Computer

My Documents

Forge Today

Fuse.

Friday December 4 2009

Jeremy Peel talks to Internet Forever

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In what is far too frequently referred to as the Internet 2.0, power has fallen into the most unexpected of hands.

Whilst the most successful YouTube meme can grant you only international ridicule, it’s become impossible to deny the genuine influence bloggers now hold.

Amateur critics the world over now have a serious hand in the making, breaking and distributing that used to be decided exclusively by professionals.

No one is more acutely aware of this than Craig of fuzzy indie-poppers Internet Forever.

“I’m always thinking about when we’ll be yesterday’s news. People who write blogs want to be the first to discover someone, and I’m not

sure how they would react if we got mainstream attention. But we email blogs and do features and keep them in the loop so, I’m not sure about a backlash, maybe that’ll come, but I don’t know...”

‘I’m always thinking about when we’ll be yesterday’s news’ An unhealthy amount of cynicism, you might think, for a band barely out of their 7”s. But then this is a band familiar with the slightly perverse nature of internet phenomena, the very germ of Internet Forever being formed in the comment sections of

various blogs.

Craig – blogging alias Heartbeeps – originally started with nothing but a high concept of a band name, one that he explains with some enthusiasm.

“When I thought of the name, I was thinking of the idea that things that you put on the internet will always be there after you are. I’ve got so much invested in the internet, like photographs, emails and memories and contacts and things – it’s the idea that it will all be there forever, and when it’s turned off, I’m not sure where it goes but it’s always there when I come back to it...”

By the end of this last comment, the sense of naïve wonder in his tone is enough to send the rest of the band – stuck for the moment in a somewhat less than wondrous multistorey car park in Reading – into peals of laughter.

But there was clearly enough genuine inspiration in the name to convince fellow commentsection-frequenter Laura Wolf of the need to build a band around it.

Laura travelled from London to Cambridge to meet Craig in person and the pair spawned their first song, ‘3D’, an ode to how people tend to look nothing like their online avatars.

“We finished ‘3D’ by sending each other parts of it. Originally [the collaboration] was just going to be one song and then it got carried away a little bit”. Enjoying the instant feedback that MySpace offered, the duo quickly developed an ethos favouring speedy creation over Brian Wilson-esque sonic perfection. Partly as a side effect of this, their songs come with many of the trappings of the recent lo-fi movement that has dominated underground indie in the past year; clipped drums, shouty vocals and guitars so distorted and indistinct as to become textured.

A quote on their MySpace page proclaims that they are “Good at music, bad at fidelity”, a phrase that has, perhaps unfairly, been taken as their mission statement.

“We liked it because it sums up what we’re about really simply. We make pop songs, and the lo-fi part was necessary at the beginning because we just recorded on computers and didn’t really know much about it.

We all like lo-fi music, but it’s not something we’re steadfast in and say, ‘no, it must sound like crap, y’know.’”

This might sound no big deal to those of you who live outside the influence

of subculture fickleness, but to a large proportion of Internet Forever’s current listenership – the kind to dismiss any group who dare spend more than fifty quid on a production job or haven’t been punched in the face

by Wavves mastermind Nathan Williams – these kind of statements are nothing short of heresy.

‘We want to strike a balance between lofi and pop’ “We’ve since gone into recording studios and done things properly,” emphasizes Craig, stamping on eggshells.

“We’ve kept a little bit of that sound but we’re padding it out a bit. We’ve got terrible instruments, eBay instruments, so it’s never going to sound crisp and clean and polished, but we hope we can add something to it rather than detract.

Some bands stick to lo-fi so much that it detracts from the music.”

It’s Internet Forever’s eagerness to “strike the balance between lo-fi aesthetic and pop music” that provides them with their unique appeal, but has also seen accusations

of twee-ness thrown their way.

“I don’t know if people say that because we have a female singing or we’ve got a few handclaps or we’ve got a glock. We don’t appear twee when we play live; I like to think we’re a bit heavier than that.”

Now a real touring three-piece for whom “mostly everything now happens in real life” – plus a manager hired to help the band through myriad confusing meetings – the group’s ambitions have been raised a notch or two.

“Originally my single aspirations were to play All Tomorrow’s Parties and South by Southwest,” says Craig. “My goal has always been to have my own 7” that I can hold and show off to all my mates. Obviously that’s happened now, so I think we’re all looking forward to doing an album, and we’d like to tour America.”

So that’s Internet Forever: a celebration of the internet, but certainly not confined to it. With the album given a tentative release date of “next year sometime” and the band seemingly keen to leave their lo-fi leanings behind it’s hard to say when or in what form we’ll next see them, but we’ll certainly be keeping our eyes peeled.

Feature.The Lovely Bones.

The lovely life ever after Phil Rich meets Peter Jackson and talks about the difficulties of turning Alice Sebold’s hit novel, The Lovely Bones, into a blockbuster.

“A

Sebold’s harrowing tale.

The novel’s story of a young girl’s murder and subsequent silent observation of her family’s attempts to deal with grief and loss, is something of a departure for the director following the fantastical, effects-driven thrill rides of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong. Sebold’s story is wrought, emotional and plain nasty in places, casting an unflinching gaze upon a group of wellbalanced characters forced to confront horror and then struggle to live with it. For Jackson, making this film was clearly a challenge, but also an attractive project because of its size:

Jackson may see the film as small, but it should have been smaller

green field. The fragments of Susie’s past life float by, scraps of memory that are sometimes rather clumsily foregrounded as symbols of a destructive reality she is no longer in control of.

The problem is this abstract visual realm is clearly meant to appear interesting and ethereally beautiful. Rather, it appears hackneyed and a little vulgar and doesn’t warrant the length of time we spend there.

But what really grates is the CGI’s infection of the ‘real’ parts of the story. This is most vividly demonstrated during the film’s dénouement, which involves the rolling of an object into a rubbish tip.

Any highly-charged symbolism is mostly flattened by the sequence’s conspicuous and unnecessary use of CGI. As the computerrendered object tumbles, it lacks weight and bounces unnaturally into the swamp below. It’s a brief moment which perfectly encapsulates a wider problem with Jackson’s approach to this film.

The director has imposed the bombastic processes and structures of the epic onto a story which would benefit from subtlety and a lightness of touch. I can’t help but believe that a stripped down, characterdriven, organic version of The Lovely Bones would have offered something far greater.

While adapting Tolkien suited the big-budget cinematics we were presented with here, adapting Sebold required an affecting but subtle approach previously used to great effect in the director’s own Heavenly Creatures.

Peter Jackson might see The Lovely Bones film as small, but it should have been smaller.

Fuse.

“We came out of Lord of the Rings and King Kong feeling like we had a pipeline in place that was reasonably well-oiled and comfortable for doing big budget effects films, and so we were certainly looking for something smaller.”

But don’t be fooled by Jackson’s definition of size.

While The Lovely Bones is more restrained in scope, and tighter than his last four films, it employs many of the now-trademark elements associated with the director’s epic vision.

There are crane shots, CGI vistas, and lots of tense, furrowed brows. This is, to everyone else’s standards, a very big film.

Susie Salmon, the film’s lead, murder victim, and prisoner within the ‘In Between’ world which exists between reality and heaven, is played by 15-year old Saorise Ronan, a relative newcomer most notable for her previous role in Atonement. The pressure on her shoulders is expertly concealed in a performance that matches the film’s size and crucially is also very likeable. There is little of the ‘brat factor’ evident here.

Our perspective, sympathies and hopes all lie with Susie, so Ronan’s effortless, charming performance pulls us deep within the world from the off. Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz put in decent turns as the anguished parents, but their emotional struggle is somewhat sidelined by Jackson’s foregrounding of the story’s fantasy elements.

Elsewhere, Stanley Tucci puts in an appropriately creepy performance as the film’s villain, and Sarandon plays a humorous role as the children’s alcoholic grandma, drafted in to look after the family after Susie’s disappearance. Sarandon is clearly having fun, and her comic relief is welcome amidst the relentlessly bleak struggle of the family, despite one questionably judged musical montage which jars a with the film’s otherwise serious tone.

While the characters in The Lovely Bones are for the most part competently drawn and played, the resonance of their plight is significantly diluted by Jackson’s obsession with size. This film lacks intimacy because it is so big. Its epic take on Sebold’s story makes us feel like passing observers, floating on a crane or amidst a CGI backdrop, halfway between reality and the purgatory occupied by Susie. The pain of the characters always seems distanced, dissipating into wide expanses of space and lost amongst reams of surreal visual imagery that seems to clang hollow against the horror of the real.

Because in The Lovely Bones CGI really is everywhere.

On one level this is perhaps to be expected. Jackson’s recent successes have leaned heavily on the life computer generated imagery can provide. Gollum and King Kong had computer graphics to thank for their vividness and imagination.

Susie’s In Between world is rendered entirely in CGI, and Jackson spends a long time revelling in its Alice In Wonderland-style surrealism. One minute we are presented with a snowstrewn forest, and the next an expansive and lusciously

Friday December 4 2009

dapting the book was the hardest thing we’ve ever done in our lives” announces Peter Jackson.

He sits amongst his fellow colleagues in a boardroom of Claridges Hotel and his statement hovers for a moment, met with a palpable sense of surprise amongst the gathered press. Isn’t this the guy that did Lord of the Rings?

Surely that wasn’t a walk in the park?

The book to which he refers is Alice Sebold’s widely popular The Lovely Bones, a text which features prominently in the discussions generated by both director and actors during the press gathering.

Like any popular book adaptation, Jackson’s The Lovely Bones has been subject to a significant amount of hype, speculation and cynicism prior to its release. But along with those who have read the book, there is also the little matter of fans of Jackson himself, individuals who have been known to have expectations that are rather on the high side.

The conference is a fairly muted affair, with Jackson joined by six of his actors and producer C a r o l y n n e Cunningham.

Questions mainly revolve around the challenges faced by the director during the adaptation process and the startling performance of the film’s young lead, Saorise Ronan.

The enigmatic and lucid Susan Sarandon is the most engaging of those present, talking amusingly about her role in the film as an alcoholic grandma and poignantly about the resonance of Sebold’s novel in post-9/11 America.

Most revealing is a moment in which Sarandon and Jackson are quizzed about their belief in the Afterlife.

While Sarandon’s answer is expertly non-committal, Jackson tells a story of a female ghost who once haunted a house he was staying in. His story reveals his faith in fantasy and in the romantic, cuddly side to

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Interview.JonathanTyrell.

Life in the perfect light Sheffield politics graduate turned

professional photographer Jonathan Tyrell speaks to Kristi Genovese about capturing the pulse of the city in the camera lens.

Fuse.

Friday December 4 2009

T

here aren’t many politics students who leave university and walk into their own photography business by accident, but Jonathan Tyrell is a prime example of how a hobby can be turned into a moneymaking job. The 26-year-old graduated from University of Sheffield in 2007 with a Politics degree, but soon realised he was chasing the wrong dream.

He says: “I’m a big believer in going for your dream and this encouraged me to step out, so if you have something you love doing just go for it.

“My main belief in life is that God made everyone an individual and that there is stuff we all like doing in our heart and things that people are passionate about. Sometimes you can get pushed in the wrong direction with what you think you should do, rather than what you want to do.”

Jonathan has been all over the world with his trusty SLR cameras and his portfolio shows work from many different cities, including Paris, Rome, Berlin, Prague, Strasbourg, San Francisco and Sheffield.

Now he is selling his work and has just started up his own full-time business. His main project this year is selling Christmas gifts that range from £5-£25, which he says is for the student market. He even delivers the picture gifts directly to people in Sheffield but can send some through the post without the glass.

People with a bit more cash can buy his more expensive work and one of his pieces was sold for £185.

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Above: Tyrell’s Paris Walk.

“Cities are my main subject area. I started taking pictures for A-level and GCSE Art and did artistic environments that people see and are familiar with, but can look different.

I literally walk round the streets and think ‘that looks good’ and will take a photo.

The things that I think look good are reflections, light, vibrant colours and silhouettes.”

Taking photographs of reflections isn’t always a good idea if someone is behind the window though and Jonathan has a few anecdotes to tell.

‘I’d like to go down the “photos that changed the world” route’ “I’ve had taxi drivers shout at me before asking me why I’m taking a picture of them when I’m just taking a picture of the reflection.

Sometimes I feel like an idiot as well when I’m stood there taking a picture of a window.”

Proving that we all have a natural talent for something, Jonathan explains how some of his best work was actually taken by accident.

“There’s one picture that a lot of people seem to like.

I was in St Peter’s church in Rome and was focusing on the light coming through the window. When I looked back through the film I captured two people who I think were crossing each other and it looked like a couple were

kissing or something in the middle of the light.”

Jonathan started taking photos as a side project but realised he wanted to do it full-time when he took a gap year after University and travelled to various cities with his camera.

“If there are certain pictures that I want I will make certain trips. I wanted to go to Rome because I knew there would be good stuff. Next I want to go to Bristol, as that’s where I grew up, and I’d like to give Sheffield more justice and take more pictures there.

“Australia would be cool as well and I’d like to go back to Barcelona. I went when I was younger and it was the most amazing trip and I don’t have any photographs of the place.”

Once he started to build up his portfolio he began doing exhibitions in Bristol and Sheffield to show off his work. The first exhibition was at an arts centre in Bristol during his A-levels and he sold his first ever picture in a bar in Bristol when he was just 18-years-old. He has also been involved in urban arts projects.

It is still a learning curve for the former politics student though and he explains that he learns new things after every exhibition, such as how to set up his work in the most appealing way.

The photographer has lots of plans for the future including meeting up with different department stores such as John Lewis and Ikea where he hopes to be able to get a contract to sell his work. Over Christmas Jonathan will be taking his work to schools in Sheffield and the University of

Sheffield’s student village so that students can see his work too. He will also be visiting other schools and universities around the country.

It looks like we may be seeing a lot more of Jonathan Tyrell’s work around the country.

He says: “There’s potential to bring social justice and campaigning areas into my work. I’d like to do big eye catching pieces of artwork with social justice issues in them but that may be a few years away. Also I wouldn’t be opposed to going down the ‘photos that changed

the world’ route.”

You can find Jonathan Tyrell’s work on his Facebook group: J Tyrell Photography Christmas Gifts 09, and on his website: www.jt-photography.co.uk.

Tyrell’s most popular photograph, captured in St Peter’s, Rome.

Interview.Delphic.

electro-gazing Alexandra Rucki chats to one of 2010’s hot tips, Delphic.

to acknowledge our own music.”

Recently the music scene’s eye has been turned away from Manchester, with new talent tending to emerge from Northern neighbours Sheffield and Leeds. The arrival of Delphic has caused music publications to work themselves up into a frenzy, declaring it is up to the group to inject some life back into the scene, and the term ‘Nu-Manchester’ being coined to describe the band.

Most musicians would feel somewhat daunted by this prospect, but Cocksedge is thrilled with this forecast: “It is really exciting if that is the case. I think Manchester is becoming in danger of getting drowned by the weight of its history, and sometimes people look back to the past too much.

“But I think the great thing about Manchester is that it is always looking forward to moving on, and everyone is excited with what can happen in the future.”

Matt names super-club The Warehouse Project as a key figure in moving on from Manchester’s musical past which he refers to as “a great thing for Manchester”, and offers his praises towards other local bands, such as

Everything Everything.

The band’s original line up consisted of Richard and Matt, and first started out making indiepop, appearing in this form on local television station Channel M. But soon the band got tired of making music under this genre, and realised they needed to rethink their output.

“We just became really bored, and did not really like the songs we had written.

We were really demystified with what seemed to be going on in the music industry, and we really wanted to freshen it up and get ourselves excited again about music. We thought long and hard, split up the other band and came back with Delphic.”

Released next year on January 11, the debut album Acolyte was recorded and produced in Berlin. It appears that the band has a love for Berlin, acknowledging that the dance scene in Germany’s capital, as well as the surroundings, has had some influence in their music: “You can’t help being

influenced by your surroundings,” says Cocksedge.

“One of the great things about Berlin is that it has quite a similar vibe to Manchester; it has this similar sort of decaying glory and this melancholic beauty in it. We felt at home immediately here.”

Future plans for the band include completing their first ever headlining tour, after previous jaunts with Bloc Party and Orbital, and releasing their debut album next year; but what boxes are Delphic insistent that they tick off?

“We are really looking forward to growing as a band, and just want to keep challenging ourselves,” says Cocksedge, before adding: “You will have to just wait and see what we have up our sleeves: watch this space.”

And so we will, waiting to see if Delphic will fulfil the expectations that have been laid out for them.

Fuse.

past year, it appears that the band have the ability to make wise choices in terms of their career.

Releasing singles and touring with Gallic electro tastemakers Kitsuné Music; appearing on Later... with Jools Holland; and picking Berlin-based techno expat Ewan Pearson to produce Acolyte; all associations that have successfully launched previous careers, and brought critical acclaim.

However, Cocksedge is wary of declaring in advance what exactly it is that these associations have brought Delphic so far: “It’s hard for us to judge when it is early days, but I wouldn’t say we are not aware of it. We wouldn’t be able to say if this has brought us opportunities I guess until later on.

“We are here in Berlin at the moment because of Kitsuné, performing at a Kitsuné Maison night.

I think with Kitsuné, they are really brilliant at finding new artists and producing music.

“And with Jools Holland, it was something we have aspired to; I don’t think any other television programme has the means for live music to transfer as well onto screen as Later... with Jools Holland does. So being able to perform live on there was really amazing.”

When listening to the

singles ‘Counterpoint’ and ‘This Momentary’, it is easy to compare the band to New Order. The amalgamation of guitar music and electronic beats evoke the musical heritage the band have inherited from their home town, bringing to mind days gone by of the Hacienda when Manchester was at the heart of the dance music scene. But do Delphic become tired of this constant, slightly lazy comparison to New Order?

“In some ways we do mind that whenever anybody mentions us, they also will probably mention New Order,” he says.

“However, New Order is a great band and a really important band, and to be compared to someone like that it is obviously flattering.

“Sometimes it does seem like the easy comparison for people to make, I think if we came from Sheffield we would probably be compared to The Human League. I think it happens because the band is from Manchester and also did a bit of a dance thing,” Cocksedge adds.

“We will have to grin and bear it, and wait for people

Friday December 4 2009

As the year draws to a close many music publications, magazines and blogs gaze into their crystal balls and attempt to predict which musicians will be big in 2010.

The Mancunian electronic trio Delphic are already featuring on these lists, gaining media attention before their debut album Acolyte has even been released. NME has declared that the band is “most likely to be massive by next year”, and The Guardian labelled the four-piece as one of their new favourite bands to emerge last month. But how are Delphic coping with the buzz that has suddenly begun to surround them?

Guitarist Matt Cocksedge explains that he has mixed feelings towards the predictions the press have been making: “I feel kind of happy and kind of nervous, because we don’t want to be that kind of band which at first receives a lot of attention and then people wonder ‘what ever happened to them?’ That would be shit.

“It is kind of a problem, because you would rather they were saying this than not, but at the same time it is a lot of pressure. We can’t really change anything that happens, all we can do is try to improve, and remember that it is our band.”

Casting an eye over the

7

Feature.Best of 2009.

Question: nearly every other publication on the planet has or will be deconstructing the past 12 months, or in some cases the last 10 years, into a list and will feed us the prime cuts in bitesize form; so what’s better about the Fuse roundup? Well, we haven’t done it as a shameless attempt at shifting units and boosting sales. Alright then, what about the websites doing it? I can view their top 10 tracks of the year for free. OK, perhaps if I give you an insight into how the survey was done and how you can still get involved then you might have a little more tolerance for it.

I realise that in the opening paragraph I have just had a conversation with myself but it does raise an important point: is there really a need for this opinion poll? Ultimately, no. You all have your own opinions on what should come top in the categories shown on these pages and certainly don’t need to hear the thoughts of the Forge Press personnel.

You may even feel we have unforgiveably overlooked something, in which case, we want to hear from you because, really, that is the aim of our ‘Best of 2009’ poll; to get into a bit of friendly verbal bashing with our readers, or if you don’t feel that strongly or don’t want to put it into words, then just take part in our online ‘Best of 2009’ ballot at www.forgetoday.com where you can give us your own consensus.

The results shown here are the outcome of all the people who work on Forge Press (editors, writer, photographers etc) voting on a list drawn up by the Fuse editorial team and are unlikely to be a reflection of your own view. We wouldn’t expect it to be but because we always strive to know what students think, we’re giving you something to shout about and then a place to have your voice heard. So take a look at these pages, choose to agree or disagree and then let us know at our website, because you know Animal Collective so should have bloody won.

Fuse.

Friday December 4 2009

Show

8

Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray It seems like a risky proposition: take a lateVictorian novel by the most infamous of literary wits, and remake it in the wordless art of ballet. But Matthew Bourne pulled the whole thing off with a brilliance evident even to those who had never seen a ballet performance in their life.

Wilde’s themes never seemed more prophetic of our celebrity-obsessed culture, and the show’s visual wit and seductive choreography perfectly captured the bleary, entropic cadence of a night out in the city that never, ever ends. Watching Dorian transform from a waif but hungry innocent into a tyrannical storm of vanity and self-conceit, ending in murder, rape and suicide left a genuinely haunting impression in the imagination.

Richard Scott

Comedy Show Eddie Izzard Stripped

Show of the Year shortlist Chicago Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray Sing-Along Hairspray The Tempest West Side Story Comedy Show of the Year shortlist Eddie Izzard - Stripped Russell Kane - Human Dressage Tom Wrigglesworth - Open Return Letter to Richard Branson The Shrimps Wendy Houston - Happy Hour suTCo Show of the Year shortlist The Bald Prima Donna The Love of the Nightingale Not Spain Paradise Lost Twelfth Night Album of the Year shortlist Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion Bat for Lashes – Two Suns Fever Ray – Fever Ray The Horrors – Primary Colours The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart Sub Focus – Sub Focus Vitalic – Flashmob Wild Beasts – Two Dancers The xx - xx Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!

Single of the Year shortlist Animal Collective – ‘My Girls’ Beyonce – ‘Sweet Dreams’ Camera Obscura – ‘French Navy’ Dizzee Rascal feat. Armand Van Helden – ‘Bonkers’ Jack Penate – ‘Be The One’ Jay-Z – ‘D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)’ La Roux – ‘In For The Kill’ (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey Remix) Lady Gaga – ‘Poker Face’ The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – ‘Young Adult Fiction’ St. Vincent – ‘Actor Out Of Work’

Eddie Izzard originally caught the eye of the comedy world through his statement transvestite image, which provided him with the platform he needed to brandish his extraordinary wit.

His roles as comedian, political activist and his recent success of completing 43 marathons in 51 days, make him a truly interesting individual, a trait that is furthered through his bizarre comedy.

Using surreal analogies in his energetic performances, Izzard distinguishes himself from the typical one-man-andhis-mic stand-up comics.

This awareness of a need to perform is the reason why Izzard’s lively, obscure and active entertainment is one which has kept us laughing for over a decade.

Holly Willis

suTCo Show Paradise Lost Not many texts are as challenging as John Milton’s Paradise Lost, never mind a stage version of the epic poem, which made it an interesting choice for suTCo. The acting was great, with the iconic figures of Heaven and Hell cast well; Sarah Raine and Glenn Moore played a sympathetic Adam and Eve, whilst Selina Thompson portrayed an intimidating Satan. The director cleverly bought to life this complicated text and produced something accessible and visually beautiful.

Paradise Lost has been given the privilege of being crowned Fuse’s suTCo Show of the Year and with such a daring and successful play, it is not hard to see why.

Catherine Redfern

Album YeahYeahYeahs It’s Blitz!

March saw New York City’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs return to form with It’s Blitz!; an album that expressed the group’s maturity in a wave of newly polished electronic sounds. Gone were the uncontrolled angsty screams, manic rhythms and the more noticeable aspects of Nick Zinner’s trademark guitars.

Their intensity had been reined in and refreshed with one impressive, electrifying charge.

Despite some doubters, Karen O’s clan did not disappoint.

Although the raw rock ’n’ roll edge that had made them unmissable both live and on record was no longer as obvious, it was purely because the trio had a few more tricks up their collective sleeve. It’s Blitz! saw the

performances from Brad Pitt and Christoph Waltz, this film is simultaneously violent, witty, unrestrained and outrageous, but utterly thrilling.

Likewise, Pixar proved they can do no wrong with their heartfelt adventure, Up, simply featuring a chubby kid, a grumpy pensioner and a house tied to thousands of helium balloons. Touching, daring, and expertly crafted, Up is an instant classic full of imagination, that proved that Pixar, like Tarantino, are the one of the best filmmakers currently around.

band tackle a wider range of anthemic, dancefloor friendly ditties, such as ‘Heads Will Roll’ and ‘Zero’, which saw them confidently venture into the mirrorball-tinged world of electro-pop. This contrasted with the atmospheric ‘Skeletons’ and ‘Hysteric’, which glanced back at the band’s tender offerings of yesteryear.

With the addition of a few more straight-laced guitardriven tracks, It’s Blitz! falls into the edgier end of pop without lowering itself to the standard of the synthdominated tracks of today.

Vibrant, bold and modern, Yeah Yeah Yeahs proved that a change of direction isn’t always a bad thing.

Melissa Gillespie

TV Show

Natasha Parker

Peep Show Channel 4

Single La Roux ‘In for the Kill’ (Skream’s Let’s Get Ravey remix) In the year dubstep went overground, Skream provided us with the genre’s first true crossover anthem. Released on vinyl back in March with a limited run of 5,000 records, the track’s slow build to near ubiquity has been fascinating to watch.

Fearlessly raiding electropop to find its emotional core, the Croydon producer replaced ‘In for the Kill’’s quirky synth lines with minimalist subbass, exposing La Roux’s clipped, ice-cold delivery in all its magnificence. Like any great remix, the track pushed the original into unfamiliar territory whilst still making perfect sense. At once brittle and elegant, reflective and expansive, it has been the single greatest noise to perforate our eardrums all year.

Jeremy Peel

Film Inglourious Basterds and Up

.

An Education Away We Go Broken Embraces District 9 Fantastic Mr. Fox Frost/Nixon The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Star Trek Up TV Show of the Year shortlist Come Dine With Me The Inbetweeners Life Peep Show True Blood Game of the Year shortlist Batman: Arkham Asylum Borderlands Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Dragon Age: Origins Empire: Total War Forza Motorsport 3 Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars Left 4 Dead 2 Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Melissa Gillespie

Game Call of Duty: ModernWarfare 2

Alistair White

Fuse.

It may be a controversial game, but it’s hardly a controversial winner, garnering nearly half the vote. The year’s most hyped game had to deliver, and deliver it did.

The player is taken across the world, moving between immersive and frenzied conflicts that are on the same scale as action-movie set-pieces. The arsenal of weaponry is enormous, the game play and controls are superb and the multiplayer format is, put simply, better than anything else available.

It’s a shame that the developers Infinity Ward have blemished the games’ reputation by including the highly contentious ‘No Russian’ mission, whereby the player, as an undercover CIA agent, is part of an airport massacre of civilians with a group of Russian ultranationalist terrorists.

However, the game does have an 18 certificate and it is possible to skip this level without penalty. All in all, the dispute surrounding this mission will continue to rage but it shouldn’t detract from what is a very deserving winner.

Friday December 4 2009

Batman, Bond and Indy were the giant blockbusters of last year, and it seemed 2009 wouldn’t have such great successes.

However, the action packed yet emotional District 9, destined to be a sci-fi great, the absorbing drama Frost/ Nixon, and the imaginative, multi-generational appeal of Fantastic Mr. Fox were just some of the charming films to grace our shortlist. 2009 was an even better year for films, probably due to the return of the big shot directors like J.J. Abrams and Sam Mendes, but none invited as much hype as the arrival of the ever inventive Tarantino and Pixar to the big screen.

Following a group of Jewish soldiers on their mission to take down The Third Reich, Inglourious Basterds gives us Tarantino’s signature black comedy and smart writing.

With a classic spaghetti western vibe to the style and perfect, humorous

The Fuse team take a look at the winners from our ‘Best of 2009’ poll

Even though we included the ludicrous cookery show with the renowned sarcastic voiceover, better known as Come Dine With Me, and The Inbetweeners, which brought back ‘your mum’ jokes, in our shortlist, our team voted for the TV show that brought you characters that eat dogs and tell leukaemia sufferers, “well, at least it’s not cancer.”

Yes, it’s Peep Show, which has the distinctive air of confidence and strong writing you would expect after six years practise. Mark is consistently awkward and Jeremy is still Jeremy, and somehow it got funnier, with suave spermatozoa, snakes in salad spinners and the taking of wank bullets for one another. It truly is the sitcom of the decade.

Film of the Year shortlist

9

Reviews.Music.

Rating it ‘R’ for revenge Album Rihanna Rated R

Remember a time when listening to Rihanna meant listening to cheery Caribbean beats and bouncing around to ‘Pon The Replay’? Those light hearted days are long gone.

Rated R’s themes are dark. Whether its thanks to the pushing of her record company or the woman herself wanting to express herself, the album unsubtly references Rihanna’s previous abusive relationship with Chris Brown.

Tracks like ‘Stupid in Love’ and ‘Russian Roulette’ make the album a domestic-violence victim’s

EP

Think of a typical Domino Records artist and it would probably be some wisdomed singer-songwriter who talks of love and loss through his guitar. Someone like Bonnie Prince Billy, or Cass McCombs.

A far cry then from the raging urban sounds of The Count and Sinden, one of the newer additions to the Domino roster. The Count, aka Joshua “Hervé” Harvey, and Sinden, aka Graeme Sinden, are worthy of their sign up though.

Upon forming, the objective for The Count and Sinden was to create music that was truly reverent to the early, underground origins of UK garage music and that is a consistent presence through all four songs on the EP. However, the first two have heavier leanings towards

Fuse.

Friday December 4 2009

The Count & Sinden StrangeThings

10

confession and a scorned woman’s revenge.

She speaks about grenades, guns and how she’ll never be the victim again.

Production from the likes of Chase and Status have given the album a heavy, grimy sound with its drum ‘n’ bass and stadium rock influences. ‘Rockstar 101’ features Slash, complete with whiny guitar solo.

‘Rude Boy’ is the closest Rated R gets to the catchiness of ‘Umbrella’ and Rihanna’s Caribbean roots. It’s a perfectly formed club blockbuster.

However, instead of cheerily offering a spot under her umbrella, Rihanna’s icy vocal’s become demanding: “Come on rude boy / Boy can you get it up?” Clearly, the innocence of her previous work has gone.

Album highlight ‘Hard’ exploits Rihanna’s cold

vocal style as she brags about her success but in an almost disappointed, unsatisfied manner.

A sweeter moment is ‘Cold Case Love,’ which, written by Justin Timberlake, bears more than a little resemblance to his melancholic ‘Cry Me a River’. Rihanna sings starkly about being lost in a love that is breaking the law.

However, the minor chords, electronic grind and intoxicated feel to the album might leave her old fans disappointed.

As with Britney Spears’ comeback album Blackout, it often feels as though the writers are cashing in on Rihanna’s traumatic year.

It’s almost impossible to not listen for clues about her personal life (and there are many) instead of the music, and this can often make for an uncomfortable listen.

Kate Lloyd

reggae and jungle. Indeed, title track ‘Strange Things’ samples a song of the same name by reggae singer John Holt.

‘Mega’ moves towards another Jamaican music genre as garage is merged with an electric dancehall sound.

The second half sees the music return to the territory more associated with one of The Count pseudonyms, Hervé, and his fidget house music. The duo utilise another up-and-coming female US rapper on their record as this time Rye Rye appears on ‘Hardcore Girls’.

The revitalising of UK garage on Strange Things is quite refreshing and is definitely a good move musically.

It’s separate from the dubstep scene, allowing it to stand out, and yet because it is derived from the same gene-pool it will appeal to the fans of that type of music.

However, there is a problem to overcome.

It is undoubtedly club music which begs the question is it really suitable for commercial release?

Perhaps the release of a full album from The Count and Sinden will answer that question but for now, as good as this is, it probably

shouldn’t venture past the club doors.

Alistair White

Album CodeineVelvet Club CodeineVelvet Club

Codeine Velvet Club, the side project of Joe Lawler from The Fratellis and Lou Hickey, is essentially a throwback to the orchestral pop of the sixties and seventies, with a few twists and special guests thrown in for good measure.

This diversity can be found on the first single, ‘Vanity Kills’, which sounds like a poppy ’60s number, with a trumpet reminiscent of classic spy films.

This is a strategy often repeated for the remainder of the album, and is most prominent in the delectable ‘I Would Send You Roses’.

The music is simply ‘happy’ (and perhaps too much for its own good), the

Rihanna’s returned, and she’s come back fighting. instrumentation is varied not too positive towards enough to give most of the Codeine Velvet Club. songs a different feeling.

Petty issues aside, the The Wall of Sound songs are much better production style might when they switch vocal work against the multiple duties conversational instruments, as some of the manner. ‘Little Sister’ and charm gets lost in the mix. ‘Reste Avec Moi’ probably Still, they capture the style encompass the best and get it right, especially moments of the album, of on the immense ending for which there are quite a few.

‘Begging Bowl Blues’, the album’s fantastic closer.

Samuel Valdes Lopez Despite a few flaws with the album, none of them are too major to really take away much from it.

If anything, it’s when Mr. Lawler sings (particularly Josephine Foster in ‘The Black Roses’), he Graphic As A Star sounds suspiciously like another singer whose main asset is his regional accent.

Since said singer also has a side-project that sounds Josephine Foster’s sixth like this, comparisons will solo album, and her first be inevitable and maybe with Fire Records, sees her working in collaboration with poet Emily Dickinson.

This may sound like a strange pairing – 21st century singer and a dead 19th century poet – but those who have heard the inimitable Ms Foster before (you may know her as half of Born Heller) are unlikely to be surprised.

With an extremely eclectic back catalogue, part of the fun of following Foster’s career is seeing what she will do next.

The inspiration to write this collection of songs came whilst spending the winter in a “remote, half-abandoned Spanish mountain village”, which seems fitting, as Dickinson spent a great deal of her life as a recluse.

And her bewitching soprano voice is also apt; its anachronistic qualities

Album

marry the two women very effectively. Think of the first time you heard Jolie Holland, and wondered to what era this chanteuse belonged.

For comparison, think CocoRosie or Shenandoah Davis. There is also some common ground with the more obscure folk acts like Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom and Vashti Bunyan.

The tracks here are sparse, barely instrumented whisper-folk, vastly different from the clamouring folkrock of All the Leaves Are Gone.

This puts Foster’s voice in the spotlight, but leaves it sounding rambling and unstructured, and does little to elevate Dickinson’s words beyond that which they already are.

There are 26 songs on Graphic As A Star, playing out at just over 44 minutes.

Unfortunately, with some ‘interludes’ as short as 31 seconds, the result is an album that feels somewhat disjointed and insubstantial.

It is simply not as engaging as her previous albums, such as 2005’s Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You, the album to which it bears most resemblance, or even last year’s hit-and-miss This Coming Gladness.

Following in the footsteps of composer Aaron Copland and his 1950’s Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson (and others including Natalie Merchant and Carla Bruni) it is a nice idea; it is just the realisation that leaves a little to be desired.

Kiri Little

Reviews.Music.

Peddlers of boredom Live Frightened Rabbit + Gomez Plug 24/11/2009

Frightened Rabbit’s atmospherics put Gomez to shame.

Live Copy Haho The Harley 22/11/2009

Gig Gallery

Photo: Edd Wright

the evening ‘Pulling PushUps’ succumbed.

Sounding muffled and lost, it at least remains on record a glorious slice of alt-pop that should be filling indie disco dancefloors.

And this is a band that should be filling venues; it seems likely, however, that it will take a full album release for attention to really get focused on yet another promising bunch of Scots.

Ffion Thomas

Live autoKratz Leadmill 25/11/2009 Having witnessed autoKratz for the first time at the 1234 Shoreditch Festival last summer – whilst drinking Red Stripe in a heaving tent packed with the wildly enthusiastic kids of Hoxton – the band’s Leadmill show was relatively disappointing.

This had little to do with the performance of those on stage, and more to do with the fact that the venue contained about 30 people.

Given the combination of a miniscule crowd, and the Leadmill’s over-zealous air conditioning, there was little chance of breaking into a sweat this time around.

Support came from Decay Ends a Decade and Alex Metric, both of whom put on slick performances despite the fact that they were essentially playing to an empty room, with the few audience members apparently made up entirely of people they knew.

The headline act arrived onstage to scattered applause and launched straight the electronic mayhem of their latest album, Animal. Waif-like vocalist and guitarist David Cox – who bears something

A diminished crowd struggled to pay autoKratz their dues. of a resemblance to Patrick Stewart in X-Men – jumped around the stage with a great deal of vigour, which was unfortunately not matched by the listless audience.

However, the set contained many highlights, such as electro-dance tunes ‘Always More’ and ‘Stay the Same’. Their catchy intros and floor-shaking beats were reminiscent of Soulwax and Daft Punk, the walls of the Leadmill vibrating with keyboardist Russell Krank’s pounding electronic riffs.

Each song was blended seamlessly into the next, as the band powered through their well thought-out set list with professional ease.

The room gradually became livelier as the alcohol flowed, but did not come close to the kind of hedonistic atmosphere in which autoKratz thrive.

A smaller venue may have been better suited to this gig; somewhere more in keeping with the band’s smoky, underground techno aesthetic.

And most importantly, somewhere where it is

almost impossible not to dance.

Lizzie Palmer

Live Hot Club de Paris Bungalows + Bears 22/11/2009 The trio took the stage (well, a sort of tiny closed-off area beside the glowing red sign of ‘Shed load of talent’) shortly after the bizarre Mayor McCa, in scarecrowlike attire, played an extraordinarily bizarre and eclectic performance.

It all kicked off with an amusing ‘Call Me Mr Demolition’ as the lads eased us into a charming little set, seeming to play what they liked, when they liked; preparation and organisation is not really their strength one would guess.

Conversation between tunes circled around the decor of the men’s graffiti ridden toilets; the ubiquitous

Photo: Richard Stapleton X Factor; pooing; ‘Welcome to Scotland’ adverts; and how, “surely bears live in caves, not Bungalows?”.

With banter rife, they played with an air of confidence but relative modesty about their songs, forgetting their song titles and introduced ‘Dog Tired at the Spring Dance Marathon’ with, “Erm this is a song about, erm, knackered dogs.”

The set shaped up to be more than delightful. Teens got their plimsolls moving and shaking to the twitchy rhythms of ‘Shipwreck’ and the confrontational ‘Who Am I (What’s My Name)’ fixated the crowd; however there was a slight disappointment that classics, ‘Hey! Housebrick’ and ‘Sometimesitsbetter nottostickbitsofeachotherin eachother foreachother’ (the spacebar button on their keyboard was broken when they wrote this song) hadn’t graced our ears.

But oh no, the lads never disappoint. The encore dealt with these requests leaving us all to sleep happily in our beds.

Tina Kang

Fuse.

Breakestra raise the roof at TTC.

himself to climax. In another, Ball repeats the lyric ‘You gotta try to remember / The way things are’ as though it means something, but it ultimately rings out emptily.

Gomez’s live performance is actually less exciting than the music played out before their set. The crowd is encouraged to clap along inanely so often that the atmosphere begins to take on that of pub-rock band playing a barn dance. If only Plug had got some hay bales in for the night.

During a tiresome encore, Tom Gray quips: “Sorry if things are a bit spacey, we played at a cannabis club in Amsterdam last night’.

Those Gomez lads, what will they get up to next?

And yet, the Plug is full of adoring fans, enthusiastically applauding the band’s every move.

Beats me.

Jamie Holgate

Friday December 4 2009

It might have been the utterly grim weather; the enticement of a free Hot Club de Paris gig down the road; the anticipation of witnessing Jedward’s demise on The X Factor, or simply Sunday apathy, but a disappointingly meagre crowd turned out for Copy Haho’s Sheffield stop.

And that’s both a surprise and a shame, because off the back of a recent UK tour supporting musical near-neighbours Los Campesinos!, in which they drew big crowds and positive reviews, one could reasonably have expected their stock to have risen a little higher amongst the city’s more discerning indie fans.

Copy Haho certainly deserve more. Having released a series of singles and one of the best EPs of the year in Bred For Skills

and Magic, a five track whirlwind of infectious riffs, the four-piece have proved themselves adept musicians and songwriters.

What with there being little point in engaging in discussion with those in attendance, the band stuck to the job at hand in The Harley and rattled through their set.

Kicking off with ‘You Are My Coal Mine’ set the tone with the band’s trademark tightly bound and intricate guitar lines alongside singer Joe Hearty’s yelping vocals.

Touring for much of the year seems to have brought confidence to their performance as their more recent material shows; recent single ‘Wrong Direction’ drops to almost a whisper prior to a chorus packed out with rollicking drums, while its b-side ‘Demons & Gods’ marries crashing cymbals with assured, fast-paced vocals, and yet another earworm of a guitar riff.

Inevitably, a near-empty room doesn’t offer the best acoustics, and while for most of the gig it remained passable, their final song of

Photo: Sam Bennett

So, Plug plays host to dadrockers Gomez. It goes down rather well with a crowd of, well, dads, mostly.

First, however, Scottish five-piece Frightened Rabbit take to the stage to create some richly textured, indierock epics. Layers upon layers of guitars are backed by vocal harmonies, making for a powerful sound.

Scott Hutchison’s lyrics are brutally honest and heartfelt. On ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, he conveys the reality of a one night stand perfectly: “I’m drunk, I’m drunk / And you’re probably on pills.” Hutchison appears

genuinely grateful for the all-too-modest applause that they receive.

Ian Ball’s keyboard stops working a couple of songs into Gomez’s set. “It’s always good when there’s a technical problem - it adds to the sense of intrigue”.

God knows they need it. Their performance is about as subtle as an Oliver Stone film. Memories of Frightened Rabbit’s intricate compositions are washed away by a barrage of corny blues-rock riffs.

Meanwhile, in the vocal department, we are presented with a choice between nasal, even more nasal, and so gravelly that Ben Ottewell may well use his throat to mix cement.

One song includes a minute-long, head-rolling guitar solo from Ottewell; essentially the musical equivalent of getting up on stage and pleasuring

11

Reviews.Media.

And the winner is... not us Report Student Radio Awards Now in its 13th year, the annual Student Radio Awards have become one of the most anticipated and hotly contested events in the student media calendar.

After the success of last year, the event was again held at the London IndigO2 and the venue clearly suited the industry names present: from on air talent, such as hosts Fearne Cotton and Scott Mills, to those from behind the scenes, such as Global Radio’s Executive Director and former Fame Academy judge Richard Park.

Also in attendance was current Radio One afternoon DJ Greg James, who gained his first professional slot at the BBC after being the 2006 Best Male winner at the same awards ceremony.

It’s based on such success stories that the nominees, judges and future employers all pay such close attention to the results of the evening; as all the names who make the nominations list will clearly be ones to watch.

With its first nomination since the re-branding underneath the Forge Media group, Forge Radio

had a great show of support for our own nominee, Station Manager Jen Carr.

The event itself had a great atmosphere which was easy to get involved with and while the majority of the celebrities made themselves scarce, once the ceremony itself had finished, a great selection of DJs from both commercial and BBC radio performed a head to head DJ set.

While Jen unfortunately missed out on the Best Female award, it was still a great night for the station and was enjoyed by all.

Well, until the coach broke down at 2.30am at an M1 service station.

Matt Smith

Report The Guardian Student Media Awards Good news! Due to the vast efforts of last year’s editorial team, Forge Press received a Student Newspaper of the Year nomination at The Guardian Student Media Awards in our very first year of existence. Better news!

Paul Garbett, this year’s Features Editor, had an individual nomination in the Student Feature Writer of the Year category. Bad

Colin Murray is left dazzled as the Forge Press’ name appears in lights. news! We didn’t win either award. Worse news! We didn’t even finish runnerup.

Now I’ve gone over how we actually did at the awards, I

can now attempt to give you a brief correspondence of the night without sounding like sour grapes. So on the evening of Wednesday, November 25, seven of us

were at the hospitality of The Guardian, along with around 200 other students, judges, media folk and guests. The venue for this bash was the Proud Galleries in Camden;

12

Listen online at www.forgeradio.com, in the Union or at The Edge

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Sat

Sun

8 - 9am The Monday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Tuesday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Wednesday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Thursday Breakfast Show

8 - 9am The Friday Breakfast Show

9 - 10.30am Heal Your Hangover

12.30 - 2pm The Sunday Snews

9 - 10.30am The Edge on Forge

9 - 10.30am The Noble Morton Sessions

9 - 10.30am Georgina and Charlie Gatecrash

9 - 10.30am Dale Wetter

9 - 10.30am That Friday Show

10:30 - 12.00am The Punchline

2- 3:30pm Good Vibrations

10.30am - 12pm Straight Outta Crookesmoor

10.30am - 12pm Harry Horton

10.30am - 12pm The Matt and Sam Show

10.30am - 12pm Something for the Weekend

12 - 1.30pm Cultural Implosion

3.30 - 5pm Dubstep Forwards, 2-step Backwards

12 - 1.30pm 100 RPM

12 - 1.30pm Matt and Lena SupaShow

12 - 1.30pm Ed and Guy

10.30am - 12pm The Happy Monday Show 12 - 1.30pm Hey, Monday 1.30 - 3pm Gus and Sam’s Hour of Power (and 30 minutes) 3 - 4.30pm What a Wonderful World

12 - 1.30pm MnM: The Mikey and Mark Show 1.30 - 3pm A Little Bit of What You Fancy

1.30 - 3pm Unplugged 3 - 4.30pm PG Tips

3 - 4.30pm The Mandy Show 4.30 - 5pm Thursday News

4.30 - 5pm Your Sport

5 - 6.30pm FUSE

5 - 6.30pm Schubert Lemon

6.30 - 8pm Brewing Up Trouble

6.30 - 8pm The Melting Pot

8 - 9.30pm KC

8 - 9.30pm Come Grime with Me

8 - 9.30pm Tokyo Sexwale Show

9.30 - 11pm 1337

9.30 - 11pm Off The Beaten Track

9.30 - 11pm The Soundclash

11pm - 1am Ready Steady Crunk

11pm - 1am Gutter Music

11pm - 1am Bedrock Late Night with Ashley

4.30 - 5pm Blue Like an Orange

4.30 - 5pm Monday News

4.30 - 5pm Cricklewood

5 - 6.30pm The Chart Show

5 - 6.30pm Colin and Ben

5 - 6.30pm Jed and Jen

6.30 - 8pm Katherine and Anna

6.30 - 8pm The Lovely Show

6.30 - 8pm The Chris Conway Show

8 - 9.30pm Sports Desk

8 - 9.30pm Kristi Genovese

9.30 - 11pm Tom Bowles Hip-Hop Show

9.30 - 11pm Beats and Pieces

11pm - 1am The Jazz Show

11pm - 1am Forge in Trance4nation

1.30 - 3pm The Pid and Imo Show

1.30 - 3pm The Alternative Show 3 - 4.30pm Ready for the Weekend

3 - 4.30pm Walk Talk

Fuse.

Friday December 4 2009

Forge Radio schedule

a converted stables that had been appropriately decorated for the occasion.

The major plus point was the plentiful amounts of free alcohol, which is thankful considering the price we were quoted for a beer.

However, some bright spark had been taken off ordering catering as this was small portions of curry and couscous brought round by waiters in ramekins with Chinese soup spoons.

The main winner of the evening, hosted by Colin Murray, was the University of Cambridge student newspaper Varsity, victorious in five of the 14 categories. However, it was surprisingly overlooked for Student Newspaper of the Year, which went to Leeds Student, having not even made the shortlist. Paul himself was beaten by a Cambridge student, Zing Tsjeng collecting her award in the best dress (think Lady GaGa but nearly practical).

We commiserated our losses and attempted to accept defeat but having heard the judges’ comments on all the winners and having gathered hints and tips from our meeting with Evan Davis, we feel confident we can improve for next year. Though next time, we’re taking our own food.

Alistair White

1.30 - 3pm The Saturday Meltdown 3 - 4.30pm Owen in Rock 4.30pm-5pm Face Off 5 - 6.30pm The Globetrotter 6.30 - 8pm Ace and Hannah’s Emo 101 8 - 9.30pm False Idols 9.30 - 11pm Keyboard Cats 11pm - 1am Morgi Music

5 - 6pm The Shrimps Present 6 - 7.30pm Soon I Will Be Invincible 7.30 - 9pm Talk Forge 9 - 10.30pm The Liam White Show

Reviews.Screen.

The long road to nowhere

Film The Road Coming Soon

Bleak visions of a postapocalyptic world isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but with economies crashing and the world burning, melting, or washing away, the time has rarely been more apt for The Road.

Set in an America where something indeterminate has gone drastically wrong, The Road follows a father and young son as they traverse a landscape sucked dry of life: human, animal, vegetable, absolutely everything gone. All that remains are abandoned cities, scorched and twisted forests, dust, ash, and almost never-ending rain.

Pushing a shopping cart of scavenged belongings and supplies down the titular road, the pair quietly struggle towards the south, the sea, their only unexplained goal. The first act of the film could fool you into thinking that the father/son duo are the only humans left on Earth, but they aren’t alone. There are

a handful who have survived the unmentioned ravages that followed the disaster, and in the harsh realities of a dog eat dog world have eked out an existence by abandoning every last shred of their humanity.

While the duo struggle through a dead world, the occasional confrontation, or even mere threat of an encounter is absolutely terrifying. The monsters in the shadows are not animals, they’re not creatures of another world, but humans brought down to their most base level of instinctual survival. When all rational thinking is brought down to kill or be killed, the real nature of all humans is laid quite shockingly bare.

In the face of such brutally harsh conditions, the touching bond between father and son is the bedrock of this film, and Viggo Mortensen finds a connection with young actor Kodi Smit-McPhee which remains convincing throughout. Their actions and decisions play off each other, and the naïve observations of a child born to a dying world act as a foil to the cynicism of the father.

Having a boy climb through the ruins of civilisation just asking ‘why’ has an odd poignancy. Why indeed.

Father and Son find refuge from the horrors of a dying world gone beyond the realms of sanity.

The wave of expectation and the unthinkable. From Dream, the demise of on life after the apocalypse. going into The Road was a book which dealt in role models and a greater The film is startling as an huge: an adaptation of abstraction of form, the film sense of optimism for the epitaph of the world that a Pultizer prize-winning of The Road is a surprisingly world we live in. When the could be, but its terrifying novel by the same Cormac unadventurous adaptation, word ‘post-apocalyptic’ impact comes in turning McCarthy who gave us with no deviation into so easily conjures up the a mirror on the human the sublime No Country ambiguity or subjectivity. wild fantasy of Mad Max: behaviour which is pushing For Old Men. And while Not to say that this is just Beyond Thunderdome, us towards that point. doubts that the book was a by-the-book Hollywood it is refreshing to have Gripping and beautifully unfilmable aren’t true, it’s reinterpretation, as its’ core someone sit down and shot, The Road is a suckereasy to see where director source material kicks, like ask bluntly ‘what the hell punch of a film without John Hilcoat struggled with that of No Country For Old would happen?’ Realism is answers or morals. And all a book that deals heavily Men, so strongly against after all the most terrifying the better for it. in both the unspeakable the death of the American approach a film could take Peter Walsh

Coffin Rock Coming Soon

A Prophet Coming Soon

Shot on location in South Australia and premiered in the UK at Frightfest 2009, Coffin Rock comes from the production team behind 2005 horror hit Wolf Creek.

Yet despite such credentials, the mistake of taking Fatal Attraction down under has resulted in a weak but watchable psycho-thriller.

The film is not exactly brimming with a fresh plot. It follows Jessie (Lisa Chappell) who has been unable to conceive a child with her husband (Robert Taylor) for many years. After an argument she makes the drunken mistake of sleeping with an unhinged Irish boy named Evan (Sam Parsonson).

As Jessie becomes pregnant, Evan resorts to stalking and terrorising the mother to be in the hope of proving his paternity.

Jessie dares not tell her husband but equally cannot drop her stalker, and as his behaviour becomes ever more demented Jessie finds herself trapped in a psychological and physical battle for freedom.

To give the film some credit, it is well shot and directed by Glasson, yet it is the casts’ performances which lets the film down.

Upcoming Australian actor

Plugged at this year’s London Film Festival as the best crime drama release of next year, while this is no Godfather it certainly is an exhilarating and gripping film, which sits comfortably close to the greats of the genre.

A Prophet follows the life of a gauche young Arab, Malik, who finds himself sentenced to six years in prison. With no friends or allies, Malik is chosen by feared leader of the prison’s dominant Corsican gang, Cesar Luciani (Niels Arestrup), to kill a transfer prisoner named Reyeb (Hichem Yacoubi), who

Sam Parsonson does lift the film up, pulling off a believable Irish accent, and fully immersing himself in the role of a schizoid villain.

Yet billed as a horror, it hardly horrifies. At one point Evan beats a baby kangaroo to death. Later he rips Jessie’s tattoo from her arm with his teeth. Both events are revolting but not terrifying and simply serve to illustrate that he is disturbed, which has already been made quite clear in a number of far subtler ways.

The film is not a horror, it’s a melodramatic thriller, and when seen from this angle, it starts to work.

After an initially slow beginning the suspense kicks in. The usual sense of anticipation sneaks in and the stereotypical swell of music supports this feeling of fright, but only

to consistently disappoint in an anti-climatic and predictable occurrence.

The film starts to pull itself together towards the end as the audience enter the mind of Evan through a series of flashbacks. The denouement of the film is more gripping and engaging than the entire film.

Coffin Rock is creepy, sinister and disturbing but without the character of Evan these features would disappear and it would be a poorly acted, overdramatic series of predictable events lacking originality or flair.

Unless the sound of a second-rate Australian psycho-thriller appeals, I would strongly recommend saving your money, and watching a decent horror film instead.

Emily Brinnand

propositions Malik drugs in exchange for sex.

After murdering Reyeb, Malik becomes the Corsican gang’s bitch, performing tedious duties like tea rounds, and pushing a broom around. Half way through his sentence he becomes eligible for day release, and consequently becomes ever more important to Cesar.

Following Malik’s own side projects, A Prophet begins to chart this outsider’s climb to the top of the criminal hierarchy, comparable to de Palma’s Scarface.

There is an astounding sense of realism to this piece as director Audiard chiefly confines the story to the prison’s walls and uses first-time actors, promoting more naturalistic performances. You won’t find any epic ‘say hello to my little friend’ style shootouts, or see any horses heads in beds here; Audiard instead strips away all of

the cinematic frills we have become accustomed to.

Despite this pared back style, the violence in this film is still extremely unsettling.

The camera never cuts away from the murder of Reyeb, and zooms in so far you can see the precise incision of the razor blade through his neck. There is no tension building music in the background either, forcing the focus on Reyeb’s struggling gasps of death; this is realism at its best.

Sometimes there is too much blood on the screen.

Previous to the murder, Malik learns how to conceal the razor blade in his mouth, and the simple clinking of metal against teeth and spurts of blood is enough to make you feel a level of discomfort which beats any of the heightened gore of the Saw films.

This naturalism is nicely contrasted against Audiard’s overtly stylised sequences with offbeat visual and sound effects, such as Malik’s visits from the dead Reyeb, or the over heightened beat of his heart. This signature style provides some relief from the depressing and bleak reality of prison life.

Close to three hours long, you do wish half an hour could be shaved off the end, and obviously it plays to the clichés of drugs and thugs so you don’t really get anything new, but Audiard directs this complex story with such precision that it is a solid, entertaining film.

Fuse.

Film

Friday December 4 2009

DVD

Malik seeks advice from the Corsican gang leader.

Melissa Gillespie

13

Reviews.Games.

Post Modern Warfare Multiplatform Call of Duty: ModernWarfare 2 PC, PS3 and 360

Infinity Ward is working from the paradigm ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ with their highly anticipated release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. But fortunately for us that doesn’t seem to have been a bad plan.

The story picks up where the old game left off, this time round you have to take down a Russian super terrorist. The story certainly has its moments, but each plot twist only exists to justify the next exotic location and cinematic set piece. So while the stealthy sniping in the icy mountains of Kazakstan, the chase through Brazillian slums and the oil-rig invasion are lots of fun, you won’t care why the hell you’re doing it.

Console

Sony’s Laurel and Hardy of the platform genre are back for yet another game, the first game in the series to see a simultaneous release on handheld and console.

The game sees our heroes start out soaring through the clouds, fighting over the mysterious ‘Eco’ power with snappily-dressed, upperclass-accented, completely original air pirates. The pair end up stranded on the Brink, an island on the edge of the world, and shortly afterwards start their adventure from the nearest big city.

It’s pleasing to note that interestingly, Daxter, a small, furry sidekick (with, to slip into marketing speak, definite ‘tude), doesn’t

give off as much of an air of Gilbert Gottfried-type hateability you’d expect.

Some lines that could potentially come off as smug and annoying, against all odds, come out vaguely sardonic, and his anti-hero behaviour always makes the tired story scenes that much more tolerable.

Having said that, the story is entirely utilitarian, and definitely no more than just an excuse to go gallivanting around the Brink and engage in, to paraphrase Daxter in a self-knowing bit of dialogue early on, gunplay and arbitrary platforming tasks.

Not that the platforming isn’t executed extremely well. The Lost Frontier is entirely in 3D, and, with the exception of tedious meleeoriented ‘Dark Daxter’ chapters, the action itself is very smoothly done.

The camera can, however, sometimes be a little fiddly, usually when switching between manual and fixed views and zooming gets involved. The game isn’t a complete cakewalk, either,

Remember folks kill ‘em all and let the war crimes tribunal sort it out. deathmatch there is very little teamwork involved, which is a real shame for such a tactical game.

To make up for the lack of co-op campaign, Infinity Ward have given us SpecOps, a set of challenges which are basically chunks of single player mission.

This can be played in splitscreen with a friend or with a stranger online. Although you may be annoyed we have this instead of coop, it really works and is very addictive - you’ll find yourself retrying the veteran missions again and again.

The reworked Chernobyl

sniper mission especially, is a must play.

Despite it’s single player short comings, Modern Warfare 2 is a triumph for the gaming world but more importantly it is a lot of fun.

Although the campaign is short, you can always replay it on Veteran to really add to

the challenge. The golden nugget of this game though is the incredible multiplayer, which will keep you coming back time after time.

Sod the X-Factor, this is the entertainment event of the year.

and you will on occasion find yourself plummeting to your death. In reality though, the majority of times you’ll find yourself doing this will be because of awkward controls when wrestling with a ledge rather than any serious challenge being posed. The shooting plays well enough, and potentially quite clumsy aiming is essentially negated by a quite simple autoaim function, effectively balancing out the difficulty and letting you go triggerhappy with relative ease.

There are occasional flight sections, as well, where aerial combat features predominantly.

While less-than-stellar controls and enemies hidden on the other side of the map can make these sections somewhat grating, they’re usually done fairly well, and aren’t always the lengthiest of segments.

Like any 3D platformer these days, the game also incorporates various RPG elements, seen here in the form of upgradeable skills. Jak can use the ‘Eco’

that he collects to learn new skills, whether innate and statistical or an active technique that he can employ when it comes to fisticuffs. As well as personal betterment, you can upgrade your aircraft and make the flying segments’ experience slightly easier to swallow.

Overall, the wellmade platforming levels, intermingled with shooting and flying challenges to spice things up, more than make up for the weak story and, occasional dodgy control issues aside, mean The Lost Frontier can be a joy to play. When it’s doing what it does best.

calculator into YouTube) is proof if any were needed of the ludicrous depth of design possibilities in LBP. Redesigning the game for the portable, developers Sony Cambridge have lost some bits, but mercifully kept others in tact. Primarily the game itself, the skipping, the hopping and jumping over levels galore, is in perfect tact.

Using the PSP nub to steer your Sackboy from platform to platform works surprisingly well, and though critics will find the same occasionally floaty controls that pestered the original PS3 version, this niggle is only slight and not as crippling as some might have you believe.

Even the graphics look surprisingly up to scratch, with LBP’s hand-drawn cartoony DIY charm shining through.

The loveable sackboy is a bit blocky, with the detail of each costume and the nuance of his charming expressions somewhat lost in non-

HD. But again, these are the niggles of comparing portable to console gaming, nothing Earth shattering.

The most significant scale back is sadly in the one area which made the original golden: the level design tools. The PSP lacks only a few buttons in comparison to the DualShock, but this is just enough to make the move into level building that little bit harder.

While this may sound like a personal gripe, the effect is evident in the range of user-designed levels available online which of writing a week after launch is still pretty sparse.

This may grow over time, but it just can’t explode to quite the same spectacular level it did on consoles.

In part due to the lack of buzz surrounding last year’s launch, but also in part down to the lack of seamless flow that original level design had.

The single player, which charming and fun in its own right, can draw a few hours from the veteraned platform nut, but that isn’t going to save what is being sold on a big bubble of potential.

For those already converted by the PS3 version, this game will sell itself. For those still curious about dipping their toe in usergenerated gaming, be aware that you’ll need a fair dollop of patience with either the level-builder or the tenacity of other bedroom designers before this game hits its potential stride.

Good things come to those who wait, but those looking for fun out of the box should probably look elsewhere.

Fuse.

Friday December 4 2009

Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier PSP and PS2

Despite this, the single player is still a lot of fun. The environments are rich, the characters whilst clichéd are believable, the action is relentless and lightning fast and the sound is incredible, especially the in-game chatter and direction from your squad mates.

The multiplayer is a different story. Put simply, this is the best realistic FPS experience on any console.

All the old game modes are back, and there are shed loads of maps, with two more packs in the pipeline.

There’s plenty to unlock, such as weapons, character perks and new to the game, customisable killstreak rewards. These are all quite cool, but nothing compares to the 25 kill-in-a-row bonus which sets off a matchending nuke. Awesome.

Unfortunately, the worst thing about the original Modern Warfare is back: you can still only play one person per console online.

You can still play in an Xbox Live party, but it’s just not the same as playing with your housemates. In team

14

One misstep and Jak could fall into the dangerous lake of Irn Bru.

Mike Bentley

Console Little Big Planet PSP

Falling almost precisely a year on from the launch of the epic LittleBigPlanet on the PS3 comes the release of its even littler brother on the ever portable PSP. The pitch is simple: 2D platforming reinvented for the 21st century, by way of gaming 2.0. Which is to say YOU make the best levels.

In the case of the console based version this has proven tremendously successful, with hordes of would be level designers finding a new calling in crafting some absolutely uncanny inventions, contraptions and homages to anything and everything.

The fact that you can even design a pulleys and levers calculator (type LBP and

Nick Hunter

Peter Walsh

Reviews.Arts.

A stage for our dreams Theatre A Midsummer Night’s Dream Drama Studio

Anna Hunscott makes a mischievous fairy.

Theatre 1984 Brightside Project

Alice Stride

Gallery Comedians:From the 1940sTo Now Graves Gallery

How often is it that an art exhibition will make you laugh? Not a confused snigger, or a derisive snort, but a real, genuine giggle? Rarely. However, Comedians: From the 1940s To Now succeeds in doing just that. Depicting Britain’s most beloved double acts, comedic ensembles and individual stand-ups, this exhibition cannot fail to raise a smile on the face of even the most sombre art critic.

The selection of photographs, all of which are taken from the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, are predominantly shot in black and white, something which set against the bright red of the walls and black picture frames creates an extremely striking aesthetic. The pictures vary in style from traditional portraits to freeze-frames of performances. Some shots can only be described as downright surreal, though there is a debate over which is more bizarre, the depiction of Spike Milligan’s head resting on sand under a glass dome or John Cleese dressed as a bat and hanging upside down from a tree.

An extensive knowledge

of comedy is not empirical, as it acts as something of a timeline through the comedic ages; it seems that the whole exhibition is just as much about the subjects of the photographs as the photographs themselves.

There is an interactive element too; there is perhaps no other photography exhibition in the world where it would be acceptable to huddle on the floor of a gallery with a one-way telephone pressed to your ear, laughing raucously to the audio of Monty Python’s ‘Dead Parrot’ sketch without other people thinking that you are strange. There is also a ‘comedy props’ shelf and it will be a strong willed adult indeed who is not tempted to seize the fez and pretend to be Tommy Cooper.

Photography is perhaps the best artistic medium in which to display the true essence of a comedian; a photograph can capture the mischievous twinkle in the eye in a way that paint or pencils never quite manage.

As for those who say that comedy has no place in an art gallery, isn’t making people laugh one of the greatest arts of them all?

Georgina Beardmore

Musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Lyceum

A staple of primary school productions across the country, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is one of the best-loved musicals. It is so well-known, in fact,

Joseph is sold into slavery in Egypt. that I wonder whether the singer. touring cast will be able to Also notable were Richard bring anything new to the J Hunt (playing Judah and performance. There was the Baker), for his great no need to worry; from comic skills, to Kevin Grogan the moment the curtain (Benjamin) simply for being goes up my fears are cast genuinely adorable and aside by a production that finally to Stephen Webb as is wonderfully cast and Pharaoh; when Pharaoh beautifully performed and tells Joseph his troubling by a story that is funny and dreams Webb was so sexy heart-warming. with his Elvis-style moves Craig Chalmers may not that he reduced my friend have won BBC One’s Any to hysterical giggles.

Dream Will Do, but with The set was extravagant his good looks and slightly and perfectly suited. From smug expression he makes inflatable sheep during the an excellent Joseph and he opening number ‘Jacob has a clear chemistry with and Sons’, to a singing the rest of the cast. They sphinx with flashing eyes give the impression of really and camels, the whole having a good time and production was a spectacle, successfully connect with each scene drawing gasps the audience, creating a and applause from the party atmosphere. audience.

The narrator, played The finale was impressive;

by Tara Bethan, is also a the audience were treated graduate of the reality TV to a medley of numbers, scene having climbed to the with solos by various cast dizzy heights of the final 10 members, and three – yes ‘Nancies’ on I’d Do Anything. three - different technicolor She is a fabulous choice for dreamcoats. Building to a this role, possessing the breathtaking climax, this slightly cheesy quality of was a truly enjoyable and over-done enthusiasm that entertaining production. is necessary to pull off some musical theatre characters, Amy Patricia Smith and she is a truly talented

Fuse.

Big Bro is off the eyeball.

sums it up; unconvincing, boring, and lacking in energy. Big Brother should watch the play and strike some fear into the actors; then, perhaps, a smidgen of passion would be created.

silliness. Bottom was great as the deluded aspiring thespian and particularly funny when the fairy queen Titania attempted to seduce him after his transformation into a donkey. The fact he was wearing a skirt instead of trousers could be slightly confusing for those unfamiliar with the characters as he is definitely supposed to be male.

There is so much to say about this production as the play itself is jam packed and then there were just so many beautiful, clever and original ideas that filled up the show, creating a sublime visual spectacle. With such a large cast there is always the risk that someone will drop the ball, but this was certainly not the case. I am not surprised that this show was a sell out, as it made Shakespeare fun and enchanting. It certainly gave me a new appreciation for the play.

Catherine Redfern

Friday December 4 2009

On first appearances, the Open Door Theatre Company’s production of 1984 is promising. It is innovatively staged in an old factory, with enormous surveillance lights stationed by the entrance.

These, coupled with a large screen with the face of Big Brother ‘watching’ the audience, all served to raise expectations.

Sadly, the impressive industrial set is all that is truly notable about this play. Messy entrances and exits, an excessive amount of stumbling over lines and unconvincing acting all ruined any anticipation for great things the audience may have had.

The relationship between Winston Smith (Philip Eardley) and Julia (Gillian Langley) was particularly catastrophic.

Though Winston is obviously significantly older than Julia,

he is meant to admire and on some level relate to her; her youthful vitality should inspire him.

Instead, she is transformed into a sort of ‘whining wife’ figure – stroppy, petulant and really bloody annoying, whilst he is portrayed as, simply, a dull middle-aged man.

None of his inner-turmoil is shown. Winston’s inability to understand Julia suffuses their relationship with a disconcerting ‘sugar-daddy’ quality, meaning their more intimate moments make for uncomfortable viewing. As the only central female character, she begs the question: why did the director remove everything about Julia that makes her so unique in Orwell’s novel?

Where is her bravery, her intelligence and her strong-mindedness? In this production, she is merely a silly, vapid woman.

Winston and Julia’s betrayal by O’Brien and the Thought Police was particularly striking. It should have been a terrifying, heartin-the-mouth, tear-jerking moment. It wasn’t. Sadly, it was actually vaguely amusing. On learning they are being arrested, Julia shrieks “We may as well say goodbye now!” This line was then repeated wordfor-word by Big Brother; unfortunately, Big Brother’s voice is that of a bad Saturday night TV presenter fronting an extremely tacky show, the sort that involves women wrestling each other covered in jelly.

The actors were totally unsuccessful in conveying any fear, meaning there was also a complete failure in communicating any of the important themes of the play: paranoia, betrayal, loss of hope, and terror.

1984 was a horrible disappointment. Winston’s weak proclamation of “Victory!” at the end really

Photo: Glenn Bloxham-Mundy

I have to admit that I was dubious about yet another adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream fearing that nothing new could be brought to the play. However, I am pleased to say that I was proven very wrong.

Everything about this production was just magical.

There was just so much energy and vibrancy and the director (Sean Linnen) truly captured the frivolity of the fairy forest with cruel and mischievous undertones.

This complicated comedy is based around three sets of characters that all intertwine with one another

to great but often disturbing effect. Hermia and Lysander steal into the forest in order to elope, and are followed by their love rivals Demetrius and Helena. Subjected to the spells of Oberon the fairy king with the help of the mischievous and stylish Puck, the cruel comedy begins as the characters fall in and out of obsessive love.

The initial relationship between Hermia and Lysander was gentle and sweet and the change that was seen when they were taken over by the fairy spell was dramatic. Both Lysander and Demetrius’ masculine bravado and attempts to win Helena were hilarious.

The comic scenes were extremely well directed and acted, especially the ones involving ‘The Mechanicals’. Their scenes were filled with ridiculous costumes, gesturing and moments of down right

15

Fuse.listings Friday December 4 - Thursday December 17 2009

email: listings@forgetoday.com

Fri 4

Sat 5

Sun 6

Mon 7

Tue 8

Wed 9

Thur 10

Synthetic @ The Raynor Lounge; 9:00pm; £3.50 A night of classic and contemporary electropop playing all the hits from the likes of: Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, The Human League, The Knife, Kraftwerk, CSS, Felix da Housecat, Hot Chip, Metronomy, Hiem, New Young Pony Club, Foals, etc.

The Wave @ London; 7.00am; £15 The UK’s biggest Climate Change march in London, ahead of the Copenhagen UN climate summit. Sheffield Students’ Union is organising coaches down to the event so you can join in and be a part of climate change history!

Gallows @ Foundry; 7:00pm; £20.00

Choculation @ Fusion & Foundry; 11.00pm; £3.50 It’s chocolate madness at Population this week with free chocolate and yummy chocolate cocktails. Bonkers drinks prices include Smirnoff Vodka £1, all shots £1, and pints £1.50.

Alison Moyet @ City Hall; 10:30pm; £4

Electric SIx @ O2 Academy; 7:00pm; £7

The Last Laugh Christmas Special @ Fusion & Foundry; 7:00pm; £5-5.50adv This week featuring: Ivan Brackenbury which The Independent promised will have the “Audience of the verge of being hospitalised with laughter.”

The Boat That Rocked @ SU Auditorium; 7:00pm; £2 A fictionalised account of the young men and women of radio Caroline which illegally broadcasted music, 24 hours a day, from a ship in the North Sea. Hence the term ‘pirate radio’.

Jonny Seven @ West Street Live; 7:00pm; £19

New Education @ Foundry; 7.00pm; £4.50 adv

The uplifting, anthemic pop of New education is fuelled by energy and attitude, prompting scenes of devotion, delirium, moshpits and flinging pints wherever they go.

With their explosive hardcore punk, expect a lively, sweaty downright chaotic gig. This will be brilliant, but this will be messy.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail @ SU Auditorium; 7.30pm; £2 On his ill-fated quest for the grail, Arthur and his merry band of followers stumble across such gems as the knights that say “Ni!” One of the most iconic comedies of all time, simply nothing can compete with the sheer depth of insanity in this film.

Germaine Greer @ The Crucible; 7:45pm; £10-12 An acclaimed academic, feminist icon and controversial commentator on the role of women. Expect this encounter with Professor Greer to be candid, pithy, enlightening and highly entertaining.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ O2 Academy; 7:00pm; £18.50 adv

The crazy Detroit based band are back with their unique synthesis of disco, synth pop, glam, and arena rock.

Broken Embraces @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2

Known for her outstanding voice the breadth of her range is truly remarkable. From electropop, to soaring ballads to sumptuous jazz, she always delivers stunning performances.

Christmas Crackers - Craft for Sale @ Millenium Gallery; 8:30pm; Free A feast of original craft and design, Christmas Crackers provides an inspired alternative to the High Street for this year’s Christmas shopping. Choose affordable gifts, from beautiful jewellery to irresistible toys, all handmade by makers and crafts people.

A smouldering yet tense atmosphere accompanies the story of Harry Caine, a passionate writer and once director before a car accident left him totally blind.

King King @ The Boardwalk; 7.30pm; £10 adv Hard on the heels of a triumphant nationwide tour, one of the country’s hottest blues performers, Alan Nimmo, is back with some of the UK’s finest players, bringing their electrifying brand of smoking hot blues.

Babyshambles @ O2 Academy; 7:00pm; £21 adv

Having formed ten years ago, Sheffield’s top band play their brand of mainstream rock once again, ranging from The Beatles to The Clash.

Richard Hawley @ Crucible Theatre; 7:00pm; £6.50 Sheffield singer/ songwriter and ex Pulp member, Richard Hawley, performs two very special gigs at the new Crucible for the first time to celebrate it’s new opening.

Victorian Christmas Market @ Kelham Island Museum; 1:00pm; Free To celebrate the first Christmas since it’s re-opening, the museum will host individually themed market quarters, alongside an exciting entertainment programme.

Celebrating the release of their latest album, It’s Blitz, the ultimate power trio will be providing their usual infectious performances. You could dance to it, and you could probably die to it.

Stuesdays @ Penelopes, Arundal Gate; 7:00pm The return of Sheffield’s Underground Student Night with great music from indie, pop and chart, and some fantastic give-aways.

Jools Holland @ City Hall; 7:30pm; £31.50 The band have become synonymous with the ultimate party atmosphere, and over the past years has seen them perform to a staggering 4 million people. Whether celebrating New Year, or literally any day of the week, they will put on a show that you’ll want to experience again and again.

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500 Days of Summer @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2 An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn’t believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her. Jumping throughout the 500 days of the relationship, the film has a lively pace often missing in this genre.

Grendel + Aesthetic Perfection + Deviant UK @ Corporation; 7:00pm; £10 adv A welcome return for all Harsh EBM fans.

This band from the Netherlands create a successful fusion of industrial and electronic.

Christmas Sunday Lunch @ The Interval; 12:00pm; £4.95

Winterval Wonderland @ Interval & Gardens; 2:00pm Come down to The Interval Gardens and have your picture taken with one of the Reindeers! Free Reindeer antlers, mulled wine and lots of festive drinks offers.

Comedians: From the 1940s to Now @ The Graves Gallery; Free

Heaven’s Basement + Dear Superstar + New Device @ Corporation; 7:00pm; £7.50 adv Heaven’s Basement are about evolution, growth and reaching new heights. Defiance, risk taking, and selfchallenge are their hallmarks. “We’re the band that will make you fall in love with Rock n’ Roll all over again.”

The Haze @ O2 Academy; 7.00pm; £10 adv The most popular and longest running tribute to the Stone Roses pay homage to the ‘Madchester’ heroes.

Rafiki Jazz Live @ Penelopes; 7:00pm; £7

Christmas Concert @ St Andrews USC; 7:30pm; £2 NUS Festive concert with the Sheffield University Medic’s Choir, including familiar music from the likes of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcraker and some much loved carols.

Glenn Tillbrook @ The Boardwalk; 7:30pm; £12adv

Squeeze frontman, Glenn Tilbrook, reputed for his considerable song writing talent, and irrepressible sense of humour. You’ll be hushed into silence or sing your heart out.

Rafiki Jazz play gloriously ambitious contemporary world music in a crosscultural sound collision, promising a babble of languages, stories and beats.

Inglourious Basterds @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2 Tarantino films don’t come round frequently enough. As far as Tarantino fare is concerned, Inglorious Basterds doesn’t disappoint. It tells the tale of a band of US soldiers, facing death for their various crimes, who are given an opportunity to redeem themselves.

Free Christmas present & cracker with every Sunday lunch!

Roast Turkey or Quorn Steak. Served with new & roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, seasonal vegetables, stuffing, chipolata Sausage(turkey only) and cranberry sauce.

Miracle on 34th Street @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2 This is a modern adaptation of the tale of a child’s view of Father Christmas told with yulefilled fervour. A warm Christmas treat.

BBC Sports Personality of the Year @ Sheffield Arena; 6:15pm; £35 The BBC announced on the 30th April that the BBC Sports Personality of the Year event will be held in Yorkshire and will be covered live on BBC ONE on Sunday 13 December.

A Knight at the Crucible with Sir Ian McKellan @ The Crucible; 7:00pm; £20

Sir Ian McKellen was in the first performance on the Crucible stage.

Expect chat and some acting in what is sure to be an unmissable night with one of the country’s finest actors.

Tragedy@ 02 Academy; 7.00pm, £6 adv Prepare for a metal discothèque from the shiny glamorous streets of New York in this all metal tribute to The Bee Gees. Expect the unlikely mix of head bangers in disco suits.

Drawn from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, Comedians: From the 1940s to Now presents a array of iconic images of some of Britain’s bestloved entertainers.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs @ Lyceum Theatre; 7:00pm; £10 With comedy, singing, dancing and audience participation, this year’s Lyceum Theatre pantomime promises to be the biggest and best ever. Don’t miss out on this traditional fun-filled Christmas night out.

Runrig @ City Hall; 7:30pm; £23 The Celtic six piece band have been thrilling audiences around the world for over thirty years, and now they bring their dynamic blend of rock, Celtic and world music to Sheffield before their major tour.

Goodbye Solo @ SU Auditorium; 7:30pm; £2 Follows the unlikely friendship formed by a Sengalese taxi driver in search of the American dream. William proposes a strange arrangement: $1000 for a one way trip up a mountain.

The Horrors @ O2 Academy; 6.30pm; £10 adv

Initially more famous for their tight trousers and haircuts, this Shoegaze band have proved that their pulsating chimes are intelligent and catchy as well as stylish.

No band of recent times has split opinion as much as Babyshambles.

If they do manage to turn up be sure to embrace Doherty’s undeniable magnetism on stage and the electric atmosphere.

Avatar 3D @ Odeon Sheffield; 8pm; £6.80 NUS

Avatar tells the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself in a war-zone on an alien planet. Now an Avatar the ex-Marine must fight for the survival of both himself and the planet’s inhabitants.

Ten years in the making, Avatar incorporates the latest CGI technology to transport the audience into a spectacular alien world.

The Bootleg Beatles in Concert@ City Hall; 8.00pm; £22.50 Re-live the sights and sounds of sixties with the world’s premier Beatle band and their spectacular multimedia show.